Diary of Alexander Sutherland Mackay, 5 March 1918 - 7 September 1918 - Part 4

15^th July 1918 Shifted today to a new posie

near [[?]]. We did not leave until late

other had a 2½ hours march footing it

all the way without stopping through

Corbie & a couple of Villagers. Dogged tired

when we got here,

16/17/18/19^th July This is a great posie

so far, we are just at the back of a 

village, which Fritz shells fairly consistently.

We are fairly close to his front line, Fritz

is on a ridge in front & has direct

observation on to one part of our posie.

We therefore have to be particularly careful

of a daytime on this part & stick religiously

to trenches when walking about. We

are across the Somme & there is only one 

road out. If he made a push, we

would have to see it out or leave the 

guns & do a get over the hills. However
our boys are in front, so that means
Fritz has to scrap his hardest to do
any good. We can see our own shells
bursting on his front line from where
our dugout is, a sight I've never seen before.
Its seldom a Battery can do that.
Since coming here we saw our planes
bring down one of his Balloons & also
send one of his Ammunition Dumps
sky high. If the guns get busy of a
night, the front line of Fritz is simply
a dancing line of rockets. Another
Godsend to this place is that you can
get a swim daily. Flies however are
solid - big March flies we would call them,
they give us & the horses hell at times.
You see some fine old country buildings
here but they, like the villages are
mostly ruins now. Every posie near
 

a village nowadays means chairs, tables
crockery around the camp. The villages are
all deserted so naturally the troops take
anything serviceable.  Fritz has made

another push but evidently came another

cropper.  We hear the French have started

bogging in, on the flank of his push, at

"Soissons" & so far have collared 100 Guns

& 20,000 prisoners.  Good old Froggies, they're

fighting like trojans.  Fritz must have

a nasty taste in his ugly mug. General

Foch evidently has him wet, I'd like

to see a general offensive now by the

Allies. From all accounts the Huns are

now dubious about Victory, so a good

whack, all along would best put the cap

on their fears.

20/21/22/24th July    Very quiet days, raining off & on.

Practically no shelling on our position.  His

 

planes were over bombing one night, but

dodged our posie.  Yesterday Fritz came

over & brought down one of our Balloons in

flames.  He made a dive at two missed

the first but made no bloomer about the

second.  I think the Aeronauts got out safely

we saw them all jump & their parachutes

open.  It severe served our crowd right, they

had plenty of warning that Fritz was,

near but made no effort to haul in

the Balloons until too late.  Two of

our guns are going forward, I suppose

the remainder will follow shortly.  The

Allies are still xxx giving him a hiding

all along & we hear he is burning his

own dumps & stores, apparently with the

new of a sudden retirement on his part

being necessary.

 

25/31st July.   Glorious days with

practically no shelling. Two of our

guns have shifted forward, I think

the other 4 will remain here.  The

French & Yanks are still going strong

about Rheims & have Fritz retreating.

His planes are rarely seen here

of a day.  Taking it all round, this

is one of the best posies we've been

in.

1/8/18   Fritz gave us rather a mus

murky night last night, in addition

to getting shelling our position he

came over after midnight bombing.

Luckily only one casualty occured

here, a fellow name Darmody

getting a shrapnel pellet through the

leg.  We missed his xx bombs at

the guns, but one egg at the

 

Wagon Lines accounted for 49

horses, 29 being killed, the balance

(20) being wounded.  Not a man there

was touched.  The loss of horses

is rather solid but its much better

than losing men.  Our Wagon Lines

are about 10 kilos back.  Evidently

Fritz was after the road close by,

from all accounts he is very nervous

as to our intentions.  There is no doubt

they have him seriously thinking now.

This afternoon two of Fritz's planes wasting

their opportunity, sneaked across & brought

down four Balloons that were observing

at the back of our position.  He caught

our fellows napping beautifully.  It was

a sight to see the four balloons all falling

in flames at the same time, with the men

dropping in parachutes below.  There are

 

generally two men in each Balloon, but

we could only count 7 men jump in

parachutes, the other [?] may have been

hit.  Out Antiaircraft guns & machine

gunners seemed to be asleep they only

started firing after Fritz got well

going on that homeward journey.  I was

coming down a trench & one of the planes

flew very low.  I thought he intended 

to use his machine gun on us, so

flopped flat in the trench.  However his

only worry apparently was to get back

home, this they both did eventually.

