1918 We will remember them by Griiff Hosker

Author:Griiff Hosker
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Historical, Historical Fiction, Military, Genre Fiction, War, Literature & Fiction
Publisher: Sword Books Ltd.
Published: 2015-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Beattie was back on duty by New Year’s Eve and John and I stayed at the Mayflower. We did not have long. We received our telegrams asking us to report to the field on January the third. After hurried goodbyes outside the Nurse’s Home, John and I took the boat train back to the war: back to reality.

I was largely silent on the way back to France. I resented having to leave my new bride. I suspect Bates understood such things, for he chattered the whole way back. My grunted and curt responses did not upset him at all. He spoke of my family and Lady Burscough. He even spoke at great length about the pub and the men he had met there. By the time we were on the last leg, From Calais to Amiens, I realised that he was chattering away not to take my mind away from Beattie but because he was a lonely man and he now belonged to my family. He had had nothing before and, in his mind, he now had everything. War was a strange beast and changed every man- just in different ways.

Ted, Gordy, Johnny and Freddie had been on the train from Calais to Amiens and it was good to catch up with them. I could be silent with Bates: he was like my confidante but I had to be sociable with the men with whom I flew. The train to Amiens had been a transition from the world of peace to the world of war. One topic of conversation was the attitude of the press and the public to Cambrai. At home everyone viewed the battle as a great victory. We knew that it was not. It showed how the newspapers were being manipulated, perhaps even controlled. I never trusted them after that.

Randolph had arrived back early along with the senior warrant officers. Consequently everything was in order by the time Bates and I arrived. There were stoves strategically placed pumping out heat and there was hot food available. January was cold. I had no idea why we had been summoned back for there would be little flying for the next month or so. Archie arrived back a day late. His train had been delayed in Scotland and he had missed his connections. I took charge on that first day.

The new Camels had been delivered and Randolph and I assigned them. Ted and Gordy were a little upset that they had not said goodbye to their gunners. They had been sent to their new squadrons already. It was sad because a pilot and a gunner formed a relationship which was as close as that of a married couple. The two of you became one. The Brass hats which had decided that would not understand such considerations.

The pilots walked warily around their new buses. They knew them, of course, but they had never flown them. I had told all of them that they should treat it with a great deal of respect, at first.

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