Book Read Free

For Love and Courage

Page 23

by E. W. Hermon


  6th May 1916 – No. 142 answering 143 – Divisional H.Q.

  There seems to be so much to tell you & I am just a trifle light-headed into the bargain that you will probably just be as muddled at the end as I am now. This morning the Corps rang up on the telephone and told me that the Cyclists & the Squadrons of the Division are to be lumped together & become Corps Troops instead of Divisional Troops. Our regiment will come together and become a Corps Troop Regt & similarly the Cyclists will become a Cyclist Battalion, Corps Troops. The whole will be under one command & will amount to a small mobile Brigade. Headquarters will come out from England & there you are. Now the problem is this. Who commands the lot? James & I in command of Regt. So far so bad! On the other hand I might become chief staff officer of the push with a decent Cavalry Colonel in command. That not bad. Then on my talking to Hitchcock on the subject he said ‘Well it won’t affect you because you will get a staff job almost at once as the General has sent your name forward.’ This is absolutely secret, first of all because H. had no business to mention it to me, & secondly because the staff job has not yet materialized, so keep it to yourself, but anyhow it means that I have justified myself here which is always something to be pleased with!

  Of course, if I could get command of this mobile force it would be top-hole but then one is hardly senior enough perhaps, but I am really a very senior Major now as things go at present. Anyhow things seem to be more hopeful than they have ever been before & so I have no doubt you will be as bucked as I am at present!! It’s too early days yet to know what will happen but just sit tight & hope on!

  No more now old girl. I return to the squadron tomorrow, unless anything unforeseen turns up meanwhile.

  7th May – No. 143a answering 144 – Hermin

  I have been back some hours now. When I left [Divisional HQ], the papers about the forming of the Regiment had come in & I had a long talk with the G.O.C. on the subject of my advancement. At present the idea is that I am to get command of the Regt. This would suit me real well and would satisfy me for the present especially if I could get command of the Motor Machine Gun Battery and the cyclists too when we get all together. It would be a top-hole command & as the C.O. of the Cavalry Regiment is a Lieut. Col. they would have to make one at least a full Colonel or Brigadier if they run the lot together & they must do this in time as the one is the natural supplement of the other.

  On the other hand, should James12 come out I should, of course, go at once or as soon as I could get my job as G.S.O.2 & the G.O.C. will take me tomorrow as that, or help me in any way that lies in his power. Prospects are indeed bright now & I am happier than I have been since I have been out. The Corps Commander knows all about Jimmy & isn’t for him in the least which is always good hearing & I very much doubt if the Pseudo13 would let him come out if he wanted to.

  I was very sorry at saying goodbye to the Div. today & they too are genuinely sorry, I think, at losing ‘your splendid squadron’ to use the G.O.C.’s words. Every soul said something genuinely nice to me about the squadron & meant it. I only hope the 1st Corps will think likewise.

  9th May 1916 – No. 144 answering 145 – Hermin

  Only time for a short note. Have had bad luck lately. Lost a sniper on Sunday morning & yesterday my S.Q.M.S. (Alderton) was killed by a fall from his horse. Address my letters ‘C’ Squadron King Edward’s Horse, B.E.F. only for the present.

  Fearfully busy getting ready to move tomorrow. Don’t expect a letter for a few days.

  Friday 12th May 1916 – No. 146 – Carly

  We are now at a village called CARLY between Boulogne & Samer. I don’t know if I told you that throughout the fight the gentleman in the foreground continued his ploughing and actually sowed his field while I was up in my tree!! He was in full view of the Boche too at the time!! A mile & a half away there was a most awful inferno of shells you ever saw.

  The Squadron seemed quite pleased when I got back and we have certainly had a very pleasant time since. I am amused at what Harry told you & I know if I go my Sgts Mess will all be off like a knife, but we must see what is on the cards first. You ask just what we are doing here. Well there is a central house they call the ‘Mounted Troops School’ & Ing, (Bays) Parsons 19th Hrs [Hussars] & an Adjutant from the Bays runs it & the Cyclist Coy & Squadrons are billeted round and drill about every day doing a fortnight’s ordinary squadron training supervised by these fellows. They say they are a bit shy at taking me on & want me to lecture to the school. I am not going to if I can help it. ‘A’ Squadron is here & they have also applied for ‘B’ Squadron to come & I hope it will.

