LOCAL CASUALTIES: 1
Private Joseph Phillips - Ninth Battalion

ROLLING CASUALTY COUNT: 1,583

First Battalion: Section 1, very quiet. No shelling, only a little sniping.
Second Battalion: At 3am Germans dropped trench mortar bombs on mine in Duck’s Bill killing two men and wounding four – all miners –and damage to mine shaft also caused and operations there had to be stopped for the remainder of the night. One Drummer slightly wounded by piece of bomb. Our left patrol reported some tapping heard about 1am.
Third Battalion in Trenches South of Hooghe; Royal Field Artillery: Le Mont Evenic: Training.

DCM for a First Worcester: Information has been received that Corporal H Evans, of the First Worcestershire Regiment, has been awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for gallantry and good conduct in the field…At 7.45 pm 25 men of the First Worcestershire Regiment, under Lieutenant FC Roberts attacked part of a new German trench. When the attack was within a few yards of the trench two sentries called out and fired. Twenty men who had been sleeping in the bottom of the trench were bayoneted and 50 yards of trench were cleared in two minutes. Then the party returned with a loss of two missing and one slightly wounded. For this gallant conduct Lieutenant Roberts was awarded the DSO, and Corporal Evans, the DSM Evans is at present in a base hospital suffering from an attack of rheumatism.

Cradley Hops Ruined: In the Cradley district sad havoc was wrought in the hopyards. The hail was extremely heavy. The crops would have withstood the rain, but not the hail. Some of the gardens were stripped of every leaf and even the laterals hang about in shreds. The storms were very local. At Bosbury one farmer’s house was absolutely deluged in a similar way and yet his hops in an adjoining field were not touched. Some neighbouring hop growers fared badly and some were not touched. An idea of the extent of the hail may be gathered from the fact that it ran down sloping banks into the roads and accumulated there to a depth of three or even four feet, and it did not melt away until Tuesday. Some of the hailstones were as big as cob nuts. Growers suffered very severely because they had spent a great deal of money in washing and other preliminary processes of a crop. Peas which were in beautiful blossom were so stricken that there is nothing left but to cut them.

3 /8th Worcesters to Malvern: An advance party of 35 men left Worcester today for Malvern to prepare for the reception of the third line Eighth Battalion, who are to go under canvas on the Common.  The main body will leave the city on Friday.

Information researched by Sue Redding.