At Ypres with Best-Dunkley Part 10

"I did not get up until 3 p.m. this afternoon. Since 8 Platoon has practically ceased to exist owing to gas casualties, 7 and 8 are again combined under Giffin, and I am second-in-command. Baldwin remains platoon sergeant. If and when we get sufficient reinforcements the two platoons will separate again.

"The Germans have been bombarding Poperinghe with very big sh.e.l.ls to-day. The shops, I hear, are all shut. It looks as if they intend to destroy the town. Our great bombardment of the enemy trenches is in progress."

That evening I wrote a lengthy letter home. In the course of it I said: "The padre is in hospital at present, having been wounded by a sh.e.l.l in the streets of the city the other day. It is only a very slight wound, so he will not be in hospital long. With regard to the four officers who were wounded on July 1--Ronald is in hospital in Bristol doing well; Halstead, with a wound in the stomach, is going to 'Blighty' shortly; Barker and Wood are very bad indeed, the former was given up altogether the other day. They are much too bad to cross the water yet. We were all amused to read in the _Manchester Guardian_ that Halstead had been lately in the Army Ordnance Corps; it is, of course, incorrect.

"Whenever Colonel Best-Dunkley or Major Brighten come into our Mess they always ask me what I think of the war and when I think it is going to end. They came in yesterday. Colonel Best-Dunkley, with his customary squint and twitch of the nose (I have been told that he contracted this habit as the result of sh.e.l.l-shock on the Somme), said: 'Well, "General Floyd," what do you think of the war? How long is it going to last?' I replied: 'February, 1918.' They then always give vent to great amus.e.m.e.nt, especially when I mention Palestine; but I really think this sinister commanding officer is not at all badly disposed towards me; in fact I am inclined to think that he likes me! I do not dislike him at all.

"I am Orderly Officer to-night so am now going to bed. The Germans are sending copious gas sh.e.l.ls over while I am writing this, but we have got the gas curtain down in our dug-out and it has been sprayed; all precautions have been taken; so we ought to be all right. There is also a good deal of sh.e.l.ling of a heavier kind going on; our guns are giving the German trenches h.e.l.l at present; we have kept up a consistent bombardment all day. The Germans are giving us some back now; but I feel quite safe in this dug-out! I am glad I am not on a working party to-night. So good night! Again I say, 'cheer up!' It's a funny world we live in!"

My diary of July 17 states:

"Up 11 a.m. Had breakfast while dressing. Reconnoitred the road; all correct. At 1.10 p.m. I reported to Captain Warburton at Brigade Headquarters about a working party for which I was detailed. Carberry, the Brigade bombing officer, explained to me what was to be done. At 1.30 I set off with a party of Sergeant Clews and thirty-four other ranks including Corporal Chamley and Lance-Corporal Topping. The job consisted of carrying boxes of bombs from a dump at the junction of Milner Walk and the road to White Chateau; then detonating bombs which were not already detonated; then carrying S.A.A. from one spot to another about twenty yards away. I left Corporal Chamley in charge of the first dump, where the men left their equipment. I went backwards and forwards myself. On one occasion, while I was at the junction of Milner Walk and the road, General Stockwell appeared. He asked me what we were doing; I told him; he expressed himself satisfied and proceeded up the trench. It was a very hot day and I felt very tired. My head began to ache. We finished at 5.30 p.m. Then we came back. Our guns were blazing away all day, making a great row. It was 6.30 when we got back to the Ramparts. I reported to Carberry at Brigade. I felt very bad indeed now. The exercise in the heat, after gas, was taking effect upon me. I did not have any dinner, but lay down. I was told that I looked white. I felt rotten. Giffin also is bad; he got some more gas last night. A good many more have reported sick with gas to-day. I think I have got a slight touch of it now. However, as the evening advanced I began to feel much better. By midnight I felt quite well again."

