by E. W. Hermon
I’m back in my 2nd dugout just now, not the ‘Badger earth’ one but the next. We have done 72 consecutive hours in the front line and badly need a rest as it has been rough to say the least of it. We had been in 48 hours & were then told we had to remain another 24 when we were all pretty beat.
Well the folk on our left had taken a fancy to a big slice of the Hun line and at 4.45 in the afternoon, over they went in grand style & got in without a single casualty. It fairly scared the Hun, not only did the front line cave in but the 2nd & 3rd lines left their trenches & hared off. Then of course the fun began & there was a good deal of heavy shelling. However my folk managed to dig a trench 200 yards long, right across no man’s land and join up with the right of the attack & consolidate the whole thing. As I had little or nothing to do with it I don’t mind saying that it was a really fine show, well carried out & highly successful.
My left Company did splendidly & in spite of very heavy fire they dug right out in the open till they had got down a good 4 feet & got cover. A young boy who is attached to me & belongs to another Battalion of the same name was splendid, he just walked about on top all the time encouraging the men and taking about as much notice of the 5.9’s the old Boche was throwing about as if they had been tennis balls.
There’s no doubt that his fine example was a great help & I hope the lad will get his just reward. He was about the same age as Dick, a quiet lad, & most unassuming.
We had a very nice wire indeed from the Division on the left thanking us for our help & all that we had done for them. They took about 60 prisoners of the 211 Res. Regiment. Fine, big, upstanding Prussians. The two we captured were very indignant at being taken & said they had every intention of returning to their own lines at night. However they are in the bag now.
Apparently the Huns are told that if they are taken prisoner or surrender they won’t be reinstated in their businesses when the war is over, so these two kept on protesting that they didn’t surrender & meant going back as soon as they could if it hadn’t been for our barrage cutting them off.
There’s not much to tell you old dear. Temple who commands one of the other Battalions is such a nice fellow, was in the 60th. He lives at Puttenham on the Hog’s Back & I think they would be just our sorts. He came into my bit of shelter about 4 a.m. yesterday & we had a real old buck about hounds and hunting & what not. We’ve got a great many mutual friends & he said it was a treat to have someone to talk to who talked the King’s English!! You would have been amused if you had seen us, sitting in a bit of a hole dug in the side of the trench with a few boards over it & a few sandbags just enough to keep out shrapnel & for a couple of hours we forgot the damned war & simply screamed with laughter at times. I am awfully glad to have him, as I haven’t a soul who ever saw a hound or heard a horn other than a motor horn!!
My love to you & the dear little Chugs.
Saturday 12th September 1916 – No. 255 answering 266, 269, 271 – billet at Albert
I’ve had a perfect orgy of letters & it has been grand. You ask me to let you know what my feelings have been. Well, I’m not going to say that I liked being shelled at all & the man who says he does is a damned liar.
Anyhow it didn’t have a very adverse effect, I’m glad to say. During our bit of a fight the other day I was never calmer or had a better grip of things than through the afternoon & the whole of the night during which it was going on. I had the whole show to run as my 2nd-in-command collapsed in the evening with a nervous breakdown & I had to put him to bed where he was till morning. Poor bloke he wasn’t very fit, & he was one of two who came through the 1st July17 & it wasn’t to be wondered at.
If you could have seen what I have seen, not I’m glad to say in my own sector, but quite handy, you would wonder how men could come through it without losing their reason; it’s the most awful thing you ever saw. The attacks on High Wood, for concentrated Hell absolutely take the biscuit. I was only 2000 yards away so had a very good view. During my time here I’ve seen a good bit – far more than I have since I have been out & somehow through it all I’ve enjoyed myself & been happier than I have been before.
Bibby said to me ‘Well you ought to get a D.S.O. out of this’ – well I only say this so that you may know that I wasn’t so frightened that I couldn’t carry on. Of course the D.S.O. is all rot, because I had so very little to do, all that was done was done by a subaltern who commanded my left company. I hope he will get a Military Cross out of it. He most richly deserves it as well as the other boy who I wrote you about.
