Item 01: William Daniel Hardy diary, 9 October 1915-31 December 1916 - Page 109

[Page 109]

28 Monday
Raining a bit during the day. The guns are going off day & night, it is a ceaseless slaughter campaign. The sights are awful too awful to write about. Fritz put a few shell close to our dug out, he also put a couple just behind it & it is only by a miracle that they didn't go off, if even one had have about 12 of us would have certainly been blown to smithereens. We were relieved in the afternoon & went back to Hqrs. After tea we were under exceedingly heavy shell shrapnel, & machine gun fire it makes a fellow think I can tell you. We had a few casualties around Hqrs, also a couple killed. We had to carry to casualty corner.

29 Tuesday
Fritz is still putting a few shells over our dug out, he has apparently got the range of some of the places, as he keeps knocking them about. Had one carry to Casualty Corner. Went up to Dressing station on right about 1 pm. It is a much quieter place than Poziers, although during the evening Fritz put a good few high explosive & shrapnel shells all round us, Had only one carry down to Headquarters. As it seemed fairly safe here we get up & carry along the parapet. The Sap here is also pretty muddy. A very nice day.

30 Wednesday
Very quiet during the morning. The troops here seem to be just standing by as there are very few casualties. Went into the field Souvenir hunting in the morning got nothing worth having though I saw a good few dead bodies of both ours, Tommies & Fritzs while out apparently the shells had routed them out from where they were buried. Went back to Headquarters about 1 pm had asleep during the night for the first time. I can honestly say there is the fraction of an inch of land that hasn't been blown up here, through ceaseless bombardments there are shell holes everywhere.