With the East Anglian Royal Engineers

Men of the East Anglian Royal Engineers February 1915

Monday 15th February 1915: Sapper Charles Chesher, near Cuinchy, east of Béthune, tells us: “We have had four days away from the trenches, but expect to be back again tomorrow. I can tell you we are in a very warm place just now, but we have been lucky so far this month, and have not had one casualty. Our new officer has just joined us in place of Lieutenant Munby(1) and if he is as good he will be all right. It was a very sad death. His section had just finished their work for that night and he went into an old house to get a cup of coffee when a shot came through from somewhere – a kind of mystery – and he died almost at once. He was hardly in the house and we had been there several nights but never saw any danger there. But all our casualties took place within about four hundred yards of one another”.

“One place we go through here will be in the history of this war, for not one brick remains on another. The first afternoon we arrived here, an attack took place within an hour of us being in the line. About two thousand shells went over us. Some of our infantry have blood poisoning from the lyddite which was in the German trenches(2). They(3) were all new troops and most of them ran away and we heard some most amusing tales but the shell fire was the heaviest we have had for about four months. All their clothes were new and they were holding a most important position but it all went in about two hours”.

Source: Bedfordshire Times 19th February 1915

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(1) See the entry for 30th January 1915

(2) Also known as picric acid. It was a form of high explosive used in shells.

(3) Presumably the Germans from whom the trenches were captured, the two thousand shells being British. This is probably one of the attacks at Cuinchy on 1st or 6th of February.