Walford: Siggers and I walked up to the guns together, he going up to remain the day and myself to see Br Beach about a Bosch telephone, for which I paid him 80 francs. It was a good sunny day, and I wandered back to the Mess for lunch.
Bee: Went to the OP this morning. It is rumoured that we are going out to rest for six weeks at Abbeville, which sounds all right. There was quite good light today, for this time of year. We had quite a lot of fun sniping, but the climax came when I hit a man. I felt very sorry but, of course, the same would have been done to me if I had been going overland. I hardly knew the country, it had changed so much from the shelling. There was a very hearty barrage put up by our people this evening. They were trying to relieve 100 men who are isolated and have been fighting for their existence for three days. Two of their party came in the night before and explained the situation.
Bee seems to be referring to a remarkable last stand by men of the D Company 16th Highland Light Infantry of 32nd Division; cut off in the enemy trenches, the few survivors were awarded one D.S.O., two M.C.s, 11 D.C.M.s and 22 M.M.s; and 2 NCOS were recommended for VCs. The story is here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.glesga.ukpals.com/folk/forces5a.htm