Personal Diary: September 9th 1916

The enemy put about 50 trench mortar bombs into the Borders during the fog this morning, so after lunch we gave a hundred trench mortar bombs assisted by a 6” battery a 4.5” and two 18 pdr batteries, so they will think twice before they do it again. Bde Hd Qrs & the Borders & R Inniskilling fus were relieved by rest of 86^th Bde after dark & went back into rest camp.

Personal Diary Entry: August 20th 1916

Dined with Handress Lloyd at the Inniskilling hd qrs in Ypres prison. Gillan came too. A quiet day, hardly any shelling. A KOSB patrol brought in 2 dead Germans from in front of their wire.

The 4^th Divn and 4^th Canadian Divn are going to take over the Canadian Corps line to allow them to go south. This means that all our 3 divns will be in the line the whole time, and no one in Corps reserve.

War Diary Entry: August 9th, 1916

This morning we discovered that practically the whole of the left coy of the Inniskillings and the left coy of the Hampshires (next to us on the right) had been gassed, but not the right company of the Inniskillings which was between them. All the rats in the trenches and the birds and a cat in Potije Wood had died. 21 transport animals of the Inniskillings which were up in Potije died after they got back to their lines. Later in the day (about midday) several men in the right company of the Inniskillings began to go sick many of them dying quite suddenly, until the total casualties in this battn reached 15 officers and about 150 men, about a third of these being dead by the afternoon.

Those who succumbed at once when the gas was first discharged died peacefully without apparent pain, those who were only affected some hours later turned blue and foamed at the mouth & nose.

The alarm worked well & everyone appeared to have had the warning, but I think some of the officers & NCOs went about without their helmets on seeing the men were all right waiting for the first sniff, and then it was too late. Other men apparently exhausted after wearing them for 2.5 hours took them off after midnight and lay down to sleep in the bottom of the trenches and dugouts which were still not properly cleared of gas.

Then a number of men who had been affected, but did not know it worked hard all the morning clearing away the casualties, and this exercise had fatal results. We found a number of dead and dying rats in Ypres. One of the bdes in the 4^th Divn on our right was also gassed and had several casualties, the Germans attempted a raid on them but were beaten off. Some Germans came out of their trenches opposite us, but our machine guns kept up a fire the whole time so they did not come on.

The Borders and Inniskillings were relieved after dark by the 86^th Bde & the whole bde came back into reserve just E of Poperinghe.

War Diary Entry: August 8th 1916

More shelling during the day, particularly at a battery about 200 yards N of our hd qrs. they got direct hits on all the emplacements and dugouts but did no damage.

At 10.30pm the gas alarm was sounded, and everyone was warned. The guns opened a heavy barrage on our front. I got onto the Borders and Inniskillings and both sent in messages that though they could smell gas it was not being discharged on their front. The Inniskillings message proved to have been a mistake on the part of the signallers. On this information I stopped the guns firing on our front. Fuller & Mellor were up regulating the transport & came in to our hd qrs. After about 20 minutes we began to smell gas in Ypres so we all put our helmets on, but it never got really bad, occasionally getting thicker and then dying away. The relief of the two reserve battns went on at the prison and on the canal bank and they hardly felt its effects at all. At 12 midnight everything seemed to be over so I went to bed. The prepared blankets over all the doors and windows kept the gas out of the dugouts quite effectively.

War Diary Entry: August 6th 1916

The Borders relieved the SWB & the Inniskillings the KOSB in the firing line after dark. The Bosch was very quiet during the relief.

War Dairy Entry: August 1st 1916

The Brigade took over the trenches in the left sector tonight. The SWB took over the left half and the KOSBs the right half . The Borders came up to the canal bank and the Inniskillings into the prison. Relief completed by about 12.30am.

War Diary Entry: July 22nd 1916

The Borders & Inniskillings relieved the SWB & KOSB respectively in the trenches during the afternoon. When the relief was half through we received a message saying the whole divn was being relieved in the line tomorrow, but it was too late to stop the relief then. The 25^th Divn are taking our place. I went down to tea with the divn, and whet through our honours list, just going in, with De Lisle. Hear we are being moved to Ypres. When I got back to Englebelmer I found Armitage) Brigadier of 74^th Bde, relieving us) waiting there, he had just been round the trenches.

