For Love and Courage

by E. W. Hermon

  My love to you all my darlings.

  29th March 1916 – No. 106 answering 105 – Hermin

  I am at present properly poggled as I have got to write to Queen Alexandra & thank her for some comforts for the men that she is sending. I’m not in the habit of sending ‘billets doux’ to Queens & I don’t know how to begin & in the secretary’s letter it says expressly that I am to write & thank her!

  You won’t get a letter from me at all tomorrow old girl as I shall be away most of the afternoon and night as I am going up to see Steve’s digging party at work & as theirs are works of darkness I do not expect to be back until the early hours of Friday morning. Talking of Egypt it might amuse you to know that the Khedive gave a dinner party last week & no less than 96 British Generals sat down to it!!

  Can you send me some of those cotton bandana handkerchiefs for my shop, say 5 doz. I think they run about 2d or 4d each. It still goes well. Over 200 francs again today!!

  Love to you all.

  31st March 1916 – No. 107 answering 107, 8 & 9 – Hermin

  Oh! my dear old girl my Mac has been wounded,17 thank God not badly but sufficiently for him to be evacuated. He is in the best of spirits and hopes not to be sent to England. He was in a trench with the infantry and got three shrapnel wounds in his left arm. I am terribly sad at losing him, but I was with him at the Field Ambulance before he was evacuated & he was walking about with me in the best of spirits.

  The old Huns here know all about the losses at Verdun & I think it is making the rank & file think a bit, but what seems to worry them more than anything is the bits in the home letters on the food question. They shouted across the other night ‘What do you want to go on digging for, you’ve won the war’!

  My dear old girl, when I say shoes & heavy shooting shoes too, why you should imagine I want boots or even a new hat I don’t know. Am I not in the habit of calling a spade a spade? I have got a pair on now and as they have neither ‘soles nor uppers’ I thought it time they were renewed. I have, as a matter of fact, tons of boots & really didn’t want another pair but they may be handy later on.

  It is awfully good of your Ma to give you so handsome a present, tho’ I am sure you are wise not to have a motor bicycle. I am afraid old dear it wouldn’t suit you and a puncture on a motor bicycle is the devil to mend. Will you thank old Mairky for the bullseyes & tell her that I have one in my mouth now and also Meg for her cake & candles which we had lit on the table for lunch today!!

  Yesterday I had a very interesting day, starting by going to see old Mac. He was in a little bad bit of trench, there were thirty men in it & at the end of the day 14 had been hit. He was hit early on in the day & had to stop there till dark. I then went on to a demonstration of a German Flammenwerfer,18 one of the liquid fire sprayers. I can now quite understand fellows quitting when they first saw them.

  It really is a most terrifying thing but fortunately its range is only about 25 yards at its best & the portable one doesn’t last more than 2 minutes. I expected a long thin jet of flame, like from one side of a double acetylene burner, but actually it was a huge barrel of flame, probably 2 yards in diameter and 20 long. As we were within easy shelling range with a large crowd of men, tho’ out of sight we had a large battle plane up to keep off the Huns & it was rather jolly having it circling about overhead. Then I walked down to what was once a village & quite a big one, but now is merely a heap of bricks. I had a very good dinner there & tho’ there was a certain amount of shrapnel coming into the far end of the village, it soon stopped & was a most peaceful evening.

  After dinner Steve picked me up and I went out to where he was digging. The whole ground is absolutely one vast shell crater. You can’t find a complete crater anywhere, because somewhere its circumference is cut by another. There isn’t a single inch that hasn’t been blown up, & a building that has played a very prominent part in the fighting was a wonderful sight.

  My love to you old dear.

  Have just learnt that old Mac is to be evacuated to England tomorrow. He said he would come & see you some time, so he may ring you up. If he does, ask him to come & stay with you.

  1 Major Russell was commanding ‘A’ Company K.E.H. Lieutenants Twopeny and Northcote were two of his officers.

  2 Their eldest son Bob was staying with his Aunt Vio in Cheshire to prepare him for boarding school.

  3 Sergeant Heath.

  4 The squadron had moved back to rest billets at Hurionville where they had previously constructed brick standings for their horses.

