'We are having real winter weather now'

French troops man a listening post on the Western Front, winter 1917 

Continued from previous post...
Christmas celebrations were soon forgotten when the weather turned bad on the Western Front in January 1917. It wasn't long before growling guns, frozen slush, and freezing 5.30am starts became the main talking points in this Canadian officer's letters home:

'We are having real winter weather now, colder than anything we experienced last year. There has been quite a depth of snow lying for the past ten days and the ground is frozen hard. The temperature could not have been much above zero this morning which is very cold for this country. Fortunately we are not in the trenches but in billets in a village behind the lines. It is none too comfortable in billets but I hate to think of what it must be like in the trenches.

'The day the snow started we marched ten miles in a thick storm. A very hard wind was blowing and the storm at times looked almost like a blizzard. The roads are now covered with ice and frozen slush. This mess makes very bad going for hosrses.

'I have sick parade now at 6.30am and this means getting up at 5.30am. My washing is frozen in the room every morning. I used to think that Canada was a cold coutnry. Our men are sleeping in barns without fires. The most of them are keeping in very good health in spite of the severity of the weather.

'The guns are growling away every night and day but we are just now pretty well out of the area of shelling. The shells should detonate well on the frozen ground.'

'The French know how to raise good turkeys!'

Christmas celebrations on the Western Front
Source: Nationaal Archief, Netherlands

The traditions of Christmas were always appreciated by troops fighting at the Front, and New Year letters home were full of the celebrations they had enjoyed. Festive meals were often elaborate and well thought-out and lots of planning obviously went into this repast, described by a Canadian medical officer at the beginning of 1917:

8 January, France

'We had a much better Christmas this season than last. Fortunately we were out of the trenches in resreve and billeted in huts. The weather was fairly well behaved although we had some rain. All the men has a good Christmas dinner including turkey, plum pudding, beer, nuts, candy etc. We had previously ordred 500 kilos of turkey. We made a contract for them and the dealer shipped them in from Normandy. I must say the French know how to raise good turkeys.

'The tables were set in the YMCA hut and we hired dishes from the French civilians. We had to divide the dinner into four sections, one for each company. Two were held on Christmas day and two the day after. The band rendered musical programs during the dinners and each night put on a minstrel show which was really not at all bad. We had  good dinner in battalion HQ mess, but most of our pleas ure was derived from seeing the men have a good feed and enjoy themselves for once.'

But it wasn't long before Christmas was forgotten and the officer's next letter was more concerned with growling guns, frozen slush, and freezing 5.30am starts. Extracts will be published in the next post, so watch this space.

'A pretty sight, all the trees glistening white'

An embroidered card sent from France

A letter-writer who pops up frequently in my book is an unassuming soldier from Bristol called Tom Fake. He served on the Western Front (and survived) for two years and wrote regularly to his wife in a style that was plain and simple - he told it as it was. His letters have been beautifully kept by his family and below is a rather poignant one to his wife and young son written at Christmas 1917. It begins with some disappointing news...

Friday, 21st December 1917

'Well my dear I am not in the running for a leave this Christmas, just missed it, but I shall be in the next lot and that will probably be next week, so when you answer this letter, you need not write again till after I have been home.

'Well my dear, it won't be so bad if I am home for the new year will it? All the same I should liked to have been home for Christmas. I hope you will have a pleasant time, but I know it is no good to wish you a merry Christmas, make the best of it won't you, and all being well I shall be home to cheer you up for the new year.'

He goes on to describe the crisp weather they've been having in France, and explains plans for some early festive celebrations because his unit will be back in the trenches on Christmas Day.

'We have had some very hard weather ever since I wrote you last, it must be cruel for the men up the line, but where we are to it's is a pretty sight, all the trees are glistening white or at least it has been up to this evening, but since dark it has started thawing. We are keeping up Christmas Day on Sunday (as we are going up the line again) and I think we shall have a fine time by what I can hear.

'I had a small parcel from the Dowsetts a few days ago, it consisted of a handkerchief khaki colour, and an ounce of tobacco, very good of them wasn't it.'

A HAPPY AND PEACEFUL CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL

'Every day the garrison became weaker'

Kut-al-Amarah in ruins at the end of the siege

Mesopotamia might not rank as one of the best-known campaigns of the First World War, but the stories and letters to emerge from it are every bit as gripping as those from the Western Front or Gallipoli.

I've been lucky enough to discover for use in my book a vivid account of the siege of Kut-al-Amarah, on the River Tigirs, which began on December 7th 1915 when the Turkish Army besieged soldiers of the 6th Indian Division.
 
