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Updated: June 11, 2025
"7th and 8th platoons were merged into one under Giffin. I commanded the left wing, consisting of the sections of Lance-Corporal Topping and Lance-Corporal Heap. We were the fourth wave, supporting the two platoons of Gratton and Allen who were in the third wave.
Gratton says that he jumped down below as soon as he heard it come; he was hit by one or two bricks and covered with dirt; when he looked round again he expected to find the Colonel done in, but found him safe and sound! "Yesterday evening Captain Andrews, Giffin, Dickinson and Allen all went out on working parties. I remained behind as Orderly Officer.
After the General had mentioned that the left did so well the other day Halstead said in the Mess: 'Yes, our left flank was fine, thanks to Floyd; he managed it like a general! That is, of course exaggeration in the opposite direction; I make no claim to any talents of that kind: but it is encouraging for one's company commander to talk like that, more encouraging than the way the second-in-command, Giffin, behaves.
Giffin made himself quite unbearable, and eventually remarked that we would be having a scrap soon. 'Yes. I notice that you seem to have been trying to make yourself as objectionable as possible! I dryly replied. He then declared that he was only pulling my leg, and he has not been quite so bad since then. "This afternoon we had platoon inspections. Sergeant Baldwin carried on with 7 Platoon.
Take me back to Blighty; Blighty is the place for me! rang out with great enthusiasm from the darkness underground. "When we did go upstairs again daylight had dawned. We left the mine at 4.20 a.m. Giffin went, with one or two men, back to the trench to replace the camouflage; he told me to get back to the Ramparts with the remainder as quickly as possible. I did so.
I am getting to like General Stockwell very much; his face is not unlike that of the great Sir David Beatty. "We felt jolly tired after it all. It was hot and tiring walking back. We got back at 3 p.m. Then lunch. Giffin had the decency to apologize for his nastiness. 'I hope you did not mind me cursing you this morning, Floyd, he said.
As we could not smell the gas we did not take any notice of it. We little dreamt what the results were going to be. We knew not what a revelation the morrow had in store for us! "At about midnight I went to bed, and at about 6 this morning I heard Giffin returning from his working party.
The Company had moved up while we had been on this working party. I saw my party into their new dug-outs here, and then came back and spent the night in the officers' dug-out at Potijze with Captain Andrews, Giffin, and Gratton. Allen was with a working party and did not return until 3 a.m.... Shells were falling round our dug-out all night. Two more B Company men were wounded on fatigue near St.
"In the evening Giffin and I were on a working party with Sergeant Clews, Sergeant Dawson and forty-five other ranks. We proceeded to Potijze Dump and drew tools; thence to Pagoda Trench and carried on with the making of a new trench branching off that trench. All went well for the first three quarters of an hour.
Machine-gun bullets whizzed past the desolate area; it was not exactly pleasant. We went on along New Garden Street, and waited for the parties. Then they drew wire and pickets which had been dumped by a carrying party under Giffin. The Brigade-Major and Colonel Best-Dunkley went past us while we were at this spot. We were delayed some time.
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