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.

Letter to Mother (envelope mis-labelled): July 9th, 1916

My dear Mother

Please send out at once a uniform coat and trousers also a pair of breeches. The ones I want are the ones sent by Flight and Hammond after I had returned from last leave.

I can’t tell you much more about this scrap than you see in the papers, it is still going quite well down south of us. In our area it stopped on the first day. We met the main German strength, as they expected main push from us and so had everything ready. The result was that our brigade and another on the left went over the parapet and got a very unpleasant mauling, hardly anyone got through their wire. We collected a small percentage that night after dark. We came in for a good deal of heavy shelling all the remainder of the day, and there were some very nasty sights.

During the 7 days bombardment our headquarters were well underground about 1200 yds behind the firing line and we were not worried much. The noise was not very much, though we had all our biggest guns firing over us from just behind. The last evening we moved up to our deep dugout 150 yds behind our front trench. The dugout bounced about a good deal during July 1^st, but nothing was blown in, even when our mine containing 20 tons of explosive went up 500 yds away. Since then we have been holding the noisiest bit of line I have ever been in (in the same old place). An incessant stream of shrapnel, 5.9 high explosives, and gas shells bursting all round, but never exactly where we were and none of the gas reached us. It is a great strain on the men, we have just started a few days breather which ought to put them right again.

I am making inquiries about John but fancy he must be 5 or 6 miles south of us. The Germans seem to be very disorganised down there; all the prisoners seem to have had a very rotten time before they were captured. We are still pushing on satisfactorily there, though of course slowly, as we are not right through their numerous systems of trenches. I doubt we shall have enough fresh troops to push on very much further. 
I am afraid there is not much prospect of leave til August now. 
Brand is going to leave us, he has just been pushed up into a bigger job. 
I hope the two invalids are progressing satisfactorily. 
our loving son 
Cuthbert

Letter to Mother: July 23rd 1916

My dear Mother

I am very sorry to hear about poor old Lance he was such a good fellow. We are being moved right back and will probably shortly go to the neighbourhood John has come away from. I shall be rather sorry to leave this place as one has only to walk 200 yds from our front door & watch the battle going on about 3 miles away, in perfect comfort and safety. At the moment we have gone to ground again as they began to shell our late hd qrs, and made things rather uncomfortable though no one was injured, so we have decided to forego the pleasures of a house. 

I have had all sorts of nice letters from people about Raymond. It really is awfully kind of the Becks, even if Raymond did not make his fortune he made many genuine friends. I am still optimistic about leave, but not probably till late on next month.

Will write again when we get settled down behind

Your loving son

Cuthbert

War Diary Entry: July 21st 1916

Had a hot bath at 10am, it was very necessary, but it brought on shelling, the 2^nd or 3^rd shell pitched at the corner of our office, blew all the glass out of the mess, filled the whole place with dust and smoke & put a motor bicycle into the air. 2 orderlies had a marvellous escape. All the shells were round our headquarters. We had been anticipating this and so had got our old hd qrs with the deep dug out (at the W end of Englebelmer) ready for occupation and we moved in there in the afternoon. Went round the trenches early.

War Diary Entry: 8th July 1916

An absolutely peaceful day around our head quarters, there was only one short burst of shelling lasting 5 minutes at 5pm. It blew a bit of the railway line onto our dugout. They shelled Hamel steadily most of the day putting 3 shells into the roof of the KOSBs but beyond breaking a beam little damage was done.

The 86^th Brigade relieved us during the afternoon. They did not take over our head quarters but are wisely having theirs just behind Mesnil. The relief was finished about 8.30pm and the whole brigade came back into the huts in Acheux Wood except the MG company which remains behind at Englebelmer. The mess and my bedroom are in a cottage in the village. Brand has been applied for to go as GSO2 of the Gds Divn. Brand , Perse and I got back here about 10pm in a car, the road was not shelled at all the whole way.

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.

Letter to Mother: 30th June 1916

My dear Mother

There is as usual little news. We are living like rabbits in a warren, all sitting round the entrance to our burrow. The burrow is 24 feet below ground and looks like a pine log hut from the inside. It is rather damp. There is a certain amount of noise going on all round, but it does not worry one much down below.

