Tag Archives: Front Line

Diary entries written about Arthur Linfoot’s experiences during front line engagements. Because opportunities to write in a diary would be rare in front line conditions, most of these would have been written up from memory some days later.

26 July 1916; Wednesday

July 1916, , , , ,

Got piece of shrapnel out of the L & Y & L1 shoulder2. Stayed up until 1.30, then lay down until about 7 o’clock. Had quiet night although the Germans sent over gas shells all the while. Were relieved at 8 o’clock. Marched down to dressing station, then to the billets near the château, after calling at an Army Service park. Got to know a big ammunition dump had been fired. Sergeant Jones killed and Sergeant Brown wounded about 8 o’clock. 2 men gassed the night before and a few men down the line. Fine day. Returned to old billets with Lavere. A dead German buried in the side of the trench and his foot sticking out and smelled horribly. Got to know a day or two ago that Ted Trim had got a DCM3 on July 2nd. Received parcel from home and letter from Joe. Had eggs and brown bread and butter to tea.

Two pieces of trench art (the matchbox cover engraved "The Great War"; the paper- knife engraved "Albert", and "Ancre" on the reverse; the handle is a spent .303 cartridge, for a Lee Enfield rifle or a Lewis machine-gun); and a piece of shrapnel preserved by ALL (exact origin not known but possibly related to the July 26 diary entry).
Two pieces of trench art (the matchbox cover engraved “The Great War”; the paper- knife engraved “Albert”, and “Ancre” on the reverse; the handle is a spent .303 cartridge, for a Lee Enfield rifle or a Lewis machine-gun); and a piece of shrapnel preserved by ALL (exact origin not known but possibly related to the July 26 diary entry).

  1. Y & L: ALL first wrote “L & Y”, but corrected this to “Y & L”: the 8th and 9th Battalions of the Yorkshire & Lancashire Regiment were in 70th Brigade, 8th Division – not the 34th or 19th Division, but nevertheless in the central sector of the front. ↩

  2. ALL wrote in his more detailed 1976 narrative that he had kept this piece of shrapnel as a souvenir – possibly though by no means certainly the one in the illustration accompanying this entry. ↩

  3. “DCM”: the Distinguished Conduct Medal was for Other Ranks; officers got the Distinguished Service Cross. ↩

25 July 1916; Tuesday

July 1916, , , , ,

Slept badly from lice and a big naval gun. Up at 6 o’clock. Marched up to Captain Johnson for breakfast and had it there. Marched off about 7.30, up to the trenches. Our squad (Bascombe, Houghton, Hall and I) in the aid post near the Bosantine [sic] Wood1. Not much to do all day excepting a few slight wounds and sick cases. About 9 o’clock at night a man walked in with an ugly shrapnel wound in his shoulder, a man with his skull smashed and one with a knee wound besides two smaller cases. Carried the worst ones to the dressing station on the road. Germans shelled all day but stopped while we were down. Had two cases of shell shock in all day. Very heavy journey down with the stretchers. Dark, heavy ground. Only 3 to a stretcher. Got back safely. Sergeant Fraser and Hall went with a walking case and found the German using gas shells. I stayed up until half past one.

  1. “Bosantine Wood”: There are two woods near the village of Bazentin, about 10km NE of Albert. These are shown on old maps as Bazentin-le-Petit wood (A) and Bazentin-le-Grand wood (B). ALL could have been referring to either of these although Bazentin-le-Petit wood (A on the map and, somewhat counter-intuitively, the larger of the two woods then as it is now) seems the more likely as it is more easily accessible from the road. It seems quite likely that ALL had never seen the name Bazentin in writing, at least up to the time when he wrote his diary entry for 25 July, and this could account for his spelling. ↩

24 July 1916; Monday

July 1916, ,

Arrived at a place about 10 o’clock (23)1 and got down2 with Lavere under a waggon. Ordered to move on again. After delay fell in and marched to the place near the château where we were on Friday. Got down in the open with Lavere and slept well although damp. Got up and had breakfast about 10. Shaved and washed. Washed feet and hunted for lice. Received parcel from home, and letter from home and a letter from Leishman with a photograph of the barracks R-, N.C.Os. Spent day agreeably. Made good shelter for the night.

  1. Presumably means 10 pm on the 23rd. ↩

  2. “Got down” means “lay down to sleep” as elsewhere in the diaries. ↩

23 July 1916; Sunday

July 1916,

[Above the printed date – ] Heard that Pozières 1 had been captured.

About 1 o’clock a shell struck the road about 6 feet off our trench and blew the side in burying Denham and Hughes. A machine gun played over us the whole time and we had to dig them out with our hands. Like a nightmare. Spent a few hours in the proper dug-out. Took down two stretcher cases before breakfast and then got some tea in Captain Newton’s dug out. Duggins and Gibson sent up to relieve Bascombe and I. Received orders later to go down. Paddy and I carried a case to the relief and then came down. Passed an 8” battery. A tremendous number of guns. The bombardment through the night was deafening. Some hideous sights in the wood. An Engineer sergeant badly wounded left to die and was breathing when I saw him last. Also decomposed bodies stirred up with the shells.

