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[Page 56]
17/12/16 Nothing
18/12/16 Visited front line on front of Flers in company of General Rosenthal. Flers is nothing else than a mass of ruins. We have two Batteries of 18 pdrs. In Flers. The country is undulating and bespattered with shell holes. Two tanks,(male and female) are stuck on the main road between Flers and Ligny-Thilloy and about a quarter of a mile from Flers. The Hun can see them and shell them. There are a great number of dead mules about Flers.
19/12/16 The Staff captain went on leave, and I took over his duties.
20/12/16 Again visited the line in company of the General. When we arrived on the right of Guedencourt the enemy commenced shelling with 5.9s. Some pieces of a shell flew past us and the General was hit in the right thigh. He was able to walk and insisted on going on although there was still considerable shelling and some were coming unpleasantly near.
Although we got within a hundred yards of the front line trench there were no communication trenches leading up to it . An enemy aeroplane flew not more than a hundred feet from us and directly over us. The pilot was easily distinguishable and we all stood and gazed at it in surprise. There are a great number of dead in front of Guedencourt not yet buried. The country is undulating and many good places for battery positions were found.
We returned to Bernafay Wood after a fatiguing walk of about twelve miles. The General's wound having been properly dressed we returned in an ambulance wagon. The medical officer who attended to the General's wound was the very same one who first attended to his wound on Gallipoli. The General also had the same pair of breeches on that he was wounded in then. Met General Holmes on the return journey and also Cpt Norman
Sgt Crook came to Pommiers and I met him in the C.R.Es hut and lent him one of the horses to go and find the 4 Battalilon. The General went down to an ambulance to have a piece taken out of his leg and did not return. He will be back on Friday it is expected. The General is a man of wonderful energy quite fearless and keen on his work. A little action like this serves to illustrate what kind of man he is When walking on the duckboards where there is not room to pass the General id he sees that a man has his pack on will get off the duckboards himself and let them go on in spite of mud etc and in the case in point when he had a bad leg."