Item 03: Joseph George Burgess war diary, 1 January 1916-4 February 1917 - Page 140
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[Page 140]
29 June, 1916
Etmaler
I feel real fagged this morning & it as hot as the proverbial "hobs". On Tuesday night as I turned in about 9.15 I heard the order come to the Sergeants that the Squadron was to move off in the morning at 4.15, so was some what prepared, the shock was not so great & when I got up in the morning it was to the accompanient of the growls of the other chaps who had just been acquainted with the fact that they had to bustle round & get their saddles fixed up. We went out to Katia & as usual [indecipherable] troop was advance gaurd, We halted on the hill East of Katia which was the scene of the scrap a couple of months back
My section had to go as out post on that hill & we breakfasted among the graves of the fallen Tommies From the head of one of these graves a skull was grinning at us. It was an unfortunate trip for me as Sams who went for water & took the water bags, came back minus mine - I think it was a mixture of carelessness, bad temper & crook luck with him. We left to wards evening (I was nearly forgetting a duel in the air between ours & an Enemy Areoplane, the latter imsheeing for his life) Coming back I was on Advance again & made the capture of a little wild white Pup, a shy frightened little thing she is. Last night I had to go on stable picquet, so had practically very little sleep. There are rumours about that we are going on a long stunt, starting tomorrow morning.