WHEN THE SOM 
 RAN RED 
 
 ^ 
 
 Captain A.Radelyffe Du^more 
 
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WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 Being a very egotistical account of my own personal 
 experiences and observations from the early days 
 of the war in Belgium to the Great Battle of the 
 Somme in July, 1916 
 
 G^^i 
 
SERVING THE BIG GUNS AT THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 
 
 During an intense bombardment the men £;trip to the waist in 
 order to have greater freedom of action. 
 
WHEN THE SOMME 
 RAN RED 
 
 BY 
 A . RADCLYFFE DUGMORE,F. R.G. S.,F. R. P. S 
 
 Temp. Captain King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 BIRD HOMES, CAMERA ADVENTURES IN THE 
 AFRICAN WILDS, THE ROMANCE OF 
 THE BEAVER, THE ROMANCE OF 
 THE CARIBOU, Etc., Etq. . . , . 
 
 PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED 
 WITH REPRODUCTIONS OF 
 PHOTOGRAPHS AND MAPS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 GROSSET & DUNLAP 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
. . COPYRIGHT, 1918, 
 
 •/• ^¥ GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
 • • » 
 •• • * . 
 
 • " • • • 
 
 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
AS A TOKEN OF ADMIRATION THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED 
 
 WITH ALL HUMILITY TO THE GLORIOUS MEMORY 
 
 OW THE OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE 
 
 KING'S OWN YORKSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY 
 
 WHO FELL IN THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME, AND 
 TO THE OTHERS WHO MADE THE SUPREME 
 SACRIFICE IN THE CAUSE OF HUMANITY 
 
 4.59Si8 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 THE SECOND BATTLE OF THE SOMME IN RELATION 
 TO THE BRITISH OFFENSIVE OF 1916 
 
 When the Germans undertook their great 
 offensive against France in 1914 their plan was, 
 of course, to overrun with the utmost speed, a 
 suffici0itly large area of the country to ensure 
 an almost immediate and complete victory. 
 Paris was the first important objective. The 
 attainment of this was to have been followed 
 rapidly by a drive against the sea-port towns on 
 the English Channel, with the obvious effect of 
 preventing Great Britain from coming to the as- 
 sistance of her ally. In planning this ambitious 
 scheme of conquest the German strategists real- 
 ized the possibility of failure and selected as their 
 strategic line of defense, in case they were forced 
 back from Paris, the region east of the Somme 
 and northward from Curlu, taking in the line 
 which included the villages of Mametz, Fricourt, 
 La Boisselle, Ovillers, Thiepval, Beaumont, 
 Hamel, Gommecourt, and on in a more or less 
 northerly direction to the coast. 
 
 vii 
 
viii FOREWORD 
 
 This line was chosen with the greatest possible 
 skill. It followed the series of ridges and hills 
 and thus gave command of the country to the 
 west ; in other words, any attack against the Ger- 
 mans would have to be made uphill, always 
 a difficult undertaking. Besides the natural 
 strength of the position the line was made still 
 more secure by the employment of every device 
 known to military science, so that it was re- 
 garded as an almost impregnable system of 
 trenches. This then was the line we were to at- 
 tack in July, 1916, largely with the idea of 
 relieving the pressure that was being exerted 
 against Verdun. 
 
 In the following pages I have attempted to 
 give some idea of hov/ at least on one part of the 
 front, the offensive was carried out. It was 
 written before the recent gigantic German at- 
 tacks, which, unfortunately, have succeeded in 
 forcing us back to a line which in part is west 
 of the position we occupied in June, 1916. 
 Whether or not we could have avoided yielding 
 this ground I am not in a position to know, but 
 there is every reason to believe that to have held 
 our line would have involved the sacrifice of such 
 an immense number of lives that it was consid- 
 ered wiser to give up the ground, at the same 
 
^ 
 
 FOREWORD ix 
 
 time making the Germans pay a toll in lives out 
 of all proportion to the value of the territory 
 they have gained. 
 
 Whether or not this is Germany's final effort 
 none of us can tell. The common idea is that if 
 it fails the German people will demand peace, 
 as they will be sickened by the ghastly slaughter, 
 which has surpassed anything the world has ever 
 known. This theory is not generally believed by 
 those who are in the best position to judge, so 
 it is not wise for us to make plans based on the 
 supposition that peace is near. Such action 
 would mean the delaying of the most necessary 
 war preparations, and this is exactly what the 
 Germans are most anxious to have happen. It 
 is the work of their propagandists to make people 
 believe that the war will very soon be finished, so 
 that we shall slow down on the mxanufacturing 
 of war material and the training of men. It is 
 well, therefore, to guard against all stories deal- 
 ing with early peace, and if possible try to trace 
 the origin of such stories. The source will in 
 nearly all cases be found to be German, or what 
 is equally vile, pacifist, for the pacifist is quite as 
 dangerous as the pro-German in our midst. He 
 would have us, among other things, conclude a 
 shameful peace on any terms, he would have us 
 
X FOREWORD 
 
 barter our heritage of liberty and freedom for 
 whatever disgraceful form of government the 
 unprincipled military power of Germany would 
 impose on us, so that those who have died for our 
 cause would have died in vain. 
 
 Unfortunately so little information has been' 
 given to the public regarding the exact position 
 occupied by the Allies at the present time that it 
 is extremely difficult to form any accurate opin- 
 ion of the situation. Apparently the Germans 
 are in possession of the country east of a line 
 running south from Bailleul to Mourlancourt, 
 from which point it appears to swing slightly 
 westerly, curving round to Montdidier. Albert is 
 in the hands of the enemy, and the famous statue 
 of the leaning Virgin, mentioned in another chap- 
 ter, has probably already been melted down for 
 the purpose of making munitions. From Albert 
 to Corbie runs the little river Ancre, which is bor- 
 dered by more or less swampy ground from Ville 
 to where it joins the Somme. On either side of 
 the valley is high rolling ground, most of which 
 is under cultivation, with patches of woodland 
 here and there. It is ideal country for open 
 warfare. Judging from the accounts that have 
 been published, I am inclined to believe that we 
 still hold the north side of the valley as far as 
 
FOREWORD xi 
 
 Heilly, or perhaps a little farther toward Corbie, 
 but whether we are in possession of the high 
 ground which overlooks the town from the east 
 and south I do not know. Everything depends 
 on this, as these hills completely dominate the 
 town. Should Corbie fall, the position of 
 Amiens will be very serious and for many rea- 
 sons the Germans are most anxious to force us 
 out of this important town and railway centre. 
 
 From Corbie to Amiens there is a wide belt of 
 low and somewhat swampy land following the 
 river. This is controlled to some extent by a 
 range of hills on the north side and to a less ex- 
 tent by lower rolling ground on the south, so that 
 unless the Huns cross the Somme, and attempt 
 to outflank us, the attack on Amiens would be 
 difficult and very costly. It is quite impossible 
 to make predictions with any degree of accu- 
 racy, but though the situation at the present 
 moment is serious, the optimistic tone of the 
 French and British commanders as expressed in 
 the newspapers should give us reason to believe 
 that the great German offensive is doomed to 
 ultimate failure, even though it gains a consider- 
 able amount of territory. 
 
 From a sentimental point of view we feel very 
 deeply having to yield ground that was won at 
 
xii FOREWORD 
 
 such a terrible cost in lives and energy; to those 
 of us who took part in the 1916 advance it is a 
 very great blow, for we believed that if once the 
 Bapaume region was taken we would be able to 
 hold it against any forces the Germans could 
 bring against us. Through the greater part of 
 the regained area the work of reconstruction had 
 been carried on with the utmost energy. The 
 shell-torn ground was being levelled and made 
 ready for cultivation, roads were repaired and 
 railways laid. And now, not only has all this 
 work been either destroyed or taken over by the 
 Germans, but many villages, which hitherto had 
 been peacefully occupied by the French people, 
 who had always treated us with such kindness, 
 have been wrested from us, and the chances are 
 very great that the wretched people will never 
 again see anything but the ruined remains of their 
 former homes. 
 
 Apart from the actual material loss there is 
 the terrible thought that the graves of our poor 
 Dead are desecrated by the very presence of the 
 Hun. At least we had hoped that the bodies of 
 those who made the Great Sacrifice for the cause 
 of Right might have been allowed to rest undis- 
 turbed in their simple graves. But such ap- 
 parently was not to be, and we can only pray that 
 
FOREWORD xiii 
 
 the time is not far distant when the Hun and all 
 he stands for shall be driven forever from the soil 
 of France and Belgium. Before that day comes 
 we must expect to go through periods of great 
 strain and anxiety. Our endurance vvdll perhaps 
 be tested almost to the point of breaking, but the 
 knowledge of the righteousness of our cause, of 
 the greatness of our resources, and above all, the 
 wonderful spirit and determination of our men, 
 who are engaged in the fighting, and the no less 
 wonderful spirit of those who, though forced to 
 remain at home, are so generously backing up the 
 jQghting forces, make ultimate victory a matter 
 of certainty. The Hun can never triumph. Even 
 though he were to force us out of France; even 
 though he were to capture Paris, that will not 
 bring him nearer to victory. So long as a drop 
 of living blood remains in France and Great 
 Britain the war must continue. America's gi- 
 gantic preparations are bearing fruit, her limit- 
 less resources wiU, as time goes on, make her 
 power more and more a factor in the task of 
 defeating the Hun. She has championed the 
 cause of World freedom, and she will not rest 
 until that cause has been won, and adequate 
 measures taken to ensure a lasting peace, a peace 
 which will guarantee safety for even the smallest 
 
xiv FOREWORD 
 
 and most helpless of nations. We owe nothing 
 less than this to our heroic Dead, and we should 
 never dare look on the little White Crosses that 
 mark their last resting places if we failed in this 
 sacred obligation. 
 
 A. R. D. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART ONE 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I In Belgium — ^a Prisoneb 19 
 
 II Wounded at Alost 43 
 
 III In England — from CiviLLysr to Soldier . 59 
 
 PART TWO 
 
 IV Rejoining My Battalion 73 
 
 V First View of the Trenches .... 83 
 
 VI AtBecordel — Strafed f/)4 
 
 VII In the Front Line Trenches . . . . 115 
 
 VIII Preparing for the Great Offensive . . 142 
 
 IX Hell Let Loose 176 
 
 X Battle of the Somme — ^The Great Day . 189 
 
 XI A Bad Night Among the Shells . . . 208 
 
 XII Captured Lines and Prisoners . . . 218 
 
 XIII The Toll of Battle 234 
 
 XIV Rest — ^and Return to the "Show" . . 250 
 XV A Hot Corner — Gassed 264 
 
 XVI The Pivot 281 
 
 XV 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Serving the Big Guns Frontispiece 
 
 PAGES 
 
 German Metrailleuse (Machine Gun) ... 54 
 
 Billets! Tommy Always Cheerful Manages to 
 Make Himself Comfortable 78 
 
 Aeroplane Photograph Showing the Opposing 
 Lines of Trenches Near Fricourt .... 110 
 
 Aeroplane Photograph Showing Part of the 
 German Lines 110 
 
 Message Sent by Author from Brigade Head- 
 quarters 128 
 
 Magnetic Compass Bearings Laid Out . . . 128 
 
 List of Work to be Done by the Company Which 
 Relieved the Author 128 
 
 Description of Enemy's Attitude as Experi- 
 enced BY THE Author 128 
 
 A Typical Scene on the Roads Immediately Back 
 of the Front Line 140 
 
 Part of Actual Map Used During the Battle 
 of the Somj^ie 176 
 
 Sketch of Trenches Occupied by the Author . 176 
 
 Scaling Ladders Being Put in Position . . . 196 
 
 xvii 
 
xviii ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGES 
 
 During the Advance, the Men IVIarch Across 
 No jVIan's Land at Slow Speed 206 
 
 Wave After Wave of Infantry Streamed Across 206 
 
 The Ger^lvn Front Line Trenches Near Fri- 
 couRT 224 
 
 A British To^biy Leading a Wounded Hun . . 234 
 
 Part of ]VL\p Taken from Dead German Officer 256 
 
 A Tank Crushing Down Barbed Wire Entangle- 
 ments 272 
 
WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
FART I 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 In Belgium — ^a Prisoner 
 
 Before dealing with my somewhat limited ex- 
 periences and impressions of the Great War I 
 feel that a word of explanation as to how at my 
 age I happened to give up my peaceful occupa- 
 tion as a private citizen and join the army will 
 not be altogether out of place, especially as it re- 
 lates to that ghastly period of the war, the devas- 
 tation of Belgium. 
 
 It will be remembered that within a few days 
 after Great Britain's declaration of war against 
 Germany accounts of the atrocities committed by 
 the invaders of Belgium were circulated through- 
 out the country. We were incredulous at first, 
 no one believed that a great nation could be 
 guilty of the horrors attributed to Germany, and 
 yet evidence was not lacking to show that the 
 worst stories were to a great extent true. 
 Throughout my life, which has been devoted to 
 
 19 
 
20 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 the study, of 'outdoor natural history, I have al- 
 sy&ys found it advisable to see before believing, 
 iii other words to verify reports before regarding 
 them as facts. Thus it happened that on August 
 ,14th, 1914, I made my way to Belgium armed 
 with a camera and a large and most imposing 
 British passport. 
 
 Ostend was my first objective, and I found the 
 famous w^atering place in a very peaceful condi- 
 tion, but there was a great deal of suppressed 
 excitement, and the conversation was only of the 
 war and what the Germans were doing in other 
 and less fortunate parts of the country. The 
 town was more or less bedecked with the flags 
 of the Allies, and various proclamations regard- 
 ing the duties of the people and other matters, 
 together with coloured posters of the uniforms 
 of friendly and enemy soldiers were conspicuous 
 in every street. Later on refugees from various 
 parts of the invaded country drifted into Ostend, 
 and arrangements were hastily made to feed and 
 house the unfortunate homeless people. Private 
 individuals as well as the Bed Cross undertook 
 this work of relief, but it put a great strain on 
 the resources of the town. There was a rumour 
 that Brussels was to be taken, so I went there and 
 found the amusing, even pitiful, spectacle of ridi- 
 
IN BELGIUM— A PRISONER SI 
 
 culous little barricades throv^^n across various 
 main streets. These were guarded by members 
 of the Garde Civique. The whole thing struck 
 me as being absurd, to think that such childish 
 efforts could stay the troops of the most highly 
 organised military organisation the world had 
 ever known. Reason fortunately prevailed and 
 these futile preparations were abandoned. Six- 
 teen hours after I left the city the Germans en- 
 tered, so I missed the great but lamentable sight. 
 I returned to Ostend in time for a small taste 
 of excitement v/hen a few Uhlans made v/hat was 
 apparently a reconnaissance of the town. They 
 were v/armly received by the Belgians who met 
 and engaged them on the outskirts. The town 
 was in a badly frightened condition. Allied flags 
 were hastily concealed. All w^ho could were 
 flocking to the steamer landing in hopes of get- 
 ting away to England. Frantic efforts were 
 m^ade to get hold of money, English gold realising 
 as much as 35 francs for the sovereign. I was 
 eating my breakfast at the Hotel Maritime when 
 the excitement outside In the square suggested a 
 new development of affairs. A few minutes later 
 some Belgian soldiers passed through the dining- 
 room, leading a highly indignant German ofiicer 
 on whose arm was the sign of the Bed Cross. It 
 
£2 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 appeared that he had been caught red-handed 
 in the act of trying to shoot some Belgians. One 
 of his captors was carrying the revolver. Soon 
 a couple of badly wounded Uhlans were brought 
 in and put on board the steamer for England. 
 It is a pleasure to record that they were treated 
 with the utmost care. This apparently was all 
 we were to see of the skirmish. If I remember 
 correctly about nine Germans were killed and 
 three or four Belgians. It brought home to the 
 people of Ostend that the war was very near. 
 But their faith in France and Britain was great, 
 help would come in time they felt sure. Alas 
 they were doomed to disappointment. 
 
 From Ostend I moved to Ghent, and while 
 there paid several visits to Termonde during the 
 various periods of its destruction, and what a 
 pitiful sight it was. The wretched little town of 
 some 1600 houses was almost a complete wreck. 
 Over 1200 houses were destroyed, whole streets 
 were simply piles of bricks and broken stones, 
 mingled here and there with remains of bodies 
 and torn clothing. A few houses stood intact 
 for on their doors was the magic chalk mark that 
 good people lived there — ^in other words Ger- 
 mans, or at least German sympathisers, or still 
 worse, spies. The churches and convents were 
 
IN BELGIUM— A PRISONER ^3 
 
 ruthlessly destroyed and this was not because the 
 churches being usually high were places of ob- 
 servation, for in one case the little low built 
 chapel in the square surrounded by the houses 
 -of the old women who were supported by the town 
 was burned, though it could offer no possible 
 point for observation, while at the entrance to 
 the square was the chalked order, that, as only 
 very old women lived there the houses need not 
 be destroyed. The Germans seem to have had 
 the idea that by destroying the churches they were 
 taking the heart and soul from the people. It 
 is one of their many great psychological mistakes. 
 The last time I visited Termonde was a Sun- 
 day two or three days after the most recent de- 
 structive visit made by the Germans. I had with 
 great difficulty obtained a pass. In fact it was 
 granted only by explaining how necessary it was 
 that people in England and America should 
 know exactly what was happening to Belgium, 
 so that they could help in whatever ways were 
 possible, and that I would send or take these pho- 
 tographs directly to England. It made one's 
 heart sick to see the misery of the wretched Ter- 
 monde people. They seemed to be stunned. Of 
 course during the bombardment, and subsequent 
 incendiary work, practically all of the inhabitants 
 
m WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 had fled. On this Sunday the country seemed so 
 quiet and peaceful that they returned as though 
 in hopes that it had all been a dream, and they 
 wandered about among the blackened ruins try- 
 ing vainly to discover what had but a few hours 
 before been their homes. What had they done 
 that they should be so treated? They were peace- 
 ful people working only that they might live in 
 their simple homes. Why then should these Ger- 
 man devils come without cause or provocation 
 and ruin them? One nice looking woman, who 
 was carrying a tiny baby in her arms, pointed to a 
 pile of bricks and said, ''My little baby was born 
 there three weeks ago and now I have not even 
 a cradle for her. My God, this is not war, this 
 is the work of the devils," and she was right. 
 
 As I wandered through the scene of desolation 
 I came upon a building, two-thirds of which had 
 fallen, and its walls were pitted with shot. All 
 that remained was a small wine and coffee shop. 
 A voice called as I passed, "Come in, you are 
 a friend — you are English. Have a cup of cof- 
 fee. It is all I have left to offer, but you are 
 welcome to it." 
 
 I accepted the welcome refreshment from the 
 old couple who were happy to find even a part of 
 their house more or less intact. When I offered 
 
IN BELGIUM— A PRISONER 25 
 
 to pay for the coffee they refused to accept any 
 money saying that soon the English were coming 
 over to help them and they would then be happy. 
 Poor people, I wonder what has become of them 
 and if they are still waiting for the help they were 
 expecting over three years ago. 
 
 After crossing the river where my car was 
 waiting I engaged in conversation with a Belgian 
 officer who told me how the soldiers had done all 
 in their power to protect the to^vn. The odds 
 against them were overwhehning. He pointed 
 with pride to the decapitated tower of the Place 
 de Ville, It appears that the Germans had man- 
 aged to place a machine gun in the belfry and it 
 must have been a difficult task. I had been up 
 there only a couple of days earlier and had great 
 difficulty in getting my camera up to the top. 
 The officer who was in the field artillery told his 
 men that he wanted the gun destroyed. Two 
 shots striking simultaneously cut off the upper 
 half of the tower completely and with it the ma- 
 chine gun and crew. This same officer told how 
 two German officers wishing to examine carefully 
 the river banks, came out in the open street, 
 carrying in their arms a baby, evidently hoping 
 by this means to protect themselves. A man who 
 was an expert shot was detailed to attend to the 
 
26 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 case with the result that the officer carrying the 
 baby was shot through the head. The baby 
 escaped unhurt while the second officer hurriedly 
 sought the nearest shelter. 
 
 It was some days after this visit to Termonde 
 that in company with my friend Arthur H. Glea- 
 son (whose splendid unselfish work in Belgium 
 and France is well known) I visited a convent in 
 which I had been told there was a young girl 
 who had been terribly maltreated by German 
 soldiers. She was lying then at the point of 
 death, a victim of some twenty human devils,' 
 who forced the father and mother to be present 
 that they might witness their daughter's ruin. 
 This is not a nice subject to write about, and I 
 merely touch on it to show one of the causes of 
 my joining the army. 
 
 Near Ghent is, or rather was, the little village 
 of Melle. It happened to be in the way ox the 
 German army of invasion. Early one morning 
 reports came into Ghent that severe fighting was 
 in progress. My car not being available I hired 
 a carriage to which was more or less attached 
 a dilapidated horse, and which took us along the 
 road toward Melle. We passed numbers of Bel-i 
 gian soldiers, ill equipped but always cheerful, 
 going forward. Also numbers of wounded meq 
 
IN BELGIUM— A PRISONER 27 
 
 being brought back. They were in all sorts of 
 vehicles, from fine motor cars to springless wag- 
 gons, and it was indeed a pitiful sight. Two cases 
 I can even now remember clearly were men, one 
 with his lower jaw completely shot away, and the 
 other terribly wounded in the body, lying on the 
 top of an old fashioned covered carriage. The 
 inside was full to its utmost capacity with wound- 
 ed. Every jolt over the rough paved roads sent 
 a shock of pain through their torn bodies. They 
 endured it heroically, for it was better than fall- 
 ing into the hands of the Germans whose treat- 
 ment of Belgian wounded was in so many cases 
 absolutely brutal. But v/hat a contrast were 
 these makeshift vehicles to the ambulances of the 
 present time, pneumatic tired and smooth run- 
 ning, and equipped with stretchers, on which the 
 w^ounded are borne with the minimum of pain. 
 Conditions have greatly changed since those days 
 of trial. 
 
 By the time we had gone within two or three 
 miles of Melle the sounds of battle filled the air. 
 Not battle as we now know it with its over- 
 whelming voice of heavy artillery, but chiefly the 
 rifle, and the machine gun with its regular rap- 
 ping death-dealing shots. 'Now and then light 
 artillery punctuated the sound, and we wondered 
 
28 WHBN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 whether this meant that the Germans were ad- 
 vancing on Ghent. No one seemed to know much 
 of what was going on. The peasants stood about 
 in silent groups, worried at the prospect of what 
 fate had in store for them. Some few went on 
 with their regular work apparently deaf to the 
 unceasing clatter of shot. It did not seem advis- 
 able for us to proceed any further along the road 
 by carriage, so, much to the driver's relief, for 
 he thought we were urging him straight into the 
 jaws of death, we told him to hide his vehicle in 
 a narrow alley, and leaving the motion picture 
 camiera in his care we walked forward armed only 
 with a small pocket camera. 
 
 Before long the glint of a lance caught our 
 eyes, and we saw what we thought was a German 
 Uhlan peering from am.ong the trees at the en- 
 trance of a big estate. He was about 800 yards 
 distant. How strange it was to see this silent evi- 
 dence of the war, this human being stalking his 
 o\\Ti kind. It gave me a curious thrill of excite- 
 ment for it was practically the first time I had 
 been hunted by a soldier, a man trained to hunt 
 his fellow m^an. And I was among those he was 
 watching. He was dressed in the elusive gTey- 
 green uniform of the German army, and the 
 colours blended among the trees so that he v/as 
 
IN BELGIUM— A PRISONER 29 
 
 scarcely visible. Silently he had come and as 
 silently he vanished from our view. 
 
 After he had disappeared we looked further 
 along the road and saw clearly a group of cav- 
 alry, all carrying their long tubular lances. Be- 
 ing filled with curiosity we wanted a nearer 
 view, and decided to walk slowly in their direc- 
 tion. Before we had advanced more than three or 
 Jour hundred yards we were startled by the clatter 
 of horses' hoofs behind us, and turning we were 
 very much upset by seeing three mounted men in 
 field green uniforms following us. It was too 
 late to attempt concealment and v/e dared not 
 turn back. The only possible course was to con- 
 tinue forward as though we were not afraid, 
 though I do not mind confessing I was so thor- 
 oughly frightened that my knees trembled vio- 
 lently. Before we had gone far the three hussars, 
 as they turned out to be, overtook us and w^anted 
 to know who we were and what we Vv^ere doing. 
 I acknowledged myself an Englishman while my 
 friend said he was American, whereupon one of 
 the three spoke to us in good English, and told us 
 he had been in New York for some years. 
 
 All this time we were approaching the cross 
 roads while we talked in quite a friendly way 
 about New York. As we drew near to the group 
 
80 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 of about a dozen, which proved to be of the same 
 regiment as our escorts, our three formed up, one 
 on either side, and one behind, and I had horrible 
 thoughts of what might be in store for us. We 
 were taken before the officer who on hearing our 
 nationaHties addressed us in perfect Enghsh. He 
 was most polite and told us that for a number of 
 years he had lived in England, had been to Ox- 
 ford, and finished by saying that he hoped the 
 war would soon end as he was very much attached 
 to English life and was most anxious to get back 
 to his friends there. He declared that he thor- 
 oughly disliked the idea of fighting us but that 
 he had been recalled, and could not do other than 
 obey. Altogether he seemed a thoroughly decent 
 sort of Saxon. We asked whether we could go 
 forward as we both were very anxious to see a 
 fight. 
 
 *'You can't go yet," he replied, "as you would 
 most certainly be shot, but later, when things 
 have quieted down, you may perhaps be able to 
 go with safety, and by the way do you happen to 
 have any cigarettes, I have not had a decent 
 smoke for a week?'' 
 
 So I handed him a nearly full box, telling him 
 to keep them, for I fully expected to be back in 
 Ghent within a few hours. I then asked if he 
 
IN BELGIUM— A PRISONER 31 
 
 had any objection to my taking a photograph 
 of him and his men. He did not object at all, in 
 fact he was very much pleased. 
 
 "Don't forget to send me prints after the war," 
 he said, as he wrote his name and address on the 
 envelope containing my passport. 
 
 *'I shall be delighted to do so only, of course, 
 there won't be any Germans left when we have 
 finished with you." 
 
 He replied, *'You mean there won't be any 
 Enghsh left." 
 
 How little either of us realised what was be- 
 fore us, and how soon that war would develop 
 into such gigantic proportions. That it would 
 last even until Christmas of that year did not 
 seem probable, for we in general knew nothing 
 on the subject. We all thought that with mod- 
 ern methods conditions would be made so intoler- 
 able that no country could endure the slaughter 
 which apparently must result. Only those who 
 were in high command, and who had studied the 
 subject, understood that there was a probability 
 of the war continuing for many years. Did not 
 people regard Lord Kitchener as a pessimist 
 when he said we must prepare for at least three 
 years? That period has passed and the end is 
 
sa WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 not yet in sight. But to go back to our interview 
 with the Saxon officer. 
 
 By half past three the sounds of fighting had 
 subsided. Only an occasional shot disturbed the 
 stillness of the afternoon. We were told that 
 it would be reasonably safe to go forward and 
 foolishly enough we went. Our way led us 
 through a small one-street village which had not 
 been molested. The people stood about in groups 
 talking over what had been going on in the near- 
 by village of Melle, and we gathered from what 
 they said that the place had been completely de- 
 stroyed, and a great many civilians and troops 
 killed. While pressing along the road between 
 the two villages a German sentry warned us not 
 to walk on the paved part as he said it was mined. 
 Why he let us pass I cannot understand, but he 
 asked no questions. Evidently he imagined that 
 we had a right to be there. 
 
 Soon we came on signs of the recent conflict, 
 buildings burned or destroyed by shell, bodies of 
 Belgian troops and occasional peasants in civilian 
 garb, lying about in the queer distorted attitudes 
 so common on the battlefield. Here and there 
 the carcass of a cow or a pig lay across the road, 
 often with the body of a soldier lying against it 
 showing that the man had been foolish enough 
 
IN BELGIUM— A PRISONER 83 
 
 to trust to the soft body for protection against 
 the enemy's bullet. 
 
 All that remained of the village of Melle was 
 the row of slowly burning cottages. A truly 
 desolate sight. I was in the act of securing a 
 photograph of the scene, in the foreground of 
 which lay a poor Belgian soldier slowly burning, 
 when a German cyclist approached without my 
 seeing him. Quickly dismounting he seized my 
 camera, and was about to break it, when I made 
 him understand that it contained the photograph 
 of one of his officers. At first he seemed incredu- 
 lous, but on being shown the name and address 
 written in the officer's own handwriting he some- 
 what reluctantly handed back the camera. But 
 strange to say, he did not seem in the least sur- 
 prised and never even asked us what we were 
 doing. 
 
 Had we possessed a particle of intelligence we 
 would have been satisfied with what we had seen 
 and returned, instead of which we very foolishly 
 continued on the road to trouble with the result 
 that within a few minutes we were taken prison- 
 ers by a number of soldiers, who, asking no ques- 
 tions, led us straight to their officers. 
 
 The prospect looked very dark and I must 
 confess to having experienced a most disagree- 
 
Q4i WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 able sinking sensation in the region of my heart. 
 That we should come out of it alive did not seem 
 possible. I, at any rate, was an Englishman, 
 and had been seen trying to use a camera in a 
 region that could not by any stretch of imagina- 
 tion be considered healthy for photographic work. 
 The interrogations to which we were subjected 
 by the group of ferocious unsmiling officers were 
 brief. Gleason said he was an American out 
 on newspaper work, while I proclaimed my 
 British nationality, showed my imposing pass- 
 port, and said that a thirst for knowledge and 
 a roving disposition had brought me to Belgium 
 to look on. The Germans have no sense of 
 humour. They never so much as smiled, but 
 brusquely ordered us both into a field and placed 
 us under guard. Apparently we were not to be 
 shot — just yet. Pretty soon a couple of large 
 motors came along filled with a grand array 
 of German staff officers. They stopped near us 
 and began discussing the name of the village 
 which their troops had so thoroughly destroyed. 
 Evidently there were several different opinions, 
 and, strange to say, I was called up and asked the 
 name. I told them quite truthfully that I was a 
 stranger, and so I was dismissed, and not even 
 thanked for giving such valuable information. 
 
IN BELGIUM— A PRISONER 35 
 
 Life was getting to be very monotonous and 
 we could elicit no information from our silent 
 guards. Once an officer came by and we asked 
 him if we could go as we were tired of doing 
 nothing. His only reply was a growl which 
 seemed to mean, "No, damn you," so we stayed. 
 With the approach of evening other prisoners 
 were added to the haul until we numbered nearly 
 thirty. The newcomers being all Belgians who 
 like ourselves imagined they were doomed to 
 decorate the front of a convenient wall. Under 
 the circumstances they were fairly cheerful, 
 though there was no undue hilarity noticeable. 
 
 Shortly before sunset we were greatly inter- 
 ested in watching the German troops arrive, some 
 15,000 in all. Everything was done in the most 
 orderly manner. Their neat bivouac tents were 
 arranged in straight lines. ^ Their camp-cookers 
 came up, and rations were distributed in a most 
 business-like way. Few commands were given 
 and those in a surly, bullying tone. Some of the 
 officers carried small whips with them, evidently 
 with the idea of accentuating orders. What a 
 marked contrast to the way our officers treat their 
 men! 
 
 The troops were extremely well clothed and 
 equipped but were by no means a cheerful lot. 
 
36 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 There was none of that jolly banter that is al- 
 ways to be found among our fellows. Not even 
 any of that inevitable good-natured grumbling 
 in which our men always indulge, especially when 
 there happens to be no reason for it. I have al- 
 ways noticed that the British Tommy's grum- 
 bling, or grousing, as he prefers to call it, is in in- 
 verse ratio to cause. In other words the more 
 comfortable he is the more he complains, while 
 when everything is miserable, when it pours with 
 rain, when the twelve-mile march measures 
 twenty, even v/hen his rations fail to turn up at 
 the proper hour, he searches thoroughly for 
 whatever there may be of a funny side to the 
 situation, and promptly blossoms forth into song 
 and jest — all of which is a Godsend, and helps so 
 greatly to make the burdens as light as possible. 
 The German soldiers struck us as perfectly 
 trained but rather dull, and altogether too quiet. 
 The food served to them from the camp cookers 
 was, as far as we could see, a thick stew which 
 smelt rather good. There was also a hot bever- 
 age, which I suppose was coffee, but our hosts 
 were thoroughly inhospitable, and never offered 
 us any sort of refreshment, though I would ihave 
 given a good deal for a drink of cold water. 
 Shortly before dark we were moved forward, 
 
IN BELGroM— A PRISONER 0T 
 
 and placed immediately behind a long straight 
 freshly made trench. This was scarcely three 
 feet deep, and the parapet about two feet high, 
 composed of earth and coils of wire, taken from 
 a nearby concrete factory. In the trench the men 
 placed a lot of straw taken from a poor peasant'iS 
 wheat stack, and there they slept with theu' rifles 
 all laid on the parapet. 
 
 How strangely unlike the trench methods of 
 to-day! Around us a strong guard was placed, 
 with one sentry in the centre of our little group. 
 To make sure that we would not escape a lantern 
 was hung so that we could be easily watched. 
 The extraordinary precautions for our safety 
 struck us as comical and I even ventured to laugh 
 whereupon I received strict injunctions that 
 laughing was forbidden. We were forced to lay 
 flat, and the space allowed was so small that we 
 were actually on top of each other, and were mis- 
 erably uncomfortable and very cold. One human 
 sort of sentry slipped a sheaf of oats to me and 
 it made life more endurable, besides furnishing 
 pie with food, for I peeled the husks and ate the 
 grain. My light breakfast of the early morning 
 was so very remote that my stomach had com- 
 pletely forgotten it. 
 
 One thing which rather disturbed our equanim- 
 
38 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 ity was the fact that, so far as we could under- 
 stand, we were to be used as a shield to protect 
 our captors on their march into Ghent. I am 
 not usually very particular as to what use I 
 can make of myself, but the prospect of having 
 the honour of leading the Huns did not appeal to 
 me from any point of view. In fact, without any 
 suggestion of untruthfulness, I may say that I 
 thoroughly disliked the idea of being a human 
 shield, for I knew how well the Belgians shot. 
 However, there was a funny side to it, and once 
 again I laughed with very nearly disastrous re- 
 sults. 
 
 Our hosts did not omit the customs of polite 
 society for they sent an officer to bid us *'good 
 night" and "pleasant dreams." Translated, his 
 words, or growls, were, "If any one of you 
 speaks, gets up or moves you will ail be imme- 
 diately shot." We replied with great polite- 
 ness, "Good night," whereupon he glared at us 
 most ferociously and growled some rude remarks 
 which lacerated our feelings to such a degree that 
 we could scarcely refrain from a burst of 
 laughter. Fortunately, however, we did control 
 our features, but we lamented the fact that the 
 Germans are so entirely without humour. 
 
 That night was one that must live in my mind 
 
IN BELGIUM— A PRISONER 39 
 
 SO long as I stay on this troublesome old earth. 
 Picture the scene to yourself: a small group of 
 closely - huddled - probably-going-to-be-shot hu- 
 man beings, very thoroughly surrounded by a 
 portion of the magnificence of the gi^eat German 
 army, all in full battle order. On our right a row 
 of some fifteen burning cottages, the red glare 
 from which painted everything in fantastic danc- 
 ing patches of dull red. All was as quiet as the 
 poor dead bodies that lay scattered along the 
 road, staring with unseeing eyes at the starlit 
 heavens. Behind us, beyond the groups of sleep- 
 ing men and watching sentries, stood the remains 
 of several corn stacks which had been torn apart 
 to furnish bedding for the men (grain was not so 
 valuable in those days, and wasteful destruction 
 '^as the order of the day, — how little those devas- 
 tators foresaw the time when food to them would 
 be more precious than gold!) . Beyond these rose 
 the pale full moon, casting its cold indefinite col- 
 oured light on the objects surrounding us. The 
 contrast of that cold light and the warm glow of 
 the fires was wonderful and the bayonets gleamed 
 now red and now v/hite in the varying light. It 
 was beautiful but it did not seem real. It was a 
 stage setting such as one seldom sees in nature, 
 and I longed to put it on canvas. 
 
40 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 The dismal crackling of the burning timber, 
 and the peaceful snoring of the tired troops, were 
 the only sounds, save the occasional groans of one 
 of the Belgians who lay next to me. The poor 
 fellow was in terrible mental agony. He lay 
 there never for a moment taking his eyes from the 
 nearest cottage yet saying nothing but a mut- 
 tered heartrending, "Mon Dieu, JMon Dieu," 
 every now and then. What a long, long night 
 that was and how busy our thoughts were. 
 Among other things I wondered what would 
 my wife and children say if they could see m^? 
 Would I see them again, and so my thoughts 
 wandered between the short fitful dozes. 
 
 The air was very keen and I wrapped a copy 
 of the Times, which I happened to have in my 
 pockets, around my legs to keep out the cold 
 wind. With the first glimpse of daylight I no- 
 ticed that the headline across my knees, in large 
 black type was, "Germ^an Atrocities in Belgium." 
 That did not strike me as a healthy thing to 
 display, so I quietly and unobtrusively buried 
 it. 
 
 In the dim soft light of the early morning, when 
 everything was painfully quiet, I noticed that 
 my unhappy neighbour stared v/ith renewed in- 
 tensity. The horror and pain depicted in those 
 
IN BELGIUM— A PRISONER 41 
 
 eyes I shall never forget, and what was the cause 
 of the increased agony? A small procession lead- 
 ing out from the nearest ruined cottage. Some 
 black-robed priests were carrying five stretchers 
 on each of which lay the remains of human beings, 
 charred, distorted and so terribly still. The poor 
 man broke dov/n at the sight and bursting into 
 bitter tears said : 
 
 "There goes my whole family. My mother, 
 my wife and my three little children. Oh ! Holy 
 Mother of God, why don't they kill me too? I 
 have nothing to live for." 
 
 This you may say is a small incident, but it is 
 typical of what was happening all over Belgium 
 and must surely call do^vn the curse of the Al- 
 mighty on those who are responsible for the un- 
 called-for misery and cruelty which characterised 
 the invasion of unoffending Belgium. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Thanks to a stroke of unexpected good fortune 
 the following day saw us safely back in Ghent, 
 but our troubles were not entirely past. It ap- 
 peared that some Belgians had seen us going to- 
 ward the German cavalry patrol, and had 
 watched us go with them on the road to Melle. 
 
