Wednesday June 19th, 1918
Reveille 4:30. Work 6 – 10. Awful hot, hope we will leave very soon or the whole Battalion will be bad. Canteen shift up, nothing much. Mail up – two letters and three papers – one home and one A.C. Sutton.
Sandfly Fever
Unbeknownst to Frank the Battalion will be moving camp over the next couple of days. When the 13th arrived at La Marraine two weeks ago, the Battalion Diary noted that it was an old and unhealthy camp. The trenches were full of sand flies and there were insufficient billets for the men to avoid being camped out in them during the day.
At the end of this month, in the assessment of the health of the Battalion, Lt Colonel Morrell will record, ‘An attack of Sandfly Fever incapacitated about 125 men for ten days at La Marraine Camp’. This equated to one in seven of the men. No wonder Frank is hoping they leave soon.
While sandfly fever is not the terrible, life-altering disease that malaria is, its short term symptoms are unpleasant and debilitating. Consequently this outbreak will cause the camp to be ‘condemned’ and the battalion moved to the Cugunci show ground – site of the recently held horse show. While tents will be pitched on the new site, the old one will still need to be accessed for cooking and other facilities. It is a stop-gap measure.
Fat Returns
After months of silence on the subject, the fat returns for the week are once again recorded in the Battalion’s Diary. This is probably an indication of how little activity, beyond the routine, is actually going on.
That said, fat was an important raw material in the making of glycerol for explosives. Read more here.
13th (Service) Battalion War Diary – 19th June 1918 – La Marraine
Work and fatigues as usual. Routine hours attended to: Reveille 05:30, Breakfast 06:15, Parade 07:00 – 10:00 and 17:30 -18:30 hrs. Fat returns for week ending 18-6-18: A Coy 18lbs, B Coy nil, C Coy 21lbs, D & HQ 28lbs. Total 67lbs.
References & Further Reading