by E. W. Hermon
10th September 1915 – Haillicourt
We started digging today. Left here at 7 a.m. & began digging at nine, some 9 miles away in a bit of ground close up to the trenches but not actually in view.
I wish I could tell you more but I am afraid it is impossible. Yes, Buxton is going to have a dash home soon & may start on Monday but I am not quite sure yet. We didn’t move on or go to the place I said a few days ago but we left our lovely camp last night. We were all very sad at leaving. We are now in a four-roomed empty cottage. The weather has been grand lately.
My old oilskin was made by the Beacon Oilskin Co. & their Advt is in the Yachting Monthly, which by the way I should like occasionally.
I enclose you Allenby’s letter in answer to my second refusing the job but he seems to be alright. I think things are looking up here a bit as I am getting to know the brigs a bit more & old Harry Rawlinson seems to have taken a bit of a fancy to the squadron & was up at our last camp & tonight I have been over to dine with him & had a very pleasant evening indeed.
Pongo hasn’t returned; his wife was so bad that his remaining was the only hope & it seems to have done the trick.
11th September 1915 – Haillicourt
You would have been rather amused today, after I had got back from the trenches today old Foote came riding round here and looked rather glum & asked me if I had got a mysterious note, & when I said no, he told me that a wire had come asking for me to go to 2nd Army as Town Major of Hazebrouck, the copy of which came later & which I enclose. Old Barter promptly said No! as you see, which got me out of refusing & which I can’t help thinking will do me good, as one sometimes doesn’t know the value of an article until some other bloke wants it, & it will let old Barter realize that there are others who would be glad of one’s services.
We had another day’s digging again today and are for it I expect for some days to come. I am sending Buxton home tomorrow & he will tell you all about me & that I am fit & well. He has been in a much better temper lately as one of the other servants has been doing the cooking lately & he has more leisure.
I got a topping good letter from you old dear when I got in tonight (141). The Turk has always been one of the very best of fighters behind entrenchments but no good in the open, & with German instructors to help in the planning & digging he no doubt has some real good ones to fight in.
Allenby’s letter was very nice wasn’t it. I shall try & go & see him but it is very hard to get up that far & I don’t know if I could arrange it. However it is well worth thinking about.
The men have been doing very well digging & I think surprised folk a bit by the amount they did as the powers that be hadn’t seen anything like it in this Div. before, & they were very pleased.
I wish I was in Buxton’s shoes but it is quite impossible just now as I have so much doing. I expect Buxton will tell you all the news dearie & buck like steam. However believe about 1/8 of what he tells you.
14th September 1915 – Haillicourt
It is only 8 p.m. now & I have a little time to write to you tonight at last. So much for that, ‘tempus fugit’ & it is now 9.45!
I wish you could have had your Ma’s chauffeur but as you say those sort of men should be making munitions of war. The colossal expenditure of ammunition if there is a big fight nowadays wants some keeping pace with. I see the Crown Prince got rid of half a million shells in two days.
I had a boy in here tonight who was only 16 & he took his part in the attack at Festubert. It’s a pity Dick doesn’t do something. I wrote to the old Govnr very strongly a short time ago but he has never referred to it.
I am glad your servants are doing you alright now & that you are more or less fixed up for the event.1 I wish I could be with you dearie.
One of my men was home on leave when the Zeps came2 & he heard the shooting & quite forgot he was at home & never took any notice of it at all till his wife rushed into the room frightfully excited.
I haven’t had my clothes off for two days & as I am full of chalk I have got a drop of hot water tonight I must stop & have a wash.
15th September 1915 – Haillicourt
Just a few lines tonight as I am going to bed; got worked rather to a standstill today so I am taking a day off tomorrow. We have been digging for six days now, riding out 9 miles, marching two more & then digging in pure chalk for 4 hours & back home again. It is rather a stiff day’s work. We have now completed 800 yards of this trench but still have another 1500 to finish. Trench 3 feet wide & 6 feet deep. It is a pretty big undertaking. Many thanks for the Oilux. I expect it will turn up tomorrow alright.