2/8/18   Fritz was over & dropped a few

small eggs last night, but I fancy

low planes were too busy for him.

You could hear our machines buzzing

& machine guns firing constantly during

the night.  He confined his shelling

 

the Tommies anytime.  It certainly looks

as if Fritz is expecting our push, however

he won't be long in suspense, three guns

left last night, the others go tonight.  I

suppose the scrap will open tomorrow 

morning.  Last night his planes dropped

high lights before bombing making the

place like day.  However so far we

have heard of no casualties.

8/3/18   Well we are on the Warpath

at last.  Pulled in last night & opened

up at 4.30 this morning.  Sill Still

hammer & tongs at it, Fritz must

have got hell, he put no shells over

in retaliation.  I saw about 160 prisoners

go back a while ago.  Here comes another

big batch, we are going to make an

extensive advance this time & leave at

8am to pull in where the Infantry were

 

 

at daybreak.  I never saw such a sight

before, the concentration of guns is not

so great as at Passchendaele, but to

see the strings of fast tanks going

up & cavalry, in addition to huge

numbers of aeroplanes, one feels quite

excited.  It was very foggy this morning

so we did not see the usual fireworks

display, when a stunt opens, from Fritz.

We will probably make two forward

moves today.  I was surprised at the

Fritz prisoners we have seen so far this

morning.  They are a fine body of men

With the exception of a few sullen

faces they all looked as happy as you

like, pleased to be prisoners. Later we went

forward about 8am, but were hung up

a good deal on the road, & had to run the

gauntlet on one piece, we had

direct observe observation on.

According to plans, the Tommie should

have driven him from the ridge

overlooking this road but were

unable to do so until late in the

afternoon.  Consequently Fritz had

good targets for the few guns he

had remaining there.  However we

rushed through & got to cover

with one horse wounded.  The 29th

had about 3 horses killed.  The

stunt on our sector was entirely 

successful.  Our Cavalry with

the assistance of a Tank which

charged the engine captured 1000

reinforcements going up by train

In another village a Fritz staff

just escaped capture, our men were

 

delayed about 5 minutes settling a machine

gun in a xxx house when motor cars

rushed up & saved the staff.  I saw one of

our [bets?] this morning wearing a xx Fritz

General's Helmet I think it was.   Revolvers

Coins Watches were very common, they

evidently took Fritz completely by surprise.

Had Tommies been out of it & Canadians in

New Zealanders on the left, our fellows

could have gone on indefinitely.  Hardly

a casualty on our side.

9/8/18   We suddenly got word this morning 

to pull out & go into mobile reserve.

That means, if required we can be

rushed away anywhere.  We have only

just arrived down & are now digging in

for tonight or at least some are.  I'm

too flaming tired so a covering on the

Bank will do me.  One fellow got his

 

leg broken on the road down, the

lumber went down into a shell hole

& threw his leg in the wheel.

10/8/18   Had a good sleep last night, but

it was too good to last.  We have just

got word to go in again this afternoon.

Fritz was over bombing last night but

did no good.

11/8/18     Left last night but did not

get to our arranged position.  He

was shelling the road as we came along

so the guns had to do a get at

top speed.  We eventually pulled in

to a wood & put in a rotten time

night.  His planes were bombing all night

long whilst we were lying down in

little trenches or holes about two feet deep

It was frightfully cold.  One bomb

 

knocked 9 horse rotten about 100 yds

away killed one fellow & wounded three.

Fritz dropped lights before bombing, but

we couldn't run just had to keep

still & trust to to luck.  Fortunately he

was mainly after a road, so we

missed but I can assure you we all

had the wind up.  A stunt opened

this morning & they are still bogging

away at it (9am).  We will go forward

probably this morning.  No papers but

we hear things are fairly successful

all along.  However we hear so many

yarns, its hard to determine the

authentic ones.  Batteries & columns of

every description were on every available

road last night moving forward, so

his bombs could hardly miss getting

a few.  Our crowd have captured a

 

good few guns, one an 8 inch

Battery they have just turned round

& are now using on him.  Fritz won't

like getting shelled by his own guns.

