A day on the Gun Line

[RossHR]

Thought there may be some interest for the details my Grandfather sent to my Grandmother describing a typical day for him as a RFA Sergent on a Gun line.

To start with I don’t suppose you know the difference between the gun line & the wagon line so here goes for some explanations. As you know I’m in charge of a subsection which consists of 1 gun and 2 wagons, 30 horses and about 32 men. The guns are of course in the firing line, or rather, as we are, they are in position to stop any advance on the enemy’s part, we don’t get any advances from them, or rather have not had any for a long time so we just keep everything in readiness in case. I’m the only serg’t at present in the firing gun line and have about 46 men here and four guns which I am in charge of, of course under the officers. In addition to my other duties I take charge of the canteen stores when there are any. I have at present in stock 2 bars of soap, a few tins of beans, some candles & matches. I see all the rations served out to the men and am in charge of everything. i live alone in a bell tent and in a grand isolation. My word is law and everyone trembles (or should do) when I approach. In the morning the men are reveille-d (good word that) at 6a.m. & some of them go on anti-aircraft watch & various duties. An officer gets up at day break to help things on a bit but I don’t worry him until about 7.30a.m. when I deign to come back to the realization that I am alive & living a blameless life. I then breakfast & clean up a bit in time to fall everyone in at 9 o.c. for inspection, after which I tell various individuals off for fatigues, gun drill, etc. and if not too exhausted with the effort of doing this, I stroll round & see if by any chance, they have “done the things which they ought to have done” During this procedure I’m wandering round what I suppose is a leafy bower, anyway its the side of a hill with lots of nice green trees on it and a very pleasant place in decent weather. I gaze over a lake which is large, oh very large, but which I’m afraid will have to be nameless, and on the other side there of I see the burst of shells fired by our people on our left and the returned compliments of our Bulgar friends.

Then perhaps we have an air scare & then everyone runs to see our anti-aircraft gun perform which it does much to the edification of our people but as far as I can see without worrying the aeroplanes at all. However the whole proceedings are a joyous interlude in an otherwise dull & dreary existance.

When evening comes I ask for next days orders only to be told to “carry on as usual” which means a sort of dismal encore & then I have the evening to put in which is about the worst time of the lot.

My bed is a sheet of corrugated iron on two boxes, and very nice too, and I generally turn in about 8 o.c. ------------ (and that is the end of a perfect day).

[IPT]

Thanks for posting that.

A very dry and amusing writing style. For some reason, i'm picturing him as John Le Mesurier in Dad's Army.

[Kate Wills]

Thanks for posting this David. I'm sure Rockdoc will be interested in the anti-aircraft information.

The anonymous lake is Doiran. I was gazing over it from the pleasant green hills myself last week, in company with several members of the Forum / SCS.

[JPAE]

David,

Thank you for this letter from your Grandfather. I have just become interested in Salonika due to the possiblity of my Uncle Arthur being there during the War.

Don't you just love these first hand descriptions that convey the reality of actually being there at that very moment in 1917.

Phil.

[robert_sfl]

Nice story, and unusually detailed!

On the Balkans, the situation of the men on both sides was quite bleakly and saw little attention from the high commands, being a secondary, remote theater.

One narrator from a Saxon Jäger Bataillon describes their outright happinness when the unit receives beans as relief from months of some sort of grits. Only beans, nothing else. After some weeks, the initial delight slowly dies away and after another 4 months of nothing but beans they are so happy to receive grits again.

[MartinWills]

David,

Thank you for this letter from your Grandfather. I have just become interested in Salonika due to the possiblity of my Uncle Arthur being there during the War.

Don't you just love these first hand descriptions that convey the reality of actually being there at that very moment in 1917.

Phil.

Phil,

Have you found the Salonika Campaign Society as yet?

[Rockdoc]

What a great post! I love the humour and finding a bit of colour like this is always a lovely surprise. As Kate says, I'm interested all the more by the mention of the AA gun since that's my area of particular interest. Assuming the AA gun was British, in April 1917 it could have been from 24th, 32nd, 90th or 94th AA Sections, all of whose guns were used singly to protect strategic positions. Overlooking Lake Dojran, they would be guarding things like Heavy or Siege Batteries and balloons - in other words, things that could not be easily moved.

David, any more detail you can supply might help me pin down which AA gun it was.

Keith

[JPAE]

Have you found the Salonika Campaign Society as yet?

Not, as yet Martin, but thanks for giving me the lead. Arthur is to be researched as soon as time permits, and I am sure that he was there.

Phil.

[MartinWills]

SCS to be found at http://www.salonika.talktalk.net/

[RossHR]

It's nice to have a location, thanks Kate.

My Grandfather came back from South Africa to fight in WW1, he had gone out in 1900 for the Boer War. I do not have any photo's of him in RFA uniform. He did not seem to be able to stick a job for long but would turn his hand to anything.

In the letter he refers to his favourite Mare who was in Foal and a Wren that had nested in a Waggon Wheel.

The letter then follows with

In the wagon line of course things were different, there, there are always horses to be looked after and lots of things to be done and there are 6 or 7 other sergeants to foregather with, so things are a bit livelier there.......

