stiletto_33853 Posted 23 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 23 December , 2006 October 27. "At 8 a.m. went on to Loos with C.S.M., etc. Coy.; started at 8.15. Rotten game taking over. Cooked and not much sleep. Arthur turned up to supper and sleep." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 23 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 23 December , 2006 October 29. "Wired last night.........Lots of arrangements and sending down bombs. Bosch nearly got wiring party." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 23 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 23 December , 2006 B.E.F. Trench 1 [Loos] Noon, Monday, 30-10-16. ".........It is impossible to think of the joy of leave from the place where I now write from. It is a life which no one in England can possibly picture, and I am verily thankful that you cannot experience it. It is almost too severe, the fact of getting Mother's, yours, or other letters, here in the midst of anxiety (as O.C. Coy.), mud and general vileness - but we survive well." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 23 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 23 December , 2006 B.E.F. Trench 1, 12.20 p.m., Tuesday, 31-10-16. "...........Trenches frightfully falling in owing to wet, and real problem to deal with owing to so few men available for work. I and some men of another Coy. who came up for wiring last night nearly got a free ride to Berlin ! Wiring is always a rotten game, as when near up to the Bosch they are bound to see a party in front of the trenches by their 'Very' lights, which light up like day - far better than ours - which probably means machine-gun or rifle fire against which tumble down if possible ('squatting' in rabbit language !) and bless a shell hole if there is one there. Last night, however, they stopped sending up lights on our front after spotting my parties (I had two out for the purpose of dividing up the men, as otherwise it is true terrors to have a mchine-gun spitting into the middle of a big party) and instead they sent out a patrol of eight men to try and cut ff some, and they jolly near succeeded ! I had just been to one party, and told them to wire further out than they were doing, and then left them to go to the other party. I had hardly got to the other party, who were wiring for the most part on pure white chalk thrown round the sides of a mine crater - exactly like snow, and men on it showing up like men on snow - when my Sergeant from the other parties ran up and said he had tumbled into this Bosch patrol. When I told him to moive forward he had of course taken his 'covering' party of a few men froward to lie on the ground, and just shown them where to lie, when he saw some men move a few yards from him, and, quite rightly under the circumstances, tumbled back with the others into the trench, but one of his covering party had not done so." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 24 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2006 "As the Bosch were on each side of him, though he was in a shallow shell hole, this man of the covering party - I say 'man,' but rather bot - had lain still in what was fortunately a small shell hole. I sent out a patrol and found him there, which gave me, as you can imagine, one of the most joyful moments I can remember. I felt sure they had got him. Men come back torn to bits, getting over the small amount of wire there was there, and now on it hangs the greater part of a man's shorts, which they are still wearing. When I left the party I must have been within a few yards of this patrol, and it was lucky they did not get the lot of us, though they were running a big risk in the enterprise. It was a bad night, pitch dark, and heavy rain. If they had got that man I should have felt it a very bad job, as they would have identified the Regiment, besides scoring one up. So you see life is exciting. In fact I have just come in from my dug-out owing to half a dozen 'minnies' being just plumped from two directions - the Bosch line goes pretty much round us - on to where I was arranging for certain sandbags to be dumped, which they could see. These are great big things which you can see for a few seconds falling from the skies, but they and we have every assortment of these things. When I came in at midnight - my armament on these occasions is a bomb in one pocket and revolver in another - I had the great joy of sitting down and reading yours and Ros letters." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 24 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2006 B.E.F. Trench 1, 4.30 p.m., 1-11-16. "Last night got through very satisfactory work. Coming back from our front line about 10 p.m. I told one of our Stokes guns to fire on Bosch front line just two shots, one in each of two places. I saw the first one burst beautifully about twenty feet above the ground, and the second on the ground (the fuzes are about twelve seconds) and then went on to my dug-out. One of my Officers who was on duty in the front line told me, when he came in, that the first one had burst immediately above about a dozen Bosch working outside their trench, scattering them pell-mell ! Isn't it a strange life ! This life is not pleasant, but none the less extremely fascinating. So interesting, the Bosch things we are now using which we captured on the Somme push." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 24 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2006 Billets, 5 p.m., Thursday, 2-11-16. "I am in one of those times of bliss which it is hard to describe, but which I expect you know the feeling of in a return to home with a welcome there, and every home comfort ! I left a certain place, (1) neither residential, nor one that you would choose for a holiday, this morning; a vile walk down two and a half miles of trench, fallen in in several places. At one place I looked up to see where I (and my Sergeant-Major) had got to, and what the country was like, and there, like chickens for tameness, was the most lovely covey of sixteen partridges, quite unfrightenable, and just strutting about within a few yards, suprised at seeing a human being, it being land which no one traversed except by deep trenches. Every feather looked so beautiful. Then after a time we got out, and by means of my compass and map made out where we were - big open country, no hedges, only wide expanses of rough ground, with shell torn coal mines, sidings etc. From there we went, after a bit of Leicester chocolate and a cigarette, above ground to a certain point where Officer's horses were meeting them, and right glad I was to give my groom my pack and the rest of the baggage round my shoulders to carry for me, and to get Bummy to take me to my billet, though only about three quarters of a mile off." (1)Trenches at Loos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 24 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2006 "When I got to Bummy I put on my Burberry, wet and muddy though it was, as I felt that somehow my mud covered clothes were too bad for the 'public' eye, even near the front. .........It is, as you can understand, like getting into another world after several days of trench life, to have my horse meet me at one point, then round the corner my Q.M.