by E. W. Hermon
Well Lass dear, as this is your second letter today I shall to bed.
21st September 1916 – No. 263 – Condé-Folie (near Abbeville)
Just at present I am in a very comfortable little shop, far from the madding crowd. I hope after lunch to get some letters as we have been moving about a bit the last day or two. I find that I dated my letter 262 the 18th & it should have been 19th. Anyhow it’s better than some of yours which have had no date at all on them lately!! I suppose writing ‘Thatched House’21 has had to take its place!! I find it takes 8 months to become a Brigadier even if you are real good so perhaps the war will end before my chance comes. However, let us hope for the best.
I have just had a very pleasant evening’s boating on the Somme. Hereabouts the Somme forms a sort of chain of large lakes & reminds one exactly of Wroxham Broad in miniature. We fished without success, so then I paddled the old box about. It was a lovely evening and really most awfully jolly, about half way between Amiens & Abbeville. I’m going to Merville tomorrow. I hope to get a letter from you today but so far no luck.
My love to you old dear.
22nd September 1916 – No. 264 answering 281, 282, 283 – Estaires
Darling mine, I had many qualms as to whether to let you know where I was as I felt it would increase your anxiety, especially as I was really taking so minor a part in the show. Folk at home, of course, think one is spending one’s whole time fighting whereas one really does not do so, as it’s so very strenuous while it lasts that you have to have rest & really one is less in the line than out of it.
Troops have to be constantly relieved by both sides so you mustn’t get it into your head that one is always at it. I wasn’t in any actual attack myself tho’ I saw several going on pretty handy. Just fancy the family getting that new bus and just the one I want!!
I’m hoping you were able to let old Bobbo go back up to time tho’ if he were genuinely seedy I think you would be right to keep him, but if he was up & about & doing alright I know you would have sent him. I am so sorry not to have seen the old lad but I hope I shall soon now. Yes, Temple has got four kids, the eldest girl being 14, I think, but she has had to be sent to school as she was a bit wayward & uncannily artistic & wanted a rather firmer upbringing than the Governess.
I don’t mind what you call Ken in the least. Edward is alright but not Teddie!!
You say you wish you could see what I am doing tonight, well I’m writing to you in a very comfortable bedroom indeed with a large double bed (for one!!), several good hanging wardrobes and a full-length glass that I’ve had a good look at my boots in & the general ‘tout ensemble’!!!
I’d love to tell you of all my wanderings this last month old dear, but I can’t & it must wait till we meet. The ‘tanks’ are some weapon & were in a number of instances most useful, but again I can tell you nothing as a full description would no doubt be very useful to the Boche.22 They certainly are on the lines that you suggest but less vulnerable. I was fortunately able to thoroughly inspect four of them the day before they were used & they were top-hole things. I quite longed to go & drive one. It’s the very first thing in which we have gone one better than the Boche & I hope it won’t be the last.
My dear old girl the flysprayer is absolutely immense. I did my room out only the other day & as it was a polished wood floor you saw the result. It seems to absolutely clear the room right out. Thank goodness the ground isn’t so foul in these parts.
The General told me tonight that leave is in the offing so perhaps it will come along one of these days shortly. I’m quite sure it will seem like a second honeymoon, but when did the first one end! You call it ‘the second’ but I wasn’t aware the first had ended. I’m sorry!!!!!!!!!! I’m sorry old Bobbo didn’t get his rabbit or pheasant!!
23rd September 1916 – No. 265 answering 280, 284 – Armentières
I got a letter today from the C.O. of the Canadians thanking me for the work of the Battalion23 & I will send it you when I have answered it. We haven’t had much rest so far old girl but things look like settling down a bit now for us. Yes, old Temple is a real good fellow & I like him awfully. He & I are working together & his Battalion relieves mine & vice versa. I’m sure you will like him & he’s such a good soldier too. We have another fellow here who is a cavalry man. Richardson, 20th Hussars. A first-chop fellow. He’s alright to become a brigadier & a jolly good one he will make. He is only just back after being wounded & he & I were in riding school together!! My dear old girl don’t you worry about that D.S.O. they are not won quite as easily as that so if you pin your faith to Bibby, you will be disappointed.
