John Duesbery (Sherwood Foresters) killed on Somme, item 107

• November 1, 2018 10:09:54 Zafiro Marti

  behind the lines. The men had now said goodbye to all their packs and unnecessaries

  and were Carrying light2. Just as we were preparing to have lunch the Bosch started dropping a few pretty near us, so everyone had to scatter for the trenches, which were on every side. We came across a huge mine crater while this was going on. Everything soon settled down and we had lunch, though it rained most of the time & we had no coats.

  After lunch we had the whole afternoon to look round in; we went in all the old German trenches & found various things, which greatly interested. As dusk came on we were

  fallen in and after a very fine speech by Col Hobbs, who referred to the old prestige of the Regiment etc, we marched on again after a hearty cheer. After two hours, during which

  we had various stoppages, marching through Montauban, Trones Wood and Bernafay Wood we reached Arrow Head Copse. When we went through Montauban, one thing struck me; the only thing left unharmed was the cross with Christ on it. On reaching

  Arrow Head Copse, which lay between Ginchy & Guillemont, we were told to take up a

  line of, what were called, trenches: but they were so battered in as to be hardly recognized. Very soon after entering a familiar smell greeted my nose and, having located it, I had the two men buried: however the stench was still very bad. That night was spent

  in longing for the dawn. It was pretty cold at night now, especially as we had no coats: we had to keep moving the whole time.

  
  

  Sept 12th Arrow-Head Copse Guillemont

  When dawn arrived, we looked upon a miserable sight. On every side were bodies, both German and English; rifles, ammunition and equipment lay piled up every-where. Algy

  and I found a good sized shell hole just

  behind the trenches, where we got a waterproof sheet rigged up & where we were fairly comfortable. After a small breakfast Algy & I had a look round; we were behind the main crest, so we could go out in the open as much as we liked. We soon came across signs of the difficulty of the capture of Guillemont. We came across hundreds of bodies; wherever you walked, you came across them; in the so called trenches they were lying one on top of the other. Algy & I looked for souvenirs: but we soon gave that up as we got sick of smoking & sick of the sight. Most of that day was spent in making our habitation into a trench; while in this operation, we came across a dead body, lying deep down in the trench. The mess was neither decent, as the smell pervaded everything and the food seemed beastly. In the afternoon the Bosch put up a small artillery barrage, just in front of us and we watched two mules & an ammunition cart, trying to get clear of it. That

  evening our first officer went down to the Base with shell-shock. About 9 p.m. we got

  some welcome news. There was a small quadrilateral which the enemy was supposed to be holding onto in small numbers. He had been without food for a week & only wanted clearing out. This sounded as if we might have a nice little scrap. Two companies were to do the attack. 3C2 Coy and 3B2 Coy were chosen. We only had to move off at 2 a.m, so Algy & I tried to sleep; but there was nothing doing that night partly owing to the cold & partly to the excitement. At any rate everyone was very bucked with life.

  12/01 /2006

  
  

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