Saturday February 23rd, 1918
Work till 3:30am, orderly man breakfast 6:45. Looked after myself for once. No day work. Second relief AB14, worked a very long night – glad when in.
The Dugout
Frank seems more cheerful today. He is an orderly – which means he will have access to more food and enjoy lighter duties before he goes back into AB14 tonight. When off duty, he is probably resting in a dugout alongside some of the fellows from his platoon.
On the front and reserve lines, dugouts were the preferred quarters for housing. Some were very basic, almost dug into the hillside. Others were made of sandbags or even concrete. Still more, a combination of all three. The roofs ranged from drapes of tarpaulin to sheets of corrugated iron held in place and masked by stones. This photograph was taken in March 1916 and shows the British dugout camp at Rhondda Valley. It was part of the Birdcage Line defences around Salonika town. It reveals the sheer scale of the effort and the variety of building techniques and materials.
‘Typically, on the Doiran, Vardar and Krusha Balkan sectors, camps of dugouts nestled like shanty towns in ravines, behind ridges and on the reverse slopes of hills leading Lt John Hammond to liken the scent to a rabbit warren.’¹
Today’s Battalion diary mentions that all the bombproof dugouts are to have a second exit. There is an urgency to the instruction. The significant amount of artillery action today – on both sides – underscores this. While ordinary dugouts would provide a degree of protection from both weather and assault, others were needed to be more robust. This sketch shows a plan for the construction of a bombproof dugout, it is dated March, 1918.#
13th (Service) Battalion War Diary – 23rd February 1918 – No 1 Sector, Minden Camp
Our ‘Heavies’ were active all day especially against Hill 340, the Casque, Dojran Hill, and battery position north of Piton Chauve. Enemy retaliated with 50 High Explosive on Rockley and Tortue, air bursts over the sector and High Explosives on batteries in Deep Cut Ravine. Our Trench Mortar fired on Pill Box in O2. Enemy retaliated with 6 light shells on B4. Retaliation by our snipers appears to have discouraged enemy snipers during the night. Much work has been done near the Pill Box in O2, on the Orb and Hill 340. Two men were seen working in trenches on east slope of Grand Couronne, they wore dark uniforms. All bombproof dugouts in the Sector that have not two exits are to have the second one made at once. 1 OR struck off effective strength under GRO 1011 with effect from 23-2-18. A reinforcement of 2 OR is taken on from 21-2-18.
References & Further Reading
* Rhondda Valley dugout camp, IWM
# image may be subject to copyright
¹ ‘Under the Devil’s Eye’ by A Wakefield and S Moody (Kindle location 3340) & Lt Hammond’s ‘A Living Witness’