1st October 1916 On this day:  Camp Paths Abbotts VAD Hospital moves   The Abbotts VAD hospital, Cheltenham, moved from The Abbotts, 49 All Saints Road to The Priory, a larger house nearby doubling its capacity to 100 beds. Hostile Trenches Bombarded   236th London Brigade Royal Field Artillery report from Mametz Wood. At 0700 D236 began to bombard hostile trenches --- near Eaucourt L’Abbaye and other Batteries fired a short intense barrage from 1007 until 1015. At 1515 140 Infantry Brigade assaulted and took Eaucourt L’Abbaye in conjunction with the New Zealand Division on our right. They held firm on the left flank with the 20th Battalion holding firm on the right: another Battalion attacked, but the situation still remained obscure. War Diaries Messines Sector - Flanders   Pioneer Work started in September for the 16th Btn. Royal Irish Rifles and continued throughout October with the weather worsening as winter progressed. "The trenches and dugouts to begin with were not such at all in the sense in which the troops had been wont to use the names on the Ancre. The fighting trenches consisted everywhere save on the highest ground, of parapets built of sandbags filled with clay. In places there was a parados similarly constructed, but over long stretches the men in the front line simply stood behind the wall, with no protection against the back-burst of shells. Water in this country appeared everywhere just below the surface and it was useless to dig trenches in the real sense for any other purpose than drainage. Even the communication trenches were sunk not deeper than a foot and piled high on either side with earth which made them satisfactory enough as cover from view, but very vulnerable to shellfire. These communication trenches were longer than those to which the troops had been accustomed, the approaches to the front line being much more exposed than among the folds of the Somme country. As for dugouts, there were none. Little wooden-framed shelves in the parapets, a few "baby elephants", arched steel shelters, which if covered thickly enough with sandbags, afforded protection against the shells of field guns, served for the troops in line, while further back, for battalion HQ and forts, there were ruined farms, which often had good cellars and in the framework of which concrete structures could be hidden. It was hard for troops used to the Somme chalk to accustom their minds to the spongy nature of this soil." "When it rained, which was not seldom, all the low lying ground was flooded. The valley of the Douve (a small stream) above all, from Wulverghem to the front line, became a muddy swamp, in which water lay in sheets. At such times, and indeed during a great part of the winter, many trenches simply could not be occupied. No adequate idea of the impression conveyed upon the mind of a man coming up north from the clean white trenches of the Somme can be obtained of all this area unless it is conceived as dirty, mournful and disconsolate; haunted by the evil stench of blue clay, and brooded over by an atmosphere of decay." "You went into that front line and you never even took --- I don’t think I took my equipment off; and there were no dugouts in this particular part; and the only place I could stretch myself out was where someone had sandbagged a part of the parapet and they’d left a space between sandbags and you could crawl in on hands and knees and stretch yourself out. I remember that was the only place I could get down to have a rest." October Casualties in 16th Btn. Royal Irish Rifles: Officers 1 wounded, Other Ranks 6 wounded. The Terrors by SN White  Zeppelin raid on London  On the Move Zeppelin raid on London   The next raid came on the 1st of October 1916. Eleven Zeppelins were launched at targets in the Midlands and at London. As usual weather played a major role and only L 31 under the experienced Heinrich Mathy, on his 15th raid, reached London. Approaching from Suffolk, L 31 was picked up by the searchlights at Kelvedon Hatch around 2145, turning away, the airship detoured over Harlow, Stevenage and Hatfield. As the airship neared Cheshunt at about 2320 the airship was quickly picked up by six searchlights. Three aircraft of No. 39 Squadron were in the air and closed in on L 31. A BE2c piloted by 2nd lieutenant Wulstan Tempest engaged the Zeppelin at around 2350. Three bursts were sufficient to set fire to L 31, and it crashed near Potters Bar with all 19 crew dying, Mathy jumping from the burning airship. His body was found near the wreckage, embedded some four inches in the ground. Tempest had had to dive out of the way of the stricken airship and, possibly suffering from anoxia, crashed without injury on landing. "The Zeppelin was now nearly 15,000 feet high and mounting rapidly….[I] dived straight at her, firing a burst straight into her as I came. I let her have another burst as I passed under her and then banking my machine over, sat under her tail, and flying along underneath her, pumped lead into her …As I was firing, I noticed her begin to go red inside like an enormous Chinese lantern and then a flame shot out of the front part of her and I realized she was on fire. She then shot up about 200 feet, paused, and came roaring down straight on to me before I had time to get out of the way. I nose-dived for all I was worth… and just managed to corkscrew out of the way as she shot past me, roaring like a furnace." Second Lieutenant W. Tempest. "The Zeppelin drifted perpendicularly in the darkened sky. A gigantic pyramid of flames, red and orange, like a ruined star falling slowly to earth. Its glare lit up the streets and gave a ruddy tint even to the waters of the Thames. The spectacle lasted two or three minutes. It was so horribly fascinating that I felt spellbound , almost suffocated with emotion, ready hysterically to laugh or dry. When at last the doomed airship vanished from sight there arose a shout the like of which I never heard in London before — a hoarse shout of mingled execration, triumph and joy. It was London’s Te Deum for another crowning deliverance. Four Zeppelins destroyed in a month!" Journalist, Michael MacDonagh, who watched the spectacle from Blackfriars Bridge. The next morning, MacDonagh’s editor sent him to Potters Bar, where in heavy rain, he located the crash site: "One body was found in the field some distance from the wreckage. He must have jumped from the doomed airship from a considerable height. So great was the force with which he struck the ground that I saw the imprint of his body clearly defined in the stubbly grass. There was around hole for the head, then deep impressions of the trunk, with outstretched arms, and finally the widely separated legs. Life was in him when he was picked up, but the spark soon went out. He was, in fact, the Commander, who had been in one of the gondolas hanging from the airship." John Doran  Winter quarters  Move to new billets  Church service and C Sqn. relocation  Pumping Resumes  Clocks go Back  On the Move In the Trenches   18th Durhams are in the trenches of the Givenchy Sector. Weather is fine. Quiet on the whole. 11 East Lancs relieved 13 York & Lancs on their left during the night. Mutual rifle grenade & trench mortar activity in late afternoon. 60 reinforcements reported to 18th DLI, Capt. J. B. Hughes-Game was wounded. 18th DLI war diary WO95/2361/1  Attack Made  Local Nuisance  Arguments and Ownership  Move  Reliefs  Reliefs  Training  Relieving the Canadians  Working Parties  Shelling  Church Parade  Reliefs Complete  On the Move  Brigade Reserve  Quiet  Time Change  Artillery Active  Training  Attacks  Mortars Retaliate  On the Move  Details  Duties  Quiet  Visit  Rain  In Reserve  On the Move  On the Move  A New Area  Reliefs  Wintertime came into force this morning at 0100 hours  Aircraft damaged  Aircraft damaged  Aircraft damaged  Aircraft damaged  Reliefs  Orders  Training  On the March  On the March  On the Move  Church Parades Can you add to this factual information? Do you know the whereabouts of a unit on a particular day? Do you have a copy of an official war diary entry? Details of an an incident? The loss of a ship? A letter, postcard, photo or any other interesting snipts? If your information relates only to an individual, eg. enlistment, award of a medal or death, please use this form: Add a story.

