All Quiet

Hi Folks,

I'm currently sat in the front trenches. Its pretty quiet at the moment. The Hun must be having a rest and we are doing likewise.

This week I was in billets from the 18th to the 21st. A 2nd Lieutenant ranger joined the regiment during this period but then promptly went to the hospital after 2 days. I think he must have come down with food poisoning or something. Either that or he didn't like the look of the place and decided he was better off out of here. I don't blame him!

The 19th was a very interesting day, it snowed! It blew up quite a blizzard and everywhere was covered. It was most unusual. The snow didn't stay long, the next day it was gone. I was glad I was in billets because the men in the trenches must have been cursing their luck. They must have been knee deep in snow that was freezing their feet and ankles and gnawing at their legs. It doesn't bear thinking about.

We have been doing our usual tunnel digging and constructing communication trenches whilst in Billets. The Brigadier also visited us and inspected D Company. The Lancashire Territorials have left us now. I hope they have learnt the craft of trench warfare and that it will put them in good stead for wherever they go. Good Luck to them.

We came into the front line on the evening of the 21st. It was different from when we left on the 17th. On that day and evening the Hun attacked us with rifle grenades and injured six of our men. This time there was no trouble during the changeover and none of us got hurt.

As its a quiet time I thought I would share some photos with you, The first is some of us at rest at the back of HQ Farm

At Rest Behind HQ Farm

This photo shows Captain Pakenham, Co S.M. Ashworth, Pte Brindle and Pte Webster.

This next photo is a recent one of the HQ Farm. You can see that the buildings are slowly losing their roofs and the walls are getting quite a battering.

HQ Farm

The main farm house building is still quite intact though, its the Barn and outbuildings that are suffering the most.

The next photo is of Lieutenant Gannon. He's making off with some trophies and some bags of tuck. Lucky fellow!

Lt Gannon

My next photo is of two of my chums, Private Hughes and Private Rushan.

Privates on Guard

This is photo is taken in the trenches near to the houses.

To show that the higher echelons do visit the trenches the next photo I have is of Major Blencowe. He made a visit to the forward command post one day and one of my chums got a snap of him to show he had been.

Major Blencowe in the Trenches

The final snap I have is of the lookout post from the Snipers House. This si where the poor chap fell asleep twice and was then court martial. This snap was taken in the early days before things got much hotter and you could idle by the window as this chap is doing.

Lookout Position in the Snipers House

I believe its Sergeant Major Ashworth in this photo. The bed is on the left hand side of the room out of view. In recent times it has been pulled up next to the window to provide a seat. This is how the unfortunate chap got caught out by having 40 winks.


Well Folks, I hope you like these snaps. No doubt the Hun will start up again soon so I'll sign off now. I hope to speak to you next week. By all accounts there's been a flurry of activity up in the tunnel so I'm not sure if we are getting near to the Hun Lines. I'll let you know next week.

So its bye for now and hopefully I'll be with you again next week,

Albert x

A Bloody Shame

Hi Folks, Albert is here again.

We'll its been a pretty mixed bag again this week. I'm currently in the front line again having come in on the evening of the 13th. We've had 7 men wounded in the last two days from grenades, shells and snipers. On the whole its is fairly quiet, as quiet as it comes these days. There's regular bombing and shelling at sporadic times. It can drive you crazy if you think about it, the not knowing if your times up. But as I've said before I keep myself busy.

At the beginning of the week during the 10th to the 13th we were in billets and had a our usual rest and recreation. C Company was mustered for an inspection by the Brigadier. He comes round every so often to show his face and do his duty of inspecting the troops. The boys turned out in their best uniform and showed bags of swank doing their best marching and drill parade.

I'm in B Company so wasn't part of this event. I was able to take it easy and enjoy the frivolity in the estaminets. There was the usual working parties to improve the communication trenches and of course helping with the tunnelling under the Hun lines. So I volunteered to do some, to keep busy, but being able to return to the billets on the evening and enjoy a beer or two makes it a bit like normality, a bit like an ordinary working day back home.

The village is taking a right hammering nowadays. The Hun sends shells over everyday with regularity. There's plenty of damage to the houses and a lot of the village folk have now moved away. Many of the houses are empty other than our men habiting them on a shift basis, four days in the house and four days in the trench with our counter parts occupying the houses in turn.

