Diary Entry - 28th August, 1916

There were all sorts of rumours going round in the morning about the previous night's business, and the Colonel was said to be very much on heat about it all. The adjutant came round with wild stories about punishment that was to be meted out, but, beyond putting a guard on the village, I don't think anything was done. It is Monday and it rained again heavily during the night and continued all morning. The winter seems to have turned up again and I think the offensive will be badly hampered. At five thirty p.m., Cruickshank and I left with my section, a GS wagon and two water cart horses, for the guns, and thank goodness the rain had cleared by then. It was eight thirty by the time we got to the RE dump at Courcelles and drew 1,000 sandbags and we were taken on from there by a guide. It was a very dark night and we were ordered to keep 200 yards distance between vehicles from there on but, as there were only three vehicles, and the man with the water cart horses had been up before and was riding in rear, I thought all was well. At nine thirty we reached the guns and I found that the GS wagon and two horses were missing, so had to hunt in the dark for them. They turned up about half an hour afterwards, but I was rather afraid they might have gone on into our trenches, as we were only 2,400 from the German frontline.