Branch in front of dugout connected with mines.
Spade wired to mine.
Pictures, vases, helmets, fountain pens, books on tables, nails in
wall, loose boards in floor, things on verge of falling, and piano
connected with wires; clocks connected with mines, bells connected with
mines timed to go off by a rod in acid.
Mining of churches and other buildings which have not been touched.
This was pulled off at Bapaume where sacristy was left untouched.
When French Mission collected vestments, bombs had been connected and
exploded, killing eleven.
Bombs up chimney with fire all ready to light.
Slip trench with false bottom letting men through on spikes.
Church furniture used to make crosses for German men.
Poisoning wells and roots of young trees. Some trees left sawn halfway
in.
Poisoned wine bottles, one out of several poisoned.
Left perfect latrines. First time chain pulled, exploded.
Tank traps, making hole before the tank. The crater is also mined.
Party of Boche went around with English motor-car inspecting dumps.
Spoke English perfectly. Few days later dumps blown up. Boche also use
English aeroplanes.
Not safe to walk over grass or earthy grass as bombs are strewn
everywhere.
Bombs in potato-mashers.
Boche military police on duty for five weeks in English front.
Smoke bombs to blind tanks. Barrage of gas shells before our batteries,
so gunners have to work twelve to fifteen hours in gas-masks.
Town hall at Bapaume blown up three days after occupation by British
troops, due to acid bombs.
Umbrella left in stand attached to a mine.
Gas clouds sent every ten yards apart in bunches of three (three each
ten yards).
German deserter's family at home deprived of rations and separation
allowance.
Boche found carrying machine-guns on stretchers to lines.
_October 4th._ The above facts were given by the Padre last night from
notes he had made. He has been in the thick of the fighting and has
gone right along with his men all the time.
Yesterday morning rode around with Lawson (Quartermaster) visiting the
Ordnance and Army Service Corps (Captain Bateson) dumps. Then to the
water head where the water is supplied to this section. Lunch, and
after that the Padre, McWilliams and I started out in the ambulance
for Vaux--a mass of wreckage. The Padre took us in a garden of a
once-château. The grounds were overgrown with weeds, but flowers still
struggled out of their old beds. The château was a pile of bricks,
beautiful trees were half cut through and left to die. Nothing but two
gateposts and a small segment of the outbuildings were left standing.
Such wanton destruction is simply appalling to see. About one hundred
and fifty shells were dropped on Vaux last night and from the edge of
the town one is fairly in sight of the German lines. The Padre lived in
the garden during the bombardment, and we saw the dugout that he and
his servant had built.
From there we walked down the Mareuil Road, no vehicle or horses are
allowed to show themselves on the northern end of the town beyond the
cross-road, as the Mareuil Road is in clear view of the enemy. Gun
batteries were placed every here and there, carefully camouflaged, as
is everything. Two dummy guns stuck out in one place. The gunners live
along the roadside in small shelters with sandbag roofs. In the hollow
were two six-inch guns, which were firing a salvo of one hundred rounds
each at a section of Boche trench which was pushed too near to ours.
The target was 7,500 yards away over the crest of a hill. They fired
at intervals of about two minutes, first one and then the other. The
crash was tremendous. After watching them working for a while till my
ears rang, returned to Vaux and then took the ambulance to the A. D.
S. on Mareuil sector. This was well fitted up. In the past twenty-four
hours under cover of the haze they had run a narrow-gauge track up to
it.
Back at five p. m. for tea and then to the Bow Bells. This is a
Divisional theatrical troupe, or, as it is officially known, a
Divisional Concert Party, of 56th Division. It was wonderfully
dramatic, as it was held in a partially demolished barn. They gave
a capital show. Good voices. Two of the men were superb in their
impersonation of women's parts. The show begins at six p. m. and was
simply crowded. Tickets have to be booked up days in advance. We groped
our way home as no searchlights can be shown on cars and had dinner at
a little after eight. On the way back Very lights were constantly going
up from the lines. Think of a first-class performance in a battered
village, three miles away from a world war, and you can in fact surmise
some of the sensations one has in watching it in a battered barn filled
with nearly a thousand men and officers. And they appreciated it like
children.
In the evening Padre, Mackenzie and Lawson told stories until one
thirty a. m. A bully day--