Letters From the Trenches: A Soldier of the Great War
Page 16
CHAPTER 11
ITALY – THE WAR IS OVER
THERE WAS LITTLE IMMEDIATE acknowledgement that the fighting had finished. The war had another week to run on the Western Front, and so it was not yet time for great celebrations. And, of course, this was merely an armistice, an agreement to cease fighting. There was no guarantee, at that time, of permanent peace.
The battalion CO would also be aware that he had several hundred men under his command who needed to be supervised and controlled. Military discipline still had to prevail. (There are stories of how, when the armistice was signed on the Western Front, some units were ‘ordered’ to celebrate. There were real problems with severe alcohol poisoning, and troops incapable of any rational behaviour for days.)
The war diary records that, for the 9th York and Lancasters, the routine continued much as before the armistice, mimicking the activities of the previous periods of training. There was, however, the introduction of ‘recreational training’ and quite a bit more football, so perhaps the pressure was not too intense. Yet the men still spent time on route marches, drill, parades and inspections. Even so, with the war finally over, the soldiers – or those who were not Regulars, at least – must have expected to be allowed to go home to get on with their lives as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the process wasn’t quite as straightforward as they must have hoped.
The war diary’s entry for the day after the armistice with Austria is anodyne even by its standards: ‘5th & 6th [November] Recreational training was carried out in the morning. Football was played in the afternoon.’ Four days later there was a ceremonial return across the Piave with various top brass in attendance: ‘10th The battalion moved by march route to VASCON. The Corps Commander, Divisional and Brigade Commanders witnessed the recrossing of the PIAVE from the Bridge-head near PALAZZON.’
This was followed, a couple of days later, by a sixty-five-mile (104-km) rail journey to the west, away from the old front line. The training routine continued.
17th Brigade Church Service near RONCHE, being a special thanksgiving service for victory, conducted by the Rev T. F. James C.J. 23rd [a Saturday] General holiday for the Battalion. A ‘victory’ dinner was provided for the men. Football was played during the morning, and a concert held in the evening.
At last, twelve days after Germany signed an armistice on 11 November, here is some acknowledgment that there was something to celebrate. Harry seems to have enjoyed the dinner, as he makes clear in his next letters.
Nov 26th 1918
9th York & Lancs., C Coy 12 Platoon
Dear Kate
I was very pleased to receive a letter from you. I am sending this with Jacks so I hope you get it alright. I was very glad to hear that they are all going on well at Ilkeston, and to hear such a good report about Connie send me her address, so that I can send a card to her. We are in a very poor place cant get anything and nothing to see only hills its about time we got to a town or to England, but I dont suppose we shall get there just yet. I don’t suppose I shall be able to get home for some months yet. It will not be so bad if we can get to England. We had a bit of a rough time last time we were in action just at the finish we had to take a town called Sacile the Austrians had blown the bridge up over the river and held us up for five or six hours, but I and [am] glad to say that I got out of it alright. I hope you have a Merry Xmas it will make a lot of difference now the war is over. I hope you get home for Christmas. Let me know all about Connie if you go to see her anytime and how she is get on with walking. We had a dinner party last week it was called the victory dinner it was very nice. The weather is very cold but it is healthy very cold at night. We are at the bottom of the hills, there is plenty of snow on the top. Write as often as you can and let me know all the news you can, I got the papers alright.
With best love
Harry
Nov 26 / 1918
Y & Lancs., C Coy 12 Platoon
Dear Jack
I was very pleased to receive a letter from you. I hope you are both keeping in good health, as I am in the pink at present. I have had a letter from Ethel and they are all going on alright. I hope you received the letter I sent in the green envelope. I sent it to Ilkeston. I am sending a letter to Kate will you post it for me. The weather as been very cold just lately. We had a big dinner last week. It was the victory dinner and alright too. I sent kitchens address in the last letter, I have forget it but I will get to know, if you have not received it. I am short of a pipe could you get me one as soon as possible as they are very dear out here. Has Kate been to see you yet I expect she will be coming before long. We are having plenty of sports just now running and football matches but we are in an out of the way place we cant get anything and there is nothing to see. It is about time they took us to a town or brought us to England. I hear they are going to break up the 10th Army on the 10th December, so we might get all parted and reorganised. I don’t suppose I shall get away for some months yet, but it will not be so bad if we can get to England. Things are very quite out here just now. I am very pleased that it is all over and we have finished with the trenches and mountain climbing. Write as often as you can and let me know how you are going on.
With best love to you both
Harry
E Kitchens address 5 Beta Villas, Mayfield Street, Spring bank, Hull
From the content, especially of his letter to Kate, it looks as though these are the first letters that Harry has written to Jack and Kate since the armistice. The home of his friend ‘E Kitchen’ would be local to Jack, who was living and working in Hull. Once again, Harry has sent a green envelope, meaning that its contents would not be censored locally, and so could be used for any personal or potentially embarrassing remarks. Even so, there is rarely anything in Harry’s letters that would have much troubled a military censor.
The month ended with more training, and more of the ordinary tasks that make up so much of an infantryman’s life, as the war diary duly noted.