We have some large mobile field kitchens that provide hot meals for us when were not in the trenches. We used to get fed by the villagers, who we paid for this service, but with their moving away the men have to feed themselves. In order to ensure we get a good meal the field kitchens now cook daily meals for us. The following photo shows one of these kitchens.

A Field Kitchen

I forgot to mention in my last post that Lieutenant Macdonald and 26 men had joined us on the 5th of March. These were much welcomed as we had been losing a lot of men to disease and trench foot. We are only just managing to keep numbers up. With deaths, injuries, disease and trench foot we must be losing about 50 men a month. Thats about 6% per month. So since starting writing to you in December we've lost and replaced a quarter of our men, that's one company of 200 men!

We've just had another 122 men joined us from Blighty today. That now makes us 70 over strength. Give it two months and we'll be 30 under again!

I feel sorry for the new chaps. They don't know what they are coming to. Back home there's plenty of newsreels in the flicks, the cinemas, but its all been censored to only show the picture that the top brass and Government want to show. There's none of this smashed and ruined houses, rows of graves in the cemetery and bloody broken bodies in the field hospitals and trenches. Its all what a glorious war and how we're giving the Hun a bloody nose. These new lads are in for a surprise!

I have a photo of the Snipers House in the village. This is where we start our run to houses 9 and 10 and where we start the tunnel. You can see the hole we've knocked in the wall to give safe entry and the sandbags around the walls to protect form shell blasts.

Back of Snipers House

This brings me onto another bloody shame in this war. That of severely reprimanding men for basic frailties and mistakes. If you get caught without your basic kit your up on a charge. If your without your gun then its hell and high water, your up on a court martial.

Recently one chap paid the ultimate price for a simple mistake. In the bedroom of the snipers house there is a window that overlooks the Huns front line and looks down towards Frelinghien. From this vantage point we can see what the Hun are up to and report on his movements. A sentry is posted on this window every day and night to gather and provide valuable information. Right by the window is a bed and if you sit on the bed you can still see out and perform your on watch duty.

Well this one bloke was on duty one day and an officer came round doing check on everything. When he went to the room he found the bloke asleep. He gave him a right dressing down and told him in no uncertain words what would happen if he did anything like it again. We'll he came round later on and when he went and looked the soldier was asleep on the bed again. That was it, he was put up for court martial.

We heard he had been shot at dawn. It was a bloody waste. He was a good soldier, a good bloke, a good fellow human being. Now he is gone, not shot by the enemy but killed by his own side for doing what we all do when the tiredness gets the better of us, for falling asleep.

The crime and punishment was read out to us. This was to impress upon us our duty and to make sure we didn't neglect it. Instead it made us angry at the top officers, the fools in the chateaux deep behind the lines with their fine dining and fine comforts.

It was a bloody shame.

Who knows, maybe one day one of those fools may come close enough to the front line to get hit by a stray shell. I doubt it though, the top brass never come that near.

So chums, I'm back on sentry duty tonight in the trench and I won't be making the  mistake of falling asleep. If the Hun doesn't get me either I'll speak to you next week.

Albert x

Best Foot Forward

Hi folks, Albert is here again.

The trenches have been pretty quiet this week except for the changeover tonight. The Hun must have got wind of the change and fired some rifle grenades over. Five our lads got injured. The Kings Own were coming in and relieving us but none of them got hurt.

These rifle grenades seem to be the weapon of the moment. We only got some last week and promptly used them all, we're now waiting to get a new supply. We didnt receive that many anyway! We are still making the jam tin bombs so in reply to the Hun we lobbed a few of these at him.

If your wondering what our Mexican pattern grenades are like, this is a picture of one.

Mexican Pattern Rifle Grenade

Although these are called Mexican we've found out that there English, made by a company in Faversham, Kent and they're invented by an Englishman called Martin Hale. Would you believe it?

With regards to the tunnel, that's coming on good. The entrance has been made in the row of houses just before houses 9 and 10.  The shaft has been constructed and a rail track to take the spoil away has also been built. I say a rail track, its more like a cart track made out of wooden rails with some rough wagons that ride along them. It does just fine for our needs though.

The tunnel is now being dug out under the houses towards the Hun. The going is fairly easy because it is just clay that we are digging through. Picks and shovels is all that's needed but were are having to dig slowly and carefully. This is so that we don't raise the suspicion of the Hun. We don't want him firing some well aimed shells and causing the tunnel entrance to be collapsed.