-Sergeant, and then to come into this clean cottage about 3 p.m. where my valise and kit were all ready, and lunch. After that to change into clean and dry things, and have a wash, and then sit down to write to you, during which your letter on Monday the 30th comes in................ Plenty of room now to empty out pockets, and sort up letters, papers, and clothes, and now soon to sit in a comfortable chair, and read yesterday's Times by the fire ! The only trouble is that my men (who are in huts) have, to the number of 26, to act as guards at once. It is hard to be turned straight on to that, but active service makes it necessary. To-morrow morning they will get baths, and myself too, after many days with no more than my jacket off." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 24 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 24 December , 2006 November 6, 1916. "............I have just been for a most refreshing half-hour gallop on Brummy on some stubble. ......The Kippers were greatest joy and change to the men especially as they arrived when we were in the trenches. The men have just had issued most beautiful 'leather erkins.' Really long weather waistcoats, the same as last year, except these are lined - also soon, I believe, going to have the same mackintosh caps as last year. The only trouble is the load it means for them to carry. The men are wonderfully provided for............A football match yesterday, C. Coy. v. Headquarters, ending in a draw ! There is a boxing tournament to-night." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marina Posted 24 December , 2006 Share Posted 24 December , 2006 Ah! An excplanation for the waistcoats! Wonder if he and Vernede ever went for a gallop together? He used to like riding out too. Marina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 25 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 25 December , 2006 Diary - November 6. "Arthur says that to-day he buried two Buffs shot through one of them not answering when challenged." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 25 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 25 December , 2006 To his Mother. B.E.F., Trench I, 5 p.m., Tuesday, 14.11.16. "Trenches are good friends of mine and I am beginning to know them well. The first two or three days in trenches, especially if new ones, are hard work, but other than this I feel much at home in them. There is a great charm in tumbling into or out of bed without any worry of taking off or putting on clothes. This morning, half a mile to our left on some ground which I could see, some heavy rifle fire commenced and made me wonder if the Bosch were attacking, when I saw a flock of geese flying high over that part in their usual V formation. The rfle fire was Bosch and us firing at the same time at them ! It is stated that one was brought down in our lines. I have once or twice see geese flying high in the same direction." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 25 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 25 December , 2006 To A.G.H. 3rd Rifle Brigade, B.E.F., November 20, 1916. "..........There is no doubt I, according to family ways, make too heavy weather of trench life by taking to heart too much until things are as much in order as is reasonably possible. I certainly do not again want to be more cooked than I was the first three days of each of the last two tours of trenches ! This is due to not making other Officers responsible for different things, but the two I have have not had sufficient experience to do so, and also it is not in me to detail an Officer for dangerous work like wiring, etc. If I consider it has to be done, I supervise it - quite wrong, but there it is ! I sadly miss the splendid Officers I had before the losses on the Somme - each one of the four was far better than I. It is the absence of support such as theirs which hits particularly hard, as well as of course the invaluable N.C.O.'s who have gone. It is inexplicable to me how Staff jobs are given to men with no trench experience. The absence of that experience is continuously obvious." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 25 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 25 December , 2006 Diary - November 21. "Walked with Boscy to H.Qrs. where told my leave is from to-morrow (not 24th as I thought), so I go to-night and now write this at Les Brebis. Sent a wire home from Orderly Room...... Walked to Mazingarbe and got the 9.30 p.m. bus to Bethune. Waited in hotel for 11.30 p.m. train. Train full and cold, not much sleep." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 25 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 25 December , 2006 Diary - November 22. "Boat left Boulogne 9.30 a.m. Good crossing. Came down by 2.53 p.m. train from town. Mother and Ros. met me. A great welcome." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 25 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 25 December , 2006 Staff Work with the 73rd Brigade December 1916 - February 1917. Andrew was back in France again on December 3, 1916. On December 4 he joined the Staff of the 73rd Infantry Brigade, then at Les Brebis near Loos, as a 'learner' of a Staff Captain's duties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 25 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 25 December , 2006 To his Father. 