TCD MS 10821 folio 55 recto
[August 25th 1916] [?] & NCO’s behind is certainly sound as now we have a nucleus to help to reorganise the battalion. I joined the Battalion in the afternoon when they were in the A 2 line between Delville Wood & Montauban. From all their accounts it must have been perfect hell & they had the bad luck to strike a bit of the line where the wire was unbroken & the German trench untouched by our artillery, so that the moment they leapt over the parapet they were met with Machine Gun & Rifle fire. Soon after I arrived news came that the Battalion was to be relieved at midnight & we were to go back to the old camp. We did not however get back till 5.30am as the Somersets who were relieving us lost touch & delayed the relief for a couple of hours. It was a very dark night & the ride back along the top of the ridge with guns firing around all the time & the lights going up from the German lines was very weird. I forgot to add that from 8-10pm our guns & the German guns were firing as hard as they possibly could around Guillemont. The row was absolutely deafening so much so that I became quite sleepy from the awful row. The return to camp was a very sad one, as so many faces were missing; in my own Company poor Tiny was killed, Pat Gould is missing & pro(bably)