by E. W. Hermon
13th November 1916 – No. 16 – on pages from a notebook – Armentières
My dear I quite forgot my youngest son’s birthday! Please apologize & start his banking account with the enclosed. Thank the Chugs for their nice letters which I got today. The prayer book turned up today & I hope to open it & read some when I go to bed in a minute or two.
All my officers seem to be down with diseases of sorts & I am pretty badly off at present. There is a sort of influenza running round & everyone seems to have it. I don’t know if it is a new sort of Hun frightfulness & he is sending us ‘Snishoo’ germs down the many brooks which run from him to us. I expect I shall have it shortly as all the other members of the Mess can hardly see out of their eyes.
Goodnight my old love.
14th November 1916 – No. 17 answering 17 – Armentières
You are quite right about the officers; they are very like the curate’s egg. There are some really good ones & I like them very much. There is one called Allison who is an exceedingly nice fellow & his brother is a Lewis Gun officer & he’s very nice too. Then there’s a bloke called Blott who’s nice & most capable. There’s a funny little man called Crichton, a Wesleyan minister, who is also a good bloke tho’ nothing very much socially. My Adjutant, Brady, is a nice fellow & our proper doctor, Svensson, is a most charming fellow. You would like him & Allison I’m sure.
You know the British soldier is a most wonderful person. We have recently taken some prisoners and during the night these blokes, had they met, would have killed one another & enjoyed it. When morning came, they surrendered & came in. No sooner had the men got them than they gave them a tot of rum & cigarettes, & when I got back to Battalion H.Q. they were sharing their breakfast with them. It’s one of the finest traits in the national character the way the men treat their prisoners. In a real fight there’s no doubt a great many somehow do get killed that perhaps mightn’t but the moment they surrender, when there is nothing on they might almost be an honoured guest. They look on them as sort of pets!! They really are rum blokes but there’s no doubt it’s fine.
Just been handed a G.H.Q. wire saying that total prisoners taken on Somme is now 5,400. Real good, isn’t it. Just when the old Hun thought he had fixed us for good!! We are all awfully pleased as it is a good reply to the French success at Verdun. Make the old Boche think a bit too. I wish to goodness we could break him.
I enclose you a bit of a medal ribbon the same Boche gave me. I don’t know what it is but Spinks would tell you & some time I should like to know.
17th November 1916, 9.30 a.m. – No. 19 – front line, Epinette Sector
Somehow I didn’t manage to get you a letter done yesterday in spite of the fact that I was up & out in my front line before daylight broke. It was a glorious day & same today tho’ it froze like Hades last night & I was plunging about in water up to my knees with half an inch of ice on the top going round the line last night.
My unfortunate runner fell down twice. If it’s true that the Boche has no rubber boots now I don’t know how he will get through the winter. We have all got thigh waders, which tho’ by no means proof against frostbite, are very much better than wet feet.
I somehow can’t write letters now, since that lovely time dearie they seem so rotten but I seem to want yours more than I did before.
18th November 1916 – No. 20 answering 20 & 21 – front line, Epinette Sector
It is now nearly 11 p.m. & I have got to wander down & look round the front line. It’s raining & beastly & I would far rather be at home in bed!! The last time in the trenches we were simply flooded out. This time I have been walking round on ice and this morning where the water was less than a foot deep, the ice was thick enough to bear me walking carefully. The poor men I am afraid had a terrible thin night.
I’m awfully glad old Buckin is pleased with the cottage and things in general.
20th November 1916 – No. 21 answering 21, 23 & 24 – front line, Epinette Sector
I feel again that I have neglected you too shamefully these last few days, but I haven’t had a moment. I have been organizing a minor operation of sorts & have not had a moment in which to write to you. It merely remains to sit & wait until the hour strikes for action. I take no part myself beyond the control of the operation & it’s a great anxiety & rather damnable waiting.
