Wildlife and the war

[marina]

Two more snippets from Andrew Buxton's letters from 1916. Note the blackbird synchronising with the machine guns and that Andrew is far more interested in the sparrows than the General's visit:

"Everything is at its height of beauty - trees half out and the low underwood full of birds. A nightingale singing all night close by my hut and a cuckoo this morning and endless other birds. This morning I saw a pair of nightingales, also a blackbird sitting on a nest only just of the ground. The poor old nightingale did not have the night to himself, as no doubt he is accustomed to expect, because quite a noisy time of our guns and Bosch ones and plenty of machine gun and rifle fire. I am sure he sometimes got his 'runs' of note to correspond with the tap, tap, tap of machine guns."

"As dawn came, amongst the rifle shooting, a jolly blackbird got up by me, at a normal time for a blackbird. With usual blackbird noise as he flew, and partridges both half left and half right (i.e. 2 pairs) 'calling' quite regardless of heavy firing over their heads, they being between our lines. Sparrows are most friendly and really delightful - quite part of our life and busy talking about nests in trees knocked about by shells. The General has been along our trench this afternoon."

Marina

[Joan and Terry]

I realise this is late,still here goes.When we stayed at Avrils,back in September this year,Avril said one of the reasons the French started to eat snails and frogs legs was, "thats all there was to eat".Reading through all of the posts,there seems to have always been plenty of bird life about,beginning to wonder if it was an old wives tale.She did also mention that before WW1 the Somme area was famous for Calvados,but afterwards,all the trees were gone,and Normandy has since become the place for Calvados.

Joan

[Matt Dixon]

I do a talk about animals in war and there are many examples of bird life being involved in war situations.

A pair of swans nested on the moat at Ypres throughout the whole war and successfully raised signets every year whilst the town was being shelled into oblivion around them.

Canaries were often used to detect the presence of gas in underground mining operations. One British officer wrote of the canary in his section "Many were the times he was rudely awakened from his slumbers, dumped unceremoniously into a sandbag and taken down the tunnel. He would sit chirping happily and then be brought to the surface little more than a dirty ball of yellow fluff on the floor of his cage. But he always recovered and never once failed in his duty" Canaries were also placed in the carraiges of hospital trains as it was believed their singing raised the spirits of the men.

The French adopted an experiment whereby parrots were placed on top of the Eiffel Tower, when it was discovered thier sense of hearing was considerably better at detecting aircraft than humans. Parrots would hear the noise and start sqwuaking, whereupon a system of lights would illuminated, and the air raid sirens would be sounded. This was a good idea in principle with one slight flaw, being the parrots couldn't tell the difference between German and Allied aircraft, and after many false alarms the experiment was discontinued.

Larks frequently appear in writings about the war, and don't forget Rosenbergs poem "Returning we hear the larks"

The best bird story I know, concerns the court martial of Privates George and Gander. A company of the Royal Garrison Artillery purchased two geese from a farmer with the intention of fattening them up for the officers Xmas dinner. They remained with the company for some time, and they displayed remarkable feats of hearing. When near the lines, the acted like guard dogs, honking and warning the men of danger, and were excellent at detecting the sounds of shells that would explode close by. It was found that since they had been with the company, the casualty rate had dropped and in the words of an officer, morale had soared. When Xmas approached the company was divided into two camps. Those who favoured sending George and Gander to the dinner table, and those who thought they should be spared. Representation was made to the CO who decided (and only the British could do this!) that the fairest way to sort the matter out was to hold a formal Court Martial against the geese. Lawyers for the prosecution and defence were duly appointed and the geese were tried. They were spared the pot and reprieved and spent the rest of the war with the company. The irony was obviously lost on George and Gander as whenever the company travelled by train, the geese would travel in the kitchen poaking their heads out of the window of the carriage. Both geese returned to England and their fate remains unknown.

If you want anymore examples, you'll have to come and hear the talk!

[alliekiwi]

What a fascinating thread this is! If I'd been asked for an untutored opinion, I'd have thought that the wildlife near the trenches would have been pretty much decimated. Nice to hear that that was not actually the case, and that many of the men paid particular notice to the goings on of the animal and birdlife around them.

