by E. W. Hermon
You must send the ammunition with it. I want the smallest possible weapon that has killing power as I don’t care to go down absolutely unarmed, tho’ there would probably be lots of rifles to pick up if there was trouble while one was there. I should try Holland & Holland for this, telephone them what I want & let them send it at once & direct to me at Div. H.Q.
14th April 1916 – No. 122 answering 121 & 122 – Divisional H.Q.
Today we have had snow, high wind, thunder & really heavy rain. After tea tonight I went out for a bit of a walk & watched the old Boche having a go for the next village, but he wasn’t very successful. You were asking the other day if we were in front or behind the squadron, but we are in front a good bit. I live close to Carency and the Boche at present is holding the ridge this side of Givenchy about 3 to 4 miles away. Anyhow he can shoot over us tho’ he hasn’t done so for about three weeks but we expect he will have a go one of these days.
We got a bulge on him today alright as we sprung a camouflet4 & blew in his gallery and as he was working away at the time only 8 feet away I am afraid that some of them got hurt. When one is mining, one side burrows away & the other side burrows out to meet him. There are two sorts of blows. You put in, in one case, a devil of a charge & blow up the whole surface which leaves a huge crater like they did at St Eloi or a camouflet as we did today which blows through into the enemy mine without disturbing the surface. Say the enemy is working 8 feet away we place our charge of so many thousand pounds of explosive & then tamp it in with earth for four or five times the amount of earth that there is between us & the Boche & then the explosion following the line of least resistance blows in the piece between us & the Boche & blows up his gallery & kills everyone in it.
15/4/16. Not an hour after I had written the above the old Boche replied to us in the same way tho’ I hope, whatever success he may have had, ours was greater. It’s a dirty game this mining.
Couldn’t you send that lovely officer’s wife to me to look after? I seem to like the idea of the ‘beautiful eyes’!!
I wanted the primus chiefly so as to boil some water for washing, but it will do for all sorts of jobs. That lucky devil Webber is just off to spend four days with his wife & family in Paris & so I am going to be his locum altogether while he is away & shall do my best to turn it to account. You probably will therefore only get some very scrappy letters these next few days in consequence.
16th April 1916 – No. 123? – Divisional H.Q.
To my great joy, tho’ no doubt very selfish in a war, Webber went off until Tuesday to Paris so I am left on my own as G.S.O.2 until he returns so I am having a bit of a chance which is something. Have kept my end up alright so far today.
The Tommy’s cookers have arrived but so far no sign of Morrish’s medicines tho’ I have already acknowledged them, which was a mistake. Will you thank kindly for the peppermints & toffee which arrived safe & sound.
After having spent large sums on one’s family’s education, this from Betty makes good reading ‘Last Saturday I bought a ceneary & it sings lovely when we do lessons.’ I don’t expect I shall get time again to write you more tonight as I am going to kirk after tea as I couldn’t go this morning.
Thank old Bet for her letter & with love to you all.
16th April 1916 (second letter of the day) – No. 124 answering 124
Very many thanks for bothering about the pistol. It is just what I wanted. The shoes are now on my feet & very comfortable. I am so glad dearie you are cheered up as I most certainly am. This job is what I have set my heart on and I shall be bitterly disappointed if I don’t bring it off by hook or by crook. Anyhow they haven’t defeated me yet.
I should love above all things to bring the car & drive you & old Bet & Bob round this front when the war stops. It would interest you beyond words & be a fine education for the children, tho’ I was reading a forecast of the war the other day which began ‘1946, the 32nd year of the Great War’.
It is sad tho’, one goes down into Ablain St Nazaire where there is only one house left & the poor church just rears up its broken tower & parts of its walls, still holding out above the surrounding desolation. It is really very sad, but Souchez, like the ruins of Jerusalem, hasn’t one stone upon another.
Tell Dale that Macaulay didn’t want to leave the squadron, until one day his conscience got the better of him & he applied for a commission & was flung out on account of his age. He was simply delighted when I told him & tho’ I tried to get him something else, he wasn’t having it.
