Tag Archives: Grecourt

4 October 1918; Friday

October 1918, , , , ,

Up about 7 o’clock. Transport moved off in the morning. Spent a lot of time picking blackberries. Terrific fighting down south and very slow advance. Fell in at 3 o’clock and marched to Brian1 where we entrained. Detrained at Warlincourt and marched to Souastre and arrived there early morning. No blankets and nearly frozen in the night.

  1. Brian: perhaps Brias (B), 5km NNE. of St Pol (A; near Grecourt? see 2 October); Warlincourt would be Warlincourt-lès-Pas (C), 11km E. of Doullens, just S. of the Arras road, and Souastre (D) is 16km E. of Doullens (Michelin square H6 and H7 respectively) – just off the NW corner of the 1916 Somme battle area. ↩

3 October 1918; Thursday

October 1918, , ,

[Written above date: “Franchie’s birthday 11th inst.”]

Up about 9 o’clock. Parade at 10 o’clock. Got back to Pernes and went in with Billy Truman. Had some tea at the Y M and then eggs and chips at a restaurant. Returned about 8 o’clock.

Very heavy fighting down south. Heard that the Germans were falling back from La Bassée.

2 October 1918; Wednesday

October 1918, , , ,

We arrived at Essars about 7 o’clock. Steam engine took over and we arrived at Burbure1 about 9. Marched to Auchel. Had breakfast about 10 o’clock and marched off for Grecourt2 about 2 and arrived by 5 o’clock. Dinner at night and to bed. Absolutely tired out.

  1. Burbure (B; Michelin square G4) is on the southern outskirts of Lillers, 17km E of Essars (A) and 6km NNW. of Auchel (C). ↩

  2. “Grecourt” is not in the Michelin map gazetteer, and I can’t find any name much resembling it within 3 hours’ march (especially if circuitous and/or lost) of Auchel. It was probably somewhere N. of Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise (D), as they got back the next day (and no transport is mentioned) to Pernes, which is on the St Pol – Lillers road (Michelin square G5). ↩