27th [November] Two Companies practised an advance to-wards an objective (open warfare). The remaining companies were allotted baths.
30th Billets and environs were cleaned during the day. The Commanding officer inspected Companies and Detachments.
Harry’s battalion spent the end of November and December in four locations close to Vicenza, in the foothills of the mountains, some twenty-five miles (40km) south of the Asiago Plateau. ‘Educational’ lectures by officers started, but still the military training continued. Harry sent only one letter to Jack that month, and that a fairly brief one:
Dec 6th 1918
9th Y & L, C Coy, 12 Platoon
Dear Jack
Just a line to let you know that I have received your long letter and papers. I am very glad that you visited Kitchen’s and found hem alright. He is a decent chap very quite. I hope you got the letter I sent you asking for a pipe as I have broke mine. Ethel tells me what a rum chap Willie was you cant help but laugh when you hear about him. I shall be glad when I see you all again and I hope it will not be long. I am sending you a Christmas card. I hope you get it alright.
Wishing you both a Happy Christmas and New Year.
Harry
Two days before Christmas, the war diary briefly notes what must have been a fairly momentous event for the battalion:
Like the YMCA, the Church Army provided facilities for British troops on active service.
23 [December]. Range Practices. 1st Stage of Rifle Meeting. First Dispersal Draft of 55 other ranks left the Battalion for the Concentration Camp at ‘Tavernelle’.
Here was some sign that troops were, at last, heading for home. A small number, but a start. ‘Concentration Camp’ has chilling connotations for the modern reader, but here it should be taken literally – a camp where the soldiers for dispersal were gathered together. (Tavernelle is some two miles [3km] south-west of Vicenza.)
If Harry recorded anything else of the last month of 1918, the year in which the Great War finally ended, it h
as not survived. He is clearly longing to be demobilized and allowed to go home; however, he is enough of a realist to recognize that in his case this is unlikely to happen very soon.
For Harry, the great event of January 1919 was a trip he made with an unspecified number of his comrades to Venice. We can work out that it must have been on the weekend of 25 and 26 January. He complained in his letters that he was short of money, and was then given £5 back pay to take on his leave. Today, that £5 is worth around £250, and so he could afford to stay in ‘The Grand Canal Hotel’ – no doubt an improvement on his billet. He had a few worries about spending all the money but, sensibly, realized that he would never get another chance for such a visit. As long as he was ‘on the right side’ – that is, not in debt – he was happy.
For those who have never visited Venice, we now have television, magazines, websites and films that provide a good idea of the wonders of the city. To Harry in 1919, however, the canals, St Mark’s Square, the churches, must have been nothing short of astonishing. Before his trip, his letters to Jack and Kate show that he is beginning to concern himself with matters beyond the narrow military world in which he had lived for the past two years.
32507/9th Batt york & Lancs
C. Coy 12 Platoon., I.E.F, Italy
Jan 2/1/1919
Dear Jack,
I am sending you a few lines just to let you know that I am alright and keeping in good health. It is a long time since [I] had a letter from you, but I got the pipe alright which you sent. I am glad that you and Agnes are keeping well, and I hope you have had a happy Christmas although I expect you have both been very busy Christmas was very quite out here, but I enjoyed myself in a way, not much money but we had a good dinner. We are in a little town called Arzignano [about 15 miles/24km west of Vicenza] it is a very damp place as it lies in a valley between the mountains. I dont know when I shall get home but I hope it will not be long. All men going on leave now are alright for if they get work while at home they can stop so it makes it better for them. About all the miners have gone, some which came up in April 1918 [i.e. long after Harry joined the battalion] have got away. Let me know next time you write if you got the cards I sent. I am glad to hear that they are all keeping well at home and are keeping free of the flu. I guess you must have a busy time in Hull with so many prisoners of the war coming in. Everything is so dear out hear the money now is thirty lires to a pound, we used to get forty at one time but still things are no cheaper rather dearer Willie must be getting a rum chap as Ethel tells me some funny tales about him in her letters. Write as often as you can and let me know all the news, I hope soon to be able to write you from England. Wishing you both A Happy New Year
With best Love to you both
Harry
It would appear that if soldiers on leave manage to find work, they can apply to quit the Army and take up the job. Jack was a priest in Hull, a major port, and he may well have ministered to returning prisoners of war who landed there.
32507/9th Y&L., C.Coy., I.E.F
Jan 22/1919
Dear Kate
I have just received your letter and was very pleased with it, it was such a long time since I heard from you. I am glad that Connie is getting on alright I hope she will soon be able to walk. I have not wrote to the firm [his former employer] yet I think it is not much use, as I dont think they have much work. Ethel has not said anything about the other men writing I dont think they all have if they want us they ought to send for us. I am going on as well as possible but I am just about fed up. Well I think we all are its about time we all got home but I expect we shall have to wait a bit and be patience things are very dear out here and I am very short of money as we dont get much pay Glad to hear that you enjoyed you holiday with Jack and to hear that he is getting on alright. Write as often as you can and let me know all the news. If you can spare a shilling [£0.05 – about £2.50 today] I should be very pleased as it would come in alright, hoping to see you soon
With Best Love
Harry
Of course, in early February his letters are full of the trip to Venice. Thereafter they turn to the work he is doing and, inevitably, to demobilization. There is no great optimism yet about getting home. He might have got his discharge from the Army if he had had a job to go to (he mentions a ‘slip’ which would have been a job offer) but, clearly, Truman’s lace factory in Ilkeston, where he had worked before the war, was not taking on workers. The latter years of the war had seen a remarkable change in employment patterns. With so many men in uniform, young women had started to work in factories, enjoying the status and the wages, which were significantly better than could possibly have been earned in domestic service – for many women the only real employment open to them before the war. They would not be keen to give up their factory jobs.
