Walter Draycott’s Great War Chronicle

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Thursday 10 May 1917

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Arrived last night at Casualty Clearing Station at 9:30 pm. Given clean change & put to bed on a stretcher.  Awake all night, very cold.  Up at 6 am.  Wash in bed & breakfast of porridge.  At 9:30 am we are put into a car for the station & board train for Boulogne, arriving after numerous painful stops @ 6 pm. Detrained @ 7 pm.  Put into bus for #2 Australian General Hospl. in marquees.

*2 AGH Boulogne, France This was a large tented hospital, and most of the patients were battle casualties. It came to specialise in the treatment of fractures. This hospital experienced many air raids. Towards the end of the war there were outbreaks of influenza. When the armistice was signed, the staff barely found time to celebrate. They were too busy treating the influenza victims who continued to arrive throughout November.

Wednesday 9 May 1917

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 – fine

My temperature goes up again. 103˚.

Enemy airman chased back by our Anti Aircraft guns as he tried to down one of our balloons.

Temperature at 102˚ in afternoon.

Though scarcely able to stand had a sudden order to pack up & get ready to go to C.C.S. Doctors orders are that temperature is not decreasing.  I leave in car at 6 pm.

*Casualty Clearing Station – The CCS was the first large, well-equipped and static medical facility that the wounded man would visit. Its role was to retain all serious cases that were unfit for further travel; to treat and return slight cases to their unit; and evacuate all others to Base Hospitals. It was often a tented camp, although when possible the accommodation would be in huts. (http://www.1914-1918.net/wounded.htm

Sunday 6 May 1917

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 – fine

Capt. J. W. Wallis comes to Hosp. to see me. He regrets my indisposition & hopes I will soon return to the office as the work has been thrown back on a/c of my absence.

I vomit a great deal. Wallis pleads with doctor to have me not removed but given every attention.

An enemy aeroplane flys low over Villers au Bois dropping bombs & firing his machine gun very near to the Hospt. camp that I’m in.

*”…the doctors were requested NOT TO SEND DRACOT TO A HOSPITAL. HIS SERVICES ARE URGENTLY NEEDED!!!” Excerpt from Draycott’s memoir “Pawn No. 883”.

Saturday 5 May 1917

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With temperature of 103.4° I’m admitted to Hospital – ie. a stretcher with 3 threadbare blankets thereon. ‘Tis active service!!!

L/c Hodge is put in my office till I come back – too bad! I dread my return for things will be topsy turvey & missing.

*Admitted to Field Ambulance Hospital….Fully clothed all the time, of course. It’s war.  And am still on the battlefield.  Excerpt from Draycott’s memoir “Pawn No. 883”.

Friday 4 May 1917

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– fine

General McDonell goes to Bapaume & Somme battlefields for a sightseeing tour.

I lay in “bed” all the afternoon with weakness from effects of shell gas poisoning which I got at Petit Vimy while warning others of the danger today. Temperature is 104°.  Awful pain in head and chest.

*”The wearing of a gas mask is a confounded nuisance. To tell men to put these queer appliances on, one must, of necessity, speak….with the thing off.  This was being done when a voice behind me called, ‘Put your own on, Sergeant!’.  Too late ……It was akin to swallowing finely broken sharp pieces of glass.”  Excerpt from Draycott’s memoir “Pawn No. 883”.

Wednesday 2 May 1917

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One of our ‘planes came down under control in a field both pilot & observer slightly wounded. Machine perforated with bullet holes.  Oil valve pierced by bullet, propeller also.  Steering gear jammed in fact a most narrow escape for both men.  Observer claimed he brought down two Huns during the day.  Machine was an old DeHavilland but reliable.

4 of our Triplanes bring down 5 Huns. All ours returned safely.  There were 7 Huns all told.  The others “beat it”.

Tuesday 1 May 1917

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Enemy shell La Targette.

In early morning there are many air fights. Our planes bring down 3 enemy’s.  S.M. Douglas walks  from La Targette transport lines to Villers au Bois.  Outside Villers au Bois some of our planes are manoeuvring when a collision takes place between two planes resulting in one having a wing & propeller blade torn off.  He descends rapidly and crashes with an awful thud.  Both men are dead smashed & twisted.  Awful sight.  Later in afternoon one of our Farmans descends riddled with bullets & a corporal wounded.  He brought down two of enemy.

Thursday 26 April 1917

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White is shell shocked so the whole work is left with me.

Enemy heavily shell our battery positions at Vimy.

Enemy ‘plane brings down one of our machines of Bristol type, old pattern. It falls near Vimy.  I rush over & help observer out of machine & bandage severe gash in left cheek.  His name is Lt. Mercer.  The pilot is untouched but shaken.  Machine a total wreck.  Struck large tree in descent.

*Shellshock was the blanket term applied by contemporaries to those soldiers who broke down under the strain of war…. (It) was often held by medical professionals to be the result of physical damage to the brain by the shock of exploding shells. Military authorities often saw its symptoms as expressions of cowardice or lack of moral character. Its true cause, prolonged exposure to the stress of combat, would not be fully understood or effectively treated during the war.

Monday 16 April 1917

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We see two big fires in Lens.

AT 10:30 am I go to Carency, Souchez, La Targette in side car. Roads frightfully bad. Much traffic.  Large holes.  Much mud.

Gen. MacDonnel sees me & in evening makes fun out of spotting me without me seeing him.

L/c Hodge & Pte. Crawford are recommended for medals. I see 25 dead horses in a heap & many men on roadside.  Also some being shot.

*It is estimated that 8 million horses died on all sides during World War I.

Monday 9 April 1917

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One of [our?] planes shot down.

AT 5:20 am our artillery open up their barrage – also M. Gun Coy. There’s a regular hell on earth, truly a grand sight – for us! The semi-darkness is lit up by bursting shells, making sprays of red light.

Our barrage lasts for 1 hr 20 minutes. 4th Div. held up temporarily by wire.  All the Rgts. reach their objective & VIMY RIDGE IS OURS.  ‘Tis surprising how near one can be to shells when they burst for two burst almost @ my feet.

I go up after & make a panorama sketch for the General. Lt. Bole is killed.

*The Canadians advanced behind a “creeping barrage.” This precise line of intense artillery fire advanced at a set rate and was timed to the minute. The Canadian infantrymen followed the line of explosions closely. This allowed them to capture German positions in the critical moments after the explosions but before the enemy soldiers emerged from the safety of their underground bunkers. (http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/first-world-war/fact_sheets/vimy)

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