3rd R.B., 2 p.m., Monday, 4-12-16. "I went direct to our Q.M. Store, and then walked to Battalion H.Q.'s and saw Pigot, who confirmed what had been told me by two Officers, who were going on leave as I got to the railhead, that I was going to go to the 73rd Brigade, which is one of the Brigades in ouir Division. I lunched at H.Q.'s and then went on from there. My job appears to be assistant Staff Captain. The Brigadier I know ell, but I have not seem him as yet. I will give you my address to-morrow. Till you hear this address, write to me as before." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 25 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 25 December , 2006 To his Sister Rosamond. 73rd Inf. Brigade, 6 p.m., Tuesday, 5-12-16. "At the moment, I feel really 'Company sick,' and long beyond words to be back with men whom I have such a tremendous admiration for, and some of whom I feel I can deeply love.........On the other hand, I think trench life had become for me a very great strain, not only from the point of view of wondering if the line was being held as well as possible, but also owing to the untold effort of detailing men for dangerous work, such as wiring or patrol. This would not have mattered, except that the nerve strain sometimes becomes so great, chiefly owing to want of sleep, that I wondered if I was able to deal with any complicated position that may arise. I feel at present very bereft, as in all other ways trench life suits me so far better than a house and comfortable mess, such as I have at present. I feel God has been so good to me all my time in the Army, and now again such a magnificent leave. I had to stay a night at Boulogne (Louvre Hotel). If you ever get there, make a point of getting the Proprietor's small daughter of about fifteen to play the piano, and to sing - I don't think I ever heard any one perform so superbly as she did on a small piano in a writing room where she sometimes walked in and carried on." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 25 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 25 December , 2006 To his Mother. 11 a.m., 5-12-16. "They seem an excellent lot of fellows here, and I hope to soon get into things, though at present all is fairly strange. The Staff Captain is Captain Norrie, who does both 'A' and 'Q' branches. 'A' includes Administration and Discipline, and 'Q' Supplies (ratrions, R.E. material, and ammunition). I feel very sad at leaving the Company without prospect of return, especially when those of the men I have seen all give such a warm feeling though silent welcome - silent till spoken to ! The Bosch did a raid last night at 1 a.m. on our (i.e. the 73rd) front, but got the worst of it, I am glad to say." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 25 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 25 December , 2006 Diary - December 6. "The Bosch on Monday 1 a.m. raided the Leinsters, but got the worst of it and left a prisoner (wounded)." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 25 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 25 December , 2006 B.E.F., 2.15 p.m., Sunday, 10-12-16. "A different Sunday to yours. Ordinary office work, consisting chiefly of a Court Martial. The labour in getting these Court Martials together is tremendous, owing to witnesses being far distant. For this one, three from Boulogne, and two from other Divisions called by the accused. The C.M. was put off till to-day owing to these two being called, but neither turned up, one being in England, so the Court had to adjourn without decision. Then last night the President of the Court could not leave his Battalion, so new President had to be got. It seems hardly practicable to give such full justice as this out here. It was very difficult for any of the members to attend. All well here, and a bright day." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marina Posted 25 December , 2006 Share Posted 25 December , 2006 Staff Work with the 73rd Brigade December 1916 - February 1917. Andrew was back in France again on December 3, 1916. On December 4 he joined the Staff of the 73rd Infantry Brigade, then at Les Brebis near Loos, as a 'learner' of a Staff Captain's duties. Someone must have heard him complain that Staff officers with experinece were in short supply! Marina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 25 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 25 December , 2006 To his Father. B.E.F., 4 p.m., Monday, 11-12-16. "Yesterday I went to see my old Company. I saw a certain number of the men, and a great joy it was too. I also had tea in a very cramped little dug-out which I have lived in, and know well. The best tea that I have had since I got back, in that there were only two cups available, and the tea made and brought in a canteen. I do not like tea in a room with electric light and china cups nearly so much ! I find the men are very grateful for any knits which may be sent, and including socks, which I made a mistake in thinking they were all provided with. Any that are sent me, I shall enjoy to send them up to them." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 25 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 25 December , 2006 To his Sister Rosamond. B.E.F., December 14, 1916. "I am glad you appreciate how much I feel being absent from the Coy. It is indeed most troublous to me, but I think its best, anyhow for the present, from every point of view............It is though, very hard to think of the men in the trenches with attendant risks, and not be with them. I can hardly think that I can ever become efficient for Staff work, as it has sides to it which are not in my line, but should they give me an appointment, I do trust it will not be something involving the wearing of 'red,' of which I have a vast horror, but I suppose it will................ If it was not for Mother and Father, (I don't mind a bit about you !) I don't feel I could stand being situated as I am, and not sharing trench risks with the Coy.; but anyhow I may get back some day. Having this job, which the General regard as, - and indeed it is, - very important, he has arranged for me again to be a Temporary Captain, which I am, though without Captain's pay." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 26 December , 2006 Author Share Posted 26 December , 2006 To his Mother. B.E.F., December 14, 1916. "..............I sit for work in a room with the Brigadier, Brigade-Major Howlett, and Staff Captain Norrie. The mess is in the house behind, where I and others also sleep. We seldom leave the office till pretty late at night." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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