My adjutant was very funny. He can’t understand how a Cavalry fellow could come to infantry & run infantry in the trenches without any previous training & go right up into the forefront at the Somme & come out having co-operated with a successful attack & carried out the consolidation & linking up of the position won. It’s fairly beat him. I think tho’ they were all pleased that things went well, anyhow the General came round & congratulated us very warmly & we had the nice wire from our neighbours too.
I must say the first day I was in the trenches I was absolutely miserable. From my Head Quarters I could see the front line & see the heavy shells fairly pounding it & knew I could do nothing to stop it & that my men were having an awful time & that I was only a few hundred yards behind & yet was in comparative safety & couldn’t go to them. After all, in the Cavalry it is one’s privilege to go first & here one goes last & it’s awful seeing them being pounded to death & knowing that they have just got to stick it & that they don’t even fire back. There’s nothing to fire at, both sides are down in their trenches & unless one or other attacks you’ve simply got to sit there & stick the artillery pounding away. As a matter of fact you would be surprised if you knew how few the casualties there were considering the amount and weight of shells that are hurled about. As a matter of fact, my casualties on this first day were heavier than the second time we were in the front & had rather more to do.
I can’t tell you what my casualties have been as one isn’t allowed to go into numbers, I was in the front line 48 hours & then 72 hours and if you add all at Brook Hill who bear our name & take off two that will give you the rough proportion. Old Mac wrote to me & said he would willingly come to me as a platoon officer.
I think from the probable date my ‘interesting’ day was my first day down here when I went with my runner to reconnoitre the place I was to go in the line. I walked up from Albert over all the ground over which the original push was made, saw a tremendous lot of the most absorbing interest. Really I can’t describe it all, it’s so vast, there’s so much science in it, so much imagination that it’s almost bewildering. The guns impress you most. I see the German papers say it is no longer fair we have such a preponderance of guns!! They don’t mention their advantages at the start. They complain bitterly too of our gas shells!! Well, who started gas!!?
Our doctor went home today & I asked him to ring you up & tell you I was alright & happy. I never read such rot as there is in the papers about the war films. Why shouldn’t the folk at home know that the men do suffer, suffer beyond endurance. They ought to know it. I saw a man of mine with genuine ‘shell shock’. He was deaf & dumb and tho’ 500 yds away & held by two men he was shaking so you could see his arms going continually. Why shouldn’t folk know what the men in the ranks are suffering. Damn it, they’d think a bit more if they did.
I’m afraid old Mac isn’t mending as he should. He ought to go & have a good opinion from someone or do something to get himself better. I’m out of the continuous banging of the guns, thank goodness, for a bit & it’s a great relief as the concussion of one’s own guns is almost as bad as the Boche shells tho’ not so dangerous.
It’s all very well to say ‘take care of yourself’ but you can’t when you see how absolutely callous all the men around you are, about the shelling. Unless you saw the way they behave you would never believe it. My runners were coming back to me with messages all through the nights & going through heavy shelling just as one would go
for a walk in the rain & not making any fuss about it at all. Just treating it as an ordinary parade. They are so fine.
Thank old Bet & Mairky for their letters.
13th September 1916 – No. 256 – on message pad – Laviéville
Back resting for some days which is a relief tho’ my bedroom is only an old bit of a hovel, almost as good as the hovel at home but it has been used as a threshing room & has a good clean & hard floor. Last night I slept on a spring mattress in a deserted house. One of the most comfortable beds I ever was in. The first time I had been on a bed since 26th August! One really appreciates a bit of rest these times.