On July 18 I wrote home as follows: "More gas sh.e.l.ls came over last night. We had the gas curtains down again, but, even so, gas is bound to get in. There are fresh gas casualties every day. The number is rising rapidly. Giffin has, at last, reported sick with gas and has departed to hospital to-day--another officer less! So now instead of having no platoon at all I find myself in command of the two, 7 and 8!"

I never saw Lieutenant Giffin again. I shook hands with him in the dug-out and said good-bye when he announced that he had reported sick and was going down the line. He went away and never returned; I have heard absolutely nothing of him since.

"Our guns have been blazing away all night, and are still pounding the enemy lines. Our bombardment is now going full swing. But the Germans are sending sh.e.l.ls over too. Five B Company men were wounded by one sh.e.l.l, just outside, this morning. One of them was Hartshorne. He has got four shrapnel wounds and is off to hospital. I have been speaking to him this afternoon. He said that they were hurting a little, but he seemed quite happy about it. He said that he wished he was in hospital in Middleton! It is nothing very serious; it should prove a nice 'Blighty' case!

"The padre is now back from hospital! He has not been there long, has he?

"A few of those men who went to hospital with gas on July 13 were marked for 'Blighty' and were just off, when General Jeudwine stopped them and said that as few as possible from this Division must be sent home at present. So, instead of going back, they have turned up here again as 'fit.' Hard luck!"

My diary of the same date (July 18) states that in the afternoon "I went on a working party with Sergeant Clews and fifteen men. We were filling in sh.e.l.l-holes on the road near St. Jean. After we had filled in a few we got sh.e.l.led. We took refuge behind an artillery dug-out for about an hour. The sh.e.l.ls were falling close all the time. One fell less than six yards from me. I quite thought we were going to have some casualties, but the only one we had was one man who got a scratch in the arm with a piece of shrapnel. At 5.15 we decided to come back via a trench, as the sh.e.l.ling was still going on. All got back safely. But it is most disconcerting--one cannot go out on a little job like that in the afternoon without having the wind put up us vertical! I had tea and dinner. Then to bed. I felt very hot and could not get to sleep. Allen returned from a working party at 10.15 p.m. There was a strafe on at 10.30; the German trenches were being raided in four places."

The following day, July 19, I wrote to my mother as follows:

"I got up at 2.30 a.m. this morning, and with Sergeant Clews's working party filled in the remaining sh.e.l.l-holes (outside Hasler House). We had a moderately quiet time. Only about three sh.e.l.ls burst anywhere near us the whole time. Yet we were working in broad daylight! We got back at 5.45 and I then went to bed again. I had breakfast in bed. Then some post arrived: a letter from Father dated July 16 and the enclosed from Norman Floyd. As I expected, he, too, is now in the Army; has been for some months. He is in the 74th Training Reserve Battalion, and is thinking of going in for a commission. I have advised him to do so--in a letter which I have just written to him.

"I got up at midday and had lunch. The afternoon I took easy. The padre was in for tea. While we were having tea newspapers arrived. Captain Andrews opened the _Daily Mail_ and exclaimed with horror: 'Good heavens! Churchill's been appointed Minister of Munitions!'

"'Hurrah!' I exclaimed, nearly tumbling off my seat in my excitement.

"'Good G.o.d! How awful!' dolefully exclaimed the padre, looking at me in amazement that I should express satisfaction at such a catastrophe.

'What? Are you pleased to hear that Churchill is in office again?'

inquired he and d.i.c.kinson in surprise!

"'Rather! he's one of our two most brilliant statesmen,' I replied.

"Thereupon an argument began and continued throughout tea. I must say I never admired Lloyd George more than I do at this moment when, in face of most bitter public opposition, he has had the courage to give office to Churchill. I admire him for it.