You have done marvels over the car & the petrol & I heartily congratulate you!! I am so sorry you have lost your little son old dear, & I know it must have been a great wrench.24 I’m so glad tho’ that he was able to go back up to time.
Well darling mine, I must to bed now. All my love my dear.
ON 24 SEPTEMBER the battalion relieved the Gordon Highlanders in the front-line trenches. The period proved to be quiet, with little shelling, though one officer died of wounds and four other ranks were wounded.
26th September 1916 – on a scrap of paper – front-line trenches, Armentières
I am frantically busy, so busy that I haven’t a moment hardly that I can afford to lose and have been waiting from 10 a.m. until now (noon) for a General & the Brigadier wasted my whole morning yesterday. Half, or rather th of one’s time in the army is spent waiting for some other bloke. Simply damnable!
I hope my friend Temple will get home next week & if he does he will probably come over & see you. I hope to be with you about Oct. 24th!! Hardly dare mention a date as it always seems to fall through.
27th September 1916 – No. 267 answering 286 & 287 – front-line trenches, Armentières
Two nice letters today. I see you are enjoying yourself at Catsclough25 as usual. I’m sorry your Ma feels so in the dumps but if she will live at that damned place, I don’t wonder. Many thanks for sending me the knife, I expect it will be alright when it comes. I was extremely busy on the 15th & 16th & pretty handy tho’ never closer than a mile so had no real hand in the show. We have great news today of Combles & Thiepval. The poor old Boche is getting it fair & square in the neck these times. I only hope he’ll get some more. Lass dear, I propose if the fates are propitious to come home on Oct. 23 or 24 or thereabouts if that will suit your arrangements!!
I hadn’t seen that Harry Cubitt was killed. I am so sorry. I had a very good lad killed yesterday. Poor boy died of wounds. I saw him into the Ambulance, & he held my hand & asked me, did I think ‘anything would happen to him’ & I assured him he would be alright as soon as he got to the Ambulance. It was no good saying anything else, tho’ I knew he was done, I am afraid.
Best of love old dear.
30th September 1916 – No. 269 answering 289 & 290 – subsidiary trenches, Armentières
As you say old Bobbo’s letter sounds really first class & the old boy seems to be doing fine. Your suggestion as to his coming home for a couple of days if I get leave meets with my entire approval. I’m awfully glad he has gone up so very well in the school. I loved your letter written in the train old dear, it was a topper. You see it does make a difference who you go to bed with!
I haven’t got my Adjutant back yet, I am sorry to say, but am expecting him any day now. My darling old girl it’s no use your worrying about me. I’ve told you that you get short doses of concentrated essence punctuated by long periods of comparative quietude & if anything happens you would get a W.O. wire long before the actual show was in a paper, so just don’t trouble trouble before ‘troublie’ troubles or doesn’t ‘troublie’. Old Temple, lucky beggar, goes home for a bit day after tomorrow & it is quite possible that he might go over and see you with his Mrs. Temple & I are living together just at present. We had a nice house to live in, but it was a little too conspicuous and yesterday we decided it would be perhaps wiser to occupy a more unpretentious residence in view
of certain possibilities. Now I live in a ditch, a nice writing table, a comfortable bed, with my air mattress on it. The walls are hung with canvas & in fact it’s a very comfy little shop indeed! It’s a little bullety of an evening, but if one doesn’t play the ass it’s all right here.
Well darling mine, adieu.
1st October 1916 – No. 270 – Armentières, subsidiary line, Epinette Sector
That damned Searton girl, how dare she run down the soldiers & to you too. Damn it, she’s not fit to live in the same country with them. Does she realize that because these men are giving up their lives, hundreds a day these times, that she’s able to go on living in the lap of luxury? Really it’s almost heartbreaking to think that there can be anyone at home so utterly callous to what’s going on. I wish to God you had ordered her out of the house.