  1. The Battle of Pozières was a two-week struggle for the French village of Pozières during the middle stages of the Battle of the Somme. Pozières is primarily remembered as an Australian battle and ended with Allied forces in possession of the plateau north and east of the village. ↩

22 July 1916; Saturday

July 1916, ,

Up at 5 o’clock and marched off. Felt pretty jaded to start with. Walked up by Mametz Wood1 and to Hardecourt Wood2. Bascombe and I left at the East Lancs aid post. Had our break fast (cooked ourselves.) Other two of our squad there. Took down a man on our backs. Ran some messages to the very heavily shelled sap at night and a machine gun fired over our heads all the night. Took down 9 wounded cases. Carried one on my back. Under shell fire and machine gun fire all the time. Met a Jock with a bad wound in the thigh. A Coal Box3 burst a few feet away from us and nearly blinded us with dirt and fumes but didn’t hurt us. Got him to the King’s Own4 aid post by myself. Returned to rest. Waited until shells eased off. Returned to rest place. Tried to sleep in garments† by position. Shells falling all round us.

  1. Mametz (A) and its Wood are on the bottom limb of the “L”-shaped front line , some 5 – 6km east of Albert, in square I8 of the Michelin map. ↩

  2. “Hardecourt Wood”: there is a Hardecourt-aux-Bois (B), 5km E. of Mametz, but the shorthand is unclear, and I don’t know whether Hardecourt-aux-Bois, or its remains, were yet held by the British. ↩

  3. “Coal Box”: Another name for a German heavy artillery shell used by British troops, seemingly interchangeably with “Jack Johnson”, which ALL had also used in a diary entry on 9 July. ↩

  4. “King’s Own”: the 7th Battalion of the King’s Own Regiment was in the 19th Division, but in the 56th Brigade (ALL’s 58th Field Ambulance was attached to the 57th Brigade). But so was the (7th) East Lancs. ↩

21 July 1916; Friday

July 1916,

Up at 8 o’clock. Had breakfast. Watched aeroplanes. Glorious morning. Read The Passing Show1, and a couple of chapters in Corinthians. Received orders to move at 12.30. Hunted for lice and found over 20 in my shirt. Left our camp about 1 o’clock. Arrived further up road near a battery of 60 pounders and made a dug out for a first aid dressing station. Got down for the night with Bascombe, Piggy Wood and a few others with orders to be up at 5 o’clock. Very cold and damp all night and a terrible noise with the guns. The 5” gun over the way and some 8” guns quite near made an awful noise. Troubled a lot with lice too. Germans shelling the road. Watched aeroplanes fighting and being fired at. Beautifully fine.

  1. “The Passing Show” was a small tabloid-size magazine published by Odhams Press. It was later merged with Illustrated. It featured cartoons and short stories and cost 2d. ↩

9 July 1916; Sunday

July 1916, , ,

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.

  1. 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). ↩

8 July 1916; Saturday

July 1916, ,

Called out at 7 o’clock. Assisted with a case to the 59th bearers. Captain Johnson met me and told me to lie down. Couldn’t find any place to lie. Sat crowded in dugout and had some most welcome tea, bully and biscuits and jam. After the usual delay got a case and carried down to château. Had biscuits, jam and tea. Stayed all afternoon and had bully, biscuits and tea at 5 o’clock. Everybody tired out. I thought I was going to drop first thing, but felt better afterwards. Shoulders, back and feet tired. Everything mud, and in most awful condition. Appalling stench from dead men and horses. Captain Johnson made a speech and thanked us for the manner in which we had done our work in the most difficult circumstances and then asked for volunteers to bring in a few more men. I volunteered. We set out and were shelled terribly. Had marvellous escapes and were struck by pieces of flying mud. Two men of the 59 slightly wounded but we all got clear. Returned to château with no wounded.

7 July 1916; Friday

July 1916, , , ,

Called out of bed at 7 o’clock and told that we should have been on parade at 7. Hurried up, packed our kits†, and grabbed breakfast as best we could – biscuits and tea. Marched up to château1 where we found * bother†. Some very heavy bombardment going on most of the while. * * *. Sat in the ruined château in ruins. Marched up the line. Got lost as usual and squads were hopelessly mixed up. I kept with Paddy Graham and we carried a case along with some regimental bearers. I assisted a man who was suffering from shell shock. Returned and carried a man, he died as I was carrying him. Had violent convulsions, tried to vomit, and then died. Beautiful sunset. Night worse than in nightmare. Rained heavily later. Troops passing up trench made stretcher †pair miss†. Sat down steps on dug out until done. Wet through, cramped and too crowded <to> sleep. Horrible night. Nearly * dead in trench * *.

  1. “Château” and “the ruined château”: very probably Fricourt Château (approximate location shown on map), just north of the village, known to have been ruined by shelling. ↩

6 July 1916; Thursday

July 1916,

[At top of page (pencil very faint) – ] A lot of dead bodies lying about and it was ghastly. Sat in the [continues below date-line – ] mud in our dug out all night. Very cold and legs horribly wet. [Pencil continues very faint; much of the following is surmise constructed around words which can be fairly safely deciphered, aided by ALL’s own free transcription.] Fell in about 7 in the morning and moved across to the village which the men had taken1. Passed more dead and some Germans. Saw a man lying on a heap of dead with the back of his head smashed in and dying. We were shelled on the open road on the way and returning. The squad in front of us had a very narrow escape. We had to forage ourselves for tea and my share was nearly† straight through. Very grateful when we arrived at dressing station. Returned to Albert. Had baths in a bucket. Returned to old billet in the wine shop. Went to bed after tea and after writing home. Heard that both the 57 and 592 had suffered† the loss of one† killed and * *3 injured.

  1. “The village which the men had taken”: possibly La Boisselle. ↩

  2. “57 and 59”: these may have been Field Ambulances; there is a reference on 8 July to “the 59th [what I read as] bearers”. ↩

  3. The shorthand appears to say “ninety four”, but is now too faded to be sure. Ninety four seems too high. ↩