Stay up till midnight with Lieut. Gleam of the 1st Div. pioneers. Drink in the New Year. No artillery fire of any description. We awaken at 9 am very late.
I go to Mt. St. Eloy and have dinner with the Transport staff and Brigade staff in a private house. I also visit 4 Co. PPCLI. The Pats get reinforcement of 50 men. Major Adamson makes a speech to them. Fog all day. I travel overland. Not observed by enemy. Our guns are active.
*PPCLI – Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry
*On a hill overlooking Arras stand the remains of two towers which bear testament not only to the once-powerful Mont-Saint-Eloi Abbey but also to the savage fighting that took place in the area during the Great War….From the beginning of the Great War the towers were used by French troops to observe German positions on Lorette Spur and Vimy Ridge. The suspicions of the French soldiers were aroused when Germans fired upon their every movement until it was realized that what was giving them away was not a spy but the birds nesting on the towers which took flight when troops disturbed them. (www.remembrancetrails-northernfrance.com) (www.greatwarphotos.com/tag/mont-st-eloi)