12/8/18    We had another stunt about 9 o'clock 

last night & I believe it was very successful.

It was supposed to come off the previous

day but our Infantry got such a frightful

doing from Bombs & machine gun fire

it was impossible to carry it out.

However the village blocking the advance

is now in our hands & the line straightened

up.  We will probably shift today

this place absolutely stinks from dead

horses, there must be 20 lying in this 

little wood all killed by bombs.

Fritz was over bombing a treat again

last night, but we had no casualties

he ran along the edge of the wood.

 

Our planes brought one of his a cropper

close by this morning.  Frightfully hot

today.

13/8/18  Instead of moving forward yesterday, as

anticipated, we got orders to pull out.  The 

whole of the Division.  This mobile stunt is

sudden alright you are in, out, here &

there, at a moments warning.  We left the

guns last night & started off by foot about

6 o'clock, but after going about 2 kilos, had

the luck to strike a lorry, going right

near our  new camp.  We came through

Warfusée, Villers Bretonneux & Foulloy to

Aubigney, where we are now camped along

the Somme Canal.  On the road down

we struck our fellows bringing in a xxx

number of prisoners, the bots that played

such havoc with machine guns on our

 

 

Infantry when they were trying to take

that village a couple of days ago.  Needless

to say our fellows had little pity for them

& if it had not been so public, Im afraid

they would never have reached their destination

as prisoners.  Warfusée recently held by the

Germans in is in a frightful state & practically

all along the main road is the same.  Dead

horses & broken vehicles of all description

a great number of them originally Fritz's

Every column you pass now, had a Fritz

waggon or gun attached.  We have captured

an immense number of guns our crowd had

some sport giving Fritz some of his own shells.

One 5.9 had about 200 of a gun crew, all

acting the goat, firing at extreme xxx range

& picking out all the pretty shells, one a gas

thin shrapnel or H. E.  Fritz must have

 

wondered what on earth was the matter.

It was a case of extreme range, highest charge

& let her go.  some of the shells must have

damn nearly reached Berlin.  His small

guns, the whizzbangs, also got nothing,

everybody was popping them off.  We haven't

seen a paper since the offensive started

here, but according to the millions of almost

impossible rumours, we are doing OK.

However everybody is fully satisfied that

Fritz is being shoved back right along

14/8/18  Told this  Left again 9am yesterday

morning to go into action. Just before leaving

Ron rode over from Foulloy, I was very

pleased to strike him, we walked along

yarning at the back of our column for over

a mile xxxxxxxx.  He looked very well, &

like all hands very much cheered up with

the recent victories.  After leaving Ron,

 

at our first stopping place, I ran across

Jack Summers in the 53rd Battery, an old

Richmonder.  He also had been to the Wagon's

lines on several occasions to see me but we 

always missed through my being at the

guns.  My luck was right in, it was like

someone presenting me with £100 striking

those two.  We did not go right into the

line as anticipated but camped in a gully

about a kilo behind xxxxx Rosaries, just

captured from Fritz.  We go into tonight

for a stunt coming off tomorrow morning.

We xxxx slept in an open trench last night

& expected a few bombs, but although we

heard some drop, none were near our

position.  Its a sight to see all the

Ammunition dumps captured from Fritz here

also light railways. Talk about business

booming, every road is packed with guns

 

ammunition wagons, fodder horses, motor lorries

troops galore, all moving forward.  They

evidently intend giving Fritz little time to

reorganise.  Whilst happy at the thought of

shoving Fritz back, this mobile stunt is

not too good for us, long marches, & quick

moves being the order of the day.  Fritz evidently

has few guns ahead, as xxx if he opened out

he couldn't help striking something. The

whole country looks like a busy ant's

heap - movement everywhere you look.

Barring one or two long range funs firing

he is pelting over nothing.

15/8/18   Yesterday I went up the new position

on the outskirts of Méharicourt about 3 pm.

The guns were supposed to come up at 8.30pm,

For some unexplained reason, the proposed

stunt is not coming off, so we stopped

the night up there & came back to the