Awakened suddenly at 1:30 AM by a gas alarm a terrific bombardment is going on at this hour & continues until 6 AM. We stand to. Extent of bombardment 8 miles scores of aeroplanes fight.
Leave Ouderdom for trenches arr. railway dugouts (Bn & Bd HQrt) at 5:30 PM. Heavy shelling along my line of the route. Go to Zillebeke & to Maple Copse to give our intelligence officers some blueprints which I have sketched. The enemy rake Maple Copse with machine gun fire. Very close & uncomfortable. I stay the night @ Zillebeke with L/C Rowley & Pte. Mackenzie. Many shells are sent into Zillebeke.
Archives for April 2016
Saturday 29 April 1916 – hot
H.M.S. Russell sunk by mines in Mediterranean sea. 702 saved, 124 missing. Flagship of Admiral Fremantle.
Battn moves into brigade reserve no 4 Co leading at 6:55 PM.
*H.M.S. Russell – A Duncan class Royal Navy battleship launched in 1902. At the beginning of WWI the H.M.S. Russell patrolled the English Channel and covered BEF troop transports to France as well as bombarding German submarine bases off the coast of Belgium. The ship also took part in the Dardanelles Campaign at the Gallipoli Peninsula but was sunk shortly after the campaign after striking two sea mines that had been placed by a German U-boat a few days earlier.
Friday 28 April 1916 – hot
An Irish Rebellion in Dublin.
Sir Roger Casement from Germany is captured aboard an auxiliary cruiser (German) and taken prisoner to England, the cruiser was sunk outside Dublin Harbour.
Irish Rebels hold as a Fort – Jacobs biscuit factory & have entrenched in St Stephen’s Green.
*Easter Rising – The Easter Rising was an armed insurrection by Irish republicans during Easter week of 1916. The rising began on April 24th 1916; it was an attempt by the Irish Republican Brotherhood to secede from the UK and establish an independent Irish Republic. Key locations in Dublin as well as other parts of Ireland were taken by the rebels but the uprising only lasted until April 29th when it was quickly suppressed by the British army.
Thursday 27 April 1916
Busy sketching all day to have blueprint made of the fighting area. Col Buller (HC) [Herbert Cecil] & Major H. Gault highly praise my work.
RCR’s lose 10 killed & many wounded thro’ bombs from aeroplane April 24th.
Wednesday 26 April 1916 – splendid day
At work on map sketching in doctor’s apartment & afterwards in officer’s mess.
Pte. Leyman of Fort William comes over from the 8th Battn to see me.
Many bombs are dropped on Poperinghe.
A gas attack on front line.
Tuesday 25 April 1916 – very warm
A party of snipers & machine gun men of ours fire at 5 enemy aeroplanes which come over our camp at 4 am.
Sergt. Forbes of machine gun section gets commission in PPs.
Pte. Elliott is killed & Pte. Wilson, Wilson & Sykes are wounded by shell when at Zillebeke Lake on trench work.
Monday 24 April 1916
Early morning 5 bombs dropped by enemy airmen 2 burst over RCR’s camp killing 4, wounding 11.
Our dispatch rider Pte. Stewart meets with bad accident crashes into automobile when cycling smashes base of skull.
Sunday 23 April 1916
Score of aeroplane fights.
The 60th Battn. lost 150 casualties in four days.
Church voluntary at YMCA.
Saturday 22 April 1916 – rain
It rains all day most unmercifully absolute wretchedness prevails. Colonel Buller lines up the troops & praises them for good work done at Hooge & Ypres Salient expect Huns to break thru at St Eloi.
Friday 21 April 1916 – rain
A day of rest but ‘tis raining hard.
A fierce bombardment rages all night as it rains dreadfully.
Our losses at Hooge are 56 (casualties) 17 killed, 39 wounded (7 old Pats).
*Hooge, Belgium – Is the site of a Chateau that was used as Divisional Headquarters for the Allies at the beginning of WWI. The village changed hands multiple times during the war and was also the site of a huge crater from the detonation of a British mine. Craters were tactically important on flat battlegrounds as they provided cover for troops.
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