Personal Diary: September 5th 1916

Collected some more tiles out of Ypres before breakfast. After breakfast a pasan came in who knew something about tiles and said none of them were any good. A good deal of rain during the day. Our own artillery is coming back to us from the Somme & the 20^th divn art. Is going to take their place there.

Personal Diary: September 4th 1916

Went round the trenches with De Lisle, he was quite pleasant. Started 6am got back at 10.30Am. Bayley dined and slept. Wind still unfavourable to get rid of our gas. A little rain in the afternoon.

Personal Diary: 30th August 1916

Rained all day with a fine drizzle, getting heavier at times, & a strong wind. Cleared up at dusk. Trenches flooded and falling in. Gas could not be let off again tonight as wind unfavourable. All four battns out clearing out drains and getting the water out of the trenches.

Personal Diary: August 29th 1916

Went round the right subsector with Welch at 5.30am, found lots of gas cylinders not properly sandbagged in. The gas was to have been let off tonight accompanied by a bombardment but the wind changes so it was off. Rain started coming down in torrents about 3pm and flooded all the trenches. A gas alarm started some miles S of us and spread all along the line about 10.30pm, we managed to stop it going further. Have not heard whether any gas was really let off. Bayley dined & slept.

The Inniskillings and Borders relieved the KOSB & SWB respectively after dark & must have got nice and wet going up.

Personal Diary Entry: August 21st 1916

Went round the trenches with Welch starting 5am. The recent rain had not had much effect . Met De Lisle on the way back. A deserter reported a few days ago that the Germans had still got a lot of gas cylinders in their trenches so this afternoon we knocked their trenches about for 2 hours with shells of all sizes up to 9”. They damaged ours a bit in return. We had 5 killed and 2 wounded. Bayley lunched, dined and spent the night.

Personal Diary Entry: August 19th 1916

Took over the line from the 86^th Bde after dark. They relieved the 88^th Bde in the right sub sector, & the 88^th Bde went back into reserve. Brand, Gillan & I went up to Ypres in a car about 9pm. There has been a good deal of rain the last 2 days.

Letter to Mother: August 13th 1916

My dear Mother

I am having an easy at present and have seen numbers of old friends. Percy came round and looked me up the other day. If we can keep on catching Germans and Austrians at this rate we ought to have mopped them all up in under a yea. The news all round is most satisfactory. I got a taste of German gas last week for the first time. I did not get it strong and it had no effect whatever on me.

The weather here is poisonously hot and muggy, we want some rain badly.

Tell Cecil the peas don’t travel well, they get tasteless and flowery before they arrive. They would probably do better in their pods. The melon was excellent. There is any amount of fruit and vegetables procurable here now, so it is hardly worth sending any out here, though it is jolly good of her to think of it.

I shan’t get leave for another month yet. I have really quite a lot to say, but it’s not much good when you are not allowed to.

I have lost Father’s last letter but I believe he said Raymond’s memorial would cost £80 so I enclose a cheque. If it turns out to be more please let me know.

Your loving son

Cuthbert

War Diary Entry: July 18th 1916

Rained hard in the morning. W end of Englebelmer shelled for a quarter of an hour about 4am. We were to have let off gas again last night, but wind unfavourable, so we hung on till 1am when it was finally put off. The SWB were to have attempted a raid last night, they were only going to send off quite a small party; on their way up about 2.45am a big shell buried 4 of them in a communication trench, and by the time they were dug out it was too late to start. COs conference in Mailly Wood at 11am. Got back to bde hd qrs at 1pm & found De Lisle there; as there are not enough pioneers available we have got to complete a trench that has been dug about 200 yds in advance of our present line. Walked down to see Williams after tea; his hd qrs are in some canvas huts half way down the Englebelmer – Martinsart Rd.

War Diary Entry: July 4th 1916

Thiepval Wood again bombarded both morning and afternoon it must be getting a regular shambles. They put a lot of 5.9 shells Hamel during the day all round the KOSB & SWB hd qrs. An exceptionally heavy rain storm came on just after midday ,it kept on raining most of the afternoon. All the trenches were washed out and fell in in many places; in the low part of Hamel all the trenches cellars and dugouts were flooded. 

An order came from the Army (we are now in the reserve Army since 2 days) that the line had to be pushed out in front tonight, Fuller & Bayley came up about 6pm with 2 RE subalterns on their way up to mark it out, the 2 subalterns have a pleasant night in store for them. We received information during the afternoon that the 49^th Divn were going at 2am tomorrow morning to try and clear the germans out of the lengths of trench which the 49^th hold on the high ground, but which the Germans occupy down by the river end. They were also going for the Hill & Mound. After this rain the marsh will be absolutely impassable so they will not be able to reach them. We have offered to take on the Mill (a very small ruin in the marsh) instead of them, & are sending out half a dozen men to reconnoitre it tonight. 

A 5.9” shell landed full in our office at Englebelmer yesterday laying it level with the ground. All our people were out at the time.

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: 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: June 27th 1916

Drizzled most of the day. Bombardment continuing. De Lisle looked in at about 10am. Last night the 36^th Divn in their raid brought back 1 officer 1 NCO and 11men prisoners. The Newfoundland Bn (88^th Brigade) carried out a raid from our trenches but failed to get through the wire. The 86^th Bde had wire-cutting patrols out, an NCO of one of these parties looked into the German frontline trench and found it fully occupied. None of these parties had any casualties. Went into Acheux in a divn car at about 12 midday to make arrangements for tonight as the 86^th Bde have 3 raids on, the Newfoundlanders one, and the Borders one; besides these there are a lot of wire cutting parties out. They are all going out between 12 and 1am, during which hour our guns will not fire on the german frontline trenches.

Letter to Mother: 11th June 1916

My dear mother

The Russians have made a good start if they can only keep it up. I believe this is not their main push. The weather has been foul this week, everything deep in mud. Chamberlayne sufddenly turned up here the other morning and stayed to lunch, I hadn’t seen him for year; he was just as cheerful as ever; he is quite close here now. We have just got an issue of cheap spring rat traps, and set three in the loft above my bedroom. We caught 17 during the course of the evening and could have got many more if we had the energy to keep resetting the traps. Twice we caught 2 in one trap.

Please send me out another pair of boots, I think I sent or brought a pair home from Egypt, anyhow I want an old pair of square toed greased boots, and not my ordinary polished mufti boots.

The parcels post is a little disorganised at present, they take a good many days coming. I got a pair of socks from Mrs Arthur James yesterday as a token of her affection. Tell Dorothy to push along with the books, and send a t least a couple each week.

I got a note from Archie the other day asking me to assist him in getting an inspectorship in the Qr.Mtr Genls Branch, but of course I can do nothing as I don’t know anyone at home. It is only when he gets out here that I can be of use.

Your loving son

Cuthbert

War Diary Entry: 11th June 1916

Rained hard most of the day. Caught 17 rats in the loft above my bedroom.