Cecil wrote home on 24 November 1916: Dear Ruth, How is everything going on at home? We are jogging along just about the same here and there is very little to report. This part of the line is very quiet as Chap will tell you because he knows it well. With the aid of your cookery book we had an apple pudding and a raisin spotty dog which proved a great success and made a change. … I hope you won’t worry too much over poor old Bert, it must be rotten for you at home but cheer up and look after the Mater & Pater. Love to all Affect. Bro Joe.
In early January 1917 Cecil was transferred to C Battalion, which was equipped with Mk. 4 tanks. Cecil’s vehicle was a Mk. 4 male armed with six pounders and several machine guns. March 1918 brought a massive German offensive that pushed the British back across all its previous gains, withdrawing over the old Somme battlefields, almost to the town of Amiens. The German army now though was a spent force, and on 8 August the British Army attacked.
On 29 August the Germans evacuated Bapaume and Cecil’s section of three tanks (now the new lighter and faster tanks known as Whippets) found itself supporting the New Zealand Division outside the town. Cecil’s section attacked the German position outside the village of Fremicourt. A section of War Diary describes the afternoon of 29 August 1918, and is quoted at length overleaf.
Thank you to Frank Stockdale for the speech from which this was transcribed.
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