For Love and Courage

by E. W. Hermon

My love to you my darling, it’s on evenings like this, when one isn’t feeling just quite quite, that one seems to long for home once more, almost so badly one feels one can’t bear it much longer. However, joy cometh in the morning & there you are!!

  24th July 1916 – No. 215 answering 221 & 222 – Château at Bomy

  Will you write for one of the enclosed please for me, as I am not quite sure that my present tin hat is quite as thick as the Government one. Size of head 6¾ – and have it sent out direct.

  Last night we had a bit of a concert here, which wasn’t bad but not as good as I hoped. Nearly all these villages have a room with a stage & as this village has a very good one, we took advantage of it.

  You would have laughed if you could have seen me paying the Baroness this morning for the use of our part of the Château!! It seemed too funny paying her direct. It will be lunch time in a few minutes and then the mail at about 2 p.m. I simply live for the mail these days & count the hours till the next one comes. I am hoping for two letters today as I got none yesterday but they are read so quickly & there is then a whole 24 hours to wait for the next.

  I am so glad to think that Miss Cooper9 has gone. Your new one sounds alright, quite makes me want to come home! You seem to think I have no memory. Anyhow I don’t address your letters to Falmouth or any other place that takes my fancy!!? Many thanks for the handkys which arrived safe & sound.

  My love to you old darling. Please thank dear little Mairky for her very kind thought & her present of cake, we are going to have it for tea tonight.

  26th July 1916 – No. 217 answering 223 – Ohlain

  I have forsaken my château for a tent now & I am not sure that I don’t like it much better. It’s healthier. We are doing a bit of digging now & this afternoon I am going to ride round with the doctor & see the parties. I am now in a very small village which we will call ‘O’ some 6000 yards N.W. by W. from where I was with ‘Rogey’ in April.

  On the way home I met a pal who is a Brigadier. He was horrified to find that I wasn’t a Brigadier too & couldn’t make out why I hadn’t a D.S.O. Very nice of him. Anyhow he at once offered me a Battalion in his brigade if I would take it. Now I am fairly up a gumtree. His Brigade is a New Army one & his Div. Commander is in a very much better position than C.B. They have each offered me a Battalion & I personally would far rather have this than the former one. I don’t know what on earth to do.

  The lads now realize that I am fairly boiled if I stay here. Jimmy acquitted himself alright on the field day & they know that he will hold his own alright now & they see my point of view & are willing for me to go. I am going to dine with the Brigadier tomorrow & shall discuss it with him & I shouldn’t be at all surprised if I became an infantry C.O. one of these days very shortly. It’s rather odd getting the offer like this of two Battalions one after the other; shows someone still thinks your poor husband is still worth something.

  As you say the fighting on the Somme has been absolutely desperate. I have seen a few folk who took part and it certainly was pretty stiff. At the present minute there is a ceaseless thunder of guns going on there & as we took Pogieres yesterday I expect it is a Hun counter-attack going on. Anyhow it is a pretty good strafe tho’ it appears to have died down for the minute, now it’s starting off again.

  There is no doubt we are jolly near through the Hun there. I wish to goodness we could bust him for good there & make him go back. It seems so small a bit that has been done when one looks at it on a map of the whole line. However if we can only kill enough of them in their counter-attacks it will help. The great thing is that we do continue to advance. Slowly, but still each day we gain a good piece.

  27th July 1916 – No. 218 answering 225 – Ohlain

  I don’t think I’ve ever known such a fuggy day as it is today. Last night one simply lay in bed & sweated & today it is just the same. I see that most stringent regulations are being brought in about the amount of news that is being sent home so my letters will be even duller than usual. It is really awfully wise because there is no doubt that folk are very foolish in what they write and more so in what they talk about in restaurants etc. The date & place of this last offensive was common talk in London long before we knew in the Regt here & it is hard enough these times to conceal movements of troops without all the babbling that goes on.