  I get command of the Regt until such time as the Hd Qrs can come out from England. The Division doesn’t go back to rest at all now as we have only a Brigade in the front line, a Brigade in support and the third resting, so they relieve one another alternately. Our training here ends on May 29th & I expect we march back to CHOCQUES that day or rather start on our march as it will be a two days’ march. Henry14 is going to the Guards now I hear & has sent in his application. His whole family are in the Guards & so he is going to join them.

  I am off to pay my respects to Dick Mullins now so adieu for the present.

  14th May 1916 – No. 147 answering 149 – Carly

  I got two nice letters from you yesterday and a really awfully nice one from old Bob in answer to mine. Yesterday it rained like the very devil all day & we did absolutely nothing at all.

  Will you please send me:

  1 large bottle Stephens ink (1 pint)

  1 doz linen collars (Khaki from the man in Regent Street same as usual – either shape don’t care)

  6 glass cloths

  2 Dusters

  1 pr Sock Suspenders

  3 Prs real good black bootlaces

  I also want you to get me a stencil made by Harrods of our Regtl Badge so that I can stencil my wagons. Size of imprint to be about 8 inches high. You will have to give them a badge which you can get from Sandon. Better get the big cap badge (men’s) so as to make it easier for them to copy. Must go to stables now old dear.

  14th May 1916 – No. 147a answering 150 & 151 – Carly

  I got your two letters about old Bobbo’s school day after lunch today & I was so very sorry for you old dear, & that I wasn’t there to help you through. You seem to have had so much to go through by yourself but we will hope you have finished for a bit now.

  I am so glad that the old boy was so brave & it was nice of him wanting dear little Mairky to help him through. What a funny little tea-party it must have been just those two in the car. I’ve loved your letters about the old boy so much dearie mine & it brings home so close & makes one long so for another glimpse of you all. I don’t know when I shall get another go of leave & it is certainly no good thinking about it yet.

  I wish I could be at the birthday party it sounds very nice. Lass dear, I feel I want you very badly tonight. We’ve got a nice little garden here & the river runs at the end of it and last night it was lovely, so still & jolly you would have loved it, dearie mine. You don’t know how I have hated tearing up your two letters, old girl but they were so nice & so full of home that I felt somehow I daren’t keep them – it brings it all too close once more.

  16th May 1916 – No. 149 answering 153 – Carly

  Tonight I have been wandering about in the garden with the river running so silently by & a lovely full moon & the gramophone going; miles away from war & not a sound to be heard – it makes it all very hard to realize. Whereas you seem to have the whole ‘mental’ part of the show, like the poor, always with you & the very great family gap too & I know it must be a gap. Dear old Bobbo I should miss him too most awfully & I feel he has been doing so much for you lately that it must be doubly hard, old dear.

  With regard to old Bob’s going to Eton, you want him to go so that if by any chance he failed to get in, he could have another shot. What I should do if I were you is to write to Todd & tell him that he will not be quite 13 & isn’t it a bit young?
Personally I wouldn’t mind if he waited till the summer term 1920 but he ought not to be later than that.

  17th May 1916 – No. 150 answering 154 & 155 – Carly

  We drill at Hardelot,15 a sort of little Worthing and Branksome Bournemouth combined, as for a mile or more from the coast one goes through pine woods and sandhills & it is really an awfully jolly place with flat sands stretching out a very long way.

  Coming home we passed a very nice little house & garden with the folk having tea in the verandah & it seemed so funny after one has just come from the destruction of Souchez & Carency, seeing women in decent clothes and looking very nice, all round an afternoon tea table!!! And today one could just hear guns. The first time I have heard them since I got here.

