Leslie Vickers

“ There is one other disease that has made its effects felt on almost every army, and which it [41] has been found impossible to thoroughly eliminate. The hands of those who would lessen its influence are to a great extent tied, because in the past, the only method that has been permissible to eliminate venereal disease has been what I shall call "the Moral method"—the appeal to morality and the intelligence of the individual soldier. We have used this excellent and praiseworthy method for generations, but it has never been found capable of eradicating the evil. ”

“ The civilian is only obedient in certain ways and to a limited extent. The soldier is obedient in every way and to any extent, even to death. It would be wrong of me to indicate that "the habit of implicit obedience" comes easily to the average man. It is difficult to acquire. But it is the "sine qua non" of a good soldier and must be acquired. It is the heart of the system. Obedience is given to some one by every rank in the army, from the highest general to the humblest private. ”

“ We must not, however, fail to emphasise the dangers that men run. They must be taught the folly of it. We must make it plain to them that it is not worth the candle to run the risk of contracting the most horrible diseases that even our advanced medical science can never cure with certainty, for the sake of a brief gratification. A man's whole life may be ruined; his innocent children afflicted with a loathsome disease ”

“ Since the Great European War broke out, printing presses have been busy producing text books, handbooks and guides for soldiers. Military authorities and civilians alike have come to realise that this war has changed many of our old conceptions of strategy and that it has introduced conditions that are entirely unprecedented. New methods have had to be devised—sometimes on the field itself in the midst of the greatest difficulties—for meeting new and novel methods of warfare. Every deadly engine of destruction has called forth some new invention to cope with it. ”

“ But we seldom are able to inherit trenches—they usually have to be dug under cover of darkness while the enemy is sniping. For this purpose each man in the British army carries a small entrenching tool on his back, as well as two sandbags. Every man is trained in the use of this valuable little tool, and soon learns never to be without it. When, during an advance, he needs to provide cover for himself, he throws himself down on the ground placing his rifle at his left side, and begins to dig away the earth at his right side, throwing the loose earth up in front of him. ”

“ In civilian life, too, a man usually chooses with scrupulous care his roommate or mates. In the army one may be placed in a tent or a billet with men who are by no means congenial, unless he is lucky enough to have been able to join a group of companions who form a unit. But even the experience of having uncongenial companions is not altogether without its compensations; for every civilian finds that he has need of rearranging his estimates of men when he enters the army. ”

“ Obedience, steadiness and tenacity are required of the men, and only training and experience will develop these excellent soldierly qualities. The poor type of soldier will either forget to use his weapon altogether or else fire wildly and uselessly. An infantry attack is not a pleasant experience, but soldiers must be taught to expect it, and that it will probably give them the opportunity of using the final and greatest weapon of the infantryman—the bayonet. ”

“ In civilian life we have been allowed to work out our own salvation, [16] and if we have been part of a machine at all it has been a huge social machine in which we did not figure as a cog but rather as an attachment.
In military life things are all changed. We become at once cogs in the great machine. We have a definite work to perform. The smooth running of the plant depends on us. We lose much of our independence. We realise that other cogs depend on us, and, further, that there are many bigger cogs who drive us and whose bigness and authority we must thoroughly appreciate and recognise. ”

“ In open fighting men often make the mistake of seeking cover in what is obviously the most protected place from rifle bullets, but equally obvious to those of experience as the most likely place for the enemy to choose as marks for his artillery. ”

“ The quality that is the salvation of the volunteer is his keenness. We volunteer because we are keen and we would be ashamed to be otherwise. The rules and regulations of army life are liable to try our tempers and our patience. ”

“ Should an attack be made, it becomes the business of the men in the trench to hold the enemy off just as long as they can, at whatever cost to themselves, while some one telegraphs back for the supports and reserves, and possibly for the assistance of the artillery. Trenches must never be surrendered without giving these fresh men a chance to regain the advantage, and should the trench be lost, a counter attack must be immediately arranged before the enemy has had time to reverse the trenches and connect them up by saps and communicating trenches with his own system. ”

“ When England began to feel the want of fighting men, it entered the brains of some of the Brass Hat officials that this was a sphere in which the women could well supplant the men—and woman came into her own again, at least in part. ”

“ If the enemy is discovered mining towards your position, the only thing to do is to countermine him and try and blow him up before he is ready to touch off the fuse that is intended for your destruction. It is not an easy matter to decide just where the countermine should be sunk or how far to go. Many combats have been fought with pick and shovel in the bowels of the earth in cases where one side or the other has broken through the gallery. But any risk must be taken rather than let the enemy enjoy uninterrupted his work of mining you. ”

