Diary of Geoffrey Arthur Nevett Mitchell, 1916-1917 - Part 2

him. One would laugh at these
signs of rage & hate if it were
not such a tragedy. They are
very childish in many ways.
27.  Started moving No 4 Camp &
gas tubes.
28.  Moved Balloon to Villers an flo
Chateau.
29.  Went on moving.
30.  Roads closed.
1^st April.  No 4 Balloon attacked by
2 hun planes & brought down
in flames from 1800 ft.
Cochrane & Hadley parachuted
safely but were shot at all the
way by the hun.
Moved No 3 Balloon to Longuval.
Dined @ R.F.C. Brigade H.Q. 
2.4.17.  Very windy. Tender went
to Amiens.
3.4.17  xxx xxxxx xxx Nos
13 & 18 Section balloons brought
down in flames by huns.
Observers landed in parachutes.
Went to Villers & to Wing.
Cold & wet.
4.4.17.  Sleet & snow. Got permission
for 7 lorries to use road Bapaume
Albert for to-day.
5.4.27  No 3 moved to Villers
8.4.17  H.Q. Moved to Beugny
11.4.17  No 4 Moved to Beugny
13.4.17  Up in No 4. got shelled
in air & on ground
No 3 moved to 1500 yds

S of No 4.
16.4.17  Certain amount of work.
No 6 got burnt. Up with
Cochrane in afternoon got
shelled in air 1 round & on
ground 1 round. No damage
except broken telephone wire.
19.4.17.  Huns shelled Beugny twice
once @ about 12 & again @
5 PM. Had to get into trench
as they were coming too close to
camp. One hid 12 yds from No 4
camp officers mess. 3 holes in
Balloon. No casualties. Went
over to Wing &. HA in morning.
Major Geddes was killed by shell
fire whilst visiting a battery
in afternoon. Will have to move 

H.Q unless they stop shelling. Leave
opened again.
20.4.17. Misty.
21.4.17. Nothing of importance
22.4.17. Both balloons attacked by hostile
Aircraft. No 3 burnt on
ground 2^nd attack. 2/Lt
Riches safe.
Col. Byng came over in
afternoon. Many Hun planes
over. 2 F.E. of No 11 Sqdn
came down near us.
23.4.17.  H.Q. shelled 4 30 P.M. One
shell between tents. Little
damage. 2 am Kidsey badly
wounded & admitted to
hospital. The whole thing
might have been very unpleasant
as the Cook was knocked down
by explosion of one shell & not
hurt. 

Clear sky & Balloon up.
Village shelled 6.15 PM. & onwards. This
is no place for me. Moving tomorrow.
24.4.17.  Village shelled all night. No sleep
Moved camp in morning & new
camp O.K. 6 P.M. Clear sky, fair
visibility quite warm. Wind N.E. 30
MPH @ 3000 ft. Huns putting "Moral
Effects over road & village. Feel more
safe here. Waller came over to lunch.
Col. Byng rang up to say that an
aeroplane had been told off for each
balloon. Don't see much sign of hun ours
today. Mitchell filled his balloon with
air. 2 holes. Sent lorry to No 1 for
20 tubes. Hope to fill balloon tomorrow.
25.4.17  Col Byng &. Gen Longcroft came
round to inspect No 4 Winch. The
Gen stayed to lunch & had bully
beef but seemed hungry.
26.  Nothing of interest. 

27.4.17.  Experiments in fast hauling
down done by No 4 Section.
Went to Corps Signals to dinner
28.4.17.  Have been made Acting Squadron
Commander.
Up in balloon from 5 to 8.30.
2 shoots successful.
29.4.17.  Dud weather
30.4.17.     "           "   Several hun aeroplanes
over. Green seems to have gone mad
in a xxxxxx sultry rude sort of way.  I
expect he will get over it.
1.5.17.  Nothing to report.
Went to Wing.
2.5.17.  Went to Montauban to collect evidence about
accident to Bordycutt. Arrived back 3.P.M.
shap Shrapnel burst over hut 3.5 PM.
Col. Bynge came over to see about moving
Balloon up in early /morning for attack.
Went to look over country to move balloon
up with Cochrane. Attack commences.
3.5.17.  Up 2.30 A.M. & took balloon up
withinin 5000 yds from line. Stayed up
till 7.30 but absolutely no visibility owing
to thick mist. Lots of our planes up but
only saw one hun & he didn't come
near balloons thank goodness. Tom Murray
rang up to say he was coming round 

