This is an extract from the diary of Roy Louis Coppin Bolto from Adelaide, Australia who fought on the Western front during World War One. He wrote this account in London while the war still rag-ged in France after being transferred from the front to the 70th Battalion, Wareham England.

After training in North Africa Roy was sent to France, his battalion is stationed near Erquinghem and is about to get its first taste of the front...

We hopped the parapet just at 7p.m. It was a splendid charge & the Tommies on our left said that they had never seen a finer one & we drove Fritz out of 3 lines of trenches & started to consolidate the captured position which we held until day break when we found out that we were cut off in the rear by the enemy getting in behind us. How he did so we cannot say. My belief is that he had big dugouts & when we went over they hid in these & in the morning when daylight broke they came up behind us & commenced firing on us from the rear. One of our Majors was killed just over our front line 7 the other was wounded close alongside of me in the captured trench. (Afterwards he was taken prisoner). This left a Capt. White in charge as most of our officers were either killed or wounded, & when he saw the position we were in he gave the order “Every man for himself” & acting on that order we charged back across the enemies line back to our own front line again. This is where we sustained our heaviest casualties, for the enemy just turned his machine guns along our parapet & when we came through this hellish fire it mowed us down like skittles. When I tumbled over our parapet it was to find the ground strewn with dead, dying, & wounded men lying everywhere & it was a pitiful sight to see & one lad as I passed him begged me to shoot him, for he had both his legs blown off just above the knees. During the night one of our machine gunners was wounded close to me & we bandaged him up as well as we could & though he could hardly move his leg he worked hard with me in filling sandbags & building up the parapet.

We waited in our front line until orders came along to move out as soon as possible & when that came along we moved down to the communication trench. A good many were wounded getting there for Fritz was shelling our front line very heavily. Those of us who were for-tunate in escaping from that fire wandered wearily back to out billets heartsick & fairly knocked up. We had about 860 casualties out of our battalion of 1,000 men, the division losing 9,163 men & about 343 officers in about 11 hours. My mate Charlie was killed in this charge I believe, for I cannot find any word concerning him & the A.M.C. Say that he had not passed through any of the dressing stations as being wounded. The loss of Charlie was a sore blow to me as we had been mates ever since enlisting. The only hope left now is that he may be a prisoner of war.

Roy was moved around from battle to battle, and was also sent on machine gun training on the French coast,. From where on a clear day one could see the coast of England....

I answered letters all day on Sunday & fatigue in the evening. On Wednesday we went into the front line & on Wed. 11th came out again to Brigade H. Qrs at Armentiers & from there we went fer (sic) motors as an advance guard to Strazule via Bailleul (Bay - lool) about 15 miles from Armentiers,Strazeel being 5 miles from Bailluel. We camped that night with New Zea-land signalers who were on their way from the Somme to relieve our Div. Things were jolly merry with them this night as two of them had that day been decorated with the distinguished conduct medal & they were celebrating the event. On the following day we hunted up billets & then we strolled around making a general nuisance of ourselves until Sat. 14th when our battal-ion arrived fer motor lorries about 7 o'clock & we stayed until the 17th when we left at 12-30 7 marched to Bailleul station & entrained & traveled all night in cattle trucks packed in like sar-dines. We arrived at Longpre (Long pray) at daybreak & marched about 12 miles that day & camped at -don’t know this town- on the way to the Somme (as we found out at this time). We camped here one day & the next day we marched 2½ miles& caught French motor lorries which took us to Buire (Bure) after travelling nearly all day & slept in tents. Sat Oct 21st we marched to Mametz wood & camped that night. ...

...We were on a hill about 7 miles from the line & stayed there on fatigue until we were due in the front line. At night one can see the thousands of camp fires which look like the lights of a big township, Oct 24th we went on road fatigues at Dellville Wood (Devils Wood) so called, on account of the terrible fighting which occurred here some months previous. It was fine on the morning of Wed Oct 25th & turned out wet all the afternoon. On Thursday we went to Flers on fatigue & had to get out earlyin the after-noon as Fritz caught us (from his aeroplanes) & shelled us very, heavily, but luckily his range was too short & only one was wounded & we arrived back at camp com-pletely fagged out. Fri 27th fatigue at High Wood. This is where Fritz had dug-outs cut 40 foot deep 7 fully 100ft long with 3 entrances. One of his dugouts went right un-derr the wood & out this other sidel ike a concrete tunnel. The British lost terribly heavy taking this wood & a memorial cross has been erected to the memory of the men in the division who fell in capturing it. Two “tanks” are stranded just at the entrance of this wood. We arrived back to camp that night soaking wet through to find our shel-ters all full of water. On Sat Oct. 25th we went to Flers in the morning on fatigue & received orders to get“back to camp” so as to be ready to go in the front line that night. Sunday was fairly quiet except at “stand to” that night when Fritz put his barrage on us & my dugout was blown in & the shell just missed myself. The barrage lasted about 35 minutes.

The trenches are in a terrible state , with mud up to the knees & are all blown in. I may state here that “stand to” is a custom right through the Allied army (an hour before daybreak & an hour after dusk) as it is at these times an attack is most likely to occur. Fritz again put his barrage on us on Monday morning when a shell burst right on the trench where we were sit-ting but no one was injured. It rained all night & the trench was oh! So lovely & we were all wet to the skin. The mud was above our knees & we could not find a dry spot even to sit down. Sleep was out of the question altogether unless one slept standing up.

“One of our lads shot himself that night while we were having a spell & one can hardly blame him...”

Tuesday was very quiet & we were relieved at p.m. & were lost in the darkness coming out to the reserve line (only 2 miles away) & wandered round in the mud & slush all night & only arriving at our destination at daybreak next morning. One of our lads shot himself that night while we were having a spell & one can hardly blame him on account of the condition we were in. Nov 2nd a shrapnel burst over 6 of us as we were serving out rations today & wounded two of our boys. We stayed in this reserve line until Sat 4th when we came out & camped not far from Delville Wood & went on road fatigue the next day we moved back to Buire on Nov 6th arriving at 8pm having marched about 12 miles. Nov 7th we went on an-other 2 miles & caught motor lorries which took us to billets in St Vast-eh Chaussee (St-Vast-eh-Shassy)arriving there at 9-30 pm. At Buire I met Sgt Knapp & had a good dinner with him of roast steak, onions & mashed potatoes. We had a spell at these billets for 2 days & then we trained until Nov 18th (Anniversary date of leaving dear old Australia) ...

The diary was completed on 24th April 1917.