War Dairy Entry: July 6th 1916

The Inniskilling patrol which went out to capture the machine gun last night found that it had been removed and came back empty-handed. The parties out digging the trench last night had a fairly rotten time, I gather, the trench is nearer the German line than our own by a good deal. They made a lot of noise getting out and brought on gun and rifle fire. I was up in the trenches early this morning and saw pools of blood in places, they also don’t appear to have got down very deep, judging from a distance. You cant get out to it by day. 

It was quite quiet everywhere while I was going round. The men looked very tucked up; going round the trenches this morning I spoke to one man in the SWB who was partly insane, and later on I passed a man in the Borders throwing a fit. This is not to be wondered at as on the 1^st the Bde had about 2150 casualties and most of the men have been under heavy shellfire for 13 days. 

There has been the usual noise going on round here all day. Monkhouse turned in to lunch, they are going to make him a brigadier. Raikes and Perse went round the reserve trenches this morning to see if they could find some place to put the SWB. A draft of 200 has arrived for the brigade, so that the SWB can now be withdrawn from the firing line. They found some RA quarters which have just been evacuated N of Mesnil which will easily accommodate their 250 men.

War Diary Entry: July 2nd 1916

Get orders in the middle of last night that we (87^th) were to take over the 36^th Divn trenches between the 29^th Divn right & the R Ancre by noon today. The 108^th Bde were holding these trenches and had been badly knocked yesterday. No one knew the trenches and everything was a little upside down, but we managed to complete the taking over by about 1pm. The KOSB (337 strong) took over the right down by the river, the SWB (200) the centre, the Borders (280) the right , the Inniskillings(200) reserve in Hamel. The Germans are giving Thiepval wood (just the S side of the river) a bad time, but on our side it has been fairly quiet. We carried out 2 bombardments on their trenches today, which brought a certain amount of reply. 

The 48^th Divn were ordered to attack the trenches in front of us at daybreak tomorrow. They are at present somewhere just behind Mailly. All their COs were round this morning reconnoitring the trenches. There is very little room for them to get their men in preparatory to an attack although the trenches are now almost clear of killed and wounded. About 11pm, just as they were all marching up the order was cancelled. Some of their battns had reached our trenches by that time and had to return to Mailly. Both sides have been heavily bombarding the Thiepval Wood area all day. The 49^th Divn have relived the 36^th in this area are still in possession of some 300 yards of the German 1^st line system, the result is both sides are very frightened of being attacked there.

The Story of the 29th Division: Quote

'The Story of the 29th Division: A record of gallant deeds' 
Captain Stair Gillon

published by Thomas Nelson (First Edition published 1925)

p.81

'...the 87^th had no better permanent success. The RIF did succeed in penetrating the first line. Their steadiness in crossing NoMan’s Land was that of troops on parade. But though on the right the trenches were crossed by portable bridges, in the main the wire proved a complete obstacle. The same applies to the SWB. The effort of the first line of assault was in vain. The reserves meanwhile suffered from the enemy’s gunfire sans coup ferir, and it was a damaged mass of troops who at 7.35 clambered over the trenches of the KOSB and Borders. With the exception of a few of the leading sections of the latter, the second wave did not reach the first. The 87^th Brigade was practically knocked out…the 87^th Brigade had the heaviest loss – over 60% of its available strength…'

This is taken from one of CHTL's 2 copies of the First Edition of the Divisional History.

War Diary Entry: July 1st 1916

The bombardment began again early & became more intense. At 7.20am the mine under Hawthorn Redoubt went up. As this mine contained 20 tons of ammonal (4 times larger than any single mine we have put up during the war) everyone cleared out of our dugouts in that part of the line. It made quite a good show, masses of earth going up in the air. The crater was immediately rushed by a party of 86th brigade.