42 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 With some reason they concluded that we were 
 spies, and it reqinred a lot of explaining before 
 we were freed from the suspicion. The fact that 
 we had been living in a German-owned hotel, and 
 had been taking our meals at a German restau- 
 rant did not help our cause. I need scarcely add 
 that we had no idea of the nationality of these 
 places, and thought they must be all right as they 
 were allowed to do business in this important 
 Belgian town. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Wounded at Alost 
 
 Nothing worth regarding as of especial in- 
 terest occurred during the next week or two so 
 I made a trip home and stayed there three or four 
 days in order that my family might see that I 
 was still alive. Dame Fortune had been good to 
 me, and I owed it to her, and incidentally to my 
 wife, to be more careful in the future than I had 
 been in the past and whatever happened not again 
 to get caught by the Germans. It is all very well 
 to play the fool occasionally — it keeps one's blood 
 moving and prevents that terrible disease known 
 as vegetating, but to make a practice of doing 
 so is not entirely desirable, as the old Dame who 
 takes care of fools, objects to working overtime 
 and lets you down roughly when you least expect 
 it. 
 
 For some days after my return from England 
 nothing very exciting occurred. There had been 
 some minor engagements and skirmishes in the 
 neighbourhood during which a few peasants had 
 
 43 
 
44 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 been killed and a number of farmhouses burned. 
 
 We had experienced a few hours of interest 
 when out in search of a certain hospital in which, 
 I had been told, a brother of mine lay wounded. 
 His death had been reported at home, but there 
 seemed room for considerable doubt, and believ- 
 ing that all reports following the battle of Mons 
 must necessarily be more or less unreliable, I 
 had followed various clues, one of which was that 
 he had been wounded and was still in Belofium. 
 The place was a fair distance from Ghent, so I 
 engaged a large motor and a driver who knew the 
 country. As we proceeded on our way, disturb- 
 ing rumours of raiding Uhlans being in the im- 
 mediate vicinity continued to reach us. Added 
 to this our car proved to have very defective tyres 
 and, as if this was not enough, the weather became 
 very unruly. The wind increased to a gale and 
 flurries of rain proclaimed themselves the advance 
 party of a regular downpour. Stopping at a 
 fair sized village we made enquiries regarding the 
 hospital we were in search of, and learned that 
 it had been completely abandoned. This was 
 very unsatisfactory and left us no alternative but 
 to turn back with the hope of reaching Ghent 
 that night. 
 
 That was a run to be remembered. Tyre after 
 
WOUNDED AT ALOST 45 
 
 tyre burst, while the rain came down in torrents. 
 Finally when still some miles from Ghent the 
 chauffeur announced that he could go no further. 
 The last tyre had a bad blowout and we had 
 no more repair material, in other words we were 
 done. 'Now of course this should have been the 
 moment for the Uhlans to appear, but good luck 
 had not altogether abandoned us and they did 
 not arrive. We pushed the car to the side of 
 the road and abandoned it, and after search- 
 ing for some time managed to find a man who 
 had a carriage of sorts and so, dripping wet, 
 very tired, and a little bit discouraged, we got 
 back to Ghent late that night. 
 
 During these weeks at Ghent there was a 
 steady stream of refugees from the stricken areas. 
 People of all classes driven from their homes by 
 the ruthless Huns. Many of these unfortunates 
 had terrible stories to tell. Some had lost their 
 children and they told how the poor little innocent 
 victims had been carried on bayonets by the sav- 
 age brutes of soldiers. Others gave ghastly ac- 
 counts of how the wretched women had been mal- 
 treated, how some had had their breasts cut off 
 and nailed to the doors, as a warning of what 
 would happen to any who dared oppose the will 
 of the invader. Others had been violated in the 
 
46 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 most brutal manner with every imaginable re- 
 finement of torture. It made one's heart ache 
 to hear these fearful stories and to know that a 
 great nation which had been considered civilised 
 should stoop to such a barbarous means of terror- 
 ising a peaceful people whose only crime was their 
 faithfulness to their own small and almost de- 
 fenceless country. Some say that the behaviour^ 
 of the troops was due to drink but the argument 
 is bad, for the German soldier is so highly dis- 
 ciplined that he does not get drunk unless he is 
 permitted as a part of a devilishly conceived plan. 
 One camiot but believe that in many, if not most 
 cases, the soldiers would have been loath to 
 commit the atrocities had they not been inflamed 
 by liquor, and there are some instances where they 
 even refused to obey their officers and were shot 
 because they could not bring themselves to go 
 contrary to their better natures. 
 
 One day I met an English officer, Capt. , 
 
 who had been wounded at Mons and had, thanks 
 to a kindly Belgian nurse, managed to make his 
 escape from a temporary hospital. He told me 
 that when he lay on the field badly wounded he 
 saw a German army doctor or under- doctor ex- 
 amine an English sergeant who was shot through 
 the leg. After binding up the leg wound the 
 
WOUNDED AT ALOST 47 
 
 brute deliberately fired two revolver bullets 
 through the man's shoulder, then strange as it 
 may seem he bound up these fresh wounds and 
 had the victim taken to a hospital. It happened 
 
 that he and Capt. were put in the same 
 
 room. The unfortunate sergeant died three days 
 later. Surely no more cold-blooded murder could 
 have been committed. Germany imagined at 
 that time that she y/as bound to win, and there- 
 fore would not be called to account for her in- 
 human behaviour, and the violation of all the 
 rules of modern warfare. 
 
 Toward the end of September there v/as some 
 fairly heavy fighting not many miles from Ghent. 
 Unfortunately we were prevented from getting 
 to it thanks first to the unscrupulous conduct of 
 a certain newspaper correspondent w^lio by unfair 
 means got possession of the car we had engaged. 
 It was a great disappointment to us but we could 
 do nothing except take a carriage which was a 
 slow and very unsatisfactory substitute. Hov/- 
 ever, with this we should have been able to ac- 
 complish something had not an American press 
 man, who evidently feared we would steal his 
 thunder, put a spoke in our wheel hj telling some 
 queer story to the officers who had their headquar- 
 ters behind the firing line at a place which could 
 
48 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 not be passed without their sanction, and they 
 absolutely refused to honour our passes. There 
 was nothing for it but to return to Ghent, where 
 thanks to the American Consul we managed to 
 secure a good car and chauffeur for the following 
 day, when we made an early start. 
 
 The fighting was on the road to Alost, at a 
 village whose name I have forgotten. We were 
 armed with valuable letters that would take us 
 anywhere we wished to go. These and a lot of 
 English illustrated papers (we bought up all the 
 supply in Ghent) and plenty of cigarettes for 
 presents did wonders and we met with no opposi- 
 tion. In fact, we were received with open arms. 
 
 A good share of the fighting was on, and near, 
 the main road, so we were able to take the car 
 right into the firing line. On our way we passed 
 s, long stream of refugees trudging with what 
 they could carry toward Ghent. The peasants 
 who were on the Belgian side of the fighting line 
 were scarcely at all concerned, but continued 
 their every day pursuits, totally disregarding the 
 fire of artillery, rifle and machine ^uns. When 
 a shell would tear a branch from a tree the thrifty 
 people would immediately go after the branch 
 and cut it up for firewood. Their coolness was 
 remarkable. 
 
WOUNDED AT ALOST 49 
 
 It happened soon after we had reached the 
 Belgians' advanced position that they decided to 
 retire a few hundred yards to where their artil- 
 lery would get a better field of fire on the slope 
 of a low hill. As they turned on the road I 
 managed to secure some cinema films of both 
 their artillery and cavalry. Curiously enough 
 they had no infantry further forward. 
 
 Having used up the spool of film that was in 
 the camera I decided to reload before moving 
 after the troops. This was rather unfortunate as 
 it turned out, for the next minute the Germans 
 opened up a steady rifle fire, all aimed apparently 
 at the car which presumably they mistook for a 
 machine-gun car. The first few shots went some- 
 what wild but soon they came unpleasantly close, 
 and I thought it safer to complete the loading of 
 the camera while sitting behind the row of trees 
 which lined the ditch on the roadside. For nearly 
 half an hour we were unable to make our depar- 
 ture as the bullets were cutting the bark about 
 our heads. The Germans were only about 500 
 yards away and yet strange to say they never 
 once hit the car. Nevertheless it was to say the 
 least of it an awkward situation for us to be 
 caught between the Belgian and German lines. 
 
 During a momentary lull in the firing we 
 
50 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 jumped into the car and with no regard to the 
 speed laws made an ignominious retreat until we 
 were well back of the Belgian front line. There 
 was no object in remaining much longer as the 
 fighting was dying down. On the whole the Ger- 
 mans had had the worst of it and had lost a fairly 
 large number of men, many of the killed being 
 men of considerable age with quite grey hair. 
 
 The next day, September 2Tth, we made an 
 early start as we were told that there was every 
 indication of severe fighting in or near Alost. 
 Before we had gone more than eight or nine 
 miles we met the sad procession of refugees which 
 marks the German advance. For miles it was 
 an almost unbroken line of men and women and 
 children, some twenty thousand, all told, most of 
 them walking, or rather struggling under im- 
 mense burdens of household treasures, — a more 
 extraordinary assortment of belongings could 
 scarcely be imagined! The younger people 
 seemed quite cheerful, but the old men and 
 women, who hobbled along laboriously, were ter- 
 ribly downhearted, for well they realised what the 
 exodus meant, and to be torn from the home you 
 have known from infancy is a hard wrench, 
 especially when it is practically certain that the 
 home will be completely destroyed. No wonder 
 
WOUNDED AT ALOST 51 
 
 then that they were sad and murmured bitter 
 words against the heartless invaders. In the pro- 
 cession were some few carriages and carts piled 
 high with everything from beds to pictures, from 
 people too infirm to walk to tiny babies sleeping 
 peacefully among the collection of household 
 gods. Carts drawn by dogs were numerous, and 
 some there were which combined horses and dogs 
 for their motive power. On one side of the road 
 this dreary line marched northward, many of 
 them would ultimately reach the hospitable shores 
 of England, the protector of small nations ; v/hile 
 on the other side, going south towards the ever 
 increasing booming of guns were the Belgian sol- 
 diers of all branches of the army, a cheerful lot 
 who cracked jokes with the refugees and told 
 them what they were going to do to the Ger- 
 mans. They were a strangely hopeful body of 
 men who did not realise in any way what lay 
 before them. 
 
 We passed one particularly jolly crowd and 
 met the daredevil soldier who only a short time 
 before had stolen a train from the Germans. He 
 told us with a keen sense of humour how he had 
 been out one day on a private sniping expedition, 
 when he saw an empty train brought to a siding 
 where there were a number of German troops. 
 
52 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 Being a locomotive engineer he conceived the 
 bright idea of making off with the train. The 
 Germans, entirely unsuspicious, left it quite un- 
 guarded, so he carefully crawled along the ditch 
 and made his way to the engine and started it off. 
 At first it did not occur to the Germans what was 
 happening. Finally they realised that the train 
 had been stolen, and they opened a perfectly 
 harmless rifle fire. Thanks to our cheerful friend's 
 loiowledge of the lines he managed to return the 
 train to its rightful owners, the Belgians. 
 
 It was late in the morning when finally we 
 reached the outskirts of Alost, to find that there 
 was considerable artillery activity going on. The 
 Germans were using a few fairly large shells 
 which they dropped about the town in a very aim- 
 less way. We could see no definite object in the 
 attack except a sort of general idea of destruc- 
 tion, while the Belgians numbering in all ap- 
 parently about 10,000 were trying to keep pos- 
 session of the town. We paid our respects to the 
 I General commanding the operations and asked if 
 we might go forward to w^here the fighting v/ould 
 be most active. I told him how anxious I was to 
 get some moving pictures which would show our 
 people how well the Belgians fought. He frankly 
 expressed the opinion that I was, without any 
 
WOUNDED AT ALOST 53 
 
 doubt, a lunatic (to which I readily agreed) and 
 that if he gave me permission to go forward I 
 should probably get killed and blame him. He 
 smiled when I pointed out that I would positively 
 undertake not to blame him in the event of my 
 getting killed, and so he allowed us both to go 
 forward. 
 
 The town of Alost was in a state of semi-de- 
 sertion. The thousands of people we had passed 
 on the way had simply closed their front doors. 
 Here and there some more courageous souls re- 
 mained in their homes, notwithstanding the warn- 
 ings they had received from the troops. The 
 streets were occupied by scattered lots of sol- 
 diers, and the occasional groups of civilians who 
 waited, hoping that the Germans would be re- 
 pelled, and they would be allowed to remain. 
 
 When we asked the way down to the street 
 where the staff officers told us the fighting was 
 most likely to take place, the people thought us 
 mad and said we would surely be killed if we 
 went there. However we finally reached the 
 square and found it occupied by quite a fair num- 
 ber of troops, most of them dismounted lancers. 
 There were also a few machine guns arranged to 
 hold the various converging streets. Just what 
 the Germans were doing, or trying to do, was 
 
64 WHEN THE SOMIME RAN RED 
 
 diiBcult to understand. Occasionally the singing 
 of a shell followed by terrific detonation disturbed 
 the otherwise quiet of the day. These shells 
 seemed to be fired simply at the town in general 
 without any definite target. Some dropped in 
 the homes for old w^omen, others on buildings of 
 no special value, all doing material damage, with- 
 out gaining any military advantage beyond show- 
 ing the citizens that it was wise to get out while 
 yet they could. 
 
 After a talk w^ith some Belgian ofiicers we 
 decided to go down toward the canal v/ith a body 
 of the dismounted lancers w^ho were to hold the 
 canal bridge. With them came two armoured 
 machine-gun cars. The position chosen was a 
 small street in which about fifty yards from the 
 canal bridge a barricade (composed chieiiy of 
 barrels of fish) was hastily thrown across. Here 
 the troops ensconced themselves, v/hile I, select- 
 ing a suitable place v/hich offered a good view, 
 assembled my "movie" camera. Evidently the 
 Germans saw it, and presumably mistaking it for 
 a machine gun, began to be ver^T- disagreeable, fir- 
 ing a number of shrapnel shells. These all went 
 wide of the mark and only occasional bullets fell 
 near enough to be picked up as souvenirs. The 
 Belgians called them "German hail," and were 
 
GERMAN MITRAILLEUSE (MACHINE GUN) CAPTURED BY 
 MEN OF THE BELGIAN CYCLE CORPS 
 
WOUNDED AT ALOST 55 
 
 much amused at the poor shooting. We were 
 laughing at it all when suddenly the keen whistle 
 of a v/ell-directed H. E. (high explosive) shell 
 made us change our tune. That it was coming 
 pretty straight there could be no doubt. There 
 was equally no doubt as to the utter impossibility 
 of doing any dodging. One's thoughts move 
 quickly, and I remember as I stood flat against 
 the door near which the camera was standing, 
 wondering whether this was to be the end of my 
 Belgian trip. The shell struck immediately over 
 my head and I felt as though the end of the world 
 had come. The deafening sound of the explo- 
 sion, the falling of bricks and plaster and the 
 choking sensation as the fumes and dust v/ere 
 swallowed was all very terrifying. The camera 
 was falling and I instinctively grabbed at it. 
 Then a sharp pain stung my leg and I thought 
 it must be broken. But on kicking it about I 
 found that there was nothing serious the matter, 
 only a flesh wound. 
 
 The whole air seemed full of confusion, for sev- 
 eral more shells were coming and it seemed as 
 though I ought to be making photographs, so in 
 spite of being rather stunned, and almost blinded, 
 I took the camera to the other side of the street, 
 and proceeded to turn the crank, and got a few 
 
56 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 feet of film, though I could not see what I was 
 getting. The handle had only been turned a few 
 times when in the midst of the turmoil I heard 
 the Belgians retiring at the double, and with them 
 came the snorting machine-gun cars. Retreating 
 apparently was the fashionable form of amuse- 
 ment, so wishing to keep in the fashion, and not 
 caring to be left alone, I also retreated, camera 
 and all, and well it was that I did so for the next 
 shell, a large one, landed within a few yards of 
 where I had been standing. It would have very 
 effectively cured my taste for adventure had I 
 remained a few seconds longer. It is perhaps 
 superfluous for me to say that I felt badly 
 shaken and generally much the worse for wear. 
 iYet fortunately I v/as able to keep going for some 
 time and secured a few interesting films. 
 
 While in the to^n square, after the retreat 
 from the canal, a party of Belgian cyclists volun- 
 teered to silence a certain German machine gun 
 which was doing a lot of damage. They were 
 given permission, and half an hour later returned, 
 bringing with them the troublesome gun. To 
 say they were delighted scarcely expresses it. 
 It appears that they were residents of the town 
 and knew intimately the building in which the 
 gun had been hidden. By going through back 
 
WOUNDED AT ALOST 57 
 
 lanes and cellars they had come on the gun crew 
 quite noiselessly, and — well, anyway, they 
 brought the gun back, and v/ere none the worse 
 for the experience. This I may say is very typical 
 of the way in which the Belgian soldier likes to 
 do things. He seems to like individual jobs, and 
 can usually be relied upon to give a very good 
 account of himself. 
 
 The rest of the events of that day were very in- 
 distinct and hazy in my mind. I can remember 
 seeing black-robed priests walking and cycling 
 into wherever the fighting was thickest and nuns, 
 too, all bound on their errands of mercy, giving 
 what aid they could to the wounded and dying, 
 caring nothing for their own safety. Indeed, the 
 unselfish work done by these good people 
 throughout Belgium stands out with glorious 
 clearness, and they sacrificed their lives without 
 a murmur, satisfied only to be able to follow out 
 the teachings of their sacred calling, to do what- 
 ever good lay in their power without thought for 
 themselves. 
 
 This day at Alost was my last one in Bel- 
 gium. The effect of the shell began to tell, and, 
 realising that I was in for trouble, it seemed wise 
 to make all haste for England. It was very hard 
 luck having to give up just then, for only a day 
 
58 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 or two before I had succeeded in obtaining passes 
 which would have allowed me to go to Antwerp 
 and do photographic work during its bombard- 
 ment, which unfortunately seemed so imminent. 
 But perhaps it was all for the best that for two 
 months I was laid up as a result of the overdose 
 acquaintance with the high explosive, for the 
 Antwerp shov/ turned more disastrously than any 
 one could have foreseen, and I might have found 
 it difficult to get away. Still I remember how 
 terribly disappointed I was when the doctor told 
 me that Antwerp had fallen, and I was lying 
 helpless in bed. Ghent, too, was in the hands of 
 the Germans, and so was my "movie" camera 
 which I had left in a small hotel. There was 
 nothing to do but get well as soon as possible, 
 so that I might join the army and pay back my 
 debts to the Germans. Recovery occupied over 
 two months, while the payment of the various 
 debts will never be completely settled. 
 
CHAPTEK III 
 
 In England, From Civilian to Soldies 
 
 On December 14th, 1914, I paid my very first 
 visit to tliat great institution the "Vfar Ofiice" 
 and offered my services to my King and Country. 
 Owing to the fact that I was about six years past 
 the age limit my chances of being accepted were 
 very siriall. Eut I assured the powers that were, 
 that if they v/ould not accept me when I made a 
 truthful statement of my age I would visit a 
 beauty parlour, have my face rejuvenated, and 
 come back with a falsified age. After some con- 
 sideration and taking into account the fact that 
 I had lived outdoors all my life, hunting and 
 studying w^ild animals in various parts of the 
 world, I was sent down to be medically examined 
 before a decision was made. The result of the 
 said medical examination being quite satisfactory 
 I was promised a commission as soon as I had 
 gone through training in an O. T. C. (Officer's 
 Training Corps). So far so good. 
 
 Next came the getting into the O. T. C. At 
 
 59 
 
60 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 first they ridiculed the idea on account of age, but 
 after a little persuasion I got in. Shall I ever 
 forget those months of training! Being com- 
 pletely ignorant of all drill the reader may well 
 imagine what I went through. Whatever con- 
 ceit had existed in my composition was totally 
 and very thoroughly removed. I became the 
 wormiest of worms, the kind that did not dare 
 turn. I perspired, or I should say sweated (be- 
 cause only officers are allowed to perspire, pri- 
 vates sweat) out of sheer fright when I made 
 glaring mistakes. At first we drilled in London 
 (I was in the Inns of Court O. T. C. known as 
 the "Devil's Own"), and were duly stared at by 
 the ever curious and that of course made me 
 extra nervous. 
 
 Then came the move to the camp out in the 
 country and here the Regimental Sergeant Ma- 
 jor, the terror of the "rooky," got in his very good 
 work. He searched diligently for any traces of 
 conceit in each one of us, and when he found it 
 proceeded, w^th great gallantry and dash, to 
 launch his attack. The result was withering. 
 Some poor fellows fainted under the ordeal. Of 
 course it was not long before I gave him an op- 
 portunity for personal remarks. I made a mis- 
 take, or to be more correct some one else made 
 
FROM CIVILIAN TO SOLDIER 61 
 
 the mistake, and it placed me out of my proper 
 position. Not being quick enough to grasp the 
 situation I stood firm in a place where I should 
 not have been. Suddenly six feet tv/o inches (it 
 looked like fifteen feet) of very straight Sergeant 
 Major loomed up directly in front of me, and a 
 voice like an ocean-going steamship foghorn bel- 
 .owed for the whole world to hear "You blithering 
 idiot ! What the H do you think you're do- 
 ing, having your photograph taken?" etc., etc., 
 etc., etc. He wanted me to answer him back 
 when he would really and truly have laid me out, 
 but I had not been born in the army, and had all 
 my family in it, for nothing. With great bravery 
 ,(for I was much too frightened to do anything 
 else), I stood fast at rigid attention and stared, 
 unseeing past the great man. What were my 
 thoughts during this ordeal? My sense of hu- 
 mour was most dangerously tickled, and I had 
 the utmost difficulty in keeping my face straight. 
 What would have happened had I laughed, good- 
 ness only knows. But there I was, a man between 
 forty and fifty years old, accustomed to being 
 treated with respect, to governing instead of 
 being governed, being "cussed" by a man w^ho or- 
 dinarily would have had to say "sir" in speaking 
 to me, and yet, was not this part of that great 
 
62 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 thing called discipline, the thing that is the key- 
 note of a soldier's successful training, without 
 which soldiers are little more than unruly mobs. 
 All this passed through my mind as I accepted 
 my "dressing down" and I felt not the slightest 
 resentment. 
 
 For the time being I was IT while the other 
 rookies smiled. But soon another fellow was 
 attacked and he, foolishly, tried to exculpate him- 
 self, to explain how and why it was he had made 
 a certain mistake. This was what the R. S. M. 
 was looking for and he "did himself proud." The 
 very earth shook with his roars as he explained 
 with unwonted vigour what he and all other de- 
 cent soldiers thought of the man who presumed 
 to "answer back," and we all stood smartly to 
 attention, the bitter winter wind nearly freezing 
 us, while we tried our best to keep our faces from 
 any indication of smiles. I may add that no one 
 in that company ever again attempted to explain 
 his mistakes to the K. S. M. on parade. Off 
 parade v/e could be sure of a most kindly wel- 
 come. Advice and help were given generously, 
 for he was a splendid fellow and he taught me 
 very many valuable lessons. 
 
 For nearly three months I remained in the 
 O. T. C. We started work each day long before 
 
FROM CIVILIAN TO SOLDIER 63 
 
 dawn, when the roll was read out by the aid of 
 an electric torch while we stood and shivered in 
 the bitter cold, and woe betide the man who was 
 late, and we worked all day. When we were not 
 drilling, or attending lectures, or digging 
 trenches, we were cleaning our boots or our rifles, 
 for on each parade we had to appear smartly 
 turned out, and as it rained every day except 
 when it snowed, keeping ourselves and our rifles 
 clean was not an easy task. Then we had those 
 joyous 'night opps" (night operations) when 
 we fought very imaginary battles and marched 
 very real miles, for the battle ground was always 
 chosen as far away as possible from our billets, 
 and we very seldom had the slightest idea of what 
 we were supposed to be doing, while the question 
 of who won was regarded as a strict military se- 
 cret and under no condition was it allowed to 
 leak out. Still I suppose it was all good train- 
 ing, it hardened us at any rate and that was very 
 necessary. 
 
 There was one marvellous institution which al- 
 ways struck us as difficult of explanation. Dur- 
 ing that v/inter of '14-'15 a severe form of in- 
 fluenza was very prevalent. If any of us were 
 not feeling well and had bad colds, in most cases 
 the beginning of "flue," we we-^e given L. D. 
 
64i WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 (light duty ) , and this consisted of sitting in a bit- 
 terlj^ cold and draughty lumber yard (where our 
 mess and kitchen were situated) on the edge of a 
 canal, while we fished icy cold potatoes ou^" of tubs 
 of icy cold water and peeled them with blunt 
 knives. Now this did not in any instance cure the 
 cold or intercept the "flue" strange though it 
 may seem, and the net result was far from satis- 
 factory. 
 
 ]My stay m the camp ended for me on March 
 15 when I received the glad news that I had been 
 given a commission as a Lieutenant in the nth 
 battalion of the King's Own Yorkshire Light In- 
 fantry, having jumped a grade on account of my 
 age. Packing up was a quick job, and I was 
 homeward bound within an hour after receiving 
 the welcome news, feeling tremendously impor- 
 tant, for was I not a real (though temporary) 
 officer in his JMajesty's Army? I was granted a 
 few days' leave in order to get my uniform and 
 kit (the uniform had been made for over a month 
 and only needed the necessary regimental but- 
 tons and badges) and was as proud as a peacock 
 of my new feathers, while my children were even 
 more proud and took the utmost delight and 
 satisfaction in seeing their father saluted. It 
 \vas most amusing. 
 
FROM CIVILIAN TO SOLDIER 65 
 
 Then came the day when I joined my bat- 
 talion. That was one of the greatest days of my 
 life, one that will never be forgotten so long as I 
 live. As I look back at all that has passed, and 
 think of the delightful lot of fellows that were my 
 companions for so many months, and now, how 
 few of them remain! The years of war have 
 thinned their number most pitifully. Every one 
 has been in the casualty list, and some have been 
 wounded several different times. No better lot 
 of feEows had any battalion. We were like a 
 huge family, working, studying, playing, and 
 living together, with the one object in view, and 
 that object is not yet attained. 
 
 It is perhaps unnecessary to go into any de- 
 tails of my life in England. Of how I first tried 
 to move a company the day after I joined, as 
 the company commander was otherwise engaged. 
 The agonies I went through. The dread of the 
 first General's review, in fact of all the things 
 which every new and imperfectly trained ofiicer 
 must go through. Yet with it all I look back to 
 the months of training as some of the happiest 
 in my whole life. There was the great satisfac- 
 tion of seeing the men develop ; when I first saw 
 them they were in any sort of clothes, without 
 rifles or equipment. Then came the great day 
 
66 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 when the Idiaki uniform arrived, followed soon 
 by the leather equipment, and the consequent 
 difficulties of assembling the endless parts, and 
 then rifles to take the place of the soulless dum- 
 mies, and the men felt that they were really sol- 
 diers and we were, oh, so proud of them! Each 
 march through the town in which we were billet- 
 ed was a sort of triumphal procession. 
 
 Our Colonel, who fortunately was a regular, 
 took the greatest pride in the battalion, and in- 
 stilled in every one the keenest sense of pride 
 and respect, and the battalion increased in smart- 
 ness and efficiency in a most gratifying way. Our 
 life was a thoroughly happy one, for with scarcely 
 an exception we all pulled together. My own po- 
 sition was in a way rather curious as the Captain, 
 who was second in command of our company, was 
 a f ellov/ considerably less than half my own age. 
 A splendid chap in every way under whom it 
 was a pleasure to serve. He knew more than I 
 of matters military and so it was but right that 
 he should have rank senior to mine. In our army 
 we do not feel that rank must be according to 
 age, we have many second lieutenants who are 
 forty or even forty-five years of age and who do 
 not feel that it is beneath their dignity to take or- 
 ders from men very many years their junior. It is 
 
FROM CIVILIAN TO SOLDIER 67 
 
 all a part of the discipline which is such a splendid 
 thing for us all, both young and old. 
 
 Our life during the period of training was one 
 of constant activity. We all had to learn from 
 the very beginning what was necessary for the 
 making of soldiers. In less than a year we must 
 be converted from peaceful citizens, enjoying the 
 privileges and luxury of civilian life, to well-dis- 
 ciplined fighting machines, and modern warfare 
 calls for such a vast amount of technical knowl- 
 edge that every minute of our time was thorough- 
 ly occupied. Fortunately the enthusiasm of our 
 men was wonderful. Not only would they do 
 what work was demanded of them, but on Sat- 
 urday afternoons and Sundays, when they could 
 have rested, they would ask us to give them spe- 
 cial instructions. It was indeed a pleasure and 
 a privilege to help to the utmost of our power. 
 The days seemed only too short for us to do what 
 we wanted yet we worked frequently from 6 a. 
 m., our first parade for physical training, till mid- 
 night or later. The Huns might speak of us as 
 an untrained rabble, but we were determined to 
 show them that when we took to the field, be it 
 in France or elsewhere, we should be able to dem- 
 onstrate that even the untrained British rabble 
 was equal, if not superior, to the highly trained 
 
68 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 German troops, born and educated to the one idea 
 of fighting. Looking back at events after these 
 more than three years we cannot but feel a thrill 
 of pride at the way our men have behaved in the 
 greatest war that has ever been fought for right 
 against wrong. 
 
 In June of 1915, owing to appendicitis I was 
 forced to undergo an operation and had the bad 
 luck to be laid up for over two months. Hearing 
 from our Colonel that the battalion would soon 
 be leaving for abroad I rejoined before properly 
 regaining my strength, which resulted in my hav- 
 ing a breakdown, and I was not allowed to accom- 
 pany them when in September they left for 
 France. It was a bitter night for me as I bid 
 good-bye to the fellows and saw them march off 
 in a dense fog shortly after midnight. Not to 
 be going with them was one of the greatest dis- 
 appointments of my life and I was left behind 
 to clear up camp (I. C. details w^as the name of 
 ^y jot)). How utterly dreary and deserted it 
 was! The endless empty huts, the silent mess, 
 which so recently had been ringing with song and 
 laughter of the fellows who were so keen to get 
 into the fight, and now they had gone ! 
 
 After clearing up the camp I was laid up till 
 December, when I joined the reserve battalion 
 
FROM CIVILIAN TO SOLDIER 69 
 
 stationed in the Midlands and remained with it 
 until March when the Medical Board (after 
 strong persuasive arguments and appeals) passed 
 me fit for G. S. (General Service) . Needless to 
 say I was delighted and immediately applied for 
 embarkation leave of four days, and within a 
 week was on my way to "Somewhere in France." 
 We were a jolly crowd of some hundreds of 
 officers, all bound to various units, and all in the 
 highest spirits. Nearly all had friends or rela- 
 tives to see them off, and it was interesting to 
 watch the heroic efforts of the women, v/ives, 
 mothers, children and sweethearts to keep smil- 
 ing when one Iviiew how very near the tears were. 
 But crying in public is not considered the proper 
 thing for our women, and least of all v/hen seeing 
 their men going to war. Dry, or almost dry eyes 
 and smiling faces were the rule. Yet one won- 
 dered what would happen when the excitement 
 of the departure had passed, when that crowd 
 scattered and returned to their homes. They 
 were proud to have their men go to fight for the 
 country. Not for worlds would they have had 
 them stay behind and seek soft jobs in England. 
 Yet the dread of the future must have been hard 
 to face. With none of the excitement which keeps 
 the men at the front busy and cheerful, and pre- 
 
70 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 vents too much thinking, the woman has the 
 harder task, the terrible task of waiting, waiting 
 and always dreading the arrival of the fatal tele- 
 gram which to so many means the end of all that 
 they have held most dear. 
 
 As the clock struck the hour the long crowded 
 train started. Every window blocked by weather- 
 browned faces anxious for the very last glimpse 
 of the waving mass on the platform, and soon 
 London was a thing of the past, a grey smoky 
 blur. We settled ourselves down for the jour- 
 ney, and for a time a strange quiet prevailed. 
 Men were actually thinking, yet no one would 
 have dared discuss his thoughts. Gradually con- 
 versation began, began as usual with the light- 
 ing of cigarettes. What a strangely sociable lit- 
 tle friend is the cigarette. It breaks the ice of 
 reserve among men as nothing else does and leads 
 to the forming of many a friendship. 
 
PART II 
 
 CHAPTEK IV 
 
 Rejoining My Battalion 
 
 Our trip to France was entirely uneventful 
 and on landing at B we all received our in- 
 structions. With several others of my regiment 
 I was to leave that evening for the base, Etapies, 
 commonly known to Tommy Atkins as ''Eat Ap- 
 ples," and we arrived in due course in the midst 
 of a howling snowstorm. Guides met us and took 
 us and our kits to our respective tents in which 
 we were soon packed like sardines. Each man 
 had his ''flea bag" (sleeping bag of blanket with 
 waterproof canvas cover properly known as a 
 valise). In the morning after overcoming cer- 
 tain diiiiculties in the way of shaving, etc., we 
 reported to the adjutant, a delightful fellow who 
 gave us our instructions. We were to draw "iron 
 rations" (tinned beef, dry biscuits, marmalade, 
 and a tin containing tea, sugar, and a cube of 
 beef extract), gas helmets, field-dressing outfit, 
 
 73 
 
74 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 and sundry other articles considered necessary for 
 the welfare of the soldier, and the following day 
 entrained for the Front. 
 
 To my great delight I found myself bound for 
 my old battalion. That was indeed a relief and 
 a piece of extraordinary good luck. To have 
 gone among a lot of strangers would have been 
 hard to say the least of it. 
 
 The train journey was slow and rather unin- 
 teresting. On our way we stopped for a few 
 hours at a fair-sized town where, after some dif- 
 ficulty, we managed to secure a bath, of sorts. 
 The French people have discovered that we are a 
 very dirty race, and therefore need a great deal 
 of washing, so a few wide-awake ones have bought 
 large tubs, or even baths, and arranged for a lim- 
 ited, strictly limited I might say, supply of hot 
 water, and for the sum of two francs or so we 
 are allowed to disport ourselves more or less 
 according to our national custom. Privacy is 
 not included in the agreement and while we, 
 perhaps half a dozen to a room, remove the 
 dust of travel, Madame and her husband 
 come in and out and keep us supplied with 
 water and towels. It is all a trifle primitive, but 
 better than nothing. Following the bath, a fair 
 dinner, with abundance of vin ordinaire put us 
 
REJOINING MY BATTALION 75 
 
 all in good humour and we resumed our journey 
 arriving at B 1 before midniglit. The bat- 
 talion was in "country" billets a few miles away^ 
 so we put up at the hotel and in the morning 
 found the mess cart awaiting us. 
 
 It was delightful getting back to the old lot. 
 Of course many changes had taken place. They 
 had been in the battle of Loos which had taken 
 its toll, and the long winter months in the 
 trenches had also taken a few. Still the regiment 
 had been lucky and most of the old lot were there. 
 It was like going home to see them all again. 
 They all had had experience of war, while I was 
 green, which made me feel very inferior. I was 
 fortunate enough to be given a company imme- 
 diately, and consequently was much pleased with 
 life. Our billets were in farm houses of very 
 unprepossessing appearance and most unsavoury 
 odours. Does not Bairnsfather describe them as 
 buildings surrounding a rectangular smell or 
 words to that effect? Well, that just about fits 
 it. Cleanliness was not, and in many instances 
 the people were far from friendly. Notwith- 
 standing the fact that they received good pay for 
 all the VvTretched accommodation, they did noth- 
 ing but grumble. The Battalion was resting, i.e., 
 not in trenches, but busy with parades and exer- 
 
76 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 cises necessary for smartening up. I had a 
 splendid lot of junior officers and our company 
 mess was as jolly and harmonious as possible. 
 
 Within a few days we received orders to move, 
 but there was no intimation as to w^hat our des- 
 tination would be. One cold morning before 
 daylight we started on a march of about eight 
 miles to the railroad. On arriving, there was a 
 short delay and we entrained for the south, the 
 men chiefly in freight cars, and the officers in 
 first- and second-class carriages. All day we 
 moved along in a most aggravatingly slow way, 
 finally detraining shortly before dusk not far 
 from Ainiens. We were all tired and dirty, and 
 the men badly in need of tea, so as soon as the 
 camp cookers were unloaded, preparations were 
 made for a hot meal before proceeding on the 
 next stage of our journey, about thirteen miles of 
 marching. 
 
 As darkness set in, the sky to the east reflected 
 the warm glow of the guns and the cold silver 
 colour of the star shells, and the low booming 
 told us that we were not very far from the firing 
 line. Those of us who had not been into battle 
 began to realise what lay ahead of us, and we 
 could not help feeling a certain queer tingling 
 sensation at each burst of the ominous red light. 
 
REJOINING MY BATTALION 7*7 
 
 I 
 
 My own thought was that some poor fellows 
 were probably being killed or wounded, and when 
 we moved along to the cheery singing or whistling 
 of the men, war seemed a strange thing, a thing 
 of infinitely great contrasts, and such a foolish 
 and inhuman way of settling the affairs of na- 
 tions. Here we were a body of men all brought 
 up to peaceful pursuits to whom the idea of kill- 
 ing our fellow beings or of allowing ourself to 
 be killed had not come into our heads until a few 
 months ago, and yet now we were like thousands 
 of others marching along as cheerful as boys go- 
 ing on a picnic, when if v/e would but give thought 
 we must know that this march was taking us one 
 step nearer to that wonderfully terrible thing, the 
 modern shell torn, gas swept, barb-wired battle- 
 field. I have often w^ondered w^hether the aver- 
 age soldier does much thinking. Does he look 
 ahead and analyse what is before him? I do not 
 believe he does. He just plods along patiently, 
 doing his allotted tasks, quite happy if his imme- 
 diate body comforts are satisfied, and giving little 
 or no thought to what fate may have in store. 
 It is better so. 
 
 While tea was being served, the French girls 
 did a thriving business with chocolate, and cakes 
 of low quality and high price. Tommy Atkins 
 
78 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 seldom misses an opportunity of spending his 
 very small amount of money and can never refuse 
 to buy from the girls, no matter what their na- 
 tionality. 
 
 Darkness set in before we were ready to move, 
 and then followed a very dreary march to the 
 
 village of La N , which was some twelve 
 
 miles behind the front line. We were all very 
 tired before starting and it took a great deal 
 of work to keep things going, and in spite of all 
 we could do the singing slowly died dov/n as mile 
 after mile was passed. Toward eleven o'clock 
 it seemed as though that march would never end ; 
 the men smiled sadly and unbelievingly when I 
 told them v^e had only a mile and a half more to 
 go; they were quite surprised to find half an 
 hour later that I had really told them the truth. 
 We entered the straggling village and were met 
 by our billeting officer and the battalion inter- 
 preter who guided us to our various quarters. 
 
