Item 02: Arthur John Moore diary, 11 November 1916-11 January 1918 - Page 68

[Page 68]

Friday. May 11. 2 men of the S. Staffords were also hurt, one stretcher & one walking case. Just before it got dark Fritz made things very hot. A big working party of Tommies was going through to the front Line & for an hour or so it was perfect Hell. One big shell landed outside our dugout & put the candle out. Bricky sang out "Hello! any Blighties" just as a chap stumbled into our dug-out with a knock on the side of the Head. Sam Wallace got wounded in the leg, while on his way back to the dug-out; which made 3 wounded from our Post. It was a most unhealthy spot & we were mighty pleased when our relief, the 15th arrived about 1 a.m. on Sat. morning.

Once during the night we got lost & were wandering around with a stretched case for about an hour. I sang out "Reg Sutton" & away in the distance Reg replied "Hello is that you Peter? It was the sweetest voice but one that I ever heard. We got back to the A.D.S. about 3 on Sat. morning. Bricky & I got a lift in a motor Amb. from the A.D.S. to a collecting Post & from there on to our little Home in a motor, with a crowd of sitting wounded. They shelled our crowd out of their old position & they went further back, 2 miles nearer Bapaume. The A.D.S. are in a pretty good place, just outside the village of [Vaulese?]. It took us some time to find our Packs & Blankets as they were all dumped in a heap. We were jolly tired & soon fixed up a place to sleep. We put down a couple of duckboards & lay down between our Blankets. In minutes we were sound asleep.