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Saturday 1 October 2011

Diary Entry - 1st October, 1916

Walford: The clocks had been put back an hour during the night so that we were back to ordinary wintertime again. The General and Major Carrington were round to see us in the morning and seem to think we might go back to our own division soon. In the afternoon there was a small show and we tried to get the whole of Stuff Redoubt and take Regina Trench over the crest, but the show was unsuccessful, as most of the small attacks are. Too much nibbling like this is, in my opinion, a bad principle, as you lose heavily and it is very seldom that you gain ground, whereas, if you go at it on a large scale, with plenty of men, ground is taken with not so great loss of men

Bee: A beautiful day. Very quiet most of the time. There was an attack on Regina Trench, which we were supposed to have got. The 71st moved out this morning about nine a.m., closer to Mouquet Farm. We expected to get the same orders but, thank goodness, are still here. Our General, Sanders, came round today, which was very good of him, we thought. And we aired our views of the 11th Div. RFA. They gave us a very unpleasant time for about an hour and a half. They were shooting a 6-inch gun, which was falling uncomfortably close to us. One landed 2 foot off No. 2 pit where 10 men were standing, and they never hurt a soul. Oakley was wounded today at the OP in Sky Line Trench. A piece of shrapnel went into his arm near the shoulder and he went straight down to the dressing station at Villers [?]. The clock was put back an hour today for wintertime. Stuff Redoubt, which has been reported to have been taken by us in London papers five days ago, is still just as much the Hun's as it is ours. They will not have a big show and put an end to it, but keep bickering away and lose more lives in the end than if they had one good bust.

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