Sunday 14 December 2014

No Baths


Monday 14th December 1914: the 1st Battalion has been enjoying a few days in billets behind the front line at Saint-Jans Cappel, a few miles south-west of Ypres. Today they were due to be bathed – a chance to remove several weeks of dirt and wash off lice before having a change of uniform. Sadly they have been unexpectedly ordered to move to Corps Reserve at Nieuwkerke so the baths at Bailleul will be allotted to some other, luckier, unit.

The Battalion has been bivouacked in a muddy field whilst they wait to be ordered into action. An attack can be heard in the distance, somewhere near Wijtschate to the east (1). However the call has not come and they are now expecting to return to rest billets nearby.

Source: X550/2/5


(1) A costly, failed attack by 3rd Division in support of operations by the French

No comments:

Post a Comment