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[Page 41]
inflicting several casualties among the ration party I was with. Three of us spent the remaining hours until daylight in an old piece of trench but although we escaped injury the night was spent without any signs of rest for the enemys barrage kept up without a stop, the shells falling all round us the whole time. On two occasions the parapet of the trench we were occupying was blown in on top of us & each time I was completely buried having to be dug out by the two chaps who were with me. When daylight began to set in the huns artillery quietened down considerably so we made our way back to the 1st Battalion headquarters with a considerable amount of difficulty. From here I received my bearing then set off on my own for our battalion headquarters where I delivered my message of the night previous then reported back to my company. On meeting my mates I learned that they had had a pretty rough night, but were not trouble by our artillery but Fritz had paid them great attention the Major being wounded by a piece of shell which necessitated in him being sent to hospital. The remainder of that day the 19th was spent very quietly but during the afternoon orders were received to pack up the gear we had for we were to be relieved. It had rained on & off the whole time we had occupied this position which made things very uncomfortable for owing to the conditions the boys were unable to carry either overcoat of waterproof sheet which meant they were wet through & through having to remain in their wet clothes. The long looked for relief arrived during the later part of the afternoon the incoming battalion being the 10th Bn belonging to the 3rd Brigade who had been in reserves to our brigade during our stay in the front line. On being relieved our company was taken to a small support trench just in rear of the front line where we had to remain until dark. While in this support trench fritz opened out with his artillery again but although some of the shells fell very
[Image shows a hand drawn map outlining the trench systems and No Man's Land in the vicinity of Pozieres Village and Moquet Farm in August 1916]