The absolute magnificence of the men is beyond all praise & every man seems the same. If you hadn’t seen it you couldn’t believe it. A fellow said to me only the other day ‘it makes you proud to belong to the race that produces these men’. Only last night I stood & watched old ‘Buckin’, standing outside the cookhouse washing up, smoking a cigarette while certainly not more than six feet over his head there was a perfect stream of machine-gun bullets from a Boche M.G. that fires over our Mess. He certainly was perfectly safe because of the parapet & it was impossible for him to be hit, but it was the whole sort of ‘air’ of the thing that impressed one, not that Buckin is particularly brave, but just as an instance of the total disregard that the men pay to what is going on – they just go steadily on & if they’re hit they’re hit & that is all there is to it. I don’t know what it is that does it but the men are all the same. Simply wonderful.
THE BATTALION NOW returned to the front line, having relieved the 25th Battalion. This time, however, the enemy were more active, principally with Minenwerfer, which caused several casualties and damage to the trenches. The War Diary records that whilst in the front line from the 4th to the 9th, three men were killed, and nineteen wounded, of whom three died of their wounds.
4th October 1916 – No. 273 – Armentières, front line
We’ve got a real soaking day today which makes everything rather miserable especially as in this damned flat country there’s more water than one can do with in the finest summer weather. It looks now very much as tho’ we have done with summer alright & the winter is setting in.
Anyhow we’re not in the trenches here, which is something, as it’s too wet for trenches & we live on the top of the ground behind breastworks & so keep as dry as possible, but only moderately dry at that. I wonder if Temple has rung you up yet? I hope so. I got three officers back last night which has eased the situation, one of whom I am making Adjutant on spec, as I hear he is a good fellow. So far I have only gathered that his best pal is a retired policeman whose present job is doorkeeper at the town hall at Newcastle!! Oh dear, o’ dear, this is a ragtime army these days but still a damned good one at that. I sit down & laugh so at times, & wonder what the old Regiment would think of it all.
However, it’s odd that I believe I am happier here & now than I have ever been soldiering before. After all, the old life was chiefly one of amusement with little or no real objective & now one is doing something & doing it with only very moderate tools which keeps one constantly on the go. The material one has to deal with is real good really, only soldiering isn’t acquired by the mere donning of a khaki suit, but what they lack in knowledge they make up for in keenness & the whole ball keeps rolling along somehow.
Best in the world to you old Lass and may we meet soon.
5th October 1916 – No. 274 answering 294 – front line, Armentières
I had my extra hour in bed & was in a very cosy little hole dug into the side of the ditch. Just like a yacht’s cabin. Rather low tho’ & one couldn’t stand up in it very well. However, it was quite comfortable.
I’m sorry the car ran so badly. Have you tried petrol for her? I found she ran very well on it, much better than on slightly smelling air! Yes, I did get the knife old dear, very many thanks. I am awfully sorry to hear you have a cold but it seems pretty general & everyone seems to have it here too. All my lads have got it. Sort of influenza. I’m in the front line now. We stir the Hun up & then he retaliates & stirs us up & so it goes on day in day out, not very exciting. There’s a good deal of sameness in the ‘daily round, the common task’.
They still go on well down on the Somme & by the papers it looks as tho’ the Romanians were going to score off old Falkenhayn.26 Hope they will. I’m awful worried to think K.E.H. is declining but I expect really it is alright, just other methods. Lass dear, I must stop now. I’ve got a biggish problem to settle & must tackle it at once.
7th October 1916 – No.? answering 295–7 – front line, Armentières
The main piece of news is that my C.O. has rolled up out of the blue today, ‘all of a sudden Peggy’, without any warning whatsoever. He is at present acting Brigadier so I am still in command. I don’t think really that it will make very much difference to me as I have got to know a good many folk of the right sort lately & I don’t think they will let me go back into obscurity any more. Anyhow things are a bit uncertain for the present & I hardly quite know how things will turn out yet, but I don’t anticipate very much trouble in keeping my end up. Anyhow it looks as tho’ it had made leave a certainty so it isn’t altogether an ill wind.
