Walter Draycott’s Great War Chronicle
North Vancouver Museum & Archives
German aeroplanes fly over our camp. Antiaircraft guns dot the sky with shrapnel but they escape.
I make application for commission in tunnelling company along with others.
Am turned down, though they asked us!
“British anti-aircraft gunners firing at a German aircraft.” Credit: W.I. Castle / Canada. Dept. of National Defence / Library and Archives Canada / PA-000836 Via http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/pam_archives/index.php?fuseaction=genitem.displayItem&lang=eng&rec_nbr=3194240
At Busseboom near Poperinghe & quartered in hut. Fearful cold night as no door to hut and large cracks in floor. Very dirty.
Vivid memories of the Ypres Salient still haunt me. What a hell! Believe me.
I write letters to Betty, Harry always and Bro’ Charles in France.
A report to hand says on our right two lines of enemy trenches have been taken by Northumberland Fusiliers at St Eloi + Royal Fusiliers.
I went way down the communications trench to Zillebeke. A most horrid storm arises, the wind howls thro’ the much battered woods (Sanctuary Wood) accompanied by snow, hail, sleet & rain. The night was tempestuous & the elements vied with cannon to make the loudest frightfulness. Hideous in the extreme. I lose my steel helmet so have to trek 5 miles without it, snow & hail mix with my hair, frightfully cold. I fall into many mud holes, shell holes and disused trenches. Am covered from head to feet with mud of all colours & reeking with the stench.
We pass through Zillebeke after taking 3 hours to travel a mile. The 43rd were in the Common trench with full pack on same as us. Difficult to pass each other. Rotten bad management. Passed along Menin road and thro’ Ypres at 3 am & took train outside.
*Brodie Helmet – Also called Steel or Mark I Helmet was the first steel helmet worn by British, Canadian and American troops during the First World War. The use of artillery shells resulted in increased head wounds and made steel helmets a necessity. Their bowl shape with wide brim allowed for protection from Artillery bursting from above the trenches. The Brodie Helmet was used by Canadian forces into the beginning of the Second World War when it was replaced with a modified version.
Rain ceased but not the artillery which still roars. I go sniping in morning & bag 2. Fire 150 shots. They fired in return & nearly get me but Dame Fortune favours me once more.
Artillery duel on our right. A German sniper manages to put a bullet through Corporal Bramley-Moore’s head. He is still lingering between life & death at 7:30 PM. His face is a horrible sight to gaze on & covered in blood.
The 43rd Regt. relieves us. I act as guide to the 4th CMR. 43rd Regt. & stood on “point duty” at “Charing Cross.” The enemy search the woods with machine guns & I am forced to lay down on leaves at 10:30 PM. (one [or, four?] of officers of 43rd extremely drunk)
Absolutely the most wicked weather last night boys outside all night. Rain snow sleet & driving wind. Hard pounding rifle grenades & trench mortar bombs are sent over in profusion. Hell opens again at 4:30 am by our artillery at Hill 60. A most hideous & frightful roar & noise. A rifle shot can scarce be heard. Aeroplanes very active. Fly low. Our feet are wet and life almost unbearable.
As I am standing outside the dugout a shrapnel bullet passes my neck and buries itself deep into the sandbag. Again I miss death by a rifle grenade. 3 burst simultaneously near dugout in fire trench. All night there is a horrible hell & din going on.
It rains all night and the misery – pitiful as we stand out in it all through the night.
*Hill 60 – A heap of soil just south of Ypres in Flanders made from soil removed from a cutting for the Ypres-Comines railway. The hill was a strategic observation point overlooking Ypres and Zillebeke making it a valuable target and thus the area of multiple battles throughout the duration of the war.
“Hill 60, 1915” by E Wyrall – Wyrall, E. (1921) The History of the Second Division, 1914–1918 Vol I (N & M Press 2002 ed.), London: Thomas Nelson and Sons Retrieved on 13 November 2013. ISBN: 1-84342-207-7. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hill_60,_1915.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Hill_60,_1915.jpg
Very few dugouts in front line trenches so some of us have to stay out in rain all night. As I leave a bag where my equipment is, a shell comes along and kills one and the other poor fellow has his head badly shattered… his brains cover his face. Raining hard all day. Pvt Dietz & Pvt Basset are dead.
Dietz lays in pool of blood with right arm blown completely off by 88 mm (whiz bang). My equipment a tangled mess and my bayonet twisted. A most frightful bombardment goes on all afternoon. The 2nd C.M.R. mainly wiped out. Awful Hell. Men running everywhere to escape. A most unmerciful artillery fire. The ground shakes like quagmire at night a hellish din by bombs of all sorts.
Hard frost during night which added to the discomfort of the troops.
In afternoon the Germans shell our trench most unmercifully. Hell let loose. Hundreds of casualties. Dugouts blown up in the air, trees smashed down. Shells, trench mortar bombs, aerial torpedoes & other missiles employed.
We go up to bird cage trenches. Raining & troops miserable. The bursting of trench mortar bombs and grenades make vivid flashes and a deafening noise.
Boys have wet feet. Pvt Forster killed.
Wounded – Pvt Smith, Mason & ..
“Zillebeke Village [view of the ruins]” Public domain via Vancouver Archives http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/zillebeke-village-view-of-ruins
A cold wet miserable day.
Severe shelling by both sides accompanied with trench mortars & rifle grenades make the whole scene a perfect hell.
The snow comes down in small flakes but does not stick.
Eleven of the 42nd rifle suffer, six C.M.R.’s.
I got to headquarters & brigade Hqs & go through Zillebeke also pass by Zillebeke lake. A mile long shells are bursting all around. Am saved nasty head wound by wearing steel helmet.
*Rifle Grenade – Grenades that could be fired from a rifle thus increasing their effective range. During World War One, specialized grenades were attached to rods that had to be inserted into the barrel of a rifle. A blank cartridge was fired to propel the grenade towards the enemy.
Up at 7 am. Rum issue at 7:30 am. Am on trench police duty, bullets flying everywhere. One of the C.M.R.’s pass me on stretcher – shot through lung by sniper – small chance of recovery.
‘Tis raining again, a most miserable day with a good depth of filthy mud. Our dugouts have been well battered by shells all morning until 3 PM. The Huns rain shells in on us.
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