Letter and photograph of Robert Leslie Holden, 1915-1916 - Part 3

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wandering through the village, and we finished
up by digging-in about the centre
of the village and consolidating our position
preparing fore a counter attack from Mr Fritz
which came about the middle of the day in front 

of the 9^th Btn. but he got knocked rotten

for his trouble. Well about 4am of the morning

of our arrival in Pozier's our line was simply

packed with lads. Well that day went by smoothly

with us ransacking one of Fritz's dug-outs about

30 feet deep, just in front our line, of of or else

scouring the village for Prisoners, and about

dusk the 12 Btn made a xx clean sweep of the

village. That night passed fairly quietly with

us ded dead weary but still digging other

lines of the trenches, the village was nothing

now but a web work of trenches. That day and

night we could of gone right through

to the overside of Poziers, but for our Artillery

Observation and the Black Watch on our 

right who did'nt fair so well as us, x as there

Artillery did'nt quite do there job, and they got

held up in the Barb Wire. Well the following

day ^Tuesday Fritz got to work with his Spit and began

to pick up our position by the aid of his Aeroplane

well that day I went down to go Gordon's Dump

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with a rashin party and Fritz had a very heavy

Art. Barage all the way down there, and the 

sights that met our eyes was something terrible

to see, between dead horses, Fritz's and our own

lads, intermixed with shattered Artillery

guns limber's etc shell holes, broken in trenches

and other scattered remains of equipments

rifles etc. and flying shells and bursting

shrapnel, with scattered splinters flying all

round. I was ^not sorry when we got our rashins

and arrived back at the with the boys again.

On our left flank for about 100 300yds we were

unconnected with the 8^th Battalion. I just arrived

back in time for tea which consisted of very

appetising tucker, which we brought back with

us. I was then told off along with a few other

lads to go out about 100 yds on our left flank and

report of any Fritz's were sighted or any other

unusual occurence. The time was then about

seven oclock and by then Fritz was beginning 

to get to work with his artillery. Well we found

a suitable position behind a fairly high sand

dump just in front on a shell riddled bril

brick building in the midst of Fritz bombardment, 

which with the noise, flashes

and screaming shells, was as we put it "Hell

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Let Loose", and if it was for a few shells not

exploding, which landed in front of our Sand

Dump, we'd have been blown to pieces

but instead shook us from head to foot. well I
reported back to the trenches at 4am after the

bombardment had lulled a little. But the

Bombardment ond only lulled to break much

fiercer at 6am and from then on to about

12 oclock the it raged something awful alround

 us, with lads getting buried alive,

killed or wounded or wond wounded all

around us. We made the best of the lull

by trying to swallow a few mouthfuls of

bully beef an biscuits, for the wants of something 

better to do. It then continued at

1 oclock which by then I had given up any

hope of ever leaving the place alive; and it

was still continuing when we were relieved

by the 2^nd Div. abo between 9 and 10 oclock

that night July 26,1916, we was'nt long then in

making tracks as well as possible in the darkness, stumbling

in shell holes, or some other unseen obstacle in

the darkness, or taking the most suitable cover 

from a whistling shell which came our way. passing

"Gordon's Dump," and back through "Alberts"

Land camping in a paddock outside of Albert

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arriving there at 4 am in the morning. but I

think that more than half us almost marched

the last two miles, more asleep than awake.

Well we had breakfast and turned in until about

mid-day when we had a roll-call and the total out of

about one thousand was two hundred, forty out of 

our Coy "C." answered the Roll Call and eight out of

our platoon of fifty. Well we then moved back

after getting our packs about six miles to a village

and billeting for the night, and marching back

for the next few days until we reached a place

called Bertecourt, where we stayed for about ten days

carrying as on with the usual route marches every

day, and the other monotonxies of a soldiers days

work, until one morning we found ourselves on

our way back to the Line again. The first place we

stayed was Boniville, where we stay for a few days.

But whilst we were at Bertecourt we had

a good number of Reinforcements and when we

left our "Coys" ^strength was somewhere around one hundred.

Well at Boniville about forty of our lads left

us ina there, in Motor Busses for Beacourt Wood

on fatigues. After a few days stay at Boniville

we were on the move again, and when we xxxx

arrived at Rebumpre we had another forty

lads, of leaving us there for detonating Bombs