December 1915

3rd Grenadier Guards – War Diary – December 1915

 

1 Dec 1915	Resting at LAVENTIE in very good billets.
2 – 3 Dec 1915	Relieved Scots Guards in the trenches. The tour passed off without incident.
4 – 5 Dec 1915	Back at LAVENTIE. On evening of 5th went back into line.
6 – 7 Dec 1915	A tour again relieving without incident. Parapet getting very good and trenches well founded. No shelling.
8 – 13 Dec 1915	Brigade relieved on night of 7th and marched back to LA GORGUE to Divisional reserve. Drill and training daily.
14 Dec 1915	Relieved the 1st Bn Grenadier Guards in the trenches from SIGN POST LANE – MOATED GRANGE NORTH. The relief in this position of line is usually unpleasant because companies have to go on the top of the ground right into the front trench. Against active enemy troops this would be attended by regular casualties but the Germans in the neighbourhood seemed idle and very few men were hit during the whole of the period.
16 Dec 1915	Relieved and to billets RIEZ BAILLEUL. Men not very comfortable but perhaps consoled by being well out of shell area.
18 -24 Dec 1915	Carrying on in the same routine 48 hours in and 48 hours out. During this period a company of the Royal Welch Fusiliers of the 38th Div were attached for instruction.The enemy were more active at this time, two ????? having been seriously damaged by the frequent raids being made on trenches along the divisional front. Our patrols however did not have the fortune to ??????? any opposition although they were extremely active and ?patched? the enemy wire, the ????? in front of DUCKS BILL and in no man’s land almost every night. The work carried out on the line was of a routine description though drainage solutions were perfected. The commanding officer Col Corry offered several new ?drafts?, handling the spade himself. In this work he was usually assisted by the 2nd in command, Maj Maitland but the adjutant did not show much partiality to this form of employment. On the last day of this tour the enemy ????? which had only indulged previously in desultory and usually ill directed fire, shelled the front trenches hotly for two periods of an hour. The ?shelling? in ???????? a 77mm one enfiladed our trenches from ?half? in ???? within a degree. providentially only two casualties were inflicted.
25 Dec 1915	Was celebrated in the customary manner, the men getting 1 pint of beer and Christmas pudding.
26 Dec 1915	Marched to MERVILLE on relief by 2nd Bn Grenadier Guards.
27 – 31 Dec 1915	Training

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