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Key dates over December 1917

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Lives lost on this day: 9

30th December 1917 - Christmas At The Front – Tommy’s Dinner

Rolling casualty count: 8430

War Front:

1st Batt: There was a slight thaw. Batt relieved by the 2nd Lincs and the enemy was quiet. Batt entrained at Wieltje and detrained at Brandhoek. Men marched to billets in good huts at Brake camp at Vlamertinghe Wood.

4th Batt: Divine Service at 9.30am. The rations did not arrive until 9 .30pm owing to the bad condition of the roads.

2/8th Batt: Batt had Church Parade followed by Christmas dinner!

Yeomanry/Cavalry: The required defensive line had been obtained and it was time for the “victorious army to rest on its laurels,” until the railway system could be developed. Dumps of ammunition and stores were collected.

Home Front:

Christmas Festivities At Norton Military Hospital - A successful and much appreciated tea and concert were given on Saturday at the hospital, Norton Barracks, by the employees of Messrs Hennan and Froude Ltd., The concert consisted of miscellaneous items, all of which were pleasingly rendered.

Christmas At The Front – Tommy’s Dinner – I have never been through such a Christmassy Christmas as this year, never heard so many “Merry Christmas” greetings, with so many hundreds of pounds of plum pudding, roast pork, and geese and turkeys, and I have never heard so many healths drunk, says the correspondent of “The Times” in France.

Information researched by The Worcestershire World War 100 team