I say we have been digging the tunnel but yours truly has stayed out of it as much as possible. I'm not doing any digging here, the pit was bad enough but this is far too dangerous. We only have basic wooden wall linings and roof supports. The whole lot could come down at any time. The blokes digging it prefer it to being up top. They can't stand the thought of getting hit by a bullet, grenade or shell at any moment in time. I myself put all such thoughts out of my mind.

This brings me onto another danger in the trenches, one that is dropping men more than the bullet or bomb. This is what we call Trench Foot. This is where the damp and cold conditions cause the feet to swell, to go numb and in many cases to be frozen. If this happens and the feet aren't treated properly the skin and flesh dies and rots. Gangrene sets in and the foot or even leg has to be chopped off. So as you can see its a real danger and problem.

This photo shows a chap whose feet have been severely affected, he will probably have one foot amputated, maybe both!

Severe Case of Trench Foot

In order to prevent Trench Foot we have to change our socks three times a day. We hang out wet socks to dry and then when changing socks we powder our feet to dry them as much as possible. When we brew up or make a bully beef hash we get our boots off and toast our feet by the fire. We hang our socks near to the fire and try to dry them as much as possible.

We've also been given grease made from whale oil to cover our feet. This keeps the water and dampness away from the skin but I don't know which I prefer, damp feet dried often or greasy feet dried not so often. I keep alternating. So far I've not had a problem.

A pal of mine got trench foot. His feet went numb. He thought it was poor circulation but after leaving the trenches he still couldn't feel anything. After seeing the medic he was sent to a field hospital where he was kept for convalescing until his feet recovered. He was away best part of a month. He said it was a right old old game. He said they spent quite a few days in bed being tended to by nurses and visited by the Doctor. Once feeling started to come back you were allowed to get out of bed and move about. If the feeling didn't come back then it was goodbye to your feet, they were dead!

He said that once his feelings had started to come back he was allowed out of bed but it was so painful he couldn't walk on his feet, he had to crawl about on all fours. Everyone else at the hospital where he was also had Trench Foot so once he got out of bed he saw lots of other blokes scampering around on their hands and knees.

He said the funniest thing was that all the men like this decided they were like dogs and so barked at each other. He said it must have been the most unusual site, men on all fours running around the corridors barking and growling at each other when they met or came nearby.

So chums, its the 9th of March and yours truly is in Billets safe and sound. I'm now off for the obligatory pint and a few sing songs with my pals. If those 'friendly' ladies are in the estaminets I may even engage in conversation, nothing too meaningful though.

So its best foot forward and on we go.

I hope to write to you again as usual next week.

Albert x

Tit for Tat

Hi Folks, well that was a close thing. I had to cut short my report yesterday because the Hun decide to mount a full scale attack on us.

I was in House Number 9 when the shout went up, not that a shout was needed, it was the sudden onslaught of bombs, grenades and shells all going off at once that raised the alarm.

At first we thought the raid was coming in through the end wall of House 10 or down the back yards of the row of houses. But it was not to be. This was a diversionary attack and the main attack came further to the south. When HQ realised what was going on they ordered reinforcements to the front trenches in this area.

The South Lancs Territorials were in the trenches again with us receiving more training. It was as if the Hun knew this and had decided to attack knowing that these soldiers of little experience may panic and he may be able to take advantage of this weakness.

It was a moment sheer chaos and at the same time organised mayhem. Myself and some of the men were ordered into the front trenches to give support. Men were coming up the communication trenches from the rear and others that were in the support trenches had already moved forward. There were runners everywhere and men were manning the firesteps and firing wildly into the Hun lines.

It was all happening in slow motion. we were gathering all the arms we could muster and throwing it at the Hun. He was doing his utmost to throw the same back at us. A great number of Hun grenades were sent over and in return we sent over our supply of jam tin bombs. The rattle of machine guns was deafening.

It was some time later in this barrage and exchange of weapons of destruction that I realised that some of our men had got rifle grenades. I later found out that the Chiefs of Staff back in London had decided that we needed better weapons to counter the Hun. After finding out that the Hun had rifle grenades and seeing how effective they were the Generals had sourced some for us and the Territorials had brought them up with them.