After the explosion our Brigade began to file out of the trenches and form up in no man's land. A certain amount of machine gun fire was at once opened on them. At 730am the barrage lifted and the whole line advanced on the german 1st line, while the reserve companies moved forward out of our trenches. Very heavy machine gun fire was immediately opened on them. It looked as though a number of our people (the SWB on the left & RIF on the right of the line in the front line) were pushing through their frontline. One party of RIF were seen to place their bridge over the German 1st line, look down into the trench and then pass on. About 10 minutes later the 2 reserve battns (Borders on the left and KOSBs on the right) moved out of our 2nd & 3rd lines and advanced across the open swept by machine gun fire. About 745am flares began to go up in the Station Road. As this was the signal that the leading troops had reached their objective, things looked quite satisfactory. It was then seen that a number of Germans were still in their front line showing themselves and shooting at the men lying out in no mans land. This looked as though we had passed over their 1st & 2nd line without leaving enough men to deal with the Bosch as he emerged from his deep dugout. After waiting some time to see if the leading battns would send back a number of men to mop these up, the Newfoundland & Essex Battns were ordered forward to clear the frontline and pass through the 87th Bde. During this period it was reported that parties of the 87th had been seen fighting down by Beaumont Hamel cemetery and the station buildings. The Newfoundland battn started across the opne and was mown down by MG fire. the Essex were somewhat later, and I believe only 2 companies advanced and they met the same fate. By now no mans land was a mass of killed and wounded, and the Germans were firing at them with guns, rifles and machine guns. They also shelled our frontline very heavily with 5.9" HE shells. This trench was already packed with killed and wounded. Orders were then received that a fresh bombarment would be carried out after which the Worcesters (88th Bde) would assault the trenches about 1245pm. The bombardment started, but at the time laid down for the attack nothing happened.The Worcesters had been quite unable to get up the communication trenches into the frontline all of which were blocked with killed and wounded. The 88th bde were then told to report when the Worcesters were ready in position to attack. Fortunately shortly after the attack was cancelled, as it was bound to have met the same fate as the previous one. The afternoon was spent trying to clear the trenches of casualties and reorganise the battns (their remnants) of the 87th & 88th Brigades. It was subsequently sicovered that hardly a single man had reached the German frontline and that te best part of 6 battns were lying out casualties in no mans land. all the afternoon the Germans bombarded our front line. the 88th bde took over the front line and the 87th Bde collected their remnants in St Johns Road. this account only refers to what happened on the 87th Bde front (about 1000 yds).

During the night about 300 unwounded men of the brigade were collected, most of whom had crawled back from no mans land, including about 6 officers of about 80 who had gone over the parapet. A large number of the wounded were got in including a number of officers. Raikes (SWB) came in about 10.30pm, he had previously been reported killed. Welch (KOSBs) had fortunately not taken his hd qrs forward so was all right, all other COs and adjutants were killed or wounded.Every battn had left behind in billets 10% of their men & all officers over and above 22 per battn. With these and the survivors by morning (2nd) we had collected some 700 men. The 36th Divn on our right made no headway this side of the Ancre but S of it they went straight through the the German 3rd line. In the afternoon they were counter-attaked and driven back to the Germans 1st system of which they still hold a part. The 86th Bde got into the German line in places, I believe, but by the evening they were all in their own lines.

War Diary Entry: 30th June 1916

Bombardment does not appear to be more intense than usual, probably because the 2 extra days bombardment has reduced the daily expenditure of ammunition for the big guns. They have done very little shelling into Englebelmer the last 2 days. The bde hd qrs moved up into the deep dugout in Fethand St (the battle hd qrs) about 8pm. There was certainly very little German shelling going on at that time. After dark the 88^th Bde arrived and the crowd of officers and orderlys in our dugouts was quite impossible. We had to send some back to make room. After dark I went along to see Pierce at the Inniskillings hd qrs, they had begun a bombardment of our trenches in that part of the line, and the air was rather thick for a bit. The KOSBs and Borders marched up from Acheux Wood at dusk, and took up their places in the trenches in good time. After that the 2 battns of the 88^th Bde moved in to the 3^rd line trenches (St Johns Rd) getting in between 1 & 2 am; by that time all the trenches were packed with men and no movement was possible. The trenches were still in quite a good state of repair taking all things into consideration. We had had 3 or 4 days rain, we had been bombarding the Germans for a week, with 2 or 3 intense bombardments, to which they had replied to some extent thus preventing us doing much work to repair the trenches, very few of the bridges we had put up have been blown in.

