Despatch Rider on the Western Front 1915-18: The Diary of Sergeant Albert Simpkin MM by Simpkin Albert & Venner David

Author:Simpkin, Albert & Venner, David
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War I
ISBN: 9781473859678
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2015-04-30T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

April – July 1917

12 APRIL 1917, ARRAS

Our division is being relieved this evening and tomorrow we go back to rest and refit. Many of our battalions are badly smashed and the survivors are about ‘all in’ with this terrible weather. We shall not be sorry to get out of this hell-hole. At 20:00, the OC told me to take two DRs and wait at the Doullens entrance to the town. We were to act as guides to a fleet of motor lorries which were coming to carry our troops to their rest camp. The troops were to entrain in the Grand Place. The lorries were almost 2 hours late. I took the first lot sitting by the driver. We started off at the head of a procession of twenty lorries. It was a tortuous route, a wrong turn and there would have been chaos. In the narrow streets overhung with houses it was almost impossible to see one’s hand before one’s face but by good luck we reached the Grand Place without incident.

13 APRIL 1917

We handed over to the incoming division at 07:00. We have returned to the Agnez Duisans camp but we are moving to Lignereuil tomorrow. Although we left this camp only 4 days ago it seems like 4 weeks. I have not had more than 6 hours sleep in the past five nights and I have not taken off my clothes. I do not feel particularly sleepy. When I ride my machine I feel quite normal but when I walk I am light-headed and dizzy.

We have had nothing to eat for over a week but ‘bully’, biscuits, bacon and tea. The cook house has been closed. Two days after we started this period of iron rations one of the staff asked me to arrange for one of our DRs when visiting the corps HQ to bring some soft bread for the general as the old man’s teeth could not manage biscuits. He must be nearer 60 than 50-years-old. It was, of course, to be kept a secret.

14 APRIL 1917, LIGNEREUIL

Today we moved to Lignereuil, a small village near Avesnes le Compte. The village consists of a single street lined with cottages and farms with a château in the background. We are to rest in this place for a week after which we are to return to Arras for another stunt.

20 APRIL 1917

The OC unbent today to hand me a ‘bouquet’. He told me the staff were pleased with the work of the DRs in the last stunt.

21 APRIL 1917, ARRAS

We moved back to Arras today. The signal station is in the railway cutting in front of Blangy. There is a deep dugout for the general and his staff. The signal station is simply a splinter-proof shelter. The Germans know every inch of this area as they held it previous to the attack; they lob their shells into the cutting like throwing potatoes into a bucket. The bridge can be seen from the German lines and receives

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