During the month he got a new job with the Church Army, a very British version of the YMCA that provided facilities for off-duty troops – as well as good food for the novice cook. He uses Church Army headed notepaper for several of his letters, and presumably worked there after he had completed his military duties for the day. Then, after his experiences of catering in the Church Army, he moved on to a new job cooking in the Officers’ Mess at Divisional Headquarters. He feels the job is ‘no good for a man who as ad two years in the trenches without a break,’ perhaps the first trace of bitterness he has shown in the whole of his war service. I can’t begrudge him that, just as he can be forgiven for forgetting that he had in fact had one two-week leave in September 1918.
Back on form again, Harry is making the best of the job, asking for help with the cooking. As to the reference he makes to ‘two and three months leave’, some soldiers were given a long leave which they could use to find civilian work, and so ‘earn’ demobilization.
Feb 1/1919
32507/9 Y&L
Dear Jack
Just a line to let you know I am alright I have not much time as I am very busy man this week I have been working in the Church Army dishing tea out in the afternoon and night. I dont get away till 9.30 p.m so I have not much time the job is alright, but I expect we [i.e. the battalion] are moving next week so I shall have to go back to the company, but address my letters the same as I get them alright We have a parson in charge of us of course he is like all the rest a bit of an old figgett [fidget?] gets excited now and again, so you have to talk to him a bit. We have had supper with him these last four nights, of course we have cooked it between us. Well before I had this job I had a weekend at Venice, about three days, It is a most wonderful city, all built on small islands and their is some fine buildings. I went in S. Marks Church it is a wonderful sight, well I enjoyed my self very much, I got £5.00 to go with so I expect I shall be debt now but that does not matter so long that I am on the right side, and I thought I shall never get another chance. I will tell you all about it when I see you I hope to be seeing you in the summer time. Well write as often as you can I am pleased to hear that you and Agnes are keeping well. I hope you will write as often as you can. I am very pleased that they are going on alright at Ilkeston, Ethel tells me what a rum chap Willie gets I shall be glad to get home again I would rather do any thing than go on parade and do guards in fact I think I would rather be in the trenches in Italy. I am just going to have supper now.
With best love to you both
Harry
[undated – probably written at the same time as the letter to Jack above]
32507/9th Batt
Dear Kate
I am getting on alright and am sorry I ask you to send me a shilling or two as the next day I was given a week end leave. I got £5.00 and went to Venice it is one of the most wonderfulest cities in Italy, it must be a sight in summer time to see the boats on the river and canals We put up at the Grand Canal Hotel, and we was alright. I have bought Connie and Willie a broach and Ethel a present, things are very dear, but I did not mind, and I had a shilling or two left. I will tell you all about it when I get home but I dont know when t
hat will be, I hope it will not be long, only men with slips are getting home and I dont think our firm have got any work so they not bother with slips. I am glad that they are going on well at home, and pleased to hear about Connie I hope she will be able to walk soon I am working in the Church army Hut this week so I dont require any money, the job is all right plenty to eat, so you bet I dont grumble I have just made supper stewed meat, onions and potatoe and a piece of toast not bad, I dont think I shall be here above a week. I will write again soon but write as often as you can
With Love
Harry
Later that month he writes again, among other things telling his brother and sister that he is now at Divisional HQ:
Feb 28/2/19
Dear Jack
I am sorry that I have not wrote for such a long time but you see I have been all over the shop, I am cooking at present in the officers mess for eight of them, three majors at that I dont know how long I shall be here. I have been here a fortnight, I expect I shall have to leave when they get an experience cook. the only thing I am bottled at [no good at, or confused by] is pastry. it is all work I have not had a night off yet and dont look like getting one. I am at the Divisional Head Quarters these jobs are alright when there is a war on but no good to a man who as had two years in the trenches without a break. you see the cook as got Demob. I hope you got my letter telling you about my visit to Venice I am very pleased I went. I dont know when I shall get demobed I might have to go [to Germany] with the army of occupation, but I expect I shall be out of the army some time this year. I am very glad that they are going on alright at Ilkeston and that Willie and Connie is well. if you dont here from me you must write as I am so busy at present I get seven lires a week extra that is about 5/- [5 shillings – £0.25] English money. of course I live well, you can bet on that. but there is such a lot of work. Well the next time I write I might have another job, or they might keep me. I will let you know as we are expecting breaking the division up any time the address at present is