WW1 and all that

I came across some excerpts from my grandad's diary. He was born in 1899 so was about 19 when he wrote this:

1918

27th March: Battalion under orders for France.

3oth March: Company passed bombing test.

31st March: Company passed through gas chamber with SRB poisonous and asphyxiate

3rd April: Arrived 4am Folkstone. Arrived at Boulougne at 4pm. Arrived at Etaples 3 am.

6th April: Arrived at Busnes 7am. Hard marching. Had breakfast in gutter of street. Iron rations. Joined 1/5 NF at 4:30pm.

9th April: Left ? at 9am. Shelled whilst having dinner in ploughed field. Arrived in Estaires at 6pm (reserve line).

10th April: Whilst moving up to rienforce front line was wounded in leg by m/c gun bullet. Under heavy barrage of mg and shell fire. Walked 12 km to Northumbrian HQ.

4th May: Arrived at No. 3 convalescent depot.

19th May: Especially big raid. Hospitals bombed. Many casualties.

29th May: Arrived Rouen 5pm. Thought we were just staying the night. Marched to D depot 5km from Rouen. Stayed 6 weeks. Whilst there did trench and grave digging. Paid 5 Francs a week.

10th July: Left Rouen with a draft to join the 50th division Etaples who had in meantime been severely cut up on the Marne.

9th August: On patrol. Later in night digging on front line parapet. Quiet night.

12th August: On outpost. Lively night. Bombed what we thought was German patrol but was just a case of 'wind up'. Woke everybody up all around. Excitement prevailed for a while.

13th August: On ration party. Got straffed on Menin Road going and coming back. Rather a lively night. Later at Stand To we fired 50 rounds rapid. Jerry retaliated with trench mortars and whizz bangs. A section of the parapet blown up but no casualties. More work for the troops.

15th August: Lying out in front of wire all night. Rather quiet but still crumping on Kemmel Hill to our right.


That's all I have. He was invalided out sometime shortly after. He lost an eye and was badly affected by gas but he lived until the late 70s. Here he is around 1968.