 After seeing that my company was properly 
 housed in a couple of very airy barns, I joined 
 the other officers and we went to our billets and 
 met a delightful welcome from a couple of elderly 
 French women who insisted on giving us bowls 
 of black coffee with rolls and eggs. These people 
 were quite a different type from those we had 
 
REJOINING MY BATTALION 79 
 
 been staying v/ith near the Flanders border, and 
 we found everything as clean as possible and to 
 our joy each of us officers had a separate bed with 
 nice clean sheets, and as it was well after mid- 
 night, and we had been up since three o'clock, no 
 time was lost in seeking the sleep we so greatly 
 needed. 
 
 The following week we spent at the village do- 
 ing a certain amount of training and attending to 
 the men's equipment, special gas helmet instruc- 
 tion being given on account of the Germans' con- 
 tinually increasing use of this vile form of war- 
 
 •/ c_> 
 
 fare. At the end of the week we moved forward 
 to the village of B — — e, which was only about 
 six miles from the front. Owing to the limited 
 accommodations we were closely crowded into 
 our billets but still, as usual, managed to make 
 the best of things, and soon settled down after 
 the ordinary amount of grumbling. We were 
 fortunate in having secured a most comfortable 
 mess for the company officers, but it was too good 
 to last. Some senior officers discovered our com- 
 fort and we were promptly evicted and had to 
 put up with very inferior quarters. 
 
 It might perhaps be well to explain to the 
 reader how we arrange things when we are sta- 
 tioned "Somevv^here in France." The Brigade, 
 
80 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 consisting of four Battalions, usually moves from 
 place to place as a unit, but in order to allow for 
 the separate disposition of the component parts, 
 each company is made a complete unit which can 
 be sent away without interfering in any way with 
 other arrangements. This means that the of- 
 ficers of each company run their own mess, one 
 of their numbers (and there are usually five and 
 sometimes six officers ) acts as mess president and 
 he takes charge of accounts and buys all the 
 things necessary, pays for the room, and every 
 week a settlement is made, the total expenditure 
 being divided equally. The officers receive the 
 same rations as the men and supplement this 
 good, though somewhat unvaried, diet with such 
 luxuries as eggs, fresh butter, fruit, cofiee and 
 whatever liquid refreshment is procurable. 
 
 Each mess has its inevitable gramophone and 
 receives its newspapers both daily and weekly 
 illustrated, and is in a way a miniature club. As 
 regards the men the organisation is not very dif- 
 ferent from what it is at home except that the ser- 
 geants are not always able to have tlieir own mess, 
 though occasionally they manage to arrange this 
 Vvdth more or less satisfactory results. Each 
 company is supposed to have its own travelling 
 cooker, and this usually stays with the company. 
 
BILLETS 
 
 Tommy, always cheerful, manages to make himself comfortable, 
 more or less, even in the most dilapidated of buildings. 
 
REJOINING MY BATTALION 81 
 
 except of course during the time we are in the 
 trenches, when it stays in some reasonably safe 
 place as close to the line as possible, and the 
 cooked food is sent up to the men by specially 
 detailed ration parties. 
 
 At each village where any number of troops 
 are quartered there is usually a Y. JM. C. A. hut, 
 or a converted barn, and this is a veritable god- 
 send to the men, where free stationery is fur- 
 nished so that letters may be written in comfort. 
 It is their club. Games and music are arranged 
 for whenever possible and supplies of the ordi- 
 nary necessities and some modified luxuries may 
 be bought by the men at reasonable prices. In 
 every way these Y. M. C. A. places are of the 
 greatest value and they should have the utmost 
 support of all who have at heart the welfare of 
 the men who are giving up everything in the way 
 of homie, and home comforts, in order to do their 
 share to free the world from the threatened 
 tjTannj of German domination. The only other 
 place of amusement that is to be found in our 
 billeting areas is the "theatre," usually a large 
 barn in v/hich a rude stage is erected with very 
 much home-made scenery and settings. In these 
 theatres both plays and motion pictures are 
 shown, and the diversion is most excellent as it 
 
82 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 takes the men's minds away from the everlasting 
 military work and thought. The plays are given 
 by amateurs or ex-professional men in khaki, and 
 by kind-hearted theatrical people, men, who for 
 some reason cannot get into the army, and 
 women, who volunteer their services as a contri- 
 bution toward the welfare of the men who need 
 healthy amusement just as they need food and 
 clothing. The theatres are to be found well with- 
 in the zone of fire though seldom nearer than 
 three or four miles from the actual front line 
 trenches and it is not an uncommon thing to see 
 a shell hole decorating the building in which the 
 plays are given. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 First View of the Trenches 
 
 While at B e I made my first visit to the 
 
 trenches with the three other company com- 
 manders. They had all seen a fair share of trench 
 life and there was no novelty to them, but to me 
 everything was new and of course most interest- 
 ing. As the distance from B e to where we 
 
 v/ere likely to be shelled was about six miles we 
 made the journey on horseback in order to save 
 time. Our way took us along the crowded dusty 
 roads and through the one long street which com- 
 prised the village of M e, where many of the 
 
 houses were more or less destroyed by shells, and 
 it struck me as strange that so many of the people 
 continued to live in such unsafe quarters. From 
 this village our way took us along a shell-marked 
 road on the sides of which screens of burlap and 
 brush were arranged to conceal the passing traf- 
 fic from the eyes of the enemy. 
 
 Beyond the village everything was desolation, 
 the roadside estaminets, where the peasants used 
 
 83 
 
84 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 to meet and take the mild drinks of the country, 
 were now only masses of ruin; fields, formerly so 
 well cultivated, were now barren wastes on which 
 even weeds could scarcely grow. The trenches of 
 the opposing sides were clearly visible as we 
 rode forward, strange white chalk-edged lines on 
 either side of No Plan's Land. The day was 
 unusually quiet and only an occasional burst of 
 shell showed that the war was still on. Now and 
 then a sniper's rifle would destroy the quiet with 
 sui^i^rising suddemiess. But the singing of the 
 larks and the general air of peace and quiet were 
 not at all what one would have expected to find. 
 Here and there along the roadside often guarded 
 by shrines and crucifixes from which gazed the 
 agonised face of Christ we passed the graves of 
 French soldiers who had given their lives for their 
 glorious country, and on these mounds of earth 
 lay faded flowers, while many of the graves were 
 surmounted by a simple cross on which instead 
 of the image of the crucified Christ hung the 
 weather-beaten cap of the fallen man. Occa- 
 sionally a khaki cap told us that one of our own 
 men had been buried alongside of his French 
 brother in arms and on the cross was written the 
 simple yet eloquent inscription: "No. COO private 
 
FIRST VIEW OF THE TRENCHES 85 
 — regiment. Killed in action, February 5, 
 
 19 ." 
 
 On reaching the ruined village of Becordel we 
 dismounted and left the horses in charge of a 
 gi'oom while we proceeded on our way to the 
 front line. The first first half-mile was through 
 the communication trenches, kregular, narrow, 
 zigzag ways which led us to the main system of 
 the firing line. We had been given a guide at 
 the Battalion headquarters and he took us to the 
 various company dugouts along the line. These 
 were simple affairs lacking in most of the ordi- 
 nary requirements considered necessary for com- 
 fort. A rough table usually occupied the greater 
 part of the excavation in addition to which there 
 was something in the way of a seat or two. On 
 beds composed of sandbags or ragged v/ire net- 
 ting were sleeping officers who had been up all 
 night and were now trying to snatch a wink of 
 sleep. A guttering candle was the only form 
 of illumination and it barely made the darkness 
 visible. There were brief introductions to the 
 sleepy inmates who immediately offered the in- 
 evitable cigarette without which in our life at the 
 front no introduction seems quite complete. 
 
 The rough v/alls of the dugout were adorned 
 by a few pictures from the illustrated papers. 
 
86 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 The usual selection being, one or two of the in- 
 imitable Bairnsfather cartoons and by way of 
 contrast some of the coloured pictures of fair 
 but not over-clothed damsels from La Vie Paris- 
 ienne. 
 
 After a brief talk with the fellows the company 
 commander, who was a second Lieutenant, of- 
 fered to take us out and show the line. He did it 
 most cheerfully for our coming meant that he was 
 to be relieved within a few hours and that is an 
 event of considerable moment to those who oc- 
 cupy the first line. For obvious reasons it is 
 not advisable to have detail maps of the trenches, 
 as there is always the possibility of the Germans 
 making a raid, and the capturing of a map would 
 be most undesirable. The trenches being some- 
 what complicated it was necessary that we should 
 take very careful, mental notes of everything, 
 and it was surprising how many things had to be 
 noted. To me, unaccustomed to trenches as I 
 was, it seemed a most difficult task to obtain and 
 memorise a correct and adequate picture of the 
 whole system. Especially as few of the trenches 
 had names on them. The lack of signs seemed 
 almost inexcusable and I determined that the 
 first thing I would do on "taking over" would be 
 
FIRST VIEW OF THE TRENCHES 87 
 
 to put some sort of sign-board in every corner 
 in order to avoid confusion. 
 
 We found the trenches in fair condition though 
 in places there v/ere stretches of badly demolished 
 line, certain spots were shelled regularly our 
 guide told us and they had given up in despair 
 all attempts at repairs. Each time they had tried 
 to rebuild these places the enemy had interrupted 
 the work after an hour or so by vigorous straf- 
 ing j which resulted in many casualties. While 
 crossing these danger zones we had to crawl to 
 avoid being seen by the ever v/atchful German 
 sniper. For the m.ost part the trenches were 
 fairly dry and the bottoms covered with "duck 
 boards," i.e., wooden grills, much like the wooden 
 "sidewalks" so often seen in some parts of Amer- 
 ica. These prevent the bottom of the trench 
 from being worn by the constant traffic and en- 
 able one to walk dry shod during moderately 
 rainy weather. The wet chalk or clay makes 
 these boards very slippery so that walking is al- 
 most impossible without hob-nailed boots, espe- 
 cially for men carrying heavy loads. 
 
 Needless to say the extraordinary regularity 
 which characterises the practice trenches at home 
 was entirely lacking. The size of the bays and 
 traverses varied according? to conditions. The 
 
88 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 depth alone remaining fairly constant. In most 
 parts the sides were sand-bagged from the bot- 
 tom up to the parapet, in others wire netting, 
 wooden or iron stakes or corrugated iron sheath- 
 ing were used to support the sides. Dugouts of 
 many sizes and in various degrees of decrepitude 
 were located at more or less convenient places, 
 but there had been no effort to make them either 
 comfortable or even reasonably safe. How dif- 
 ferent they were from those built by the Ger- 
 mans, as we were to discover before many months. 
 The contrast between the two was a proof of the 
 difference in the points of view. Our dugouts 
 were of the crudest possible type. They showed 
 that we evidently had no intention of staying in 
 the neighbourhood, while the wonderful!}^ elabo- 
 rate ones made by the Germans seemed to show 
 that they expected to remain indefinitely. I 
 might even say for the rest of their natural lives, 
 for that was to be the fate of so many of them. 
 One was struck by the cleanliness of the 
 trenches. No litter or refuse of any kind is al- 
 lowed, and all the sanitary arrangements were 
 thoroughly satisfactory. This is one of the great 
 secrets of the remarkable health of our troops. 
 The trenches being actually healthier than billets 
 except during severe strafing and very wet 
 
FIRST VIEW OF THE TRENCHES 89 
 
 weather. The things that made perhaps the 
 greatest impression on me not only on this first 
 visit to the front hne, but also later on, was the 
 seeming scarcity of men, the apathy and bore- 
 dom, and the apparent lack of appearance of 
 readiness. Here and there one saw a khaki-clad 
 figure huddled under a ground cloth, looking 
 for all the world as though he were dead as he 
 lay on the fire-step or in some nook. In all cases 
 such men are fully equipped and are never al- 
 lowed to be separated from their rifle. 
 
 Occasionally one came upon an industrious 
 fellow polishing his rifle or even shaving, or what 
 was still more frequent, writing letters home, for 
 that is the great recreation of the men. Here and 
 there a sentry would be found peering through 
 a peep-hole or gazing into a home-made peri- 
 scope. Unfortunately regular periscopes were 
 only too rare and sticking one's head over the 
 parapet is not a desirable form of amusement 
 unless one wants to stay permanently in France. 
 So the men showed a considerable degree of in- 
 genuity in converting small shaving mirrors into 
 periscopes. They were usually attached to the 
 bayonet, the edge being held toward the enemy, 
 so that it was scarcely visible. Any object that 
 can be seen is immediately and very persistently 
 
90 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 used as a target by the snipers. This leads to a 
 highly praiseworthy effort on the part of every 
 one to be as inconspicuous as possible. 
 
 I was very much interested in what I saw of 
 the crudeness of our methods of firing rifle gre- 
 nades. At this time we did not take these weap- 
 ons seriously, notwithstanding the remarkable 
 efficiency shown by the Huns in using them. Not 
 alone did they send over immense numbers of the 
 deadly grenades, but they fired them with pain- 
 ful accuracy. I noticed a couple of men with 
 rifles that were clumsily fastened to stakes, to 
 the triggers were attached pieces of string, then 
 the grenades were put into the rifle, which was 
 loaded with a blank cartridge and the men 
 walked behind the nearest traverse for shelter 
 in case the rifles exploded. Just as the two men 
 I was watching were about to fire, one remarked, 
 "Wait a minute. Bill, you'll hit the bloomin' 
 parapet," so Bill returned to the unprovised rifle 
 stand and gave the rifle butts a shove down and 
 then looked along the barrels to see that the para- 
 pet did not obstruct the free flight of the grenade. 
 Having satisfied himself on this point he again 
 sought the protection of the traverse and pulled 
 the strings. After allowing a reasonable time 
 for the grenades to reach their destination both 
 
FIRST VIEW OF THE TRENCHES 91 
 
 Bill and his mate looked over the top to see what 
 they had hit. One grenade dropped fully fifty 
 yards short of the enemy trenches and the other 
 a little nearer, but both were utterly useless. I 
 did not wait to see what happened next, but the 
 whole method or rather lack of method struck me 
 as painfully bad, and a waste of grenades, which 
 at that time were very scarce. 
 
 In front of our trenches there was a very ir- 
 regular amount of barbed-wire, scarcely enough 
 to offer any effective protection against an at- 
 tack. While the German lines were most elab- 
 orately protected by great quantities of very 
 heavy wire. More particularly was this notice- 
 able in front of the second and third line of 
 trenches. The distance between our line and the 
 Germans varied from about fifty to two hundred 
 yards. The nearest part being in the neighbour- 
 hood of the Tambour where a great amoimt of 
 mining and counter-mining was being done. The 
 net result of this form of warfare seemed nega- 
 tive. Neither side gained appreciable advantage, 
 but so long as one side indulged in the pleasant 
 pastime of trying to blow up the other side, it is 
 obvious that both had to play the same game, 
 only we tried to do our work a little better than 
 the Germans and, be it said to our credit, our 
 
92 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 mines in nearly every instance were fired first, 
 and that is a great and very important detail. 
 
 The entire ground between the lines at this 
 point was a mass of torn chalky earth and deep 
 irregular craters — a truly ghastly confusion. 
 Winding its erratic way among the craters hastily 
 constructed barbed-wire entanglements were vis- 
 ible, and on these hung several human bodies. 
 Their tattered clothing blowing in the breeze 
 gave the effect of scarecrows, the gruesome scare- 
 crows of war. 
 
 For the greater part No Man's Land was 
 a desolate waste, pock-marked here and there 
 with shell holes, a dreary uninviting tract over 
 which the bullets of rifle and machine guns 
 screamed all night and the sky larks sang during 
 the comparative quiet of the day. 
 
 To the East beyond the many lines of chalk- 
 rimmed trenches lay Fricourt nestling against 
 the small woods, which were beginning to show 
 the faint delicate gi'een of early spring. The vil- 
 lage v/as fairly intact and seemed strangely 
 peaceful, yet in reality it was neither more nor 
 less than a fort. Everything that modern mili- 
 tary science could accomplish had been done to 
 render the place impregnable. Its snug home- 
 like red brick cottages w^ere bristling with ma- 
 
PIRST VIEW OF THE TRENCHES 93 
 
 chine guns and its streets covered a veritable 
 labyrinth of underground passages and immense 
 dugouts in which thousands of troops could be 
 assembled in comparative safety from our guns. 
 Our guide took us through his entire lines and 
 then handed us over to the officers of the adjoin- 
 ing Battalion. They in turn showed us their 
 trenches, and after an hour or two vv^e returned 
 to where our horses had been left, and made our 
 way back to billets. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 At Becordel — Strafed 
 
 Two days later we received orders to move 
 forward. The Brigade was divided so as to hold 
 the various integral parts of our front, and it 
 fell to my lot in con j miction with another com- 
 pany to take up our position at the little village 
 of Becordel, which was about fifteen hundred 
 yards from the front line, and from which we 
 could see our own and the German trenches quite 
 clearly. The village was badly dilapidated. The 
 church and many of the houses were completely 
 wrecked, but here and there a building: remained 
 in fair condition except for occasional holes in 
 the walls or roof. The Germans seem to think 
 that we Britishers need a lot of fresh air, and as 
 soon as they know we are occupying any particu- 
 lar billet, they promptly proceed to ventilate the 
 rooms by means of shell holes. 
 
 We found the fellows v/ho were holding the 
 village exceedingly pleased at the immediate 
 prospect of being relieved. It appeared that 
 
 94 
 
AT BECORDEL— *Sri2^F£Z) 95 
 
 every day the Huns had indulged in a "hate 
 hour" and the shells dropped into the place in a 
 most promiscuous and highly unpleasant fashion. 
 The result was that there had been many casu- 
 alties. This of course was most reassuring and 
 comforting, for we had a spell of ten days still 
 before us. However, there was no use in worry- 
 ing and after we had bid good-bye to the relieved 
 companies {relieved is a word full of meaning in 
 such cases) we began to make ourselves at home, 
 picked out more or less suitable places for sleep- 
 ing and messing and saw that the men were prop- 
 erly housed. Then instructions were issued for 
 protection in case of shelling, dugouts and cel- 
 lars allotted to each platoon, and rough plans 
 made in case of attack. The village v/as a very 
 small one built roughly in the form of a T with 
 an open square at the junction of the lines; at 
 the side furthest from the front line trenches 
 there was a small field more or less protected from 
 the Germans' view by two large barns whose 
 roofs had been riddled by shell and shot. 
 
 I As soon as the men had been dismissed they 
 
 I 
 
 started the inevitable gam.e of football in the 
 small field. Everything was going smoothly 
 when one foolish chap kicked the ball high. Ap- 
 
96 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 parently the Huns saw it. Now if there is one 
 thing they hate besides a Britisher and an Ameri- 
 can it is football. This hatred dates from the time 
 at Loos when the Irish regiment dribbled a ball 
 across the line toward their trenches, as one fel- 
 low would fall another put the ball forward and 
 this showed a lack of respect for the Hun. Such 
 an attitude is disliked b3/ the noble creature and 
 to know that we contemptible Britishers were 
 daring to play the game within sight of his 
 trenches was insulting and he forthwith proceed- 
 ed to stop it by firing a few shells. The men were 
 promply ordered into shelter and I then started 
 across the square to see to the safety of the rest 
 of my men who were on the further side of the 
 village; fortunately for me I am a slow runner, 
 for I had only taken a few steps when I heard 
 the whistling of a shell. Needless to say, I 
 stopped, stopped very suddenly as the shell 
 struck just v^'here I would have been had I been 
 a fast runner. Had we coincided I feel convinced 
 that the shell would have had the best of it, as 
 it was I turned and made what I am sure was a 
 speed record in my endeavour to reach a place of 
 safety in a nearby cellar. 
 
 The following day passed without incident or 
 
AT B^CORBEl^—STRAFED 97 
 
 shells, and we began to feel that the Hun fright- 
 fulness had been much exaggerated, so we settled 
 down to enjoy a peaceful ten days in our little 
 ruined village. It was not long, however, before 
 our tranquillity was rudely disturbed. We were 
 about to have our five o'clock tea in the open, 
 outside of our improvised mess, when just as 
 the tea was being poured a shell came screaming 
 into the village followed quickly by another. 
 This was most annoying as we had to retreat to 
 the safety of the cellars and when the strafing had 
 ceased our tea was quite cold. Fortunately no 
 other damage had been done, except that a corner 
 of our building had been shot away. That day 
 our C. O. (commanding officer) paid us a visit 
 and gave the order that the officers of our two 
 companies must separate so as to avoid the risk of 
 all of us being knocked out at one time. Under 
 no condition v/ere we all to congregate in one 
 place even for meals. This meant that we must 
 have our meals in relays as there v\^as only one 
 room fit for a mess. A day or so later while the 
 other company v/ere having their meal I missed 
 one of my junior officers. On investigation he 
 was discovered sitting in the mess. I was in 
 the act of telling him that this was contrary 
 to orders when my remarks were em.phasised by a 
 
98 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 shell tearing through our verandah, a curious co- 
 incidence which resulted in a race for the cellar; 
 the speed with which we accomplished this act 
 would have reflected great credit on a lot of agile 
 rahhits getting into their burrows. 
 
 One of our tasks while in Becordel v/as to fur- 
 nish work parties to assist the tunnelling com- 
 panies who were engaged in mining under the 
 German lines. About half of our men had to go 
 each night for this work, and most unpopular 
 work it was, both for officers and men, especially 
 during wet weather. The enemy knew exactly 
 where our mine heads were situated and amused 
 himself regularly each night by dropping shells 
 and rifle grenades among the work parties. The 
 previous occupants of our village had suffered 
 heavy casualties in this way, so we were not sur- 
 prised v/lien during the following night work the 
 officers reported several wounded and one killed. 
 Later on v/hen the men had finished their allotted 
 task earlier than usual some of them were seized 
 with the souvenir-hunting craze and crawled out 
 in No J^Ian's Land to look for unexploded gren- 
 ades. Unfortunately they discovered a few and 
 in coming through the narrow trench on their way 
 back to the village one let his fall ; it exploded and 
 caused no less than ten casualties. This resulted 
 
AT BECOR'DF.I.—STRAFED 99 
 
 in an order that under no condition was any man 
 allowed to touch unexploded shells or grenades. 
 
 The following day two of the victims of this 
 unfortunate tragedy were brought through the 
 village for burial in the little cemetery nearby. 
 It was the first time I had seen one of those pa- 
 thetically simple funerals. The bodies were sewn 
 up in Army blankets (which the Germans with 
 their high degree of efficiency would have consid- 
 ered criminal waste) and borne on light two- 
 wheeled stretcher carriers ; there was no guard or 
 firing party, no one but the Padre and the men 
 who pushed the stretchers, and so they were taken 
 to their last resting place over v/hich two more 
 small crosses would be added to the thousands, 
 yes hundreds of thousands that will remain in 
 France to mark England's dead, her part in 
 the great sacrifice for the rights of humanity. 
 
 Many strange things happened during the 
 night operations. I was told that on several oc- 
 casions the Germans had sent a man over dressed 
 in our uniform. The fellow would crawl along 
 and watch his chance to join our work party, 
 with them he would work until an hour or so be- 
 fore daylight and then vanish with complete lack 
 of ostentation, probably carrying valuable in- 
 formation regarding our mining operation. Such 
 
100 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 a task certainly requires courage and no one 
 could help admiring a man who would take the 
 risks. 
 
 Each of our officers took turns in conducting 
 the work parties, and my turn happened on a 
 fine and fairly quiet night. After handing over 
 my men to the various tasks allotted to them 
 by the mining officer, I visited their dugout, had 
 a bite of supper and then accepted the invitation 
 to go down the shafts. These were about one 
 hundred feet deep and we went down on rope 
 ladders. I was glad that many years of my early 
 life had been spent at sea as it made the ladder 
 descent a little less unpleasant. 
 
 On arriving at the bottom, I was allowed to 
 take one of the listening devices, a sort of micro- 
 phone w^hich was fastened in the ground. By 
 listening carefully I could hear the Germans 
 w^orking at their mines, apparently very near. It 
 was an uncanny, queer, and not at all pleasing 
 sensation being down there in the dark damp hole 
 listening to men working with the sole object of 
 blowing you to pieces, and I could not help think- 
 ing of what would happen should they decide to 
 set off their mines while I was down in the stuffy, 
 heated and very cramped place. 
 To tell the truth I did not enjoy the experience 
 
AT Bi:COnBEI.—S,T,AAFkp 101 
 
 and was only too glad when my guide had finished 
 his inspection and suggested returning to the sur- 
 face again, but my joy was short lived for on ar- 
 riving at the top I found that I was expected to 
 go down two more of the shafts. Pride alone pre- 
 vented my saying that I had had quite enough to 
 satisfy my curiosity, especially as I was being 
 entertained by blood-curdling stories of how 
 mines had been fired by the Huns at unexpected 
 moments with horrible results to the wretched 
 men who were working below. 
 
 In going along the trenches I noticed cages of 
 canaries and thought how nice it was for the men 
 to have their pets with them, they gave a sort 
 of touch of home. I was however, surprised to 
 learn that these birds are taken down the saps 
 as a test of the purity of the air. If they die the 
 men know that the air is foul and unfit for human 
 beings to breath so the supply of fresh air sent 
 down by the pumps must be increased immedi- 
 ately. 'Not so very home-like after all! 
 
 It appeared that when we first took over this 
 part of the line, the Germans had the advantage 
 in the minin^", but that for some time nast our fel- 
 lows had gained in every point. We had found 
 a way of ascertaining when the enemy intended 
 to fire his charge and thereafter we invariably 
 
103 WKEI^; 1'HE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 fifed ours first, with results entirely satisfactory 
 from our point of view. This underground form 
 of fighting is one of the many strange and ghastly 
 developments of modern w^arfare and perhaps 
 none calls for a greater degree of nerve control. 
 It is no wonder indeed that the men frequently 
 break down under the long-continued strain of 
 working in awkward, cramped positions, the ter- 
 rible suspense, and the long hours spent in the 
 foul air, and it is astonishing that human beings 
 can be found who will volunteer for it, knowing 
 w^ell what hardships it entails. 
 
 Shortly before daylight appeared, I w^as told 
 that the men had completed their tasks and that 
 they had given entire satisfaction and only one 
 had been wounded (they were nearly all miners 
 and thoroughly understood everything connect- 
 ed wdth the work they had been doing), so we 
 made our way out along the narrow crooked 
 trenches and arrived at our village in good time 
 for breakfast. 
 
 During the rest of our stay at Becordel noth- 
 ing of great importance occurred; as a rule we 
 received about ^ve shells each day just to relieve 
 the monotony; strange to say we did not suffer 
 a single casualty from these shells, and lost very 
 few men among the nightly work parties. The 
 
AT BF.CORB'EI.— STRAFED lOS 
 
 only work of importance we had to do was the 
 planning of an effective scheme of defence and 
 construction of dugouts. How it was the Iluns 
 did not give us a thorough and effective bom- 
 bardment I could not understand as they could 
 very easily have wiped us out with a few large 
 shells. 
 
 On the ninth day of our stay, officers from the 
 relieving companies came to inspect the place. 
 They had heard terrible stories of the village 
 and were greatly relieved when told how we 
 had fared, and returned to their billets very much 
 pleased with the prospect of a pleasant stay in 
 our mass of ruins. That night, shortly before 
 the ration party arrived, as it always did about 
 nine o'clock, the Huns sent an extra allowance 
 of shells and two whiz-bangs (field artillery 
 shells, so called because the whiz and the bang, 
 that is to say the noise of the shell coming through 
 the air, and the explosion are almost simulta- 
 neous: if you hear the "whiz" you are alive, if 
 you do not you are likely to be dead) landed 
 in the street exactly where the ration party usu- 
 ally stopped. When the party arrived we showed 
 them the holes and it was surprising how quickly 
 the rations were unloaded and the horses driven 
 off at their utmost speed. They had not gone 
 
104« WPIEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 more than a few hundred yards when several 
 shells dropped in their immediate vicinity, but 
 fortunately caused no damage, and the sound of 
 galloping horses caused a considerable amount of 
 amusement among our fellows, who imagine that 
 the transport men have far too easy a time and 
 run little or no risk. 
 
 The next day we packed up our belongings 
 and eagerly awaiting the arrival of the relief. 
 They were not very punctual and it was late in 
 the afternoon before they finally arrived so we 
 lost no time in turning over the place to them, 
 I regret to say they had very bad luck; within 
 an hour after their arrival they v/ere caught by 
 some shells and lost several officers and a number 
 of men. Their ill-fortune continued throughout 
 their stay and they suffered unusually heavy 
 losses both while v/orking at night in the trenches 
 and in the village itself. It is curious how luck, 
 good or bad, seems to go with certain Battalions. 
 For a long time past this lot had experienced 
 nothing but ill fortune while we had earned the 
 name of "God's own" for our exceptionally light 
 casualties and general good luck. Later the tide 
 turned against us and we suffered terrible losses. 
 
 The march back from Becordel to our rest bil- 
 lets was made on one of the finest nights I can 
 
AT BBCORBBJ^—STRAFED 105 
 
 remember, a clear full moon lighted our road and 
 every one was in the best of spirits; on the way 
 ,we stopped at a place where the camp cookers 
 awaited us, and had tea ; it was like a regular pic- 
 nic and then in the cool of the night we continued 
 
 our way reaching our former billets at La N e 
 
 about midnight, all wholesomely tired and quite 
 ready for a well-earned sleep. 
 [ The day following a spell in the front line is 
 always more or less slack, a general cleaning up 
 is necessary and there are no parades. As the 
 baths would not be available for my company un- 
 til the following day, I took the men to a little 
 river not far from the village and allowed them to 
 indulge in a swim. The British Tommy has a 
 mania for w^ashing, and one of our greatest trou- 
 bles is to keep him from bathing in all sorts of 
 places whether they are suitable or not. It is a 
 good fault but causes a certain amount of worry 
 and anxiety. I once found some of my men bath- 
 ing in a large pool in which were numerous dead 
 rats, and these rats were by no means recent. The 
 excuse was that there was no other water avail- 
 able. The whole question of w^ater supply is a 
 very serious one and of course the drinking of any 
 that has not been tested is absolutely prohibited 
 and men are severely punished for violation of 
 
106 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 the order. Practically all the water issued to us 
 is chlorinated which makes it safe but very nasty. 
 However one gets used to anything, even the 
 flavour of chloride of lime in tea, and this is a 
 severe test of one's adaptability. 
 
 During our stay in La N e we had to do a 
 
 great deal of trench digging. Rest billets are so 
 named because one gets everything ecvcept rest. 
 It is always work and more work and the great- 
 est ingenuity is displayed by those who arrange 
 our itinerary in avoiding any blank periods ; each 
 hour is filled to its limit of sixty minutes, though 
 we are never expected to work more than 24 
 hours per day. Of course it keeps us out of mis- 
 chief and certainly does not hurt our health and 
 there is not the least opportunity for getting soft. 
 
 The trench digging that we were ordered to do 
 had a definite object, we had to reproduce the 
 German trench system which lay in front of our 
 line. Rumour had it that we were planning a 
 great offensive along an extended front and that 
 our division was to have the line opposite Fri- 
 court, a charming spot which promised well in the 
 way of excitement. No one knew when the of- 
 fensive w^as to be undertaken but there was a great 
 amount of suppressed excitement at the prospect 
 of actually attacldng the Hun seriously and on a 
 
AT BBCORB^l.— STRAFED 107 
 
 long front, and the men worked with a consider- 
 able degree of enthusiasm. Of course we were not 
 allowed to discuss the scheme, but naturally every 
 one of us recognised the arrangement of the 
 staked-out lines that we were digging. The plan 
 was made from a large series of aeroplane photo- 
 graphs and was therefore fairly accurate, quite 
 sufficiently so for our purpose. 
 
 Few people realise the amount of preparation 
 that is necessary for a big offensive, the intricate 
 detail is bewildering, nothing can be left to 
 chance, from the important question of water 
 supply at each stage of the advance, to the posi- 
 tion of the ammunition reserves, the food, the 
 surgical requirements, the number of men needed, 
 and the placing of them, it is an endless chain 
 of detail. There must be complete co-ordination 
 of the various branches of the army, so that no 
 unit shall fail. Not only is there the main plan 
 for the attack which presumes more or less com- 
 plete success, but alternative plans must be 
 worked out with equal elaboration. Even the 
 chance of failure must be most carefully consid- 
 ered and provided for. All of this is done by the 
 Staff at G. H. Q., then each Division works out 
 its own plans, each Brigade of each Division does 
 the same, and again each Battalion and each com- 
 
108 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 pany until finally minute orders are issued to each 
 platoon, so that every man knows exactly what is 
 expected of him. The trenches we had to dig 
 wxre a small part of the preparations and were 
 intended for use in instructing the Brigade. Over 
 these trenches different schemes and formations 
 for the attack were tried, until by repeated prac- 
 tice every one knev/ what he must do when the 
 great attack was launched. The whole thing was 
 extremely elaborate and very satisfactory. 
 
 The work, together with certain parades, oc- 
 cupied practically all our time and energy, and 
 our ten days passed only too rapidly. At the 
 end of the period we moved forward a few miles 
 
 to the village of V e, when for another ten 
 
 days we were kept busy with various branches of 
 training. These included demonstrations of li- 
 quid fire and gas, and I can safely say that no 
 part of the training is so thoroughly disliked. 
 It is bad enough to be forced to face these bar- 
 barous forms of warfare when actually fighting, 
 but to enter a trench in cold blood and have liquid 
 fire launched at the trench is, to put it mildly, 
 very terrifying. We were using instruments 
 which had been captured from the Germans ; they 
 consisted of reservoirs containing oil under high 
 pressure; the man who carries the infernal ma- 
 
AT Bl^CORBJLlu— STRAFED 109 
 
 chine directs the fire by means of a long nozzle 
 which is pointed toward the enemy; as the oil is 
 released by pressing a valve to which is arranged 
 a fire jet it is ignited, and belches forth a verita- 
 ble breath of hell with a deafening roar like Niag- 
 ara Falls. Anything better calculated to strike 
 terror into the heart of man would be dimcult to 
 imagine. Yet our men had to submit to this at- 
 tack in order that they might realise how little 
 danger there v/as if they knew hov/ to act, the 
 great precaution being the necessity of keeping as 
 flat as possible in the bottom of the trench, as the 
 fire does not fall. 
 
 On April SO, I received instructions to ride 
 forward the following day with another of the 
 company commanders to inspect the line of 
 trenches that we were shortly to occupy ; my line 
 was to be the part adjoining the much dreaded 
 Tambour so I looked forward to a very lively ten 
 days as the Germans were particularly active on 
 this section. Early in the morning we started 
 and rode to within about three miles of the line 
 and from there proceeded along the road on foot. 
 We found that this road was subject to a cer- 
 tain amount of shelling and in several places, 
 there were large holes, which testified to the ac- 
 curacy of the enemy's shooting. On nearing the 
 
AT Bi:COKDBl^— STRAFED 111 
 
 visit the enemy had been behaving badly and we 
 were shown whole sections of trench that had been 
 destroyed by shells. The occupying company had 
 suffered a large number of casualties and had 
 been unable to do much in the way of reconstruc- 
 tion. The company officer said that every time 
 he had attempted repairs the work party had 
 been shelled and that finally he had given it up 
 in despair. I was naturally interested in his re- 
 port and inquired as to his methods. He said 
 they found that in every case the shelling would 
 begin after the men had been working in one 
 part for half an hour or more, so I determined 
 to try very short shifts. That the trenches must 
 be repaired was imperative, if we wished to live 
 in any sort of comfort and safety. For in their 
 present condition they were scarcely fit to be oc- 
 cupied. 
 
 It was late in the afternoon v/hen we bid our 
 hosts good-bj^e with the promise that we should 
 arrive promptly at the appointed hour two days 
 later, and arrangements were made for meet- 
 ing the platoon guides at a suitable place. In 
 this part of the line the reliefs were carried out 
 in daylight; this is far more comfortable than 
 when done at night, which is necessary in some 
 sections. So far as comfort goes the night re- 
 
11^ WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 lieving has absolutely nothing to recommend it, 
 but it has to be done when the opposing lines are 
 divided by perhaps less than fifty yards. 
 
 In returning to JM e, where our horses had 
 
 been left, we were told to avoid the road and fol- 
 low a little guliy near v/hich a new communica- 
 tion trench was being dug in order that men could 
 be moved forward with less risk. On either side 
 of the gully we had a number of heavy batteries 
 which the Germans were always trying to "find," 
 i.e., hit. 
 
 As we made our way along several shells 
 passed overhead singing their drooning song of 
 death. Now and then they would fall in the 
 fields on either side of us making a lot of un- 
 necessary noise and sending great clouds of earth 
 in the air. About a hundred and fifty yards away 
 on our right I noticed a hare hoppmg along in a 
 field apparently not realising that he was in a 
 most unhealthy part of the world. Suddenly 
 there was a tearing screaming sound and a shell 
 landed not fifty feet away from the poor animal. 
 For a moment he was stunned and probably 
 v/ondered what sort of giant sportsmen were af- 
 ter him, and then in a m^ost bewildered way he 
 went round and round as hard as he could, grad- 
 ually increasing the circle, v/hen another shell 
 
AT BilCORBl^TSTRAFED US 
 
 came and sent up a shower of earth. I thought 
 my little friend must have been killed, but as the 
 air cleared I saw his white tail disappearing with 
 commendable speed over the brow of the hill. 
 
 On reaching M e we got our horses and 
 
 started back but had scarcely gone halfway 
 through the village when the gas gong sounded. 
 The ominous v/arning sent men scurrying about 
 and within a minute every one appeared in gas 
 helmets ; what a queer grotesque effect they pre- 
 sented, scarcely human! Being on horseback we 
 thought we could avoid the gas by galloping, but 
 before long the smell of the deadly fumes reached 
 us and we had to put on our helmets. The fellow 
 with me was only acting company commander 
 and had no experience with horses ; riding was in 
 fact a painful performance for him, especially if 
 the animal went faster than a walk. He dis- 
 mounted to adjust his helmet and forgot to re- 
 tain hold of his horse and of course the beast went 
 off, much to the fellow's astonishment. After 
 some difficulty I recovered his mount for him and 
 we proceeded along the road warning all trans- 
 port of the gas. Horses were promptly unhar- 
 jiessed and taken back as fast as possible, for in 
 those days the animals were not provided with 
 the protection of gas helmets. This was my first 
 
114 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 experience of the much dreaded gas and I confess 
 it scared me badly. By the time we had gone a 
 few miles the air was practically clear of the poi- 
 son as the wind had died down with the coming 
 of evening. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 In the Front Line Trenches 
 
 Two days later we left billets at V e and 
 
 moved forward in the usual formation adopted 
 near the front when the Battalions never move 
 in. the ordinary column of route. This makes 
 
 such 8. conspicuous line that it is considered un- 
 
 J- 
 
 safe, so we move in platoons several hundred 
 yards apart. The road was so filled with traffic 
 of all sorts that we were forced to form "two 
 deep" as there was not room to go in fours. 
 