It’s fine the progress on the ANCRE.7 If Romania could only hold her own now for a bit, it would snooker old Hindenburg. I don’t think the bit the Huns got back was of much account & they probably lost pretty heavily in getting it.
Now I must stop & write a line to the family as I owe them some letters & have got six very anxious hours to get through somehow.
My love to you old dear. Will you post me my long waders please.
THE ‘ANXIOUS HOURS’ were because a raiding party from the battalion had entered the enemy trenches under darkness. The trenches had been damaged by artillery fire and were deep in water and no sign of the enemy was found. Whilst these patrols were out the commanding officer needed to remain awake.
22nd November 1916 – No. 22 answering 25 – subsidiary line, Epinette Sector.
My folk entered the Boche trenches a few days ago & did pretty well tho’ the Hun had evacuated his front line where they entered and so they didn’t get a prisoner. Anyhow it’s caused great satisfaction all round & done the men worlds of good. I was very pleased too as they have attempted two raids before & both have been hopeless failures. I think it was the last fiasco that got me the Battalion.
The cups & teapot turned up today. Many thanks.
Well dearie I must go to bed as I find it is already tomorrow.
23rd November 1916 – No. 23 answering 26 – subsidiary trenches, Epinette Sector (Marked ‘Examined by Base Censor’)
I am afraid I am very late tonight as I see it is already tomorrow again but I am having another little venture with the Hun in the early hours & so I do not expect to get to bed much before 6 a.m.
I am glad you & the Chugs enjoyed yourselves at White House. How are you getting on, on Standard bread? Are you able to get no flour for puddings? I hope the pony will come alright again, as it suits old Mairky well.
Well dearie I must be off as I am preparing a very hefty bomb for brother Boche & my party starts soon.
24th November 1916 – No. 24 answering 27 & 28 – subsidiary trenches, Epinette Sector
My little show last night was a great success in that my folk entered the Boche line, stayed there for an hour & 50 minutes & when they left destroyed a dugout with gun cotton. They never saw a Hun at all & I think there is so much water in his line at this point that he doesn’t occupy it. Anyhow it has done the men a most awful lot of good, bucked them up like anything, & the Battalion in general benefits no end by a successful show of this sort.
I am awfully sorry little Mairky has been seedy. I should shut her & her pony up together & leave them till they get well!! Send the socks to the Central Depot as there are most probably hundreds who are more in need than we are. We have got a very good system running here. Each man possesses 3 pairs of socks & has one on, a dry pair in his pocket and one pair at the Div. Laundry.
Darling mine, I’m so damned tired I’m going to bed. Tomorrow I am on a General Court Martial to try an officer, so may not have time to write you more before this post goes.
26th November 1916 – No. 26 answering 27, 28 & 29 – subsidiary trenches, Epinette Sector
Did you see in the casualty list that my nice doctor man Guthrie had been killed? I was so awfully sorry. The world is very much the poorer for his death. I was awfully fond of him, he was a man after my own heart. Yes, old Prior has behaved magnificently & does at once anything I ask him & does it in a really nice way. I will tell you if I hear whether I get confirmed in my rank but I understand that it is so & that I shall appear in the Army list with the Battalion, tho’ also in K.E.H. as seconded.
29th November 1916 – No. 28 answering 31, 32 & 33 – Fort Rompu8
A
t last I have got a rest & am back behind the line with a prospect of ten days before I go into it again, which is simply topping. The only crab is my cold & the fact that our billet is very poor indeed. However there’s nothing else, so there’s no use grumbling. We are now enjoying low ground fogs, bitter damp and cold & the whole outlook is very far from pleasant, I can assure you, but the men have nice little huts & are clean & dry which is always something. My darling old girl, I am terribly cut up about poor old ‘Medicine Man’ Guthrie. He was another Mac of the finest possible type. It’s too sad for words, but he must have died finely as I hear he was killed whilst bandaging men in the last attack, right out on the ground they had won.
