Handwritten transcript of diaries of Apcar Leslie De Vine, 1 January 1915 - 6 October 1918, Part 12 of 26

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26/3/16 Sunday ROC untill relieved ot 1.30 pm by B
Coy, several showers of rain during the day, the weather
clearing up later in the afternoon, the evenings now
are getting much colder
27/3/16 Reached Malta early this morning, & cruised about
outside the harbour writing for orders, after waiting for a
few hours we receive instructions to proceed, & were out
of sight of the island by midday. Exceptional precautions
are being taken to guard against any submarine attack
as the danger here is very great, many ships having been
sunk in this part of the Mediteranean. Machine guns
& their crews. are permanently on guard day & night on the
ships side we all wear life belts during day & sleep with
them under our heads at night. No ships lights or
lights of an description are shown at night as we are
continually in the danger zone. We sleep by our allotted
life boats in case of imergancy

28/3/16 Passed a few small islands during the day. parade
on deck with full pack

29/3/16 Parade full marching order, rained heavily during
day, very wet & miserable' ran into heay storm during
the afternoon. We expect to arrive at Marseilles early
tomorrow, but we arrived late at night & remain in the
outer harbour untill daylight before berthing

30/3/16 We arrived at our berth & tied up before
breakfast. It appears that we received orders at Malta
to hurry on as submarines were about, just as we leave
Malta we passed the "Mineaopolis" quite closely, today
we are told on landing that only two hours after passing
us she was torpedoed, fortunately being empty as she
 

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was returning to Alexandria for more Bns of the AIF
We disembarked at 2pm & marched to the railway
siding where we entrain & leave for Flanders
at 3.30. We leave the Bn transport behind to
follow on by road in a few days after loading the
Bn stores etc from the ship. We do not know our
actuall destination although we know that we are
bound for the North. We arrive at Grange it 11pm
& hove hot rum served out, afterwards entraining
again & settling down in our carriages for the
night. We have been travelling through very pretty
country in the South

31/3/16 Reached Lyons at day break passing through
just as dawn was breaking, had breakfast at Macon
at 8am, we still have no official knowledge of our
destination, had tea at Les Lounes where I went
to the village to buy bread etc staying there for
two hours leaving at 7pm, expect to be in Paris by
the morning

1/4/16 Reached Paris at dawn branching off on to another
line (Le Nord) arriving at Versailles of 6.30 am but
do not stop & go on to Ouvers sunrise for breakfast
after breakfast we wait for about 1 hour before
leaving again. After several halts at small county
stations we travell on through the night.

2/4/16 Sunday Up at 3.30 am & found ourselves
outside Hazebrouck, we detrain at Steenbecque
we are not vey for from the Belgian border &
can distinctly hear the big guns firing as we are
only about 15 to 20 miles off the front line & about
15 to Ypres, we hear the guns continuously all day
 

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We march through the town of Hazebrouck to our
billets at Staples about 6 mils outside the town, we
are a source of much interest to the French, as only
a vey few of our men have yet arrived in the
district although the 2^nd Div have landed in France
before us. We are billited in a granary about
half a mile outside the village along a pretty county road
Bn Hdqrs are in the village. We are all vey tired
having travelled continuously in train for 62 hours, everything
is made very comfortable for us with plenty of clean straw
to sleep on

3/4/16 Parade full marching order of 9-12 am & 2-4 pm, the
village is placed out of bounds before 3.30 pm, beer only
sold to troops in the estaminets between 4 & 5.30 pm
Visited village & returned to billet by 6pm, it is very
cold tonight, we get little sleep as we feel the change
of climate rather keenly, as we were in Egypt only 11 or
12 days ago in the full sun, the change now feels vey
sudden

4/4/16 Full marching order today, very cold so went
for a route march in the morning, drill during afternoon

5/4/16 Very cold again today, went for a long route march to
warm us up occupying the morning. Did not attend parade
in afternoon charge of QM fatigue. Time extended to village
Now 8.30

6/4/16 Parade today, light marching order, route march
this afternoon, detailed for inlying piquet, mounted on
village square at 5.30 pm