 At the appointed hour we arrived at the place 
 where our guides met us and each platoon v/as 
 taken through the long irregular communication 
 trench to its destination; as it reached the front 
 line, the relieving and very much relieved platoon 
 filed out from the opposite end and down the out- 
 ward-bound trench. In company with the ser- 
 geant-major I took over all trench stores and 
 signed the necessary documents and bid good-bye 
 to the officer in charge, but not before he had 
 given us the pleasant news that after I had left 
 
 115 
 
116 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 the previous day the enemy had been unusually 
 active and had given them a very bad time killing 
 and wounding a number of men and still further 
 damaging the trenches. A corner about ten yards 
 from the company dugout had been completely 
 blown away and a man who was passing at the 
 time had vanished, only one of his boots having 
 been recovered. (Later we found one of his legs 
 nearly a hundred yards away.) Naturally this 
 did not fill us full of joy, and I own to a feeling 
 closely akin to dislike for war in general and 
 trench warfare in particular. It is one thing to 
 run the chance of being killed while doing some- 
 thing that looks like fighting, but to be potted 
 while quietly ( ?) holding a piece of trench is not 
 exhilarating at all. One feels like a cornered rat. 
 
 My line of trench included a frontage of nearly 
 three hundred yards; this gave a hundred yards 
 to each of three platoons while the fourth was 
 kept in reserve in the suppbrt line a hundred 
 yards further back. From the condition of the 
 trenches it was evident that the right sector which 
 bordered on the Tambour was by far the hottest 
 part, so I decided that those who held it should 
 be relieved by the support platoon at the end of 
 ^ve days. 
 
 By the time the men had been assigned to 
 
IN THE FRONT LINE TRENCHES 117 
 
 their various posts the sun went down and soon 
 after we indulged in the regular hours' stand-to. 
 During this time, every one is on duty and the 
 fire-step is manned. Nothing occurred to relieve 
 the quiet of the evening except a volley of five 
 rifle grenades which fortunately did no harm. 
 After dark the usual listening patrols were 
 posted and then we settled down to the long 
 dreary night of v/atching. These nights seem 
 very long and very monotonous, each side fires a 
 number of shots across INo Man's Land, both with 
 rifle and machine gun, this constant sharp punc- 
 tuating of the stillness of night seems actually to 
 add to the monotony. Each machine gun is sup- 
 posed to fire about a thousand rounds in short 
 volleys of ten or fifteen shots. The idea is to dis- 
 courage the enemy from doing any prowling 
 about near the waste of IsTo Plan's Land and pre- 
 vent wiring parties from getting too much pleas- 
 ure out of life. Star shells, or Verey-lights, are 
 sent up with a frequency that is quite disconcert- 
 ing if one happens to be doing any work outside 
 of the parapet, and it is astonishing how conspicu- 
 ous these cold blue lights make a man feel. Oc- 
 casionally the Huns sent something over to re- 
 mind us that they were not asleep, and the dull 
 
118 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 explosions of the bursting shells made the still- 
 ness which followed all the more noticeable. 
 
 At intervals during the night the company 
 commander is supposed to go the round of his 
 lines to see that everything is correct and the 
 stumbling along the dark trenches, being chal- 
 lenged at every bay by the unseen figures, is most 
 uncanny. Having heard that occasionally a Ger- 
 man, dressed in our uniform, finds his way un- 
 detected into our trenches and goes along gather- 
 ing what information he can, I had instructed our 
 men to be extremely careful and let no man pass 
 no matter what his rank might be until he w^as 
 properly identified. This caution to the men led 
 to a somewhat amusing incident a few nights 
 later, but only by good luck was it amusing. It 
 nearly ended seriously. 
 
 An officer of the tunneling company was com- 
 ing to pay me a visit on his way to inspect certain 
 saps at the left of my line. On coming round a 
 traverse he was challenged suddenly. In reply 
 he gave his name and business, but the sentry was 
 not satisfied and insisted on a close examination. 
 The officer stood still while the sentry with fixed 
 bayonet approached to within a few feet and 
 asked numerous questions, at the same time call- 
 ing another man to his assistance. Fearing 
 
IN THE FRONT LINE TRENCHES 119 
 
 treachery the overzealous sentry kept his finger 
 on the trigger of the rifle. Probably owing to 
 nervous contraction of the finger the rifle went 
 off unexpectedly, and the bullet passed unpleas- 
 antly close to the wretched officer's head. It is 
 difficult to say who was the more surprised or 
 frightened. The unfortunate sentry thought at 
 first that he had killed the officer, but a vigorous 
 torrent of colourful language convinced him 
 that he had not added a name to the casualty 
 list, and he was equally convinced as to the na- 
 tionality of the almost-victim. 
 
 The officer came to my dugout and reported 
 the matter and when I suggested bringing the 
 man up for his behaviour he would not hear of it 
 as it showed what he described as commendable 
 alertness and thoroughness, the latter perhaps 
 slightly overdone. Later, I interviewed the sen- 
 try who was in a state bordering on nervous col- 
 lapse. He was quite surprised to find that no 
 charge would be made. I was sorry that it was 
 not a German who had come along instead of one 
 of our own fellows. 
 
 During the night most of the men are allowed 
 to rest unless assigned to special duty such as 
 repair work, wiring or patrol. A certain number, 
 one or two in each bay keep careful watch while 
 
120 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 the others sit about ready at all times for any 
 emergency, none being allowed to enter dugouts 
 or leave the immediate neighbourhood of their 
 bay. In most of the bays there is a gas gong, 
 usually an empty brass shell case, at the first 
 suspicion of gas these gongs are sounded and as 
 the signal goes along the line every man is ready 
 with his protection helmet. When the wind is 
 favourable it is of the utmost importance that 
 extra lookouts be posted to watch for the poison. 
 Any little mist drifting across No Man's Land is 
 likely to be mistaken for gas and results frequent- 
 ly in the sounding of the alarm. Speed is so nec- 
 essary that it is far better to err on the side of 
 pvercaution, at the same time it must be remem- 
 bered that the gas alarm is likely to ''put the 
 "wind up," i.e., give the men a scare, especially 
 among new men, and so it is not advisable that it 
 should be sounded without cause. 
 
 To avoid worrying about the direction of the 
 wind, I made a very sensitive wind vane. This 
 was attached to an old bayonet found in No 
 Man's Land and placed outside my dugout in 
 ^uch a position that it was clearly visible. When 
 the wind blew from the enemy we of course took 
 extra precaution. It is interesting to note that 
 in the way of wind the Almighty has arranged 
 
IN THE FRONT LINE TRENCHES 121 
 
 things in our favour notwithstanding the German 
 boast of divine aid. Throughout the North East- 
 ern part of France and Flanders the prevailing 
 wind is more or less westerly. This means that 
 we can employ gas more frequently than those 
 who started the vile form of warfare. It is hard 
 to understand how the Germans could have been 
 so careless when they made their compact and 
 goes to show how careful people should be. 
 
 The men are so accustomed to strange and 
 brutal forms of German warfare that they imag- 
 ine almost anything unusual is associated in some 
 way with the enemy. An amusing example of 
 this occurred one evening when an imonense cloud 
 of cockchafers (insects resembling the American 
 June-bug, but rather larger) came to us from 
 the German line. The men seeing the apparently 
 endless mass of flying insects thought they were 
 in for some new Hun horror and I had great diffi- 
 culty in persuading them that it was a perfectly 
 natural phenomenon, and that the insects were 
 quite harmless. Although it is true that I had 
 never seen the cockchafer in anything like the 
 numbers that appeared. The noise they m^ade 
 falling on the wooden duckboards, scrambling 
 over the loose chalk or hitting against our "tin 
 
122 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 hats" made the task of the listening-posts ex* 
 tremely difficult. 
 
 I did not attempt to have any repair work car- 
 ried on the first night in the trenches as the men 
 were very tired and we had no empty sand bags, 
 so beyond sending out a listening patrol noth- 
 ing was done. Immediately before daylight we 
 had the customary one hour stand-to which 
 passed as usual without much excitement, and 
 then the men had their breakfasts, after which 
 rifles were cleaned and inspected and those men 
 not detailed for duties were allowed to get what 
 sleep they could. As company commander I had 
 to send in various reports and I came to the con- 
 clusion that though nominally permitted to sleep 
 during the daytime the permission was somev/hat 
 of a joke owing to the almost hourly reports on 
 such things as casualties, direction and force of 
 wind, number of grenades, amount of ammuni- 
 tion and rockets and general altitude of the ene- 
 my, and how many and what kinds of shells, etc., 
 he had presented to us and what we had re- 
 turned. 
 
 In those days things were very one-sided. 
 The Huns had apparently endless ammunition 
 while we had very little. So our reports would 
 read something like this. * 'Enemy fairly active. 
 
IN THE FRONT LINE TRENCHES 123 
 
 between 6.30 and 7.30 A. M, 25 shells landed 
 on our support line from point X to Y also 
 45 rifle grenades, most of which fell near point 
 ,W. From 8 A. M. till noon 30 shells and about 
 100 rifle grenades fell on line between Y and 
 U. Trench badly damaged. We retaliated at 
 9.30 A. M. by firing 5, 5A shells at X 20d 
 i7.2 and 15 rifle gixnades distributed on enemy 
 front line from X 20b 7.2 and X 26b 9.2." 
 This is about as high a proportion as we could ob- 
 tain and showed approximately our daily allow- 
 ance, while the Germans would frequently give 
 us twice or even three times the above number. 
 
 Besides the reports I had to send in requisi- 
 tions for anything necessary. I mentioned my 
 very keen desire for periscopes every day but up 
 to the time of my leaving none appeared, so we 
 had to manage with our home-made contrivances. 
 I even suggested that if regular periscopes were 
 not available I would greatly welcome penny 
 mirrors for which I would gladly pay, but these 
 are not part of goverrmient stores and so none 
 came. 
 
 The mention of these reports brings to my 
 memory a certain day when I felt that a little 
 sleep was due; for some time there had been a 
 rather undue amount of enemy activity, such ac- 
 
124> WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 tivity interferes with sleep. So I determined to 
 make up a little of the shortage. With this in 
 view I made out my reports and arranged that 
 they should be sent off at the proper hours, and 
 that if anything occurred while I was asleep that 
 would interfere with the accuracy of the said 
 reports I was to be called. Then having per- 
 suaded most of the rats to leave the immediate 
 vicinity of my sacred person I wrapped my 
 mackintosh around me and went to my chicken- 
 wire-and-sand-bag bed. Sleep was gradually 
 coming, when with unpardonable rudeness and 
 customary insistance the telephone called me, 
 "Are you there?" said some one miles away. 
 "Yes, unfortunately I am," said I in a very un- 
 friendly way; "what's wanted?" 
 
 "Please send unmediately the names of any 
 men in your company who can play musical in- 
 struments and what instruments they can play," 
 said the unsympathetic voice from the region of 
 J^o-shells and Much-comfort. 
 
 "What for and who for?" said I with increas- 
 ing and surprised indignation. 
 
 "The Divisional Band." 
 
 "Damn the band," said I in my haste and 
 replaced the receiver with a slam. 
 
 Now who can say that I was not justified? 
 
IN THE FRONT LINE TRENCHES 125 
 
 Imagine my going round to the wretched tired 
 men and asking each one what instruments they 
 played. Even the strictest discipline would not 
 have prevented them from wishing me in some 
 place in which only asbestos instruments could 
 be safely used. I confess I felt thoroughly in- 
 subordinate. 
 
 I was much interested to notice that my dug- 
 out received each day a great amount of attention 
 from German snipers. The shots always struck 
 about the same spot which happened to be direct- 
 ly over my "bed"; besides the bullets a few rifle 
 grenades were also dropped on the same place 
 at odd moments. For a long time I was at a 
 loss to understand why this should be, so one eve- 
 ning I crawled over the parapet and took a look 
 at the sky line of my dugout as seen from the 
 enemy point of view and discovered a small stake 
 protruding about two feet above the earth work. 
 This evidently was mistaken for a periscope, and 
 was the target which attracted so much unwel- 
 come attention; on removing it the firing ceased. 
 
 My dugout was a very primitive affair about 
 ten feet square, and six feet high with the floor 
 two feet or so below the level of the trench. The 
 sides were of chalk, and the roof composed of 
 corrugated iron, covered with an absurdly thin 
 
126 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 layer of chalk, loose and in sand bags ; every time 
 a shot struck anywhere near, the chalk would 
 come rattling down, and when a shell exploded 
 within a hundred yards it caused a regular ava- 
 lanche ; even the rats, which were very numerous, 
 caused the chalk to fall so that sleeping was dif- 
 ficult. Speaking of rats they really were a great 
 nuisance, their surprising boldness and persis- 
 tence was extraordinary. Food was taken from 
 the table without the slightest hesitation, even 
 while we were there, and when it happened that 
 we were called away during a meal, if we forgot 
 to tell our servants* to keep guard, the food 
 would completely disappear in an incredibly short 
 time. Then, too, while sleeping, these pests, both 
 rats and mice, were very annoying. Several men 
 were quite badly bitten while asleep and inciden- 
 tally I may add having the brutes run over one's 
 body was somewhat trying. 
 
 The "furniture" of the dugout was of a thor- 
 oughly primitive description ; it consisted simply 
 of a sort of rough table, narrow and unsteady, 
 over which was a rack for food. This was hung 
 by wires so that the rats and mice could not get 
 
 * The word servant, according to the custom in the British Army, 
 applies to our soldier servants who accompany the officer where- 
 ever he goes and takes care of his belongings in case he is 
 wounded. 
 
IN THE FRONT LINE TRENCHES 127 
 
 to it without doing acrobatic stunts, and for- 
 tunately only a few were experts in that line. 
 Some ammunition boxes served as seats, and two 
 tiers of bunks made of very ragged mesh wire 
 completed the list. For illumination we had can- 
 dles, but owing to the scarcity they had to be used 
 sparingly. Our "mess" kitchen was a rough dug- 
 out less than fifty feet away in a direct line, but 
 a couple of shells had wrought such havoc in the 
 trench between the two dugouts, that it was nec- 
 essary to make a wide detour in going from one 
 to the other. The Huns seemed to know our meal 
 times and invariably selected the moment w^hen 
 our servants were bringing us food to drop a few 
 of the cursed riiie grenades on or near the path, 
 and it was quite amusing to hear the servants 
 apologise for bringing a soup plate with scarcely 
 a spoonful of soup left. A grenade having caused 
 the man to start violently while he was carrying 
 the plate. I will say one thing for our service, 
 we usually got the food pretty hot as speed be- 
 tween dugouts was alv/ays considered desir- 
 able. Often the men came in at the double, this 
 meant that a shell or grenade had been heard in 
 the air. The result was a race, and frequently a 
 wasteful distribution of food along the trench. 
 During the first few days I had done my shav- 
 
19.8 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 ing and washing at about eight o'clock in the 
 morning, but the Huns latterly selected that hour 
 for some gi^enade practice, so I had to change my 
 plans. I strongly advise the use of safety razors 
 for trench shaving, as sudden explosions are apt 
 to cause a degree of jerkiness not at all conducive 
 to comfort and good results when the ordinary 
 razor is being used. 
 
 After the first night I started having the 
 trenches repaired and parapets replaced, and by 
 working according to the short term plan already 
 mentioned a fair amount of work had been car- 
 ried out with very few casualties. About twenty 
 minutes was the limit of comparative safety. 
 On several occasions the working party had 
 scarcely left the place before trouble would 
 come, chiefly in the form of rifle grenades ; these, 
 though disastrous to men, do not damage the 
 trenches, but sometimes heavy stuff was sent over 
 and the new work would be completely de- 
 stroyed; one piece of line I had repaired eight 
 times and when we left, it was once m^ore a mass 
 of wreckage. Of course no work that showed 
 against the sky-line could be attempted by day- 
 light and even if done at night it was not desirable 
 to make any conspicuous change or addition, for 
 
MESSAGE SENT BY AUTHOR FROM BRIGADE HEADQUARTERS 
 DURING THE MORNING OF THE BATTLE 
 
MAGNETIC COMPASS BEARINGS LAID OUT TO BE FOLLOWED 
 BY THE TWO ASSAULTING BATTALIONS OF OUR BRIGADE 
 DURING THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 
 
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 DESCRIPTION OF ENEMY's ATTITUDE AS EXPERIENCED BY THE 
 AUTHOR AND HANDED BY HIM TO THE RELIEVING COMPANY 
 COMMANDER FOR HIS INFORMATION 
 
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 ''~^*HTP?dH'=^^^^ |-^&tv«ic— Ivwe-^ 
 
 
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 LIST OF WORK TO BE DONE BY THE COMPANY WHICH 
 
 RELIEVED THE AUTHOR 
 
 This list is handed to the new Company Commander and is 
 used by him as a clue to thft work that has been done and what 
 is still necessary. 
 
IN THE FRONT LINE TRENCHES 129 
 
 it always enjoyed a strafing as soon as the Huns 
 discovered it. 
 
 An idea of the number of sand-bags required 
 in order that the trenches be kept in fair condi- 
 tion may be gained from the fact that in my com- 
 pany hne, which was between two and three hun- 
 dred yards in length we used from 1500 to 2000 
 new sand-bags every ten days. Allov/ing that 
 even 1000 were used on the average it gives a 
 total of about 70,000 per day for our entire line, 
 or approximately 255,500,000 per year for repairs 
 alone. This may not be very exact, as various 
 parts of the line differ so greatly, still it gives 
 some suggestion of the vast quantity of this one 
 article of war material which is needed. 
 
 The trench leading to my dugout had been 
 widened to such a degree by repeated shells that 
 it no longer afforded adequate protection. Re- 
 pairs were urgently needed if I wished to con- 
 tinue in occupation, so one fine day I ordered 
 eight men to rebuild the sides that had fallen 
 down. As soon as I had shown them exactly 
 w^hat w^as needed I went into my dugout to v/rite 
 out some reports ; within five minutes a loud sharp 
 explosion announced the arrival of a rifle gre- 
 nade, following it came a cry of pain and I rushed 
 out. The men had scattered immediately, ac- 
 
ISO WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 cording to instructions in such cases, but one poor 
 chap lay on the ground badly wounded. Know- 
 ing full well that the Germans nearly always 
 send a succession of not less than three or four 
 grenades, I hastily gathered the man in my arms 
 intending to carry him into the dugout, where 
 he would be more or less out of danger. The 
 ground was wet and very slippery, which added 
 to my troubles and made the man seem unusually 
 heavy. No sooner had I started to walk than the 
 singing of a grenade warned me that I must 
 hurry, but strange to say my feet seemed nailed 
 to the ground, and I simply could not move, it was 
 a case of undiluted terror, for I knew that the 
 grenade was coming straight toward me. I w^as 
 paralysed, and waited, expecting to be blown to 
 bits the next instant. My body might save the 
 already wounded man, but even that was doubt- 
 ful, I wanted to drop the poor fellow but feared 
 that he would object. 
 
 How long it took that wretched death-dealing 
 instrument to fall! Thousands of things flashed 
 through my mind during that time which was not 
 of more than a few seconds' duration. Then at 
 last it came whistling into the trench; striking 
 barely three yards behind me. I waited — but 
 nothing happened. I even turned to look at 
 
IN THE FRONT LINE TRENCHES 131 
 
 it, and could scarcely believe my eyes, for there 
 it lay quiet and harmless on the ground. One 
 look was enough. I moved — and moved quickly, 
 into the dugout where I dressed the man's wounds 
 before sending him with two of the others who 
 were slightly wounded to the dressing station. 
 
 The grenade was afterward brought to me, it 
 was a *'dud" and as usual proved to be one of 
 those made before the war, as it bore the 1914 
 date. It is interesting to note that nearly all 
 the rifle grenades we found on our front bore the 
 date of 1914, and all had the solid copper bars 
 which are the length of a rifle barrel and the same 
 diameter as the bore. 
 
 This shows two things : first, that the Germans 
 must have had an unheard-of quantity of these 
 weapons, for on my ovm company front, which 
 as already stated was between two and three hun- 
 dred yards in length we received from 50 to 200 
 grenades each day; assuming that even 350 were 
 fired at every mile of our line, it would mean that 
 about 35,000 were used each day on the British 
 front or perhaps 9,775,000 per year; and this was 
 toward the end of the second year of the war. 
 Second, that the Germans who were known to be 
 short of copper had not removed the unnecessary 
 
1S2 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 copper bars, for which a substitute could have 
 been used shows how busy they were. 
 
 Later on the repair work was resumed and fin- 
 ished in a few days without further mishap, 
 though there were several narrow escapes and no 
 one seemed particularly fascinated with the 
 neighbourhood. 
 
 Up to this time I had never witnessed a regu- 
 lar bombardment, but on the sixth day of my 
 spell in the trenches word came from H. Q. that 
 at a certain hour the village of Fricourt was 
 to be well strafed, I selected a good position 
 from which to view the shov/ and at the appointed 
 moment it seemed as if hell were suddenly let 
 loose. Countless numbers of projectiles, large 
 and small, came screaming through the still air 
 and in a second Fricourt was lighted by the red 
 glow of the shells as they burst on every part 
 of the wretched village (it was only occupied 
 by the military, all civilians having been sent 
 away many months before). The earth shook 
 violently with the terrific explosions and the din 
 w^as appalling. Never before have I seen a more 
 v/onderful sight, a more marvellous pyrotechnic 
 display, and it gave our men immense satisfac- 
 tion, for it showed that we at last had some 
 shells to spare, so that the Huns were learning 
 
IN THE FRONT LINE TRENCHES 133 
 
 the delights of being thoroughly shelled. From 
 the numerous signals they sent up, and the veri- 
 table rain of their machine-gun bullets that tore 
 across No Man's Land, it was evident they ex- 
 pected we were going to make an immediate at- 
 tack. However nothing was further from our 
 minds. We were simply indulging in a little 
 "Hate," and from the dilapidated appearance of 
 Fricourt the following morning we could see that 
 our gunners had done some very excellent shoot- 
 ing. 
 
 On the seventh day of our spell in the trenches 
 I had a very fortunate escape while walking along 
 on a tour of inspection. The enemy had been 
 unusually active, plastering the line with all 
 sorts of disagreeable things, but by dodging be- 
 tween the outbursts of fire I had gone most of 
 the round untouched, though one of the men 
 had been killed close by me. He was one of the 
 best fellows in the company, always cheerful and 
 the fun-maker of the lot; his death was a great 
 ' blow to us all. I had just passed a long rather 
 wide bay and was in the act of stooping to get 
 under an artillery bridge which crossed the 
 trench, when a grenade struck the edge of the 
 parapet not three feet away from my head; the 
 sound of the explosion at such close quarters was 
 
134 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 deafening and at first I felt sure I was killed, but 
 fortunately for me the force of the burst passed 
 immediately over my head. Had I been walking 
 erect it would have finished my army career with 
 extreme suddenness, but as it happened, thanks 
 to the protection afforded by the "tin hat," the 
 only result was that one side of my face was 
 paralysed for a few days, and of course the shock 
 made me feel pretty uncomfortable. 
 
 One of my duties was to observe whatever was 
 possible of the enemy's activities and report the 
 same. For several nights I had heard a consid- 
 erable amount of horse and wagon traffic and 
 a lot of talking; this always occurred in the same 
 place and at about the same hour. I reported 
 the facts and it was decided that a little strafing 
 would be useful, so on a certain evening I was 
 told to observe carefully the results of a *'shoot" 
 which would begin when I sent word of the 
 sounds of wagons. At a few minutes to nine the 
 clatter of vehicles sounded clearly in the still- 
 ness of the night, word to this effect was promptly 
 telephoned, and almost immediately a regular 
 tornado of shells flew overhead and burst along 
 the road at the edge of Fricourt. For two or 
 three minutes this continued then, as suddenly 
 as it had begun, it stopped and the shrieks of men 
 
IN THE FRONT LINE TRENCHES 135 
 
 giving hurried orders and the bumping of hastily 
 moving wagons sounded in place of the bursting 
 shells. The wretched Germans evidently imag- 
 ined that the bombardment had ceased, but after 
 a wait of about a minute it was renewed with in- 
 creased vigour, and continued for five or six min- 
 utes, after which it stopped, and not a sound 
 could I hear, apparently the whole ration party 
 had been wiped out which, from our point of 
 yiew, was quite satisfactory. 
 
 The ten days in the trenches seemed never 
 ending. The strain was monotonous and the im- 
 possibility of having a wash or changing clothes 
 made life anything but a joy. The lack of sleep 
 was trying, especially to one who could not 
 snatch short naps when occasion offered. Al- 
 most the only pleasure was the daily or rather 
 nightly arrival of mail. This was a Godsend. 
 Among my letters I remember receiving one 
 from a great friend in New York. It contained 
 a detailed account of a fishing trip in a part of 
 Newfoundland where I had enjoyed some glori- 
 ous sport in the days before the war. It told of 
 fine salmon being caught, of delightful camps 
 on ground I knew so well, and I felt sick of war, 
 more sick than ever before ; what a contrast there 
 was in the events spoken of in the letter to the 
 
136 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 terrible conditions in which we w^ere taking part. 
 The fishing seemed hke a story of fairyland. I 
 wondered what the future held in store for me, 
 and I longed for the feel of rushing water, and 
 the joy of fishing in the wonderful wild lands of 
 the North. 
 
 Not only were there letters and daily papers 
 from home but occasional packages, containing 
 cake or "smokes." I had asked my various friends 
 and relations to send cigarettes for my company, 
 and when these arrived in the trenches they were 
 more than welcome and it was a real pleasure to 
 distribute them among the men. Each day we 
 had the task of censoring the men's letters. I 
 think there is no more hated duty than that. Still 
 it is very necessary The letters are brought in 
 to the company commander's dugout at a cer- 
 tain hour, and every one must be read, initialed, 
 and then sealed. A few green envelopes are given 
 to the men who want to write of private affairs, 
 these are sealed and the man signs his name and 
 number; affirming that the enclosed letter con- 
 tains nothing liable to censorship. A small per- 
 centage of these are opened by the censor at the 
 base, and if any one is found to contain military 
 or other information of a forbidden nature the 
 writer is heavily punished and is not again al- 
 
IN THE FRONT LINE TRENCHES 137 
 
 lowed to have green envelopes. The officers are 
 trusted more or less to keep their own letters 
 within bounds, and they only have to put their 
 name on the envelope, as with the men's green 
 envelopes, a few are opened by the censor at the 
 base. 
 
 On the evening of our ninth day w^e were 
 warned to look out for a mine explosion at mid- 
 night. I had never seen one and was naturally 
 very anxious to know what it was like; from 
 stories I had read I imagined it would be a very 
 spectacular show, so I waited patiently in a good 
 position about six hundred j^ards from the Tam- 
 bour which was the centre of the mining activity. 
 The night was clear starlight without the slight- 
 est breeze, nothing disturbed the quiet except the 
 inevitable pinging of bullets from machine guns. 
 Suddenly just at the moment of midnight there 
 was a strange rumbling of the ground, it seemed 
 to rock and shiver; at the same time a curious 
 light in the direction of the Tambour showed the 
 ground to be heaving almost as though it were 
 boiling and rising slowly to the accompaniment 
 of a terrific booming sound. Then quietly the 
 boiling ceased, and the ground settled in the cen- 
 tre of the area and left a huge crater. Scarcely 
 had this happened when another mine was fired 
 
188 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 and it acted in the same strange way and in the 
 cold glow of the Verey lights men could be seen 
 hastily taking possession of one edge of the cra- 
 ters, and that was all, yet it represented perhaps 
 months of work and many lives, besides tons of 
 explosives. The show was over, and I returned 
 to my dugout to find that the results of the ex- 
 plosions were only too evident — for everything 
 that could be knocked down v»^as distributed over 
 the ground; a mixture of chalk, food, boards, 
 books and other odds and ends ; and among it all 
 were several unexploded grenades which an en- 
 thusiastic subaltern had collected at various times 
 and placed in a niche in the wall, fortunately in- 
 stead of falling on hard ground they had landed 
 on some rubber boots, otherwise they might have 
 exploded with results exceedingly unsatisfactory 
 to our dugout. These grenades had been a source 
 of considerable anxiety to me as the subaltern 
 had a most enquiring turn of mind and would 
 bring all sorts of strange grenades and other im- 
 plements of destruction into the dugout and 
 amuse himself taking them to pieces. For my 
 part I never could see anything even remotely 
 amusing in the game and I finally had to sug- 
 gest that grenade investigations would be much 
 
IN THE FRONT LINE TRENCHES 139 
 
 more popular if carried out in a more secluded 
 place. 
 
 On May 11th the officers of the relieving bat- 
 talion came to pay us a visit and look over the 
 trenches, and I was glad to be able to show the 
 amount of work that had been accomplished. We 
 had used nearly two thousand new sand-bags in 
 the work, as well as nearly a thousand filled ones 
 taken from the mine saps, and with the excep- 
 tion of two short stretches toward the Tambour 
 end the line was in very fair condition. The 
 trenches had been made narrower and were there- 
 fore very much safer, names had been put on 
 each corner, in fact everything showed how much 
 good work the men had done. In spite of the 
 very considerable amount of shelling to which 
 we were subjected every day our casualties were 
 only about fifteen. 
 
 The following day we all got ready to leave, 
 hours before it was necessary. We had had quite 
 enough of the trenches for the present and were 
 all anxious to enjoy a wash, and change our 
 clothes. Some of the days had been very hot so 
 we all suffered from swollen feet. In their de- 
 light at the prospect of getting back to billets 
 some of the fellows began to whistle cheerful 
 tunes and though this was quickly stopped, the 
 
140 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 Germans evidently heard it and concluded that 
 nothing but the immediate prospect of relief 
 could make the men so light-hearted. The result 
 was that they started a vigorous strafe. All sorts 
 of stuff was sent over, shells, ^'minnies" and 
 grenades, and one could scarcely go ten yards 
 along any trench without finding pieces of newly 
 fallen metal. Things looked very bad, and I 
 was only too glad when at three-thirty the last of 
 the relief arrived and I was able to hand over 
 the responsibilities of holding this piece of the 
 line and say good-bye to the extremely unhealthy 
 neighbourhood and wish the new company com- 
 mander the best of luck. 
 
 On reaching the outskirts of Becordel I se- 
 lected a quiet place which seemed well sheltered, 
 in order to call the roll, as I feared the company 
 had suffered heavily during the last two hours. 
 No sooner were the men lined up than a fairly 
 big shell came singing toward us. It looked bad 
 for us all and I shouted to the men to lie down; 
 before the words were out of my mouth the shell 
 landed not thirty yards away in a small new 
 cemetery, and it was followed by four others, 
 all falling within an area of a few yards, hut not 
 one exploded. Such luck was really remarkable, 
 but scarcely more so than the fact revealed by 
 
A TYPICAL SCENE ON THE ROADS, IMMEDIATELY BACK OF THE FRONT LINE 
 DURING A SUCCESSFUL ADVANCE 
 
IN THE FRONT LINE TRENCHES 141 
 
 the roll call that not a man had been killed dur- 
 ing the bombardment which had lasted about two 
 hours while the relief was being carried out. 
 Luck is a queer thing and our men began to 
 think that Providence was especially kind to 
 
 them, and they made the march to B e in the 
 
 best of spirits. We stayed there only for the 
 night, and the next morning proceeded to La 
 N — — e, our favourite billets. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Prepaeing fou the Geeat Offensiye 
 
 OiS" arriving at La N e I was asked whether 
 
 I would care to take charge of the Battalion 
 scouts and undertake their training, as the Gen- 
 eral wished each battalion to have an officer and 
 sixteen reliable men trained for this work. I was 
 delighted to take over the task, and a few days 
 later was appointed Brigade Scout &z Intelli- 
 gence Officer, an appointment which I most thor- 
 oughly appreciated, as it gave me opportunity 
 to work out some novel schemes for training the 
 sixty-four men and four officers in all the 
 branches of scouting. As most of my life had 
 been devoted to stalking v»^ild animals the lessons 
 I had learned proved of the greatest value. The 
 men w^ere v\^onderfully keen, they took to the 
 work very readily and were as good a lot of men 
 as I have ever kno^vn. I look back with utmost 
 pleasure to the days spent with them. We worked 
 very hard both by day and night and the men 
 became so enthusiastic that they continued mak- 
 
 142 
 
PREPARING FOR GREAT OFFENSIVE 143 
 
 ing and developing schemes even during their 
 leisure hours. 
 
 Among the things I had to teach the scouts 
 was how to take cover under all conditions and 
 make the best of any situation. The men had 
 no knowledge of the value of protective colour- 
 ing, nor even knew there was such a thing, ex- 
 cept two, one of whom had been a gamekeeper 
 and the other a poacher ; of these two the poacher 
 was the better, he took to the work as naturally 
 as a duck takes to water. 
 
 At first when the men were told to conceal 
 themselves in woods or hedgerows, in a position 
 which would enable them to see without being 
 seen, they would invariably hide behind the thick- 
 est bush they could find and then break off any 
 branches that happened to be in the way, v/ith 
 the result that gleaming white scars stood out 
 with conspicuous clearness, advertising the man's 
 position as surely as if he had hung out a v/hite 
 handkerchief. 
 
 In teaching, the best way is to let people make 
 the mistake, point out how or why it is a mistake, 
 then let them discover the remedy. This makes 
 them understand what they are doing, and gives 
 them a chance to think. When the m.en saw 
 why they had been found, I let them have an- 
 
144! WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 other try, this time instead of completely break- 
 ing the branches they did exactly as I expected, 
 they bent down, or partly broke the branches, so 
 that the under side of the leaves showed. Now 
 every one who has taken the trouble to observe 
 things outdoors will have seen that the under- 
 side of a leaf is very much lighter than the upper 
 side; it shows almost white if placed against fol- 
 iage in its ordinary position. The men were very 
 much surprised to find themselves immediately 
 discovered, and could scarcely believe that the 
 upturned leaves had exposed their carefully se- 
 lected hiding places. I then showed them how 
 to turn this peculiarity of the leaves to advantage. 
 In going through woods there is always the dan- 
 ger of losing one's way; under the ordinary con- 
 ditions of life this may not be a very serious mat- 
 ter, but in the war game it may easily be a ques- 
 tion of life or death, not alone for the one who 
 makes the mistake but for many others as well. 
 So I explained to the men how easy it was to 
 mark one's trail by simply bending twigs so that 
 the leaves will show their under-sides. 
 
 The objection to selecting a particularly dense 
 bush was explained on the ground that the eye 
 was naturally attracted to any object that stands 
 out from its surroundings, as it increases the pos- 
 
PREPARING FOR GREAT OFFENSIVE 145 
 
 sibility of discovery however carefully one may 
 be hidden. Even though one might not actually 
 be seen, a chance shot might easily be fired just 
 to make sure. 
 
 The great importance of keeping absolutely 
 still, especially on days when there is no wind, 
 was demonstrated by placing some men among 
 the bushes, and telling them to move very slightly, 
 while the other men looked on. The least move- 
 ment of the leaves immediately caught the eye. I 
 explained the disadvantage of keeping the head 
 too close to the ground as in most instances it 
 reduced the field of vision to such a degree that 
 nothing could be seen more than a few feet away. 
 The use of tufts of grass or leaves stuck into the 
 clothes, in order to break the lines, was also ex- 
 plained with care, and the men soon realised how 
 important it was to select the vegetation best suit- 
 ed to the surroundings, also the importance of not 
 making the effect too solid. 
 
 In carrying out the work by practising under 
 various conditions we had some amusing experi- 
 ences, and in one instance narrowly escaped get- 
 ting into trouble. I had divided the men into 
 two groups, one lot were to conceal themselves 
 so as to hold a certain line. The others had to 
 advance without exposing themselves, and if 
 
146 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 possible creep through the line. If either side 
 caught sight of a man, instead of firing a round 
 of blank ammunition, he was to call out "dead," 
 which meant the man was out of action. Of 
 course the side that did not have to move had 
 every advantage, yet it happened that they had 
 the greater number of "casualties." The sides 
 were then reversed with the same results. This 
 was not very encouraging, as it showed that the 
 men either did not keep sufncientiy still or that 
 they had not selected their places of concealment 
 with care. In order to make them realise the 
 great importance of carefully selected cover, and 
 how greatly the advantage was with those who 
 were holding the position, I picked out my best 
 man, the poacher, and he and I arranged to take 
 the same line which the others had failed to hold. 
 
 We were working in a valley which was more 
 or less wooded and covered with patches of shrub- 
 hery. Immediately back of the line that we were 
 to hold was a cottage, with the usual group of 
 out-houses surrounding an ill-kept yard. Not 
 having heard any sign of human beings in the 
 neighbourhood I imagined the place to be unin- 
 habited, otherwise I should not have chosen it. 
 
 After explaining to the men that we would 
 stay within a certain limited area, less than a hun- 
 
PREPARING FOR GREAT OFFENSIVE 147 
 
 dred yards in width and depth, I sent them off 
 with instructions to advance at a given time. My 
 poacher friend and I then proceeded to conceal 
 ourselves with as much care as possible. The 
 position we selected afforded an extensive field 
 of view so that it would have been difficult for 
 any one to have approached us unobserved. 
 
 In due course we saw evidence of the "enemy," 
 here and there a bush would shake, very slightly 
 it is true, but quite enough to indicate the pres- 
 ence of a moving body. Before long we suc- 
 ceeded in catching several of the advancing men, 
 when a serious complication arose in the form 
 of an old woman, the occupier of the adjacent 
 cottage. It was most amusing to watch her as 
 she moved about very cautiously and with every 
 indication of suspicion in her manner, several 
 times she passed within five or six feet of me, 
 and of course I scarcely dared to breathe, the 
 poacher who was about twenty yards away from 
 me was so convulsed with merriment over the 
 situation, especially when the old girl planted 
 herself so close that I could have reached out 
 my hand and touched her, that he nearly ex- 
 ploded. 
 
 Suddenly the storm burst as the woman caught 
 sight of a khaki figure crawling stealthily among 
 
148 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 some underbrush; the stillness of the day was 
 badly broken by a most wonderful flow of abu- 
 sive language. Translated it meant, *'Here, you 
 dirty, crawling thief, you low-down pig, I see 
 you; do you think you can come to a poor old 
 woman's place and steal her chickens ; come along 
 out, oh! yes, I see you right enough (as the 
 wretched fellow tried to make his escape unob- 
 served) ; aye, and there's another one of you; 
 come, I say, or I'll call my husband and he'll 
 shoot the two of you, you miserable thieves," all 
 this time she was getting more and more angry, 
 while the poor men who could not understand 
 a single word that was being hurled at them, did 
 not know of what they were accused. For fear 
 that the affair might end in trouble I finally 
 stepped out from my place of concealment, to the 
 very great surprise of the highly indignant 
 woman and of the men, who had begun to think 
 that I was lost. 
 
