A French artillery crew moving a 75mm. field gun into position in Bougainville, France, behind the lines, west of Amiens. Bougainville is a commune in the Somme Département in Picardie. The Adrian helmet the soldiers wear was introduced in mid-1915.
Reverse:Bougainville / Sommemise en batterie d'une 75deploying a 75
"September 18th[, 1915].—Yesterday hot, to-day sweltering; the evenings September 19th—are cool to cold. Our 9.2s are registering; it sounds as if the shell left the muzzle wobbling and steadied itself September 20th—in flight. Heavy and continuous gun-fire in the south is in its second day. The Battle of Loos in the British Army Calendar is the northern extension of a French attack eastwards from the northern end of Vimy Ridge, made in conjunction with an attack northwards in Champagne. In the dressing-station we are told to cotton-wool our ears to-morrow. The Battalion relieved the 57th in Cambrin Right, which is to be its battle-front."
Entry for the period September 18 to 20, 1915 from the writings — diaries, letters, and memoirs — of Captain J.C. Dunn, Medical Officer of the Second Battalion His Majesty's Twenty-Third Foot, The Royal Welch Fusiliers. The French had begun their preliminary bombardment for the great allied autumn offensive of 1915. The British would fight the Battle of Loos; the French immediately to their right the Third Battle of Artois. Vimy Ridge had already cost many French lives, and would remain in German hands until Canadian troops took it in April, 1917.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 149, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
1915-09-20, 1915, September, Third Battle of Artois, Battle of Loos, Second Battle of Champagne
