Wildlife and the war

[Bob Doneley]

The 25th Battalion AIF war diary recorded that during the attack at Beaurevoir on the 3/10/18 that, as the leading assault line approached the German trenches, several men stopped to shoot at a wounded hare that ran across their front.

[marina]

I wonder why they did that!

Marina

[Michelle Young]

In the book "Attack on the Somme" the author who was called IIRC Liveing describes disturbing a hare as he attacked at Gommecourt.

[Owen D]

I wonder why they did that!

Marina

So they could have fresh meat for lunch when they'd taken the German position rather that captured sausage.

[marina]

Thomas also reports hearing the cry of partridges during a bombardment. Wonder if they went partridge hunting as well!

Marina

[chrislock]

Of course they ate partridge! Rabbit, pheasant, woodpigeons etc. All extremely tasty, especially after a diet of bully and biscuit! A wounded Hare would of been eaten with relish, why not?

[Owen D]

from Storm of Steel, Ernst Junger.

page 28, "..birds in the forest seemed quite untroubled by the myriad noise; they sat peaceably over the smoke in their battered boughs. In short intervals of firing, we could hear them singing happily or ardently to one another,

page 41. "Bird life thrives in such wilderness, partridges for instance, whose cries we often hear at night, or larks, whose choir starts up at first light over the trenches."

page 54," ...is the availability of game, in particular pheasants , untold numbers of which inhabit the fallow fields."

RIP Bob.

[marina]

'Sat peaceably...'

Marina

[Guest tafski]

Thomas also reports hearing the cry of partridges during a bombardment. Wonder if they went partridge hunting as well!

Marina

bit of an overkill useing 18pdrs

wonder how much was left to eat

bruce

[marina]

Just being through, Taf!

Marina

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

Come on boys you have hijacked my thread. What about my question about the wildlife, it can't be that boring surely. While i am at it. Iknow the zone of the armies spread over a very large area on theSomme and it was being fought forward all the time, so the wildlife must had a fair way to travel, to get out of the way of the fighting. Where did they go.(Grantaloch.) Bob.

I have a lovely old book writen by Col;G.T.K.Maurice,CMG.CBE;:~"Observations & Reflections On Wild Creaures" Dedicated to "The Memory of Sir Henry Charles Burdett KCB;KCVO;& The Officers & Men of the 10th Irish Division~with whom he shared "comradeship when the main of it was written"! Mainly concerned with the Wild Life; Fauna of the UK,but also the species he encountered in Europe,Malta & Macedonia.

His Explanation includes:~"Came the War,I drifted from France,to Malta into Macedonia & into a job that compelled me to ride for hours,day after day through a country full of Birds & teeming with curious creatures,to live;eat & sleep with them always around me..."

Rather than "Moving Out" it would appear from Col;Maurice's book @ least;that; nature did what nature does best & adapted to the current surroundings.

Some snippets:~

Home pre 1914:~

"Swallows & Martins hawk their food across the barrack square in numbers that increase as summer draws to its end.

They skim over the fatigue parties that cut the grass & swoop round the men's heads to seize insects disturbed from their lurking places by the scythes.They use his Majesty's forces as beaters for their sport..."

Sturma Valley 1916:~

"During the battle of September 15th I was surprised to see two hawks of a large size & chestnut colour,with yellow beaks & a white band of feathers @ the root of the tail,serenely hawking over the crops,not 400 yards behind the line in which we had several Batteries in action.They took no heed at all of the report of the guns,nor the sounds of the bursts of the shells sent over in reply by the enemy,I watched them work over the same area for over an hour..."

Macedonian Tortoises:~

"Great numbers of Tortoises exist both in plain & hill,it is barely possible to ride a couple of miles without coming on one or more...,Even they are no unaffected by the turmoil of War.Many an old fellow deliberately crossing the road is caught & crushed by lorries moving at furious speed compared to that of the slow~going bullock wains that for generations have been his only experience of wheeled transport.

Some part of the French Troops recognise the Tortoise as an article of food,Many have gone to the pot."

Heavy Guns:~1916

Later I moved my position & passed by a heavy gun hidden in the plain,Close by it I saw a bird fluttering curiously on the ground.I went to pick it up & saw it was a Crested Lark,common here, and similar,not identical to the English Lark.

It had no wing,nor leg; broken,yet it could not fly,but fluttered & pushed its legs along the ground rapidly,on an erratic course,much as a Partridge,shot through the brain will flutter...I caught it & examined it,I could see no injury,One of the Gun team told me he thought it had been knocked over by the blast of the explosion of the gun.I think he was right."

