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[Page 29]
This material was to be used in the offensive to assist the aeroplanes to locate the front line troops in the event of an advance so as to supply the information to the artillery to prevent them from shelling our own men. Our billet was situated on the main road in Warloy & almost every day Imperial units were marching back from the their turn in the front line & there much depleted ranks showed they had all suffered severely in the big advance. During the afternoon of the 19th July 1916 the battalion moved off marching to big fields on the western side of Albert where a halt was called orders being received for all men to get their gear ready in battle order. our packs had to be stacked by companies as we were unable to carry them in action with all the extra gear which had been issued to us. The extra gear consisted of 2 mills bombs, 100 additional rounds of ammunition, biscuits & bully beef per man besides wire cutters & several other things which were distributed among the platoons. Whilst waiting here the hustle & bustle of the big Somme offensive could be noticed for strings of horse & motor traffic were going to & from the forward area mixed in with thousands of troops their being absolutely no sign whatever of disorder. We moved off at dusk fully laden for war passing through Albert then along roads & across fields until we reached the first line of big guns in a big gully known as "Sausage Gully". When the far end of this gully was reached the "Gas Alarm" was given all the troops having to "don" their helmets which made further progress slow & awkward in the dark. After a long & tiring march through old barb wire & delapitated trenches we finally relieved the Welsh (Royal) Regiment in supports, the 1st & 2nd Battalions taking over the front line. Next morning I was detailed with a party to carry rifle ammunition & bombs from "Jackson's Dump" in "Sausage Gully" to the front line a distance of about three miles being subjected to heavy shell fire the whole of the way. These duties were to last a couple of days so orders were issued for all men on fatigue work to take their gear & camp in an old trench near the light railway dump so of course I had to move. Round where we were camped were hundreds of guns, practically wheel to wheel, of all calibre from the big howitzers to the small field pieces, who were constantly firing day & night on the German positions. At least one a day they would all join in a general bombardment the noise being terrific for being in a gully the sounds would re echo especially at night. During these fatigue duties we often had a few spare moments which I spent in having a look round the ground recently captured by the Imperial troops. In the old no man's land was an enormous mine crater at La Bassee which had been sprung by the British during the first hop over on the 1st of July 1916 & from all accounts had been very disastrous for the Huns. The were some very great sights of war engineering by the Huns especially in their original front line which was a great structure being very deep & wide the sides being well revetted. There were also numerous big dugouts about sixty feet below the surface & many of these burrows were fitted with electric light, acetaline gas, store rooms, kitchens & sleeping appartments with wire bunks & tables & chairs were very much used. Near the big mine crater in the front line was big underground hospital which had every comfort for hospital use installed & at the foot of one of the stairways could be seen the body of a dead German nurse. The remains of the German's barb wire entanglements showed that our artillery lien had practically destroyed every inch of it before the troops advanced. During Friday morning the 21st July I received orders to report back to the company another man being sent on fatigue in my place. About dusk that night our company was taken to a sunken road just in rear of the front line where each man was