Thursday July 20, 1916

There is movement in our part of the line at last. I mean outside of the usual bombardment. Last evening, a great string of heavy motor lorries came along loaded with Imperials, destined for the Belgian front up on our left. They had right of way in the middle of the road, for in Belgium all roads are macadamized in the centre, leaving a narrow dirt road on either side these heavy lorries had to have a good road.

While in camp here I have had a lot of bombing instruction, once with live bombs from behind a sandbag parapet. About the only bomb used now (hand-bomb) is the Mills Hand grenade #5. It is shaped just like a bicycle hand grip being about 2 ½ times as large. The case is made of cast iron and heavily scored in checks like this [sketch] so that when it explodes the casing will break into small square pieces and spread out just like shrapnel. Here is a drawing of it showing the inside [sketch]. When the bomb is thrown the little handle flies away letting the detonating pin come down sharply on the detonator. This pin is pulled down sharply by a spiral spring. The detonator sparks the fuse which flashes around and into the powder. The bomb explodes five seconds after it is thrown. Just nice time for it to reach Fritzie and not enough time for him to risk grabbing it to throw it out of the trench. When the bomb is not in use, the little handle on the side is held in place by a small pin with a ring on the pin. Before the bomb is used, the pin is drawn, and then the bomb is thrown at once. This is the bomb that our lads use in bombing the square heads out of their dug outs and trenches. The powder used is a new high explosive called Aminol. It was invented by the Austrians since the war started.