7/4/16 Early morning parade 7.30, for the issue of two gas
 

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helmets per man, afterwards the Bn marched to
Ebblinghem for a lecture on the use of the gas
helmet, after lecture we all pass through a covered
trench, filled with the deadliest gas now in use
wearing our new helmets to give them a thorough
test & to give confidence in their use, they
proved to be very effective, we do not feel the
effect of the gas in the least, afterwards we
passed through a second trench filled with
a speciall lachimatory gas, now used by the Germans
causing the eyes to smart very much & so cause
tears, being thus temporally blinded it would be
practically impossible to use a rifle. We pass
through this second trench without the protection
of our helmet in order to experience its effects
& recognise its smell which is very like pineapples
Although it made our eyes smart vey much it is
harmeless to the lungs, we will now be able to
recognise it when we meet it in the line, it
is usually thrown over in shells & liberally used
during bombardments being well mixed with the
HE shelling. Great preparations are being made to
face the danger of a gas attack, as they frequently
occur on the French front, in Egypt & on Gallipolli
we did not experience this form of warfare, but
here it is a real danger. It is now a crime
to be found without your gas helmet, which must
always be carried when leaving billets no matter
for how long. After this demonstration we
march back to billets, no parade in afternoon.
We are now paid in Francs received today 760 =
£2.3.0. As we have no canteens yet we had a good
time spending it in the village, the villagers had
never seen so much money before & did good business
 

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8/4/16 No parade this morning Cpl in charge of billet
guard all day. A constant guard is being kept all day
& night to give warning in case of gas being used in the
front line & to give the alarm to the villagers, we are
not many miles from the line & gas drifting with a
steady wind would quickly reach us

9/4/16 Sunday Did not attend church parade this morning
the afternoon was quietly spent in a little village half
way between Staples & Cassel. Orders received today to
be packed up & on the march by 7.30 tomorrow morning
as we are leaving for other billets nearer the firing line
spent the evening vey quietly in little estaminet on a quiet
county road amongst beautiful county scenery; the du Moroc

10/4/16 Revelle 5 am, packed up & on the road by 7.30, a
march of 10 miles is before us, we pass through Hazebrouck
to Meteren where we are billited, finished the march
vey foot sore having carried a heavy pack, taught me
a lesson pack must be much lighter in future, after a
rest visited the old French town of Bailleul, this
is a very quaint old town about 1 mile from the Belgian
border & has been considerably knocked about by bombardment
having at one time been in German hands, now it is
less than 10 miles from the front line, there are very
many civilians left who are still carrying on their business
there are also many children about, no one here seems to
take the war very seriously as the are all attending to
their shops etc & the children going to school. The
town is full of English troops who are doing a considerable
amount of shopping, in fact the whole business of the town
seems to be catering for the wants of the soldiers, who
are within very easy visiting distance being billeted in the
small villages round about. A heavy bombardment can
 

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be heard all day from the front line being now much
nearer to the line we hear this now continuously
We are billited outside Meteren in the village of
Outerstene, there will probably be only one more billet
nearer the line before we actually take over a sector
We are all anxious to see the front line on this
sector, which we are told is quite different to the
trenches of Galipolli

11/4/16 Two parades today 9am & 1.30 pm, rained a
little during afternoon making roads vey slippery
visited Meteren in the evening, a vey quiet town

12/4/16 Rained all day, route march 9am in the
rain, roads vey muddy & greasy, no parade this afternoon
raining vey hard. A second blanket being issued to
us this afternoon. Our transport section which we
left behind when landing at Marseilles joined up
with the Bn today

13/4/16 Rained nearly all day, parades postponed on
account of the wet & muddy state of the road, night
parade 8.30-9.30

14/4/16 Parade this morning. Warned that Gen Walker
who is in command of the Division will review us
tomorrow, we are dismissed early to prepare a clean
up for the review. Parade again at 12.45 for a 6
mile march with full pack, during march we
were caught in a rain & snow storm, the roads are
in a very heavy state been very muddy & slippery
the weather remains terribly cold, return to
billets at 4pm
 

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15/4/16 No review for us today. A Coy being detailed
for duty, detailed for inlying piquet, mounted full
marching order at 9am, & remain in billets for the
rest of the day, being ready for instant use if required
During afternoon we were marched down to the Divisional
baths where after enjoying a good bath we get a change of
shirt, socks, vest, & under pants, leaving our dirty ones
in exchange, feeling quite fresh & clean again

16/4/16 Sunday Did not attend church parade, left in
charge of billets, during afternoon visited Bailleul with Sgt Tanner
we visited the cathedral & many churches, which are very old
spent some time visiting the oldest parts of the town
which are quite historical. Returned to billets at 8/30 pm

17/4/16 Full Bn parade today for an inspection by General
Walker, it has been raining all the morning, and we were
wet through, the parade ground which was in a field
soon got very muddy, and to make matters worse, the General
did not turn up, which irritated the men vey considerably
and of course everybody gave full vent to their feelings. Before
the parade was dismissed it was announced by Major Mackay
who is now in command of the Bn, that we will march
to other billets 7 miles nearer to the line tomorrow, and
the day after would move even closer up, thus bringing
us right up in the foreward area, from there we will
go direct into the line. Parade this afternoon 1.30 with
full pack for a 5 mile route march, we have been getting
of late plenty of route marching, & now feel very fit, as we
may be called upon at any time to undertake a long
& forced march, at a moments notice. Returned to billets
at 4.30

