Diary of Oberlin Herbert Gray, January to August 1918 - Part 9

1918  WEDNESDAY 15  May
Building earth walls round
our tents in case of bombs
Not feeling too good temp 100° in AM
& 103° at night, so reported "sick"
Fritz planes over us at
night. plenty of noise from
our side.
 

MAY  THURSDAY 16  1918
Had the day off duty
a touch of influ.
Fritz planes over soon after
sunset, & again later in
evening & early in morning. 

1918  FRIDAY 17  MAY 
Weather very enervating.
feeling better - one of
the boys on C Sec. fainted on
parade this morning - he
had temp of 102° & is being
evacuated to D.R.S.
 

MAY  SATURDAY 18  1918
Jim Robertson evacuated with
temp. over 104°, several are
reporting sick, & numbers of
infantry are going sick with
similar symptoms to influenza
Very Warm 

1918  SUNDAY 19  MAY
Fine Summer Weather.
A great number of Fritz
machines over last night -
One ammunition dump
in direction of St Omer set
alight.
 

MAY  MONDAY 20  1918
Warm 

1918  TUESDAY 21  MAY
Very warm.
Jim R. returned from Arques
Vic Hall went into St. Omer
to try & get some vellum for
presentn address -
Few cases passing through
Recent decision in regard to
Ireland will need a firm
hand to carry through.
 

MAY  WEDNESDAY 22  1918 
Big raid on London
Some of the 3^rd Bn went out to
see what they could discover,
found no Boches in first
half mile, so turned to the
right & came across a strong party
in a small wood, a scrap
ensued, resulting in about 25
casualties to us & a few prisoners
brought in - Artillery is often
active & every day Fritz is over
us observing & at night dropping
bombs - I suppose we do the
same -
One of our machines crashed down
half a mile away, I went across
to see it, the pilot was unhurt,
seemed more concerned about getting
his message to Hd Qrs than the loss
of his machine - 

1918  THURSDAY 23  MAY
Warm & windy,
The wind brought up clouds, &
it looked like rain, but they
dispersed again - 

MAY  FRIDAY 24  1918
Rain fell during early morning,
the weather was considerably
cooler during the day, no sun
shine at all -
Very few patients passing through
several gassed cases included,
& also a Frenchman injured
on the railway near; his
family came in to see him, a
little girl was very much upset. 

1918  SATURDAY 25  MAY
Very Windy
A lot of gas patients
coming through -
The German planes did a lot
of damage at the hospitals at
Etaples last Sunday - We
hear there were 2000 Casualties
one paper (Enq) gives them as
over 300, another as 1500
including 45 doctors nurses
& staff Killed.
 

MAY  SUNDAY 26  1918
Warm -
A Church, parade under the
trees - The Church bells in
Honighern ringing, & the music
of a distant band came
floating on the breeze. 

1918  MONDAY 27  MAY
Very heavy bombardment in
early morning it quietened down
later, & the day was uneventful
the bombardment continued at
night.
The Austn Mail arrived of 7^th to
26^th March, about a Score of
letters for O & me, the mails
are very slow now & are eagerly
looked forward to, not many
seem to be missing - in spite
of the continued sinkings.
 

MAY  TUESDAY 28  1918
Planes very active, squadrons
of them are out early every
morning - to or from the Line.
They
usually fly in formations of 3,
4, 5 or 6 - sometimes a dozen
, the squadron Commanders are
distinguished by a pennant,
At times they, swoop down
low over the hedges & trees, &
must know every inch of the
ground about here - 

1918  WEDNESDAY 29  MAY
I was standing at the door
of my tent this evening, &
watched an observation baloons
last act. The baloons are
at intervals all along the
front & every day one or more
comes to grief - One has
already come to grief to, day
near here - Three baloons were
in sight, one about a mile
distant to our rear - The
evening had clouded over, &
suddenly out of the clouds
above the baloon appeared
a Fritz plane - The 2 aeronauts
had previously seen it, & "hopped over",
their parachutes were slowly descending.
Fritz dived for the huge bag
passed it, wheeled & returned
then set off in direction of home
A few seconds later a flame
sprang up & was soon one big
blaze, then black smoke as the
debris fell to earth, leaving a
trail of smoke & sparks - The
Archies were bursting in various
directions in the sky, but, as usual,
failed to get the daring raider.
Three more of our baloons were
brought down within sight of
 

MAY  THURSDAY 30  1918
A raid by the 10^th Bn last
night, Over 50 casualties came
through - many of them were
caught by our own artillery
barrage - they gained their
objective & consolidated the
position.
Saw the remains of one of
Fritz's observation baloons,
it was set on fire by one
our planes
here, the plane was brought
down later by one of ours. 