  5 The King’s Private Secretary and Chairman of the Committee of Administration to K.E.H.

  6 The cemetery at Château Gorre near Beuvry is now one of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission sites. Like all their cemeteries, it is beautifully maintained.

  7 Camphor ice was a skin balm, and ‘bromo’ toilet paper.

  8 Major James, also known as Jimmy, was commanding the Reserve Squadron K.E.H. in Ireland and was senior to Major Hermon.

  9 On the hunting field.

  10 On 1 March 1916 Zeppelins had raided Broadstairs and Margate, resulting in one death; however, as is often the case, the psychological distress caused by these random attacks on civilians was far greater than the actual damage caused.

  11 Bob, their elder son, was about to go to St Aubyn’s preparatory school at Rottingdean as he was now eight years old.

  12 The Notre Dame de Lorette spur in the Artois region was the scene of heavy fighting in 1914 and 1915. The Germans had captured Notre Dame in October 1914 but in May 1915 the heights were regained by the French.

  13 Sent by his mother.

  14 The Sussex, a cross-Channel passenger ferry, was torpedoed by a German submarine on 24 March, with the loss of around fifty lives. Earlier in 1916 Germany had instituted a policy of allowing armed merchant ships (but not passenger ships) to be torpedoed without warning, but in spite of this the Sussex had been attacked.

  15 The ‘Tommy’ field cooker, a simple portable stove fuelled by solid alcohol. It was smokeless so as not to attract the attention of enemy snipers, but not particularly efficient.

  16 The family had acquired some goats at this time to ensure a supply of fresh milk.

  17 ‘Mac’ was Lieutenant D. MacKinnon (later Captain) who was hit by shrapnel. The War Diary comments that he was ‘a serious loss to the squadron’.

  18 The portable Kleinflammenwerfer, operated by one man, could spread a stream of fire 20 yards; the two-man Grossflammenwerfer could spread the flames much further. Flammenwerfer operatives quickly became marked men and if the fuel tank was detonated by rifle fire, the resulting explosion killed them instantly.

  SPRING 1916

  THROUGHOUT APRIL, VERDUN remained the chief area of conflict on the Western Front although British troops were also in action, with the heaviest fighting taking place in the Ypres Salient. In May, the French achieved successes at Douaumont, Mort Homme, and fought a bitter struggle for Hill 304. British troops were engaged in fighting around the Hohenzollern Redoubt and La Basseé, and on Vimy Ridge. German losses since the outbreak of the war were estimated to be more than 2½ million dead, with 80,000 casualties from Verdun alone. The French had lost nearer 90,000 in the battle so far, which had another eight months to run.

  British generals, meanwhile, planned an offensive on the Somme for June and on 25 May the Military Service Act became law and married men were now to be conscripted. During this time Robert had a temporary staff job at Divisional Headquarters.

  1st April 1916 – No. 110 answering 110 – Hermin

  My darling old girl,

  Another nice letter today old dear.

  Started the day by taking stock in the shop. Then old ‘Naughty Charlie’1 came round or, in other words, our distinguished Divisional Commander & I had a crack with him – the rest of the day I have spent finishing off the new stable & the horses go in tomorrow.

  I am glad to hear that my younger son is a merry lad & I should like to see him again very much,
as I doubt if I should know him again now. Will you please write to Falmouth and get my sextant and parallel rulers home so that you could send them out to me if I wanted them. I am only going to sail on land tho’ this time.

  I am heartbroken at losing old Mac but in a way it frees me a bit as now if I got the offer of a job of any sort I should take it. All my old officers have gone now bar old Steve. I am most awfully fond of old Steve, almost as much as I was of Mac, but Mac had qualities none of the others had or ever will have.

  Now that he has gone home you will see him and he will tell you about us which will be something. It is a pity the photo was so bad but if you had only seen it being done you would have screamed with laughter, in the back yard of a measly dirty little ‘estaminet’ & the camera propped up on an old barrel & the most footling old Frenchman you ever saw taking it.