The names you ask for are Sir Charles Munro who commanded in Potchefstroom before B. M. & Sir Henry Wilson. Do you know that Beecham (phonetic) and the ‘Goose’ will be living only a mile from me in a few days. Isn’t it funny! I shall be so glad to see them both. The primus will do fine, many thanks.
My love, my darling.
18th April 1916 – No. 125 answering 123
Only a short letter again I am afraid as I have been awfully busy this morning & have walked miles & miles with Hitchcock this afternoon. I have got a budget of things for you to do for me:
I want a mackintosh called a ‘Hurricane Smock’ – they say it is advertised in Land & Water & I want the cavalry pattern.
I want, next time you are in town, two really nice thumbsticks as I want one myself & also I want to give Webber one.
Will you tell Jacksons to send in their parcel a tin of curry powder once a fortnight & a tin of baking powder once a week please.
You will have to send the sticks by M.F.O. [Military Forwarding Organization] as they won’t go by post. If they object to them not being 11 lbs, put a couple of bricks in the parcel. My dear old girl the whole place has gone mad over your cake, long flat raisin one & Hitchcock tells me to tell you he has been looking for one like that for years!!
19th April 1916 – No. 126 – Divisional H.Q.
I’ve had a very amusing day today with an officer & 13 O.R. from the Grand Fleet & have been taking them round showing them all I could. It really was quite fun & they were most thoroughly happy. I managed to get them to a point about 3000 yards from the Hun line where they could look straight at it & they loved our shells going over their heads & seeing them burst on the Hun line. They saw a good few come back too. They go up into the front line tomorrow for 48 hours & then have a day with the artillery before going home. I must be off now to dress for dinner.
21st April 1916 – No. 128 (if you have a 127?) answering 128 – Divisional H.Q.
I am simply delighted with the photos & the one of old Bob with the hat on is simply top-hole. Ken has grown & looks simply topping & does ‘La Vache’ the very greatest credit old dear. You are getting your hand in alright & the next half doz ought to be corkers!! I was so glad to hear all about old Mac.
Those fools at the squadron never sent the pie on & I found it all mouldy there today. Such a pity. I’m just off to an evening service as there is one in the barn & I can get there, as I have been out all day looking at ranges for musketry practice. I have no news I fear old dear, so must stop.
24th April 1916 – No. 131 answering 131 – Divisional H.Q.
You are quite right about those dispatches & your opinion is that of the whole army I think. I find that this Monro is not the Munro I thought he was.5 This man was Commandant of Hythe where we spent an ever-memorable honeymoon or perhaps ‘commenced’ would be better, because I have no recollection of its ever having ended.
Today the morning was simply glorious with the most wonderful lights & the old Hun took full advantage of it to throw as much heavy stuff over our way as he could spare. I was out all morning with Webber watching the shooting & doing a bit of supervising [of] work going on on our line. You would have laughed if you had seen us both dodge behind a house once. We had driven in our car to where we get out & walk & had just got up a hill when the very unmistakable sound of a shell that is coming straight at you caught our ears but as a matter of fact it was two hundred yards short of us.
During th
e 2 hours we were out, the Hun put 109 others in the same place, each shell being 6 inches in diameter. It was awfully interesting watching the shooting as the Hun is perfectly wonderful with his guns. I don’t know what the cost of a shell of this size but I shouldn’t wonder if that wasn’t close on a £1000 shoot. The results I will tell you in another number.
Leave opens again shortly, so Harry6 back in a few days now. He is certainly looking forward to it. If you can I should very much like you to do something for him. If you could send him & his family to Brighton for the day to a Theatre or something. I have the most unbounded admiration for Harry. He has done splendidly. He is always ready to do anything he’s asked & I have never heard one single word of ‘grouse’ pass his lips since he has been out here. Harry is the only one of us, I think, whose language hasn’t depreciated! I have never heard him swear once, & old Buckin who used to prate to me how awful it was living with men who swore, instead of keeping up his high standard has simply let go, tho’ to give him his due he has done me most awfully well & so far as my personal comfort is concerned I am quite all right. Harry is loved by everyone.
