The weather remained dull and conditions generally quiet. Orders were received that the Battalion was to be made ready to relieve 8th Yorkshires the following day. This next tour in the front line was to be unusual as the Battalion was to be ‘shadowed’ by new troops who were being introduced to the realities and routines of trench life. This was part of a period of ‘trench training’ led by 23rd Division from 26th January to 8th February for the whole of the 34th Division which had only recently arrived in France. As a result, two companies of the 16th Royal Scots were to be attached for instruction.
Between 11pm and midnight it was noted that there were heard considerable exchanges of rifle and machine gun fire on the front lines and the British artillery carried out an intermittent bombardment throughout the night.
Pte. John William Dickinson
was appointed (unpaid) Lance Corporal; he was a 20 year-old clerk from Leeds.
Confusion continued over the case of CSM Harry Dewhirst (see 11th January) who had been sent back to England as unfit for active service. He had spent the previous two weeks at the Regimental Depot but now the Infantry Records Office in York wrote to Lt. Col. Bartholomew, commanding 10DWR, asking him, “Will you please inform me for what purpose this Warrant Officer was sent home, and if possible furnish me with a copy of the authority”.
A payment of £2 15s 9d, being the amount due on his army pay, was authorised to Ethel Eliza Emmott, widow of Pte. William Hartley Emmott who had been killed four months earlier (see 1st October 1915).
No comments:
Post a Comment