I'd not realised Saki was killed in action. I've always loved his stories, but had never read biographical notes about him. Such a shame - imagine what other stories he might have delighted us with in the ongoing years.

Matt, love the story about the geese.

Allie

[SiegeGunner]

Representation was made to the CO who decided (and only the British could do this!) that the fairest way to sort the matter out was to hold a formal Court Martial against the geese. Lawyers for the prosecution and defence were duly appointed and the geese were tried.

There is a long and quite bizarre history of putting animals on trial. Here's an academic paper reviewing a book on the subject: http://www.psyeta.org/sa/sa2.1/beirne.html

It's great to see this thread still going strong and attracting so many excellent posts — a fine tribute to

the late Grantaloch, who started it all.

Mick

[Matt Dixon]

and that many of the men paid particular notice to the goings on of the animal and birdlife around them.

Allie

Many men adopted animals as pets and kept them with them throughout the war. When the time came for heading back to England, the quarantine fee of £14 was way beyond the means of most men. The RSPCA donated £11 of every £14 thus allowing many men to remain with the animals that had showed devotion and faithfulness to them throughout the war. When the war first broke out, the RSPCA offered its services to war office, but were told in no uncertain terms that the Royal Army Veterinary Corps were fit for purpose and a voluntary organisation would be of no use to the Army. By January 1915 the War Office came back to the RSPCA and begged for their help. In less than 6 months, following public appeals the British public had made over £300,000 (a staggering amount!) in voluntary donations which enabled the RSPCA to set up over 150 mobile veterinary centres in France and Belgium. Almost a million animals were treated by the RSPCA up to the end of the war, with quite remarkable success rates. Of the almost 2 million horses treated for wounds, over 80% were successfully returned to duty.

Until the animals at war memorial was opened there were no official memorials to animals in the UK. The Scottish National Memorial made mention of animals, but there were no specifically for animals. On Kilburn High Road was the RSPCA War Animals dispensary which bore a plaque saying "To commemorate the death in action of over 462,755 horses, oxen and mules on all fronts during the Great War. This tablet also commemorates over 778,550 other animals who were nursed back to health by the RSPCA during this time in France and Belgium. They suffered in silence, for they have not a voice"

[bob lembke]

One rather negative example, but possibly recounted in humor by Count von Schwerin, concerned the famed Sturm=Bataillon Nr. 5 (Rohr), while on field exercises, supposedly "hunting" wild boar with their close-support battery of 105 mm howitzers. My father fought with this unit several times in the Verdun area, and his strongest recollection of this to me was the wonderful accuracy of this battery (which went thru at least four different types of cannon); three quick shots, and a MG nest would be toast.

Germans normally are quite fussy about what weapon is used to hunt particular types of game. My father told me of a man in a town where he lived; no one in town would speak to him, the cause was that, 20 years before, someone had seen the man's father hunt a squirrel with a shotgun, not the appropriate .22 rifle. No one would speak to such a poor sportsman, and the shunning natuarally passed to the man's son as well. In recent times, in order to get a hunting license, a German applicant had to take and pass a 33 hour course on the ettiquette of hunting.

I now recall a letter from the Russian Front (WW I) from my grand-father; he stated that his units were going into winter positions, and when that was concluded he was going to organize some proper bear hunting. He then went into a discussion of the range of bears within Russia.

Bob Lembke

[SiegeGunner]

In recent times, in order to get a hunting license, a German applicant had to take and pass a 33 hour course on the ettiquette of hunting.

Bob,

The regulations vary from one Bundesland to another, but the normal minimum period of practice, training and instruction is 120 hours, prior to taking the three-part Jägerprüfung (hunting examination) which has to be passed in order to obtain a Jagdschein (hunting licence). Details (in German) are here: http://www.jagd-online.de/seite.cfm?020403

Mick

[marina]

Another extract from Andrew Buxton's letters, Octoner 1916:

I forgot to tell you what a lot of weasels I saw last time I was at the front. Two which were running about on top of a dug out in the trench I 'squeaked' to, and brought them so near that I stopped, thinking one of them was going to jump on to my shoulder, which I did not fancy !

