Saturday 2nd
September 1916 From our Correspondent in
the Field
The 1st
Battalion remain in Silesia Trenches, just north of Maricourt, though it is
finding working parties digging assembly trenches in the front line ready for
the next great attack. Silesia Trenches have been receiving occasional
attention from the enemy, one shell this evening wounding nine men of B Company
in their trench. The adjutant remarked to me that this particular shell was “of
a peculiar type. It burst on the parapet in a reddish light and formed no
crater”.
At noon today 24th Division again took up the fight east of Delville Wood. This area is so
pockmarked with shell holes as to resemble parts of the Moon visible through a
telescope. The fighting was effectively shell-hole to shell-hole and the
division were unable to push the enemy back from the eastern edge of the wood.
Over the last
two days a curious little incident has been going on in far-off Egypt. The
adjutant wired it to our staff due to its unusual nature. A local Bedford man
named Ashpole has been in hospital suffering from some unspecified ailment. At
five o’clock yesterday afternoon he escaped from hospital and swam across the
Suez Canal “evidently quite insane”. He was recaptured in the early hours of
this morning and once more sent to hospital, this time under guard, for his own
safety.