14th September 1916 – No. 257 answering 272, 273 & 274 – Laviéville
I am awfully sorry that you have been so short of letters old dear but times have been rather strenuous & I’ve done my best. I can quite see that Migwig will want a little discipline. Darling mine you are really very naughty tearing up that letter. You might at least let me hear some of your troubles & you are never to do such a thing again. I don’t want letters written for my benefit only. If you are down on your luck, I can at least write & do my best to cheer you up. We can at least share thoughts if we can’t at present share anything else. I used to tell you everything when I was down on my luck & now you haven’t reciprocated. It’s most unfair & I won’t have you do it again, or I shan’t have the implicit trust in yours that I have had.
The flysprayer arrived by mail today and it has helped a lot. The room is now comparatively free, that is to say there are certainly very many less flies than there were before. My darling, the aching is by no means on your side alone, I can tell you. Stick it a bit longer & then perhaps we may be together again for a bit.
15th September 1916 – No. 258 – tent at Albert
I am not in a writing mood at present old dear so you must forgive a short note but the date is my excuse. I could tell you a good deal if it wasn’t for that. It’s a pity one can’t write fuller these times but I see in General Orders that a fellow was tried by Court Martial the other day for saying too much, so I’m not risking anything. Very fit & well.
16th September 1916 – No. 259 – tent at Albert
Have seen a lot of German prisoners these last two days, which is always an encouraging sight. I got the Chugs a few rotten little presents & if I have time I will send them off tomorrow.
I am badly wanting inspiration as I have so little news that I can tell you. The infantry soldiering is a sort of compromise of two extremes. One time you are getting far more than you want then the next you don’t quite know what to do for a job & today I have been rather that way. I hope it won’t be long now before leave starts again & as soon as it does I shall take a short trip to England, home & beauty once more & feel I’ve earned it this time alright. Only two months to go now to make a whole year since I saw you & it’s far too long for me.
Give my love to the dear little Chugs & tell old Bobbo how awfully sorry I am at not getting home to see him during his holidays but that I will come & see him alright when I come on leave. It sounds too good to be true. However, everything comes to those who know how to wait.
18th September 1916 – No. 261 answering 275 – Franvillers
When I wrote you the letter you call the ‘1.30 a.m.’ I was in a little dugout in a trench not a thousand miles from the place where Martinspuich once was, there’s not very much more than a few bricks lying among the shell holes in those parts just now. High Wood lay just on my right and in full view, & on my left the Albert–Bapaume road, Pozieres windmill and Mucky Farm & Thiepval. What you might call right in the limelight. It’s most amusing to hear some of the blokes laugh when I tell them that that was my very first experience of the trenches.
Our Brigade Major & old Temple were only screaming over it a few minutes ago. You are quite right old dear over the mental worry of the show – it is a bit of a trial when one thinks what it would mean if one was to lose a trench or two. Anyhow it keeps one from falling asleep which is always something. No, the six days doesn’t apply to the razor, I have not gone a single day without shaving. You see in the trenches one can always dig in to the side and make a bit of a roof & a small sort of room & so one lives alright. We had a mess, & a good kitchen, & I had my own private bedroom. They were all sort of summer rainproof & really one was quite comfortable. I had a bed made by my pioneers & a table to write on & was really very comfortable. I went to see the big crater that you saw on the film. It is by far the biggest in France. It is 300 feet from lip to lip and from 80–100 feet deep. I wish I had seen it ‘go up’ it must have been colossal.18 I’ve seen some craters out here but I simply stood & gazed at this with my mouth open.
At breakfast this morning I got a surprise packet of letters & your 277 & 278 so everything is rosy once more. I got the candles & they are very good.
I have for the moment given up the ‘Brock life’.19 The cakes arrived yesterday but I haven’t seen them yet. What about some grouse?!! 2 brace at a time!
I don’t know where old Mac got his idea that I didn’t want him because I never wanted him more. I’ll write to the old stupid, but I expect it’s all part of his ‘pessim’ at being put back with his arm. The lamp has just come & Buckin is unpacking it now. It’s fine old girl, and just what I wanted. I like the burners too, they are alright. Am sending the kids things off by this post too. I tried hard to find old Bobbo a decent battle souvenir but just because I wanted one I couldn’t.
