Up at 7 o’clock. Received orders to stand by again. Received parcel from home, letter from Charlie, letter from Green and the British Weekly. Wrote home. Walked round village at night. Some rain. Watched the rats playing about the barn roof.
Category Archives: 1916
17 July 1916; Monday
Up at 7 o’clock. Dull and damp in the morning. Received rumour that 4 of the 104th Field Ambulance men were killed in the château we left1. Killed by a shell bursting in their billet. Received orders that we were not to stand by after dinner. Went to Ribemont at night with Walsh and Lee and had eggs. Got wet in going. Went to bed at about 9 o’clock. Big dispute with Forrest and others about football until about 11 o’clock. Watched the rats playing about in the rafters all day.
16 July 1916; Sunday
Up at 7 o’clock. Still standing by and no church service. Rumours of Germans’ retreat up the line. Wrote to Willie Whittaker. Fine morning. Service in the field in the afternoon but it rained and so we stopped before the sermon. Rained a bit at night. Wrote letter home in reply to one received and also to Willie Whittaker and Franchie Inwood. Went to bed early at night. Lay awake with toothache, but generally slept well.
1 killed and 9 wounded of the 57 Ambulance at La Boisselle.
15 July 1916; Saturday
Called up at 6 o’clock. Had breakfast shortly before 8 and was relieved then. Wrote letter to Joe and one to Charlie. Went on at 12 o’clock. Was relieved shortly before 2 o’clock. Just beginning dinner when we received orders to go to our billet and pack our kit. Packed kit in 20 minutes and paraded by the A.S.C. park. Had tea and waited. Received orders to go back to the billet and wait there. Beautiful afternoon. Wrote to Ernie. Turned in at the usual time.
14 July 1916; Friday
Up at 7. No bread and rotten dinner, boiled bully. Got hair cut. Physical drill at 11 o’clock. Wrote to Gertie. Received two copies of the Daily News from home. Rain in the morning but fine in the afternoon. Got new cap two sizes too small. Paraded at 6 o’clock with the guard. Went on from 6 until 10 o’clock. Got two blankets and slept with Lee on a fairly comfortable bed in the hospital barn.
13 July 1916; Thursday
Up at 7 o’clock after a bad restless night. Hunted in shirt and pants and found about 6 big lice. Paraded in the morning for cleaning waggons etcetera and then physical drill. Lay down all afternoon – no parade. Had some peaches for tea. Received some papers from Betty and also a letter from home. Went out at night with Lee and called at a village. Bought some chocolate. Afterwards met Leaky and Duggins and went with them to Ribemont1. Had eggs, coffee and cakes and bread. Walked round village and bought card for Gertie. Saw a few thousand cavalry go by our village and understand they are going to charge in the morning.
Ribemont: presumably Ribemont-sur-Ancre, 7km SW of Albert, not Ribemont, SE of St Quentin. ↩
12 July 1916; Wednesday
Up at 7 o’clock. Church parade at 11 o’clock. Very nice service – C of E – and good hymns O God Our Help, Jesu Lover of my Soul etcetera. Read Bible a bit. Read British Weekly and enjoyed article by Claudius Clear1. Went to concert in the open by the Town Major’s house. Our C.O. and a captain took part in good dialogue. I dropped a 2 franc piece and couldn’t find it at a shop. Called again with Walsh and the woman recognised me and told me where she had found it – on the window sill. Washed shirt, pants and socks and wrote a few letters.
Claudius Clear: alter-ego of William Robertson Nicoll (1851 – 1923), a Scottish Free Church minister, journalist, editor, and man of letters who founded the British Weekly, a Nonconformist newspaper. ↩
11 July 1916; Tuesday
Up at 7 o’clock. Physical drill at 11 o’clock. Orders to clean buttons. Turned out at 2.15 to clean waggons. Dirtied tunic and had to clean it at night, and also belt. Beautiful evening. Sat outside billet and cleaned belt. Read account of North Sea battle1 in Daily News received from home this morning. Also read some of British Weekly2. Wrote letter home in reply to one received. Had slight trouble with toothache. Had short walk with Lee. Cleaned grease off tunic and pants.
“North Sea battle”: Jutland was 6 weeks ago, but reports were still coming through. The Germans’ next attempt to capitalise on what they claimed as a victory was a projected raid to shell Sunderland, on 19 August, but this was intercepted and defeated by the RN following Intelligence reports. ↩
The British Weekly, a Nonconformist newspaper founded by William Robertson Nicoll (1851 – 1923), a Scottish Free Church minister, journalist, editor, and man of letters. ↩
10 July 1916; Monday
Up at 7 o’clock. Spent morning cleaning up. Paraded at 3 o’clock in the afternoon with full pack and had good inspection. The C.O. read letter from General Head Quarters thanking us for our services in the most impossible conditions and also stating that the men appreciated our work. Walked to the next village Y.M. and looked round. Received newspapers from home and read them. Beautiful night. Everything so peaceful away from battlefield. Rather cold.
I lost service cap and sunshade at the trench.
Had sergeant and 6 men in our ambulance down with nerves and shell shock and 2 men slightly wounded. Noticed larks singing above the trenches while the battle was in full swing.
9 July 1916; Sunday
Lay down on stretcher to sleep as Germans were putting Jack Johnsons1 into the wood a few hundred yards away and we were in easy range. They were trying for the batteries behind us. Hurt knee on barbed wire on the night before and it was very painful. Marched down to Albert. Germans commenced to shell the town again. Were all done up, and were taken back to Laviéville by our motors. Got decent billet in a barn. Scraped clothing and cleaned up generally. Had a bathe and shave. First wash for 3 days. Plenty of tea. Bully again. Bread ration served out and I used some fresh butter received from home. Turned in early and slept well. Notes on front. Most horrible sight – men dying on top of dead. Coolness of some soldiers. Two soldiers trembling with fear who were to go over the top last Sunday morning. Our aeroplanes complete mastery of the air. German artillery not to be compared with ours.
Jack Johnsons: German 150 mm heavy artillery shells, which burst with characteristic black smoke. After the boxer Jack Johnson (1878-1946), the first black American world heavyweight champion (1908-1915). ↩