The weather has been beastly again lately, an awful lot of rain. Our main amusement is walking over in the fine intervals and watching the big guns firing.

Best of love to you all 

Yr loving son

Cuthbert

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: 28th June 1916

Last night’s wire cutting and raiding parties were not a great success anywhere. The Germans seem to have expected it as all the parties were fired upon, and so came back. At 3am this morning they put about 20 shells round our headquarters, one fell in the middle of the road and knocked out some gunners, we had no casualties in the brigade. Pouring with rain this morning, the trenches will be in a filthy state; it cleared up during the afternoon. Shelling went on as usual all day, it doesn’t sound very much from here as we only hear the big guns going over, but it is pretty noisy in the firing line. 

We have cleared away nearly all their wire in the front system of trenches. They do not reply very much.  The 15” guns and 190lb trench mortars have layed Beaumont Hamel and Beaucourt level with the ground, and the trenches round Thiepval are blotted out, but the trenches in front of us are not so badly damaged yet. Went onto a conference at the divn at midday, a car came and took Williams and myself in . Afterwards I went & saw the KOSBs & Borders in Acheux Wood & got back here about 2.30pm. Got a message from the divn at about 3pm to say that operations were postponed 48 hours (I believe because of the weather) so the attack does not start tomorrow. 

Went for a walk with Cookson after tea,  we went and watched one of the 15” guns firing, you can see the shell in flight for quite a long way; then we went on to have a drink with Gillon at his prisoners camp, between here and Foxeville. Just as we were getting back the Bosch put a few 5.9” shells into Englebelmer so we hung about outside til it was over.

War Diary Entry: 26th June 1916

Borrowed a car from the ASC and Brand went in to Amiens for an outing. A few shells were fired into Englebelmer at 7am but as no one was about no damage was done. I did not know it was going on at the bottom  of our dugouts. We are rather like rabbits in a warren sitting round the entrance to our burrow. 

We discharged our gas at 1015 am. It did not excite the Bosch as there was very little shelling. I watched the shelling most of the day, it is warming up a bit , and there are big shells going over our heads from behind at much shorter intervals all day. The 36^th Divn let off their gas between 2.30 and 3.30pm. This appeared to excite the Bosch as he was shelling their line very heavily about 4pm. I hear our 190lb trench mortars are knocking Beaumont Hamel flat, but we can’t see the village from here. 

All the german wire has been pretty well knocked about. All 3 german observation balloons in front of this army were brought down in flames yesterday by our aeroplanes.They knocked in the divn northern observation post about lunchtime, killing the telephone operator, both the officers had gone underground to lunch a few seconds before. We let off a lot of smoke along the line both morning and afternoon which brought on a little extra shelling.

War Diary Entry: 24th June 1916

The first day of the bombardment. Sent round about 9am to ask the gunners if the show had started, as everything was as quiet as possible. They were rather hurt. The guns got a little brisker this evening. They are only wire cutting today and the 12” and 15” guns are not firing. I walked into Acheux & back in the afternoon to see our two battns in the wood. I went out after dark and watched all the guns firing, you see the shells bursting along the line well past Albert. 

We were to have let off gas at 10pm but the wind dropped, the discharge was postponed an hour and a half and then cancelled althoether. It hung up work and rations going up, as one did not wat the wind to turn and gas everyone. The 4^th Divn on our left discharged their gas, and I believe it hung around in no man’s land all night, and gassed one of our own men. After this the Bosch shelled Mailly for the first time since we have been in the line killing 14 and wounding about 32 of the 4^th Divn (we have recently handed it over to them). 

We all moved our quarters into the deep dugout behind the office this evening, it goes down 24’ below ground and has 3 shell-breaking layers above the ground level; in spite of its 3 entrances it is very clammy down below, partly due to its being flooded out by the storm yesterday.

War Diary Entry: 30th May 1916

Started a deep dugout near the Bde office in anticipation of the day the Germans decide to blow Englebelmer flat. Conference of COs at 10am to discuss the way the battns will form up in the trenches preparatory to an attack and the accommodation available. Divn conference at 4pm.