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  • Day 1090 of the war
  • Arthur William Snook’s family observes the anniversary of his death in action in the Battle of Pozieres
  • Leslie Edward Pearce Dartnell, son of the Orange postman, describes his recent trip to Paris as “one of the best holidays I have ever had”. He concludes his letter with a description of the Australian camp near Le Havre:

It is a beautiful picture I look upon from out the office door… The Divisional Band is playing to a crowd of our boys, who are lolling about on the green grass. Then to the right a little way another group are playing cricket. Further away are the white tents showing up against the green grass, and then in the back-ground are the green fields and lovely foliaged trees on the hillside. No one could imagine a more beautiful and peaceful scene. War is certainly not in the air. I suppose my time is drawing very close now, and I will soon be up to the line.. I think the division is moving up Armentieres way again. I hope so, anyway, for the Somme is an awful graveyard of a place.

  • William Henry Bowers, a former printer with the Advocate writes home to say:

I was in a “scrap” with the Germans on May 15th on the famous Hindenburg line, and I was just enjoying the fun when I stopped one on the right hip, the bullet finding an outlet in the fleshy part of the stomach, just missing the vital parts. Another inch and I would have been “gone.”

  • Russian troops on the Eastern Front continue their retreat in Galicia

Russian troops holding a meeting in the trenches during the general retreat. Note British officers amongst them. Galicia, July 1917. Image courtesy Imperial War Museum © IWM (Q 109735).