F. A. Bolwell

“ We found there another implement of torture used by the Germans, a three-pronged steel or iron with sharp points: they were thrown out in front of the trenches for men to step on—it mattered not which part you stepped on: one of the prongs would be sure to run into your leg. That night we had one Lieutenant and one private killed, and about thirteen casualties in all. We were in those trenches for a week, until the thirtieth, and it was one of the quietest spots of the whole line—scarcely any rifle fire and little shell fire. ”

“ That night we were taken from our position on top of the hill nearer the enemy to a village and there put into billets. At eight o'clock [44] every one was fairly comfortable, and we were settled in farm-buildings with plenty of good straw; but how we managed to sleep so comfortably—with the Germans only three miles off—I cannot say. Why they never blew us off the face of the earth with the big guns they possessed we often wondered—anyhow they didn't! and we got down, to dream of home, huddled into each other the best way we could to keep warm. ”

“ We were of course forced to fall back over the crest, but not before we had had twenty-five casualties, though we eventually reached our objective without any further losses.
That village was one of the very worst I had come across—dead horses and dead men everywhere. It was full of caves, in which we were kept; but we stayed there only one day, during which an enemy aeroplane passed over, and on seeing us dropped a silver ball which slowly floated down to where we were, thereby giving the range to the German batteries. ”

“ They were advancing by way of the little house and on to the Thirteen Trench. We kept up a brisk fire for a considerable time into the advancing masses; but we were hopelessly outclassed, and had to fall back on our other company behind. On reaching them, we all retired into the wood, drawing the enemy in behind us. It proved to be a fine piece of strategy, as we drew them on to unfamiliar ground and away from the trenches. We then turned round and made a counter-attack, driving them well back and leaving heaps of them dead and wounded behind. ”

“ Just in front of the King's Royal Rifles' trenches was a huge German Officer waving with one hand to the retiring Rifles to surrender and with the other waving his troops on. It did not seem of much good for us few men to attempt to fight that dense mass of Germans, but we did; and out [89] of the thousand, or thereabouts, that we lined up with a couple of nights before very few got away, the enemy taking somewhere about four hundred of my Regiment prisoners and our casualties being about the same number. ”

“ At night every other man in the front line was posted as sentry, doing one hour, after [56] which the alternate men would do an hour. This continued until daybreak, when sentries were lowered to one in three.
The third night after taking the Aisne we expected an attack from the enemy, and the whole Regiment stood to till morning. It was truly beautiful—it rained incessantly, and one could not see more than a yard in front of one's nose! That night a man of the Black Watch came in having been left out since Monday's battle: he had nearly every toe shot off and was almost blind. ”

“ Nearly all the Company Officers and N.C.O.'s were attending, besides the C.O., Adjutant, Machine-Gun Officer, Regimental Sergeant-Major, Pioneer Sergeant, Signalling Sergeant, Police Sergeant—in fact, every one of note in the Regiment. There were also a number of men waiting to be told off for various crimes; and they were holding this office in a farmyard, on hard cobbled stones, when a shell of large calibre dropped amongst them, killing and wounding close on forty Officers and men. ”

“ A smarter body of men, all seasoned soldiers, one could not wish to meet (the average of their service was not less than five years, all the younger recruits having been left behind in England as peace details) . Our destination for that day at any rate was not a distant one; we proceeded only to a small village called Esquerries, not more than three miles off. There we again went into billets for four days. On arrival at the farm at which I was billeted, the farmer's wife on seeing us broke into tears—she thought that we were the Germans! ”

“ It was a fine sight when we were in the trenches in front to see the relieving battalions coming up to relieve us: there were no communication trenches then, and they had to advance in extended order—lines and lines of them; and when the enemy opened fire, as indeed they did occasionally, they all dropped down as one man. As soon as the firing ceased they were off again, and so on until they reached the trenches, when they would fall down just in rear, and on the word of an Officer we would get out and they would get in. We would retire in the same order as they advanced. ”

“ We are out to fight a great nation and men who are out for blood. This Regiment have always been top-dogs even with the boys" (meaning time-serving men: they had that year won nine football cups out of a possible eleven, besides other sporting competitions) . "What are we going to do now that we have the men?" (meaning the Reservists) . "None of you men will come back—nor the next lot—nor the next after that—nor the next after that again; but some of the next might. But we'll give those Germans something to go on with, and we'll give a good account of ourselves! ”

“ Those in the reserve lines would all turn out with picks and shovels the whole of the night, digging one main communication trench.
One Sunday morning we came in for a bad time. The enemy finding our reserve trenches, which we then occupied with the 2nd Royal Sussex, with enfilading shell-fire, put several sixty-pounders amongst us, causing a lot of damage. After that occasion those trenches were never occupied, but we made up straw dummies in khaki, and set them around each dug-out; and we used to get great fun from watching the enemy shelling them, our boys remarking: "That's it, Fritz! ”

“ The man I lay down behind told me that they had been out there three days and had had no rations, and also that they had had many men taken prisoners.
In this front line we had a breather, the German trenches being roughly three hundred yards away, and a hedge was also running parallel between the two lines of trenches, with a big gap facing us. Through this gap we could see the enemy retiring one and two at a time from their trenches. They appeared like so many rabbits running from their holes, and, as they ran, so we took pot-shots at them. ”

“ Of all the trenches I had been in that was quite the worst: we had to absolutely walk the whole of the way over dead [99] bodies—our own men and Germans. It was eight o'clock at night, and of course dark, which made our task more unpleasant; but we reached the end of the communication trench safely, though we had not got more than three or four yards down the main trench to the right, where it ended in a cul-de-sac, before a German patrol of about twelve men came walking along the top of the trench. We waited until they were on top of us—then I let drive. ”

