Item 02: Arthur John Moore diary, 11 November 1916-11 January 1918 - Page 8

[Page 8]

Thur. Nov 16 some stew & cold Tea, which we heated up & had a feed before "turning in" Then we slept till Dinner time, when we got up & had some more stew. A few papers came in. I got 2 from France, which were very welcome, especially the "Sentinel". B.E's Letters are always the soul of cheerfulness; & are worth their weight in gold. Gee! That Kid's a marvel. Some of the crowd went into Dernancourt & loaded up stores; the rest of us had an easy day, for once. Got paid after Dinner (I drew 40 francs) & tonight we are trying to fill up the "aching void" with Biscuits & Chocolate, (purchased from the Canteen) This is a rotten Camp for tucker, if we couldn't buy a feed occasionally we'd starve. Wish I could send a cable to Lill, but it's very difficult to do so from here. What a great day we'll have when we turn our backs on "The Somme".

Fri. 17. Nearly froze to death last night, although we have plenty of blankets. The news from the front line continues good. They say we are holding the Ridge in front of Bapaume. A Taube went over the 13 F.A. D.S. & dropped Bombs. Killed the orderly room staff with one Bomb. Dropped another on a big tent & killed & wounded 36. Our A.A. guns brought the Taube down. The observer was killed & the Pilot came through our Hospital wounded in the Lungs. Worked in the Quarry all day loading Limbers with stone to put on the Roads. It was jolly cold & we were very glad to get back to our Tent again. After Tea wrote to Aunt Pudney & France.

Sat. 18. Gee whiz: snow on the ground when we turned out this morning. Hurt my ankle by twisting in the mud M.D. told me to take a couple of days "off duty" & spell it. The rest of the crowd are working at the Quarry again. It is raining & the roads are as muddy as ever.