  I’ve just broken it again to Jimmy that I am probably going & he tells me he has heard that most of his young officers at home are going to the Flying Corps which is worrying him like the devil. He says it’s perfectly ridiculous that when officers get a bit dissatisfied that they can just go and do what they like. This was intended for me!! tho’ toned down by saying that I ought to get something better than a Battalion.

  I got a letter from little Mac today thanking for the watch & he seems very pleased with it. I am so glad to hear little Ken is doing his ‘bit’ for his country & that he is really fulfilling his mission. What on earth have you been putting on your writing paper, it simply stinks. Do you think Gladys10 put her kit down on your writing pad or anything because it simply stinks of bath salts or some such muck!!

  The battle seems to be catching us; above the continual murmur of the Somme battle they are having a rare old artillery duel up between La Bassée & Loos which one can hear very plainly. Just been for a good long walk to get a little exercise; sounds funny in the midst of the world’s greatest war but is none the less true.

  I’ve just read your letter again. I’m convinced that Gladys has put some of her stinks down on it. I simply can’t do with it any longer & am going to burn it!!

  28th July 1916 – No. 219 answering 224 & 226 – Ohlain

  Well, taking the bull by the horns today I advanced on the Corps, & was met with ‘Well, there’s no further word about your Battalion, it’s been back once & we expect to hear any day now!!’ Well, so far as I can gather old C.B. has never got either my telephone message or my letter saying I wanted to wait until Oct. 1st & his application has gone forward & I am likely to get the job any day now.

  Anyhow it’s Kismet & if it rolls up I shall pack up and take it on. In some ways I should have preferred the Battalion I was offered these last few days, but these are not times for picking & choosing & if the thing comes through alright, I shall take the first that comes along & do my best with it.

  I believe I am as good as the average C.O. but I haven’t really been put to any test of that sort yet & that is the only thing that is going to prove it. Anyhow there are thousands of other ordinary mortals doing splendid work every day & perhaps one will be alright. Apparently this man, whose place I am to take, is very ill & had to resign first, or something. However, as I say, I shall take the first that comes now as I can’t go on doing nothing any longer.

  Besides which I want to go & do my share where there’s something doing. One cannot go on sitting in peace & comfort at a nice safe distance behind the line any longer & still keep one’s self-respect. Come what may I’m going to have a go now if I possibly can. I can’t stick another ‘embusqué’ winter such as last.

  Poor old thing, I can see you so well looking ‘greasy’ after your wrestle with the car, but they do run much better on petrol!! It is very seldom indeed that it is magneto trouble that is wrong with a car, always start in your diagnosis from the petrol end & see that the carburettor is full & then work down the wires to the magneto last, & before tackling that undo the wire from the end of the magneto that leads to the switch & start like that. You can always stop the car by putting a screwdriver on to the terminal (which you have disconnected) & putting the end against any portion of the engine.

  There is a lot of flying going on today the last three or four having been quite impossible so they are buzzing about like bees today. There’s a fine article in The Times of 27/7/16 page 7 columns 1 & bit of 2. Absolutely true & fine!

  29th July 1916 – No. 220 – Ohlain

  Just a very short note this evening because I am going up to have a look at the Hun & have a picnic di
nner on the hillside & then on to see the digging party at work. As per usual I have done nothing at all today & we got no mails again so there is no excitement of any sort to stir me to a special effort.

  I’ve heard nothing further about my Battalion yet. The Corps Commander came round today & I wandered about the lines with him but he said nothing.

  My love to you dearie.

  30th July 1916 – No. 221 answering 227 – Ohlain

  We had a most pleasant evening for our walk. We went out to the end of a hill about 1000 yards behind our own front line & sat in the grass where we could overlook the whole show & watch the transition stage from day to night conditions. We reached our position about 8.30 p.m. just as the light began to fail & saw the old Hun put some very heavy minenwerfer11 over as a sort of ‘kiss good night’ & then very shortly afterwards our guns had a proper hate on his line & for an hour & a half he got the most concentrated essence on a portion of his trenches as would make him think a bit. We stayed on until twilight merged into darkness and the Verey lights began to go up.

