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Monday 16 January 2012

Diary Entry - 15th January, 1917

Walford: A frosty night and remains about freezing point all day. Siggers and I again worked at Mess all day after he had come back from doing liaison at midday. We took the smashed gun down to the trench railway, first of all dismantling the piece and taking it down, then running down the carriage. The gas shell had made a nasty mess of it, although they usually have just sufficent charge inside to burst the shell, and the buffer was almost carried away and half the shield blown off. We placed the whole gun on two trucks. During the night the 15th Battery had a 4.2 how on their Mess, which cracked one of their main supports. Otherwise no damage was done.

Bee: Another misty day. I took out a party and got some more mine cases. The ground up this end of Courcellette must have been a dump for ammunition as the ground is littered with shells and bombs of all descriptions. I also saw an old How which has had a direct hit. How it was hit I can't imagine as it is in a sunken road under a bank fifteen foot high. The Hun very nearly did for us last night, just as we had finished dinner there was a hell of a crash and plates and things went flying all ways. We were very lucky as it was a pipsqueak whith landed right on top of the Mess. If it had not been a dud, we would have felt more.

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