Reading about WW1

If you have to go to war, going in Summer when the enemy is very, very tired is a good idea.  Russia began to withdraw from the war after the Revolution, so Germany was able to send more troops and equipment to the Western front for a last big push. Ridley arrived in France in April 1918 when the Germans were making that last effort. Men and horses were still dying and being wounded but the horrors of the mud of Passchendaele and the miserable Ypres salient were past. In April 1918 one of Ridley's friends was listed as "Missing in action" and he was finally declared as "Killed in Action" in December 1918. The man was obliterated from the face of the earth, never being found. The routine of four days at the front line  followed by four days well behind the lines gave troops time to eat, sleep, read and send mail, sleep, sleep and sleep - and mourn the loss of fellow soldiers.

Ridley was in the Strazeele and Merris area but this map doesn't have a date on it.

War diaries

The war diaries of the 1st Field Artillery Brigade, which Ridley was in, are all digitised on the Australian War Memorial site. Daily lists of positions, orders, reports , firing rates, codes, signals, deaths and wounded. So many horses. Men have a choice, horses don't and they died like the men, or were wounded, or were sick, replaced and retired. Almost as many horses as men. Ridley's time in France was spent between Armentieres and Calais - sometimes at the front, sometimes marching or entraining and moving from one town to another. The base depots for 1st FAB were in Heytesbury England (near the Salisbury Plain) and Roulles in France.  

Depot at Lezarde Valley Rouelles near Le Havre

He went there in Spring and stayed until 1919 when he went back to England. There is a notation in the war diary for January 29th on Lieut. Lewis and 9 ORs  marched out as Special Draft "University Undergraduates". Ridley was granted leave with pay and subsistence allowance of 10 Guineas  from 17-1-1919 to 15-12-19 to go to Kings College London. I am guessing there were schemes of many kinds designed to ease the military back into civilian life and this would be one of them - more research to do. His address from 31-1-19 is given as "Kings College London Reasons Theology". The January war diaries list race days, championships, visit by HRH Prince of Wales, moving German guns,regular courts martial, 16 horses were evacuated "sick", 8 were "lost" and one was transferred. I wonder what life was like for the civilians in the area in that bitterly cold and snowy Winter. The land had been well-ploughed - grotesquely but not productively - and the debris of war was everywhere. Ridley left England to go back to Australia on the Argyleshire on 2-12-1919.