  My love to you all my dears.

  2nd April 1916 – No. 109 answering 111 – Hermin

  I got a simply topping letter from you today & it has cheered me up a lot.

  With regard to coming home old dear the case is this. At the present time there are 61 N.C.O.s & men in the squadron who have been out the whole time & have not yet had leave. I know that in most Corps the officers consider it a right to go home directly their three months is up quite regardless of the number of men who have had leave, but when we have had no special stress I feel that the men are just as much entitled to their turns as the officers and tho’ reserving my right to come home at any time should circumstances demand it, I want to get the original men home if possible before one goes again.

  Yesterday as I told you old Barter came over & he said that they felt that they were not getting full value out of me & how would I like a staff job! I of course jumped at it & so today I went over to Div. H.Q. to see Hitchcock on the subject. Webber is our G.S.O.2 and is likely very shortly to get preferment to G.S.O.1 & I have arranged to go & work in the office and understudy Webber, the idea being that I should step into his place as soon as he is promoted. Of course this depends on how I get on & if I satisfy Hitchcock & the G.O.C.

  If I were to get this Staff appointment & I hope to do it, I should be able to wangle a bit of leave no doubt but it is all so very much ‘if’ at present that it hardly bears thinking about. Anyhow it starts tomorrow & I go as a learner & it is now up to me to keep my end up.

  I should have liked to have seen you at your tea-party at Victoria but as you say there is something about the men that makes them stand out. If you only knew how cheerily the men go through it, & what they have to go through, you would wonder how human beings stuck it. The general conduct of the rank & file is beyond all praise, they are simply magnificent.

  Now with regard to the hospital gift, of course I couldn’t consent for a minute to have the brass tablet idea. What I want is to do some permanent good as opposed to just defraying a portion of their running expenses. I would pay the salary of an extra nurse if they liked for a year or, say, 2 years, if they actually did increase the staff accordingly. I wouldn’t mind paying £200 altogether if it is necessary & would like you to go & see the block. I’m not very keen about naming a bed. I can’t see that there is anything special in that & it merely means that you pay £300 to their running expenses. I want if possible to give something that they haven’t got & would like. Otherwise one might just as well send the money to the ‘Star & Garter Home’.2 You might see what they want there, but I fancy that they have everything they want there and mismanagement as well!!!

  I must to bed now dearie mine so as to be at my brightest & best tomorrow but you musn’t think that the job is accomplished because it isn’t & it’s only making the tiniest of beginnings.

  4th April 1916 – No. 111 answering 112 & 113 – Hermin

  Yes, the shop is a D.M.T.3 show, just ourselves & cyclists and such oddments as the Div. Laundry, which is here. Tell the Chugs we sell mostly tobacco & tinned fruits but there is a great rush on chocolate & that at present wins hands down. I had a letter from old Mac today & he tells me that his arm is worse than they thought at first as he has a nerve cut and it may result in another operation. He is awfully upset at getting sent home. I had a fine long letter from old Pongo tonight & he has just got back to duty again after measles himself & then his wife. Buckin has got a nasty cold again but seems to be mending.

  My love to you all old dear.

  6th April 1916 – No. 113? – Divisional H.Q., near Carency

  I have moved up here now & have a canvas hut in the garden. I expect I shall wake up nice & fresh tomorrow as it is pretty parky tonight. I don’t know what length of time I shall spend here, but I am thoroughly happy & enjoying myself very much & I only hope that it will lead to my getting a job, preferably here, as Hitchcock is such a real good man that I should like to learn under him.

  I am as you will have seen on the ‘G’ side of the office which is what I wanted. I thought it might interest you to see the enclosed diagram:

  STAFF OF A DIVISION

  Goodnight old dear & hope to get your letter sent on in the morning.

  7th April 1916 – No. 114 answering No. 115 – Divisional H.Q.

  Lass dear, it is very hard to know quite how to answer your question as to what to tell old Bob. So far as I can remember on going to a small boys’ school they haven’t arrived at the age when sexual matters are talked about, it is later when he goes to Eton that you want to warn him most. Tell him to keep before him always the fact that ‘Would Dad & Mum like to hear me say that or see me doing this’ & he will find the answer himself.

