Extract from George Cheadle's diary

A transcript of George Cheadle's diary is available at Wollongong City Libraries.
The following extracts have been selected from the diary:

CHRISTMAS DAY 1916 (First entry):
Had breakfast at 8.a.m. . Fell in for Church. Parade at 9.30 a.m.. After Chruch we were given Christmas billies. Christmas dinner at 12.30 p.m. Went down to Ludgershall St. at 6.p.m. Came home at 10.p.m.

BOXING DAY 1916:
Revallie 7.a.m. Went over to No. 5 camp and found Alex Mathers ( Mother’s Brother). He came over at night and read letters.

6th February 1917:
Up at 7.30 a.m.. Had breakfast and shave. Met my mate at 9.a.m. Went out to his sister’s. Came back to town . Had dinner. Went to pictures in afternoon. Went to the theatre and saw “Cinderella” came home at 11.50 p.m.

23rd April 1917:
Had our Photos taken, the while of P. R. S. staff. Classified in afternoon. Dentally unfit. Paid 30/- (Shillings)

25th April 1917:
Church Parade in morning. Boxing tournaments in afternoon. Went to Concert in Church of England Hut that evening.

23rd June 1917:
Met Cecil Hawes from Coledale

27th June 1917:
Met young Jack West from Thirroul at the Boxing Tournament.

6th April:
Route march in morning. Passed a compound with about 4,000 German prisoners of war. On fatigue cleaning up the lines in morning. Rifle inspection in afternoon. Met Dave Bradbury, he was just going up to go through Gas.

11th April 1918:
Had a very miserable night’s rest as we were in cattle trucks, 35 men in each. Hardly any room to turn round. At Daybreak we were just outside Amiens. An armoured train passed us this morning. We also passed the Australian Flying Corps Aerodrome. Arrived at destination Vignacourt about 9.a.m. marched through the village out into a paddock and waited until our Billets were ready. Went over and had a look at a couple of tanks near by. Marched into Billets at 2.p.m. This is the same Village we were in our march to the Somme in July 1916. Went to a canteen, got some smokes, then turned in for the night.

12th April 1918:
We heard a very heavy bombardment last night. We are about 20 miles from the line. Fell in full marching order 9.30.a.m. 1st Div. of Artillery passed through this morning. Marched about 5 Kilo’s and camped in a paddock for a couple of hours until the Billets were ready. So boiled the billy and had a bit of a snack about 7.p.m. We marched to the far end of the village Pernois and had a swim in the creek.

30th April 1918:
Had to stand to form  1.15 for half an hour on account of us putting over gas. It was sent over on big shells like torpedoes and lit up the whole of the front when it was fired. Stood to again for an hour at 4 o’clock. Issued with Rum and rations, porridge, bacon and tea. About 7 o’clock Fritz sent over a few Whiz Bangs. Had a sleep up till about 1 o’clock. Had a bit of a snack, went back to bed until 3.30a.m. Four  Hun Taubes went over our lines Anti air craft guns fired a lot of ammunition at them but did no damage. Heavy bombardment on our left near Mitirieu by our Artillery about 7 o’clock. Sergeant Buckley with a couple of men out of 10 Platoon made a raid about 9.p.m. and brought back one prisoner. Issued with dry rations, stew and tea at 11 o’clock. Some battery of our artillery were dropping their shells short and they lobbed over our parapet. Went to bed about 12 o’clock.

9th May 1918:
Another beautiful day. Slept nearly all day. A couple of Taubes came over about lunch time. Relief to trenches cancelled. Fell in with all our gear at 8.30.p.m. Marched out of trenches to Castear a distances of about 7.Kilos. The Y.M.C.A has a drink of cocoa and a couple of boxes of matches for us. Got into motor wagons and rode for about an hour. Marches about 4 Kilos and went under canvas.

13th May 1918:
Parade in the morning. Bomb throwing. Football match between 3rd. and 4th. Battalion. Had to march about 8 kilos to Football ground, 3rd. Battalion won 13 points to nil. About 9.30p.m. five Hun planes came over and dropped about 50 bombs, one fell very close to our camp. There was about 30 search lights up and when they got him in the light all the machine guns and Carbines opened up.

22nd May 1918:
Stand to till 3.a.m. We do not know how far Fritz lines are away. Can see no sign of any trenches in front. Fritz put up a bit of a barrage in morning at stand to, a few. Jammerwarfers came over but did no damage. Have a good dugout. Spring mattress and feather pillow. Went out to do some wiring at night.

23rd May 1918:
Cannot move around in the daytime at all. Our planes are busy all day bombing behind Fritz’s line. One of our Patrols ran into a nest of German machine guns tonight and got two men wounded, but only slightly.

24th May 1918:
Germans started to shell out line and shelled No. 9 Platoon out of their trench. Went out on Patrol tonight. Got out about 600 yards and met a big German Patrol. Had to come back at “jiggery”.  Got back to about 300 yards of our trench and sent a few Grenades at him and he turned the M guns on to us. Had to keep our heads well down. Got back to our lines without a casualty after firing our 12 grenades.

25th May 1918:
Sergeant out of 9th. Platoon got drunk on Rum this morning and took a revolver and raised a German outpost by himself. Killed one and wounded 3 others. Got back without a scratch.

26th May 1918:
Started to rain this morning and our dugout is leaking like a tap. Packed up ready to move at 10.30.a.m. Relieved by A. Company. Went back about two Kilos into billets.

27th May 1918 (Last entry in the diary. George was subsequently killed on 22 August 1918):
had to keep under cover all day. Went out trench digging at night. Got home about 2.a.m in the morning.