Tag Archives: Doullens

Diary entries written while Arthur Linfoot was at Doullens in Northern France. See also maps.

30 November 1916; Thursday

November 1916, , , ,

Up at 7. Parade at 7.25 for a double1. Hard work. Parade 9.15 for physical drill and afterwards short route march. Off in the afternoon. Walked into Doullens with Holman. Had 2 eggs for tea. Bought tea cosy for Mother. Heard of Air Raid and 2 Zeppelins brought down. One near Durham2.

  1. “Double”, if correct, would mean “double march”, ie a run; there appear to have been sporadic attempts to improve the men’s fitness when not in the line. ↩

  2. The Zeppelin brought down “near Durham” may have been L34, shot down near Hartlepool, about 20 miles from Durham, on 27 November by Second Lieutenant I. V. Pyott, flying a B.E. 2C aircraft of C flight 36 Squadron based at Seaton Carew aerodrome. ↩

17 October 1916; Tuesday

October 1916, , ,

Left Authie about 9.30. Part of the morning† Harry Bascombe left at the hospital in the village. Had to wait several times for the Division to move and in one place had to put off our pack and push the waggons up a very steep bank. Marched about 9 miles. Arrived at Val de Maison1 about 4 o’clock. I felt pretty rotten and got down as quickly as possible.

Temperature 101.4 at night2.

  1. Val de Maison: presumably the Val de Maison (B) in Michelin map square G7, 3km E. of N25, mid-way between Doullens  and Amiens, 9 miles/14.5km from Authie (A); it would be about 20km march from Val de Maison to the Brickfields camp at Albert on 23 October. ↩

  2. “Temperature”: Presumably ALL’s body temperature. 101.4°F is c. 38.5°C – a moderate fever – the malaise causing this fever is not specified. ↩

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. ↩