“We go up in two parties; one goes up at 7 A.M. and digs from 8.30 to 12.30; the other goes up at 11 and digs from 12.30 to 4.30. It is not very interesting work, but it is better to be up here than back with the Regiment. There is only one man to about eight horses, and the result is that every one is working all day getting the horses exercised, fed, and rubbed over.
“We are up here for a week, we came up last Saturday and go away next Saturday; as usual, we travel in motor-buses. On a fine day, after a little rain to lay the dust, this is rather a pleasant way of travelling....
“The Colonel (Symons) has just been ordered to the W.O. I suppose he is wanted for the Staff. If he is taken from the Regiment, I don’t know who will get command.”
The writer was wounded two days later. “It was rather a rotten way of getting hit, standing in a great deep trench, thinking I was quite safe, when suddenly we heard whe—bang, and I found my foot had gone numb. I said, ‘Anybody hit?’ and all the men said ‘No,’ so I told them I was.” Lieutenant Watson Smyth goes on to describe his various moves until he reached some days later the British Red Cross Hospital at Rouen. “I had quite a good night, and woke up just before arriving here at 6 A.M.... I showed the doctor a label tied to my pyjamas, giving details of what was wrong. He told the bearer which ward to take me to, and off I went.... At 9 A.M. I was carted off to the X-ray room, and my foot and back were each taken from two positions....
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D SQUADRON BILLETS, OCHTEZEELE MAY 1915 |
QUARTERS OF D SQUADRON AT WITTERNESSE 6TH TO 19TH MAY 1915 |
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QUARTERS OF B SQUADRON, OCHTEZEELE MAY 1915 |
THE CHATEAU—QUARTERS OF A SQUADRON AT WITTERNESSE. JUNE 1915 |
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“RAGS” AND “STILTS,” OCHTEZEELE 3RD MAY 1915 |
ON LINGHAM RIFLE RANGE JUNE 1915 |
“In the operation they got about sixty pieces out of my foot, and a few work themselves out every dressing-day.”
Not a word of complaint.
August 2.—“The Regiment’s total casualties for the three weeks it was digging were four killed, two died of wounds, eight wounded. No other officers were hit, but one was buried one day, and badly shaken in consequence....
August 3 and 4.—“I had a visitor to-day, a Miss Holt, who is working at Lady Mabelle Egerton’s canteen at Rouen. She was very nice and cheery and did me a lot of good. They had one hour’s notice a few days ago that 3000 men and 40 officers would want breakfast at 3 A.M. There were only three of them on duty that night, but they managed it all right. That shows that the canteen is useful, and the workers work, I think....
“Dr Augier is exceedingly pleased at the appearance of my foot, ... but says that I must resign myself to not using it for three months.”