Killed, Wounded, Missing, Prisoner and Patient Reports published this day. This section is under construction.

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Remembering those who died this day, 1st of October 1916. Pte. Arthur George Baker. 11th Battalion Notts & Derby Sherwood Foresters Rflmn. Edward John Barrett. 1/17th Btn. London Regiment Pte. Leonard Bowes. 4th Btn. East Yorkshire Regiment Read their Story. Sgt. Donald Forrester Brown. VC 2nd Bn. Otago Regiment Read their Story. Pte. John Devine. 24th (Tyneside Irish) Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers Rflmn. James Fitzgerald. 16th Btn. London Regiment Pte. Charles Hamer. 6th Btn. Durham Light Infantry Read their Story. Pte. William Johnston. 8th Battalion Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Rflmn. Thomas G Morris. 17th Btn. London Regiment Read their Story. Pte. Francis Murray. 9th Btn. Gordon Highlanders att. Royal Engineers Read their Story. Gnr. William Herbert Pye. B Battery, 148 Brigade Royal Field Artillery L/Sgt. Bernard Seaton. Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Pte. Joseph Howard Slater. 6th Btn. Royal Berkshire Regiment Read their Story. Pte. Frank Sweeney. 26th (Tyneside Irish) Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers Read their Story. Pte. James Wallace. 55th Field Ambulance Royal Army Medical Corps Pte. John Alfred Wardle. 1/6th Btn. Durham Light Infantry Read their Story. Rflmn. Henry Thomas Welch. 16th Btn (Prince Consort's Own) Rifle Bgde Read their Story. Thomas Young. Durham Light Infantry Add a name to this list.

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