Walter Draycott’s Great War Chronicle
North Vancouver Museum & Archives
– fair
Enemy heavily shell our area. We respond with much heavier stuff & more of it. He blows a mine back of Birken Crater in his own line.
Much aerial activity two enemy planes sneak over our lines & set fire to one of our balloons. Occupants escape in parachutes. One of our fast planes attack 6 of enemy & luckily escapes.
14 enemy planes hover over their lines & ours occasionally venture there to.
The mud is deep & awful.
– snow flurries
Many air flights.
Enemy has a plane painted red & manned by a skilful pilot – a daredevil.
I go around the trenches to estimate damage.
Enemy shell Neuville St. V. unmercifully. The whole village is enveloped in smoke. A dugout containing C.M. Rifles is penetrated by shell. Kills 10 & wounds 12. Other casualties.
Enemy also shell Mt. St. Eloy & Berthenval Farm. An armour piercing shell is discovered (Blind).
*The Red Baron again?
*C.M.R. = Canadian Mounted Rifles
Enemy aeroplane painted red shoots down one of our ‘planes & later on we shoot down one of theirs. The red ‘plane is manned by a dare-devil Hun. Much shelling & some very near to us.
I go the tour of trenches and tunnels.
42nd lose 3 men killed & many wounded when covering a working party on crater.
*It is possible that the red aeroplane was flown by Baron Von Richthofen, The Red Baron. There are reported “kills” credited to him in the area during this time – at Vimy, Oppy, La Neuville, Givenchy, Lens. Draycott names him as the pilot in his memoir.
– snow
We leave Bruay & happiness for Villers au Bois. Snow flurries all day.
Villers au Bois very crowded with troops. Bde. are allotted one room for office only. Lots of mud. No room for a draughting office. In afternoon wander around the ruins of Villers au Bois.
Promoted to Rank of Sergeant.
*New Provisional Government proclaimed in Russia.
To Aerodrome & make flight in Aeroplane for observation.
*Russian Premier, Prince Golitsin removed from office by Revolutionary Party.
5 enemy ‘planes attack two of our Scouts and send them to earth one in flames. Observer burnt to death. Pilot has feet burned. The other crashes to earth in Neuville St. Vaast both seriously injured. Enemy possess a very fast machine. Ours are much too slow.
*A scout plane is type of surveillance aircraft used for the purpose of discovering an enemy position and directing artillery. Aerial reconnaissance was often a hazardous task because of a requirement to fly at slow speeds and at low altitudes. The task was made all the more dangerous with the arrival of additional German flying squadrons, including Manfred von Richthofen‘s highly experienced and well equipped (with the Albatros D.III) Jasta 11 (No. 11 Fighter Squadron), which led to sharp increase in Royal Flying Corps casualties.(www.wikipedia.com)
– fine
Enemy sending over 5.9” naval shells into La Targette. I go to see if my boys are alright as a shell pitched just outside their dugout. As I near the place a screaming shell bursts & the air is black with debris. The boys are alright.
In afternoon about 3:30 pm 5 enemy aeroplanes attack one of our machines (a Bristol) and succeed in forcing it to descend in our own lines at back of front line. Fritz strafes it with shells. Another of our machines takes its place & the enemy move off.
Enemy active in morning. At noon I go up to O.P.’s to observe the fire of our 9.2” on Prinz Arnolf Graben and other objects. The enemy retaliated with the most terrible hell of a bombardment. We had to take cover not before we had made good observations. I called on P.P.s Regtl. Sergt. M. and rec’d a copy of Regtl. Order containing my “Mentioned in Dispatches”.
*O.P.’s…Observation Post
*Prinz Arnolf Graben was a German tunnel, one of many dug by both sides at Vimy Ridge.
*O.P. Trees ~ Built using steel and wrought iron, these are no normal trees. They are camouflaged weapons of war used to devastating effect during World War I on the Western Front. The bizarre fake tree observation posts were built to spy on the enemy after switching them under cover of darkness with real battle-scarred stumps left in no-man’s land. The ideal tree was dead and often it was bomb blasted. The photographs and sketches were then sent to a workshop where artists constructed an artificial tree of hollow steel cylinders. It contained an internal scaffolding for reinforcement, to allow a sniper or observer to ascend within the structure. Then, under the cover of night, the team cut down the authentic tree and dug a hole in the place of its roots, in which they placed the O.P. Tree.
Wednesday 10 January 1917
Gas attack on our left by the enemy.
Cold & misty rain.
I go to Neuville St. Vaast to survey north of the village, a piece of ground with many trenches over it.
Enemy busy with T. Mortars. Our Stokes guns reply vigorously. I make my survey & on way back visit P.P.C.L.I. H.Qtr. where I learn from Regtl. Sergt. Major Jordon that I’ve been “Mentioned in Dispatches”. It appeared in Regtl. Orders.
*Considered uncivilised prior to World War One, the development and use of poison gas was necessitated by the requirement of wartime armies to find new ways of overcoming the stalemate of unexpected trench warfare. Although it is popularly believed that the German army was the first to use gas it was in fact initially deployed by the French. In the first month of the war, August 1914, they fired tear-gas grenades (xylyl bromide) against the Germans. Nevertheless the German army was the first to give serious study to the development of chemical weapons and the first to use it on a large scale. (www.firstworldwar.com)
*Mention in Dispatches is awarded for valiant conduct, devotion to duty or other distinguished service. During the First World War, 5467 MIDs were awarded to Canadians. (www.forces.gc.ca)
|
|
|
|
|