“ There was plenty of work on the Aisne during those days, the men in the front line connecting each single trench up with another, so as to form one long continual line; also the making of bunny holes. During the day we had the usual order: one man in three on sentry, now commonly termed in the trenches "look-out"; and, at night, every other man—if a quiet night, one would be on sentry, one resting, and one taken for digging a communication trench, each man taking his turn an hour about. ”

“ That afternoon, the twenty-ninth of October, we proceeded to advance once more. Getting nearly a mile up the main road, we took the left side, going out in extended order. Thence we advanced [86] another half-mile, coming under shell-fire; when we reached the rise, we lay down. All this time we had seen nothing of the enemy, though bullets were flying all around us. It was then dark, but we did not stay there. Closing in on the right, we came to a village: here the bullets were very thick, but we continued to cross the village along the main road to the right. ”

“ We were then informed that a four-days' battle was expected, and that a force of 40,000 Germans was on our front. Nothing, however, came of it that day; so we advanced a few more miles, and took rest in a field for an hour. There we were told that all men who wished to do so could grow a beard. From there we marched on to billets in a village.
The next morning we were away early, and during that day we passed through a village from which the Germans had obviously made a hurried exit, for we found that many things had been left behind. ”

“ One poor fellow going through told us how his chum had had his jaw blown away by a piece of shell, and the Germans on reaching the Munsters' trenches had killed all the wounded with the very entrenching tools they had been using. We expected to see them coming in force that night, but after waiting until dusk, we retired on the main body. Unfortunately we did not get clear away without casualties. An unlucky affair occurred in this way: we had, the day before, passed through Soissons, and I remember it was at this village that [26] we caught up with the main body. ”

“ On Tuesday the twenty-ninth the enemy heavily attacked the keep: fully 1,500 Germans got out of their trenches, and, after advancing a couple of yards, lay down, in preparation for a charge. Our artillery then got to work, and, aided by our rifle and machine-gun fire, accounted for every man, only five out of the 1,500 being left, and these we took prisoner. Very excellent work was done that day by both the 2nd Royal Sussex and the Northampton Regiments. That night we were relieved by the Camerons and Black Watch 1st Brigade, and returned to our old billets at Beuvry. ”

“ As we could not hand over the trenches complete, the Germans having possession of the Thirteen Trench, we were not relieved by the London Scottish, as it is a rule with the Regular Army that, on being relieved, trenches have to be handed over precisely as they were taken over, any that may have been lost having to be retaken. ”

“ Just behind the front line of German trenches was a house from which we took a number of prisoners. The first man of ours to reach it was a corporal. He called upon the Germans to surrender and got a bullet through the brain for his pains. The Germans then saw us, and were obliged to surrender, and were given over to men to take behind. One German Officer remarked: "We don't mind—we've got Paris, and London is in flames." One of our Officers turned round and said: "You know that's not true." Whereon he remarked: "I know, but the men believe it."
[77] ”

“ We went back to our old original trenches, leaving the 21st Division to carry on. Our ranks were sadly depleted, having lost many men: it was an awful and ghastly sight coming back over the ground we had taken. About two o'clock that afternoon we heard that the 21st Division were not doing well, and that a couple of field-batteries which had taken up position immediately behind the old German front line had been put out of action, as well as two batteries to the right of Larutwar Farm, which was packed from end to end with wounded, waiting to be taken away. ”

“ That night a night-attack by the enemy was expected and the usual precautions were taken; it came to nothing. Although this village was in ruins and only about two thousand yards from the enemy's front line, civilians continued to live there.
Between the twenty-sixth of December and the twenty-ninth of December there was "nothing doing": most of the Regiment were employed in the communication trenches, cleaning up and carrying planks to lay on the bottom, some parts of the trenches being deep in mud and water. ”

“ About one hundred men would bathe to each bath, the last dozen or so revelling in pea-soup. Every one had to go in—as at that time we all had plenty of live stock crawling over us—under the eyes of the Company Officer and two or three N.C.O.'s. Enemy aircraft was continually flying over us, and one Sunday morning an airman dropped eight bombs, which killed several civilians, mostly children, and caused sixteen casualties amongst men of my Regiment.
We left Hazebruck on Monday morning by motor omnibuses on December the twenty-first, [111] going through Merville to Festubert. ”

“ Next morning, the thirtieth, we were very heavily bombarded, and the bombardment increased in violence towards midday, when we were ordered out of our trenches and to advance. We again moved up about a thousand yards, but there was still no sign of the enemy—shells were abundant. In front of a farm-house we dug in again, and then we began to see our troops retiring on the right. Two or three of the Welsh passing near, we inquired what was going on, when they replied: "It's hell. ”

“ These people had lived the whole time along with [65] other civilians in the little village behind the line; they were found out by the French Division who relieved us. Every day, as regular as clockwork, the enemy had shelled us for an hour after daybreak, and for an hour at midday, and again another hour at dusk, with an occasional burst during the night. Rifle-fire was always plentiful on the Aisne at night on both sides. ”

“ We had eight hours' rest here, and that same night proceeded to the recently captured village of Loos, where were packed piles of dead Germans and men of the 15th Scottish Division. It was indeed an ugly sight. From one cellar we turned out twenty Germans, and we also took one who had been working an underground telephone. We spent one night in this cellar, and the following night proceeded through the village to Hill 70, where we filled a gap and dug a line of trenches, digging most of the time through solid chalk. ”