Thursday 28th March 1918

Billets at Thiene

At 7.30am the Battalion marched out along the Thiene-Sarcedo road to a point 1,000 yards west of Sarcedo where they were then loaded on to Fiat motor lorries. The Battalion was divided into parties of 150 officers and men, each of which was then loaded in turn onto ten lorries, 15 men to each lorry, to be taken ten miles up the steep and winding roads on to the Asiago plateau to Granezza. Each man had been allocated an extra two blankets and a jerkin in addition to their normal load. 

Many years later 2Lt. Bernard Garside (see 28^th February) recalled the dramatic journey and the change in the weather as the lorries ascended the plateau: “Well I told you we got to Thiene. This was at the foot of the hills which mount up into the great mountains of the Austrian and Italian Tyrol. After a day or two there, we were told we were going up the hills towards the front in lorries and were to live in some huts up there for a few days. I rode on the front of a lorry and it was warm sunshine. I had thin shorts on and a thin shirt. But oh dear! We rode up over 4,000 feet, into snow, and I was nearly stiff with cold. But what a ride! We got up the hills by winding all round the edges of great ravines down which we could see for hundreds of feet. The roads twisted and turned and often we went round three or four hair-pin bends one after another. But we arrived at our tents at last”.

Pte. Harold Charnock (see 19^th March) remembered that, “we left in motor lorries for Granezza … Here we were billeted in Italian huts. The ground was deep in snow and the cold was intense. The relief of the Italian troops was eventually concluded but there was some difficulty over the ownership of the huts”. The difficulties over the accommodation were also referred to in the Brigade War Diary, “Great difficulty with regard to accommodation due to the difference between Italian and British organization”.

Gnr. Herbert Airey, brother of 2Lt. Stephen Brown Airey (see 12^th February), serving with the Royal Field Artillery died of wounds and would be buried close to the village of Gentelles, south-west of Villers-Bretonneux; after the war his remains would be exhumed from his marked grave and re-interred at Moreuil Communal Cemetery Allied Extension. In a letter to Herbert Airey’s mother his Commanding Officer told her, “Your son was one of my best signalmen, and I feel his loss very keenly. The battery was heavily pressed, and he had been doing splendid work when a shell landed close to him, inflicting a wound, from which he died in the course of an hour. I feel wonderfully proud of his splendid courage."

Gnr. Herbert Airey

Pte. Albert Armitage (see 3^rd May 1917), serving with 2DWR, was wounded in action and evacuated to 8^th Casualty Clearing Station, where he died later the same day; he would buried at Duisans British Cemetery, Etrun.

L.Cpl. James Barker (12288) (see 13^th July 1917), serving with 2DWR, was wounded, suffering wounds to his right arm; the details of his immediate treatment are unknown but he would be admitted to 6^th Stationary Hospital at Frevent and from there, next day, to 2^nd Australian General Hospital, Boulogne.


Pte. Frederick McKell (see 24^th February), serving with 5DWR, was wounded in action, suffering shrapnel wounds to his thigh; the details of his immediate treatment are unknown but he would be admitted to 22^nd General Hospital at Camiers.

2Lt. William Jones MM (see 4^th February), serving with 2^nd Battalion, Border Regiment, was admitted to 2^nd General Hospital, Le Havre.

Sgts. Wilson Allinson (see 9^th January) and William Allen Sayer (see 11^th December 1917), who had been in hospital in England since having been wounded in 1917, were posted back to France from 3DWR; both were originally to have joined 2DWR but, within days of arriving in France would be re-posted back to 10DWR. However, for reasons unknown, it would be almost three months before they would actually re-join the Battalion in Italy.

Pte. Victor Hillam (see 9^th February) was reported absent without leave from 3DWR at North Shields. He would be located by the Military Police in Newcastle at 11.20am on 2^nd April and ordered to return to his unit. On his return, having missed his posting to France, he would be ordered to undergo 28 days’ detention.

Pte. Percival Albert Wiggins (see 22^nd January), who had been admitted to hospital whilst home on leave, was transferred from 3^rd Southern General Hospital in Oxford to the Camp Hospital at Northern Command Depot in Ripon; he had been suffering from ‘trench foot’.

Pte. Herbert Farrand Hogley (see 29^th January) was discharged from hospital at Northern Command Depot at Ripon and posted to 3DWR at North Shields.

Pte. Jim Coates (see 14^th December 1917), who had been wounded while serving with the West Yorks., was formally discharged from the army as no longer physically fit for service.

A payment of £3 12s. 1d. was authorised, being the amount due in pay and allowances to the late Pte. Francis John Bottomley (see 21^st November 1917), who had been killed in action on 21^st November 1917 while serving with 2/4^th DWR; the payment would go to his widow, Sarah. She would also receive a parcel of her late husband’s personal effects, comprising of, “disc, letters, four postcards, photos, note book, three religious tracts”.

A second payment, of 10s., was authorised, on the account of the late Sgt. Norman Wilson (see 11^th February) who had been killed in action on 17^th October 1917; the payment would go to his father, Joseph.

A second payment, of 14s. 8d., was authorised, being a further amount due in pay and allowances to the late Pte. Frank Woodall (see 19^th February), who had been killed in action on 9^th October 1917; the payment would go to his mother, Lilian.

A pension award was made in the case of the late Pte. David Lindsay (see 15^th October 1917), who had died of wounds on 20^th September 1917; his widow, Esther, was awarded 20s. per week for herself and her son David jnr.. The award was unusual in that it was made before any settlement had yet been made of Pte. Lindsay’s outstanding pay account.