  You talk about the guns & they do get on one’s nerves a bit tho’ of course I haven’t seen a hundredth part of what the infantry do, but one does notice fellows flinch when one is walking about, especially when one is in front of one’s own guns as somehow one seems to notice them as much, or even more, than the Hun shells unless the latter are in very close proximity to one. Unless the old Hun is shooting directly at you one doesn’t mind his shells. His shooting is so very accurate & so persistent that if his shells are landing a couple of hundred yards away, you can stand & watch them without them worrying you at all & it is extraordinary how the gunners and infantry treat them unless they happen to be the selected target. They take no more notice of them than you would of a fly & not half as much as I do of a wasp!!

  Beyond telling me he had seen Ken, I don’t think Harry told me any home news at all! We aren’t going to Chocques at all now & so I suppose we shall go back to the same Corps that we left & I hope we shall. How long we are likely to be there I don’t know but should say till the end of the War!!! The whole regiment will be together from now onwards.

  My love my old darling.

  20th May 1916 – No. 153 – Carly

  We spent the morning going round a most wonderfully well run Veterinary Hospital & saw some very interesting cases & then met my squadron on the beach just before lunch time. We rode our horses into the sea & then let them have a real good roll in the sand & then we all, including your husband, had a most lovely bathe. I sent the squadron home at 3 p.m. and we lay about on the beach in the sun for a bit & then rode to a most ripping sort of tea-garden place, where an old house & really lovely garden had been turned into a café. It was really top-hole, especially as there were several most lovely ladies in all their best clothes, which added considerably to the interest of the afternoon!!

  It is really very pleasant seeing a decently dressed woman once more!! I must say this life down here is very nice for a short time but I shall be glad to be back again, as it is altogether too ‘embusqué’. I don’t know how these Cavalry folk stick it. With us one does get a job of work or two connected with the war, but down here it is too awful.

  21st May 1916 – No. 154 answering 159 – Carly

  The heat today has been too awful – all afternoon we have been lying about in the garden. I am so glad that old Mac is coming to you. Today Syme went off to England & has gone to Bisley for some job with armoured cars. I told him he was to ring you up tonight as he was with me at 11.15 a.m. today. My darling, how near & yet so far! I am sure old Mac would love to see him & I told him he was to go down & see you & Mac.

  You may not take to him at first but he is one of the nicest-natured boys you ever met & the friendship between him and the old Baron was too amusing.

  I walked two miles this morning to hear the poorest parson I have ever heard in my life. Thank goodness I didn’t take any men – I think they would probably have mobbed him. Lass dear, it’s been glorious here this afternoon & I have longed to have you here. I looked hard across the sea yesterday dearie mine but I couldn’t see you, and to think that that wretched little ‘Slimy’16 is probably in London now!

  My love to you all my darlings.

  23rd May 1916 – No. 156 answering 158 & 160 – Carly

  I expect old Mac will pick up alright when he gets with you as he had no one he knew in London & he must have been bored to death. You can take him out in the car because that will brighten him up & if you can get him fit & well again you will be doing a very great service to the nation, as if I get the Regiment I want him for my Adjutant.

  I can quite believe that you miss old Bobbo’s presence & the house must be very funny without him but you will appreciate him all the more in the holidays.

  For goodness sake don’t grow like old Miriam. The effect might be disastrous!!

  My love my darlings.

  24th May 1916 – No. 157 answering 161 & 162 – Carly

  I’m a trifle sad tonight tho’ no doubt I shall soon get over it. We had a long day today with the regular troops & I must say I have never been so bitterly disappointed in my life. To start with we formed up in column of route with the 19th leading, one of whose squadrons was advanced guard. Before it had gone a mile it was completely lost, & so the Brigadier sent out the two remaining squadrons of the 19th Hussars to take the place of the erring one. These in their turn also became completely lost in the next two miles & the whole regiment never was heard of again! I believe however it was eventually able to find its way back to its billets before dark.

