Continuing the diary of John Sangway, dispatch rider with XVII Corps. The Corps signals office was in the battered village of Bretencourt but would soon be moving with Third Army's advance.

63^rd Royal Naval Division had just arrived to replace 56^th Division, taking their place alongside the 52^nd and 57^th, and had thrown something of a spanner into the corps signals works by running as many as four H.Q.s at any one time and often changing the staff officers at each, resulting in difficulties in putting through calls to the right person at the right place and delays in delivering DRLS packets.

4/9/18

Gen[eral] Fergusson [XVII Corps commander] reported to have sworn horribly for the first time in his life when Germans evac[ua]t[e]d village he had planned to capture in morning.

6/9/18 (Midnight)

In signal-office at B[retencourt] (an old estaminet) some fellows seeking sleeping quarters upstairs put their feet through the ceiling & scare the signalmaster with a shower of wood, tiles & plaster! He is sleeping in OC’s office next to ours.