"The new appointments are certainly of a sensational nature. Carson leaves the Admiralty and enters the War Cabinet as Minister of Reconstruction (whatever that may mean!). Montagu becomes Secretary of State for India in Austen Chamberlain's place. Then the most startling thing of all--the wonderful Sir Eric Geddes becomes First Lord of the Admiralty! That is very significant indeed. The appointment of that extraordinary production of the war to the Admiralty at this particular moment is not, I think, unconnected with the forthcoming operations. I leave you to surmise what I mean. Churchill has now once more set foot upon the ladder, despite popular prejudice. Watch him now. He will not rest until he has mounted to the top. It is really delightful. How angry everybody will be! Do, please, pull their legs about it for me! But watch also Sir Eric Geddes. He is one of the most remarkable men of our time--general, admiral, statesman!

"I am rather amused at the change in the Royal Name: our Royal Family is now to be known as the Royal House of Windsor! It does strike me as pandering somewhat to popular prejudice. That King George should change his name to Windsor cannot change the fact of his ancestry; he is still a member of the Royal House of Coburg, to which King Albert of Belgium and King Manoel of Portugal belong: no legal doc.u.ment can alter the facts of heredity! not that I think any the worse of him because he is a Coburg. However, the Royal House of Windsor will be peculiarly the British Royal Family and will probably marry amongst the British n.o.bility. To that I have no objection whatever, as I have said before.

"No, I have not seen the King or the Queen out here; but I knew that the Queen was inspecting the hospitals in the town where we get off the train for this part of the front.

"Talking of hospitals--the Padre says that Barker is not expected to live many hours longer. The other three are pulling through. We have got another officer gas casualty to-day. Kerr, who has been suffering from the effects of gas ever since July 12, has reported sick to-day and has gone to hospital for a fortnight. One by one we diminish! I feel quite all right.

"I was talking to Sergeant Brogden--the new gas N.C.O.--last night. He comes from Middleton Junction. He says that he was in the Church Lads Brigade at St. Gabriel's.

"I have been reading the leading article about popular scapegoats in the _Church Times_, and I agree with it. I think the young Duke of Argyll's attack on Archbishop Davidson in the _Sunday Herald_ was conspicuous rather for venom than for good taste.

"Earl Curzon's speech in the Lords on Mesopotamia I thought very sober and statesmanlike indeed. I read it in the _Times_."

The next day (July 20) I wrote home as follows:

"We actually had no working parties to take last night. How considerate of the Brigade-Major! So we had a good night's sleep. And we have not done anything particular to-day. We are going to have a change at last.

After twenty days in the line we are going out to-night, and are going to have a few days in a rest camp some distance behind. The place to which we are going on this occasion is nothing like as far back as we were last month; but I can a.s.sure you it is a perfectly _safe_ distance.

So you need not worry. I can tell you it has been _some_ twenty days! I have never experienced such a twenty days before; and I am glad to be looking back upon them, writing during the last few hours, rather than at the beginning. We are all glad to be going out again. General Stockwell has ordered that we have three days' complete rest; and Sir Hubert Gough has issued an order that on no account are the men in his Army to be worked more than four hours per day, inclusive of marching to and from parade ground, while out of the line. So the prospect is bright. It is now 4.10, and we are going to have tea. Our bombardment is still making a great row."

My diary of the same date (July 20) states:

"At 4.30 p.m. Captain Briggs, d.i.c.kinson, Allen, Sergeant Donovan and I walked via Wells Cross Roads, La Brique (where our guns were very close together, their sound almost deafening us as we pa.s.sed them), to Liverpool Trench. Here we reconnoitred our starting points for the forthcoming push. Then Allen and I went on with Sergeant Donovan up Threadneedle Street to Bilge Trench. We watched, through gla.s.ses, the German line going up in smoke. In present-day warfare I certainly think that artillery is the most formidable arm of the Service; it is artillery which is the chief factor deciding success or failure in all the great battles in the West. It is even now preparing the way for us.

After having had a look round from over the parapet in Bilge Trench we returned the same way we had come; and we actually got safely back to the Ramparts without having any adventures whatever!"

