Up at about 7 o’clock. On fatigue in the morning. Pay parade at 11 o’clock. Box respirator1 and clothes inspection at 2 o’clock. A few chaps drunk on parade and got into trouble for it. Lovely day. Had walk with Dory at night on to the top of the ridge. Had eggs for supper at the farm house.
A box respirator was a kind of gas mask using a two-piece design with a mouthpiece connected via a hose to a box filter. Two types of box respirator were used, the large box respirator (LBR), which was ultimately deemed too bulky for use by infantry, and the small box respirator (SBR). It is unclear which type of box respirator was issued to ALL although it seems likely to have been the SBR which would have been more suited for use by stretcher bearers in trenches. See also Chemical Weapons in World War I at Wikipedia. ↩