  Explain to him that this does not apply to ordinary naughtiness because one does not want him to grow up a prig but just that it is talking about nasty things & doing dirty actions. I think he is a bit small to be fully initiated yet & I do not think that there is any fear of him learning anything from young boys yet as they are not old enough to have any feelings that would prompt the thoughts.

  I intended to talk to him myself when I was at home but the thought of leaving you all was so mixed with up the instruction that I couldn’t make a start & didn’t want to worry him by being too shaky of voice.

  I sent home some £80 yesterday to my bank so when it comes time to weigh in with a cheque for that hospital just let me know & I will send it to you.

  My love to you all my darlings.

  8th April 1916 – No. 115 answering 116 – Divisional H.Q.

  Just a few lines as it is late. I had a very pleasant day today starting with a walk over some high ground in fairly close proximity to the enemy. It was a wonderful sight because it was on a bit of ground where I doubt if the fighting at Verdun has been as intense. The ground looked more like a Gruier [Gruyère] cheese than anything else & the number of skulls & skeletons lying about told how intense the fighting must have been. It was a glorious morning & as I had my telescope, one was able to have a good look into the Hun territory.

  It’s awfully kind of old Vio & as soon as the cigarettes turn up I will distribute them & will write to her. Many thanks old girl, for doing the shopping but if the ‘Tommy’ refills haven’t started cut them down by half. Will you send me a collapsible primus stove please, same like we had on the boat.

  It is odd how nature adapts herself to circumstances & there is no doubt that now the rats out here are doing incalculable good in eating out of corners & crannies all sorts of beastliness & the hawks & weasels too are increasing tremendously & they in time will prove the antidote to the rat I have no doubt.

  I shall be most anxious to hear how the lovely officer’s wife gets on or is it an officer’s lovely wife?

  Best love my old dear.

  10th April 1916 – No. 117 answering 116, 117a & 118 – Divisional H.Q.

  Vio’s cigarettes turned up alright & were most welcome. The matchbox covers, burnishers & in fact all your purchases have also turned up. I have just run over to the post office & found 117 waiting for me there & a real fine effort it was dearie mine. Isn’t it bad luck dearie mine, losing
old Mac & you have expressed exactly my feelings in the matter. He has been my companion mostly, tho’ Steve shares my regard very closely with him but there was something particularly taking in old Mac & Henry. I would like you to tell him how much I miss him when you see him.

  I am more than glad to hear Tommy has got a Military Cross. I wish I could see old Spoot’s picture & am glad it’s fairly good. I am sorry to hear she is falling off a bit but I shouldn’t worry, she will soon pick up, I expect. Nothing picks up quicker than a dog.

  11th April 1916 – No. 118 answering up to & including 118 – Divisional H.Q.

  I must continue to answer the orgy of letters I seem to have collected. I am glad you liked my letter about the front. This morning I had to take a high dignitary of the 1st Army, the senior in old Cowie’s profession, all round our front-line system of defence & had a most interesting morning as I hadn’t been in the front line in this sector before & as one is only some 50 to 80 yards from their trenches, it was most exciting.

  I had a splendid view of Souchez too from the far side from here and it really was a wonderful sight. The trees are so wonderful, just stumps, every bit of branch is smashed & it was a wooded village it looks simply wonderful. I should have loved to have had you there as things were comparatively pleasant & there was only very light stuff being thrown about by brother Boche. The rats simply swarm & are in millions. I should give old Spoot a worm pill, it will do her no harm & it doesn’t matter her being a bit thin.

  Undated, postmarked 11th April 1916 – No. 118a – Divisional H.Q.

  I want you to send me a catalogue of Dixie’s & Nyrette & Zamba’s showing Prismatic Magnifying Periscopes. I also want you to send me a small ‘automatic pistol’ bore about .250 to .320 or even smaller. I want something I can just slip into my pocket when I go round the trenches as one has a terrible long walk to get there & an ordinary revolver is so heavy.