 I managed, after considerable difficulty, to ex- 
 plain that the men were entirely innocent of any 
 thought of chicken stealing, and that I was sim- 
 ply teaching them to stalk the Boche. At first 
 she looked somewhat incredulous, but when in 
 reply to my blowing the whistle, men appeared 
 as though by magic, from all sorts of places, 
 
PREPARING FOR GREAT OFFENSIVE 149 
 
 the woman realised that it did not look so much 
 like a chicken raid after all. She was most 
 amused when I showed her where I had been 
 hiding and explained how easily she could have 
 been taken a prisoner. 
 
 Nothing would satisfy her but that we should 
 come into her house and meet her husband. Un- 
 der the circumstances we could not refuse, so we 
 all trooped in, and were duly presented to the 
 husband and his brother. I noticed that both 
 bore the marks of war, one lacked an arm and the 
 other a leg, which with considerable pride they 
 hastened to explain was the result of the Battle 
 of the Marne. They were both men well past 
 middle age and were among that lot of marvel- 
 lous men who had stemmed the impetuous on- 
 slaught of the army which the Kaiser believed 
 would conquer not only France, but the whole 
 world. 
 
 While our hostess told how she had caught us 
 red-handed trying to steal her chickens and how 
 we had sprung out of the ground and captured 
 her instead of the chickens, all of which greatly 
 amused the men, she was busy pouring out glasses 
 of black coffee for all of us who cared to in- 
 dulge; while we drank it she disappeared, but 
 returned very shortly with a red plush album 
 
150 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 which contained photographs of her five sons, all 
 in the army. With glistening eyes and a proud 
 heart she told how three of them had died fight- 
 ing for their country, while a fourth was in a hos- 
 pital seriously wounded. Only one sound one 
 left ! What would she and her crippled husband 
 do in their old age? The peasants depend so 
 much on their children for support when they 
 are too old to work that the loss of sons is a very 
 serious misfortune; and yet when I suggested 
 that w^e would all be glad to have the war end, 
 she replied with extraordinary energy, 
 
 "We don't want even to talk about the war end- 
 ing tmtil those German devils are beaten^ heaten, 
 beatenr 
 
 How I wish that some of those spineless crea- 
 tures, called "Pacifists" could have heard that 
 splendid French mother speak, she who had given 
 so freely of her own flesh and blood, who had 
 paid such a terrible price, who would lose, per- 
 haps, her last son if the war continued and yet 
 she wished, I should say, demanded^ that there 
 should be no question of peace without complete 
 victory. Victory so complete that there shall be 
 no possibility of the treacherous HUNS being 
 in a position again to turn the world into a gi- 
 gantic slaughter-house. When I told the men 
 
PREPARING FOR GREAT OFFENSIVE 151 
 
 what the French woman had said they gave her 
 three rousing cheers. Then all shook her toil- 
 scarred hand ; this was too much for her and she 
 burst into a flood of tears, she wanted to embrace 
 them all — her "brave children" she called them. 
 After promising to return again soon and steal 
 some more of her chickens we bid the kind people 
 good-bye and left, all feeling the better for the 
 encounter. It had done a great deal to make the 
 men understand the spirit that was driving the 
 French nation to such wonderful deeds of hero- 
 ism. 
 
 As we moved off I drew the men's attention to 
 the fact that they had been discovered by a 
 woman while they were supposed to have been 
 very carefully concealed. Also that I had caught 
 sight of many of them, and that none of them 
 had seen either the poacher or me. This was 
 during the early stages of the training. They 
 profited by each mistake, and soon developed 
 extraordinary proficiency in their work. Some- 
 times I would send half of the party ahead, giv- 
 ing them perhaps twenty or thirty minutes start, 
 they would then take up concealed positions with- 
 in less than a hundred yards of the road. This 
 was done with the idea of stimulating the powers 
 of observation while on the move. I would then 
 
152 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 march the remainder along at the ordinary pace; 
 the odds were with the hidden men, so the scores 
 were made on the basis that a marching man got 
 two points to his credit for each hidden man he 
 discovered, while the hidden man was given 
 one point if he was not found. 
 
 For men who were to be scouts this sort of 
 training was of great value, as the power of see- 
 ing is of course of the utmost importance, and 
 strange to say it is by no means an easy thing to 
 teach, or perhaps I should say, develop. In order 
 to accomplish the desired results it was neces- 
 sary to make the work as interesting as possible. 
 The competitive scoring was a great success and 
 the men became extremely keen in trying to win 
 the highest number of points. In doing so they 
 developed really remarkable cleverness in con- 
 cealing themselves at the same time being able 
 to get a clear view of the road, without which 
 the whole point would have been lost. At the 
 same time the men learned how to use their eyes, 
 so they saw many things that ordinarily would 
 have been passed by unobserved. 
 
 To stimulate still further this power of ob- 
 servation I sometimes sent the men off in pairs 
 with instructions to note anything they saw while 
 on their way to a certain place, then accompany- 
 
PREPARING FOR GREAT OFFENSIVE 153 
 
 ing the men over the same ground I would check 
 I carefully their notes and observations. This 
 taught them not only to see but to understand 
 the value of the information obtained. 
 
 Another phase of the instructional work was 
 teaching the practical use of the prismatic com- 
 pass, not alone as an aid to marching in a straight 
 line either by day or night, but as a means, in 
 conjunction with a map, of finding one's where- 
 abouts, or the placing definitely of some object of 
 special interest or importance. At first the men 
 were frightened at the idea of doing anything so 
 complicated, but in a very short time they became 
 quite proficient, and were able to work out their 
 position on the map to within a few yards, simply 
 by means of observed angles. 
 
 It may be of interest to note in passing that 
 when it came to the time when the knowledge 
 which these men acquired was put to actual use 
 they acquitted themselves splendidly. They acted 
 as guides when our Battalion went over the top 
 in the "Somme show." It is no easy task to keep 
 men headed absolutely straight by compass bear- 
 ings when there is no tangible object in sight, 
 especially under terrific fire such as our poor fel- 
 lows were compelled to face when they headed 
 for the German line. I regret to say that of the 
 
154» WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 forty-four Brigade scouts scarcely more than a 
 dozen escaped either wounds or death on that 
 fateful first of July. 
 
 On the 23rd we moved back to B e. Dur- 
 ing this period much of my time was devoted to 
 making sketches of the German positions, as the 
 General was anxious to have drawings made 
 which would enable the officers and men to iden- 
 tify the various landmarks at a glance. At times 
 the sketching proved somewhat exciting, as it 
 meant having to crawl out in the open in very 
 exposed positions in order to obtain comprehen- 
 sive views of the country. 
 
 On one particular day I rode with my orderly 
 to within a mile or so of the front line and hav- 
 ing left the horses in the shelter of a wood, pro- 
 ceeded on foot across a part of the country which 
 was being shelled intermittently. To obtain the 
 required view I was obliged to crav/l to the crest 
 of a bare hill some distance away from the pro- 
 tection of any trenches, and eventually I reached 
 the desired position. In order to make the re- 
 quired compass observations, I found it neces- 
 sary to sit up and so render myself unpleasantly 
 conspicuous in the landscape ; whether or not the 
 Germans detected me I cannot say for certain 
 but I do know that within a few minutes whiz- 
 
PREPARING FOR GREAT OFFENSIVE 155 
 
 bangs began to arrive with alarming regTilarity. 
 Occasionally by way of variety a larger shell 
 would come and throw a great column of earth 
 in the air, or a shrapnel would send a shower of 
 lead all about the neighbourhood; curiously 
 enough all these shot fell in a semi-circle in front 
 of me and about a hundred to a hundred and fifty 
 yards away. Now making sketches with proper 
 precision is a very enjoyable occupation in a 
 peaceful place, but when one is drawing a minute 
 piece of detail, and a noisy shell comes along 
 screaming and scattering metal in a most indis- 
 criminate manner, one's hand does not keep as 
 steady as it should and I found my sketches were 
 decorated with sundry unnecessary lines which 
 meant nothing to the casual observer, but each 
 scratch showed that I had been scared, so scared 
 indeed that I wondered whether the years I had 
 devoted to the gentle arts of drawing and paint- 
 ing could not have been spent to better advan- 
 tage learning how to dodge enemy shells. 
 
 However, the work had to be done, and after 
 an hour or so I became somewhat used to the 
 conditions, and even found myself enjoying the 
 exquisite singing of the larks. It was surpris- 
 ing how little attention they paid to the sound 
 of the shells. The beauty of the uninhabited land- 
 
156 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 scape in this No Man's Land made one of the 
 many sharp contrasts of this strange scene. It 
 had been abandoned by the farmers for nearly 
 two years and the ground instead of bearing rich 
 crops of grain was covered with a mass of scarlet 
 poppies, growing in riotous profusion as far as 
 the eye could see, a strange wild garden, its col- 
 our red as the blood that was soon to be shed so 
 lavishly along this great battlefield of the Somme. 
 
 Cutting through the deserted fields were the 
 narrow, white, chalk-edged trenches, our own and 
 those of the Germans, like giant white threads, 
 forming a net-work over the rolling country. In 
 the middle distance red-roofed villages nestled 
 snugly among the rich green woods, the very pic- 
 ture of peace, broken only by the endless com- 
 municating trench systems. These were the arter- 
 ies of modern warfare through which flowed the 
 living blood in the form of man. Still further be- 
 yond in the blue mists of the summer day were 
 more woods, some large, some mere dots of green, 
 and more villages almost lost in the filmy atmos- 
 phere. Here and there the burst of a large shell 
 disturbed the beautiful scene and made one realise 
 how deceptive was the air of tranquillity. 
 
 Sometimes it is rather difficult to locate one's 
 exact position owdng to the lack of landmarks 
 
PREPARING FOR GREAT OFFENSIVE 157 
 
 which may be used for observation, and in order 
 to check the panoramic drawings it is quite nec- 
 essary that the point from which the observations 
 are made shall be accurately given. While I was 
 crouching low, at the same time trying to get my 
 head high enough from the ground to enable me 
 to discover well-defined landmarks, I spotted a 
 v/ind-mill. Now all wind-mills are marked on 
 our maps, so they are most useful, even when 
 v/recked, as they usually are anywhere near the 
 scene of activities. Having secured a careful 
 compass reading on my wind-mill which pro- 
 truded over the edge of a nearby hill, I searched 
 vainly on my map for the said mill. True there 
 was one more or less in the supposed direction, but 
 taking that in connection v/ith my other refer- 
 ence points placed me between the first and sec- 
 ond line of Boche trenches, a most unliealthy po- 
 sition, not at all suited to my tim.id nature. I 
 puzzled over the question and finally took a 
 chance and stood upright for a minute fraction 
 of a second. 
 
 To my great surprise the "wind-mill" proved 
 to be the spire of the church at Albert, the Lean- 
 ing Virgin appearing as one of the arms. This 
 extraordinary metal statue of the Virgin Mary 
 and the Child Jesus, though weighing tons, was 
 
158 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 partly dislodged by a German shell, but instead 
 of falling it only leaned over at right-angle to 
 the tower, and in this strange attitude it has re- 
 mained ever since, though the church is complete- 
 ly wrecked. According to popular superstition 
 the war will not end until the statue has fallen. 
 According to recent reports Albert has been cap- 
 tured by the Germans. If this is true the bronze 
 statue will probably be taken away and melted 
 down for the manufacture of shells. 
 
 As a rule when out on sketching excursions I 
 preferred to go alone, it reduced the risk of be- 
 ing seen. One man being less than half as con- 
 spicuous as two, and it seemed scarcely fair to 
 ask a fellow to crawl about in exposed places and 
 keep him there doing nothing. The inactivity 
 is not good for any one's nerves, besides having 
 the man with me was always an inducement to 
 hurry the v/ork, and so, as I said, I prefer going 
 alone. This preference placed me in a curious 
 predicament one day when I had to crawl out 
 into No Man's Land in front of a piece of our 
 trench which was very thinly occupied. 
 
 None of the men holding our line had seen me 
 go over, for the day was so quiet that beyond a 
 very occasional rifle shot there was no sign of ac- 
 tivity in the sector. It was this quietness which 
 
PREPARING FOR GREAT OFFENSIVE 159 
 
 induced me to go out in front where I could se- 
 cure a particularly good view. The sketch being 
 finished, the last part done rather hurriedly owing 
 to the unpleasant attentions of an enemy sniper, 
 I returned, crawling on my tmnmy in as incon- 
 spicuous and rapid a manner as possible to our 
 trenches. Just as I reached the parapet, when I 
 was by no means anxious for any delay, a broad 
 Scotch voice hailed me and wanted to know w^ho 
 
 the I was and what the I was doing. 
 
 (I won't give the exact words because when a 
 Scot becomes emphatic his language does not 
 look well in cold print.) I tried to explain who 
 I was and what I was doing, and even showed 
 my Brigade badge, all the time trying with con- 
 siderable persistence to get on what should have 
 been the safe side of the parapet. The shelter of 
 the trench made a particularly strong appeal to 
 me ov>^ing to the frequent shots which came un- 
 duly adjacent to my anatomy. But I was very 
 much betv/een the devil and the sea for the Scot 
 insisted on k'eeping me covered with his rifle 
 while he wanted to know where my orderly was. 
 In my enthusiasm for the work I had for the 
 moment quite forgotten that an officer was not 
 allowed to walk through the trenches unaccom- 
 panied by his orderly. So I replied that I had 
 
160 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 left my orderly to wait for me in B e wood. 
 
 Fortunately at this moment an officer came 
 along and he kindly allowed me to get into the 
 trench that I might finish the argument without 
 the assistance of bullets, and it was astonishing 
 how great was my affection for that particular 
 trench. However, my troubles were not yet over, 
 as the officer hearing that I had been seen coming 
 from the direction of the enemy's lines, — they 
 were scarcely two hundred yards away, — decided 
 that I must be placed under arrest, and I was 
 duly taken before the commanding officer. I 
 tried to explain who and v>^hat I was and why I 
 had been out in front of the lines, but he did not 
 seem to like my face and was very suspicious. 
 In the end I induced him to telephone H. Q. and 
 get a description of my facial adornments, etc. 
 The result was that eventually I was released, 
 much to the disappointment of the man who 
 had first spotted me; poor fellow, he was sure 
 that he had landed a German spy, and it was 
 a great pity to have disappointed him. 
 
 As I made my way back, the advisability of 
 obeying the order regarding going unaccom- 
 panied got safely into my brain, and I deter- 
 mined that not again would I be caught playing 
 a lone hand. On returning to billets I passed 
 
PREPARING FOR GREAT OFFENSIVE 161 
 
 through the woods of B e and was interested 
 
 to see what great changes had taken place since 
 the days when we had been stationed in the neigh- 
 bourhood. Wherever we looked there were guns, 
 large guns, very large guns and small ones of 
 every kind and description. All hidden most 
 cunningly in every available position, the woods 
 fairly bristled with them and the sight was good 
 to behold. Our friend the enemy had something 
 coming to him and the thought made me very 
 happy. 
 
 As my orderly remarked, *'The Boche is cer- 
 tainly going to get hell when all those guns get 
 going." 
 
 Well, it was about time, he had been giving us 
 a good dose of hell for a long while, and it was 
 only fair that v/e should return something. The 
 one-sided game is good enough but it becomes 
 very monotonous after a while. 
 
 Among my various duties I had to spend some 
 days in an F. O. P. (forward observation post) 
 as observation officer. This meant that I must 
 report both our own and the enemy's fire. The 
 number and size of shells and the results of the 
 work. An O. P. or "O. Pipf' as it is usually 
 called (the letter P being pronounced "pip" to 
 avoid being mistaken for B while speaking on the 
 
162 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 telephone), is constructed with the utmost care 
 to render it as inconspicuous as possible, while 
 it offers a comprehensive view. The opening 
 through which one is supposed to see everything 
 is a long, narrow, horizontal slit, commonly called 
 a "squint hole," which must be invisible from the 
 front view. Smoking in the place is strictly pro- 
 hibited as the smoke curling through the slit 
 would proclaim to the enemy the position of 
 the post, and w^ould result in a most undesirable 
 and immediate shelling. The greenhorn will oc- 
 casionally thrust the end of a telescope at the 
 very edge of the opening and this always results 
 in an extraordinary and very prompt flow" of lan- 
 guage from his fellow occupants, much to the 
 surprise of Lieut. Greenhorn, who comes to the 
 conclusion that his fellow beings are unduly par- 
 ticular and perhaps rather cowardly. But he 
 soon learns his lesson, and having learned it usu- 
 ally regains his popularity. Telephones are con- 
 nected to the various batteries and headquarters 
 so that all information is sent and received with 
 promptness. 
 
 The work of the artillery F. O. O.* is of the 
 utmost importance. He reports the shots of his 
 batteries and gives instruction as to any changes 
 
 *Forward observation officer. 
 
PREPARING FOR GREAT OFFENSIVE 163 
 
 necessary in range and direction and generally 
 acts as the eye of the gunners. Accuracy is of 
 course most desirable for the slightest mistake 
 may cause untold trouble. There was an instance 
 
 
 ffOSt 
 
 \ 
 
 5. 
 
 of this sort related to me that will give an idea 
 of what momentary carelessness may accomplish. 
 In the O. P., shown on the diagram, was the of- 
 ficer observing for his batteries, their direction 
 being designated by the arrow. Several shots 
 
164 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 having been fired with the desired effect at the 
 point in the enemy trenches marked "A" the F. 
 O. O. wished his battery to give some attention to 
 the point marked "B" where there was reason to 
 beheve the enemy had a trench mortar battery 
 concealed, so he telephoned to fire at a point so 
 many degrees left, but forgot to increase the 
 7^ange, Scarcely had he sent the message than he 
 remembered the omission and realising that the 
 change of direction would bring the shots directly 
 on to the O. P., he quickly seized the telephone 
 with the intention of rectifying the mistake before 
 it was too late, but the wires had been cut by a 
 shell. Of course there was no time to find the 
 break, to get out of the post v/as the only thing 
 possible. As he was in the act of giving the men 
 instructions to make a bolt for it, the first shell 
 from his own battery landed, a direct hit on the 
 O. P. The unfortunate ofiicer was instantly killed 
 as were two of the men. The others though more 
 or less injured succeeded in making their escape. 
 One day when I was in the O. P. a battery of 
 large guns was trying to find a very troublesome 
 enemy gun which was situated about a mile in 
 front of us, and was believed to be in a certain 
 small wood. We were told to watch the effect 
 of the shooting at a given moment. In due course 
 
PREPARING FOR GREAT OFFENSIVE 165 
 
 we heard the big shell humming through the air, 
 it fell about seventy yards to the right of the lit- 
 tle wood where it kicked up a bit of earth, but it 
 proved to be a "dud" and like all good and well- 
 behaved duds it failed to explode. A moment 
 later with the aid of my glasses I saw a German 
 leave the shelter of the trees and go to where the 
 *'dud" lay partly buried. He bent down and 
 examined it with the evident intention of reading 
 the markings on the nosecap in order that he 
 might know how far it had come, and so get the 
 range of our battery. Having found what he 
 wanted he returned to the place where his gun 
 was so cleverly concealed, resolving no doubt to 
 "find" our gun later on. But he had given us 
 the exact position of his own battery, and natur- 
 ally no time v/as lost in communicating this in- 
 teresting fact to our gunners, who sent three 
 shells in quick succession, and it was with the 
 greatest satisfaction that we saw a terrific ex- 
 plosion occur in the place where our foolish Hun 
 had disappeared into the woods. Result: exit 
 German battery including the foolish Hun. 
 
 On June 1st we moved to M e. The billet 
 
 assigned to me was in a small partly ruined cot- 
 tage, partly ruined inasmuch as it lacked a fair 
 share of its original roof, one wall was half gone. 
 
1G6 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 and another had a decent-sized hole in it, and of 
 course there was no glass in the windows. Still 
 it was not a bad billet considering that it was en- 
 tirely exposed to the fire of the enemy whose 
 trenches could be seen from the roof. Hov/ it 
 happened that any of the building remained was 
 a mystery. 
 
 My admirable servant promptly proceeded to 
 make me comfortable, from some unknown source 
 (I never asked awkward questions) he procured 
 some straw for my bed, and when one sleeps on 
 cold and highly irregular tiling whose symmetry 
 has been disturbed by sundry chunks of iron 
 from bursting shells, the straw is a most com- 
 forting sub-stratimi to the *'fiea-bag." A partly 
 broken packing-case came (probably) from the 
 quartermaster or the A. S. C.,* that was my 
 washstand, another box served as a chair, after 
 various protruding nails had been removed, and 
 the inevitable bottle devoted itself to holding a 
 precious candle. My room was complete with all 
 the luxury that any one could wish, and I only 
 hoped the Hun would abstain from his customary 
 careless habit of dropping shells on unoffending 
 ofRcers and damaging their " 'appy 'omes." 
 
 It was arranged that I should mess with my 
 
 * Army Service Corps. 
 
PREPARING FOR GREAT OFFENSIVE 167 
 
 old friends, the ofRcers of company — the 
 
 j oiliest lot of fellows that ever lived. Our mess 
 billet was a large house in unusually good condi- 
 tion on the side of the village nearest the Ger- 
 mans. In front of us on one side was a large 
 open field which was unused because of its ex- 
 posed position. The village itself though fre- 
 quently shelled still contained a fair number of 
 its original civilian population, and they in most 
 cases kept shops from which we procured various 
 luxuries — at war-zone prices, of course. 
 
 It was early in the afternoon when we arrived, 
 very hot and very dusty. Oranges were suggested 
 as food befitting the occasion. So one of the serv- 
 ants was sent out for some. He returned in a 
 short time with a large bag of very inferior fruit 
 purchased at a very superior price. The first 
 orange taken from the bag was partly bad. Now 
 a bad orange is a tempting missile and this fact 
 was discovered by the fellow who examined it — 
 Biff^ and it went across the room narrowly miss- 
 ing a fellow's head and smashing itself in a 
 nasty juicy mess on the wall. Needless to say 
 within a few seconds an orange fight was in full 
 swing, seven full-grown, able-bodied men all go- 
 ing it as hard as they could. 
 
 Suddenly above the sounds of laughter came 
 
168 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 the screeching of a shell, followed almost imme- 
 diately by a loud explosion. But this did not in 
 any way interfere with the orange fight. One 
 fellow indeed stopped for a second to see where 
 the shell had landed — it was about one hundred 
 and fifty yards from the house — and as he looked 
 through the broken window several oranges 
 caught him, direct hits they were, as he had 
 not had time to dodge. For nearly an hour the 
 orange fight and the strafing continued and only 
 for brief moments when a shell would come ex- 
 tremely near did any one stop to look at them. 
 I relate this incident because it shows two things ; 
 first, the delightful boyish good spirits of our fel- 
 lows, who can of course be quite serious enough 
 when it is necessary; and second, how little at- 
 tention is paid to ordinary shell fire as men be- 
 come so thoroughly accustomed to it. 
 
 The day after our arrival at M e, I received 
 
 news from home which made my immediate re- 
 turn for a few days most urgent. Unfortunately 
 my regular leave was not due for nearly two 
 weeks, but as I was on the Brigade staif my going 
 would not interfere with the leave of any one else, 
 so I applied to the General, stating that I would 
 gladly give up my full ten days, due later, if only 
 I could have three clear days at once. To my 
 
PREPARING FOR GREAT OFFENSIVE 169 
 
 surprise and delight my full ten days' leave was 
 granted and needless to say after I had handed 
 over my work, and made out the necessary re- 
 ports, I lost not a second in packing and getting 
 oiF. 
 
 Bairnsfather — ^bless him for the good laughs 
 jthat he has given us — ^has depicted in his delight- 
 ;ful drawings some of the incidents connected with 
 the "leave train." I feel that it is scarcely neces- 
 sary for me to do more than suggest that the 
 reader glance at those drawings and he will un- 
 derstand the situation of the man who goes on 
 leave. Trains viay go slower, and stop more 
 frequently, and be more crowded, but I doubt it. 
 Of course every one is impatient to get home once 
 he starts, even though the actual time of leave 
 does not begin till you are on the boat. 
 
 To make matters worse when we got to Amiens 
 we had the mortification of reading the jirst re- 
 port of the naval battle of Jutland and nothing 
 more depressing was ever offered for the con- 
 sumption of a Britisher. It is difficult to de- 
 press men going on leave from the front, but 
 seldom have I seen a more sober lot than we 
 were. 
 
 To be beaten on land was one thing; of course 
 we quite expected to get an occasional smash. 
 
170 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 but on the sea, it was unthinkable. Yet there 
 it was in cold black and white. We read it and 
 re-read it and some fellow finally remarked, "Oh, 
 I bet there's something wrong," and thank 
 Heaven he was right. 
 
 Eventually, notwithstanding the sundry and 
 various delays, v.^e reached England. How de- 
 lightfully peaceful it seemed! No appearance 
 of war, every one cheerful, yes, it certainly was 
 nice to be home, even if the object of my coming 
 was a dreary one, for the war had hit me hard, so 
 hard indeed that I had been forced to sell my 
 house ; it was a wrench, but after all there was no 
 use in worrying, the thing had to be done. 
 
 Every one in England was talking? about the 
 impending offensive, the air was full of expec- 
 tancy and hope. The coming show was to finish 
 the war according to the general idea and we were 
 all to be home for Christmas. The munition 
 workers had given up their holidays that they! 
 might be able to furnish shells to the very limit 
 of their power, and the Hun was to discover' 
 England's might. This was all very fine and I 
 hoped the popular predictions would be correct. 
 Of course I was not allowed to tell anything 
 about what was going on at the front, nor when 
 the offensive was to start. 
 
PREPARING FOR GREAT OFFENSIVE 171 
 
 By way of information I may tell the reader 
 in strict confidence that of course I did not know, 
 though when I said so in reply to the oft-repeated 
 question, it would be received with a knowing 
 wink. People do not realise how very little infor- 
 mation is given to us at the front. Most of our 
 news comes from the English papers which fre- 
 quently Yv^e receive on the day of publication. 
 Then v/e have "Comic Cuts" as the official ac- 
 count of the daily happenings connected with the 
 world's v/ar is disrespectfully called; beyond 
 these sources of information we know very little. 
 
 JSIy short leave ended only too soon, and once 
 more I found myself on the platform with hun- 
 dreds of others headed for the "trenches/' and 
 the platform was as usual crowded with those 
 heroic women who tried to look cheerful in spite 
 of the fact that in their hearts they knew what 
 was to come within a few weeks, and no matter 
 whether the big offensive was a success or not, 
 the toll would be enormous. Yet tears were 
 withheld and smiles prevailed. What those smiles 
 cost, God alone knows. 
 
 The return to France was made with the rapid- 
 ity which characterises all journeys which lead 
 away from home. Delays would have been al- 
 most welcome, but they did not happen. Con- 
 
172 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 nections were made with aggravating punctual- 
 ity, in marked contrast to the apparent slowness 
 and delays of the homeward-bound trains. 
 
 At Amiens the train was supposed to wait 
 about half an hour, so I took the opportunity to 
 see the R. T. O. (the Railroad Transport Of- 
 ficer ; he is the general information bureau who is 
 supposed to know where every unit is, or should 
 be, and how you are to find your way to it). 
 There were many ahead of me and when I finally 
 reached the good chap and asked him where our 
 Brigade might be found, he told me with quiet 
 unconcern that my train, the one on which I had 
 come, was due to have started ^ve minutes ago. 
 I rushed out and along the platform just in time 
 to see it disappearing in the smoky distance, on 
 it was all my kit. Had I been homeward bound 
 this would have been a calamity, but under the 
 conditions I took it most philosophically and 
 simply contented myself with wiring ahead to 
 my station requesting the M. P. (Military Po- 
 lice — ^very useful people!) to take the kit out of 
 the train. A good meal being quite in order, the 
 time between then and the departure of the next 
 train, and fortunately there was a next one, was 
 spent to the best advantage. 
 
 In due course I reached my destination which 
 
PREPARING FOR GREAT OFFENSIVE 173 
 
 by good fortune was La N e and reported to 
 
 the Brigade Major. Then I was told that our 
 Brigadier had left us. This was a great blow 
 for we were all very fond of him. He was badly 
 broken up at the sudden change as he had looked 
 forward with the keenest interest to the coming 
 offensive in the preparation for which he had 
 worked so hard. The following day his succes- 
 sor arrived. He was a much younger man and he 
 immediately won our hearts by his kindness and 
 good humour and very business-like ways. This 
 was his first Brigade and naturally he was much 
 pleased with life. It has never been my good 
 fortune to be among a finer lot than those on the 
 staff. The Brigade Major in particular w^as, I 
 think, the most delightful man I have ever known 
 and as my work was almost entirely with him, I 
 felt more than content. 
 
 We spent much of our time making notes and 
 sketches of positions, and in visiting the trenches 
 that the Brigade was to occupy in the "Push," 
 and I had to take the scouts to a point overlook- 
 ing the front and explain the various landmarks 
 and what would be the scouts' part in the coming 
 attack. For it was now no longer a secret that 
 the big offensive was to begin within a couple of 
 weeks, and of course every one was keyed up with 
 
174 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 excitement. The men did not mind how hard the 
 work was, they never do when the object is clear. 
 The scouts were intensely interested in studying 
 the ground over which the attack v/as to be made, 
 and with the aid of the panoramic sketches, in 
 conjunction with the excellent maps with v/hich 
 we were furnished, they easily identified the most 
 important features of the land. Hitherto they 
 had only seen the country in front of our line 
 from the trenches which are seldom constructed 
 with the idea of affording extended views, but 
 the point I had selected for instructional pur- 
 poses was a new communication trench on a 
 fairly high hill about four thousand feet from 
 v/here we were to start in the attack. This com- 
 manded a splendid view of the enemy country 
 and showed nearly all the trenches that were of 
 direct interest to us. 
 
 In speaking of the maps we use it might be 
 of interest to the reader to know with what ex- 
 treme care they are made. The reproduction 
 opposite will give a slight idea of these maps, 
 though owing to the reduction in its size it does 
 not do justice to the original. All the trenches, 
 railways, and other works carried on by the en- 
 emy are put in from aeroplane photographs. It 
 was part of my duty each day to go over great 
 
SKETCH OF TRENCHES OCCUPIED BY THE AUTHOR 
 
 The printed map shown after pagre 176, issued to the officers by headquarters 
 staif must not be carried into the trenches, so sketches are made as above. 
 When an officer is wounded or in dang-er of capture, his first thought is of 
 the map— he chews it up and swallows it. 
 
PREPARING FOR GREAT OFFENSIVE 175 
 
 numbers of these prints and check up the various 
 lines. By this method every piece of new work 
 accomphshed anywhere in the enemy lines was 
 added to the map with full detail; and as new 
 maps could not be printed for distribution every 
 day, I made small sketches, showing all changes 
 and additions, and these were immediately mime- 
 ographed and sent out to all who had maps (a 
 record is kept of the distribution of all maps). 
 By this means they could record the alterations 
 and keep the maps corrected to date. Occasion- 
 ally, when the additions had been of sufficient 
 importance, the maps were reprinted and given 
 to all who were interested in the particular part 
 of the line. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 Hell Let Loose 
 
 On June the 20th we left La IST e and the 
 
 kind people turned out to wish us ''Bon chance!' 
 They knew we were to he in the fight very soon, 
 and that in ail probability the Battalion would 
 not again return to the village that had been its 
 
 favourite billet. Our next stop was at V e, 
 
 which we found crowded to its extreme limit with 
 men, and consequently very uncomfortable. The 
 poor Town Major was at his wits' end to find 
 accommodation for us. Every village in the area 
 was in the same condition owing to the necessity 
 of concentrating the vast number of troops need- 
 ed for the "Show." 
 
 On the morning of the 24th the great prelimin- 
 ary bombardment commenced. The greatest 
 concentration of gun fire ever indulged in by the 
 British up to that time. At last the Boche was 
 to learn our strength and the learning must have 
 been a decidedly painful experience. Every- 
 where, for miles back of our front line, guns of 
 
 176 
 
HELL LET LOOSE ITT 
 
 all sizes were belching death- dealing missiles with 
 tireless energy. Ammunition was practically 
 unlimited, and it was our intention to destroy 
 completely every part of the German trenches, 
 cut all their masses of barbed wire, and level every 
 building in the village strongholds. Nothing was 
 to be left standing or intact. Complete annihi- 
 lation and only that would satisfy us. 
 
 But we did not know how deep were the Ger- 
 man dugouts, nor did we fully understand their 
 plan of defence, which included the safeguarding 
 in these dugouts of innumerable machine guns, 
 the instrument most dreaded by the infantry. 
 From these by many ingenious devices the guns 
 would be quickly brought up to the surface of 
 the ground as soon as our guns raised their fire, 
 in order that the infantry might go forward. 
 We were soon to learn a great and important 
 lesson, but at the cost of much good blood. 
 
 In the meantime our guns continued the good 
 work to the intense satisfaction of Thomas Atkins 
 & Co. Whenever the men had an hour to spare 
 they would make for the nearest vantage point 
 and watch the endless explosions as our shells 
 landed along the enemy lines and threw up col- 
 umns of smoke and earth to unbelievable heights. 
 
 Overhead our aeroplanes darted about like 
 
178 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 huge dragon-flies, patrolling the sky and keeping 
 the enemy planes so far back of their own lines 
 that for them no observing of our guns was pos- 
 sible. In this particular region we had abso- 
 lute supremacy in the air. 
 
 Toward evening of this first day every officer 
 and man not actually on duty was watching the 
 "Show." By daylight it was wonderful, the 
 bursting shells causing many shaped and many 
 coloured columns to cut into the sky-line, but at 
 night it was a far more impressive sight. The 
 whole country before us as far as the eye could 
 see was apparently on fire, dark clouds hanging 
 low in the sky reflected the deep red and orange 
 of the endless shells, while the cold blue-white 
 Verey lights trailed in gi^aceful curves through 
 the violated sky. Here and there signals of green 
 and red rockets gave variety to the scene and 
 caused satisfaction to our fellows, for it showed 
 that Mr. Hun was in trouble. 
 
 Once in a while there would be a terrific explo- 
 sion which dwarfed the noise and glare of all the 
 bursting shells and we knew that an ammunition 
 dump had been hit and again there would be sat- 
 isfaction among our men for it meant there would 
 be that much less ammunition for the Hun to 
 give us. 
 
X A 
 

 62DN.E. 62CNW. 
 
 X B 
 
 PART OF ACTUAL MAP USED DURING THE BATTLE OF THE 
 
 SOMME 
 
 The light pencil mark from A indicates the line of attack made 
 
 by the Brigade to which the author belonged. B, point from 
 
 which panoramic sketch was made. The finished panoramic 
 
 drawing was made as if drawn from A. 
 
HELL LET LOOSE 179 
 
 Occasionally the firing would partly, or en- 
 tirely subside, and perhaps for half an hour or 
 so scarcely a shot would be fired. Then suddenly 
 hell would be let loose, for every gun as though 
 actuated by one invisible hand, would spit forth 
 its deadly shot, and the air would vibrate with the 
 roar as of ten thousand peals of thunder, again 
 would the enemy lines be lighted up with the 
 golden glow of battle, and again would Thomas 
 Atkins smile and make jests, which, though not 
 always conspicuous for their refinement, were 
 invariably funny. 
 
 This ubiquitous humour is wonderful. IN'o 
 matter what happens, especially if it is something 
 which causes him or his comrades great personal 
 discomfort, he always manages to find an amus- 
 ing remark. While a really good explosion in 
 the enemy country calls for an avalanche of wit 
 which to be thoroughly appreciated must be 
 heard under the proper conditions. 
 
 The bombardment continued day and night 
 with more or less regularity. The spells of quiet 
 were almost invariably followed by "intense" 
 periods and we could not help wondering how the 
 poor devils in front of us were getting along. So 
 far as could be seen from our various high places, 
 the front line trenches to the left of Fricourt (the 
 
ISO WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 part in which we were so vitally interested) were 
 completely demolished. Instead of the even line 
 of chalk parapets we could distinguish endless 
 craters touching each other in a way which spoke 
 well for the work of our gunners. Of the trenches 
 further back little or nothing was discernible, but 
 from the numerous bursts of shell it was evident 
 that proper attention was being given to every- 
 thing within range. 
 
 On the 26th we were told that a big gas attack 
 was to be launched. Our men had with great la- 
 bour carried the unwieldy cylinders up to the 
 front line a few nights ago, and naturally enough 
 they were as anxious as we were to see tlie at- 
 tack. The weather was perfect, a slight and fa- 
 vourable wind and no immediate sign of rain. 
 Shortly before the appointed hour there v/as a 
 furious bombardment lasting several minutes. 
 This was intended to make the Germans keep out 
 of sight so that they would not see the gas, then 
 immediately before this ended the gas Vv^as liber- 
 ated along various parts of our line. The poi- 
 sonous yellowish smoke drifted across No Man's 
 Land in the most approved way, and we all felt 
 a fiendish delight in watching it. 
 
 The dastardly attack on the wretched Cana- 
 dians and others at Ypres was still fresh in our 
 
HELL LET LOOSE 181 
 
 minds, and now the nation which, in violation of 
 all international law and against all traditions 
 of decency in warfare, had started this most 
 damnable form of fighting ever dreamed of was 
 to be hoist with its own petard. Its ov/n soldiers,; 
 poor creatures, were to suffer as the Canadians 
 and some of our home troops had suffered. They 
 were to die in agonies as those Canadians had 
 died — agonies such as no man has ever known, 
 and we were glad that the British, who above all 
 things like to fight in a clean, sportsman-like way, 
 had taken off the gloves and were fighting the 
 devil with his own weapons. 
 
 We prayed that the time might come when the 
 brutal Hun would curse the day that he had pol- 
 luted the earth v/ith this vile gas, this breath of 
 hell, the taint of which will rise whenever the 
 ruthless war party of Germany is spoken of. It 
 was as though two boxers were in the ring and 
 one, finding that he could not win fairly, threw 
 vitriol into the face of his opponent and then 
 downed him when he was blinded and helpless. 
 The pick of the German soldiers could not con- 
 quer those heroes at Ypres by fair means even 
 though they were vastly superior in numbers 
 and in artillery equipment, and so, in cowardly 
 determination to win at any cost, they used the 
 
182 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 gas which had been made several years before and 
 kept ready for just such an emergency. But 
 God was with us and the heroic resistance offered 
 by our suffering men must stand forever as a 
 monument to them, while a monument of quite a 
 different kind will stand for the fiendish brutal- 
 ity of Germany. 
 
 Such were the thoughts which ran through our 
 minds as in silence we watched those slowly mov- 
 ing death-dealing clouds that poisoned the very 
 ground they crossed. Had any one told us two 
 years before that we, who called ourselves civi- 
 lised people, would have stood still and actually 
 taken satisfaction in watching our men fight with 
 such means we would have refused to believe it. 
 
