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[Page 27]
July
we remained till dark & then marched off & relieved the Royal Welsh in support trench & the 1st & 2nd Battalion took our firing line. Albert is a town of ruins & one thing especially catches the eye it is the monument of a woman with a child in her arms on the top of a church steeple lying over at the angle of 120 ° & is a shiny bronze colour & glistens in the sun. There were some great sights to see in the first lines that the Tommies took for the Germans had great dugouts from thirty to sixty feet deep & lines inside with timber & had a sleeping department, a kitchen fitted with a small stove, a pantry & electricity & accetaline gas. We were put on fatigue carrying up ammunition etc to the firing line preparing for the attack. On the Friday night our company had to go & dig a reserve trench just behind the firing line but could not finish it before daylight so had to go back to our own reserve trench. On the Saturday afternoon we were told that we had to attack that night & were fitted out with bombs etc as A & B Coys of our battalion were reserves & it was there job to carry tools etc. At dusk we moved to the reserve trench which we had been digging the night previous & finished it & we had to lye in it till we were wanted.
Our Artillery opened up just before midnight & after the 1st Battalion & "C" & "D" Coy of the 3rd had gone over we moved into our original firing line where we waited till we were