“ In the British army men were sentenced to the extreme penalty—death—for being intoxicated while on active service in France. I say without hesitation that the best men I had were the abstainers and the worst men I had were the drinkers. Alcohol weakens the tissues of the body, it lowers its vitality and makes it an easy victim to disease, and worse still, it rapidly obscures the mind. For a war of the kind that is being waged in Europe a man needs to have his head very clear, and this he cannot do if he is the victim of the alcohol habit. ”

“ In an army such as was formed in England at the beginning of the war it was impossible to get enough trained cooks for the work, and all sorts of men were run in for the job. Many of them were thoroughly lazy and incompetent. There was, of course, a rooted objection to calling in the aid of women—though few of us ever think of employing men to do our cooking in private life—and when we suggested it for the purpose of improving the grade of our food in the Officers' Mess, we were met with the reply that it had never been done. ”

“ If he enters the army fit, he must make it his business to remain fit and it will be well to remember that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." To preserve good health is his Duty for only thus can he become an efficient soldier. If the bodily resistance is weakened, man becomes prey to the millions [22] of germs that are to be found in the air and even within his own system. When he is healthy the body is able to keep them in subjection, but once let him permit his system to run down and these armies of microbes will attack him with all their forces. ”

“ Machine guns can do effective work of course and the artillery should be communicated with and they will open fire with shrapnel. Where ammunition permits, a barrage or curtain of fire should then be established behind the enemy's front line to prevent him bringing up reserves to take the place of those that have fallen, and also to weaken him for the time when a counter attack on him has to be made. Star shells, that illuminate the ground, will of course have been fired to give the machine gunners and the rifle marksmen a better chance to find their targets. ”

“ Not only must the officers see to it that the food and water are good and the camp kept clean, but he must also have the men's health constantly in mind when he is planning their schedule of training. Moderation is the word. It is possible to be too enthusiastic and do the men more harm than good with hasty training. Exercises should be graduated. It must be remembered that many of the men who will constitute civilian armies are not used to out-of-door life and their training must be gentle. ”

“ I am told that, during the first campaign in the Carpathians, the Central Powers lost 25,000 men per day with frozen feet.
Before leaving this subject to deal with diseases and their avoidance, I would like to say a word or two on the congenial subject of Rest. A soldier should get as much of it as he can, consistent, of course, with doing his duty. Never stand when you could as well be lying down. Throw yourself on the ground whenever you can, to rest, and let the whole body relax. When you are given a rest on the roadside, stretch out on your back and breathe as deeply as you can. ”

“ That is pretty hard on the enemy—or the lice—but it serves to emphasise one important point and that is, that the ravages of these vermin is so great that they can well be said to be fighting the same cause as the enemy. In spite of all a soldier can do, lice are sure, sooner or later, to overtake him. They make their nests in the straw upon which he throws himself when fatigued, or in the walls of houses, or on other human beings, and contact is almost sure to bring them. ”

“ I have found that men are very apt to load themselves up with all sorts of useless items of apparel. In their endeavour to keep warm they have often badly overdone it with the result that they have found themselves perspiring and exhausted in the midst of an important piece of physical labour. Of course the soldier will need to see to it that his underclothes are sufficiently warm to keep out the [30] extreme cold, but it is better to add something to the clothing from time to time—such as a Cardigan waistcoat—than to be equipped permanently with the heaviest kind of underclothes. ”

“ If artillery preparation has been given, that must be depended on to have broken the wires and the thing to be done then is to reach the enemy parapets before they have time to recover and bring the machine guns into action. But by far the greater number of raids come as surprises to the enemy. They do not hear the men beyond their parapets lying on their stomachs and busily cutting the wires with their [115] snips. The first they know of it is when a bomb lands in the trench or else the body of one of the attacking infantrymen, as he enters their stronghold to begin his work of destruction. ”

“ Then there is, secondly, Army Discipline, which includes obedience, thoroughness, common sense and resourcefulness. This question is dealt with at length in military handbooks and needs few words from me.
The point to remember is that training for modern war is a serious business, not to be entered upon lightly, nor regarded as a "cinch." A man must first of all be fit in body to be able to withstand the many physical hardships that he will be sure to encounter. ”

“ Sooner or later in the course of his trench experience the soldier will be subjected to an infantry attack. Artillery shelling, aeroplane attacks, mining, etc., are part of everyday's programme, but infantry attacks come only now and then. They may come at any time and the enemy is not in the habit of announcing them beforehand. It is not likely that they will occur in broad daylight without any warning. If they are to be made then, they will be preceded always by a concentrated artillery preparation. Night is the danger time. ”

“ TRICKS FOR THE TRENCHES
A closing word should be said on the subject of trench ruses. As in every other form of warfare, deception must be practised on the enemy. He must be made to believe you are doing things that you are not doing and that you propose doing things that are not in your plans at all. Any number of these ruses will occur to the minds of my readers, and I want to mention a few of them that we actually tried.
One of the best ruses is to let the enemy get hold of fake orders. ”