Item 02: Charles Monaghan diary, 1917 - Page 110
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[Page 110]
1917 Sunday 22 April
Sunday no. 2 beyond Bapaume.
Duties per usual. The camp is wearing quite an imposing appearance. D.D.M.S. Col. Manifold. visited today & expressed great delight at the improvments effected.
All day long there continued great aerial activity Fritz was across frequently at midday. a Taube swooped down out of the clouds on to one of our balloons close by. missed it had a go at another missed it, shot away & encountered 3 of our planes. Anti aircraft fire nearly caught our own planes & forced them down. Fritz whipped back to the last balloon & dropped an incendiary bomb. on it. In a few minutes it went up in smoke & Fritz soared off home. A brilliant feat of his & worthy of admiration.
Service at Y.M.C.A. at 6.30 p m. in hay-loft novel. end open to the sky where still blew it out half the roof with it. Tiny organ & hearty singing Big guns a few hundred yards away belching out shell & smoke. Fritz lobbing return rations at top end of village. Truly a service under novel conditions