Easter Sunday Apl 8. Everybody on edge for the drive. I go to Communion at Petit Servins at 7.30 8 AM (private confession). Start right in to work. Charlie H pulls a joke on me with a foot & ankle he had cut off. Work hard at dressing until 4.30 PM. Long to see Belle before this big stunt. I hope it goes off good. am in No 1 squad, leave Grand Servins at 4.30 PM. Light marching order arrive at Caberet Rouge 6.30. (Via Hospital Corner) I head our squad out for a tunnell in the ridge called Blue Bull. we go thro Araby trench which is all blown in (the 73rd got caught going into the line & the trench has not been repaired. dead still there, we have to leave the trench & go overland & then get an exciting dash thro death valley. Our squad is put into No 2 dugout with the 38th Batt who are to go over in the first wave. Half an inch of mud & a leaky roof. I am called for runner & go to Dressing station
▸ Where was he?
▸ The war at this time
Eve of the Arras offensive
The Battle of Arras will begin tomorrow on an 18-kilometer front from Vimy Ridge to Neuville-Vitasse. British troops have been preparing underground. Miles of tunnels and caves beneath Arras will shelter 24,000 men before zero hour. In the air, the Royal Flying Corps has suffered heavily. German Albatros fighters outclass most British aircraft, and April 1917 will become known as 'Bloody April.' The RFC will lose 245 aircraft with over 400 aircrew killed, wounded, or captured this month alone.