 Do not think, kind reader (if you are one who 
 has not been in the fight) , that this means that we 
 are becoming brutalised, not at all. No man is 
 more human or humane than our fellows at the 
 front. The stories of their unselfish kindness and 
 sympathy would fill volumes, but this is a war for 
 our existence, and for the existence of all we hold 
 most dear, freedom in its greatest sense, with the 
 right for all to live decently, whether they be 
 strong or weak, and against those who threaten 
 our right we must fight with whatever weapons 
 they choose. We accepted their choice of wea- 
 
HELL LET LOOSE 183 
 
 pons when the duel started. It was to be guns, 
 and they had the greater ones, and their numbers 
 were incalculably greater. Yet we accepted. 
 Then they decided to fight with gas, yes, and li- 
 quid fire, and every horror known to science, and 
 we too have called in our scientists, and we too 
 will use gas and every other form of horror. This 
 has been asked for by Germany and she shall 
 have all she gives and the measure shall be filled 
 and pressed down, and it shall overflow. We 
 shall compete with the Germans in all things 
 'save one, the committing of atrocities, in that she 
 may reign supreme, but in everything else she 
 must take second place. 
 
 The gas attack we were watching on this beau- 
 tiful day of June lasted less than half an hour, so 
 far as we could see, but for those unfortunate 
 creatures in the enemy trenches the effects were 
 of much longer duration. They probably thought 
 that we intended to launch our attack as soon as 
 the gas got in its deadly work and to ward it off 
 they put up a terrific barrage or curtain of fire 
 across our front line, thereby wasting a lot of 
 ammunition, but it gave them the satisfaction of 
 imagining that they had succeeded in preventing 
 our attack. 
 
 Owing to the arrival of vast numbers of cav- 
 
184 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 airy the Brigade staff together with one Bat- 
 tahon, machine gunners and sundry other parts 
 
 of our unit were instructed to move from V e 
 
 to B e. At one o'clock we were to leave so 
 
 the men were given dinner before starting. In 
 Brigade H. Q. we were about half-way through 
 our lunch when the familiar whooooooo of a shell 
 interrupted the conversation. The beastly thing 
 seemed to be coming directly for us, and we ex- 
 pected to see it land on the table. Suddenly 
 there was a terrific explosion, the shell had 
 dropped in the centre of a courtyard about one 
 hundred and fifty yards in front of us. Unfor- 
 tunately a number of our men were in this yard 
 having their meal. The scene which resulted 
 was indescribable, and in the midst of it all, the 
 cries of the mutilated and dying men were 
 drowned by the roars of another and still an- 
 other shell. The second shot accounted for a 
 number of our men in the street when they had 
 
 assembled to move to B e. The third one 
 
 landed in a garden one hundred yards from our 
 H. Q. where it killed a poor little girl who was 
 playing with her kitten. 
 
 Belief for the many wounded was needed im- 
 mediately, but the doctors and all their staff had 
 left for B e, so there was a delay, as unfortu- 
 
HELL LET LOOSE 185 
 
 nate as it was unavoidable. How small a thing 
 influences lives, only by the merest chance had it 
 been decided that we should not leave V e un- 
 til after lunch. According to the original plan 
 vv^e Yv^ere to have gone at eleven that morning. 
 Had we done so this ghastly misfortune v/ould 
 not have happened. 
 
 That evening in the new quarters our Brigade 
 following the usual custom in the British Army 
 indulged in an open-air day-bef ore-the-battle con- 
 cert which was thoroughly well attended. Ex- 
 cept for a few seats arranged for the ofxicers it 
 was a case of "standing room only," not alone was 
 every inch of standing room in the square court- 
 yard taken, but the surrounding buildings were 
 occupied inside and out, that is to say windows 
 and roofs. A small rough stage had been erected 
 on vv^hich a piano was placed. This instrument 
 had very evidently not been tuned since the war 
 began, or perhaps since the war of 1870. Any- 
 how it was not in tune. However, that made little 
 difference. Among the four Battalions there was 
 quite a fair share of talent. Some of it was pro- 
 fessional, but the greater part was amateur, or 
 very much amateur. 
 
 The poets of the Brigade had been very busy, 
 especially the wags, and as this was an extra 
 
186 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 special night there was considerable license al- 
 lowed, with the result that any of our officers 
 who were possessed of peculiarities had them 
 thoroughly aired to the great amusement of all 
 hands. Xo one was respected from the Briga- 
 dier down. Som_e of the songs were decidedly 
 amusing, at times even witty. Of course there 
 was a sprinkling of the mawkish sentimental stuff 
 that so thoroughly delights some of our people; 
 the "Don't kick your mother when she's down," 
 and "The pore girl hadn't got no friends" type. 
 There were topical songs on the Kaiser and his 
 kind, in fact no subject was neglected and all 
 were sung to the accompaniment of the guns 
 which never for a moment ceased. But though 
 we all laughed a great deal, to many of us there 
 was something unspeakably sad about the whole 
 performance. It was almost as though a num-\ 
 ber of men, condemned to death, were giving a 
 minstrel show on the eve of their execution. 
 
 A great many of those fine jovial fellows who 
 were singing funny songs or laughing so vocifer- 
 ously to-night would be laying stark and still 
 within a very few hours, and as each one would 
 mount the rude platform and do his part in the 
 entertainment I found myself wondering whether 
 he was one of those doomed to make the great sac- 
 
HELL LET LOOSE 187 
 
 riiice. Yet in spite of the conditions it was a jolly 
 evening and one could not help admiring the 
 splendid spirits and remarkable behaviour of the 
 men, for though this was the last night on which 
 any liquor, beer, or wine would be bought or used, 
 there was not a man present who was the worse 
 for drink. The morrow held no terror for them. 
 The Great Push was to be the greatest adventure 
 of their lives, and their one thought w^as that at 
 last the time was come when Vv e were to know 
 whether our civilians' army had been sufficiently 
 trained to stand successfully against Germany's 
 professional army, and judging from the atti- 
 tude of our men they felt not the slightest doubt 
 as to the outcome. 
 
 Scarcely had the concert (so called for lack of 
 a better name) ended than to our disgust a gentle 
 rain commenced. If there was one tliinq: we 
 needed more than another to make our offensive 
 a success it was fine weather. Rain, apart from 
 the frightful personal discomfort, meant a 
 marked decrease in the efficiency of our shells, 
 and added enormous difficulties to the advance of 
 the infantry and artillery. The ground was com- 
 posed largely of chalk, which when wet became 
 so slippery that in the open, and still more so in 
 the trenches, a man heavily laden with all the 
 
188 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 paraphernalia of battle could make headway only 
 with the greatest difficulty. So we dreaded rain, 
 but our dreading it seemed to make no difference, 
 for it continued all that night and most of the 
 following day. The attack was to have been made 
 early in the morning of the 29th and already part 
 of our Brigade had gone to their positions in the 
 line when the order came that the "Show" was 
 postponed for forty-eight hours. Any one would 
 have thought from the attitude of the men, when 
 this bad news was broken to them, that they had 
 been told their leave was cancelled, which is the 
 worst news a man can get at the front. Xever 
 have I seen men, so depressed and disap- 
 pointed. Nothing could console them, not even 
 such remarks as one in broad Yorkshire w^hich I 
 happened to overhear. 
 
 "Don't th' care, Tom, thou's got coople more 
 days to live." The delay though unavoidable 
 was most unfortunate for it undoubtedly knocked 
 out a lot of the enthusiasm which is such a valu- 
 able asset in an attack. However it could not 
 be helped and we spent the two days doing noth- 
 ing as assiduously as possible, but in spite of all 
 our efforts the hours dragged along with painful 
 slowness. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 Battle oe the Somme — The Great Day 
 
 The day had at last arrived when we were to 
 move forward, yes, really forward, when we were 
 to know whether the months of preparation and 
 training were to give the great results that we all 
 hoped for, and many expected. What terrific 
 activity had been concentrated daring these 
 months, not alone in the field armies but at home 
 and abroad where the gigantic supplies of am- 
 munition had been made. From the mines which 
 produced the metals, and the ships which had 
 brought the supplies to England, the feverish ac- 
 tivity in the great factories which had been turn- 
 ing out guns of all sorts and sizes, and all types 
 of shells, from those required for the little field 
 gun to the monster implements of destruction 
 weighing more than a ton apiece, to the endless 
 supplies of all kinds needed in such vast quanti- 
 ties. 
 
 Then the bringing of all this material to 
 France. What a story that in itself would make. 
 
 189 
 
100 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 How the vessels were brought through the sub- 
 marine and mine-mfested seas and what care- 
 ful management had been necessary. It had in- 
 deed been a period of elaborate and colossal prep- 
 aration such as the world has never known, and 
 now we were to make use of all this great thought 
 and labour. We were to launch our first really 
 big attack against the so-called impregnable po- 
 sition of the Germans. We were to know within 
 a few hours whether or not our new armies would 
 prove equal to the task of beating the highly 
 trained soldiers of Germany. That we should 
 succeed no one of us for a moment ever doubted. 
 We were full of that splendid hope and trust 
 which coupled with the wonderful cheerful spirits 
 of the British soldier, be he of the old thoroughly 
 trained lot or of the new army, which makes up 
 in enthusiasm what it may lack in training, car- 
 ries through to ultimate victory regardless of the 
 difficulties encountered. 
 
 It was on the 30th day of June that we moved, 
 each Battalion leaving its billets at the appointed 
 minute while the men bid good-bye to the little 
 
 village of B e, the little village where we had 
 
 spent so many jolly days, and which was never 
 again to be seen by a large proportion of those 
 
THE GREAT DAY 191' 
 
 cheerful fellows who sang and cheered as they 
 passed along the white dusty street. The songs 
 they sang as they marched to battle were not of 
 deeds of valour, nor were they of battle at all, 
 far from it — just cheerful ones expressing deep 
 sentiment and feeling. As the splendid fellows 
 vanished into distance I heard ; 
 
 "Keep the home fires burning while your hearts 
 
 are yearning 
 Though your lads are far away they dream of 
 
 home. 
 There's a silver lining through the dark cloud 
 
 shining ; 
 Turn the dark clouds inside out till the boys come 
 
 home." 
 
 It was sung as a message of comfort and hope 
 and was the very spirit of the men, showing how 
 they are always thinking of hom.e, of those who 
 are waiting and watching and dreading the news 
 which the next few hours might bring. 
 
 It was my duty to remain with the Brigade 
 Staff which would of course be the last to leave. 
 I therefore had the opportunity to watch the four 
 Battalions move away, and bid farewell, and 
 Godspeed, to as good a lot of fellows as ever 
 lived. Fortunately one does not have much time 
 for thinking under such conditions for there is 
 
192 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 endless work to be done, and every moment is 
 precious so the day passed only too quickly. 
 
 Toward evening, having left our possessions in 
 the care of those who must remain behind we 
 (the Brigadier, the Staff JSIajor, the Brigade 
 bombing and signalling officers and myself) rode 
 forward to within a mile of the front line. Then 
 we dismounted, sent the horses back, and con- 
 tinued on foot through the crowded communica- 
 tion trenches toward the Brigade dugout. The 
 noise of the incessant bombardment was simply 
 appalling. It seemed as though every gun in 
 the whole country was firing at maximum speed, 
 and the late evening sky was a great glow of crim- 
 son and orange, as the shells burst along the 
 enemy lines. The scene was grandly impressive 
 for it showed with what power the great offensive 
 was being undertaken. The long dreary months 
 of inactivity had ended. The dearth of guns and 
 shells, which for nearly two years had been a con- 
 tinued source of chagrin and mortification to us, 
 was now a thing of the past. Apparently our 
 supplies of all the material necessary for the con- 
 duct of a great modern war were unlimited, and 
 it put heart into us to a degree that can scarcely 
 be comprehended by those who have had no part 
 in the actual fighting. 
 
THE GREAT DAY 19S 
 
 As we passed groups of moving or resting 
 men it was a pleasure to watch their faces. A 
 glorious cheerfulness was reflected in every coun- 
 tenance. That the great chance of death within 
 a very few hours was certain did not manifest 
 itself in any way, and well might the casual ob- 
 server have thought from the endless jokes and 
 laughter that these splendid men were a lot of 
 boys on their way to a game, rather than that 
 they were going into what was destined to be one 
 of the biggest battles the world had ever known. 
 It made one proud to belong to a race which can 
 take the most serious side of life with such mag- 
 nificent spirit, a spirit which nothing can crush, 
 and which temporary defeat makes only more 
 evident and irresistible. 
 
 The long walk through that narrow crowded 
 trench was very tedious, but eventually we 
 reached the Brigade Headquarters dugout, 
 which was within a stone's throw of the actual 
 front-line trench, and there found the staif of 
 messengers and signallers, telephonists, etc., al- 
 ready at their places. The dugout, like all of 
 ours, was a roughly-made temporary affair, so 
 very different from the elaborate structures made 
 by the Germans, and it seemed to reflect the dif- 
 ference in the point of view of the two sides. We 
 
194 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 regarded our stay on the Somme line as of tran- 
 sient interest, as we intended to move forward as 
 soon as possible, while the Germans apparently 
 built their complicated and wonderful under- 
 ground lines for an indefinite period of occupa- 
 tion, in fact as though they expected to remain in 
 them for the rest of their natural lives, as indeed 
 many of them did. 
 
 Needless to say every inch of trench space was 
 occupied, not only with men, but with supplies of 
 all kinds, such as ammunition, bombs, stretchers, 
 picks, shovels, wire, water, and the hundred and 
 one things that might be needed when we moved 
 forward. Over the trenches were numerous ar- 
 tillery bridges to allow the guns to be rushed 
 forward without a moment's delay after the in- 
 fantry had reached the German lines, scaling 
 ladders lined every trench to assist the men in 
 doing the "parapet hop" with the least possible 
 difficulty. Everything that careful thought and 
 foresight could provide for had been done. As 
 each unit arrived it took up its position according 
 to the prearranged plans. There was seething 
 activity, but no confusion, except possibly when 
 an enemy shell landed in a crowded area and sent 
 a group of wretched men to eternity. 
 
 In the Brigade dugout the telephones were 
 
SCALING LADDERS BEING PUT IN POSITION BEFORE 
 AN ATTACK 
 
 So that the men can easily leave the trenches and do the 
 parapet hop." 
 
THE GREAT DAY 195 
 
 constantly busy reporting all that was going on. 
 Each company on arrival would, of course, re- 
 port to the Brigadier and by two a. m. every 
 man was accounted for, and we had to wait pa- 
 tiently for the passing of the few hours that re- 
 mained before the zero minute would arrive. All 
 watches were carefully synchronised but so far 
 as we were concerned the zero remained a mys- 
 tery, kept absolutely secret by those in command. 
 
 Dawn came slowly over that rumbling area. 
 A cool clear dawn, lighted by a sun which fought 
 its way through the heavy smoke-laden atmos- 
 phere. Between the angry reports of exploding 
 shells, and the crackling of the machine guns, 
 came the liquid notes of the larks, singing in the 
 sky, as unconcerned as though they had always 
 lived in the midst of hurtling shells. In the woods 
 back of Fricourt the voice of the cuckoo could 
 be heard, and it seemed strangely out of place. 
 One always associates it with the quiet of the 
 country and here it was mingling its sweet notes 
 with the ghastly droon of the passing shells, and 
 the terrific explosions which shook the very earth. 
 
 Above all, our aeroplanes policed the sky 
 watching the enemy's lines with hawk-like keen- 
 ness. Throughout the trenches there was a 
 strange ominous quiet. A suppressed excite- 
 
196 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 ment pervaded everywhere. ]Men spoke in 
 hushed voices. The great moment must soon 
 come when they were to prove themselves men. 
 As they talked they smoked incessantly. At no 
 time is the cigarette more blessed than during the 
 period preceding an attack, when the minutes 
 move so slowly, and the pulse beats with undue 
 speed. 
 
 Higher and higher rose the sun that memor- 
 able first day of July, 1916. Its warmth was 
 grateful to the huddled masses of waiting men, 
 for under keen but suppressed excitement one 
 feels a queer coldness that is almost painful — thef 
 throat becomes parched and the tongue dry and 
 hard. Word was finally passed along that 7.30 
 was to be the zero minute, and with this knowl- 
 edge there was a sense of relief, for then all knew 
 that the suspense would soon end. Hot tea was 
 served to the men as they ate their breakfasts and 
 what a Godsend that tea was. Surely no army 
 was ever taken care of in the matter of food as 
 ours has been in France. Seldom if ever is there 
 any hitch in the arrangements and food comes 
 with a regularity, and of a quality, that is a con- 
 stant source of surprise and wonder, notwith- 
 standing the existing conditions which so often 
 are more than unfavourable. 
 
THE GREAT DAY 197 
 
 Seven-fifteen came at last and with it a terrific 
 intense bombardment of the enemy's hnes. The 
 whole horizon was a great cloud of bursting shells. 
 More and more shells tore through the air, and 
 rained death and destruction on the wretched 
 Germans, and we could not but feel a sense of 
 pity for the poor creatures who had to undergo 
 such a devastating fire. It must have been hell- 
 ish, and they had been having this with only slight 
 intermission for eight long days. 
 
 Just before the minute hand pointed to the 
 half hour the bombardment eased up, and only 
 the barrage fire over the second and third lines 
 was continued. Then at the exact moment our 
 whole line from Thiepval to near Fay (the 
 French having the part on our right southward 
 from Bray) emerged from the trenches, and No 
 Man's Land over which for nearly two years no 
 human being had dared to venture, except under 
 the deceptive darkness of night, was covered with' 
 wave after wave of thin lines of khaki-clad men 
 marching slowly and steadily toward the Ger- 
 man trenches. 
 
 Heavens! v/hat a picture that was. What a 
 grand picture of courage and discipline ! 
 
 As far as one could see, on either side, those 
 lines moved with a deadly precision, facing a 
 
198 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 withering macliine gun fire which thinned their 
 ranks at an appalhng rate, until of the first lines 
 but few remained, but those, God bless them, 
 went on and on. Xo hesitation, no faltering, just 
 a grim determination to go forward until stopped 
 by bullet or shell, for nothing else could halt > 
 them. On they went over that field of vivid scar- 
 let poppies, whose colour seemed to stand as a 
 symbol of the fine red blood that was being shed 
 so lavishly for the salvation of the world, while 
 the sky-blue cornflowers, and the gleaming white 
 of the chalk-lined trenches, together with the red 
 poppies, gave the red, white and blue, the national 
 colours of the British and French who were fight- 
 ing side by side for the greatest cause the world 
 has ever known (and joined nov,^ by the Amer- 
 icans whose colours, by happy augury, are the 
 same). 
 
 There was so much to be done that it was im- 
 possible to give more than an occasional glance 
 at what was going on, but apparently, barring 
 only the terrific machine gun fire which played 
 such havoc with our men everything was going 
 on as planned. 
 
 Our Brigade was on the left of Fricourt, and 
 the two Battalions of my regiment, the King's 
 Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, were side by side 
 
THE GREAT DAY 199 
 
 on the front line of the assault while the Durhams 
 and East Yorkshires followed in support. We 
 were unfortunately unable to reach our more ad- 
 vanced objectives owing to the heavy fire, and to 
 our great number of casualties, but we got as far 
 as the sunken road within an hour or so. This 
 point is on the immediate left of Fricourt, which 
 we eventually expected to surround. The de- 
 fensive works of the village were so powerful that 
 it was not considered wise to take it by assault, 
 but to force its evacuation by threatening to cut 
 off the garrison. Along most of the total line of 
 attack, about twenty miles all told, things were 
 going well. At La Boisselle the enemy offered a 
 very stiff resistance and at one place the assault- 
 ing troops had gone rather too far, and had omit- 
 ted to clear the first and second line trenches; 
 this unfortunately resulted in very troublesome 
 conditions a little later that day. At Thiepval 
 our line was unable to advance against the steep 
 hill side and very powerfully fortified positions, 
 but elsewhere v/e were succeeding splendidly as 
 was shown by the reports which were continually 
 coming in by telephone and runners. 
 
 At about nine o'clock our Brigadier decided to 
 go forward with the Brigade Major to see per- 
 sonally how we were doing, as we had lost so 
 
200 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 heavily in officers that it was hard to get reliable 
 information through the many field telephones 
 which had been carried forward and whose wires 
 were constantly cut. I was sent with certain in- 
 structions to the Headquarters' Staif and told to 
 rejoin th^ Brigadier as soon as possible. He, 
 however, had vanished when I returned some ten 
 minutes later, and though I hunted through every 
 trench and inquired from the men who were mov- 
 ing forward, and the wounded who were return- 
 ing, I could get no trace of him, and so, after half 
 an hour, I returned to the dugout, for it had sud- 
 denly occurred to me that by some oversight no 
 officer had been left in charge and important mes- 
 sages might be coming in at any moment. On 
 my way back I had to leave the trench as it was 
 entirely blocked with wounded men who were try- 
 ing to make their way back to the dressing sta- 
 tion. It was remarkable how cheerful they w^ere, 
 smiling and joking about their wounds, in the 
 most extraordinary way, and nearly all of them 
 were smoking. 
 
 The men I passed were of many different regi- 
 ments, a ghastly, bleeding, battle-marked lot. 
 Some of my own fellows would recognise me 
 and would laughingly ask what I thought of the 
 regiment, how it had behaved, all so glad to 
 
THE GREAT DAY 201 
 
 have actnally started the Germans on their back- 
 ward path. Some would give the sad news of so- 
 and-so's death, how he had died "grandly," as 
 they expressed it. We had had a little reverse 
 at Loos the previous year, which, through no 
 fault of the men or officers, had given the whole 
 division a slight bad mark. The men had al- 
 ways deeply felt and resented this and one chap 
 who passed me managed to smile, in spite of 
 several ghastly wounds, as he said, "Well, sir, I 
 guess they won't hold Loos up against us now, 
 will they?" It was rather pathetic, that he with 
 all that suffering should have so keenly at heart 
 the honour of the regiment, and it shows what a 
 wonderful thing is the regimental esprit de corps. 
 It leads men on to doing not only their best, but 
 even more than their best. 
 
 In watching that gory procession it struck me 
 Avhat a terrible price is paid for the success of 
 all military enterprises. Here was this line of 
 men, who little more than an hour ago were nor- 
 mal men in the finest of health and strength, and 
 now maimed, and with every degree of injury, 
 they painfully made their way back to the human 
 repair department. The well men were rapidly 
 moving eastward in countless numbers, going for- 
 ward to the assistance of their comrades, while 
 
202 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 the injured so labouriously dragged their way 
 back, two human streams, the sound and the un- 
 sound. Before us, all energies were devoted to 
 destruction; behind us, all human power and 
 skill tried to repair the damage. 
 
 It was a severe test on the nen^es of the 
 younger and less experienced men who were go- 
 ing forward, for was not this returning stream a 
 terrible object lesson of what lay before them,, 
 and each much have wondered, perhaps subcon- 
 sciously, whether or not he would have the good 
 luck to be able to form a link in the endless hu- 
 man chain of walking cases, or whether he would 
 be disabled and doomed to remain out on the 
 ground to await the kind help of the stretcher 
 bearer; perhaps fortune would be still less kind 
 and he might become one of those pathetic khaki 
 figures that would never again move. 
 
 Yet there was no evidence that any one suf- 
 fered in sjDirits by the scenes. Jokes passed be- 
 tween the wounded and the well, and the phrase 
 was constantly heard, "Oh, you lucky beggar, 
 you've got a cushy Blighty (i.e., a "soft" wound 
 which will take you to Blighty, the Indian word 
 meaning England or home) or "Cheero, lad, y're 
 going back home, give 'em my love when you get 
 there." 
 
THE GREAT DAY WS 
 
 Here and there a poor chap would fall ex- 
 hausted, and his fellow-suiierers would try to 
 help him along, or place him gently in sl con- 
 venient recess of the trench to await the arrival 
 of the stretcher bearers who were already over- 
 burdened with work. No one seemed in the least 
 downhearted, for were we not winning, were we 
 not already safely in the German trenches, the 
 trenches we had been staring at by day and by 
 night for so many months, the trenches from 
 which the well-equipped enemy had been dealing 
 out a regular death rate to our fellows, who 
 through lack of munitions had been unable to 
 retaliate. And now all was changed, we were 
 to become the upper dogs, and the Germans were 
 to feel our fangs biting deeply, and still more 
 deeply, until their life's blood would be let, and 
 they would cry for the mercy which they had de- 
 nied to others. 
 
 About this time the sight of the first batch of 
 prisoners gave a great sense of satisfaction. Some 
 thirty or forty of the grey figures came stream- 
 ing across No Man's Land with hands held 
 high, and all equipment removed. Some wore 
 the uncouth steel helmets, some caps, while many 
 v/ere bareheaded, and most of them were in a 
 pitiful state of nervousness. The effect of the 
 
S04 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 long artillery bombardment was only too evi- 
 dent, not only causing shock to their system, but 
 numbers had been without food and water for 
 many hours, the heavy shelling had made it im- 
 possible to bring up rations to the more isolated 
 positions. Altogether I felt sorry for the 
 wretched fellows. So did our men who gave free- 
 ly of their slender supplies of cigarettes and wa- 
 ter to those who, but an hour or two earlier, they 
 had been trying to kill. That is one of the splen- 
 did things about Tommy Atkins. He bears not 
 the slightest resentment against his erstwhile foe. 
 The moment he surrenders he is treated with the 
 utmost kindness, and never once have I heard 
 any disparaging or unkind remarks made, as 
 long as the prisoners behave properly. This first 
 lot seemed to be greatly relieved at being taken. 
 For them the war was over, and their main idea 
 was to reach as rapidly as possible a place where 
 they would be safe from shells. 
 
 My mind was painfully busy as I made my 
 way over the shell-torn and body strewn ground 
 between the trenches. Machine gun bullets 
 whistled past in ceaseless numbers and now and 
 then a screaming shell would come and throw 
 great masses of earth, sand bags, or even men 
 into the air. Yet it all seemed so impersonal, so 
 
THE GREAT DAY 205 
 
 unreal, that one would not take any particular 
 notice of it, it was as though it was meant for 
 some other fellow. Now and then a momentary 
 feeling of terrible, appalling fear would strike one 
 as some ghastly incident occurred in the imme- 
 diate vicinity, but the feeling would pass as quick- 
 ly as it had come, and a keen interest in the great 
 scene would take its place. I remember feeling 
 the greatest possible desire to sit down and make 
 sketches of the drama which was being enacted 
 but of course there was no time, every minute 
 being precious, and I hurried on to the dugout. 
 On arriving there I found calls for help. Re- 
 inforcements were urgently needed at this or that 
 point, and these calls I passed on to the divisional 
 headquarters. What a strange scene was that in 
 the murky dugout. By the flickering yellow 
 flames of a few candles, the tense faces of the 
 telephone and telegraph operators could be seen 
 as they took the endless messages and I could 
 not help thinking of an exchange in any of the 
 big cities where the hum of messages never 
 stopped, but there the activities were all so peace- 
 ful, and so comparatively unimportant, while here 
 the lives of men, thousands of men, hung on a 
 single message getting through correctly, when 
 
206 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 the results of great plans trembled in the balance 
 of a few throbs of the wire. 
 
 As an accompaniment to the unseen calls was 
 the steady booming of the guns, great and small, 
 our guns and those of the enemy, it all seemed 
 like a gigantic thunderstorm of endless duration. 
 'Now and then a sweating messenger would crawl 
 in exhausted, bringing word from some outlying 
 company whose wires had all been broken. Per- 
 haps the man w^as one of three or four who had 
 started with duplicate messages, and where were 
 the others ? God knows, for these trusty runners 
 who bring word across the open shell-torn area 
 pay a heavy price for their splendid w^ork. Yet 
 they do not hesitate, for on them depends the wel- 
 fare of many of their comrades. 
 
 Shortly before noon the Brigadier returned, 
 and I immediately placed before him copies of 
 all messages received and sent. Before going 
 
 through them he told me that poor B , the 
 
 Brigade IMajor, had been killed, or at least very 
 badly wounded by a machine gun. They had, 
 it appeared, gone forward of our most advanced 
 line, in order to ascertain what w^as holding up 
 our advance, when suddenly they saw the Ger- 
 mans rushing up to a corner of Shelter Wood 
 where they got the gun into action with such un- 
 
DURING . THE ADVANCE 
 
 The men march across No Man's Land at slow speed so that 
 they will not be out of breath when they reach the enemy lines. 
 
 WAVE AFTER WAVE OF INFANTRY STREAMED ACROSS FROM 
 OUR TRENCHES 
 
 Facing undaunted the withering machine gun fire which mowed 
 them down but did not stop their advance. 
 
THE GREAT DAY g07 
 
 fortunate results. It was a terrible blow, for 
 
 B was one of the finest men I have ever 
 
 had the good fortune to meet, and I felt as 
 though mxy very best friend had been killed. 
 There was no chance of rescuing him even if he 
 were still alive and there seemed little hope of 
 that. Still I determined to bring back the body 
 if a possible opportunity occurred. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 A Bad Night Among the Shells 
 
 DuEiNG the afternoon there \^ere endless 
 things requiring attention. Among others was 
 the moving of our headquarters to a wretched lit- 
 tle dugout in a badly battered part of the trench- 
 es. Occasionally during the remaining hours of 
 daylight I had to visit various parts of what that 
 morning had been our front line. The sights that 
 met one's eyes were not pretty and need not be 
 told in detail. The terrible havoc v/rought by 
 some of the enemy shells v/here the men had as- 
 sembled preparatory to going over the top, when 
 whole groups of men had been annihilated bej^ond 
 identification, was ghastly beyond description. 
 
 Here and there I came upon the bodies of fel- 
 lows of my own lot and it made me sick to see 
 what the poor old Battalion had suffered. 
 
 Still there was a gi^atification in looking over 
 the great events of the day. The German line^ 
 which had been selected with such care, and forti- 
 £ed by every means known to modern military 
 
 208 
 
A BAD NIGHT AMONG THE SHELLS 209 
 
 science, so that it was deemed impregnable, had 
 fallen. In less than an hour from the moment 
 when our men began the move, we had occupied 
 almost the entire front lines to a depth of from 
 one to half a dozen lines of trenches, over a front 
 of about eighteen miles. The impossible had been 
 accomplished. The indomitable German troops 
 had been beaten by our new armies, and the 
 achievement we believed marked the beginning 
 of Germany's end as a great military power. 
 ISTever again were we to yield ground to our in- 
 solent self-satisfied enemy. Slowly but steadily 
 would we push forward. Looking back at it 
 now, it is a great satisfaction to realise that not 
 a gun have we lost since we began tha-t forward 
 move on July 1st, 1916,* and the day will stand 
 for all time as marking the vindication of British 
 and French armies against the foolish and unde- 
 served slurs cast on them by the Huns, whose 
 overbearing conceit has been doomed to such com- 
 plete downfall. . . . They could njot win when 
 they fought us with overwhelming superiority of 
 numbers and unlimited supplies of guns and am- 
 munition, how then could they hope to win when 
 we became more evenly matched! We had not 
 forgotten the days when the famous thin khaki 
 
 * This was written in August, 1917. 
 
SIO WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 line, without reserves or big guns, stood be- 
 tvv'een Calais and the German hordes. In over- 
 whehning numbers, backed by massed artillery, 
 these highly trained forces of the Kaiser at- 
 tempted, again and again, to break through that 
 line of immortals, and they had failed. Never 
 again would they have such an opportunity. 
 
 Shortly after dark the Brigadier told Capt. 
 Y and me to go over into the newly ac- 
 quired line and gather and sort out any odd 
 batches of men, stragglers who had become de- 
 tached from their units. Also to get any useful 
 information that we could pick up. Just before 
 we started, three officers were handed over to our 
 care, with instructions that they were to be de- 
 livered to certain units. Their nam.es we did not 
 know, and in the dark we could not see their 
 faces. They were indeed strangers to us. We 
 told them to follow and do exactly as we did, 
 and under no conditions become separated. Mak- 
 ing our way across what had been No Man's 
 Land was a somewhat unpleasant task as the 
 enemy kept up a constant fire, both of machine 
 gun and artillery, so our progress was necessarily 
 slow. 
 
 On our way we came upon one particularly 
 badly wounded man lying in the open and he 
 
A BAD NIGHT AMONG THE SHELLS Sll 
 
 begged to be put in a nearby trench where he 
 would be comparatively safe. I was anxious to 
 
 oblige the poor chap but Capt. Y , w^ho was 
 
 senior to me, declared that it was not our job 
 and that we must move forward. Reluctantly I 
 left the fellow and we continued on our precarious 
 w^ay, eventually arriving at the battered remains 
 of what had been the German front line trench 
 until that morning. Here we discovered that 
 one of our three charges had vanished and of 
 course we concluded he had been shot. 
 
 Curiously enough seven months later when I 
 rejoined the reserve battalion of my regiment in 
 the North of England I found that my room- 
 mate was that very officer. He described to me 
 how upset he had been at the incident of the 
 wounded man being left, and how it had made 
 him realise the stern demands of war more than 
 any other episode in his short experience. Then 
 he told how he had crouched in a shell hole dur- 
 ing one of the many strafes and had been unable 
 to find us when he emerged. After w^andering 
 about in a hopeless way he had become mixed up 
 among some barbed wire and been shot through 
 the lung. It was a curious coincidence that we 
 should have come together after those many 
 months, neither having kno\\Ti the other's name. 
 
S12 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 That night of wandering among the shell-torn 
 German trenches, where all semblance to the orig- 
 inal line had been obliterated, will always live 
 in my mind as the most ghastly night of my life. 
 The night was inky dark, the darkness made all 
 the more overpowering by the constant flashes 
 of exploding shells and the cold gleam of the 
 somewhat distant Verey lights. The gi'ound was 
 but a mass of jagged craters into which we re- 
 peatedly fell, often landing in the midst of torn 
 and dismembered human bodies. 
 
 Here and there we would find crouching fig- 
 ures, seemingly asleep. They were silent when 
 we addressed them, and when we emphasised our 
 remarks by a push they rolled over stiff and cold, 
 for they were dead. Sometimes groups of living 
 men would be found, and these were sorted out 
 according to their units, but frequently a shell 
 would come and their numbers would be sadly 
 thinned. The whole thing was ghastly beyond all 
 description and we were both glad vvhen finally 
 we had completed our work and turned our faces 
 toward headquarters. To find the way in the 
 darkness was no easy matter for we had been 
 wandering through the lab^^rinth of shell craters 
 for several hours and were compelled to trust to 
 our sense of direction as much as to our com- 
 
A BAD NIGHT AMONG THE SHELLS 213 
 
 passes. However, at half-past one we succeeded 
 in reaching our destination much to our own and 
 the General's relief, for he had begun to fear 
 we had been knocked out. 
 
 During the night written reports had come in 
 from the various units so that w^e were able to 
 get a good idea of how things had been going; 
 with very few exceptions everything had been 
 carried out almost according to plans, but we 
 had been forced to pay a very heavy price. My 
 own regiment had suffered particularly heavy 
 losses, especially in the matter of officers. Only 
 one of the number that had gone over the top 
 that morning had been able to remain on duty, 
 the other twenty-four having been wounded or 
 killed, but fortunately in many cases the wounds 
 had not been very serious. The one who had re- 
 mained wdth the men was Capt. S and he 
 
 had stuck it out all day in spite of a wound in the 
 chest. For hours he had held on to a most pre- 
 carious position, not surrendering his command 
 until nearly midnight when he had been relieved. 
 About 2.39 a.m. he came to the Brigade Head- 
 quarters to report and he was then in a terribly 
 exhausted condition. With my pocket outfit I 
 made him some tea to which a little rum was add- 
 
214* WHEN TPIE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 ed and he has since told me that was the best 
 drink he has ever tasted. 
 
 The rest of that night was devoted to various 
 tasks and there was no chance for sleep or rest. 
 Supplies and reliefs had to be sent up and reports 
 made out and wounded men taken care of so 
 that when morning came we were still hard at it, 
 and a tired and somewhat dishevelled lot we were, 
 no one having had any sleep for two nights. At 
 six o'clock we had a sort of breakfast, and then 
 I was sent out to see how the water supply was 
 holding out. On my way through the lines I sud- 
 denly saw a man running along and calling out 
 that every one must retire at once. This struck 
 us as peculiar for retiring did not appeal to any 
 one as the proper or correct thing, indeed we be- 
 lieved that advancing was far more in order. So 
 the man was taken in charge. He was dressed as 
 a private of the medical corps, a pale-faced fel- 
 low wearing large glasses and having a some- 
 v/hat peculiar accent. His whole manner was 
 so suspicious that it was considered advisable to 
 send him to headquarters in custody of a cor- 
 poral. What happened to him can only be con- 
 jectured but there is little doubt that he was a 
 German who with great pluck was trying the ruse 
 to force om' men to retreat. Such acts are not 
 
A BAD NIGHT AMONG THE SHELLS 215 
 
 rare and occasionally they succeed though more 
 often the man who attempts it pays with his life 
 for his audacity. 
 
 On reaching the comparatively safe valley on 
 
 the edge of Becourt Wood in which various head- 
 quarters were situated I noticed a very fine look- 
 ing sergeant walking a short distance ahead of 
 me. About a hundred yards av/ay on the oppo- 
 site side of the valley the hillside was crowded with 
 big guns. These were firing more or less con- 
 tinually so that as the shells flew over our heads 
 the noise was deafening. Suddenly the big ser- 
 geant spun round and fell. I rushed up to see 
 what happened and found him stone dead. A 
 piece of shell band having broken off a passing 
 projectile had made a ghastly v/ound in his head. 
 There was nothing to be done, so I continued 
 on my way and discovered that our shortage 
 of water in the front line was caused by a burst 
 pipe. Arrangements were immediately made for 
 its repair, but in the meantime water was sadly 
 needed so a party was organised to carry it up in 
 petrol cans. What we would do without these 
 useful receptacles is hard to say for their size 
 and shape renders them of the utmost value as 
 water carriers and even though occasionally they 
 give to the water a taste of petrol the men put 
 
216 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 up with it readily, for after all they are accus- 
 tomed to highly flavoured water as it is well puri- 
 fied with chloride of lime. One flavour more or 
 less makes little difference to a thirsty, tired man. 
 It was nearly noon when I returned to head- 
 quarters and reported the water supply in work- 
 ing order. Shortly after my arrival when I had 
 stolen a few minutes for a shave and a sort of 
 wash some food arrived. Among the rations was 
 a delicious ham which took my fancy for I had 
 not had any real food since the beginning of the 
 battle. Our dugout was so small that eating in 
 it was out of the question so the ham was placed 
 on a sandbag on the side of the trench; taking a 
 knife and fork from my haversack I was about 
 to cut a nice fat slice, but at the moment I put 
 the fork into position a messenger came along and 
 with due politeness I stepped back against the 
 side of the trench which was very narrow, in or- 
 der to give him room. Scarcely had he passed 
 when with a dull sickening screech a large piece 
 of shell casing came flying down and struck the 
 sandbar exactly v here mv left wrist would have 
 been had I continued the ham cutting operation. 
 Besides taking my hand off it would undoubtedly 
 have destroyed my watch, and as this had been 
 given to me by my wife it would have been most 
 
A BAD NIGHT AMONG THE SHELLS 217 
 
 annoying, while to have lost my hand while carv- 
 ing a ham would not have been very glorious. I 
 doubt even if I could even have had the satis- 
 faction of claiming to have been "wounded in ac- 
 tion." For a souvenir I dug the piece of iron 
 out of the sand bag, it having gone completely 
 through one and partly through the second, and 
 then I cut the ham which proved to be quite as 
 good as it looked. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 Captueed Lines and Prisonees 
 
 After lunch I was told to take a party of men 
 with rations and ammunition to be distributed 
 among the Battalions of our Brigade which were 
 holding the new line. Instead of going across the 
 open of No Man's Land which was being fairly 
 heavily shelled I was told to follow a certain new 
 sap which led from the left of our position to the 
 conquered trenches. This sounded quite easy, 
 and would have been had not the Germans kept 
 up a very unwelcome and incessant bombard- 
 ment, many of the shells falling along that par- 
 ticular piece of trench. Snipers too were watch- 
 ing every shallow part of our trenches so that the 
 greatest caution was necessary. 
 
