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Spr. James Bolton
British Army 109th Railway Coy. Royal Engineers
from:9 Railway Cottages, Great Altcar, Lancashire
The following is a transcript of handwritten notes made by my great-uncle James Bolton: Enlisted 20th November 1915. Called up 30th of October 1917 to join the Royal Engineers at Longmoor. Left Liverpool for Longmoor at 11.00 pm and arrived 8.30 am. We had five weeks training. Then we had leave from the 4th until the 10th Dec, arriving back at 11 o'clock on the 10th. Left for France at 8.30 pm, 12th of Dec and landed Folkstone 4 o'clock on the 13th, boarded the ship for France on the 14th, and left 10.30 am arriving Boulogne 1.50 pm. Went on to St Martins camp arriving 4 pm, left again for Calais 9 o'clock on the 15th arriving 5 pm. After staying a week, we were sent to different companies, with 33 of us going to the 109th Railway Company.
We started off from Calais Saturday morning 22nd and proceeded to Hazelrouck, where we changed for Stumwerck. When we arrived, the Company had moved so we had to go back to Hazelrouck, but the train only took us as far as Strazule where it left us for the night and came back at 8 o'clock and took us to Hazelrouck. We stayed there till 4 o'clock, when we boarded the train for Arnicke. We landed there at 8 pm and were putting for the night when we got orders to pack up and proceed to Poperinghe, where we landed at 2 o'clock in the morning. We stayed there till 10 o'clock when we again set off for Elverdinghe, arriving there at 2 o'clock on the afternoon of the 24th Dec. We then had the next day (Christmas Day) off being and started work on the 26th.
We were working on the Light Railway and we put three new sidings in at Wosten, Stoke, and Stone Dump. The rest was maintenance at Luton, Broad St, Charpentire Lancia Road, Stoke Warwick, and Iron Cross. It was here at Elverdinghe about the second week in January that the Germans dropped a bomb and killed 9 horses and one man. The hole it made was 67 feet deep and 27 feet across.
We went on detachment to Toronto Camp from the 20th of Jan until the 20th of Feb, when we returned to Elverdinghe to pack up for Auderdom. While there, we were maintaining broad gauge at Vlamertinghe, Brandhock, and Auderdom through Dickebusch yard English wood up to Elisenwall. It was about this time that the Germans made an attack around Himmil, and we were forced to move to Ougraffe on the 11th of April. We went and took the Dickibusch railway line up. The Germans used to shell us here but we were lucky and had no casualties. We were here only two weeks when we had to move again to Wippenhock , but were there only four days when we had to move again to Abule on the 29th of April. It was on the 28th March that I experienced the heaviest bombardment. It lasted for 48 hours and shook the vans (railway goods wagons) where we were sleeping like leaves. While at Abule we went to Ouderdom yard to salvage some material but it was being shelled it with gas shells and we got slightly gassed. We went again, but the shelling continued and we had to go back.
We then got orders to take up the railroad around by Vlamertinghe. This was in May. The engine took us on a wagon as far as a place called Kettering Junction and gave us a flying shunt (pushed the wagon so it rolled on its own) and we ran about a mile and a half. We started taking up the road and things were pretty quiet. About the fifth morning we were going as usual and when we got part way we could see the line was broken. We jumped off and tried to stop the railway wagon but we couldn't and it fell in the shell hole. We had to get it out and mend the road before we could go to load up.
About the sixth day the Germans began to shell, but we had got past, but they blew up a French gun emplacement and were on the target every time with about a dozen shells. We finished taking up the road next day and we then went repairing between Abule and Godwersvelde. We were sent to St Omer on the 15th June for a couple of weeks rest. After we came back we were working on the gun spurs (branch lines) below Mont De Cat. We put 4 in for 12 inch guns.
We had a pretty quiet time till August when we had 4 chaps and 1 officer wounded. Then we were sent to repair the yard at Runninghelst on 22 Aug. We had not been long when the Germans began to shell us. We moved off the main road into the yard but we had not been long here when 4 of us were killed and 6 wounded. I was picked up and bandaged up and put on a bogey (railway wagon) with two more of the chaps and they ran us up the line for about 2 miles to a dressing station. When we got there they had moved, but they had an ambulance and they took us off to the 2nd Canadian CCS at Esquebeck. I was there two weeks and then moved down to the 2nd Australian General Hospital at Boulogne. I was there five days and then taken aboard the Cambrian for England on the 10th of September 1918. I was taken to Beaufort War Hospital in Bristol, where I stayed for four weeks. I was then sent to convalesce at Longleat House, Warminster. I was there two weeks, and then I went to Plymouth for six weeks. From there I went on ten days sick leave and then rejoined my regiment on the 14th of December. I wasn't fit for training, so they gave me a batman's job with Major Phillips R.A.M.C. at Longmoor Hospital.
