Monday 12th August 1918

Billets at Cereda and Grumo.

The Battalion was engaged in training and on the rifle range.

At Divisional level plans were once again revived for a large-scale assault on the Austrian lines on the plateau; these plans had first been conceived in May but had been postponed due to the Austrian attacks in June (see 25^th June). In preparation for the attack 7^th Division was to be withdrawn from the lines for a period of rest and 23^rd Division would take their place in the left sector of the front, before then being moved into the right sector for the attack itself, as planned for in the original scheme.

Pte. Frederick Sharp (see 22^nd July), serving at the Base Depot at Arquata Scrivia following a period of illness, was reported “absent without leave from 9pm until 10.45am (13^th August)”; he was ordered to be confined to barracks for seven days.

Pte. Robert Russell (see 26^th January), who had been evacuated to England suffering from nephritis in January, was formally discharged from the Army as no longer physically fit as a result of his illness, which, it was acknowleged, had been caused by active service overseas.

Pte. Arthur Sutcliffe (see 9^th December 1917), who had been wounded in November 1917 while serving with 2/6^th DWR, was formally discharged from the being as no longer physically fit due to his wounds; he was awarded a pension of 27s. 6d. for four weeks, reducing thereafter to 13s. 9d. and to be reviewed in one year’s time.


A pension award was made in the case of the late Gnr. George Thistlethwaite (see 21^st February), who had died of wounds in February 1918; his father, John, was awarded 10s. per week.

Gnr. George Thistlethwaite