A party of mine digging in the side of a trench sliced away so as to leave a family of mice in a niche - the nest was made of old bits of letters and field postcards. They were not 'red,' but had not yet got hair, or eyes opened. The old one was there, coming up and going down a hole in the back. We did some first aid work by handing her the young ones one by one, and she carted them back down the hole !

[marina]

Andrew Buxton again, on less attractive wild life. October, 1916:

I have experienced many mice and rats, but never anything like those outside and inside the dug-out we have been in. A deep one, about twenty-five feet below ground level, going down from the trench by about fifteen long big steps, all timbered, in which we five Officers and my servant slept, he in a small adjunct at the bottom of the steps. The dug-out has two entrances. Rats and mice all over everything, and every one making an awful din by every means, including tearing up newspapers to make nests of. This writing pad I have had sent up by Edge my groom, wrapped in paper, which was hal eaten off, and the pad also just suffered, as you will see at the bottom left side. There are a good many real black ones about. It is very disturbing having them sitting on your pillow, touching your head, and washing or scratching themselves, and at intervals, by mistake no doubt, washing one scratching you, and next minute having to eject one from the commanding position obtained by sitting on your hind leg. In the interval another showers earth over head and face, makiing itself a new dug-out."

Marina

Taken from Stiletto's thread in the Documents and Reference Books section: Andrew Richard Buxton, 3rd Rifle Brigade.

[angelab]

...She did also mention that before WW1 the Somme area was famous for Calvados,but afterwards,all the trees were gone,and Normandy has since become the place for Calvados.

Funnily enough, I was visiting the Somme this summer (but more to the west than most of the battlefields), and came across a cider producer in the village of Naours, between Doullens and Amiens. Seemingly cider production is still quite big there. "La Cidrerie de la Garenne" makes cider and apple juice, but not calvados!

Come to think of it, I suppose you can't call apple-spirit "calvados" outside the department of that name...

Angela

[J Banning]

In Peter Barton's new book - The Somme, A New Panoramic Perspective there is a lovely quote from a Captain Shaw of the 1st KOSB whose diary for 5 June is as follows:

"June 5. On fatigue from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. digging sumps at side of big communication trench. These roads are 6 feet deep and 6 feet wide at top, 3 feet wide at bottom, with a small drain. At intervals are small sumps 4 feet deep bridged by a sort of plank ladder. Big sumps are dug at longer intervals out to one side and are 10 feet deep. Hundreds of mice, field-voles, moles and small deer fall into these trenches and finally get to the sumps where in spite of some clever galleries dug up the face to within 18 inches of the turf the soil alas is too wet and slippery, so engineering operations fail. They have no discipline and the galleries get crowded; the tail of the queue push forward and the workers at the head get forced over and fall 6 or 7 feet to the bottom. If one gets injured in this fall his fellows immediately set on him and tear him to pieces and fight over the cannibalistic feast in a dreadful orgy of hunger and despair. The moles do better, and where there is a mole he digs a tunnel whereby all escape and are saved. I found a bewildered mole lying at the bottom of a sump in hard chalk. Here all his ingenuity and perseverance failed. I carried him to a pit full of mice and he set to work at once and soon disappeared followed by all the mice. This mole had wonderful black velvety skin. Mice do not understand the law of gravitation; they dig galleries mostly vertically where an incline would save them."

The idea of the mole acting as a pied piper with all the other animals following is a lovely thought!

Sadly, the author notes that Captain Shaw was killed in action on 9 July 1916 and is buried in Ancre British Cemetery, Beaumont-Hamel.

[marina]

Pied Piper! It is SO cute to think of that!

Marina

[CarylW]

Fascinating thread!

In a letter from 2nd Lt Aylmer Templar Wales South African Infantry

"C" Coy. 2nd Regt. written to his mother, dated 5th of July 1916, 12 days before he died at Delville Wood

He writes:

.....Where we are there is a tame magpie, it came and woke our fellows up by climbing over them swearing. I think it has been learning English from the troops here.....