You have fairly mystified me over the little present & I am anxiously looking forward to its arrival. My second-in-command9 was ordered to England today and I am genuinely sorry to see the last of him. I wouldn’t have believed that a man of his class could have been so loyal or behaved as finely as he has done under the circumstances. I know many folk who wouldn’t know him in civil life & who couldn’t hold a candle to his behaviour. I admire the old man more than I can say. There’s no doubt that a lot of our social ideas are rot.
As you say the Romanian business doesn’t look well & I am afraid it will put another year on to the war, but one never knows, the more line they have to hold the weaker they must be. There is no doubt that the Huns have got some goodish thinkers at the top.
My head, old dear, is far too cotton-woolly to write you any more now.
My love my darling.
3rd December 1916 – No. 32 – answering 35 – Fort Rompu
I can’t remember what was in my number 22 but I think that the Censors do dive at very fat envelopes in case of finding unauthorized enclosures. You say why was I strafed, well it was merely because I went out to see my wiring parties at work one night & I didn’t know that C.O.s weren’t allowed between the lines.
Your nurse sounds nice old dear & I hope you will engage her. After all one can’t get everything these times & she sounds quite alright. I don’t think her age matters & you can hire a small boy to push the pram. I hear from the family that you were in town when the aeroplane came & that Nell was covered with bricks from a beastly bomb?
6th December 1916 – No. 35 answering 40 – Fort Rompu
I’m going to have a covered car tonight & I’m going off to an Old Etonian dinner in the hopes that I’ll meet someone I like better than myself. The weather is still damnable, cold & cheerless & looks like remaining so for the rest of the winter.
7th December 1916 – No. 36 answering 40 & 41 – Fort Rompu
Well, I went to the dinner last night & had a really very pleasant evening. Nicholson said I wasn’t fit enough to go in an open car so he sent a covered one for me & four of us went off from these parts to Cassel. The first soul I saw in the room was Wally & I was so pleased to see him & I sat next to him & on my other side was an Eton master who knew Dick. He had a staff job somewhere & was a Grenadier Guardsman. His name was Wilkinson & he told me he knew Pa, who had invited him to go yachting with him & to meet him at Cowes in 1914!! I could so well see the old man doing it, can’t you?
There were 73 of us sat down at dinner but very few folk that I knew. My circle of acquaintances being a few folk met hereabouts and Wally & old Trotter Carter!! The latter was the oldest Etonian present, having gone there in 1869!! Amongst the rest were a few odd folk like Vivian Nicholls, & Bill Pawson. General Plumer was in the chair.
Coming back our car ran out a big end bearing half way between Cassel & Bailleul, but luckily an empty car came along and we commandeered it & got home again alright. I think it did me good as I certainly am much better today, I am glad to say.
10th December 1916 – No. 39 answering 43 & 44 – Fort Rompu
Things certainly do look bad just at present but they will come right in the end; there was one December in the S.A. war when folk thought all was lost. We are all right here & if the folk will really buck up at home & play the game & chuck all the damned foolishnesses till the war is over, it will be alright. We are bound to win in the end so long as the navy remains top dog in the North Sea. It all turns on that.
No, I didn’t exactly design these stables tho’ I gave them a plan of my last ones with measurements, but these are better still. I’ve told you already I am moving right-handed a bit. Unfortunately I am very unlikely to see my mess hut again or my own nice fireplace.
13th December 1916 – No. 41 answering 46 – front line, Rue de Bois Sector
Short note tonight as I am just off round my line & would give worlds to be going to bed instead. I’ve got a damnable sore throat today & it’s beastly having to run the show when one is not really feeling quite the thing. However it’s got to be done. We are all most frightfully excited about Lloyd George’s reply to Bethmann Hollweg10 – ‘K’ said the Huns would offer peace on their terms in November 16 & that two months later would have to accept ours!!