I am glad the Chugs enjoyed their day at Leonardslee3 but it was a pity you couldn’t get someone to explain more to them.
Hope Buckin is enjoying his leave. Love to you all.
16th September 1915 – Haillicourt
I am sending a little ring for Meggie, which Sergeant Kock4 brought me in tonight ‘for my little daughter’. Will you get either Betty or Mary to write and thank him, his No. is 706 Sergt Kock, & the rest of the address you know, but I should like one kid to write to him as it was very kind to think of it.
I have got a most poisonous bilious attack, I think from digging in the chalk & bending down or too much toffee. I don’t know which. I was lunching at a farm the other day & a little girl to whom I had given half a franc produced some lovely honey in the comb & I simply had to eat it.
I am glad you are pleased with your room & I hope it won’t be long now before I see it again but one never knows from day to day what may turn up. I am glad you have got the sofa, & perhaps with a fire I might be induced to stop now & watch you dress.
Old Pongo came back yesterday & his Mrs is mending well. We are all in the best of health & spirits except for my temporary tummy derangement which I hope will be alright by the morning.
My love to you all my darling.
17th September 1915, 9.30 a.m. – Haillicourt
I am anxiously looking forward to getting your letter today & hearing what Buckin has to tell you. Very busy these times & two nights out of bed to come tomorrow & the next day. Alas it is now nearly 8 p.m. & I haven’t got your letter, so I must wait – they will be a pleasant welcome when I get back on Sunday morning as I am off on my special job that I told you about some time ago & shall not be back until the very early hours of the following morning. There is nothing more to tell you dearie mine, except that I am quite fit again & have been out all afternoon on the pony. [Here he has torn off the last inch of the page.]
I shall not be able to write you at all tomorrow dearie I am afraid & so you will have to possess your little soul in patience & I will try & write you a decent letter on Sunday afternoon. Did I tell you I was talking to a boy in a horse battery the other day & I asked him who commanded his battery & he told me & then he said Hermon-Hodge & I said where is he & he said inside the house here & I went in and found Guy.5 He seemed very hearty & well.
My love to you dearie.
17th September 1915 – Haillicourt [This letter accompanied a parcel containing a fur coat, sent from London.]
My darling,
I send you this little present with all my love to you & Benjamin just to keep you warm when you are able to get up & about again, because it will be cold. I thought I would send it now & then you could wear it if it was cold & both of you could benefit by it. With my very best, & all my love to you my own darling,
Ever your Robert.
ON THE NIGHTS of 18 and 19 September, ‘C’ Squadron troops were employed as guides to ensure the safe conduct of gas cylinders from the detraining point at Verguin to the unloading point behind the front-line trenches at Maroc, ready for the impending attack on Loos. It was recorded in the War Diary that ‘36 waggons passed through and unloaded without accident or casualty’. Enormous care was taken to maintain the secrecy of this transport of gas cylinders. The boxes were marked ‘bacon’ and the wagon wheels muffled with old motor tyres. All metalwork on the harness was wr
apped in rags to cloak any sound that might alert the enemy to their presence.
20th September 1915 – Haillicourt
I am afraid that there has been a great hiatus since my last letter but I have been working day & night lately.
Buxton arrived back alright today & seems to have enjoyed himself no end. Didn’t you think he was looking awfully well? I am very glad he didn’t grouse, but he has been very much better lately since he gave up cooking for a bit. Where Buxton got the fact that I thought it would be over by Xmas I don’t know, because I cannot see how it can be. We shall be very lucky to get the next birthday party together but I do think that there is a chance. I think that winter will make the old Huns think a bit in N. Poland. I don’t think they can stand it & I shouldn’t be at all surprised to see them come tumbling home about May very much faster than when they went out.
Very many thanks for sending the Oilux mackintosh which arrived quite safely.
