Diary Entry - 22nd September, 1916

In December last year, I posted some extracts, kindly supplied by Elizabeth Landy, from the diaries of my grandfather's brother, Bee, who joined the army together with my grandfather and was stationed nearby.  I now have more of Bee's diaries, plus his letters home. As my grandfather's letters home from this point on have disappeared and as Bee is often less discreet and more inclined to include how he felt about things than my grandfather was in his diary entries, I will try to include Bee's letters and some of his diary entries on this blog from now on, as well as my grandfather's. I find it interesting seeing their two different perspectives on much the same action. Whenever I do this, I will preface each entry by the name of its author. My grandfather's entries will be labelled 'Walford' and his brother's will be labelled 'Bee'.

Walford: Friday, things had not been as comfortable as they might have been during the night and for breakfast it was a bit of a skirmish to get anything. Soon after breakfast, Bee and I made off to the baths in the village and had a very nice hot bath each. On returning to the camp, we found that orders had arrived and the Brigade marched at two fifteen for Senlis, eventually having to take up position on the Thiepval Mouquet Farm front, which is just south of the Ancre. Well, we got into our new lines at five thirty, having passed through Bertrancourt and several other villages on the way. A good chap belonging to the D59, a how battery of the 11th Division, to whom we were attached, looked after us, showing us our lines, and gave us tea. We eventually discovered that his OC was Griffith, who used to be captain in our battery. His name was Crook. I did not feel well that night and as soon as everything had settled down and I had got a cup of tea, I turned in with a bad head. I forgot to mention that the BCs had gone on with the Colonel in a car at eight thirty to reconnoitre positions.

Bee:  A beautiful day. All Battery commanders went off at 8 a.m. and we heard or saw no more of them until seven p.m. that night. We, the Batteries, got orders from our own Brigade to march at twelve a.m., saying to move at two p.m. Anyway, after breakfast, Walford and I went and had a bath at the Vouin [?] Baths and came back feeling very clean. We duly marched off through Bertrancourt, Haville [?] and finished up at Hedauville[?]. The march down was very uneventful. We are quite close to where we were originally, or rather about the same district. Thank goodness it is fairly dry - it must have been awful during the wet weather. The wagon line is just a field. But we were lucky enough to have 10 tents given us. And my hat it was cold.