Grandfather's journal end April 27 & start 28 1915

All his journal entries are in my book "World War 1 - An Unkept Promise" on Kindle or paperback "The Great Promise" on Amazon Available in US, UK, EU

They seemed to lengthen the range a little on to the road where we had to go to get through Ypres. We resolved to go for it and we did. It was the maddest gallop I had ever had; my old charger never moved so quickly as when he galloped round ' Dead Man's Gulch' and through the town itself.

The only ones we met till through the town were the dead ones lying about.

Our troubles for this night were not over yet. I had only a faint idea where the battery was going to, and instead of following the right road, we took the wrong.

Eventually found ourselves just on the left of Hill 60, which was being subjected to a fierce bombardment from all directions. We had another mad ride back and tried another road. We found a reel of wire which must have fallen off one of the wagons, and knew we were on the right track. We were, and eventually caught the battery just as dawn was breaking.

April 28th

Went into action on the edge of a wood on the left of Ypres; this seemed more quiet than the place we had vacated.

In the afternoon we ran our wire to a point for observing, just over the canal. Everywhere about here was a scene of desolation, half- starved cattle roaming about, pigs, and all sorts of farm commodities; many were lying about dead.

The French Infantry held this front and just in the rear of the trenches were 4 of their Howitzers, which showed how far the enemy had advanced. We stopped to observe some big shell bursting near, a kind we had never seen before, and promptly named it ' Black Jack' on account of the great volume of black smoke they gave off. While we were watching one burst directly over the heads of a few Frenchman, they scattered and I didn't think any were harmed