Item 01: James William Dains diary, 21 November 1916-4 June 1917 - Page 83

[Page 83]

As I have not been able to keep a daily record of events while at Alquines, I will set down a general account of our stay. The past ten days has been a time of very solid training with a march of about 3 miles every day to the parade ground. Men have been instructed in Bomb throwing. Every man threw live bombs, fired Rifle grenades & most of them Lewis guns also, besides going through a course of musketry. Then followed Battalion drill & Brigade drill in preparation for "going over the top". Each Batt. & each Coy. in the Battn. had its place allotted & the practice was very satisfactory.
A holiday was given the men on Tuesday last. It was a lovely spring day & the country looked fine, the trees bursting into bud & wild flowers peeking up by the roadside & overall an air of peace, which was quite inconsistent with the