9 October 1916; Monday

October 1916

Was told off after dinner1 to go with other three to take over a place. Went in the motor ambulance with the C.O. Couldn’t find the place and returned about 7 o’clock at night. Was not sorry.

  1. “Dinner”, as usual, means lunch. This was an afternoon, not an evening excursion. ↩

7 October 1916; Saturday

October 1916, ,

Arrived Doullen1 at midnight. Stood about until about 2 o’clock and then marched off. It rained heavily at first. Arrived Authie2 about 5.30 and after waiting some time we were billeted in a wood† in some little houses. Rained most of the day and we slept a good bit. Pretty tired after our walk.

  1. Doullen [sic]: Actually Doullens (A above, Michelin map square G7) is 28km NW of Albert – some 22km from the N end of the Somme front. ↩

  2. Authie (B above, Michelin square G7) is 12km ESE of Doullens, and 18km NW of Albert; back in the Somme area. ↩

6 October 1916; Friday

October 1916, , ,

Up at 7 o’clock. The 111th Ambulance took over from us at 9 o’clock. Went up to the Belgian house and had dinner and then paraded at 2.15, full pack. Marched to Bailleul1 station and entrained there. Slept most of the time in the train and arrived at our destination2 about midnight.

  1. Bailleul (B) is 3km E of Méteren (A) and 16km SW of Ypres. ↩

  2. Doullens (C), see next day’s entry. ↩

5 October 1916; Thursday

October 1916,

Up at 6.30 and on duty as usual. The 111th Ambulance1 came to take over in the afternoon. I spoke to a few of the old Hillsborough lot. A third bomb accident at night2.

Bought a lace collar at night from the Belgian refugee people.

  1. The 111th Field Ambulance was at this time with the 16th (Irish) Division. ↩

  2. The diary makes no reference to a first or second bomb accident, and offers no clue about the nature of any of these accidents, but Mills bombs (hand grenades) were sometimes used in ponds or watercourses to kill or stun fish (for eating), and their time-fuses could be unreliable. ↩

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. ↩