28th April 1916, 10 a.m. – No. 134 answering 134 & 135 – Divisional H.Q.
We have been having a pretty strenuous time these last few days as there has been a lot of unrest on our front. Mines & counter-mines galore to say nothing of gas & suchlike oddments, tho’ the gas was a few miles off. Anyhow the advent of this lovely spring weather has made both sides feel very lively! By the bye I must have my thin jackets please. Send me the two best ones and also another cap with badge from Jacksons please.
Thank the Chugs for their nice letters and explain to Betsy that the word ‘Exam’ is spelt by all the best people ‘igzam’.
At present I rejoin the squadron on May 7th & leave for my training area on early morning of 10th so letters to arrive on 7, 8 & 9 should be addressed to the squadron.
The oaks are coming out here before the ashes I am glad to say, & I heard the Cuckoo three days ago and the nightingale last night for the first time. I simply love my photos old dear & they are stuck up over my dressing table – the two of Bob & one of Ken in the middle. Yours I have put away as it isn’t at all like you. I like both old Bob’s but especially the one in the hat as he looks such a nice manly little bloke.
I am glad you say Ken is a merry lad & he does look splendid. A real fine baby I think & I should love to see him again. I should have loved the Sunday walk old dear & I can picture it all so well & it seems really so close. I am glad you realize the enormity of your offence! You are forgiven now!!
The pistol arrived yesterday & is exactly what I wanted. I had some practice with it last night and made some very respectable shooting. The marmalade parcel rolled up alright yesterday.
My love to you my dears.
29th April 1916, 10 a.m. – No. 135 – Divisional H.Q.
Strenuosity still continues & old Beauchamp is having a very rotten time. I was over with them yesterday afternoon & they were all looking down their noses a bit. However tho’ unpleasant it’s not serious. I am glad to say we have just got a Hun aeroplane tho’ I am afraid he fell just in the next Div. area & so we shall not get him in here. However it is a bit back on our bloke a few days ago.
We really had a most amusing evening last night as owing to ‘strenuosity’ we couldn’t go to bed so we played bridge to nearly 1 a.m. & had the cheeriest evening I have had since I came here. I managed to make 8.50 Frs & as we play the old Governor’s points of 5d per 100 it wasn’t bad.
The pot of marmalade was very much appreciated again & everyone is on it like a pack of wolves!
30th April 1916, 10.30 a.m. – No. 136 answering 136 & 137 – Divisional H.Q.
The Hurricane Smock arrived safe & sound & I will give it a good trial & if I like it will get you to get me a new one. I am sitting in the office now and just sweating. The weather this last few days has been too glorious & far too good to use simply for killing folk. Last night Hitchcock & I stood out on the steps pondering this same question while the guns were going like anything.
Poor old Beauchamp is in a proper mess & was trying to mend it but I am afraid he failed badly & it was the old goose who had the job. He is in a terrible way as with all his trouble here he has got his good woman in the hands of the rebels in Dublin7 & has heard nothing at all. It is terrible bad luck for him. Many thanks for seeing about the map case. Your letter to Morrish was really fine, how I wish I had a business head!!
Try & get Hatchards or a library to send you regularly a Magazine Revue de Paris, in it you will find an account of all the fighting which took place here & I believe it is to continue in other numbers. It is well worth reading tho’ being in French it rather boils me.
1st May 1916 – Divisional H.Q.
Strenuosity still reigns supreme. Last night at 7 p.m. the old Hun blew two mines on us & a Hades of a battle ensued for a couple of hours & then quietened down. You can hardly imagine what a ‘boost’ a show of that sort means. Everyone of both sides who has a gun lets it off as fast as it damned well can go & there is more stuff in the air than you could pick up in a lifetime. The Huns have been awfully busy lately all along the British Front & the ammunition they must have must be colossal when one thinks of what they must have expended at Verdun.