tonight but put him off as am very
tired. No view later. Have heard that
attack was not successful. Attacked again
10.30 PM.
4.5.17. No view all day. Attack was not very
successful. 2 lines of trenches taken
along about 3000 yd. front. Col. Byng
came over in afternoon. Balloons up
from 6 PM till 8 PM no visibility.
T.P.M. came along for a yarn after
dinner.
5.5.17.  Nothing much today. Balloons up in
afternoon. Visibility indif. Hauled
down owing to approaching thunder
storm. Huns counter attacked us about
11 PM but were driven off. All positions
held.
6.6.17.  Nothing of importance. Wind hoigh all
day but dropped towards evening when
No 4 went up for about an hour.
Went to 17 Coy in morning but no one in. 

7.5.17  Decent sort of day. Balloons both up
early but no view till midday. Several
shoots done. Col. Bynge came over in
afternoon but stayed @ No 3 for tea.
Went to 14 HAG & 23^rd HAG in morning.
& to Army H.Q. in afternoon. No 3 balloon
pretty heavily shelled on hauling down.
Luckily no damage done & no one hurt.
Balloon had to retire for a till dark. 
8.5:17.  Rain all day & everything very quiet
till about 5.30 PM when fairly heavy
bombardment started north of Bapaume
Cambrai road. Orchard & Russell went to
Amiens in afternoon.
9th  Poor visibility  nothing doing.
9^th.  Went round batteries of 14^th HAG with
the Col. (Ronaldson) & then up to
O.P. Very interesting but more
exciting than ballooning.
10.  Went up to Vilu to see 12^th Batteries
Up in Balloon in Afternoon
Col came round in afternoon. 

11.  Good visibility. 9 shoots done.
29.5.17.  Col Byng rang up to say
that I am to go to 2nd Wing
tomorrow morning to find 2
balloon positions for 3 & 4 Sections.
30.5.17.  Left Wing H.Q. with Russell
& 10.15 AM.
Lunch in Bethune .Arrived 2nd Wing
2.30. Col MacNiece didn't seem
to know any more about things
than Col Bynge & thats not
much. Found suitable places
for Camps etc. Russell saw his
brother for a while.
Left. @ 6.30 arrived Wing HQ.
9.45 PM & found Col. Cleaver
there. Received orders to move
Company Complete by 7.AM
so back to make necessary
arrangements. 

31.5.17.  Up all night. 18 Coy came
down & took over from us @
6 AM. Moved off @ 7.AM
all correct. Very sorry to
leave asx everything was working
well. Hadley & Haslam stayed
behind to show the country to the
new people.
Arrived Pernes 4 P.M. after a very
successful, if dusty, journey &
arranged billets for men.
1.6:17  Left Pernes 7.30 AM. & arrived
destination about 4.30 PM
after several minor mishaps.
On whole the journey up spoke
well for the transport & drivers.
Everything is in a muddle now.
No one seems to know who
we belong to & there is no
signs of 5^th Wing.
Reported to 2^nd Wing 

2.6.17.  We are now attached to 2^nd
Wing so & hope it will not be
for long.
The telephone system up here
is rotten. Signals will do
nothing for us nor are we
allowed to lay lines ourselves.
We can get no material from
8^th Corps R.E.'s as they know
we do not belong to them but
are only attached till our own
corps comes it. May that be
soon.
Balloons inflated with air. The
one taken over from 31 Section
is absolutely dud so refuse to
fill it with gas & ask for new
one. The one from No 1 has
no spares. They hot-stuffed as -
3.6.17.  One lorry blown up by 9.4" 

shell. The driver & 2nd man who
were on lorry both escaped with
slight injuries. It was rather a
miracle as the shell fell through the
lorry & burst underneath completely
wrecking it.
Visited Counter Batteries. HA &
Corps Signals.
Collected gas for Balloons & new
balloon arrived for No 4 Section.
This country is in my opinion
rotten: There is no room to move:
crops & civilians everywhere. They
are always getting killed & why
they are not cleared out altogether
I cannot imagine. Today a 9.4"
shell hit a farm house & killed
all the inhabitants who were
@ the time in the cellar. The house
was burnt & they were suffocated
They are a rotten crowd & cannot