We had an exciting morning yesterday tho’ I didn’t see it, but one of our blokes here got two aeroplanes in the morning. The two, the pilot & observer, did awfully well & tho’ several times wounded, succeeded in downing two Boche planes both falling with a crash to the ground & tho’ wounded ours got back safely.
I am so sorry to hear of Charles Godman. I do hope he isn’t very bad. Heaps of people have the most wonderful recoveries after being hit in the head. I saw a French officer yesterday who had had a bullet right through his head behind the eyes. He said he felt the vibration of the guns a bit now.
Don’t say anything to Pa about Dick if you can help it as it might lead to a row & one doesn’t want that. As you say it would be a sad day for us if Bobbo was his age & wasn’t straining every nerve to go. Tell old Nell that I hear on the most reliable authority that since she wrote to me the Blarney stone has shrunk to half its size, it had such a smacking kiss.
Well we had our two nights, last night & the night before, at our special job & everything worked like clockwork. We were very lucky as we got through without any kind of mishap & no one hurt. As we were walking up in the dark the old Boche dropped a good big shell into a house about 10 yards in front of Mac’s troop but hurt no one & they had several shrapnel [shells] over us but they were bursting them about 200 yds further on & so we got our job done without any bother at all & the next night there was hardly any shooting & we got finished in perfect peace.
I got a draft of fine men today, such splendid men but they are so big that I don’t know how I shall mount them. Certainly not on the runts of ponies they sent me as remounts today. I am very fit & well again now dearie. Best love to you old Lassie. Love to the kids & thanks to Bob & Mary for their letters.
21st September 1915 – Haillicourt
We finished our digging today & the enclosed came from old Barter tonight,6 which was very nice & has given great satisfaction. Even tho’ I say it; it was well merited.
Today we were digging where, tho’ hidden by a small rise from the German trenches exactly opposite, we could nevertheless see their line stretching away on our left. There was at the time a very heavy bombardment going on and it was one of the most wonderful sights I ever saw to see the huge shells bursting all along the line. It was a very noisy business as we were in front of all our guns right in between the two. I should love to be able to tell you more about it but of course I can’t. My letters will be very sketchy for a bit now & I doubt my ability even to send service postcards. Love to you all.
THE BOMBARDMENT WAS the prelude to the Battle of Loos when the British artillery shelled the German lines for several days to cut through the wire defences and damage their trenches before the assault, which Robert knew was imminent.
23rd September 1915 – Haillicourt
I am most awfully sorry to hear about poor old Betsy, it is a pity, tho’ if it is ordinary human ringworm perhaps it will be alright. I hope she won’t have to have all her hair cut off. Iodine is the only thing that will really settle it so far as horses are concerned but I expect it would be a little too strenuous for her.
After all I got dragged down to do another day’s digging yesterday. The Huns however started to shell with 9-inch shells the very 50 yards of ground that I wanted to dig. I got down about 9 a.m. & wandered out onto the ground to see what I had got to do & get the tasks worked out when the first shell arrived & after about half a doz., they were rude enough to increase their range a bit & they put one so close to me that until the dust had cleared away & one found oneself on one’s feet it was very difficult to realize that one had escaped untouched. I withdrew then for a bit & we sat & watched the shells burst & tho’ they were then falling nearly 500 yards away every time we got hot pieces of shell dropping all round us. The crater of one of these shells in hard chalk is about 12 feet across the top & five or six feet deep so you can imagine that it makes a bit of a blast.
They put 25 of these on to about an acre of ground in an hour! Then they stopped & we went on digging alright. One of the shells pitched on the side of our beautiful trench & blew the whole side in for 15 yards filling it up to the brim & it has taken 8 men 8 hours to clear!!
There is no doubt that what we have done is about the best work that has been done in the Div. & I am glad to say is recognized as such. We dug 2000 yards of trench 6 feet deep & 3 feet wide through the worst digging you ever saw. Every inch had to be picked out & not one single spade full was got without previous picking.