When we got back to the Ramparts our tour in the line was at an end. All we had to do now was await the arrival of relief. And a very pleasant sensation, indeed, that is to weary soldiers! The sensation of "relief"

is the happiest of all the various sensations one had "out there." There were just a few hours of irritating expectancy to live through--followed sometimes, as at Givenchy in 1918, by some boring experience such as a "stand to" in some particular, and generally uninviting, positions--and then one would be free, safe and in a position and condition to enjoy a delightful sleep: free and safe for a few days, until the all too soon moment for return should come!

CHAPTER XIII

RELIEF

My diary of July 20 goes on to state how our relief was effected: "We were relieved by a company of the 1/5th South Lancashires of General Lewis' 166 Brigade at 8.45 p.m. So I set off with my platoon at 9 p.m.... We went round Salvation Corner and across various tracks--a very roundabout way; but Sergeant Baldwin, Sergeant Dawson and I between us managed to find our way to Vlamertinghe somehow. Then we went along the road to Brandhoek Cross Roads and thence into our destination, B Camp, on the right."

The letter which I wrote home on July 21 describes the events of the two days in greater detail without naming places. It begins where my letter of the previous day left off, at tea-time: "After tea yesterday I went up to the trenches to reconnoitre our own positions as they will be on 'the day,' and the front over which we shall have to advance. I was accompanied by Allen and others. We got there and back again without any adventures whatever; but we saw crowds of batteries bombarding the German lines. The noise as we pa.s.sed them was deafening. And through our gla.s.ses we saw the German lines going up in smoke. If the artillery fails to achieve exactly what the General orders the infantry is foredoomed to failure; and, conversely, if the artillery is successful the infantry ought to have things all plain sailing. That was the secret of the victory of Messines last month. Churchill, with his customary intelligence, has aptly summed up the matter in the following words: 'In this war two crude facts leap to the eye. The artillery kills. The infantry is killed. From this arises the obvious conclusion--the artillery at its maximum and infantry at its minimum.'[8]

"We got back at 6.45 and had dinner. At 8.30 we began to be relieved.

So, at 9, I got off with my platoon. We had no adventures except that even the three of us--Sergeant Baldwin, Sergeant Dawson and I--had some difficulty in finding our way through the various tracks across the fields! We pa.s.sed some simply huge field-guns firing into the enemy lines. On one occasion if I had not called out to inquire whether all was safe I would have been blown up with others by one of our own big guns. 'Just a minute,' was the reply; and then a loud report nearly lifted us off our feet as the sh.e.l.l left the muzzle of the gun which was pointing across the path we were taking! They ought to have had a picket out to warn pa.s.sers-by as is done in the case of most big guns when firing.

"We eventually got to our destination, a certain camp. We stayed the night there. We tried to get some sleep on the floor in a large elephant dug-out, but found it utterly impossible: the sound of the guns all round was too terrific. This bombardment is as yet only in its early stages. I was only a few hundred yards away from where I was last night on that night previous to the night of the Battle of Messines when the preliminary bombardment for that battle was at its height; yet I may say that the present one sounded last night just like that one sounded then.

So what will it become as the days roll on?

"We had breakfast at 4 this morning and marched off from this camp at 6.40. We marched about nine miles to a village which was really only about six miles away! I can tell you I was, and we all were, very tired indeed when we got here. It was about midday when we arrived. We are still well in sound of the guns, but just nicely out of range of them.

Nevertheless, air sc.r.a.ps have been going on overhead most of the day. We are under canvas--the whole battalion in a large field enclosed by hedges. The weather is splendid; fine camping weather. We had lunch about 2 p.m. Then I played a game something like tennis (badminton). The Colonel is very keen on it. When he saw that I was going to play he said, 'Oh, I'll back the "General,"' meaning me! Then he showed me how to play. He has been most agreeable with me all day. Major Brighten has started calling me 'The Field-Marshal!' I think I cause these gentlemen considerable amus.e.m.e.nt!

"Sir Douglas Haig is in this village to-day; but as I have not been out of camp since I got here I have not seen anything of him."

FOOTNOTE:

[8] Churchill, _London Magazine_, Dec., 1916.