be trusted further than one can
see them. Discipline is much
more strict here than in the South.
4.6.17.  Both Balloons filled & up.
5.6.17. Greene came back from 5^th
Wing where he has been Acting
Adjutant for some time. They
are @ Vert Gallant & Col Byng
has gone on leave. They do not
know when they are coming up
but let it be soon & we are all
getting fed to the teeth.
6.6.17. Went up in Balloon to have
a look @ new country but view
was not good so didn't do much
work. The wing have pinched
2 one of my Delarhay Winches
& 2 pairs of my X 12 glasses
also refused Hadley special
leave to get married that had 

been promised by 5^th Wing as that
he has had to cancel all
arrangements by wire also refused
a man leave when his mother
is dying -
7.7.17.  The push @ Wycheate & Messines
started @ 3.10 AM this morning.
We hear it has been a great
success but as we are just
north of Popperinge we cannot
see much of it.
They have given a us a winch
like a steam roller in place
of the Delahay -
8.7.17.  We have taken Messines &
Wycheate ridges & about 6000
prisoners according to reports.
Hope it is true.
No 4 got shelled but no
damaged. Two landed within
10 yds of balloon but burst 

in ground & as they were shrapnel
did no damage.
9.  Nothing of doing.
10. Coy taken over by 5^th Wing again,
also no 8 Coy. Waller came up
in morning. Gen Longcroft came
round in afternoon & see camps.
11. Raining nearly all day. Went over
to 21 Squadron to get oblique
photos but nothing doing as they
don't take them. Sent tender down
to collect things left behind at
Beugny. x 2 officers from each
Section went to Hazebrouck in afternoon.
12-30^th  Many attacks on our
Balloons by Hostile Aircraft
No casualties but a good
many balloons burnt.
In one case all 2^nd wing 

observers had to parachute.
There were 11 of them in
the air @ one time.
No 34 Balloon burst while
going up & then caught on
fire Lucas & Wickson
jump & got clear but
balloon fell on them & they
were killed.
July. 1-4^th  Nothing of importance.
Quite a lot of shelling of
back areas & it gets
uncomfortable @ times.
July 5^th Balloons attacked by EA.
No 4 burnt. Goodliffe & I/AM Spense
paracuted safely. No.3 missed but
attacked again later. Mitchell &
Cpl Jackson landed safely. Balloon had
over 200 machine gun bullets through 

it but did not catch fire.
6. Both Balloons servicable 9. AM.
7-11^th Dud weather. Artillery not working
to allow French to get into
position North of us.
14^th 39 Sections balloon shot down by
gun firing from O 33 d central.
15^th Very windy. Dean got caught in
handling guy when no 4 were litting
up & was thrown to ground from
about 25 ft. His back is broken I
think poor chap.
It looked as if balloon was going to
break away but it didnt. The wind
was over 40 M.P.H. & very gusty. Was
sick for the 1^st time -
To day was the commencement of
14^th Corps bombardment.
16^th. Good visibility from 3 PM. Plenty 

of work to do.
17^th-21  Dud weather & nothing doing in
the ballooning line.
The Bosche is getting pretty active
with his long range guns on the
back areas. He puts 9.4" & 5.9" 's
all over the place. Very uncomfortable
as one does not know where the next
one will fall so its no use clearing
out. He has hxit hit about 6
balloons by shell fire in this Wing
during the past 10 days. Gets them
generally in 3 shots. It is worse
than being attacked by E.A.
22-26. Fairly peaceful time during last
few days. Mostly dud weather
27^th Rumours that the Hun is retiring.
28^th The Hun is retiring slowly. 

29-30.  Nothing of importance.
Capt Mitchell went to take over
20^th Coy. Russell took of No 3
Section.
31^st Push commenced 3.50 AM.
Up in Balloon in forward
position could not see owing
to mist. Clouds @ 600ft.
Spad cut 29's Cable & crashed
Balloon went up & Stephenson
& signaller jumped & landed
safely. Balloon disapeared
in clouds but came down
on our side in French area.
Both Sections moved forward.
Not much shelling.
1-4. Rain all the time. Roads
in an appalling state. 

14.8.17. Went on Leave.
25th 8.17. Got back from leave and feel
very fed up with life - Have missed
quite a lot of excitement in the way of
parachute descents & bombing etc.
26.8.17. No 3 moved again.
27.8.17. No 4 moving to-day. Beastly day
rain etc & very cold. Am properly
fed up with life. This war seems
damnable—.