Your talk of your ‘talk with the usual Sunday folk, the usual Sunday beef, & the usual Sunday walk’ makes me quite homesick!! I don’t know what time the leave train gets in but will let you know in lots of time. Any arrangements you make will suit me. All I want is you & as long as we are together I don’t much mind where it is. I daresay, old dear, Mac’s nerves aren’t just quite the thing, & if you were to examine us all I expect you would find a very large percentage pretty much the same.
I think old Bob’s letter is splendid old dear, it’s so awfully well written too & your question paper most amusing. He has gone to the front of the class too which is also fine. Hope he will stay there.
9th October 1916 – No.? answering 298–9 – billets, Armentières
At last, after sleeping in my clothes for eighteen days, I have got a really comfortable bed & a pair of pyjamas on. As a matter of fact I am in bed now and writing to you as I sort of feel like writing tonight, old dear. The Brigadier, as I told you, is on leave so my fate is not yet decided but at present I am to get the Battalion now commanded by our mutual friend the Commercial Traveller who is to be outed. I saw the Div. Commander yesterday & he is very keen about my getting it & as you know the Corps Commander won’t put any spoke in my wheel. Anyhow I’m not at all alarmed at my prospects. They’ve found out that one isn’t an absolute fool & having got one they’re not going to lose me.
A Battalion Commander nowadays has a price above rubies & one can almost dictate one’s own terms. Certainly I have dictated mine & that is that the present C.O. who is to make way for me isn’t reverted to 2nd-in-command. If you subtract 3 from my present Battalion, that will give you the number of the new one.
I am afraid that I shall not have as good a lot of officers, but one doesn’t really know till one gets there. Their idea is to send me on leave till things are settled & then get me back as a Battalion Commander, so I won’t have to revert. The Battalion came out into rest today & I think everyone was pretty glad, we’ve had a very hard time indeed now for some time & rest, like jam, is one of those things which are always tomorrow!
We don’t look like getting much sleep, it will be all ‘chatter’ all night & I shall be quite glad to get back to the trenches for a rest!!!! I’m fearfully busy now old dear, even tho’ I am supposed to be resting, there’s an awful lot to do. There is no doubt that a Battalion Commander has just about the hardest time of anyone out here. Tremendous responsibility, an absolutely colossal amount of orderly room work, far more than I ever had as adjutant in peacetime. I have never in my service seen so much paper as there is
now.
I have recently been living in a house about a mile behind the line. The other night the old Boche set about us about 11 p.m. Fortunately he didn’t hit the house, but he dropped a heavy shell into a long building in the yard that I used as a workshop for my pioneers, as it had a bench in it & I also kept all my trench stores and reserve of ammunition in it. The door was in the middle of the side & it just blew exactly half the shed to atoms, the door remained hung on one side & was swinging in air on the other, amidst absolute ruin. Well it set the ammunition on fire & we had to turn out with buckets & put the damned thing out. The ammunition was popping off like Xmas crackers & we had a bit of a job with it during which time [Captain] Bibby managed to throw most of a bucket of water over me!
Alas! They ate my grouse while I was out last night & I didn’t even see them!! More please! A pot or two of cream & some Devonshire ditto wouldn’t come amiss.
Steward is a topper & I like him most awfully. A real soldier & I now see where Temple has got most of his ideas.
10th October 1916 – No. 278 answering 300 – billets, Armentières
The town I’m in is well in the shelled area & there is an order that we are to wear our steel hats in it.
Tonight as I was walking home, in the glorious moonlight & absolute stillness I met three loving couples strolling along concerned with nothing but just their two selves. It was in the Church square with the battered church looking down on the scene, all smashed to bits, no windows left, the spire knocked off & huge gaping holes in the roof & walls. The incongruity of the whole thing was really most striking. The house I am living in now is really a beautiful house, you turn in from the street through large carriage doors & the car pulls up in a marble sort of porch, marble steps lead up to a remarkably fine hall & staircase, it reminds me inside very much of 51,27 but is a very much more airy & finer house.