I think my biliousness was attributable to café au lait in unlimited quantities after digging and the glare of the white chalk, but I am now absolutely fit again. I wish you were out here with me as you say & up to now there has been no reason why both you & the kids couldn’t have been.
Best love to you dearie, I must stop now.
23rd September 1915 – Haillicourt
I am going to move tomorrow to the little house which is marked in square L21. This salubrious spot is an old knacker’s yard & smells accordingly. I am sorry you have lost the companionship of old Betsy but I am sure it is for the best. I expect by the time you get this you will have got your ‘pres’7 but I haven’t seen it & so if it isn’t nice will you please send it back & tell them to keep the money to the credit of my account & go and choose yourself something you would rather have.
There is just a chance of my getting a real good job & getting a more or less independent command, by having the three squadrons of the Corps and the three cyclist Coys & a battery of guns, a command of nearly a thousand men. It depends on so very many things about which I cannot tell you but it would be a most top-hole show if things turn out alright. Don’t say a word to a soul about it as it more than likely might not eventuate, but it is on the cards!
Well dearie, good night & God bless you all. Don’t expect very regular letters. I will write when I can.
AT 6 P.M. on the evening of 24 September the squadron moved to battle positions at the prisoners’ depot at what the troops aptly named ‘Smelly Farm’ – the farm had previously been a knacker’s yard – midway between Noeux-les-Mines and Les Brebis. The War Diary for the following day records: ‘Attack 6.30 a.m. by 1st Army capturing Loos, about 2,000 prisoners and much material.’ The Battle for Loos had begun. Had the attack opened a gap in the German lines, the intention was for Major Hermon and his squadron to follow the cavalry division through the gap and act as advanced guard mounted troops. Orders for the cavalry advance were issued but in the event no gap was established so they were countermanded and the squadron was detailed to escort and guard prisoners of war.
Although Loos began well for the Allies, the superior German machine guns proved decisive. Among the dead was John, the only son of Rudyard Kipling, who was declared ‘missing in action’. His body was never found.
26th September 1915 – bivouac at ‘Smelly Farm’
We had a bit of a battle here yesterday. I have been very busy handling prisoners for the last 24 hours & have so far sent to the base 1502 & 33 officers. Our special mission that I told you we had bee
n on was convoying cylinders of ‘frightfulness’ up to the front-line trenches at night.
We commenced the attack yesterday by giving the Boche a taste of his gas for fun. He didn’t like it a bit. I can’t help think that our old friend Kaiser Bill slept badly last night with all his troops so far off in Russia. They are hard at it now & I hope soon to hear that we are making as good progress today as we did yesterday.
It is really most amusing how appreciative the Staff has become & the very high opinion everyone seems to have of the squadron. They are all after the squadron now if they want anything done.
How I laughed when I tore that bit off the letter. I knew you would be as curious as an old cat!! As a matter of fact it was a reference to the ‘pres’ & then I thought I would like it to come as a complete surprise so I tore it off!! I had a very nice letter from old Vio8 & am going to answer it now if I have time, but I am so bothered with prisoners who keep rolling up every minute.
We have had two damnable nights. We are at L21d where there is a little house marked & have our prisoners’ camp there. We came down here night before last at 7 p.m. & camped in a ploughed field behind a stack, no cover & it rained incessantly for 30-odd hours. Mud up to one’s knees, but it is now glorious sunshine & warm & we are basking. No more now dearie mine,
Best of love.
THE FIRST PHASE of the Battle of Loos lasted for four days, from 25 to 28 September, at the enormous cost of nearly 50,000 British casualties. The Germans called it the ‘Field of Corpses of Loos’ as once again the German machine gunners had proved deadly effective, in spite of the British enjoying numerical supremacy. Loos itself was captured, but, crucially, the lack of reserves on the first day proved to be a major factor in the failure of the British to make further advances. The French made some progress at Champagne and Vimy Ridge but the German defences prevented any long-term gains being achieved.
