Continuing the diary of John Sangway, dispatch rider with XVII Corps.

11^th [October]

Moved to Bois des Neuf¹. Raining rotten – fight for tent pitch with staff! Lovely summer spot though.

13^th

Idea for comic sketch entitled “Salvage”. One cable sec[tion] laying a route & another winding it up a few miles behind (meanwhile the D[espatch] R[iders] carry the telegrams). One of the orderlies – “Yes, I’d pit a staff job aht ‘ere:- shoving up the dysies.”

15^th

Moved to C[agnoncles]. Best fit up we have had for a long time. Reached civilisation again the other side of the 40-mile no-man’s land³. Visited Camb[rai] yesterday. Very interesting – smell of burning still. Grand Place awful mess, worse than Arras I think. But lots of sound parts.

¹ 3 miles southwest of Cambrai

² 3 miles east of Cambrai

³ The zone of devastation created by the Germans between the old Somme battlefield and the Hindenburg Line