These were similar to the ones we had seen the Hun use and we were mighty glad of them. The only thing is no sooner had we started using them than we run out of them, we had only been supplied with a limited stock. We were told they were known as Mexican Patterns and had been used by the Mexican Military. I didn't care who had used them or where they had come from. I was mighty glad we could hit the Hun with the same level of devastation that he was hitting us with.

Eventually the Hun attack was repulsed and it went quiet again. We were then relieved in the early hours by the Kings own and returned to Billets. A roll call was taken and in this stint in the trenches we had 2 men killed and 16 wounded. the South Lancs had 1 killed and 2 wounded. It didn't seem like a lot compared to the amount of bombs and grenades that were thrown at us but those wounded men had got some pretty serious shrapnel injuries. I'd be surprised if some didn't make it back to Blighty.

Just before going into the Trenches on the 26th we had some reinforcements that had arrived for our Battalion. This was 2nd Lieutenants Martin and Roberts with 40 men. This made the Battalion 21 men over strength, this was about 825 men in total. Now just four days later that over strength had been knocked back, we were back to usual strength. What a bloody war.

Anyway we have got another weapon in our armoury to match the Huns. We have the new rifle grenades, that's if we can get a resupply of them, maybe from the Mexican Army! All I know is that its tit for tat. Anything the Hun comes up with we throw the same straight back at him.

Apologies for the break in the report this week but beating the Hun comes first. I hope to speak to you next week.

Albert x

Digging for Victory

Hi Folks, I'm currently in the front line in Houses number 9 and 10. Its been a bit of a hot one the last few days. We came in on the evening of the 26th and its gradully got a lot worse with shelling and bombing. Its not so bad in the houses but the Hun has been firing quite a few rifle grenades at us and we reckon he's going to make an attack. I may have to break off and go to the barracade at the end  of House 10 to repulse him.

The week started off all very differently. I thought I'd left the pits of northern England and the Welsh valleys behind but now I find I'm going to be working in the bowels of the earth once more.

I spent the 23rd to the 26th in Billets. This was partly at rest and recreation, in the estaminets as usual, and partly assisting with plans of a subterranean kind.

When I last wrote the HQ had called up anyone who had mining experience to help plan digging a tunnel under the Huns front line. Yours truly has volunteered in an advisory capacity. I have many years of working down the pit. I'm only 20 but I've been working in the pits for 6 years. I've worked in Rotherham, Bury and Merthyr Tydfil, so I have plenty of experience of different mining conditions.

The top brass wanted a tunnel digging from the houses near the front line under the houses occupied by the Hun and onwards under the Huns front line. This was to be dug about 15 to 20 yards below ground level, near enough to come up under the Hun but deep enough so as he can't hear us or the roof of the tunnel can't be easily supported.

So it was, lots of plans were drawn up with regards to the construction, the roofing and lining materials and the wagon systems to remove the dirt dug out. The land around here is manly clay so we would have soft going but it would be slow because of the damp conditions. This threw up another thing we had to work out, how to drain the tunnel. Then there was also how to ventilate it to ensure the tunnellers didn't suffocate.

We had sappers and engineers within the battalion but not enough to dig the tunnel or to completely design and construct it. So myself and others like me gave advice and assistance. More volunteered to do the digging. They thought it was better than sitting in the trenches getting their head shot off or blown off. Little did they know the dangers of mining. I'd seen plenty of roof collapses with men buried and we had to dig them out before they suffocated. Some were crushed to death. Now here in Le Touquet digging a mere 15 yards below ground level with impromptu roof supports and cladding I could only see the danger.  It seemed a pity, either get your head blown off above ground level or crushed and suffocated below. Not a choice I liked and if possible I was going to try and stay away from both.

So the time from the 23rd to the 26th has been taken up with forming working parties and commencing work on constructing the necessary components to build the tunnel. Fritz hasn't helped because he is constantly shelling Le Touquet every day. Its more of a nuisance and we have to take to the basements or blast trenches if out in the open. We've constructed quite a few of these around Le Touquet to allow is to go below ground level to prevent the blast of nearby shell bursts from hitting us or flying debris ripping us apart.

The engineers are constructing the waggons to remove the tunnelled material, the tunnel supports

Sorry folks the shout has gone up so I'm having to go to the barricade, looks like the Hun is attacking. Will write tomorrow if still here, alive that is.