2nd May 1916 – No. 138 answering 139 – Divisional H.Q.
Had a nice walk yesterday round some of the reserve line trenches with Webber & were much pleased to see the old Hun had wasted a good deal of his heavy ammunition lately.
They have just discovered that Trench Feet is a sort of infectious fever, and are convinced that it is carried by the lice the men collect in the trenches. The R.A.M.C.8 orderlies get it in the hospitals tho’ they never saw a trench in their lives!! I had a very interesting talk to our P.M.O.9 the other day about it. They haven’t actually discovered it yet, but that is the line of research at present.
It would be splendid if you could get old Mac down to Staplefield as I am sure he would like it better than London.
The weather here is glorious too & the nightingales in the trees at night round my hut are simply top-hole. All the woods here too are fine and the trees wonderfully well ‘forested’. You see none of those poor scraggy trees one sees at home & every tree with lots of room. My love to you my darling.
3rd May 1916 – No. 139 answering 140 – Divisional H.Q.
My time here [at Divisional HQ] is now fast drawing to a close & I shall be awfully sorry when it does come to an end as I have had a really top-hole time & got on the best with the whole crowd & especially with the G.O.C. himself I think.
Townshend10 I don’t hear much good of & that letter you speak of I am told is a habit, in case things go wrong!! It’s not Kut, it is the feeling in the East that is the trouble, especially Afghanistan. I see that both old Cowie & Ted Impey11 have lost their boys quite lately. Here I get the current day’s Times after dinner each night which is a real blessing. One hears something about the war now!
Two nights ago at 6.30 p.m. we asked for some air photos of our line, the flying fellow being here in the office at the time. At lunch the next day the prints were in my hand!! Not so bad?
My love to you old dear.
4th May 1916 – No. 140 answering 141 – Divisional H.Q.
Yesterday I had a rather wonderful sight of a modern battle. The old Hun had been very aggressive on this front for some time, blowing mines and generally making himself thoroughly unpleasant so we thought we would set about him & give him something to think about. I was up in a tree some 6000 yards behind our line but where I had a most wonderful view of the whole show with a telephone direct to the office, reporting progress. At 4.47 we ‘upped’ with two huge mines which was the signal for the show to begin. There was the most terrific bombardment you ever saw for an hour and one wondered how any man could live through it for a minute whereas our casualties were so small one could hardly realize it possible, I am glad to say. It was the most lovely summer e
vening you ever saw. The woods were simply perfect and the whole place seemed at peace & one could hardly realize that two huge armies were doing their damnedest to kill as many of each other as they conveniently could. Then it was a splendid sight to see the infantry rush into the craters when the artillery lifted & I am glad to say that the whole show was quite successful & I hope will give the old Boche [something] to think about for a bit.
This mine-fighting tho’ is a most beastly business & I shall be thankful when it is all over, not that it really concerns me very much, but one hates it for the Infantry as it means a lot of intense fighting on both sides without any very great material gain to either except a little local advantage here & there. A mine throws, as a rule, a big lip of earth all round the edge of the crater itself and this has to be occupied by one or both sides & in most cases, one side sits on one side & the other on the other & hurls bombs at one another.
The chief advantage is that eventually if you can consolidate your side alright it gives you a high point between the lines from which you can get good observation of the other bloke’s line. An ordinary crater runs to anything from 60 to 100 feet across the top with banks up to 15 feet high.
No more news now dearie. I am sending you a little sketch I did of our front during the battle yesterday & will post it to you later on when it won’t have the significance that it might have now.
My love to you all.
5th May 1916 – No. 141 answering 142 – Divisional H.Q.
Yesterday I rode over to see the squadron & I must say I am not really very keen to rejoin now again as once having tasted better things it feels like a retrograde movement somehow. However we shall see. I haven’t the remotest idea how I stand here. Everything has been more pleasant here since I have been here & no one could have been nicer or kinder. Did I tell you I hope to get Henry back again shortly? He wrote to me the other day & said he wanted to come back if I would take him & of course I jumped at it.