Friday 5th March 1915
Company training 8 to 11 a.m. We expect to have Divisional operations again tonight though no definite orders were issued this morning. From 2 p.m. we were standing by waiting for instructions. About 7 p.m. Brigade orders came through for a move at 8.40 p.m. It was a dark night with a good moon rising about midnight. Our Regiment took its place in the Brigade at the hour ordered. The men carried their full kits in pack and most of them wore shorts. We marched about 8 miles via Heliopolis and the Suez Road to the place of assembly for the Division which was reached about midnight after approximately three hours marching. As soon as we arrived we learnt that our Brigade was to take up a portion of a line, occupy and entrench it immediately. Our Regiment was allotted 600 yards of the front. Coy. Commanders rode up with the O.C. Regt and were given their sections of the line. Entrenching tools were quickly issued from the Brigade reserve and Coy. Commanders marched their commands up in rear of their portion of the frontage. The 200 yards allotted to our Company was quickly parcelled out amongst the 4 platoons and the clink of pick and shovel was soon audible along the whole line. We started digging at 1 a.m. in good moonlight. Platoons had 14 pick and 14 shovels each and 50 yards of front. The digging was difficult, the soil being hard and stony. At 4.30 a.m. digging was stopped and everyone stood to arms. At dawn an attack was made by a skeleton force on the whole entrenched line. We had dug about 30 yards of trench per platoon with a couple of communication trenches as well. At 6.30 a.m. the troops filled in the trenches, reassembled by units and marched back to camp. Mounted officers attended the “pow-wow” always held by the G.O.C after the manoeuvres were over. The G.O.C expressed himself as immensely pleased with the work done by the Division. Our Regiment reached camp at 9.30 a.m. The men were quite ready for breakfast and soon tucked themselves away for a snooze. Only two men of our Company failed to see out the nights work. One fell out marching out to the place of assembly while the other was taken suddenly ill while digging in the trenches. This was an immense improvement on the 24 who fell out on the previous days Divisional training. At the conference the G.O.C indicated that we would soon be making a move, that we would require our warmest underclothing, but he did not mention our ultimate destination. Speculation is very rife as to whether we are to take part in the operations in the Dardanelles. The prospect of taking part in an expedition to this locality is viewed very favourably by most of the men.
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