grass-vines. We quietly loaded our guns. Walter was next to me. I whispered to him, want a drink? He accepted. I got my metal spirit canister out. It was topped up. I gave it him first, he had a mouthful. I had two. We all opened fire at the opposition. After a minute of gunning down they were all down. None moving. We re-loaded, got up and walked into their territory. Our mission was complete – search and destroy any opposition. We collected some of their machine guns and ammunition and headed back to camp. That night we had a swift 5 hours sleep.
Private George Ferguson.
Day 17, 29th June 1916.
It was a freezing morning with the blustery wind biting at my face and ears. We woke at 4. We devoured our bakes beans on toast hastily. The day began with a rough start. We were all together and Sergeant was briefing us on the day ahead.
We were to venture into their territory. We packed everything. Our only possessions we have. We had our huge backpacks and big long tent bags in our arms and an enormous mighty rifle that is loaded and safety lock on. We set off on our adventurous trek into the back of beyond. Two hours had passed, two solid hours of jogging through pools of deep dirty mud and across acres of vast open fields. We all stopped for a rest. I got out my smoking pipe and tobacco.
Sergeant gave us a prep-talk. He said we were half way there. Still another 2 hours to go yet. But we couldn’t wait to reach our soon to be camp. We set off once we all had a drink out of our water canisters and had a short smoke. Walter said after all this has blown over he’ll buy me a pint. Walter was always at the side of me. He was for the next 2 hours.
We had reached our destination, after the totally enduring journey. We all set up our tents. Swapped tent mates so we’d be tent mates. Just gone 6 and time for supper. Rice – high in carbohydrates that would give us the amount of energy we needed. I was on camp watch from 22:00 until 1:00 in the morning. So I only had a short 3 hours sleep.
Private George Ferguson.
Day 18, 30th June 1916.
We were all awake at 4:00 again. It was like walking round with a bunch of zombies. Although Walter looked fresh as a daisy.
We had porridge for breakfast, lumpy horrible porridge. After that we had a wash and brush up. Sergeant rounded us up. He told us we are to go further into their territory. So we packed all the tents away and everything else. We set off. Sergeant told us we would have a long day ahead of us. He said we are going to be walking for 5 hours. He also said we shouldn’t use up all our energy in the first half an hour, like the others do. This time there were more different settings. We travelled across vast open fields and up hills and down valleys. Although we passed through a number of deep dark forests.
We stopped for a rest after 2 and a half hours – half way. We stopped on the peak of a hill. No one around for miles. We all hated the journeys. We would all like to be in battle now. We set off again another 2 and a half hours to go. Sergeant said we would only have a day or two left travelling.
We came to the edge of an everlasting dark forest. Sergeant told us to tread carefully and keep an eye out for anything moving. We held our guns at the ready, not knowing what to expect. We slowly pondered into the forest. It all went totally dark. There were lots of big oak trees and birch trees blocking out the sun. All we had for light was the small strips of light gleaming through the gaps in the gapping trees. I could feel the damp in the air. I could hear the whistling breeze flowing through the conifer trees. Owls were hooting as we went deeper into the forest. The damp soft leaves were sticking to our mud covered boots. Some of us were nervously tapping our guns as we were walking further. I tried to keep complacent, but it was hard. There were soggy slippery twigs beneath us as we walked.
Sergeant stopped suddenly. He continued to walk. All of a sudden there was an almighty crash and sergeant went flying down a hole. I knew for certain it was a trap. We all jumped forward to see if he was ok. It looked as if he was badly injured. We stared down, the hole was about 10-12 feet deep. He was holding his leg groaning. We had to think quickly. George took off his bag and got out a long stretch of rope. He flung it down and sergeant grabbed it as tight as possible. George and two others: Tim and Clyde hoisted him up. I cud see his lower leg bone had snapped. Tim who carried the medic kit started to rub some cream on and bandage it up. He held it on tightly. Tim and Clyde helped Sergeant up but he couldn’t stand. So Tim and Clyde had to carry him. Sergeant told us were to go and we set on hastily ahead of Tim, Clyde and Sergeant. My body was full of adrenaline. We were told to go quarter of a mile at 83˚ east.
Later we got to a clearing in the forest. It was tremendously bright as the sun was gleaming down through the clearing. We decided this was where we were meant to be so we sat down and had a cup of tea from a flask. But I added a bit of my whiskey from my sprit canister. We also had a smoke each from Fred’s collection of cigars.
About half an hour later Sergeant, Tim and Clyde cam through the trees and sat down. They sat down for about 1 minute when sergeant told us we have to put our tents up now. It was dark early that night. I was on camp watch until 12. Then I went to bed and I had 5 and a half hours sleep.