My love to you my darling.
19th September 1916 – (2nd) No. 262 answering 279 – Franvillers
I’ve simply loved your letter tonight old dear, & it answered one that I wrote you from my little dugout. As you say, it is much the best not to think. It does no good & you are better without it. Anyhow for the present I cannot even hear the guns. It was somewhat tiring at times & 48 hours out & then not out of range of heavy shelling wasn’t much of a rest. One has certainly taken one’s part now & tho’ I have not been ‘over the top’ myself yet, I’ve done as much as one can without doing so.
I’d love to be able to tell you all about it & I somehow think it won’t be long now before I can come and tell you in person. I told you what my feelings were. It’s no good saying that one likes it, no one does, but one’s ear gets tuned to the sound of shells and instinctively one classifies them as dangerous or otherwise.
You would be surprised how extraordinarily local the effect of even an 8 inch shell is. It goes into the ground about 12 feet & then explodes. The result is a hole some 8 feet deep and about 15 feet across the top. Well, the upward angle of the burst is roughly as shown above & consequently if it strikes eight or ten yards away, you are as safe as a house from everything except the concussion, which may or may not result in a certain amount of shell shock. Now in shooting at a given target there enters into the thing what is known as the ‘error of the gun’ that is to say that with a new gun with perfect rifling there is a constant error of a certain amount & that with the same aim you can only guarantee that the shell will fall somewhere inside a square having sides of 50 yards.
Hence the value of trenches. If you are aiming to get your shots into a ditch 4 feet wide you can see that tho’ you have the range exactly it is quite possible that out of 100 shots you may only get, say, one or two in & quite possibly not that and if they are, say, 10 yards short or over the result is nil except what moral effect it has. If one even got 20% in, under modern conditions of fire both sides would have been wiped out ages ago. You ask about our ‘joining up’, yes, it did mean that the trench had to be marked out in the open & dug down & that to start with the men were fully exposed, & under heavy fire too, but here again what I tell you of the shell bursts, unless it falls actually among the men, tho’ it’s perfectly damnable, it does little or no actual harm so long as it’s 10 or 15 yards away. On a new bit like that it isn’t registered & consequently the Hun has to find the new range exactly. In all probability the telephone from his F.O.O.20 is bust & so there’s really lo
ts in one’s favour.
Of course during a show of this sort I don’t go right up there as I have to sort of hold the strings behind, as one must be in touch with one’s companies & the brigade too. If a C.O. goes messing about up in front on occasions like that, he is quite out of touch with his command & the result is chaos. There are times when one’s presence in front is absolutely essential but in the majority of cases one is far better with all the strings in one’s hand behind. You keep the show together then & the companies rely on one for direction. There’s nothing more disconcerting for the Companies in front than to find the director away from where they expect him.
Buckin was with me all the time but he was never in the front line with me. His duty didn’t take him there & I won’t allow ‘joy-riding’. My dear old girl, as I told you I was perfectly all right & the more one sees of it I think the more sure one becomes, not that you ever can enjoy it but simply that experience soon teaches you what to look out for. I am sure enough of myself now, I merely wanted to be tested & it was a bit of a test. I walked up through Contalmaison day before yesterday & just arrived in time for the Huns’ morning hate, & I certainly felt far surer of myself than I had done before. I mean to say I wasn’t fussed at all & felt that one’s instinct was keener & one realized so much better where they were all going somehow. The old Hun is very systematic in his shelling & very accurate & consequently one can gauge things pretty well once he has begun to shell, the chief danger of course, is the first one of the bunch, if you are unlucky enough to be on the spot before it arrives. Thank the Lord the Hun didn’t deliver a strong counter-attack that morning & the relief passed off well. He made a small one the previous evening but it came to naught & was easily driven back. I’m awfully glad to hear old Bobbo is better.
