TCD MS 10822 folio 29 recto
[Aug 5th 1917] had a C.O.’s conference in the afternoon and are due to move the following day.
Aug 6th. Started off at 8 a. m. It was luckily a cool and cloudy morning and it was not till the end of our 10 ½ mile march that it got hot. No one fell out till the last few hundred yards. Our billets are very scattered in farm houses all over the country and it would take a couple of hours to walk all round them. We had a fight with the Shropshires over one good billet, but Lacey’s persuasive argument prevailed with the Brigade and though it was really theirs we got it.
Aug 7th. A quiet day. Practised with Yukon packs in the morning, very useful. A good outdoor Concert in the evening.
Aug 9th. We are still in the same place. G.H.Q. are evidently anxious not to put us into the line but to keep us for a big attack as we are fresh troops and have had a good rest. During the night the Railway yards were bombed, some of them fell quite close to us and broke some windows, but very little damage was done. Hazebrouck was bombed at the same time and shelled by a 17 inch Naval gun – a colossal thing. Each shot demolishes three or four houses. It was a sad sight to see all the women and children fleeing from the town in every direction some with only a few clothes on and looking terrified. I was disgusted to see men from the Army Ordnance Corps flying too along the roads. They are all embusques and I hope will get often shelled. The men told them what they thought of them and so did the Brigadier. I was quite ashamed of them.
Aug 15th. The weather continues very bad constant heavy thunderstorms and the condition of the country side is very wet. We remained at our last billets till this morning. The last night was very sleepless as most extraordinary orders kept coming in all through the night. However we got off in time at 7.20 a. m. and marched to Borre where the whole Brigade embussed. We were a fine convoy of 177 busses, which brought us quickly up to Poperinge where we got out in very heavy rain and then marched some 6 kils to our new camps near ?Outerdon. It being my birthday we had an extra good dinner