1918  FRIDAY 31  MAY
2^nd Brigade Sports at Sercus, 2
G.S. wagons took 30 of us. A
glorious summers day, We had
2 forms as seats, a mile along the
road found one wheel almost off, the
pin had fallen out, & of course there
was no spare pin on the wagon, - Finally
proceeded, passing through picturesque
country, cut up a great deal by newly
made trenches - The buttercups are a
great feature in the landscape just now.
Passed through Croix Rouge, & Wallon
Cappel & another 4 kilos brought us
to the Sports ground, an ideal
spot, on the border of a large
wood. An almost Circular Space
of 5 or 6 acres, surrounded by trees,
with several tents & marquees at one
side - The sports were well advanced
but we saw 2 superb tugs of war
the teams very evenly matched - high
jump 5 ft 2 - long jump of 19 ft 4 won
by an Aust aboriginal of fine physique,
& several races. About 2000 were present
including 3 Generals - & towards the close
5 nurses in their pretty grey costumes.
Several fancy dress figures were roaming
about the ground including "The Last
Man" with flowing beard & many stripes. 

JUNE  SATURDAY 1  1918
A Sundowner with swag & billy, a [[nigger?]]
3 or4 "ladies" & a bookmaker. We
returned at 5.30 & arrived home with
only one or two missing -
A number of Fritz planes over at
night - Kept awake half the night by
gunfire & bombs -
The Amb Sports held in the field
in aftn - Les Bryant as usual carried off
most of the events - high jump 5ft. -
Sam Rixon won th. the Cricket ball, a
fine throw of 108 yds 2ft 9" - LB. just beat
Scotty Roberson kicking football - The
horseback wrestling was good - Sam R.
& 3 against 4 Transport - It took them
all their time to get Sam off, he is the
Strongest man in the unit - One
competitor had his foot trodden on by
a horse & badly bruised - Tin diving
into the pond for the football, struck
his head against a snag, & cut
it badly, needed several stitches in.
The obstacle race was very funny - a
swim across a pond, through the
hedge, after putting on boots, over &
under various obstacles, & finish
on all fours with a potato in ones
mouth taken from a bowl of
water. 

1918  SUNDAY 2  JUNE
Ideal Summer weather. - no
raid over us last night -
The Germans are advancing still
on the Aisne & have captured Soissons
& surrounded Rheims - 35000 prisoners
taken - French & British.
The Pemberton Billing trial seems to
be occupying public attention to
the exclusion of other things -
Had a short Service in the gas evac.
tent in evg - Mac. gave a good
little talk on the power of influence
the thing that goes on living after
we are gone, he influenced, the
noble influence of one of the finest
women who have ever lived. Florence
Nightingale, who with her helpers
did so much to lighten the
sufferings of the sick & wd in 1854
& gave the dignity to the profession
which it has since held.
 

JUNE  MONDAY 3 1 918
A heavy bombardment last
night, & an attack on a brigade
front by our men (the 3^rd Bn)
They advanced 800 yds & retained
the position, capturing about
300 prisoners. a number of
these came through wounded
including our own casualties
about 130 wounded -
Madame from the farm was very
interested in the Fritz prisoners,
"Allemagne no bon" - One was
quite a boy, they all look
very pale, but that seems to
be their usual complexion -
One wounded Fritz had only
been in the line an hour, they
were caught changing over,
The barrage was very good -
a number of the cases were
gassed.
In the South, Fritz is still
advancing, & has a 10 mile front
on the Marne - Rheims is
still holding out, but is in
a nasty salient -