 The whole ,line v/as blocked with dead and 
 wounded in ghastly confusion with all sorts of 
 debris and with shattered sand bags by the thou- 
 sand. Through this mass of wreckage, human 
 and material, we made our way slowly and pain- 
 fully. Here iind there I would test a particu- 
 
 218 
 
CAPTURED LINES AND PRISONERS 219 
 
 larly shallow part by holding up a ''tin hat" as 
 though a man were moving along and it always 
 brought a rattle of bullets so it was a constant 
 case of "low bridge." Eventually we reached the 
 sap only to find that it was crowded to its utmost 
 capacity with wriggling lines of men coming and 
 going. So thickly were they packed that over 
 an hour passed before we were able to add our 
 number to this sweating mass. No sooner had 
 we entered than I met the Colonel of one of our 
 Battalions. He was lying at the entrance of a 
 shallow dugout badly wounded, having been shot 
 the previous morning. He begged me to get 
 stretcher bearers for him. A splendid man he 
 was and I would have given anything to help him 
 but under the conditions I could not leave my 
 party. Ail I could do was to send word by a 
 passing stretcher bearer who was heroically try- 
 ing to carry out a badly wounded man on his 
 back. He was almost exhausted but promised 
 to do his best. Later the Colonel was carried 
 out and taken to England where I regret to say 
 he died. 
 
 Slov/ly, very slowly, we moved forward while 
 the shells dropped with disgusting persistence 
 along the whole line, now and then making a di- 
 rect hit and causing a blockade of killed and in- 
 
220 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 jured. It was impossible to do more than give 
 the most hasty attention to the wounded and 
 then prop them against the broken side of the 
 trench for there was no room for stretcher bear- 
 ers. Suddenly in the midst of the uproar came 
 the call "German bombers are in the trench, get 
 back as fast as you can." There was no word as 
 to who had given the order and any attempt to 
 go back would have been disastrous if not impos- 
 sible. A regular panic was starting for the men 
 believed themselves caught in a trap. The posi- 
 tion demanded rapid action. Telling my party 
 to stand fast behind me I drew my revolver and 
 swore I would shoot the first man that moved 
 toward me. It was a ticklish moment as the men, 
 unnerved, and tired after the incessant work of 
 the past two days, to say nothing of the lack of 
 sleep, were not in condition to reason. Still the 
 revolver made them hesitate long enough for me 
 to ask from whom the order came. This delay 
 saved the situation and they soon realised that 
 no one knew where or how it had originated. I 
 noted one man without a rifle. To be unarmed 
 while in the front line is a crime, so I called out 
 asking v»^here his rifle was. He, seeing one on the 
 ground nearby, declared that it was his and had 
 been pushed out of his hand by the crowd. He 
 
CAPTURED LINES AND PRISONERS ^9A 
 
 quickly picked it up but in doing so accidentally 
 put his finger on the trigger and a shot whizzed 
 past my head, missing me by a few inches. Need- 
 less to say I was thoroughly frightened. 
 
 Gradually order was resumed and we once 
 more moved forward very slowly and finally af- 
 ter innumerable delays reached the old German 
 front line. Then came the question where were 
 we to find our Battalion. For an hour we wan- 
 dered about through the most thoroughly dev- 
 astated piece of ground I have ever seen. ISTot a 
 semblance of any trench remained, nothing but 
 an endless succession of craters of every size; as 
 though there were not enough still more v/ere 
 constantly being made by the Germans who Vv^ere 
 shelling the region with great persistence. Vari- 
 ous groups of men told us just where our lot 
 were to be found but all the information proved 
 valueless and simply led to our doing a lot of 
 hard walking and climbing. Finally I left the 
 men to rest for they were heavily loaded with 
 supplies and taking a couple of INT.C.O.'s* with 
 me w^ent on a tour of investigation. The only re- 
 sult was that from one point we had a splendid 
 view of the storming of the shattered village of 
 
 * Non-commissioned officer, i. e., any one above the rank of private 
 and below the rank of Second Lieutenant 
 
222 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 La Boisselle. This was of the greatest interest 
 for we could see how well our men did their work. 
 Yet to see how the lines were thinned by the ter- 
 rific machine-gun fire made one feel utterly sick. 
 
 After dodging a few shells and nearly getting 
 lost in the labyrinth of craters, I succeeded in 
 getting back to my party. They had almost de- 
 cided to start off on their own account, imagin- 
 ing that I had been "scuppered" (the vernacu- 
 lar for killed) for I had been gone such a long 
 time. As far as we could see there was no hope 
 of finding the remains of our Battalions to which 
 we were trying to bring supplies. Every land- 
 mark was obliterated by the long continued bom- 
 bardment. 
 
 The German system of trenches, which I firmly 
 believed I knew thoroughly, no longer existed, in 
 its place there was only an endless array of 
 craters of all sizes, with here and there the re- 
 mains of a dugout the entrance to which was 
 in most cases filled with mangled bodies torn 
 beyond belief. Some of these were still wearing 
 gas protecting helmets, showing that they had 
 been caught by our gas attack of the 26th. Noth- 
 ing more grotesque or horrible can be imagined 
 than these figures, black or yellow from the ef- 
 fects of different poisonous gases, and wearing 
 
CAPTURED LINES AND PRISONERS 223 
 
 the masks. The protruding retainers hung from 
 their mouths and gave them the appearance of 
 some hideous animal. 
 
 In the craters were numerous bodies exposed 
 or partly buried, both Germans and our own men, 
 showing how severe the fighting had been. Sev- 
 eral of the Germans still clutched in their stiff 
 cold hands rifles, to which were attached the saw- 
 edged bayonet, and on the teeth of some of these 
 barbarous weapons was the proof that they are 
 used for other purposes than the cutting of 
 wood. The Boche claims that they belong to 
 the pioneers and are not used in fighting, but 
 the claim bears as much relation to truth as some 
 of his other statements which he hoped the world 
 would swallow. 
 
 While we were trying to discover the where- 
 abouts of our lost units the enemy began a very 
 unpleasant strafe. Shell after shell landed 
 around us and made the task of moving about 
 decidedly risky, I might even say dangerous. It 
 is one thing to have to cross a shelled zone and 
 go straight from one point to another, but to 
 wander about crawling in and out of craters, 
 being sniped wherever you exposed your anat- 
 omy in getting out of one crater and into an- 
 other, and expecting a five-inch or larger shell 
 
224 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 to be your boon companion when you got snugly 
 into the crater, while you know the men you are 
 looking for are carefully hidden, well, it is not 
 quite as nice as you may think, in fact I can 
 honestly say that I was frightened and the inces- 
 sant noise of bursting shells was head-splitting. 
 After various disagreeable things had hap- 
 pened, things about which one simply cannot 
 write, I decided to return and try later on to 
 get the supplies delivered under the cover of 
 night. It was easy enough to make this decision 
 but quite another thing to carry it out. The 
 communication trench, or sap, through which we 
 had come was being shelled more vigorously 
 than ever, and if possible it was even more 
 crowded. Unfortunately it was the only avail- 
 able cover; to have gone out in the open would 
 have been neither more nor less than suicide, as 
 the Boches still held the opposite slope of Sau- 
 sage Valley where they had a number of machine 
 guns. These raked every inch of No Man's 
 Land in this neighbourhood. The fact that they 
 were there was due to a slight mistake that had 
 occurred the previous day. Steps were being 
 taken, in the form of a large bombing party, to 
 stamp out the hornets' nest that night. I may 
 add that it succeeded quite thoroughly, so much 
 
CAPTURED LINES AND PRISONERS 225 
 
 SO that not a single German escaped. Bombs of 
 the Mill's grenade kind form exceedingly con- 
 vincing arguments. 
 
 Eventually we managed to make our w^ay back 
 to H. Q. dugout and I reported my complete 
 failui'e. This was not a pleasant task, it hurt my 
 pride worse than anything I have ever done. The 
 Brigadier was extremely nice about it and said 
 he fully understood the difficulties. Another try 
 was to be made that evening when things might 
 be more quiet. 
 
 There was very good news from most parts 
 of the line that night, Fricourt, the much dreaded 
 strong point which our men had partly sur- 
 rounded, had fallen, the Germans having been 
 forced to abandon it. La Boisselle also had been 
 taken, and Shelter Vv'^ood after many attempts 
 was at last in our hands. 
 
 According to the German report which ap- 
 peared later they were retiring "according to 
 plan." This was perfectly true, but in the offi- 
 cial explanation of the great retreat which con- 
 tinued for weeks they quite forgot to mention 
 who made the plan. Need I add, we made it ? 
 
 The night passed fairly quietly, evidently both 
 the Germans and our men were tired after the 
 two severe days, and beyond intermittent shelling 
 
226 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 and a few very half-hearted counter attacks there 
 was practically no offensive activity. Our men 
 spent the time consolidating our newly acquired 
 lines and bringing up supplies of food and am- 
 munition. 
 
 One day, I forget which, there was a rather 
 amusing incident connected with the carrying of 
 ammunition. Hand grenades were badly needed 
 in a certain part, and some bright fellow thought 
 it would be a splendid plan to make use of a batch 
 of freshly captured German prisoners. So he 
 marched them down to a forward supply dump 
 and loaded them up with canvas buckets full of 
 Mill's grenades. As I recall it there Vv'^ere about 
 thirty men, accompanied by a guard of four of 
 our fellows who marched them across No Plan's 
 Land toward our new line. The plan was a 
 curious one and would have succeeded had not 
 some senior officer discovered it. Tie was highly 
 indignant. The employment of prisoners for 
 such purpose being entirely contrary to rules and 
 regulations. Had those prisoners possessed a 
 proper amount of self-sacrificing patriotism they 
 could have played havoc, armed as they were 
 with some forty grenades apiece. That they 
 would eventually have been killed it is needless 
 to say, and evidently that pleasant prospect was 
 

 THE GERMAN FRONT LINE TRENCHES NEAR FkICOURT 
 
 Showing how thoroughly our guns had destroyed these elaborate 
 structures. 
 
CAPTURED LINES AND PRISONERS 227 
 
 in their minds, for a more docile crew I have 
 never seen. As one of the guards said, "Why 
 bless yer, sir, they'd just eat out of yer 'and 
 they're so bloomin' glad to be safe." 
 
 They were a tired looking outfit, dirty and un- 
 tidy and many were in a terrible nervous condi- 
 tion. They declared the bombardment to which 
 they had been subjected was more than human 
 beings could stand and as already stated their 
 water supply and food had been used up, and it 
 had been impossible to bring up fresh supplies 
 owing to the incessant shelling. Occasionally a 
 couple of men had managed to make their way 
 back for supplies, but in most cases they were 
 knocked out either going or coming, very rarely 
 did one return. One of the men spoke English 
 perfectly. He had been a waiter in a certain 
 well-known restaurant in London. He asked 
 what we were doing over there, and exhibited 
 a photograph showing London completely de- 
 stroyed by Zeppelins. It was a good fake and 
 the man was much surprised when he heard that 
 so far as the eye could see London had in no 
 way changed since his departure. The Hun has 
 a funny way of keeping up the national enthu- 
 siasm. He quite forgets that people have mem- 
 ories, and that occasionally they do reason things 
 
228 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 out. About a year later, that is in 1917, after one 
 of the big air raids over London the people were 
 informed that the metropolis was practically de- 
 stroyed. This was most complimentary to us 
 for apparently we are credited with being able to* 
 build with unlieard-of speed. 
 
 For fear that the German soldier will give 
 himself up too readily they are told frightful 
 tales about what we do to prisoners. We are sup- 
 posed to first inflict untold tortures on them with 
 the idea of eliciting information regarding mili- 
 tary matters, and then, having amused ourselves 
 in this way we put them to death. 
 
 These are among the many pleasant things we 
 do, and strange to say the wretched creatures in 
 a number of cases believe most implicitly that 
 these stories are true. We often find them offer- 
 ing bribes to our men, watches, money and other 
 things if only their lives may be spared. They 
 appeal to our men's sympathy by shov/ing photo- 
 graphs of their wives and children, explaining 
 hov/ painful it will be for them if they never 
 return. 
 
 In one case a poor shell-shocked Boche, one 
 among a batch that was being led by a some- 
 what diminutive cockney, adorned with red hair, 
 a freckled face and a snub nose which pointed 
 
CAPTURED LINES AND PRISONERS 229 
 
 heavenward. Not at all the hero type so far as 
 appearance goes. The Boche after offering one 
 by one all his valuables and receiving each time 
 only a shake of the head and the remark "Nothin' 
 doin' " finally handed his iron cross as though 
 certain that this particular individual of the 
 Thomas Atkins family could not resist such a 
 tempting bribe. T. A. took it in his hand and 
 the doleful Boche actually allowed a smile of 
 sorts to crawl over his gloomy face, but the smile 
 died a sudden death when the little cockney 
 handed back the cross with the remark, " 'Ere, 
 take it back, old son, yer jolly well v/on it, didn't 
 yer ?" This flabbergasted the Teuton who thought 
 the brutal British had doomed him to certain 
 death. What a surprise it must have been to 
 him and to all the others when they found how 
 thoroughly well they were treated. 
 
 People laugh at us, and call us soft, because 
 we err on the side of oi;^r-kindness to our pris- 
 oners, regardless of the terrible provocation we 
 have had to retaliate on them for the brutal way 
 in which they have so often behaved to our poor 
 chaps, but in the end our actions will undoubtedly 
 produce greater and more far-reaching results. 
 These tens of thousands that we have captured 
 wiU spread stories when they are released which 
 
S30 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 will help vastly in making us better understood 
 throughout the whole world. 
 
 Our men greatly prefer to fight in a clean 
 sportsman-like way, and the ill treating or killing 
 of prisoners ''spoils the fun of fighting," as they 
 say; but unfortunately the only too numerous 
 examples of German treachery when captured, 
 have forced our men to act in a way which would 
 never be necessary if we were fighting an honour- 
 able foe. 
 
 An instance which occurred to our men on the 
 Somme the first day of the battle will give an 
 idea of what we are contending with. It hap- 
 pened when our fellows were clearing a trench 
 (this means seeing that every dugout and hiding 
 place has been cleared of the enemy). They 
 came to a deep dugout and called down the stair- 
 way for surrender. The dugout contained some 
 twenty men and officers, who replied that they 
 gave themselves up. Our Yorkshire men are not 
 fools and so they prepared against treachery, two 
 held short-fuse grenades in readiness, while the 
 other four stood by with rifles, also in readiness. 
 
 Up came the Huns carrying no weapons and 
 with hands held up in the required position. 
 About eighteen men all told and our fellows, 
 thinking this was the lot, were about to march the 
 
CAPTURED LINES AND PRISONERS 231 
 
 batch away, when suddenly two German officers 
 sprang out of the dugout with automatic pistols. 
 These they proceeded to use, but our good men 
 were equal to the occasion and two grenades 
 quickly dropped among the treacherous brutes 
 and then two more to make sure, with the result 
 that our men were not encumbered with any pris- 
 oners. 
 
 Now such behaviour on the part of the Ger- 
 mans is bound to produce very disagreeable ef- 
 fects and they are quite certain to be the suffer- 
 ers, but certainly they have no one but them- 
 selves to blame. It is needless to add that our fel- 
 lows decided not to waste much time when they 
 came to the next dugout. Being decent meant 
 taking quite unnecessary risks, and when a risk 
 is unnecessary a soldier is not justified in tak- 
 ing it. 
 
 I could not help remarking on hov*^ very thor- 
 oughly the remaining dugouts were cleared. Peo- 
 ple may hold up their hands in righteous horror 
 at this cold-blooded performance but before do- 
 ing so let them consider what their feelings would 
 have been had some of these men of ours been 
 their own relations, brothers, fathers or hus- 
 bands, and remember that had they not been 
 both clever and very quick every one would have 
 
232 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 been treacherously killed. It is bad enough to 
 lose ones kith and kin in regular fighting when 
 all must take their chance, but to be killed by 
 men, brutes perhaps would be the better word, 
 whose lives you have honourably spared is quite 
 different, and we must not judge our men harsh- 
 ly if they do occasionally administer punishment 
 for some dastardly deed of cowardly treachery 
 and inliuman cruelty. When they do have the 
 chance to fight cleanly and fairly they do so, 
 thank God. 
 
 In the meantime the reader having kindly par- 
 doned this digression we will return to our am- 
 munition carrying prisoners. 
 
 The supply of grenades was carefully stored 
 in a safe place to await the arrival of a fatigue 
 (work) party and the batch of prisoners once 
 more turned their backs on the field of battle; 
 each step took them further from the chance of 
 being killed by indiscriminate shells which in- 
 sisted on falling in unexpected and quite unnec- 
 essary places. Thoughtlessly enough the men 
 showed their feelings of relief. They smiled, 
 and that was foolish, for it gave a brilliant idea 
 to their guarding angel, to himself he said "Pris- 
 oners must not be employed in carrying ammuni- 
 tion, that's right enough, but the blighters can 
 
CAPTURED LINES AND PRISONERS 233 
 
 be put to the very useful task of carrying water 
 for the poor beggars who are so busy in the front 
 line, good idea that's what they'll do," and they 
 did, and no one got into a row about it. I think 
 it is quite safe to say that no water ever tasted 
 sweeter to our men than that chlorinated, pet- 
 rolated, warm v/ater carried to them by the 
 Boche prisoners. As one fellow remarked as he 
 drank "to the Kaiser's 'ealth in 'ell," "It's the 
 nectar of the gods." 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 The Toll of Battle 
 
 During the morning of the 3rd there was no 
 special work for me to do for an hour or two so 
 I employed myself searching for wounded men, 
 many of whom had been laying out in the open 
 for over two days. 
 
 During any big "push" there is bound to be 
 this unfortunate delay in picking up the wound- 
 ed, it is unavoidable. The number that fall is 
 so large that it completely overwhelms the 
 stretcher bearers who work to the very limit of 
 their power. All lightly wounded men who can 
 possibly manage it are asked to make their way 
 as best they can to the nearest dressing station, 
 but there are vast numbers who cannot walk, 
 and who must therefore await assistance. These 
 poor fellows have a way of- crawling into shell 
 holes for safety so that they are hidden, and it 
 is difficult to discover them. Then also if badly 
 injured they keep so quiet that they are easily 
 mistaken for the dead with which in this great 
 
 234 
 
^ & #• 
 
 ,<#»* 
 
 "^^•^ 
 
 ,^'^ 
 
 A BRITISH TOMMY LEADING A WOUNDED HUN 
 The remarkable kindness shown by our men to any one who is 
 wounded, whether he is a friend or enemy, is a constant source 
 01 surprise to all who see it. 
 
THE TOLL OF BATTLE 235 
 
 battle the ground was strewn, as far as the eye 
 could see. Nearly every one of these bodies must 
 be examined and the stretcher bearers were so 
 terribly overworked that many a badly wounded 
 man necessarily must be passed for dead during 
 the earlier hurried examinations. 
 
 No words can give any adequate idea of the 
 splendid work of the stretcher bearer. No praise 
 is too high for him. He has none of the excite- 
 ment of those who fight, none of the glory of 
 wresting trenches from the enemy. His is the 
 hard, gruesome, yet wonderful work of mercy. 
 No sooner has a "show" begun than he is needed, 
 and from then on he must not stop, day and 
 night. In the comparative shelter of trenches 
 or in the shell- swept open, facing danger without 
 a thought for his own safety, his one idea is to 
 find those who have fallen, and by some method 
 get them back to the dressing station. 
 
 Often it is impossible to move the wounded 
 man, then the stretcher bearer does what he can 
 to dress the wound and make the sufferer as 
 comfortable as possible. To friend and foe the 
 same treatment is given. Once a man is down, 
 his nationality makes no difference, but when 
 possible the wise and careful stretcher bearer re- 
 moves any weapons from within the reach of the 
 
236 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 wounded German. For sad experience has 
 taught the lesson that many a one that has been 
 wounded after having been bound up by our 
 fellows has returned good for evil by shootmg 
 his benefactors in the back. 
 
 Those who have never seen the stretcher bear- 
 er at work can have no idea of the difficulties 
 he encounters. Carrying men who are acting 
 the part of the wounded in beautiful symmetrical 
 home-made practice trenches appears so easy, 
 but to carry a really wounded man through ir- 
 regular shell torn trenches, which are perhaps 
 crowded with moving troops or strewn with 
 wounded and dead, is a task that calls for un- 
 tiring strength and patience. The fact that a 
 few minutes' delay may make all the diiterence 
 in the man's chance of being saved, adds a nerv- 
 ous strain which cannot be described. 
 
 During the two hours I had to spare this morn- 
 ing there was a good opportunity of seeing the 
 wonderful work of the S. Bs and as I did what 
 I could to help, my admiration became greater 
 .and greater. Some of the sights were too ghast- 
 ly to be spoken of, but one thing above all others 
 which impressed itself on me was the truly heroic 
 patience and pluck of the wounded, seldom a 
 groan, never a complaint and usually a murmured 
 
THE TOLL OF BATTLE 237 
 
 word of thanks for any help they received; and 
 people dare to say that war brutalises men. I 
 thank God that I have seen what men can be, for 
 I have never known it in peace time, and I say, 
 iwithout fear of contradiction (and I do not count 
 the contradiction of the stay-at-homes, they do 
 not know), that the very finest that is in a man 
 is developed out there. The callous gain hearts, 
 yes, great big hearts. The soft-hearted suffer. 
 Lord how they suffer, but their suffering be- 
 comes unselfish. They swallow their own ag- 
 onies as they help the poor mutilated beings 
 that so often have lost all resemblance to men. 
 Perhaps at home these soft-hearted super-sensi- 
 tive men, and there are plenty such, would be 
 called faint-hearted. They might not allow 
 themselves to help an injured creature for fear 
 of harrowing their own delicate feelings. That 
 selfishness vanishes out there. They become men. 
 Is that brutalising? No indeed, it is just the re- 
 verse. One becomes accustomed to death, for 
 worse luck one sees so much of it. A poor dead 
 body is not a thing to shudder at or be afraid of, 
 but that does not mean that we become callous. 
 We no longer look on death as such a terrible 
 thing, nor on our puny selves as being so ail-im- 
 portant. Our sense of proportion becomes more 
 
238 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 true, and we are more likely to see ourselves as 
 we really are, important only to our own im- 
 mediate friends and relations. We become more 
 humble and surely that is good for us. 
 
 Some people say that because our men sing 
 and joke while on their way to that scientific 
 slaughter ground, the modern battlefield, that 
 they have no religion, that they are materialists. 
 They do not know the hearts of these men, they 
 have not seen them during their only too brief 
 leisure hours in the days before the battle go 
 quietly into the little churches and silently offer 
 up their simple prayers. Is it for themselves they 
 pray? I doubt it. No, it is for those at home, 
 for wives and kiddies, and for mothers v/ho are 
 thinking of them so many miles away. There is 
 more real religion out there near the line of bat- 
 tle than is ever seen at home. It is not ostenta- 
 tion, but quiet, deep and beautifully sincere. 
 
 Not long ago I met a young man, a civilian, 
 who was filled with the desire to help others to be 
 better. He was of the anaemic type in both body 
 and mind. He lacked all experience in the great 
 busy world that is doing things, and had never 
 been two hundred miles from home. He came to 
 me and asked my advice about an idea that he 
 had. I was anxious to hear what his idea mJght 
 
THE TOLL OF BATTLE 239 
 
 be for the complete lack of expression in his face 
 made me think that an idea and himself could 
 scarcely be related. It turned out that he wanted 
 to go to France to uplift the wicked soldiers. He 
 was quite upset when I pointed out that those 
 men out there were doing far more than he was. 
 That they were following Christ's example in 
 offering their lives for the good of others, ready 
 at any moment to make the Supreme Sacrifice. 
 That generally speaking they were living honest 
 clean lives, on the average far better than civilians 
 at home, and finally, that if he wanted to do 
 missionary work he would find his field without 
 going to France. 
 
 Now why should people imagine that we poor 
 soldiers are so much worse than any one else? 
 Why should all sorts of laws be made to protect 
 civilians from our evil influence as though we 
 were moral lepers ? We are even denied some of 
 the privileges accorded to the slacker who stays 
 at home and grows fat on his ill-gotten gains. 
 We are actually punished because we are shoul- 
 dering the burden of military service. This is 
 very hard for us to understand. For when we see 
 what the soldiers do, even though they are but 
 temporary soldiers, who have given up civilian 
 pursuits to "do their bit," one cannot help feel- 
 
S40 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 ing that they are certainly no worse than those 
 who stay at home, and that the effect of the war 
 on them is refining rather than brutahsing. They 
 will come out of it better men in every way, 
 broader minded and more charitable and very 
 much more sympathetic, besides having learned 
 a great many things which will be of the utmost 
 value to them in life. 
 
 Details of what happened during our search 
 for the wounded cannot be given. Sometimes 
 the scenes were only too painfully pathetic and 
 again they were sadly amusing, if that combina- 
 tion can be imagined, but the less badly injured 
 would often make such absurdly humorous re- 
 marks that it was impossible not to laugh. One 
 fellow had no less than three wounds — his right 
 shoulder, his left hand, and his thigh. He had 
 managed to wriggle into a shell hole for safety 
 he said as he was "afraid of getting hit"; but 
 once in the crater he could not get out. In de- 
 scribing his predicament he said that never be- 
 fore had he realised how hard it was to roll up 
 hill. But that is not what bothered him, his 
 trouble was that he could not get at his "fags" 
 (cigarettes). They were in his pocket, but ow- 
 ing to the hand and arm being injured he was 
 unable to reach them. As the S.B. was binding 
 
THE TOLL OF BATTLE 9A1 
 
 his wounds preparatory to moving him he re- 
 marked in most approved cockney "Blime me, 
 old chap, but if I ever catches that bounder 
 what put that there last shot into m.y left 'and, 
 I'm blowed if I wouldn't jest knock 'is bloomin' 
 blitherin' fice (face) in so that 'is own pot-beliied 
 German father wouldn't recognise 'is lawful horf- 
 spring. I wouldn't er minded t'other two 
 
 blarsted pills, but me fags is all in me pocket, 
 
 four packs o' blessed Woodbines what me com- 
 pany hofficer gave me, and 'ere I been two mortal 
 dies (days) and not a bloomin' smoke. Its a 
 bleedin' shime I says, come on 'ere, Mke a good 
 chap, and put two in me mouth to make up for 
 lost time — that's the ticket, Oh Gawd but that's 
 a bit of orl right (as the cigarettes were put in 
 his mouth and lighted) 'ere 'ave one, or two. 
 Th're just like kids and beer two's better 'n one 
 any toime. Ah 'old on a bit there ( as they lifted 
 him on to a stretcher) that old leg's napoo * its 
 got ther toothache or somethin', jest pick her up 
 by both ends." 
 
 But the pain was more than he could stand in 
 his weakened condition and he went off in a dead 
 faint. The cigarettes were taken from his colour- 
 
 *I. e., no good, "nothing doing" — derived (more or less) from the 
 French II n'y en a plus. 
 
^42 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 less lips, "pinched out," and tucked in orthodox 
 fashion behind his ears, ready for him when he 
 regained consciousness. I watched the poor fel- 
 low being carried off and marvelled at his courage 
 and spirits, not even a word of complaint at 
 the long wait before help had come. 
 
 Turning in the opposite direction I scanned 
 the many motionless khaki figures which lay 
 around me in such curious positions ; if one looked 
 at them steadily they seemed to move, and sev- 
 eral times I was about to start for one when I 
 realised from its attitude that it was one of the 
 Supreme Sacrifices. About a hundred yards 
 away there w^as a patch of glowing scarlet pop- 
 pies. They fascinated me, their cheerful colour 
 in the field of death, as though nature laughed 
 at our mourning. As I stared something moved 
 very slightly, so slightly indeed that I thought I 
 must be mistaken and I was about to move awav, 
 but an unknown power seemed to lead me for- 
 ward to the poppies in spite of myself, and I 
 made my way over the shell torn, body-strewn, 
 ground. On arriving I found a badly wounded 
 man, he was lying in the poppy patch and w^ith 
 one arm extended so that the hand was out in 
 the open. What I had seen was the fingers mov- 
 ing, but it had been enough, perhaps, to save the 
 
THE TOLL OF BATTLE MS 
 
 man's life. The flowers so completely surrounded 
 him that very likely he would never have been 
 found, except perhaps by the burial party. 
 
 So far the morning had been fairly quiet in 
 this particular neighbourhood, very few shells 
 having fallen in our immediate vicinity, though 
 innumerable machine gun bullets sang through 
 the air overhead, and in the distance toward 
 Mametz Wood and Contalmaison there was the 
 unceasing pounding of the big guns. Evidently 
 the Germans were disputing every yard of our 
 advance, but our men were pushing forward with 
 splendid determination. It was gratifying to 
 learn later that in no place had an enemy counter- 
 attack been successful for njore than a short time. 
 
 As I was about to return to H.Q.* our Ro- 
 man Catholic Padre passed me. He was on his 
 way to where the greatest number of our men 
 had fallen not far from the German front line 
 of three days ago. Up to the moment there had 
 been no time or opportunity for burying the 
 dead, nor was there much chance that it would 
 be done for some days to come,t and it appeared 
 that our Brigade had just received orders to move 
 back for reorganisation. Our good Padre could 
 
 * Head Quarters. 
 
 f It was actually about twelve days before the burying began. 
 
StU WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 not bear to think that a strange priest would read 
 the service over his "boys" as he called them. The 
 boys he had lived with for over two years. How 
 often he had scolded them for their little failings, 
 and now so hiany lay before him — their ears deaf 
 to the human voice, their great strong bodies stiff, 
 cold and inert. He had loved them with a great 
 devotion and many a one, torn and bleeding, had 
 he carried off the field on his powerful shoulders 
 utterly regardless of the passing bullets. He 
 was a great man, admired by all who knew him, 
 whether Catholic or not. (I regret to say that 
 some months later he was badly wounded while 
 carrying a message under terrific fire, a task that 
 he had voluntarily assumed.) On that battle- 
 field of the Somme he stood, exposed to the shells 
 which were coming in increasing number, and 
 there silhouetted against the sky-line, I saw him 
 read the burial ser\ace consigning the dead to 
 eternal rest, not individually, but in hundreds, 
 yes thousands. It v/as impressive in its simplicity 
 and it touched the hearts of all who witnessed it. 
 On returning to H.Q. I learned that we were 
 
 to leave at eight o'clock and go to D 1 where 
 
 we expected to entrain for a place far back from 
 the scene of the great conflict. The news was 
 welcome for we were tired out, a long rest was 
 
THE TOLL OF BATTLE 245 
 
 needed and had certainly been well-earned by 
 the men. 
 
 In the afternoon I asked permission to go for- 
 ward to see if I could find poor B 's (the 
 
 Brigade Major) body and rescue if possible any 
 of his belongings to send home to his family. His 
 servant, who like every one else had been devoted 
 to him, was completely broken down by the loss, 
 and he begged permission to accompany me. He 
 thought that between us we might bring back the 
 body and have it properly buried. 
 
 After some little trouble we succeeded in mak- 
 ing our way across the ground between our old 
 line and the sunken road. What a scene of deso- 
 lation it presented! More utter and complete 
 destruction could not be imagined. No sign of 
 the original German trenches remained, and our 
 men were busily engaged in digging new lines of 
 communication and putting up barbed wire en- 
 tanglements in anticipation of the inevitable 
 counter-attacks. Beyond us lay Fricourt, or 
 more properly what had been Fricourt, for it 
 was now nothing but a mass of smouldering ruin ; 
 not a wall was standing, the very bricks were 
 broken into fragments. Where trees had stood, 
 there remained only the torn and splintered 
 stumps, but no words can describe the complete- 
 
g46 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 ness of the ruin. The sunken road along which 
 only a few days before the Germans had so con- 
 fidently driven their supply carts and marched 
 their men, was now more of shell-holes than road ; 
 shattered limbers, waggons and guns, distorted 
 remains of horses and men, were strewn in end- 
 less confusion, while our men crouched into hast- 
 ily constructed trenches along the road side and 
 dodged the cursed shells. The enemy knew we 
 should be using this road and he made us pay 
 heavy toll. As we walked along, between the ex- 
 treme bursts of hate, three men went ahead of 
 us laughing and joking in the usual way. M 
 single shell landed on the road just ahead of 
 I them. Two of the men spun round like tops 
 and then fell dead. The third was not touched. 
 *' Close shave that," he remarked as we passed 
 him. 
 
 ' On the left side of the road there were two 
 small patches of woods called the Dingle and 
 Round Wood. These, before the big bombard- 
 ment, had contained trees, but now scarcely even 
 stumps remained, so thoroughly had they been 
 shelled. Scattered thickly among the connect- 
 ing shell holes were great numbers of bodies, 
 both German and British. Among the dead 
 were some wounded, very few, because the con- 
 
THE TOLL OF BATTLE g^Ti 
 
 stant fire, both before and after our men had 
 captured the ground, had finished off nearly all 
 who had fallen. During the advance probably 
 hundreds of our fellows had crept or rushed over 
 this piece of territory in trying to reach the com- 
 parative shelter afforded by the eastern bank 
 of the Sunken Road, but somewhere in Round 
 Wood lay a German sniper, a man of great 
 courage and persistence, who felt it his particular 
 duty to pick off any man, or more particularly, 
 ofticer, who came along the road. 
 
 He made our progress most uneven and diffi- 
 cult. I might say hazardous, for he was not 
 much over a hundred yards away and so it was 
 easy for him to send bullets unpleasantly close 
 to our heads; only by going forward by bounds 
 and zig-zags could we hope to avoid hitting those 
 persistent bullets. Judging from the somewhat 
 erratic shooting of our friend I should say he 
 was wounded, and not in a very comfortable 
 position, at least not in position really favourable 
 for good marksmanship, but still I could not help 
 admiring the fellow's pluck. Evidently he had 
 pretended to be dead when our men were any- 
 where near him, and then when opportunity of- 
 fered he had probably shot them in the back. To 
 have got the man would have been very desirable. 
 
S48 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 but to distinguish him among the mass of figures 
 would be by no means an easy task. Only by very 
 careful stalking, which would require a lot 
 of time, would there have been any chance of 
 getting him, and we were in a hurry; already 
 more than half of my allotted time had passed, 
 so we hurried forward, dodging trouble until at 
 length we discovered the body of our friend. 
 
 Of course he was dead. That I had expected, 
 but he had been stripped of everything of value, 
 watch, glasses and all. This was a sad meeting 
 of the living and the dead and I could not help 
 thinking of the idiotic remarks one so often hears 
 by the jealous and the armchair critics regard- 
 ing the "Staff." That they stick in safe places 
 and do nothing but make mistakes, and never 
 take the risks they arrange for others. How sick 
 it makes one to hear the drivel of such fools. 
 
 Perhaps we in our Division were unusually 
 fortunate but certainly our Staff never shirked 
 any job because it was dangerous, on the con- 
 trary they might invariably be found in the places 
 where there was the greatest possible danger. 
 When the attack began where was the Brigade 
 Headquarters, back in the zone of safety? Not 
 much, it was within a biscuit throw of the actual 
 front line trench and the Brigadier did not hide 
 
THE TOLL OF BATTLE 249 
 
 in a safe trench and get reports of what was 
 going on. He stood on the top of the parapet, 
 and saw with his own eyes what was happening, 
 taking no notice whatever of the hail of bullets 
 
 that passed him, and here was poor B , he had 
 
 gone forward of any of our positions, and given 
 his splendid life, doing even more than his duty. 
 We could not carry the body back, to have done 
 so would have been suicide, but I enclosed in a 
 bottle where it would be safe from rain, a paper 
 giving his rank, name and unit, with the instruc- 
 tions that his grave should not be unmarked, and 
 so we left him and made our way back to H.Q. 
 in time to attend to various duties incidental to 
 our departure. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Rest — ^and Return to the "Show" 
 
 At eight o'clock we left, tired through and 
 through and looking forward to the quiet of the 
 land-of-no-gvms. Through lack of sleep and 
 the continued strain my nerves were in a very 
 ragged state. This led me to do something for 
 which I felt most deeply ashamed. As we walked 
 over the open shell-torn ground, occasional bul- 
 lets flew past us, most of them a long v/ay off, 
 but one came perhaps thirty or forty feet over 
 my head and I ducked. The act was almost un- 
 conscious, and no one knows the mortification I 
 experienced when the Brigadier, who was only a 
 few yards behind me, laughed and said, "You're 
 slow, Dugmore; that bullet had passed long be- 
 fore you ducked." I wished at the time that 
 another bullet would come and bestow on me the 
 order of the R.I.P. 
 i It was a forlorn looking lot that made their 
 
 way to D 1. Yet though battle weary, dirty 
 
 and footsore, the men wore an air of keen satis- 
 
 250 
 
REST— AND RETURN TO THE "SHOW" 25l 
 
 faction. They had been tried, and they had not 
 been found wanting. The work had been al- 
 lotted, and they had done all that flesh and 
 blood could do, and now before them was rest, 
 wonderful rest in a peaceful part of the country, 
 miles and miles from the front. It was some- 
 thing to which they could look forward with 
 pleasure. Occasionally as they marched they 
 would look back, and seeing the ruddy glow of 
 shell-fire in the darkening sky they made pity- 
 ing remarks on the hard luck of the "poor blight- 
 ers" who were still in the fight. 
 
