1914 First Blood by John Hughes Wilson

Author:John Hughes Wilson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: british, france, war, french, diary, german, wwi, 1914, trenches, tom gunn
Publisher: Memoirs Publishing

CHAPTER 8

THE YPRES SALIENT, 20 NOVEMBER - 1 DECEMBER 1914

22 November 1914

We came out of reserve two days ago on the 20th and marched off to trenches at St Eloi. Not very far. Got a very cheerful send-off from the rear echelon. I begin to understand why CQMS Smith is happy to stay back out of it! Still no news of CSM Rogers. Company now has been beefed up to 102 R & F, A/CSM Doughty, 4 bandsmen as SBs and Richards and Morgan as signallers. Plus me, Meynell and the new officer, 2/Lt Brooks-Morgan. I've given him poor old Miller's pl and I've told Sjt Ashworth (who is a sound man) to keep an eye on him, and no stupid risks. The battalion's lost quite enough officers so far; 8 killed and 13 wounded since we came out in August. That seems a lifetime ago! Promoted Cpl Ruddock to pl sjt of my old pl. He seemed surprised but pleased.

The trenches are awful. Full of water half the time and it has become very cold. We relieved a regular RWF battalion in the line and they were glad to get out. They left some buckets with coke which they'd scrounged saying you'll need these. They were right. It is bitter.

The move up was quite good until we got to what they call a communication trench. Then we ran into all kinds of problems. At first the mud was only ankle deep, but gradually it got deeper and deeper as we went down the communication trench. Soon our heads were below ground level, and we were wading through icy water and mud. Overhead we could see the Germans lighting up the sky with flares; it's surprising how little you can actually see down in these trenches - just a narrow slice of sky above. I suspect that the Hun had got wind of our move and relief because soon he started sending some shells over. Luckily they just landed in the fields but we could hear their shrapnel whizzing around.

Just moving got more and more difficult. You had to pull every step out of the mud and pull yourself along just to keep going. Not helped by the fact that many of the boys were loaded down with kit: extra ammo, rations, water, even a coil of barbed wire. The upshot was that we were about an hour and a half late when we finally got to the RWF coy location. Their coy comd, Stockwell, was a bit sharp; greeted me with, "You're late!" Told him to blame the condition of the trenches, as he'd find out on the way home! He calmed down a bit after I'd offered him a belt from my hipflask.

CSM Doughty did a good handover of the stores with their CSM. Noticed that the RWF had a spare officer in Coy HQ as a 2i/c. Wish we did.

Shook hands with Stockwell as they filed out. They'd lost 1 officer (sniped) and 8 men in the last week and thought they'd got off lightly.

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