War diary 21 October 1917 to 20 March 1918 This volume, marked "Log VII", describes Cruickshank's service on the Italian Front as Medical Officer in charge, 11th Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment. Cruickshank was posted to the regiment to replace an American doctor who could not travel with it to Italy (as the US, while at war with Germany, did not declare war on Austria-Hungary until December 1917). He describes the train journey from Dunkirk to the north of Italy, to billets at Casaloldo near Mantua. "This is the first time British troops have been in this area, a fact which doubtless accounts for the curiosity evinced in us by numerous inhabitants of this highland Italian village" (p. 19). The regiment then travels via Roverbella, Isola della Scala, and Albaredo d'Adige, reaching their position at San Croce on the Piave on 27 November. Cruickshank gives general descriptions of billeting procedures, and descriptions of "everyday life" in the trenches on the Italian Front. He comments on the contrast to the Western Front: "Shell holes here are those of whizz-bangs and small howitzers. This is Sunday and unlike Flanders Sunday quiet hath reigned.To come to this stillness broken only at times by the sharp crump of a Hun shell and shrapnel, is, for those of us who have dwelt in the terrific din and continual flashing of guns, Verey lights and S.O.S.'s of the Ypres Salient, to wonder if there is a war on at all." (pp. 42 - 43) Elsewhere however there are accounts of hardships: the difficulty of obtaining fresh water supplies on their position on December, and a Company runner blown apart by a shell on 18 December. On February 25, Cruickshank describes reactions to the news that the regiment is to return to Flanders: "Tremendous wind up all round. The effect was indeed remarkable. Everyone seemed depressed, as if some exceptionally serious disaster had happened to our forces, and we could not shake off the mental effect.When the Montello is looking glorious, the sun shining with great brilliance, everything pointing to a beautiful spring and all of us just settling down to enjoy the beauty of Italian spring weather after all these weary months in the salient, this bomb falls in our midst, shatters all prospects and leaves our minds staring blankly and with overwrought imagination into a future as bleak and disheartening as any could paint it" (p. 98). The diary includes reflections on various items of war news, including peace moves on the Eastern Front (p. 47) and Allenby's capture of Jerusalem. There is also a report of tests carried out on a body protector or chest protector that had been sent to the battalion for testing. Result: a bullet passed through the protector and exploded in the sandbag it was covering. "This again proves that a shield which does not prevent a bullet from entering the body is a source of great danger for by tearing the nickel covering, altering the line & course of the bullet it gives the bullet the opportunity to exert an explosive effect thereby causing, instead of a clean perforating wound, a tremendous laceration of all tissues and so largely contributing to a fatal result from the 'hit'." (pp. 91 - 92) In March Cruickshank mentions a case of cholera, andalso two cases of typhus in an adjoining unit. The diary is illustrated with hand-drawn maps of their locations, and there is a description of Crespano della Grappa, where Cruickshank was billeted when out of the line. =================== Enclosures in this volume: (Mostly pasted in; loose enclosures marked *) Studio portrait of British officer (inside front cover) * Photograph of Cruickshank's friend Norman McKenzie (right) and another convalescent Scottish officer, both with eye wounds.On reverse, in pencil: "All best wishes from Norman McKnzie" (inside front cover) * Newspaper cutting, awards of decorations (between pages 9 and 10) * Newspaper cuttings (slips): awards to Capt. G. Henderson (p. 30), Corporal A.L. Wiles August/September 1917 (p.38) * Newspaper cutting, death of Brigadier-General R.B. Bradford, undated (between pages 110 and 111) Head-and-shoulders studio portrait, annotated "Pte Barrett. Asst. to Cpl. Wiles, in aid post of 11th R[egiment] W[est] Kents" (cf. cutting of award to Cpl. Wiles, below) (p. 111) Newspaper map: "French success in Italy" undated; Crespano marked in pencil (p. 112) Magazine cutting: photograph of the service medal Broze Star 1914 (p. 114) Newspaper map of north Italian front, undated; lines and places marked in pencil (p. 115) Magazine cutting from [the Queen's] Own Gazette: medals awarded to the West Kents, with pencil corrections (p. 116) Cuttings reporting RAMC officers killed in action (pp. 118 - 119): - Captain David James Shire Stephen (Aberdeen University M.B. 1910 M.D. 1912) -Captain William Douglas Reid (New Zealand and Edinburgh University) - Captain Robert Haig Spittal (Aberdeen University M.B. Ch.B. 1905 Cutting listing RAMC officers wounded in action; two marked (Capt. W. MacM. Chesney; Capt. A.R. Grant) (p. 120) Citations for: Capt. Victor Lindley Connolly RAMC; Capt. David James Shirres Stephen RAMC (p. 1110 Letters to The Times 17 December 1917: cutting with two letters, from Wilfred F. Grenfell arguing for prohibition of alcohol, and from William T. Ellis praising the attitude of soldiers and civilians in London (P. 112) Newspaper map (undated) showing Allenby's advance on Jerusalem (p. 114) Newspaper map from The Times, 12 November 1917: "Enemy's advance in Italy"; positions on the Piave marked in pencil (p. 117) Three Italian train tickets to Treviso, one loose (p. 119) Cutting [from church magazine?] with obituary of Mr John Milne, printer. Undated. (p. 124) * Newspaper map of Italian front showing German advance (undated) (between pages 126 and 127) * Newspaper cutting: A chemical test for the early diagnosis of enteric fever, from China Medic[al Journal] 17 November 1917 (between pages 126 and 127) * Leaf from notebook with pencil list of Italian towns/cities with their populations (between pages 126 and 127). 21 October 1917 - 20 March 1918