I would recommend it if you can find a copy:~

Published by Drane's Dangeld House Farringdon Street EC.London. Circa 1919~30s

Maybe through your local lending library.

[IanA]

"Wounded hare...eaten with relish"

Surely not, old boy. Chutney's the thing. What?

Ian

[marina]

Marina

[chris mccarthy]

Can I recommend Memoirs of a camp follower by Phillip Gosse. Longmans, 1934.

He was an officer in the RAMC but in his spare time trapped and stuffed small mammals and sent them off to the British Museum.

[marina]

Another snippet, quoted from Stiletto's thread about Captain Raymond Smith's diary on the reference books thread:

Dawn rose fine and bright, with the larks rising from the long grass in no-man's land, and singing as if peace had come on earth once more, and indeed for a front line position this was strangely peaceful.

Marina

[Tim Birch]

I don't think birds are undully disturbed by gunfire, they fly off at the sound, but quickly settle again. I live in seaside town with a life boat. When the maroon is fired they all take off and fly around for about 20 mins squalking, then settle down again.

I don't think birds or other wild creatures appreciate or anticipate the danger. It's just a bang which temporarily upsets them - pheasants and partridges might get a different persepective!. On the Somme at the beginning of July 1916 the countryside wasn't churned up that much and there was still grass and trees around. It was only towards the closing stages of the battle that the land had become a morass, but the zone was very small in relation to a bird's normal range, and this applies to other battlefields.

[Retrac]

A bit late into this but I'm just reading Hart's 'The Somme' in which he quotes a soldier of the 8th Devons as saying:

' A small bird sat on a stunted tree in Mansell Copse. At the break of dawn we used to listen to it and wonder that amongst so much misery and death a bird could sing. One morning a corporal visiting the fire posts heard the bird singing and muttering 'What the hell have you got to sing about?, fired and killed it. A couple of lads told him to f*** off out of it. We missed the bird.'

A few days later many of the 8th Devons died beneath the trees of Mansell Copse.

Nature does fine until people intervene

David

[marina]

I came across this extract from Saki's (HH Munro) 'Birds On The Western Front':

"The wounded lying there, if any of them noticed the small bird, may have wondered why anything with wings and no pressing reason for remaining should have chosen to stay in such a place...the only other bird I ever saw there was a magpie, flying low over the wreckage of fallen tree limbs; 'one for sorrow' says the old superstition. There was sorrow enough in that wood."

Marina

[mebu]

Marina, yes an interesting article in the DT....see post 3 on this thread, Peter.

[marina]

'Put that bloody cigarette out'

What last words for such a clever witty man, Peter!

The article made me go online and read some of his stories again - they're all on the net. Like 'The Open Window' best!

Marina

[Owen D]

I know it's WW2 but I remember reading in The Fortress: A Diary of Anzio and After by Raleigh Trevelyan that he mentioned he became sick to death of the singing of the many Nghtingales around his position.

I've only seen one singing, ever.

He must have been depressd to tire of that.

[marina]

I know it's WW2 but I remember reading in The Fortress: A Diary of Anzio and After by Raleigh Trevelyan that he mentioned he became sick to death of the singing of the many Nghtingales around his position.

I've only seen one singing, ever.

He must have been depressd to tire of that.

He must have been, Owen. Maybe they were keeping him awake?

Marina

[Owen D]

He must have been, Owen. Maybe they were keeping him awake?

Marina

Either that or the German snipers and mortars.

Alex Bowlby in "Recollections of Rifleman Bowbly."

wrote about the Nightingale,

"...as if showing us and the Germans that there were better things to do it opened up the whole valley with song....I sensed a tremendous affirmation that 'this would go on'...."

[marina]

Either that or the German snipers and mortars.

Alex Bowlby in "Recollections of Rifleman Bowbly."

wrote about the Nightingale,

"...as if showing us and the Germans that there were better things to do it opened up the whole valley with song....I sensed a tremendous affirmation that 'this would go on'...."

A touch of hope in the future. Nice extract.

Marina

[marina]

Another little snippet from the Front. This one is from Stiletto's thread : Andrew Buxton's Memorial Book:

'There are still birds in this wood, if wood it can be called, the greater part not having more than the smallest sign of green, the trees having, I suppose, been mostly cut down by shells before the Spring. The wood is a mass of stumps torn off at various heights. I was watching starlings this morning working up the stems for insects in the bullet holes - one or two wrens are also having a gay time. What was really ripping yesterday was a turtle dove cooing. It was peace in the midst of war. Except for the shelling we get from time to time we do no firing from this wood, so it is quiet.'

Excellent thread by the way - gives marvellous detail of the trenches and day to day life.

Marina