Item 01: Sir Charles Rosenthal diary, 25 September 1914-31 December 1918 - Page 60
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[Page 60]
Friday 1st January 1915
New Year's day – and plenty of hard work. Beautiful day. Batteries are at work on Gunlaying and battery drill. Lecture by Major Browne on the "use of Aircraft in relation to Artillery". I missed the lecture as Colonel Hobbs had asked me to dine with him at Headquarters Mess. Very nice dinner and interesting discussion on present military situation. Promotion of officers notified today, presumably as New Year gifts. Col Christian received promotion, also Capt Jopp, Callaghan and Kingsmill. Mr Jenkinson tendered his resignation.
Saturday 2nd January 1915
Digging gun pits and epaulments. Afternoon holiday. I went out on manoeuvre area with Major Hughes, Burgess, Browne and Capt Waite. Designing gun emplacements at night.
Sunday 3rd January
Easy day for all units. Church parade in the morning. Good attendance. Major Browne & Burgess completing gun emplacements. Took Benson out during the afternoon over the manoeuvre area and gave him instructions in Field sketching from a military point of view.
Monday 4th January
The whole Division moved out to manoeuvre area. Col Christian and Col Johnstone delayed us considerably. Very good ground to work over. Started on gun layers tests for 9th Battery. Very solid going for horses. Returned to camp at 3.45PM.
Discussion with Colonel Hobbs. I suggested we should leave all vehicles on the area permanently and only bring teams back. Guard to be left consisting of gun layers who will thus get more time for their very exacting work. water tank burst tonight and flooded portion of the camp. Luckily our camp is too high to be affected. Mr Jenkinson's resignation accepted.
Tuesday 5th January
Left camp at 8.30 for manoeuvre area. Difficulty about water carts. Short measure for horses. Very useful day for all ranks. Layers being tested. General Birdwood looked round my Batteries about 1.30 PM. He had General Bridges with him.