The Somme, 1916
In late August 1916 the 1st Canadian Division moved south to the Somme. Murray Robertson, a lieutenant in the 3rd Field Company, Canadian Engineers, spent the next two months supervising working parties near the front. These entries follow him from the march south to the day his company pulled out, October 15.
- 1. August 12, 1916
“Can’t see farther than the wheel drivers on the tool cart.”
He is on the road at 3.30 in the morning, in mist, with the 3rd Field Company, leaving the Ypres sector. The march and a train from St. Omer to Abbeville take most of the rest of the month.
Read the full entry → - 2. September 2, 1916
“As we approach the line our grouch gradually wears off.”
A day after reaching the brickfields near Albert. His company is to relieve an Australian field company that had been digging jumping-off trenches before Mouquet Farm.
Read the full entry → - 3. September 3, 1916
“Australians got MOUQUET FARM last night but were driven out again today.”
The Canadians are about to take over this ground. That afternoon his company moves into dugouts at La Boisselle, a gallery system cut into the chalk with 25 feet of cover overhead.
Read the full entry → - 4. September 4, 1916
“Nothing much for us to do up there but clean up & it’s foolish to risk sappers on work like that.”
His first look at the front line, including Pozières and “the famous farm.” A party of his sappers goes up that night and several are hit; the diary names Cuzner as seriously wounded, and on September 25 notes that he was killed.
Read the full entry → - 5. Paper he kept · September 9 and October 12, 1916
Working Parties, 1916
The diary has no entries from September 5 to 12. A message slip dated September 9 orders a working party of two officers and a hundred men to Red Trench, with “Lieut ROBERTSON” to report at 5.30 the next morning to supervise. It is dated six days before the Canadian attack at Courcelette.
See it in the gallery → - 6. September 14, 1916
“The land battleships went up forward just after dark.”
The eve of the Courcelette attack. Six of the tanks he calls “land battleships” go up to Pozières, and he has been told thirty will follow the infantry in the morning. It is the first time tanks are used in the war.
Read the full entry → - 7. September 15, 1916
“Courcellette, Martinpuich & Flers taken.”
The attack begins about 6 in the morning. He is not in it: he hands his dugout to the 4th Field Company and moves down to the brickfield, and hears the day’s results as rumour in town that evening.
Read the full entry → - 8. September 16, 1916
“Guy & I got application blanks to transfer to the R.F.C.”
The morning after the attack, he and a fellow officer get forms to apply for the Royal Flying Corps. Guy’s application goes in the next day and, the diary says, his own the day after. He did not end up joining the R.F.C.
Read the full entry → - 9. September 28, 1916
“If true it means a lot of dirty work for us in settling down for the winter.”
Word that the Germans are falling back to their next line. For the engineers, a retreat means new ground to make usable before winter.
Read the full entry → - 10. October 2, 1916
“I guess I’m getting yellow but I seem to dread going up to-night”
One of the most candid entries in the diary. He has a cold, says he would not be insulted if offered a job back at 3rd Echelon, and ends the day with “Carmen was killed to-day.”
Read the full entry → - 11. October 14, 1916
“Can’t say I’m sorry to go but I really liked the road job.”
He has spent recent nights on a road behind the heavy batteries; a slip in the gallery dated October 12 puts an infantry party under him to work on the Ovillers–Courcelette road. On his last day he shows two officers over the roads and visits “the other stranded Tank.” The company pulls out the next morning.
Read the full entry →
The company leaves Albert on October 15. Eleven days later it takes over a sector at Villers-au-Bois, in the Vimy area.