Up at 8 o’clock. Relieving party arrived between 8 – 91. The Germans shelled the road very heavily and by about 3.00 were into two fields on the right. Had a bath parade in the afternoon.
Walked about at night.
Heard of the capture of Vimy Ridge.
Category Archives: April 1917
9 April 1917; Monday
Up at 8 o’clock. Practically nothing to do all day. Wrote letter to Ernie. Received letter and parcel from home. Cold day and a few showers of snow. Read some of “Villette.”1 The man badly wounded in the arm2 died tonight. I felt a bit queer as is Captain Strickland.
Vimy Ridge captured by the British.
Sat at bay.
Villette
Villette is an 1853 novel by English author Charlotte Brontë.
After an unspecified family disaster, the protagonist Lucy Snowe travels from her native England to the fictional French-speaking city of Villette to teach at a girls’ school, where she is drawn into adventure and romance.
Arthur Linfoot wrote that he had read some of Villette on 9th April 1917 while stationed at an aid post in Northern France.
8 April 1917; Sunday
Up about 8 o’clock. A glorious day. Read one of the sermons received from Joe. Read a sermon on †Judas and the Great Commonwealth†123. Were sitting outside at night when an aeroplane was shot above us. Came into the door of the dugout and a piece of shell fell pretty near. Splendid night. Harry Howells lost his pay book and 50 francs. Wrote a long letter to Joe. Had our usual porridge for supper. Bonny night. Read sermon in the †Great Commonwealth†. Turned in about 9.30.
“Judas and the Great Commonwealth”; the transcription is uncertain but, if correct, this sermon would have used a text from a book of the apocrypha, 2 Maccabees 13 vv 13-15, which describes how Judas Maccabeus, defending “the laws, the temple, the city, the country, and the commonwealth”, led a small army to victory against a superior foe by entrusting the outcome to God. ↩
Sermons were certainly being preached on this text in early 1917; see this notable example from a service held in St Paul’s cathedral on 20 April 1917 to mark the entry of the USA into the war and attended by the King and Queen and the American ambassador. ↩
The story of the same Judas Maccabeus from another book of the apocrypha, 1 Maccabees, is retold in an oratorio by G. F. Handel, Judas Maccabaeus, written for the Duke of Cumberland after his victory at the Battle of Culloden. ↩
7 April 1917; Saturday
Up at about 7.45. Very busy all day. A man brought in before dinner and was dead. He had a nasty wound above the left eye. Captain Strickland on all day. A man with a cut artery – posterior tibial artery, and it was drained† 3 times. Harvey and Holman said at night that the U S A have declared war on Germany. Were paid at night. I drew 40 francs. A very heavy bombardment at night and the 47 Division went over to our left. Germans used liquid fire. I saw the spray very well. Turned in about 10 o’clock.
6 April 1917; Friday
Up about 8 o’clock. Harvey and Holman had had a busy night – 15 wounded and one sick. One man had died and Ben Jenkins and I had to go through his pockets for personal stuff and look for his identity disc. His name is Seagrave1 of the East Surreys23. He was fearfully mutilated. Lower jaw blown off, right arm by the shoulder and both legs below the knee merely hanging and an ugly wound in the chest. Rolled him in a blanket.
Not much to do all day. Had oranges supplied to us. Rather rainy in the afternoon.
Rumours still current of the intervention of U S A in the war.
Who was Seagrave? Read our analysis here. ↩
East Surreys: rather irrelevantly at this date – according to the well-known story, it was a company of the 8th East Surreys, in the 18th (Eastern) Division, XIII Corps, whose commander, Captain Nevill, apparently hoped to make the first day of the Somme less stressful for his men by requiring them to kick footballs across No Man’s Land (near Montauban.) ↩
RC Sherriff based his 1928 play, Journey’s End, on his own experiences of the Western Front with the 9th Battalion of the East Surreys. ↩
5 April 1917; Thursday
Up at 8 o’clock. Not much to do all day. Read British Weekly and Sunday School magazine† received from home. The batteries put over a very heavy bombardment about 9 o’clock.
Rumour that U S A has declared war on Germany.
Received letter and papers from home and Joe.
4 April 1917; Wednesday
Up at 7 o’clock. Fairly busy all morning. Busy again at night and Harvey and Holman quite busy until 3 o’clock in the morning. Fine day.
3 April 1917; Tuesday
Up at 6 o’clock. Marched off at 7. A perfect blizzard and a heavy march. Had to carry our blankets from the car to the aid post. I worked with Ben Jenkins in the dispensary. Holman and Harvey on at night. Weather improved considerably in the afternoon. Not a bad sort of place. A few sick and one or two wounded in during the day.
2 April 1917; Monday
Up at usual time and on duty. Informed that we were only to take wounded. Had two men die. The first one an artillery man who died on the car at the door. The other of the Welsh lot died about six o’clock. He arrived about 3 o’clock with his right leg off below the knee. Captain Strickland did all he possibly could for him, but he died about 6 o’clock. Made me feel a bit melancholy about the war and the awfulness of it.
Went to our tents. Commenced to snow in the afternoon. A perfect blizzard at night and our tent nearly blew down. Up in the night fitting in the curtain. Ordered to the line tomorrow.