From fighting at the front to digging weeds.

[NigelS]

In his book, Poor Bloody Infantry: a memoir of the first World War, WHA Groom, a rifleman with the LRB, relates how, having been at the front (Arras), his Battalion moved to Sombrin for rest (early July '17). He comments that it was a nice place with good billets and food (including roast beef), until they were put to work "weeding and hoeing mangolds" for a local farmer for 12 hours a day. The men put up with it for three days but were "fuming" at having to do hard physical labour when they were supposed to be at rest and:

...after what we'd been through - no rest - and getting none of the money the farmer paid for us. So, on the fourth day we went to the farm and just wouldn't work. There was a hell of a row but they couldn't make us work - we just went through the motions and we won because the farmer wouldn't have us."

Groom goes on to make the comment that the work had been arranged by "Army Staff" (he doesn't say at what level) and that: it was typical of the gulf and lack of understanding between General Staff and front line troops.

Was putting front line troops to work in this way, when they were supposed to be at rest, a regular occurence? I know that "rest" wasn't just sitting around idling all day, and would have included regular chores and duties such as cleaning clothing and equipment, kit maintenance, training, etc, etc. and preparations for the next action (3rd Ypres in this case), as well as opportunities for letting off steam such as sports and tournaments, but I'm inclined to agree with Groom that a 12 hour day of back breaking weeding in the hot summer sun doesn't seem sensible, particularly in light of the difficulties the French army was experiencing with its men at around that time (there would also have been shortage of men to work on the land). On the other hand, could it have been a case of the Army staff believing "the devil makes work for idle hands" and deliberately finding ways of keeping the men fully occupied in order to keep their minds off of what they'd already been through and would shortly be going back to? I know that in the same sort of way merchant sailors in the days of sail were kept busy with continual, and probably not totally necessary, rounds of cleaning, scrubbing, polishing and painting, etc. to keep their minds off of the hardships they had to endure on long voyages.

A slightly different account of the stay at Sombrin is given in the History of the LRB 1859-1919; it agrees with Groom by saying ...a pretty and clean little village and all billets were clean and good, and the population friendly and kind, but also gives: one of the daily fatigues, to help the farmers on the land, was so popular that it was even volunteered for, but rumour said that feasts of strawberries and cream provided by the farmers were the real attraction. Perhaps Groom and his comrades got the short straw, although I suspect the LRB history is most likely to have been written by an officer who wouldn't have had to carry out the fatigues in order to get strawberries and cream, and certainly wouldn't want to have mentioned a little local "difficulty" which would show the battalion in a bad light in its history.

[Andrew Upton]

Was putting front line troops to work in this way, when they were supposed to be at rest, a regular occurence? I know that "rest" wasn't just sitting around idling all day, and would have included regular chores and duties such as cleaning clothing and equipment, kit maintenance, training, etc, etc. and preparations for the next action (3rd Ypres in this case), as well as opportunities for letting off steam such as sports and tournaments, but I'm inclined to agree with Groom that a 12 hour day of back breaking weeding in the hot summer sun doesn't seem sensible, particularly in light of the difficulties the French army was experiencing with its men at around that time (there would also have been shortage of men to work on the land). On the other hand, could it have been a case of the Army staff believing "the devil makes work for idle hands" and deliberately finding ways of keeping the men fully occupied in order to keep their minds off of what they'd already been through and would shortly be going back to? I know that in the same sort of way merchant sailors in the days of sail were kept busy with continual, and probably not totally necessary, rounds of cleaning, scrubbing, polishing and painting, etc. to keep their minds off of the hardships they had to endure on long voyages.

It was actually quite common - F Mackain in the 4th set, "Out on Rest", of his postcards from the "Sketches of Tommy's Life" series makes some references to this - an example shown below:

[edwin astill]

By 1917 there seems to have been a bit of a worry regarding food supplies, with lectures on saving food, and encouraging horticultural activities. I am sure I've seen lots of references to Agricultural Officers - and that's another topic I've pencilled in for research after retirement (this July, Danke Gott).

Edwin

[Robert Dunlop]

Physical labour was also regarded by many officers as being the antidote to 'rest' becoming an excuse for disorderly behaviour and other excesses.

Robert