  Then the P.B.Y.17 in the person of your husband’s distinguished corps had to take up the onerous duties of Advance Guard & oddly enough were able, with the aid of a map, actually to keep to the road chosen by the Brigade Commander & to carry out his wishes. Our Brigade Commander (Regular) & a Brigadier General, so disposed his force that at the decisive moment he was unable to put his hand on a single soul to throw into the fight with the exception of his own horse holder & a staff captain, who looked as if he drank. Fortunately the opposing brigadier had made as great a mess as ours, and as neither seemed anxious to settle it with their fists the day came to an inglorious end.18

  Our brigade commander’s task19 today was to pursue some broken infantry retiring from an action fought last night. Infantry march 2½ miles per hour. Our commander in his original striking force had the 19th Hussars, 1 Battery R.H.A.,20 2 squadrons K.E.H. & a cyclist company. At no time was he opposed by more than half a squadron of the ‘Bays’. At the end of three hours he had made six miles good & the infantry he was pursuing had gained a mile & a half on him since the start.

  If they had both left the same rendezvous at the same time we should have had to have trotted for 15 minutes at the end of three hours to catch them up. However, I’m only a yeoman & therefore not in a position to criticize a professional soldier as because he is a regular soldier he must know everything there is to know about soldiering & our poor little P.B.Y. must learn, mark, read and inwardly digest & by gad he does & ponders these things in his heart. However there are other fields & pastures new, [where] perhaps he may venture.

  It’s getting late now dearie & so I shall go to bed & leave your dear letters to be answered tomorrow. I had a lovely letter from old Bob enclosing his marks which I send you herewith in case he hadn’t a copy for you.

  My love to you all my darlings.

  25th May 1916 – No. 158 – Carly

  I am afraid that I wrote you a rotten letter last night but I felt like it then tho’ now I am completely recovered tho’ I have the prospect before me of starting off at midnight for a long night march.

  It is rather a blow old Jimmy21 coming out but perhaps the Pseudo will go sick again & he will have to go home.

  I can’t help thinking that if Jimmy has come out that it will free me from organizing the Regiment & if that is the case I don’t see why I shouldn’t have a bit of leave. If I can get it I shall try & come one day in the week June 11th to 17th so as if possible to be home to go to old Bob’s sports. I was very glad to see old Bob was in third place in his class, perhaps when he settles down he will improve it. Anyhow we shall see; his Pa wasn’t much use at book-learning!!

  28th May 1916 – No. 160 answering 163, 164, 165 & 1
66

  I seem to have a perfect budget of your letters to answer tonight.

  I have just had a letter from MacDonald asking for news as they have only heard rumours so your tale of Jimmy coming to France is not correct so far, I am glad to say!! While there is life there’s hope!!

  Tell Juckes that he must fix up old Mac as soon as he possibly can as I want him back very badly indeed. Poor little Ken, I know exactly the glass smashing action, I’ve seen it before. I would love to see him old girl & perhaps I shall before long but I can see by Mac’s letter today that I shall be very lucky if I get home when I said & personally I fear it is off for the present but we shall see.

  Yesterday I looked across the Channel & saw the coast of home so close that it made one think a bit, especially as there was the dearest little kid playing on the sand where I was sitting who was the dead spit of my Meg. Absolutely in character & everything! I’m so glad you like old Mac, I absolutely love the boy & he is real gold through & through. I think old Mac has a very exaggerated notion of one’s capabilities – perhaps that’s why I like him so much. I am sure from what you tell me old Mac is making real progress & I am very glad he is. Keep it up & get him fit for me as soon as you can.

  29th May 1916 – No. 161 answering 167 – Carly

  Well we are off at 8 a.m. tomorrow on our return journey & tho’ we have had a very pleasant time down here a very great deal of it might have been much more profitably employed. We have been lucky in a way as we had a good fellow, one Parsons in the 19th Hussars, as our instructor & he was a thoroughly sound fellow, but the instruction given by the rest of the crowd, if it can be called instruction, was beneath contempt.22

 

‹ Prev