Up at about 7.30. Paraded for a few fatigues. News continuing good and all manner of rumours. Marched off shortly after 2 and got into lorries at Souastre and moved off at 2.30. Arrived at near Grincourt [sic]1 at about 11 o’clock and marched to an open field near to the sugar refinery2. In bivouacs. I was put on guard and stayed up until 3.45. Slept badly when I did get down. Very cold. Didn’t know quite where we were. Jerry shelling Bourlon Wood3, about a kilo in front of us.
Grincourt: Actually Graincourt-lès-Havrincourt (B), 9km WSW. of Cambrai (Michelin square K7), some 40km due E. as the crow flies from Souastre (A). ↩
The “sugar refinery”, also referred to in some other accounts as the “sugar factory”, was locally known as Graincourt Sucrerie, and was possibly near the site of the Sucrerie British Cemetery (C). ↩
Boulon Wood remains to this day and is located to the SE of the the Bourlon Wood Canadian War Memorial (D) and the Bourlon Wood Cemetery (E). It is, as ALL suggests, about a kilometre from the Sucrerie. ↩