stiletto_33853 Posted 21 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 21 December , 2006 To his Mother. B.E.F. Billets, 12.30 p.m., Sunday, 10-9-16. "Arthur took a nice Memorial Service, or chiefly memorial, this morning on the village square for the Battalion. Tom Buxton was coming over to lunch to-day and going to bring another Officer from Corps H.Qrs., but very disappointingly rode over at noon, and said he had to be in at lunch. Arthur has a friend, a Brigade Signalling Officer, who is coming, and an Adjutant is also going to join lunch, which, by the way, is going to be 'some' lunch as I bought two chickens this morning. They were brought in alive, as people here have all sorts of fancy ways of killing them, and I prefer to do it myself with a stick, though I find it quite hard to kill anything just now!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 21 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 21 December , 2006 At the end of September the Battalion moved into the front line again into trenches just west of Vimy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 21 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 21 December , 2006 Diary - September 26, 1916. "Walked round front line with Pigot in the morning. Rations are dumped each evening from the railway at my dug-out; 3 mules to each truck. The Coy. are responsible for 'Vincent Street'; commenced work this evening. It is quite alarmingly peaceful here. Heavy firing in the morning to the south. Hear that we have taken Les Boefs and Morval." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 21 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 21 December , 2006 From Andrew to his Sister Rosamond. B.E.F., September 28, 1916. "To-day is Jewish 1st of the year (though I thought it was April). I should like to have gone to a Service they have near hear. Perhaps another year we might look in to this Service somewhere, as I should be interested. It is on the Day of Atonement. I enclose a letter from Daly's mother, - he was a most charming young Officer of 'B' Coy., killed at Guillemont - which please keep. His death, and one of my Sergeant's, I have felt more than anything I can express to you." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 21 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 21 December , 2006 2nd Lt. Cecil William Thomas Daly, 3rd Rifle Brigade Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marina Posted 21 December , 2006 Share Posted 21 December , 2006 To his Father. The sadness of our losses has not been without its comic side sometimes. There were two brothers in my Coy., one of whom was killed. The other one started a letter to his home to tell them the news with 'I have now much pleasure in telling you.' They get set phrases for their letters. We got this more happily written." But I also noticed a certain Andrew Buxton sending his Mum a 'wish you were here' letter earlier on in this book! Marina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 22 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 22 December , 2006 B.E.F., Trench 2, 6.30 p.m., 26-9-16 "I have no Officer now in the Coy. so have the whole thing to work, which is a bit of an affort, but very interesting. Northcroft who recently came to C. Coy. has now been taken for some special work. I have in fun told Arthur that I must have him as a Platoon Commander, which he rather inclines to. Pigot would, I am sure, be only too glad to have him so; but in any case he helps much and has just been censoring a vast quantity of letters. It is getting dark very early now, as you will have experienced. I, this afternoon, was detailed to repair a certain bit of trench, and the whole Company are now on it. I must go and see that it is going all right. I can, however, get no riveting material till 10 p.m. to-morrow, if then, and as the trench is a depth varying from eight to twelve feet, all more or less falling in, I have 'some ' job !" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 22 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 22 December , 2006 8 p.m., 26-9-16. "Back from seeing to the work on this trench and find two or three Orderlies from Hedquarters, which is about half a mile from here, with chits about various things. About a quarter of the chits received in this land are marked 'secret,' some of which are interesting, some not !" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 22 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 22 December , 2006 To his Mother. B.E.F., Trench 2, October 1, 1916. "7 p.m. had a very nice Service in the half light and dark on the side of the Valley only about 600 yards from the Bosch front line. The new Officer Duncan is such an excellent fellow - so keen to learn and ready to help with evrything." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 22 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 22 December , 2006 To his Mother. B.E.F., Billets [Estree] 2 p.m., 8-10-16. "A very showery morning. We were going to have a route march at 9 a.m. and paraded for it, but dismissed as too wet, and instead carried on with various drills and practices. At 2.15 p.m. Arthur has a Service in the Ambulance Station here. I forgot to tell you what a lot of weasels I saw last time I was at the front. Two which were running about on top of a dug out in the trench I 'squeaked' to, and brought them so near that I stopped, thinking one of them was going to jump on to my shoulder, which I did not fancy ! A party of mine digging in the side of a trench sliced away so as to leave a family of mice in a niche - the nest was made of old bits of letters and field postcards. They were not 'red,' but had not yet got hair, or eyes opened. The old one was there, coming up and going down a hole in the back. We did some first aid work by handing her the young ones one by one, and she carted them back down the hole ! One of my young clerks did good work in Trones Wood, and has got a M.C. for it. It seems strange, for some reason, to picture fellows like that, whom I have seen nowhere but in an office, in a wood like that !" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 22 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 22 December , 2006 Diary - October 10. "Moved up to-night, sub-sector of left sector at Vimy. To Carency, then via Hospital Corner, Redoubt Road, 130 Road and 130 Trench to Zouave Valley. 'A,' 'B' and 'D' are in, 'C' in support. Had to carry up dixies. Large confab with C.O. in even ............ (11th Oct.) Rather wet. Long walk round with Palmer to see our men working at fire-saps........Rats and mice absolutley vile. The place I thick with them and their noise." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marina Posted 22 December , 2006 Share Posted 22 December , 2006 You never think of the noise rats etc make. This is giving me the horrors! Marina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 23 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 23 December , 2006 B.E.F., Trenches, 9.30 p.m., Thursday, 12-10-16. "What would you think of the sight of us at the moment - 'us' consists of Duncan, Palmer, Thorn, Arthur and myself. Just had a magnificent dinner, cooked by our wonderful Coy. Mess Cook, Coleman, consisting of soup, ration ment, potatoes, cabbage, tin of apricots, toasted cheese, and coffee, sitting in a dug-out, whether an old Bosch one or a French one I do not know - a sloping passage down, and then widening out, so that where we sit is about 12 foot long and six foot wide, in which are two beds, and a table of a footboard with newspapers for a tablecloth - my gramophone going well, worked by Duncan - such a good fellow, - with a few records I had borrowed. The gramaphone I had up by my Q.M. Sergeant with the rations to-night. A rare good evening within 300 yards of the Bosch ! The dug-out 6 feet 6 inches high strutted up and about ten feet below ground level - 'minny' (minnenwerfer) proof. For light two candles and a tin of grease - either fat or slobbered candle grease - with wick made by my servant. Interrupted now by my Sergeant-Major asking if any orders for the morning, and I say 'nothing fresh, except that Mr. Thorn will give the wind report at3.30 a.m. and the Coy. will stand to at - (I must not say when).' The wind report is from a gas point of view; fortunately the wind is in our favour. Now Edwards, O.C. 'D' Coy., has come in, his Headquarters being near. Atkinson asks me what time to call me in the morning. A sentry is detailed to call for any early occasions like 'wind report,' sent by wire to Headquarters by signallers - or 'stand to." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 23 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 23 December , 2006 "We, in the words of the papers, 'sprung' a mine this morning, probably in retaliation for which the Bosch gave us a heavy supply of 'Minnies' this afternoon - they made me laugh. The trenches I am in are open behind and there is little to fear of them provided you keep eyes open and do a sprint if one is coming towards you. They are shot up high, and then turn down, and you can see approximately where they are coming. If sending many over this is safer than dug-outs, which may or may not hold them. We sent a lot over in return, also Stokes gun shells. Last night two Cadets from a training school near St. Omer were posted to my Coy. for 36 hours (young fellows) (Tommies training for commissions) for instruction in practical trench life and arrangements. Both very keen. I took them last night round a bit of our front line in the dark, including looking into a mine crater, of which we hold the near lip. Our bit of line is, I think, the ruggedest and messiest I have been in with mine craters, saps out from the front line, mining work with its accompaniment of high masses of sandbags, in which the earth is brought out, through which run trenches, or so-called. They are different to what you picture them, in many parts battered to bits, and full of 'mess.' Looking ahead at any point, hard to tell where Bosch is and where we are !" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 23 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 23 December , 2006 To his Sister Rosamond. B.E.F., 9 p.m., Thursday, 17-10-16. "Oh ! if you were here at the moment. Old Palmer, one of our Officers, a splendid fellow, has just expressed, 'Well, I'm blessed. I don't know whether it is a mouse or a rat, but one of them is in my bed.' Arthur gets up from where he is sitting (on a bed under the one Palmer is on) with an electric torch, and looks. The mouse or rat turns out to be one of the servants laying out the under bed and just touching the top bed with his back !..... We came 'here' this afternoon by a long communication trench which I have been down several times, taking about an hour. Every time I go up and down it I think of Love Lane, Cromer, along past Colne House, which as a baby was a walk I always seem to have taken by my nursery maid, but never to the end, and I thought it never had an end !.... Well, I am getting along. I mentioned the 'mouse or rat' which expression naturally followed on to what we have had the last few nights. I have experienced many mice and rats, but never anything like those outside and inside the dug-out we have been in. A deep one, about twenty-five feet below ground level, going down from the trench by about fifteen long big steps, all timbered, in which we five Officers and my servant slept, he in a small adjunct at the bottom of the steps. The dug-out has two entrances. Rats and mice all over everything, and every one making an awful din by every means, including tearing up newspapers to make nests of. This writing pad I have had sent up by Edge my groom, wrapped in paper, which was hal eaten off, and the pad aslo just suffered, as you will see at the bottom left side. There are a good many real black ones about. It is very disturbing having them sitting on your pillow, touching your head, and washing or scratching themselves, and at intervals, by mistake no doubt, washing ore scratching you, and next minute having to eject one from the commanding position obtained by sitting on your hind leg. In the interval another showers earth over head and face, makiing itself a new dug-out." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marina Posted 23 December , 2006 Share Posted 23 December , 2006 I might have got used to the shelling and whizzbangs - but the rats? NEVER! Marina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 23 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 23 December , 2006 "We are more than fit - trench life always suits me - owing, I think, to the exercise involved, though this has been a pretty real strain. There is far more than enough to see to, and you cannot well understand what it means to be responsible for holding a bit of front line when it is new, and a very complicated bit. No wire, owing to its having been blown away, to prevent Bosch from their trenches just by, coming if they wish, to raid or take ours. I don't meant to imply that they could do so, as our young fellows have sharp eyes and quick ears, but I think you would a little get the wind up if you looked over the parapet on a pitch dark, stormy night, and were told the Bosch were 70 to 100 yards off........ I had a rum issue last night, and ordered a 'stand to' at 6 a.m. chiefly by means of giving it out, and saw each man drink it. Very necessary to see it drunk, or somehow or another one man may get five or six men's rations. It is the most tremendous thing for the men. This is the first one we have had for a long time. 'My word ! doesn't it make my throat lovely and warm !' I passed a few men a little time after they had had some; one handed another a spoon that they had used and remaked with emphasis, 'Here Bill, smell this !' I am going to send this to Bairnsfather, as he could make a good picture, and also a remark yesterday by one of my Corporals : 'They can keep their military medals and crosses; them what deserves them don't get them; what I wants is to get 'ome woith my 'head on.......' I have just made a mousetrap out of a large biscuit box. This land is a rare opportunity of learning the nature of rats and mice, as they are all round all the time. Edwards bought six rat-traps yesterday, and caught twenty eight rats in his dug-out in an hour. Yesterday I had breakfast with one hand, and fed three mice (from my hand) with the other. They came over my bed, a wooden erection about three feet high, adjoining the table. Some nights they are frightfully disturbing." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 23 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 23 December , 2006 Diary - October 14, 1916. "Life is very hard with so much to and men often very stupid. Sergeant-Major takes his turn on duty, so is either way or asleep when wanted !............. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 23 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 23 December , 2006 Diary - Sunday, October 15, 1916. "More endless hard work with many bombing and other arrangements. Glorious moon again - a heavenly sky and a devilish earth. Lots of 'Minnies' in the afternoon.......... No man in top of A2 (patrolled at night) or in A3 (held by 'B' Coy.) as Bosch mine is ready this side of Kennedy Crater." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 23 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 23 December , 2006 October 17. "A gorgeous day. Relieved at 3.45 p.m. - joy ! After considerable strain of a new bit of line and putting it in order, as always falls to our lot." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 23 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 23 December , 2006 To his Mother. October 19, 1916. ".............This morning I spent some time in an O.P. (Observation Post), a hidden place with just a small slit for the telescope. Very interesting looking down on Bosch-land , several big valleys. Being a fine day, they have washing hanging up in several places........The moon has been absolutely gorgeous lately." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 23 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 23 December , 2006 Diary - October 23. "Went with C.O. and Coy. Commanders to see our new area S.E. of Loos; also Arthur, who is taking over the canteen there. Bus from Givenchy - for which we were late owing to trying to cut off a corner and badly losing our way in the mist. Weird and rotten piece of line." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 23 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 23 December , 2006 October 25. "Relieved 11.30 a.m. by 1st Canadians. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 23 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 23 December , 2006 October 26. "In the evening some of the _______ came in for supper after a Court of Enquiry, held in consequence of losing men in their saps. They lost 17, nothing heard of them." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marina Posted 23 December , 2006 Share Posted 23 December , 2006 October 26. "In the evening some of the _______ came in for supper after a Court of Enquiry, held in consequence of losing men in their saps. They lost 17, nothing heard of them." I wonder if the 17 ever turned up. Horrible to thi k of them just disappearing like that. Marina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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