H. Hesketh-Prichard

“ In order to understand fully the tremendous mass of work done by observers, you must realize that behind the lines the Major-General, the Corps Commander, the Army Commander and the Commander-in-Chief himself are all blind. ”

“ It is too painful a subject to pursue.
Many people seem to think that all observation is now done from aeroplanes, but this is absurd. The airmen can spot hostile concentrations and do invaluable work in a hundred ways, but, as the war went on, more and more was it recognized how necessary was the ground-observer, for he looked at the enemy from a different angle, and his reports were often of the highest value. ”

“ It was perhaps natural enough that when a sniper first won his way into the sniping section of his bat¬talion, he should desire to shoot rather than to observe, yet, as a matter of fact, the observer's was, in my opinion, the post of honour. It was very hard work too, especially in summer time, and more especially still in the chalk country. Some of the happiest days of our lives were spent with the Ross telescope, either watching the German lines from the front trenches or from some observation post further back overlooking the wide areas that lay behind them. ”

“ Battle-observing was the blue ribbon of observation. Although the first battalion of Lovat Scouts went to Gallipoli, and later to Salonica, only coming to their true work in France in 1918, yet since 1916 this splendid regiment was represented there by the Lovat Scouts Sharpshooters whom I have referred to above, and of whom nine groups, each about twenty strong, and each under an officer, were attached to a certain Army Corps. Every man of these groups was a picked stalker and glassman, and they were used largely for long range observation. ”

“ In training glassmen, one wonderfully soon realized how impossible it was to teach any man to use his telescope skilfully who had not been accustomed to it from early youth. Every soldier can, of course, be taught which end to look through, and how to focus, and such details, but these men who began late in life never got the same value from their glasses as did the gillies and the stalkers, and from the point of view of accuracy they were in no way comparable. ”

“ Most shelling done by the Germans was on registered cross-roads and such¬like spots, and always when they saw a body of men of any size they would, of course, shell it. But the observer, who usually went into his post rather late —as in the early morning observation, owing to the mist and the position of the sun, was impossible—often received the honour of a special shelling all to himself. ”

“ Freedom of movement is necessary to the observer, and as to the sniper, I always felt that it was wrong to send him out except on a definite quest, for the man behind the trench is always in a superior position to the man who is lying on open ground without any chance of escape.
So far I have dealt with what is known as front line observation ; but besides this we have to con¬sider the very wide subject of back area observation. The sniper's duty is to watch the enemy's front and support lines. ”

“ At one point of a supposed disused trench, a cat was ob¬served sunning itself upon the parados. This was duly reported by the observant sniper, and in his log book for three or four days running came a note of this tortoise-shell cat sunning itself, always at the same spot.
The Intelligence and Sniping Officer of the battalion, on reading his entries, made his deduction, to wit, that the cat probably lived near by. Now at that part of the British line there was a terrible plague of rats which was probably at least as troublesome upon the German side. ”

“ Many Germans no doubt saved their lives by going down their deep dug-outs and into their concrete pill-boxes, but many more, as is common knowledge, when our men came over, stayed down too long and were bombed to death. ”

“ Certainly the men who follow the red deer of Scotland proved themselves once again in this war to possess qualities which, let us hope, will never pass from the British race.
As ammunition grew plentiful, and observation more and more adequate, it naturally became less and less healthy for the German to move about in his back areas in daylight. Thus, one day, two officers happened to be in an observation post which was connected with the guns, when out of a wood some thousands of yards behind the German line emerged three figures. ”

“ The battle observer's post or, rather, his series of posts, in an advance, may begin in an observation post, proceed forward to a series of shell holes and finish in a wrecked German lorry stranded upon some convenient slope. He will use the telephone. His runners—who take back his reports when the telephone wires are cut by shell fire—will escape on one occasion almost unshot at ; on the next gas shells will pursue them with positive malignancy. ”

“ Earth being thrown up usually meant work in progress. The occurrence was, of course, noted down in the log book, with a map reference at which it took place and the spot, if worth while, bombarded with trench mortars. Or the observer might spot a machine-gun emplacement, or locate a minenwerfer. ”

“ At first they were quarantined for a time, as most of them were suffering from malaria, and from then onwards tremendous efforts were made to train the whole regiment in the higher forms of map-reading. It is, I believe, a fact that it was only on November nth, the day of the Armistice, that the order finally came through from the War Office which, settled the establishment of the Lovat Scouts with the British Expeditionary Force. ”

“ Forty Englishmen to be trained as Lovat Scouts ! Abominable !—Preposterous!—and it can't be done ! " The ist Corps had a splendid system under which the Lovat Scouts attached to it worked. It possessed a grand group under Lieut. Whamond, M.C., whose equal at his work I never saw in France. The system was this : Scouts from the group were avail¬able on application to the Corps Intelligence Office. Thus, if a battalion had been ordered to raid the enemy trenches, the Commanding Officer of that battalion could indent for some Lovats to go and make a reconnaissance of the enemy wire for him. ”

“ It fell to the First Army Sniping School to train their reinforcements. Keener men never lived, nor more dependable. I remember once a Zeppelin was reported as falling in the enemy back areas some six or seven thousand yards behind the German line. This report was made by divisional observers, but it was promptly denied by the Lovat Scouts, who stated very gravely that there was a difference between a Zeppelin and a half deflated balloon !
Lovat Scouts Sharpshooters were trained at Beauly in map-reading, compass work, etc., and first came out in separate groups. ”

“ Loe Strachey's invaluable fund, the Lady Roberts fund sent me out a number of very high-class glasses of all magnifica¬tions, and after a great deal of experimenting we came to the conclusion that during all the morning hours, when the sun was facing us, we should do best for all our work with a io-power magnification, whereas, of course, when the sun went round behind us, higher-powered glasses gave better results. ”