All the notebooks were written on the right hand page and additions, photos, cartoons or other documents were added to the left hand page.
24th Sept. 1916. Another fine day. We marched to Chimpanzee Trench had tea and then after dark moved on to the Quarry. I had previously requested that a Headquarters dug out should be made by the Engineers, nothing had even been started. The assembly trenches the men were to wait in before assaulting were only half finished, the Norfolk C.O. whose H.Q. were at the Quarry had been directed to superintend all the working parties. (The Bde Major was responsible for this.) he had turned his own and most of my men as well, on to his own trenches so that my men had to dig all night to get any sort of cover – not the best preparation before an attack. I also had a communication trench constructed, blue line E, which enabled men to file under cover into the advanced trenches. This also ought to have been dug previously.
On the opposite page is a sketch plan of the situation round the Quarry, Lesboeufs and Morval.
The Norfolks in A and B were to assault the German line from X to Y at the Zero hour. The Bedfords were to occupy the trenches vacated by the Norfolks and one hour later assault the sunken road and dig in.
The Cheshires at F were in turn to pass through Morval the Warwicks from still further back were to pass through and take Morval and dig in beyond.
At Zero the German trenches were bombarded with Stokes guns, the Norfolks got in with few casualties and took many prisoners also two machine guns. We next went forward in four lines to the sunken road, the men passing over the German trench the Norfolks were in.
On the opposite page is a photograph of the Avenue & gates to Tailly Chateau.
I was very much afraid that had they entered the trench owing to its making an acute angle with the sunken road they might have easily lost direction. The Germans did not wait for us but the Lewis gunners found an excellent target to the west of Morval and did considerable execution. In the middle of this a hare jumped up fairly close. This was too tempting a target and bunny was bowled over giving the Bosh a slight respite. The Cheshires went through us and soon more prisoners came trickling back, then they came in droves, the whole village was ours. The Warwicks then passed through and dug in on the far side of the village. All resistance had collapsed and a couple of squadrons could have collected many prisoners – but they were not forthcoming.
On the opposite page is an aerial photograph of Morval which was dropped by an aeroplane during the Morval fighting and picked up 100 yds from where I was.
There is pinned in a note “No 1 to FANCY. Our guns did us enormous damage. C Coy in position. The signature is unreadable. 25.9.16. 12.55 p.m.
The German shelling was ineffective but we had a number of casualties from our own guns. Lt. Candy was killed and Lt. Draper wounded. There were 12 other ranks killed and 102 wounded in all. Morval as can be seen from the accompanying airplane photo was completely destroyed and there was also very little left of the German trench system.
26th Sept. We remained in the sunken road all day digging in and were then relieved about 8.30 p.m. We got back to Oxford Copse at 11.30 p.m. on the way the Germans dropped shrapnel all round us – very disconcerting in the dark but there were no casualties.
Op the opposite page is a memo from 15th Infy. Bde.
G:1490
O.C. 1st Bedfordshire Regt.
The Brigadier-General Commanding desires to express again his unbounded admiration and gratitude to the Brigade for the magnificent manner in which they captured their objectives on Monday last.
Owing to the Military situation the Brigade, though badly needing a rest, and after two previous most successful attacks, had to be again employed, and with splendid gallantry and determination completely defeated the enemy and captured the most important Village of MORVAL.
The Brigadier-General feels that no words of his can sufficiently express his pride in having the honour of commanding such troops. The mutual co-operation between Battalions has, throughout the time we have been on the SOMME Front, been most helpful and has largely contributed to the results obtained.
All ranks from Commanding Officers downwards have combined to maintain the glorious traditions of the Brigade, and the Brigadier-General has no hesitation in saying the 15th Infantry Brigade is second to none in the British Army.
W. Tyrrell Brook Captain.
Brigade Major, 15th Infantry Brigade.
