The 1916 war diary of 2nd Lieut. Dick Willis Fleming

 

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This page contains a single entry by Dick published on July 31, 1916 11:59 PM.

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31 July 1916

Posted by Dick on July 31, 1916
About seven thirty this morning four Boche planes came over and dropped twenty four bombs on us; we spent a most uncomfortable half hour, the worst of it is you can't hit back. They seemed specially to go for the artillery horses and one plane devoted its attention to ours and the Essex, but by a great stroke of luck they didn't get a direct hit. One fell close to the Essex lines and two within a couple of hundred yards of ours. The Leicester RHA lost a few men and horses, also the 157 Brigade Transport and the Royal Welsh Fusiliers caught it a bit. It was our first experience of high explosive, a good deal different to shrapnel. Considering the number of bombs dropped, the damage was slight. They made one particularly good shot in dropping a bomb right in the centre of No. 6 redoubt, but luckily there were no casualties.

The efforts of some of the old camels to raise a gallop were very funny. There was an armoured train on the line today between here and Kantara, two twelve pounders mounted 'fore and 'aft and several machine guns. Another troop train of infantry came in the evening, also a battery of Howitzers (4.5s I think). I am responsible for the communications between here and the F.O.O. tonight.

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