War Dairy Entry: 29th June 1916

Last night it was quieter, as far as we could hear in our dugout. The Dublins carried out a raid and struck the only place where the wire was not cut and so they did not get it in. The Corps are making us carry out these raids at a moment’s notice, & therefore without adequate preparation they are not a success. Both the R.I.F and SWB sent out small parties last night & they successfully removed  more of the enemy’s wire. Raikes came in from the firing line just after breakfast. He says the men are all standing up looking over the parapet watching our big shells bursting, and the Bosch never fire at them as they are all down below ground. Opposite the SWB there seem to be no Germans in their frontline, no one takes any notice of them when they remove the wire. De Lisle and Fuller were also both in this morning. The rain still keeps off.

War Diary Entry: 7th June 1916

Went round the trenches at 5.30am. They were putting some 5.9 shell on Gabion Avenue at about 7 minute intervals so I hit off an interval. They kept on for some time shelling both ends of it. Overy & Armstrongcame in after breakfast on their way up to the trenches. I was going in to see Kelly this afternoon but got a message from the doctor to say noone could see him but that he was going on splendidly. The Borders relieved the SWB and the KOSBs the RIF this afternoon. The RIF went into Bde reserve and the SWB divn. Reserve. About 3 days ago when they shelled the battery at this end of Gabion Avenue they fired 104 5.9 HE shells and the only casualty was one mole.

War Diary Entry: 28th May 1916

The 87^th Bde relieved the 88^th Bde in the right sector. The 88^th took over the left sector from the 86^th and the 86^th went back into reserve. The KOSBs are still isolated in Mailly Wood and were not allowed to move up into Englebelmer. So the Border Regt took over from both reserve battns of the 88^th. The SWBs took over the left of the firing line, the Inniskillings the right. Briand went over to the 92^nd Bde for 10 days, changing over with their Bde Major  Fisher who came to us. Pringle went off to be attached to the 88^th Bde. Perse from one of the battns in the 86^th arrived to be attached to us. Practically the whole relief was carried out by daylight and went off without incident.

War Diary Entry: 22nd May 1916

Attended lecture and demonstration by RE on revetting and trench drainage at 9.40am to the Borders and Inniskillings. Afterwards rode over to Mailly Wood to see the KOSBs who are now isolated because of some cases of fever. After lunch we had another demonstration here with a banglaore torpedo and the consolidation of a captured trench. At 8pm we had a concert for the men, assisted by the divn band in our grounds, which was quite a good show. About 20 officers came into supper afterwards. There was thunder about all the afternoon and a few drops of rain. 

Pollard went home invalided yesterday morning and Ellis, who has just returned from command of divn school took over command of the Borders. Handress Lloyd returned from leave yesterday and took over command of the Inniskillings till Pierce returns; he is to be permanently appointed 2^nd in command. Welch turned up last Thursday, stayed the night with us and took over command of the KOSBs in Mailly Wood on Friday. Kelly then went home on 4 days  leave and on return is to command the 1^st Essex, this relieves Micklejohn (Borders) who has recently been commanding that battn; he rejoined the Borders on Sunday as 2^nd in command, and went off home on 8 days leave.

Personal Diary: 19th May 1916

In the morning the RIF turned out all available officers and NCOs and carried out a scheme with the Royal Flying Corps, sending & receiving messages with an aeroplane and signalling by flares. Not a great success. The Borders repeated the exercise in the afternoon.

De Lisle, Fuller and Abbot all turned up about tea time. I exercised a new horse, that has just been issued me, after tea. It seems a useful sort of animal.

Personal Diary Entry: 18th May 1916

The Brigade was relieved by the 88^th Bde in the trenches during the afternoon and evening. The KOSB went into the huts in Mailly Wood, SWB in Acheux Wood, Borders and RIF at Laurencourt with Bde Hd qrs. Relief completed without incident. Perfect summer weather again the last two days. Roger Brand and Guy Sawyer turned up in a car about 3.30pm just when all our kit had been packed up, and Cayley had arrived to take over, Jack Brand left at 4am for England to get married.