get relieved after dark. by No 2 squad & return home to the A.D.S at Ablain about 1½ miles, no lights may be used after dark at Ablain & no smoke on Fritz takes a pot shot. When we have had supper we do not go to the dugout given us in the first place, but to a cellar about 300 yards away. it is a brick cellar, no work has been done on it at all, it is wet, muddy & smells fearfull we sleep best way we can. Saturday Jan 27 Pretty quiet for Kaisers birthday, we start in to find a stove for our hole & to make the place fit to live in but S.S.S tries to yank us out at 8.00 A.M & put us on wood fatigue we kick & get till noon to fix up a little, after dinner we fill sandbags to put on the roof of the new dressing room (cellar) & then go down to near the church to collect wood. for our A.D.S. at Ablain also for the M.D.S at Gd Servins, had supper & then loaded up two general service
▸ Where was he?
▸ The war at this time
Preparing for Vimy
Planning for the Vimy assault is intensifying. Canadian Corps staff officers have studied French experiences at Verdun and are applying the lessons. Artillery will be key: a creeping barrage that the infantry can follow closely. Every gun position, every target, is being registered. Underground, engineers are extending tunnel systems that will shelter thousands of troops before the attack. Above ground, full-scale replicas of the German trench system are being constructed behind the lines for rehearsals. Every soldier will know his role.