 Shortly after eleven our camping site was 
 reached. It was a bare open field. The camp 
 cookers for all the four Battalions were lined up 
 ready with good hot food for all hands, delicious 
 solid food and steaming hot tea. What a meal 
 that was! and the supply was more than abun- 
 dant, for our ranks were sadly thinned. Scarcely 
 was the meal eaten than great drops of rain 
 splashed down from the overcast sky, but no 
 one cared. The men were fed, and they did not 
 have to fight ; what more could they ask? Within 
 a few minutes the ground was covered with lines 
 of men rolled in their waterproof ground sheets, 
 sleeping the sleep of complete exhaustion, while 
 the rain fell in torrents. That we had no pil- 
 
252 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 lows or mattresses or tents made no difference, 
 all that was wanted was the chance to sleep and 
 forget. Yes above all Forget, 
 
 At four o'clock the bugle sounded, and men 
 stretched and yawned, and cursed the disturbing 
 call. It was not yet daylight, but the rain had 
 stopped, and it did not seem as though they had 
 been asleep more than a few minutes. Some of 
 us washed, a few shaved, and all had breakfast. 
 Then came the long wait for the train. It w^as due 
 to come for us at six, but not until nine o'clock 
 did we start. The long time had been spent in 
 trying to find out news of our different friends 
 whose faces did not appear in the lines, but most 
 of the information received was unreliable. In 
 the excitement and confusion of a big advance 
 very little is seen, and very much is imagined. 
 Even the roll-call did not give a very accurate 
 idea of our losses for men might yet turn up. 
 Many become separated from their units and do 
 not turn up for days and even weeks. All that 
 we knew for certain was that the Brigade had 
 suffered very heavily, how heavily we scarcely 
 dared think. 
 
 By slow stages we travelled all day, the train 
 taking us to within a few miles of our preliminary 
 destination. Here we were to tidy up and await 
 
REST— AND RETURN TO THE "SHOW" 253 
 
 the General's inspection. There was no more 
 scouting work to do for the present and as my 
 old Battalion had lost nearly all of its officers, 
 including the Colonel, I went back to it as second 
 in command until it was settled whether our 
 Major was to be given command, or whether a 
 new Colonel would be appointed. Needless to 
 say we were anxious to get our men in shape for 
 the General who was due on the 6th, so all our 
 spare time was devoted to cleaning up. 
 
 On the morning of the 6th we marched to a 
 fine old country place which was loaned for the 
 occasion. The grounds at first glance seemed ab- 
 surdly small, and I was beginning to wonder how 
 it would be possible to arrange the four Battal- 
 ions when the sad fact dawned on me that we no 
 longer required a large space. After a slight de- 
 lay we adjusted ourselves to the new conditions 
 and the poor old Brigade was drawn up. How it 
 had dwindled ! In the old days we had made such 
 a fine showing with our four thousand men, and 
 now, more than half of them had failed to re- 
 spond when their names were called. On the 
 General's arrival we formed into a square and 
 listened to the words of thanks for what had 
 been done. I had often heard or read of what a 
 first inspection after a battle means but never 
 
254 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 had I realised what a painful experience it could 
 be. Men swallowed hard and avoided each 
 other's eyes for many of the eyes were moist. 
 
 That same night word came that we would 
 
 move the following morning to Le M e a short 
 
 day's march and once there we would receive our 
 reinforcements and spend a month or six weeks 
 getting into shape. This sounded delightful, but 
 like most cheerful promises it did not come true. 
 
 On arriving at our new quarters we were de- 
 lighted to find a peaceful little country hamlet in 
 the midst of a beautiful country. A perfect 
 place in which to recuperate. The billets were 
 quite good, and we settled down to make our- 
 selves as comfortable as possible, and amused 
 ourselves reading accounts of the Battle of the 
 Somme as they appeared in the newspapers. 
 
 Having read the various stories we came to the 
 conclusion quite unanimously that we had not 
 taken part in the "Show," had not even been 
 there — and further we doubted if there had been 
 anything more than a series of skirmishes, just a 
 slight variety to the ordinary daily monotony of 
 trench warfare. Our conceit was taken out of us 
 and we felt exceedingly humble. 
 
 The day of the 8th was given up to rest and 
 getting everything arranged. The following 
 
REST— AND RETURN TO THE "SHOW" 255 
 
 morning there was to be an inspection of kit and 
 drawing of whatever was necessary to make up 
 the inevitable deficiencies, for in battle much is 
 lost. In the afternoon we were notified that a 
 new Colonel was coming, and late that evening 
 he arrived. This meant of course that I would 
 no longer be second in command, so much to 
 my delight it was arranged that I should take 
 my old company or rather what was left of it. 
 
 Things happen quickly out in France, and the 
 next afternoon the Colonel announced that we 
 were to return to the front the following morn- 
 ing. The order was in the form of a letter, the 
 purport of which was that as the Brigade had 
 done so splendidly The Higher Command felt 
 that it was only due to it (the Brigade) that an- 
 other opportunity for distinguishing itself should 
 he given and the said Higher Command felt com- 
 plete confidence in the work that the Brigade 
 would dOj etc. J etc. This we had to read out to 
 the men. It caused a sad and cynical smile and I 
 fear that all of us felt somewhat rebellious and 
 greatly disappointed. It did not seem fair to the 
 men, they needed a rest, and then we had lost all 
 our sergeant-majors and most of our sergeants 
 the entire internal organisation had to be read- 
 justed. We had scarcely any officers and they 
 
^56 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 were mostly new fellows who had no experience 
 at the front, and finally we were below half 
 strength. To get into the "Show" under such 
 conditions would not give the Brigade half a 
 chance. It is true that new drafts were promised 
 before we reached the front line, but it requires 
 some time to assimilate new men, and as far as 
 we could see the time could not be given to us. 
 
 On the morning of the 10th we left our rest 
 billets and said good-bye somewhat sadly to Le 
 M — e. A good half day's marching brought us 
 to A — s where v/e were to take the train, but 
 something had gone wrong both with the train 
 and the rations and we had to wait till late that 
 night. The only food v/as what we bought out 
 of our own pockets. We scoured the village and 
 had to perform a sort of barley loaves and little 
 fish miracle, but the fragments left would not 
 have filled many baskets. Scarcely a particle of 
 bread or chocolate was left in that village. We 
 had acted like the locusts of Egypt, but unlike 
 them we left money in full (very full I should 
 say) payment. Eventually the train arrived and 
 took us to V — e our old stamping ground. The 
 distance was only a few miles, but many hours, 
 very weary hours, were occupied in the journey. 
 
 Soon after our arrival we received the new 
 
REST— AND RETURN TO THE "SHOW" 257 
 
 drafts. Men of many different regiments, some 
 had been in the attack of July 1st, others were 
 new arrivals who had not seen a trench, and it 
 was a merry task sorting and arranging the lot. 
 In fact the day was one of the busiest I have ever 
 seen, rolls had to be made up, gas helmets tested, 
 kits inspected, deficiencies made good, iron ra- 
 tions issued,* new N.C.O.s appointed and a 
 thousand and one things to be done. Some new 
 officers having come to add to the confusion, they 
 had to be sized up and allotted to companies. It 
 was midnight before we were able to get a chance 
 to sleep and the orders were that we should pro- 
 ceed to Bottom Wood, beyond Fricourt the fol- 
 lowing morning. 
 
 Any old soldier would have been amused had 
 he seen us getting ready to move. The battalion 
 had to be drawn up and roughly inspected, and 
 owing to the restricted area it was necessary to 
 move the companies about more or less. Being 
 a Light Infantry regiment we have many pecu- 
 larities as to drill and orders. One item being 
 that the men are not called to attention and given 
 the ''slope ^ums/' preparatory to moving, we sim- 
 ply say "move to the right (or left) in fours. 
 Form fours — right'* and oif they go, springing 
 
 * Emergency rations, not to be used except by officer's order* 
 
258 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 to attention automatically as the first part of 
 the move and marching off at the "trail." Fully 
 half of our new men knew nothing of our Light 
 Infantry idiosyncrasies, and were completely lost. 
 The idea of being expected to move without being 
 called to attention or given the "slope" was too 
 much for them. The result was one grand and 
 very glorious confusion, for which no one was 
 to blame. At first our Colonel, who was a reg- 
 ular from a Highland Light Infantry regiment, 
 and a splendid fellow, accustomed to having 
 things done strictly according to rules and regu- 
 lations, gazed v/ith indignation and rapidly rising 
 temper at the horrible muddle. A word whis- 
 pered in his ear at the critical moment explained 
 the situation and discipline or no discipline there 
 was a suppressed giggle before the mongrel Bat- 
 talion finally got under way with more or less 
 uniformity of action. 
 
 Our march to Bottom Wood was decidedly 
 interesting but slow, ov/ing to the enormous 
 amount of traffic on the road. There are few 
 things that give a better idea of the magnitude 
 of modern war than the roid traffic, the never 
 ceasing stream of moving war supplies. For the 
 24) hours of each day, the seven days of each week 
 it goes on like the di^iving belt of a monster ma- 
 
PART OF MAP TAKEN FROM A DEAD GERMAN OFFICER 
 DURING THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME. 
 
This 
 may 
 
 section is reproduced so that the difference between the German and British maps [see paye 
 be clearly shown. This German map is printed entirely in black, the British map is in color. 
 
REST— AND RETURN TO THE "SHOW" 259 
 
 chine, — the belt that operates this colossal in- 
 strument of war. Needless to say the handling 
 of this vast mass of moving material requires the 
 most perfect organisation. Not only must the 
 starting of each item be regulated with absolute 
 precision, but its destination, even in the midst 
 of a battle where the elements of uncertainty are 
 so great, must be equally well planned. And 
 then the roads themselves which are subject to the 
 terrific wear and tear as well as the destruction 
 by shells must be maintained in perfect condi- 
 tion, repairs being made with the least possible 
 delay. To insure smooth working of the whole 
 traffic system members of the military traffic 
 squad are stationed at intervals along the roads 
 and at the crossings to see that everything shall 
 move according to plan. 
 
 Passing us there was every type of convey- 
 ance, from giant, indomitable caterpillar tractors, 
 to hand carts — carrying every imaginable article 
 used in this modern warfare, from huge shells 
 that looked big enough to wipe out the whole 
 German army, to bales of innocent hay for the 
 horses. Sandwiched in between these various 
 transports were units of every branch of the serv- 
 ice, artillery, cavalry and poor weary "foot slog- 
 gers" as we infantry are called. 
 
260 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 This great endless caravan, carrying forward 
 its unmeasurable weight of man and material 
 with slow resistless power, was a sight to inspire, 
 and it gave fresh courage and hope to the tired 
 men. Against this moving mass, returning from 
 the land of shells and horrors, were the "emp- 
 ties" going back to be refilled, for the maw of bat- 
 tle is never satisfied, never filled ; and then there 
 were the endless ambulances bearing in their cov- 
 ered bodies the price of our victories, and our men 
 looked with envy on the pale bandaged figures 
 who were bound for the wonderful hospitals 
 where all that human kindness can do is done, 
 where men learn to understand and appreciate 
 women, those women who bear the blessed symbol 
 of the Cross of Red and devote their energies and 
 their great sympathies to the merciful work of 
 healing. It is scarcely to be wondered at that 
 our men were envious of these "Blighties." 
 
 On either side of the road the fields were massed 
 with men and material, and one could not help 
 thinking of the change that a few days had made. 
 Less than two weeks ago this was a shell-svv^ept 
 area, and now it was a huge encampment. As 
 we continued the changes were still more notice- 
 able, and still more satisfactory. For as we en- 
 tered Fricourt we passed what remained of the 
 
REST— AND RETURN TO THE "SHOW" 261 
 
 railway station in which stood the riddled and 
 wrecked remnants of the last train that had 
 moved over that line almost two years ago, and 
 now our engineers were clearing the line and mak- 
 ing ready to relay the tracks for the trains which 
 would very soon be running into the station. And 
 Fricourt itself! What a scene it presented not 
 only of destruction but construction. Already 
 the main road had been cleared of debris and re- 
 paired sufficiently to allow of its being used. 
 Dugouts were made habitable and wire entan- 
 glements erected for defensive purposes. The 
 w^hole place was seething with activity, and it did 
 one good to think that never again would the 
 Germans set foot in tlie village they had occupied 
 for so long. No one knew what a satisfaction it 
 was to us to note all these things and to realise 
 that our men had played so large a part in bring- 
 ing about this great change.* 
 
 The sight of this evidence of our gains had a 
 wonderful effect on the spirits of our men, and 
 they went forward with a new spring in their 
 step. On we went keeping to the right of Fri- 
 court Wood and continued till we reached Bot- 
 tom Wood where the Battalion was distributed 
 according to plan. My company held the line on 
 
 * Alas Fricourt has recently been retaken by the Germans. 
 
262 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 the north eastern edge of the wood and a rough 
 piece of trench it was, much of it had been com- 
 pletely destroyed by shells and the whole place 
 was littered with all sorts of war material, rifles, 
 bombs, clothing, accoutrement of all kind, food 
 and so forth, most of which was German. 
 
 Fortunately there were not very many bodies 
 lying about. Of course the few we found had to 
 be buried without delay as they had been there 
 many days. While some of the men were en- 
 gaged in this unpleasant task the others were set 
 to consolidating the trench, and clearing the parts 
 that had fallen in. This also proved far from 
 agreeable as many naked bodies were unearthed. 
 The Germans with their high degree of efficiency 
 and lack of sentiment remove everything from 
 their dead. So the finding of these bodies was 
 gruesome, to express it in mildest terms. 
 
 For three days we occupied the line, and they 
 were three days of misery as the enemy kept up 
 a regular rain of lachrymatory gas shells so that 
 every crater was a reservoir of the vile stuff and 
 the very ground itself was impregnated with it. 
 The result was that we were in a constant state 
 of crying, for the gas, so well named "tear gas" 
 causes intense inflammation of the eyes as well 
 as to the membrane of the throat and nose. For- 
 
REST— AND RETURN TO THE "SHOW" 263 
 
 tunately it is not deadly, but it makes life a 
 miserable burden and results in a great loathing 
 for the very name of a German. For a short 
 time the goggles with which we are furnished, 
 act as a protection, but it is not long before the 
 gas gets through and attacks the eyes. 
 
 During our spare time, when things were quiet, 
 we collected and sorted all material that had any 
 value, so that when the salvage company came 
 it could be easily handled. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 A Hot Corner — Gassed 
 
 On the evening of the 14th we received the 
 orders, for which we had been waiting, rumour, 
 that unreliable source of trouble, had said that 
 after all we should not be needed and so we half 
 expected to return to finish our disturbed rest. 
 But no such luck ! Our orders were to move for- 
 ward at six the following morning to a given 
 point at the south east corner of Mametz Wood, 
 where we should find the rest of the Brigade, and 
 further instruction would be sent later. 
 
 On the morning of the 15th I assembled my 
 company preparatory to moving, while going 
 over the line to see that everything was left in 
 proper order and that my ex- German dugout 
 contained nothing in the way of papers. I heard 
 a shell making its way toward me with entirely 
 unnecessary speed. Frankly I thought it was 
 going to hit me, but no, it fell some thirty yards 
 or so directly in front, I crouched low, expect- 
 ing it to burst, but instead of the orthodox deaf- 
 
 264 
 
A HOT CORNER— GASSED 265 
 
 ening roar, there was only a mild puff. Dud, 
 thought I, and thanked the careless person who 
 had presumably made some mistake in the shell's 
 makeup. I was premature in the congratulations 
 and thanks, for apparently the shell contained 
 phosgene gas, which up to then was entirely new 
 to us. Owing to the pollution of the air by the 
 omnipresent pineapple-smelling tear gas, I could 
 not detect the odour of the new poison, and the 
 thick fog which prevailed at the time prevented 
 the gas from spreading freely. 
 
 This probably saved me from a bad dose, and 
 at the time beyond an increased irritation of 
 the throat and a disagreeable shortness of breath 
 I did not feel the effects. 
 
 As we were about to start, a Battalion of one 
 of the Scottish regiments passed us; as they dis- 
 appeared into the fog with their kilts swinging to 
 their long slow strides, I could not help thinking 
 v/hat a fine body of men they were. The kilts 
 make them appear abnormally tall and sturdy. 
 As soon as they had cleared us we moved toward 
 the sound of the guns; at first we had to trust 
 to the compass for our direction, but gradually 
 the fog lifted and as we reached what was known 
 with such good reason as Death's Valley Road, a 
 large body of troops came along. I halted my 
 
266 WHEN THE SOM]ME RAN RED 
 
 company and waited for the column to pass, 
 since we were well ahead of tune. Scarcely had 
 it gone a hundred yards clear of us than we 
 heard the dreaded hum of a huge shell coming 
 and an instant later a deafening roar as it ex- 
 ploded. The result was a ghastly sight, for it 
 had landed right in the centre of the forward 
 company of that Battalion and practically wiped 
 it out. Had we gone ahead, as we might so easily 
 have done, the catastrophe would have fallen on 
 us, and my company would never have reported 
 itself "present" at the rendezvous. 
 
 The scene around the outskirts and edge of 
 Mametz Wood was simply indescribable. The 
 whole place was literally carpeted with bodies, 
 the enemy having put up an especially vigorous 
 resistance in the attempt to hold the Wood. Con- 
 sidering that he was most thoroughly entrenched, 
 and had the protection of the woods, it struck me 
 as marvellous that our men had succeeded in 
 winning. 
 
 They had had to rush over a wide stretch of 
 absolutely open country without a particle of 
 shelter except w^hat was afforded by the shell 
 holes, and it was uphill all the way from the 
 road. What terrible execution they wrought 
 among the enemy was very evident for the 
 
A HOT CORNER— GASSED g©T 
 
 trenches were in many places piled three and four 
 deep with bodies. 
 
 In the centre of this scene of carnage was 
 our rendezvous. Owing to the fog two of the 
 companies had lost their way, and we were de- 
 layed for an hour or more but eventually "all 
 present" was reported and after eating a light 
 lunch in this gruesome setting we moved for- 
 ward once more. Our orders were to proceed 
 to Bazentin-le-Petit and take up a position in 
 front of the village at a given place. The Ger- 
 mans had very recently been driven out of the 
 village and were attacking it in considerable 
 force, so it looked as though we were in for some 
 fun. ! 
 
 In less than an hour we reached the lower cor- 
 ner of Bazentin-le-Petit Wood and there rested 
 for ten minutes. Our position gave us a splendid 
 view of the village we v/ere to hold. It also gave 
 us a view which was by no means splendid of 
 a very fine assortment of shells, large venomous 
 ones, bursting incessantly all over the said vil- 
 lage ; evidently the Hun did not propose that we 
 should occupy the place with any undue degree 
 of comfort. "I^Iarked activity" might be the de- 
 scription of the enemy's attitude. From every 
 direction came the roar of shells and the spiteful 
 
^6S WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 crackling of machine guns. The whole air vi- 
 brated with the ceaseless noise. It was a beau- 
 tiful Summer day completely spoilt. We made 
 our way up the steep hill by way of the road 
 that skirts the Eastern side of the wood and 
 leads to the village, and I confess it looked as 
 though we were walking straight into the jaws of 
 death. Surely no one could come out of such an 
 infernal bombardment. | 
 
 By good luck we reached the village without a 
 casualty and made our way along the shattered 
 main street which ran through the ruined mass of 
 buildings. On our left was the poor little church 
 with only one small piece of wall standing, and 
 on that, in a niche stood a statue of the Virgin 
 with hands extended as though in welcome to us. 
 
 We halted just beyond the church while the 
 Colonel and Adjutant went ahead to see about 
 the position which had been assigned to us in the 
 apple orchard. As a quartet of large shells burst 
 rather too close, sending bricks and earth hurtling 
 through the air, the order was given to take what 
 cover was available. The best protection to be 
 found was in shell holes. There was an abun- 
 dant supply of these, and more were being made 
 every minute. Here and there a ruined house 
 or cellar would offer some inducement, but 
 
A HOT CORNER— GASSED 269 
 
 though this afforded protection against pieces of 
 flying metal or bricks, it also afforded a most 
 excellent opportunity for inexpensive and very 
 expeditious burial. 
 
 It was not long before the Colonel returned 
 with information of a most unsatisfactory na- 
 ture. The position allotted to us was so crowded 
 with men that not another one could be crowded 
 in. This meant that for the present at least we 
 must remain where we were. As a health re- 
 sort the place could by no stretch of the imagina- 
 tion be considered a success, and we all sincerely 
 hoped our term of occupation would be short. 
 
 The Colonel, second in command, and Adju- 
 tant were in a nice shell hole on the side of the 
 main street, I with about fifteen men occupied 
 the adjoining one. In front of us was a bank of 
 earth some ten feet high. About us the rest of 
 the battalion were crouching in all sorts of places, 
 but the shell holes were I think the most popular. 
 Frequent moves became necessary as the enemy 
 picked out certain spots for his kindly attentions 
 and the moves were made with extraordinary 
 speed. 
 
 The number of shells that entered the ruined 
 village was appalling, and the incessant roar ab- 
 solutely deafening. Every now and then the ex- 
 
270 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 plosions would send masses of earth and debris 
 among us, while great pieces of metal shrieked 
 past in a most disconcerting way. Under such 
 conditions it seemed impossible that we could 
 escape destruction and I do not believe any one 
 of us expected to see another day. Names and 
 addresses of wives or mothers were written on 
 scraps of paper and passed from one to another 
 with the simple request: "If I get scuppered send 
 a line to this address, you know what to say." 
 "Right oh! you might do the same for me like 
 a good chap." That was all, no one seemed as- 
 tonished or excited at the predicament we were 
 in. It was part of the game and perhaps the 
 worst part because at the present time we were 
 not able to hit back. 
 
 Occasionally a groan showed that some fellow 
 bad been hit, and the others in the shell hole would 
 crouch a little lower. Our Major who was sit- 
 ting next to me was hit twice on his "tin hat" 
 '"but neither time did the metal go through the 
 tough steel. Had he not been wearing that hat 
 he would most certainly have been killed. Then 
 a third piece struck the hat, a tiny splinter of hard 
 metal, it penetrated and cut a long furrow the 
 entire length of his head, fortunately not break- 
 ing the skull. A few minutes later a large shell 
 
A HOT CORNER— GASSED ^71 
 
 burst on the opposite side of the street and the 
 Adjutant leaned back, stone dead. I could 
 
 scarcely believe that poor S was gone. He 
 
 was such a good chap ! Of our old lot that had 
 trained together in England except myself, and I 
 was fast becoming useless owing to the effect of 
 the gas which was getting in its deadly work and 
 causing me very great pain, there was now only 
 one unwounded officer left. i 
 
 The long strain and the many casualties, to say 
 nothing of the frequent partial buryings, were 
 beginning to tell on the men, and the Colonel 
 thought it advisable to calm them. Before we 
 realised what he was doing he was out of the shell 
 hole and on the bullet-swept street. With the 
 utmost calmness he took out a cigarette from his 
 case, lit it, and walked up and down the pave 
 smoking away as though he were on Pall Mall. 
 Why he was not killed the good Lord only knows. 
 By all the laws of chance he should have been 
 riddled, but no, the cigarette finished, he rejoined 
 us in the hole and had the satisfaction of observ- 
 ing that the men had quieted dov/n. It was a 
 splendidly brave thing to do. Later he acknowl- 
 edged that he had been "in a deuce of a funk." 
 
 This incident shows something of the relation- 
 ship between the men and the officers in our army. 
 
272 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 It is the officers' duty to understand the psy- 
 chology of the men, to know when to give orders 
 and when to get things done by setting an ex- 
 ample. When to be harsh, when to be lenient. 
 In other words he must know men and in partic- 
 ular those under his own command, know them 
 individually, their personal peculiarities, their 
 weak points and their strong points, and he must 
 make the men respect him while he in turn re- 
 spects them. Here lies the chief difference be- 
 tween our army and the Germans. They drive 
 their men, we lead ours not only into battle but 
 in other things. People laugh at us for our pe- 
 culiar habit of going over the top carrying walk- 
 ing sticks. This has a moral effect that cannot 
 be overestimated. To those who question it, there 
 is this answer : the men follow. 
 
 It is very different from the German method. 
 The officer goes behind his men. He is in the 
 safer position, and the very idea of an officer being 
 safer than his men is abhorrent to us and con- 
 trary to all our traditions. The question of the 
 officers' personal relations with the men is always 
 interesting but very difficult to define. The line 
 between fellowship and familiarity is most sharp- 
 ly drawn, even under the strain of life at the fight- 
 ing front it seldom breaks down ; this is due chief- 
 
A HOT CORNER— GASSED 273 
 
 ly to our mutual respect. We know that the men 
 will do anything they are told to do and endure 
 the utmost hardships without complaint. They 
 in turn know that the officer will never ask them 
 to take unnecessary risks and will always con- 
 sider their welfare before his own. 
 
 After a long march when all are equally tired 
 (the officers carry full equipment except rifle and 
 cartridges, but have other things in their place) 
 when the officer is, perhaps even more tired as 
 he has the strain of the responsibility in addition 
 to the physical fatigue. He must not think of 
 attendmg to his own comforts until he has seen 
 that the men are properly cared for. This often 
 requires many hours of work and much walking 
 when he would much rather be resting. 
 
 As time went on things instead of getting bet- 
 ter grew steadily worse. If we remained much 
 longer there would be no battalion to take away. 
 So after a brief consultation the Colonel decided 
 to go out ahead with the Major, who was feeling 
 very groggy, while I was to take the men out 
 of the village to a place of comparative safety 
 near the Wood. It w^as necessary to proceed slow- 
 ly, as any quick movement would have looked like 
 a panic, and so, perhaps, have started trouble. 
 But to march out slowly under such heavy shell 
 
274 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 fire was not quite as easy as it sounds. Three 
 of the companies got out more or less intact. Then 
 a large tree was struck by a shell and fell across 
 the roadway and held up the last company which 
 was in charge of young W . The brief de- 
 lay was fatal, for a big shell landed in the midst 
 of the company and caused a terrible number of 
 
 casualties, among them poor W . He and 
 
 I had been platoon commanders together in Eng- 
 land and I felt his death very keenly, his extraor- 
 dinary coolness and courage had earned the high- 
 est admiration from all who knew him. 
 
 The Brigadier on hearing the C.O.'s account 
 told us to take up a position near the main road 
 in Death's Valley and hold ourselves in readiness 
 to move forward at a moment's notice to the ridge 
 alongside of the village we had just left, as there 
 was a good deal happening up there, and rein- 
 forcements might be needed very soon. The val- 
 ley in which we were to wait was being shelled 
 pretty freely, so the men were ordered to dig in. 
 
 Now if there is one order which never has to be 
 repeated it is *'Dig in." In an incredibly short 
 time the red clay ground was honey-combed with 
 holes big enough to hold one or two men. Those 
 holes are most comfortable things and give one 
 a feeling of safety if not of luxury. Of course 
 
A TANK CRUSHING DOWN BARBED WIRE ENTANGLEMENTS 
 
 Few obstructions will stop the progress of these iiiighty ene'nes 
 of modern warfare. 
 
A HOT CORNER— GASSED 275 
 
 they cannot be depended on to protect you if a 
 shell, whether it be large or small, insists on shar- 
 ing the hole, it is then quite time to look for "a 
 better 'ole." The Colonel insisted on appointing 
 me Adjutant, a post I have never wanted to fill, 
 but there was no help for it and I had to accept. 
 In fact I was feeling too ill to care much what I 
 was or did. The gas was getting in its deadly 
 work. My career during the past ten days had 
 been one of many changes. Brigade Scout and 
 Intelligence Officer, Second in Command. Com- 
 pany Commander and Adjutant, and all this time 
 my official rank {and pay) was that of Lieuten- 
 ant. I 
 In the course of the afternoon we were ordered 
 to send a company into Bazentin-le-Petit in order 
 to capture or destroy some enemy machine guns 
 that had been playing havoc. It was a nasty un- 
 dertaking, but young A , a mere boy of 19 
 
 years, made a satisfactory job of it and returned 
 without having had any casualties. While we lay 
 in our various earthly grave-like receptacles 
 watching the continued bombarding of Bazentin- 
 le-Petit and thanking our stars that we were not 
 in that death trap, we were interested in seeing 
 
 the cavalry passing along the road. They 
 
 had been at Delville Wood, or as Tommy calls it 
 
276 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 "Devil Wood." As they rode along, the Ger- 
 mans, evidently knowing the route they would 
 take and their approximate pace, followed them 
 with shells all the way down, almost as far as 
 Fricourt, but as good luck would have it they al- 
 ways overshot the mark by seventy-five or a hun- 
 dred yards. Just like the Germans, if they do a 
 thing wrong they keep on doing it wrong, think- 
 ing that because tliey do it, it must be right. Their 
 first range had been wrong by a certain amount, 
 and the error had continued as long as they fol- 
 lowed the road. We were not sorry to see the 
 last of these horsemen as they had been the inno- 
 cent cause of a number of shells dropping in our 
 particular neighbourhood. 
 
 Late that evening things quieted down. The 
 Hun had had enough, and was content to leave 
 us in possession of all we had acquired, and as 
 our Battalion were not likely to be needed we re- 
 ceived the welcome orders to return to Bottom 
 Wood, and so, wearily, and sadly depleted in 
 numbers, we retraced our steps to our starting 
 point of the morning. During our absence the 
 woods and small valley beyond had been heavily 
 strafed J but comparative quiet now reigned, and 
 we were glad to be back, not even objecting to 
 the filthy tear gas which filled the air. For my 
 
A HOT CORNER— GASSED ^77 
 
 own part I could not have kept going any longer. 
 The gas was affecting my lungs and heart and an 
 incessant cough racked me so that I could scarce- 
 ly lie down. The stuffy gas-laden air of the dug- 
 out made things worse, and never do I remember 
 having spent a more miserable night. As Adju- 
 tant it was important that I attended to certain 
 duties the following morning, but I fear that my 
 reports were somewhat incoherent. 
 
 About noon orders came for us to move for- 
 ward that night to take part in an attack. The 
 doctor having forbidden my going, there was 
 nothing for it but to make my way back to the 
 hospital, which I proceeded to do as soon as I 
 had attended to the Battalion's rations, and hand- 
 ed over the Adjutancy to one of the nev/ officers. 
 
 That trip back to M e was a nightmare. At 
 
 first I tried to ride, but the horse loaned to me 
 was a big powerful high-spirited animal; every 
 time a gun fired, and it seemed as though the 
 whole country was nothing but guns, the beast 
 reared and made himself generally objectionable. 
 After half an hour of this agony, as I was almost 
 blinded with pain, I handed the horse over to one 
 of the ration party and made the rest of the way 
 on foot. The distance was only about three or 
 four miles but it took me hours to do it. In vain 
 
9.1S WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 did I examine each ambulance that passed, but 
 they were crowded to the limit of their capacity 
 with men in far worse condition than I was, for 
 the past two days had been costly. 
 
 Occasionally along the road I came across 
 others like myself, who were not considered bad 
 enough for ambulances, and they hobbled along 
 in every condition of body, some slightly and 
 some quite badly wounded, some could only go 
 a few steps between halts, others moved along 
 almost gaily with broken arms or flesh wounds 
 which did not prevent their walking. The great 
 thing is to get to a hospital as soon as possible, 
 have the wounds dressed and then on to 
 "Blighty." 
 
 It was very late when I finally reached the 
 hospital and there learned after examination that 
 I had been gassed, and that I should not have 
 taken a step since receiving the poison the day 
 before. 
 
 Having been duly labelled and laid on a 
 stretcher, I was put in a large ambulance and 
 
 taken to H y where there was a very large 
 
 clearing hospital composed of innumerable tents. 
 Never so long as I live shall I forget the feel- 
 ing of contentment that followed the washing 
 and careful kindly treatment given to me by those 
 
A HOT CORNER— GASSED ^79 
 
 splendid nurses, and the nice comfortable bed, 
 with its sweet clean sheets. It was Heaven, and 
 the nurses were the angels. It was worth all the 
 horrors of the past days, and what those horrors 
 were I have scarcely suggested as they would 
 not make good reading. Even though sleep was 
 impossible, I enjoyed lying there, quite satis- 
 fied that I did not have to move, that no one 
 expected me to do anything, that there was no 
 insistent telephone giving unwelcome orders, and 
 best of all that there were no shells and no gas. 
 In my semi-stupefied condition it mattered not 
 to me that in the cots around me men were dying. 
 At least their last minutes were made as pain- 
 less and comfortable as possible, poor fellows, 
 for them the war was over, they had given their 
 all, and they could face their Maker with the 
 knowledge that they had done their full duty. 
 The following evening I was taken to the train. 
 Things are rather vague in my mind regarding 
 the next few hours, dimly I recall the wonderful 
 hospital train where everything that can be done 
 for the comfort of the wounded is so faithfully 
 done by those who serve under the Red Cross. 
 
 My destination was Rouen, one of those splen- 
 did hospitals where the same kindness and effi- 
 ciency are so noticeable. Owing to the urgency 
 
280 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 of keeping hospitals in France as clear as pos- 
 sible for bad cases that cannot bear travelling, all 
 who can be moved are sent to England, and I was 
 very happy when one morning a few days later 
 the nurse came in, accompanied by stretcher 
 bearers, and informed me that I was to go to 
 "Blighty." 
 
 How or by what route I was going did not 
 interest me, it was sufficient that I would soon 
 be HOME. To my surprise the ambulance 
 took me down to the river; and alongside of the 
 landing was a beautiful white steamer Vfith a 
 broad green band and a very large Red Cross 
 painted on the side, the markings of a hospital 
 ship, supposed to protect it against attack, but 
 the German disregards that law as he does so 
 many others. On to this steamer I was carried, 
 and within an hour we started down that wonder- 
 ful quiet river. What a day that v/as, glorious 
 mid-summer weather and England only a few 
 hours away! Life was worth while after all. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 The Pivot 
 
 It ^turned out that my days at the front were 
 finished, that I was considered unfit for further 
 active service so far as the trenches were con- 
 cerned. In some ways I regret that fact, for 
 with all the horrors, all the hardships, there is a 
 fascination about the life over there that cannot 
 be described. Not for all the money on earth 
 would I have missed the experience of those days. 
 Many things were taught, but none more thor- 
 oughly than the admiration for Tommy Atkins. 
 He is a man through and through. He grumbles 
 and he growls, especially when things are going 
 too well, but he does his job. 
 
 It is hard luck not being in the active part of 
 the "show" until the end, but unfortunately that 
 has been the fate of so many and we who are alive 
 and free from serious mutilation are among the 
 lucky ones, notwithstanding the fact that we are 
 out of the fight itself. We can look back at 
 the Battle of the Somme with a great satisfac- 
 
 281 
 
^82 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 tion, for even though we were unable to go for- 
 ward as far as it was hoped we might, we dem- 
 onstrated beyond any doubt the efficiency of 
 our new army. We showed the Germans that 
 even with the training of a year or so our men 
 were a match for their highly trained, machine- 
 made soldiers. 
 
 Germany, when she selected the Somme region 
 for her great strategic line of resistance (after 
 being forced back from her drive to Paris) had 
 done all that human ingenuity could do to render 
 her line impregnable. It was called a trench sys- 
 tem but more correctly speaking it was a system 
 of underground and ground-level forts, with re- 
 inforced concrete construction at the vital points, 
 subterranean passages and immense assembly 
 dugouts, barbed wire entanglements on a scale 
 never before attempted, guns and machine guns 
 in numbers hitherto unknown. Nothing had been 
 left to chance. 
 
 But in spite of all these gigantic prepara- 
 tions and precautions, our long months of seem- 
 ing inertia, during which we were quietly mak- 
 ing ready, Germany's armies were forced to re- 
 tire before the advance of our men, forced to 
 relinquish line after line, to acknowledge at last 
 that we were not only their equals but their su- 
 
THE PIVOT 283 
 
 periors in the game of fighting. Germany had 
 prayed for Der Tag and she got it on July 1st, 
 1916, though not in the way she expected it, for 
 on that memorable day we started to win — to 
 break the power of the greatest military organisa- 
 tion that the world has ever known. It was the 
 pivotal day of the war. As we look back and see 
 how from the beginning of the Battle of the 
 Somme our armies have forged ahead in 
 France, at the thousands of square miles of ter- 
 ritory the invaders have been forced to abandon, 
 at the hundreds of villages returned to France, 
 some mere masses of ruin, others more or less 
 intact, at the thousands of prisoners we have cap- 
 tured, and find that with one slight exception all 
 our gains have been held, we feel that our ef- 
 forts have not been in vain, and that eventually 
 the great military power of Germany will be 
 broken. 
 
 The recent developments in Russia appear to 
 be very discouraging, but against the bad news 
 from that quarter we have the magnificent co- 
 operation of the United States. Her unlimited 
 resources in men, money and material — the three 
 great M's — wiW prove to be a factor of the most 
 vital importance — that she will throw the entire 
 weight of her gigantic power into the task of 
 
284 WHEN THE SOMME RAN RED 
 
 freeing the world from any risk of the tryranny 
 of German domination is certain and Germany 
 will most bitterly regret the acts, such as the 
 sinking of the Ldisitania, which brought Americft 
 into the war. 
 
 In the months that have passed since the days 
 of the Somme, I have listened to too much talk. 
 I have read even more of what men think. Many 
 are too willing and free with their criticism. These 
 critics are divided into two classes: destructive 
 and constructive. The former by far the larger, 
 and they again are divided into two parties : those 
 who have entered the service of their country in 
 a moment of transient patriotism, filled with de- 
 sire to be seen in King's uniform, these may have 
 been kept in England owing to their inefficiency 
 in some way or other, or they may have gone to 
 France, or one of the other fronts, and failed to 
 make good. They growl without ceasing, and 
 find fault with everything and everybody, espe- 
 cially those who, by their greater ability, have at- 
 tained higher rank. Nothing is being done right 
 and no one who has succeeded in gaining distinc- 
 tion is any good at all, so they say. Then the 
 other lot are those who sit smugly in their arm 
 chairs and tell how the war should be conducted, 
 and how and why this or that offensive failed. 
 
THE PIVOT 285 
 
 They know it all, and their foolish prattle tests 
 the patience of ail who hear it. For them death 
 is almost too good. They are a scourge, and the 
 world is not big enough to hold them. Their in- 
 solence in criticising the magnificent work that 
 is being done makes one's blood boil. Let them 
 give up their comforts for a bit and go over to 
 France and see what men do. Let them see the 
 difficulties that continually confront those who 
 are in power out there. Let them taste of the 
 Hunnish Horrors, then perhaps they will put a 
 seal on their tongues and unlock their minds. 
 
 This is no time for finding fault, for trying 
 to undermine the trust of the people in those 
 who are making the Herculean efforts that have 
 surprised the world. It is time for doing things, 
 great or small according to the individual ability. 
 If every one will do his utmost and keep his 
 tongue in check, our task will be the easier. We 
 shall shorten the days of the war, and will reap 
 the benefits for which we have shed our blood 
 and treasure. 
 
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