Fine morning. I get ready for leave & get a Ford car about 11.0am & drive down to Cantimpre arriving about 1.30pm. Train due to leave at 3.30pm, but very late & eventually leaves at 8.30pm. Very fine but awful cold. We crawl all night & get to Ligny about 7.30am, very cold & tired on 11th inst.
Fine day. I get orders for leave but can’t catch the motor. The leave party go at 1.30pm to Haspres. Fine night but very quiet.
Fine morning. Bttn [Battalion] does training. Hd Qrs pde [Head Quarters Parade] for inspection & drill. NCOs in the afternoon. Fine night.
Fine morning. We clean up & get orders for training. Some wet again later.
Wet morning. We get orders to move at 8.50am for PRESEAU. March via Verchain, Querenaing, Artres & arrive about 1.30pm drenched to the skin, get billets not too good, very quiet & Jerry well on the move.
Wet again. Coys [Companies] do a bit of training. We have a Whist Drive at night, very good. 104 players & we get 148Frs as prizes. Lot of trouble but worth it. Wet night.
Wet day, we clean up & have inspections, can’t do much on account of rain.
Fine day. We move back to Saulzoir at 12.10 nasty road & heavy walking, get in about 1.30pm. Have a nice bath & change. Tres Bien.
Fine morning. Barrage opens 5.30am. Seaforths [Seaforth Highlanders] & Kings Own attack, good progress & all objectives reached. Lots of prisoners & 5 guns taken, good many officers. Wet about 10.0am, rain nearly all day. We move back to Vereham at 4.20pm, arrive about 6.0pm. Stay the night. Fritz sending some HV over.
Fine day, aircraft active, we get orders to stand by. I take NCOs at 3.0pm. Rifle exercises. We move forward at 7,20pm to Verchain, wait there about 2 hours & then move to Querenaisy [?], arrive about 1.30pm. Fritz shelling a bit.