Well dear, I think I have told you everything I can think of at present except about the mosquitos which are about the size of beetles & bite accordingly. The weather is just lovely except for occasional thunderstorms.

Just had another look at the pile of letters and spotted this one written 3rd Aug:

I have been awfully busy lately as both the other sergts in the wagon line have had a touch of malaria and I've been a sort of general orderly Sergt in consequence.........We have mosquito nets and part of my duty consists in seeing that my subsection of 27 men who are scattered all over the hill are under the cover of the same nets at night. In fact one of our orders is to the effect that No's 1 (meaning sergts) are responsible that their men do not get malaria so we have to go round +see that they are all tucked in nicely (just like mother used to do you know) + that they have their nets down etc, all very interesting work but apt to pall somewhat.

[RossHR]

Hi Kate

I have just spotted confirmation of the location hidden in one of his letters about March 1917. EAST OF LAKE DOIRAN. (in the letter written on the boat over to Salonika he said that the capital letters in any letter up to a ____ would spell the location!!)

Hi Rockdoc

My Grandfather was with the 62nd Battery and just found in a letter about July 1917 he writes

I am in hope of getting a photo of myself to send you I'm beside our Anti-aircraft gun which is my own gun + altho we are not firing on an aeroplane we are having a bit of a shot at a few gentlemen on the plain in front of us. It is not certainly a "scrap" as there is nothing doing from the otherside but we are just demonstrating to them that it is better to keep out of the way.

I have not yet seen the photo but I believe, I was busy when the thing was taken, that only my head + shoulders are visible. If that is so it is because I had to get down into the trench to fix something up, in the ordinary way I should be standing or kneeling right up close to the camera with my back to it.

And another when he sent the photo 6 days later

I am enclosing a small photo of my gun you can't see very much of me but I'M standing in the gun pit and the gun is my anti-aircraft gun. The man in the foreground is just going to fire the gun by a lanyard as he is standing outside the gun pit.

The time this was taken was when we were firing on to some railway trucks on the plain below + it was something in the nature of an experiment as of course the gun pit was really built so as to make it possible to tilt the gun up so as to fire at aeroplanes + when we fired in the position it now is we were not sure what was going to happen. The gun brought down a Bulgar aeroplane last saturday but unfortunately I was not up at the gun line + can't claim any of the honor + glory of the exploit. It is, I believe, the first time one of this class of gun has actually brought down an aeroplane off it's own bat.

I have not found any WW1 photo's amongst my Grandmothers papers.

There are more letters I have not read yet.

Regards

[Rockdoc]

RossHR said:

My Grandfather was with the 62nd Battery and just found in a letter about July 1917 he writes " am in hope of getting a photo of myself to send you I'm beside our Anti-aircraft gun which is my own gun + altho we are not firing on an aeroplane we are having a bit of a shot at a few gentlemen on the plain in front of us."

Ah, this is interesting. By 1918, 14 AA Sections were based in Salonika and they used 13pdr 6cwt and 13pdr 9 cwt guns, which were modified versions of field guns on high-angle mounts that were fitted to the platforms of various types of lorry. Some of the field and mountain artillery units set up one of their guns to fire upwards and it would appear that this is one of the latter. There are threads on both types around here.

 

 

Keith

[Tommy46]

Hi to all...I am writing to enquire about the 62 Bty RFA mentioned in your post. The reason is that 62 Bty were part of 3rd Brigade RFA along with 18, 65 and 75 Bty's respectively. They were stationed in Jullunder India and formed part of the Artillery for the newly formed 28th Div. However, it must be pointed out that 18 and 62 were amalgamated to form 18/62 Bty, as were 65 and 75 to form 65/75 Bty. Prior to Salonika, the Brigade served in France and Belgium where it fought in many actions, and most notably at the following battles, Gravenstaffle-St Julien-Frezenburg-Bellewaarde and Loos. As can be seen the Bty had a very hot time of it on the western front. They were then warned off for Egypt, but found themselves embarking from Marseilles for Salonika on the 24th Oct 1915. Here the Brigade spent the next three years and took part in most of the major actions and battles of the campaign, culminating in the the battle of Doiran and all that that entailed. After the Salonika Campaign, 18/62 Bty along with the rest of 3rd Brigade and all the of the 28th Div found themselves at Gallipoli, to occupy the Dardenelles Forts. Although these Bty's were amalgamated, the men who served before the unions took place would have been loyal to their original Bty's, hence your Grandfather probably referring to his unit as 62 Bty, rather than 18/62 Bty.

As point of interest only. My old Bty 46 (Talavera) AD Bty RA. are the direct decendants of 18 Fd Bty RFA. The two troops that made up 46 Bty were numbered 18 and 62 troops respectively, as homage to those two Bty's who fought together before and through the Boer War, and were amalgamated in two World Wars. After WW2 3rd Regiment Royal Artillery was retitled 44 (searchlight ) Regiment RA, and sadly 62 Bty was disbanded, but not forgotten as i explained above.

I was always 62 Troop (The Gay Blades), but that's another story

Ubique...Tom.

PS...Great reading those letters!!!