16th December 1916 – No. 43 answering 48 – trenches, Rue de Bois Sector
Many thanks for the Xmas things, which I expect will arrive tonight or tomorrow. The rats have eaten two cakes in my bedroom. We found an old ‘Jane’ cupboard which is doing duty as a meat safe in my bedroom & the cakes were in it. The old bit of wood we had over it for a door got left off & of course the rats had it in no time, there are lots in my bedroom.
It doesn’t matter about the marmalade, old dear. As a matter of fact what we have been having lately is so unlike the original article that it is unrecognizable.
Well dearie, I’ve just got another nice letter from you (50) but I’m going to bed. Will answer it tomorrow if possible. Don’t worry I’m mending alright.
18th December 1916 – No. 44 answering 48, 49, 50 – Rue Marle
Last night for an hour after going to bed I simply coughed my soul out, but I think it was because I painted my throat with some glycerine & carbolic that was rather too strong. However I’m much better today in fact very much better, but this country is dampness itself, with beastly cold foggy days one after the other & it’s not much weather for getting better.
The plums & raisins have arrived alright & are much appreciated. The little diaries are fine dearie & just what I wanted, thanks. Wasn’t Mrs Lloyd George’s letter amusingly put? Hardly the parliamentary language one expects from the Prime Minister’s wife, & hardly the personality whom the ordinary man in the street would go very far out of one’s way to specially please.
My love to you old darling.
18th December 1916 – No. 45 – Rue Marle
I have been sending Xmas cards to all my friends today so I thought that before going to bed old dear, I would write you a line too. I wish I could be there to provide the rails for old Bobbo’s engine & play with it with him, but perhaps I may be back in time to have some days with him before he goes back to school.
Darling mine, I should so love to be back with you all & have everything as it used to be just for a bit, but it’s no good wishing tho’ I must say things look to me as tho’ the Boche is breaking up. There are all sorts of wild rumours going round tonight that the French have brought their prisoners up to 14,000 & that we have made another advance on the Somme. Also that the Hun has proposed a 28 day armistice to discuss peace terms. Of course any question of the latter is too ridiculous & if he thinks we are idiots enough to do that I hope he is wrong. I think that this question of peace is the greatest sign of approaching failure that he has shown yet & I think that the hope that we may see a termination this next year is very bright. I’m very optimistic tonight, I suppose it’s because I have got a fairly comfortable bedstead & a fire in my room.
Thank goodness I don’t go back to the trenches for another fortnight, I don’t think, so I ought to be well shut of my cold by then.
Give my love to the dear little Chugs & I hope you will all have a ‘nice time’.
20th December 1916 – No. 46 answering 51 & 52 – Rue Marle
I’m glad t
o say that I am very much better old dear & very nearly myself again. I’ve got a damned Review Parade in a day or two which means standing for hours in the cold, which I don’t fancy very much I can tell you.
The sun is actually shining now, isn’t it wonderful!
My love & blessings to you all.
21st December 1916 – No. 47 answering 53 & 54 – Rue Marle
I am afraid my beastly cold isn’t gone yet & I’m feeling pretty rotten tonight which is a bore. However perhaps it will improve in a day or two. We are all frightfully bucked over old Lloyd George’s speech, it’s a really fine effort & will make the Hun think a bit. We have him beat I believe now, tho’ it will be some months yet. I talked to the Brigadier about my leave today & I think all will be well.
Will you send me the mouth organs as per enclosed. Last night we had a concert & one of my men played a mouth organ. It was a very cheap one we raised here and he was simply wonderful. I never heard anything like it in my life. My runner sang too. The finest bass voice you ever listened to. Absolutely untaught with the most immense power – simply ripping. There’s a gold mine in it if he was trained, you would have loved it.
22nd December 1916 – No. 48 answering 55 – Rue Marle
I went to bed last night feeling an awful worm & not at all pleased with the idea of having to take my Battalion some miles11 today to be reviewed by my late brother officer, in the most beastly cold wind. I liked it even less when the day was simply pouring with rain as it was today & I got all my knees wet en route.