Diary of a Sapper – World War One Reflections of Sapper Henry W Dadswell 5th Division Signal Company

Title: Diary of a Sapper – World War One Reflections of Sapper Henry W Dadswell 5th Division Signal Company

Author: Sapper Henry William Dadswell MM

Condition: Near Mint

Edition: 1st Edition

Publication Date: 2010

ISBN: 78064653915

Cover: Soft Cover without Dust Jacket – 140 pages

Comments:  As a young soldier, Henry Dadswell found himself frequently sprinting across World War One battlefields in France and Belgium dodging sniper bullets and enemy shellfire. The extraordinary story of this signaller has been told here. Covers enlistment and training, embarkation, training in Egypt and England, service on the Western Front including the Ypres Salient and Villers-Bretoneux, the final battles and repatriation.

The author was also awarded the Military Medal for bravery on the Western Front in 1917.

His Military Medal citation:

‘During recent operations between 22nd and 30th September, 1917, on the POLYGON WOOD front, this man and Sapper Weir, working together as linesmen, laid and maintained a ladder line from our Relay Post between NONNE BOSSCHEN and POLYGONEVELD and the cable head of the Division on our left. The line ran across the most heavily shelled part of the area, and the fact that we were only out of communication with this Relay Post for about three hours in the lat 96 hours we occupied these Stations speaks volumes for his willingness to maintain communication forward of the Relay Posts but owing to intense enemy shell fire the lines were continually cut.’