  It is really a wonderful sight, because it’s all quite silent except for the guns & an odd rifle or two & it seems impossible to believe that two great armies face one another across a small strip of field, in many places not a hundred yards wide, & that you never see a soul move. As we came away about 11 p.m. you could see the whole line stretching right away on both sides by the Verey lights & star shells & in the distance away to the south the glare of the gun flashes on the Somme, which lit up the whole sky just as one sees the lights of a big seaside town from the sea. It all brought back so clearly our day on the end of Portland Bill, and I was talking about it all to the doctor as we walked home again.

  This latest Russian news is splendid & I expect they will be very soon at Lemberg & Przemysl again now. I think William, emperor of all the damned Germans, will soon be having a very funny feeling in his tummy. All his legions appear to be tumbling home & I hope he will find them shortly crowding up the streets of Berlin.

  A damned calf has been in my tent & I suppose seeing the attractiveness of my bed & scarlet eidy, proceeded to lie down on it with disastrous results to the bedstead, but having my air bed I don’t mind & can get the bedstead mended here very easily as there is a workshop at the farm. Best of love old dear.

  31st July 1916 – No. 222 answering 228 & 229 – Ohlain

  Two nice letters today old dear, most cheering. The heat today has been too awful for words, thank goodness tho’ I had nothing more strenuous to do than walk over and get my meals & even that was almost too much trouble. I am going to be inoculated again tonight as it is a year since I was done. As you say old dear, just fancy it being two years since one lived at home permanently. It must be at least another and possibly two before one does again.

  Buxton tells me he is quite prepared to come with me to the infantry. I must say that I rather doubted whether he would, as lately I think he has been in a stupid mood. I am afraid ordinary soldiering has done him no good.

  I’ve loved your letters old dear & like the ‘grouses’ too.

  2nd August 1916 – No. 223 answering 230 & 231 – Ohlain

  I am feeling alright again today I am glad to say. Yesterday afternoon and evening I was very small bones indeed, but by going to bed without any dinner and a liberal indulgence in aspirin I am beginning to hold my head up once more.

  In your mail 229 you say that life on the whole has been pretty kind & there is no doubt you are right old dear & that we have every reason to be thankful. If it goes as well in the future as it has in the past we can be still more thankful. I wish I had been holding the hand of your dream old dear, only dreams don’t come true, especially nice ones like that & I see no chance of it for some time.

  My love to you old dear.

  3rd August 1916 – No. 224 – Ohlain

  A most boring day & I was rendered thoroughly homesick as I spent the afternoon sitting in a motor car in the road & there were two kids playing there whose back views were so like Mairky & Migwig that I couldn’t help watching them. I fear my dear little Wig will have grown so terribly big by the next time I see her & that I shall have missed so much of her dear little life. This is a damnable war tho’ no doubt very good & chastening for one!!

  Love to the Chugs & welcome home to my old Bobbo.

  4th August 1916 – No. 215 answering 232 & 233 & 233! [sic] – Ohlain

  I wish darling mine you could have heard all the folk who have been to one lately to say how sorry they are that I’m going, the men have been so awfully nice & their regard is worth so much more to me than that of one’s seniors. I’d far rather have it than the praise of all the generals in the army.

  Not five minutes ago a man told me that practically the whole Regiment would march out with me if they could. It really is awfully good of them and it is the greatest comfort to know that they feel like it. Especially when one realizes that they come from all parts of the world & are generally supposed to be very adverse to the rule of anyone who isn’t a colonial like themselves. Anyhow there it is and Jimmy may take the Regiment, but that he cannot take.

