Category Archives: 1916

All diary entries written in 1916.

3 October 1916; Tuesday

October 1916, ,

Kept busy all day. Another bombing again after dinner and 2 stretcher cases and two walking cases through it. Paid at 4 o’clock. A bit of a commotion through Billy Truman having got bed wet and a man upstairs having a touch of diphtheria.

Another Zeppelin brought down near London1.

  1. “Zeppelin brought down”: This probably refers to the destruction, on the night of 1-2 October 1916, of Zeppelin L31, which was shot down by an aircraft from No. 39 Squadron and crashed near Potters Bar, killing its entire crew of 19 including its very experienced captain, Heinrich Mathy. L31 had previously taken part in the raid on London of 23-24 September (noted by ALL in his diary entry of 26 September) during which L32 and L33 had been shot down.  ↩

2 October 1916; Monday

October 1916, ,

Up at usual time1. Busy all day. Rather bad weather.

  1. “Usual time”: The 2nd of October was the day on which daylight saving ended in France in 1916, with clocks being retarded by one hour at midnight to 23:00 the previous day. By this reckoning, the usual time would have effectively been one hour later, although unlike at other, similar points in the diary, ALL makes no mention here of the change. ↩

28 September 1916; Thursday

September 1916, , , ,

Up at 7 o’clock. At work all day as usual. Managed all right. Kept busy all day. Received definite news of the fall of Combles1.

  1. Combles was on the extreme right of the British sector (in the Somme area), or possibly in the French sector; 10km due S. of Bapaume, 14km E. of Albert. It had been used by the Germans as a shelter for reserves, supplies and engineer stores and as a staging area for reinforcements during the Battle of the Somme. See also Capture of Combles at Wikipedia. ↩

27 September 1916; Wednesday

September 1916, , ,

Busy all day. Not feeling very well. An observation balloon brought down near us. Had short walk at night with Bascombe and Barburn† after 7.30. Usual day’s work. Our team playing football against Black Watch won 1 – 0.

Received news of Zeppelin raid on north east coast1.

  1. Zeppelin raid: This was actually part of the same raid as ALL had noted the previous day; the four Zeppelins which attacked London on the night of 23-24 September (two of which had been brought down as noted by ALL) were actually part of a larger group of 12 Zeppelins, the others targeting different parts of the UK, including the North-East. See also German strategic bombing during World War I at Wikipedia. ↩

26 September 1916; Tuesday

September 1916, , , , ,

Up at 6.45. At work as usual. My afternoon off. Went over to Bailleul with Harvey. Our team playing football against M.A.C. and lost 1 – 0. At the Merry Mauves1.

Received news of Zeppelin raid and 2 brought down2.

  1. “Merry Mauves”: The soldiers’ revue first mentioned on 22 September. ↩

  2. Zeppelin raid: On the night of 23 September 1916, a group of four Zeppelins comprising L31, L32, L33 and L34 staged a raid on London and the surrounding counties. Two of these, L32 and L33, were shot down, the former near Billericay with the loss of all hands. The latter crash landed at at New Hall Farm, Little Wigborough; the crew survived and were taken prisoner. L33 was not completely destroyed and was used to inform the design of British airships R33 and R34. See also List of Zeppelins at Wikipedia. ↩