Home of the Infantry Regiments of Berkshire and Wiltshire

War Diary

1915-01-05
Regiment 1st Royal Berkshire
Location France, FESTUBERT
Entry A fine day. Intermittent sniping and slight shelling about midday. One shell pitched clean into the shelter trench in which Capt Birt DSO, OC "C" Coy had his headquarters. He was killed outright and his Coy Sgt Maj badly wounded. B Coy relieved D and A Coy relieved C. Endeavours were made to improve parapets, etc with sandbags but the soil was too wet to make a successful job of it. We had no communications by day with left coy owing to lack of telephones.