Item 02: T. J. Cleary diary, 20 August 1917 - 23 August 1918 - Page 55

[Page 55]

Aussie away today one to Rush St. and the other to young Claire McMahon.

Wednesday 10?/4 Entrained at Castre at midday after a march in Heavy marching order. We are rather packed. 40 in a truck, we travelled via Lillers B Hazebrouck, Lillers, Bethune, Doullens, Domart, to Vignacourt arriving near midnight. We then spent about 1½ Hours floundering around in the mud everything pitch dark. A guide was provided to lead us to Billets , but he lost us & himself also. He was called every possible variety of B---- that we could think of & getting a bit nervous He finally slipped off in the darkness & left us, our N.C.Os finally landed us in a Stable & all was peace.

We are now at V Stayed at Vignacourt about one & a half days. Left there this morning in Battle Order and done a "Toot Sweet" march of 15.4 Kilos before 12 noon we were then taken on some Lorries to Querrieu, Had some Bully & Biscuits then I was set on (with others) building a Cook house. The first salute we got was two Bombs from a Fritz plane. I finished the day very tired & footsore. There are persistent tales of Tommies evacuating positions. One Transport officer said that they threw away their Rifles & Equipment and got when Fritz was fully 9 Kilos away. I can hardly believe it. It is also rumored that he has broken gained some ground at La Bassee. By Gee there are