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[Page 21]
we were going down a very steep hill I said to Mc I wish I would slip and break my leg and the Btn Doctor heard me and he said I wont send you away if you do. At last we arrived at a village which I dont know the name of it and dont want to know it for it was the worst place the Btn had been in. We stayed there till the 23/10/16 when we had to march about a mile and then we got into French Motor Transports and we passed through Wallen, Frixcourt [Fricourt], Ameins [Amiens] and a lot of small villages.
We rode about 27 Killos. And after we got out of the cars we marched about 2 ½ miles to Fricourt were we stayed for the night under very cold conditions. On the 24/10/16 we marched to Marmetze [Mametz] wood about 4 miles and we stayed there in mud and water till the 29/10/16 when we went to the reserve trenchs at Flers where we had a very rough time till we left that front on the 30/10/16 we started ourselves a bit comfortable and as we got them fixed up a bit it started to rain and the trench fell in and we were wandering about like lost sheep. On the 31/10/16 we was ordered to the front line to relieve the 3rd Btn. As rough as it was I nearly died laughing one of the boys got boged and there was 3 of us trying to pull him out and when we did get him out he had left his boot in the mud. And on the night of the 1/11/16 we went back to the support trenchs where we stayed till the night of 4/11/16 when we got what we had been expecting ever since we left Eprey. Battle order with 48 rations 250 rounds of amunition 2 sand bags and 2 bombs. And we started off at 8 P.M. and we got to the line in about 1 ½ hours and we got out into nomans land and had to lay there till 12.30 a.m. On the 5/11/16 and while we were waiting there I never seen rain fall like it did there that night. And when the order came to charge the men was simply frozen. And the enemy was putting shells over and sent his S.O.S. Signals up. The waiting for the time is always the worst in these jobs at last it came and away we went some fell back in our trench. Both wounded and dead. Some got over to the Hun trench and there was a machine gun spitting bullets about 5 yards apart and bombs comeing at us from all quarters. And barbed wire 6 feet High and 12 feet wide. So we had to do a retreat then we had about ½ hours spell and over we went again but with the same as the first time. And Captain Howell-Price said the men are cowards and he wanted to take what was left over again but the other officers said it was impossible to take the trench. So we had to give it up as a bad job so I and some more went stretcher bearing. And as I came in with one chap I heard a chap say is that you Harry. It was Billy Hayes laying in the trench with his leg broke. Arthur Sands had bound his leg up with a rifle for a splint. I beleive the casualy list for the Btn was 170 and some was not found until January and 2 or 3 was never found. I was sent right out to the 3 F ambulence with Cpl Cook and as I was comeing back through Fromes wood I saw the 17.18.19. and 20th Btn go over in front of the village of Flers under a smoke barrage and I beleive they gained there ojective. And I found my Btn back in the reserve trench so we had a bit of a rest there all day and the night of the 5/11/16 and. An the 6/11/16 we was releived by the 11 Btn so we marched to a rest camp where we stayed that night and on the 7/11/16 we had to leave here and