Fine morning, strong wind. Have nice wash & shave, change of clothes & general clean up. Sgnt FOULKES arrived on 30th rather a surprise as I didn’t know he was out here. He told me H.TAYLOR was out here at 3 days notice. Poor Harry. A draft of 164 arrived at 3.15 am.1st inst which disturbed my good nights sleep, can’t be helped.
Wet morning fine later. Awful mess to get our dug out passable, about a foot of mud & water in it, but we make it fairly decent. Heavy strafe in the afternoon. We get relieved by the 2nd Lincolns at night. Hd Qrs arrive about 6.0 pm relief complete about 8.0 pm. We march to MAUREPAS & then get lorries to Camp 111 on BRAY-ALBERT Road. Arrive home about 11.0 pm very tired & dirty.
Wet again, everywhere in a bad state, we get a sump hole dug in our dug out & run some of the water off. Sides start to fall in & we are kept pretty busy, but fix in up fairly well. Officers of 2nd Lincolns come up in afternoon to look round & don’t find the place very pleasant. Rain & mist all day. Heavy shelling on front line. No casualties.
Fine morning. Slight frost. Plenty of shelling but very little rifle or M.G. fire. We improve our dugout as well as possible, which is very bad. 12 of us have to sleep in a very cramped place bad Hd Qrs couldn’t be worse. Misty afternoon rain at night. Wet comes in our dug out & we have several inches of wet & mud. No casualties.
Damp wet morning. Fritz is quiet. We prepare to go into the trenches, feet rubbing etc. We leave for the trenches at 3.0pm. On the way up I see Lt.Col. HOARE, 17th Welch Reg. Quite a surprise. We arrive at Hd Qrs on the main BAPAUME – PERONNE Road about 6.0pm, relief complete about 9.0pm. No casualties.
Fine morning, slight frost. Fritz gives us a reminder at 9.0 am & keeps it up, but does no damage. A large shell of 9” armour piercing fell in our camp, but after a big bounce, did not explode, luckily for us.
Strong wind & showery morning, plenty of gunning. Heavy showers towards night. We spend a fairly happy Xmas in the dug out, plenty to eat, Adjt. gives us a box of cigars, very strong. Nothing of importance happened except that the Padre brought us a drop of whisky at night.
Fine morning, cold, some showers later. Fine evening. Fritz sends a greeting, some shells, no damage to us. Heavy rain during night.
Wet morning. We move at 12.30 pm. HQ A B C D. Heavy rain. Arrive at MAUREPAS CAMP about 2.30 pm. Strong wind which has blown half the camp down. Hd Qrs get a dug-out in the ravine which is much better than a tent. Fritz sends over about 6 shells about 6.0 pm. No damage, have a good night.
Dull wet morning, very miserable. Fine later. Church service at 11.30 am, very nice also H.C. We get orders to move tomorrow. Wet again at night.