18/4/16 Revelle 6.30 am, everything packed up ready to move

 

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off by 7am, marched out of billets at 10am in a
downpour of rain, the roads are vey muddy, which makes
the march vey heavy going. We marched to Sailly which
being us about 4 miles behind the front line, it is
vey cold and raining all day, the closer we get to the
firing line the more muddy becomes the roads, which
now are in a pretty bad state. We are billited in
an old flower mill just outside the village.
Although we are so close to the line there are very many
civilians including women & children still in the
village. We are told that this sector of the line is
exceptionally quiet, the township being very seldom
shelled. Spent the evening in the village, there is
nothing to do except to sit & drink in the estaminets
all the evening, we are now well away from all
civilisation & comfort, which are only to be found
now in the back areas, we move further up tomorrow

19/4/16 Revelle 3 am, more off at 3.30 & march 3 miles
nearer to the line, all our movements now must be
made under cover of darkness, as the roads now
are under direct observation from their captive
baloons. The roads now are terribly muddy and
full of shell holes, the farms & houses have been very
much knocked about by shell fire, many being in
complete ruin. Reached our new billets at Fleubaix
by 7.30. During the day I wandered round the village
which is vey much knocked about in places, parts
of it being an absolute wreck. This is the first town
we have seen so completely wrecked under a modern
bombardment all this is quite new to us, there were
no villages like this on Galipolli. Much to our
surprise there are still man civilians here
doing business amongst the troops, there are also
 

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several estaminets, and many women about but very
few children. Parts of the village are out of bounds to
the civilians as it has been placed in a condition of
defence, with barbed wire 10 ft up the side of the
houses with the walls loopeholed ready for defence in
case of a break through by the Germans. The alarm
sounded at 8pm, we marched to our alarm post
in the rear of the firing line, which we are to hold
in case of an attack, He are all pretty tired after
our two days marching. slept well

20/4/16 Roads much dryer today, the sun has been shining
for a few hours. Detailed today with 6 men for 24 hours
guard at "Winters Night Post" which is about 3/4 of a mile
along the Fleubaix Rd, we mount at 10 am tomorrow,
[[?]]of today nothing to do

21/4/16 Mounted guard at Winters Night Post at 10 am, everything
very quiet, some aeroplane activity all day, several shells
have fallen on the road near our billets & some damage
done by HE shells to billets near us, no one hurt. We are
new getting our first taste of German long distance
bombardment of billets etc, very quiet day on our front
Post visited by the Dr & Maj Mackay during the day. all
ammunition, bombs, & reserve of food etc found to be correct
on the post. Very miserable evening & night, raining all
the time making things very wet & muddy, no alarms
neither were we called out during the night to man
the post

22/4/16 Roads very muddy owing to heavy rain that fell
all night. No parades during day. We were called out for
practice & marched to our alarm post at 8am, raining
all day, roads now in shocking condition. Paid 607- £2.3.0
 

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23/4/16 Sunday Quiet day on the whole, much aeroplane
activity over our lines, nothing special doing today

24/4/16 Artillery bombardment during the day, with
much aeroplane activity. Called out at 9pm for a
digging fatigue, to drain some trenches at the rear
of our billets, which is a strong post to be used only
in case of need, or if the billet is shelled when
we will occupy them as shelter trenches untill
the bombardment is over, we work untill 2.30
the next morning. all outside work now must be
done under cover of darkness

25/4/16 Anzac Day. Very quiet day. A slice of cake
was given to each man from Regimental Funds
as an extra ration to commemorate the day, this
caused much indignation & amusement amongst the
men. A bit of excitement this afternoon the billet
we are now occupying is only a thatched barn, the
roof of which caught fire from the cook house &
blazed up pretty freely. Organised an impromptu fire
brigade and quickly got fire under control before it
got too strong a hold, as the roof was made of straw
things looked rather ugly for a time, if Fritz had
noticed the blaze he would most certainly have
dropped a few shells into it just for luck - everything
was OK in about 1/2 hour. In the evening all the old
boys with us who had landed at Anzac last year
met at A Coys Hdqrs & had a jolly time, total
casualties 60 bottles of champagne. Capt Brown
Sgt Tanner Cpl Goldwater. Pts J Mills. P Hogan.
G Williamson. Sgt Ramsey. CQMS. D Lewin &
myself were present also many other friends all very
happy & full at 9 pm