  5th August 1916 – No. 226 answering 234 – Ohlain

  You are right in your guess of where I am but I want you to keep names of formations & places entirely to yourself. We have had a special appeal not to send home any information at all & so for the future I shall send you, if possible, even less than I have up to date. Folk at home will talk at restaurants, in the train & at all kinds of places and there isn’t the slightest doubt that we hardly do anything out here that it isn’t at once known across the line. You would be doing good work to stop anyone you hear chatting about things.

  I was rather amused today by one of the staff saying, when I proposed a certain Battalion, that H.W. would want to keep me in the corps if he could!! Jimmy has had to issue an edict that he won’t recommend anyone for a commission who isn’t an N.C.O. & I hear every Sergeant in ‘C’ put in for a commission last night!!

  You needn’t worry yourself old dear this time as I had fully decided & done the necessary without consulting you so you need not think that it was your persuading that has, or is, going to make me an infantryman tho’ I am delighted to get your letter & your views as I have a very high opinion of your views of right & wrong & am glad that you think I can take this other Battalion if I get the chance.

  My love to you my darling.

  7th August 1916 – No. 228 answering 235 & 236 – Ohlain

  I have just got your two most lovely letters old dear & your bit of poetry12 which is simply champion. I saw it in a paper only a few days ago & liked it very much indeed & to the best of my belief cut it out but don’t know what I have done with it. Anyhow it has now a very much-enhanced value, but it wants a good deal of living up to in practice.

  I don’t know whether Mrs Buxton has written to Buckin or not but he hasn’t said a word of any sort to me on the subject.13 Never broached the subject at all. Similarly I have said nothing to him. It’s rather amusing. I don’t mind what arrangements you come to old dear, I just want to feel that she is fairly comfortable & not having too great a struggle to keep her head above water. Anything you fix up between you will suit me alright.

  As you will have already gathered I want this Battalion most of all (27th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers). I went & walked round its transport etc. last night with Trevor.14 They tell me that they have got some top-hole reliable company commanders still left. The Brigade I was talking to you of was the 1st 100,000 – Ian Hay’s lot.

  I expect one will be alright really, as you say. Everyone has got to make a start and after all everyone does so well that there’s no reason why one shouldn’t do the same. It’s just the feeling that men who have been through it and stuck out Delville Wood for five days15 must be better than one is oneself who hasn’t seen it. However we will go & see. Your verses are lovely darling mine & I’m simply delighted with them & will make some attempt to live up to them tho’ the sta
ndard is very high indeed. Dearie mine, au revoir.

  9th August 1916 – No. 230 answering 237 – Ohlain

  Well old Mac rolled up today alright & I was very glad indeed to see him.

  I hear this morning that the application for me to go to the 27th Batt. N.F. went in two days ago so now perhaps it won’t be long before I take up my new duties. I shall be thankful to have a job of work to do. [Here he has crossed out two words.] I know that will make you curious!! Well I was going to tell you where I was likely to go to but these times it is not allowed and so you will have to possess your soul in patience but from what I have told you, you will be able to make a fair guess.

  I am very glad that Mrs Buckin agrees to Buckin coming with me. I too, am very glad that he is coming, as I should certainly miss him awfully. I should like to see you & the Chugs on your bikes going to Angmering. Old Bet & her goat amuses me. I hope she likes it. I’m all for them having a small kid.

  My love to you all.

  12th August 1916 – No. 233 answering 240 – Ohlain

  Well I’m off in the morning and until further orders you must address me just 27th Batt. Northumberland Fusiliers, B.E.F. It’s odd how 13 seems to mark so many crises in my life but it’s the 13th tomorrow and all my bits of good luck seem connected with 13 & I think it’s quite a good auspice. I am not going in the trenches for some time, so you needn’t worry your dear old head for a bit.

  You see I got the erring 240 alright today & it saved me a blank day as 241 was before his time. It’s dinner time now so I must stop & I will write you more when I come to bed.

  12th August 1916 – No. 234 – Ohlain

  I feel I must write you a few lines on this my last night with the old Regt. One is going off and one doesn’t know quite where it will eventually lead; let us hope to an early peace & happiness once more.