Caryl

[marina]

Marina

[marina]

Quoted in Neil Hanson's 'The Unknown Soldier' :

The detonation of the mine was followed by 'a violent bombardment such as I have never heard or seen.' Bizarrely, in the midst of this inferno of noise, the dawn chorus began. 'All of us noticed at 3.30 a.m., how beautifully the birds were singing. They kept it up during the whole of the bombardment.'

and rats in the trenches again:

...and in cold weather were sometimes even found clustered round sleeping men for warmth...But in the hungry winter weather, when food was scarce and the seasonal lull in the fighting reduced the supply of corpses, rats also attacked sleeping men. One sleeping corporal's nose was bitten by a rat, which clung on despite his shrieks until despatched by a bayonet.

Shudder!

Marina

[Desdichado]

There is a long and quite bizarre history of putting animals on trial.

I have really enjoyed reading this thread, especially the post about the geese. It reminds me of the Hartlepool Monkey. The story goes that during the Napoleonic wars, a French ship ran aground just off the town of Hartlepool. The sole survivor was the ship's mascot; a monkey dressed in French uniform. The townspeople of Hartlepool put the monkey on trial, convicted him, sentenced him to death, and had him publicly hanged.

[marina]

I expect that's where the legend that th French had tails started!

Marina

[AlfaMale]

Bob:

Nathan it is.

Left out something really streand. Some of the colour pics are found in Hew Strachan's THE FIRST WORLD WAR, the smaller one of this title published by Viking. They are made with a potato starch process, the details of which are not known. Very vivivd. Very strange.

Cheers,

Nathan

Autochrome I think: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autochrome

[CarylW]

Came across these in The Liverpool Scottish 1900-1919 A M MGilchrist

This must have been horrendous, on top of everythig else they had to endure, but also a few humerous aspects of it

"...Never were there such rats as lived in the Riviere trenches, thousands of them, enormous brutes with an utter disregard for man. The walls of the trenches and dugouts were honeycombed with their runs and at night they swarmed over everything. The men had greatest difficulty in keeping their food protected. It was useless to hang a loaf of bread by a string from the roof of a dugout.

(This bit made me smile)...The rats grinned contemptuously, waited till one's back was turned, slid down the string, and the bread vanished....Rat hunting became a regular trench sport and although many men developed great quickness and efficiency with stick or bayonet there was no noticeable in the number of rats. One wretched officer who had a horror of rats, was very popular with his brother subalterns because not daring to go to sleep at night in the trenches he always volunteered to take everyone else's tour of duty and would return worn and haggard to company headquarters after morning stand to and try to snatch what sleep he could pn the table Even then he would lie awake wondering if the rats would fall on him from the roof. (this also made me laugh)..they were erudite rats too. One of them was discovered disappearing backwards into a hole with an unopened copy of the Weekly Times in its mouth!"

More from the same book, this time about frogs

" One curious thing about the Epehy trenches was that they appeared to have attracted to them all the frogs in France. The Battalion had long looked on rats as a necessary evil but frogs were a new experience and nearly as unwelcome. By day they remained hidden in the trench drains and in out-of-the-way corners but at night they swarmed into the fire-bays and communication trenches and became a general nuisance to all who had to walk the duckboards after dark...it is as slippery as a banana skin and makes an unpleasant plopping sound if solidly stepped on which is distinctly unmanning. One hyper-sensitive sub-altern when on trench-duty at night always insisted on his runner preceding him at night to clear the frogs from his path and when, one day, he found one in his newly completed dugout he gave orders for the floor boards to be lifted and the frog removed...when his batman shortly afterwards produced the result of his labours, one hundred and fifty frogs in a sandbag, the subaltern was noticeably shaken and his friends declare that he has never been the same since"

Caryl

[bierast]

On 28/12/2006 at 21:52, CarylW said:

In a letter from 2nd Lt Aylmer Templar Wales South African Infantry

"C" Coy. 2nd Regt. written to his mother, dated 5th of July 1916, 12 days before he died at Delville Wood

He writes:

.....Where we are there is a tame magpie, it came and woke our fellows up by climbing over them swearing. I think it has been learning English from the troops here.....

I was brought here by a search for "tame magpie", because I have photographic evidence of another one on the Western Front... I suspect that this one could probably swear in German (and Saxon dialect at that)!  The text on the back tells us that its owner was named Baumann, and that the bird was sadly 'KIA' (gefallen) in 1916. The unit is either RIR or LIR 106, both of which were Saxon.

Edited 16 March , 2023 by bierast