Thursday 25th May 1916

Front line trenches west of Angres

A much quieter day in the line. During the morning a British heavy trench mortar fired several rounds from within ‘A’ Company’s sector and Lt. Dick Bolton (see 23^rd May) noted that, “they (the Germans) matched on the mortar’s position later with 10 or 12 small HE (high explosive) shells; in one place the trench was blocked”. The Company suffered no casualties on this occasion but the exchange does call to mind the reservations expressed by J.B. Priestley and others about the danger to the infantry posed by the activities of their own trench mortar batteries (see 23^rd March). Bolton also reported that later in the evening (around 9.30pm) a German machine gun began traversing the whole of ‘A’ Company’s front, “only ceasing at 1am when one of our Batteries began to fire at that part of the German line”. Work on wiring and dugouts continued.

At some point in this tour in the trenches an unexploded British rifle grenade was ‘returned’ by the Germans, with an enclosed note which read, 

“Dear Englishmen

Enclosed you will find one of yours unexploded and see that these things can do us nothing. Tell your manufacturer to do powder in the same. We wish to tell you that we have taken 40,000 French prisoners at Verdun and the fort of Kut-el-Amara with 13,000 of yours. Here too we are quite well and have plenty to eat therefore you can’t get us by this. It is nothing with your fliers too. Our Lieut. Boelcke has got his 16 aeroplanes and Immelman his 15^th. Splendid fellows aren’t they?”.

The ‘race’ between German ‘aces’ Oswald Boelcke and Max Immelmann was the subject of much publicity in Germany. Boelcke had scored his 16^th victory on 18^th May, two days after Immelman had recorded his 15^th. Immelmann was to be killed on 18^th June 1916 and Boelcke on 28^th October 1916. The British-Indian garrison of Kut, south of Baghdad, had surrendered on 29^th April 1916. Bitter fighting continued at Verdun for many months.

  
Pte. Ernest Dawson (13541) of ‘D’ Company who had been killed the previous day was buried at Tranchee de Mecknes, near Aix Noulette, close to other casualties from the Battalion (see 23^rd March and 1^st April).


Pte. William Knox (see 20^th May) again wrote home to his wife, Ethel (I am most grateful to Rachael Broadhead and family for allowing me access to William’s letters);

“ … We are in the trenches again once more. We are in until Saturday night. It has been very nice weather until today and it has started to rain. … Yes I often see some of the Lichfield Bhoys (referring to the men who had trained with Pte. Knox before being posted to France). They are keeping pretty well. Jim McMath (Pte. James McMath, see 15^th November 1915) wished to be remembered to you …”.

The office of GOC, London District replied to the recent request for information from the War Office in the case of John Henry Hitchin (see 16^th May). They reminded the War Office that Hitchin had been treated at Queen Alexandra’s Hospital, Millbank because, “The case was one of urgency, the patient was in uniform, and there was nothing to arouse suspicion as to his being other than he seemed”.

Pte. Lionel Vickers arrived in France en route to join 10DWR; on arrival he would join ‘A’ Company. He had attested, aged 22, under the Derby Scheme, in Halifax on 13^th December 1915 and had been mobilised six weeks later, joining 3DWR with whom he completed his training before departing for active service. Lionel was the youngest of eleven children (five of whom had died) of John and Sarah Vickers who had lived for many years in Sowerby Bridge, where Lionel worked as a dyers’ labourer (he had also previously worked as a worsted spinner). Other men are also known to have arrived in France on the same day en route to joining 10DWR. Pte. William Mitchell was a 21 year-old labourer from Halifax and would also join ‘A’ Company. Pte. Arthur Shaw (18277) was a 23 year-old married man from Halifax. Pte. Eastwood Wilkinson was a 20 year-old mason from Greetland.

A payment of 18s was authorised, being the amount outstanding in pay and allowances to the late Pte. William Henry Jowett (see 23^rd March), who had been killed in action on 23^rd March; the payment would go to his mother, Nancy Jowett.