Diary of No. 914 A.A. Barwick. C. Company, 1 st Battalion

Volume 1, pages 3- 4

[Page 3]

'In this journal I am going to put forward to the best of my ability a few of my impressions, & experiences since joining the Army.

Well I will start first of all from the time I left "Surveyor's Creek" in New England, New South Wales. how pleased I was, one fine Sat. morning, to find in the mail box a letter bearing the Government stamp addressed to me, I was almost afraid to open it for fear it might say that I was unsuitable, for the Force, but I plucked up courage & opened it, & to my great joy & no less surprise, I was requested to report at once to Victoria Barrack's in Sydney for medical inspection, I think I threw 2 or 3 somersaults

[Page 4]

when I finished reading the note for we were all more or less crazy at that time, I was pretty sure I could pass the Dr. as far as medical fitness went, for I had just been through a fairly stiff examination for the A M.P. but I was not so sure about my height, so I took the precaution to write to Colonel Antill, & ask him if my height (5ft 4.) would pass & the note I had just received was his answer.
On receipt of the note I straight away telephoned to Mr. Mitchell at Rutherglen" telling him of my decision, & that I would be coming down on that nights train (Glen Innes) passenger, & he said he would meet me that night at Danglemah, as he & Mrs Mitchell were going to Sydney...'

Transcript: Archibald Barwick diary, 22 August 1914-September 1915, pages 3- 4

MLMSS 1493 /Box 1 /Item 1 

Diary of No. 914 A.A. Barwick. C. Company, 1st Battalion; 

Volume 6 pages 110-111

[Page 110]

the smell of of an oily rag.
Well we went up this afternoon I took 24 men with me, & we got sopping soaking wet, we only worked about an hour & down she come by the time we reached our dugouts" & by the way we felt so disgusted & miserable that we walked over the top & in full view of the Hun guns for nearly a mile, did not care if we stopped one or not, arrived at our dugouts expecting to find them fairly dry but no we found about 2 ft of water in it & half the dugouts fallen in & us wet to the skin & nothing dry to change into, all our blankets & overcoats sopping a pretty state of affairs, & you may not believe it judging by the writing & the book but I am at this present moment cold as ice wet to the skin, & no dry clothes, & as hungry as a hawk enough to kill any man & nearly every Australian is in the same mess to-night of on this famous "Somme"

[Page 111]

You can see quite plainly the tall spires of Bapaume from here it is Englands objective & it does not look very far away, but it means the same to Germany as Verdun to France & they will fight to the last to retain it, on either sides & to the rear of her there looks to be fairly heavy patches of wood & one fairly long ridge to climb, this I expect is where they will offer a desperate resistance, the ground for miles around is nothing but a mass of shell holes it looks from a distance like a well fallowed paddock the result of the thousands, yes & millions of shells that have been poured on to it
31st. Never had a wink of sleep all last night just laid there & nearly froze to death in my wet & sopping clothes "Oh what a night."
This morning I took another party of 28 men up to "Flare Alley" to work on the trench there, I know you won’t believe me when I say that the mud there is up to your hips'