It lasted five months, during which those inside held out in freezing temperatures and heavy rain against infantry assault, sniper fire, shelling and bombing. Hundreds died of wounds and disease and food quickly began to run short - especially as 6,000 Arabs who lived in the town also needed to be fed. The division's livestock was gradually slaughtered, but hunger was still rife among Indian soldiers whose beliefs stopped them eating horsemeat.

Three attempts were made to relieve Kut but they all failed and at the end of April 1916, on the brink of starvation, the men surrendered and were taken prisoner.

Besieged: Capt Sandes

Among those trapped in Kut was Captain Edward Sandes, a Royal Engineer who wrote a long, journal-style letter which he hoped to send to his mother but was never able to. Extracts from this letter will be used in my book. After the war, Sandes wrote a personal memoir which included a description of his time in Kut, and below is an extract which shows how food came to dominate the men's waking hours.

'Every day, as rations were gradually reduced, the garrison became weaker and less able to take the field. We were now getting only twelve ounces of bread instead of a pound, no vegetables or sugar, two ounces of jam or one ounce of butter, and half an ounce of tea. On the other hand, we received one and a quarter pounds of horseflesh instead of a pound of beef or mutton. Now that the weather was gettiing warmer I found horseflesh more repulsive than before and could never eat the whole of my ration.

'Three camels, the only ones in Kut, were slaughtered one day, and as my 23 men [Indians] still refused to eat horseflesh I indented for camel meat and received 29 pounds as their ration. They roasted it in the couryard below my room and had a great feast; but the smell nearly made me sick and I had to refuse some tit-bits they generously offered me.

'Only the coarsest type of tobcco could now be bought from the Supply and Transport Corps. European cigarettes had vanished, so cigarette smokers bought the Arab variety from a few small shops still open in the bazaar. This consisted of a narrow paper bag filled with tobacco dust and was provided with a tube as a mouthpiece. It was a dangerous contraption and unpleasant to smoke. Burning tobacco dust fell onto one's tunic, and the acrid taste made one's throat sore. Even before the price became prohibitive, I smoked very few.'

Captain Sandes went on to become a well-respected writer of military history and his excellent book 'In Kut and Captivity' can still be found in secondhand bookshops.

The boy soldiers who served at the Front

Photo of a  young German soldier
(Copyright: John Sherwood)

IT'S WELL known that many recruiting officers during the First World War were happy to turn a blind eye to volunteers who were under-age. 'Why don't you go for a walk round the block and come back a couple of years older, sonny?' they would say.

The legal age at which British men could enlist was 18, and they could serve abroad once they were 19. However, large numbers slipped under the net. My own great-uncle enlisted in Bristol at the age of 17, was serving in France with the Somerset Light Infantry at 18, and shortly after his 19th birthday was killed in the Battle of the Somme. His body was never found.

It was no different on the other side - if anything the German soldiers often seemed even younger. Take a look at the photograph above that was picked up on No Man's Land by Yorkshire artilleryman Arthur Youell and kept as a souvenir of war. The German lad pictured looks as if he should still be at school and is reminiscent of the opening scenes of All Quiet on the Western Front, in which a fiercely patriotic German school teacher urges his class of boys to join the army and fight for the fatherland, which they do.

At 22, Corporal Youell was rather older when he enlisted and happily he survived the war. His family kept the letters, photos and other memorabilia he sent home from the Front and the collection has recently been lent to me by Youell's nephew. It has proved absolutely fascinating.



Tractor pulling a siege Howitzer

One of the most interesting items is Youell's field notebook in which he recorded, among other things, details of targets and ranges he used while serving with the 126th Siege Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery.


Siege units were equipped with enormous 15-ton howitzers which were used to bombard the enemy with high-explosive shells in high-trajectory, plunging fire, and were so heavy they needed caterpillar-tracked vehicles to move them. Youell wrote: 'We get into queer places with our old gun especially when we are moving, we have been stuck many a time...they take some moving on bad ground.'

While serving in France between 1916 and 1918, Youell wrote regularly to his mother and letters like this one in June 1917 reveal that there was rarely much time for rest:

'I have been in some rough places but I've managed to get out alright so far, so we must pray for God to keep me out of harm's way in the future. I saw nearly all the fighting on the Somme offensives, then the battle of Arras when we took "Vimy Ridge" [in April 1917]. You will see from the papers at home that we are givng the Germans a shock in another place.'

This was at Hill 60, a strategically important area of high ground which the Allies blew up using underground mines at the beginning of the Battle of Messines in June 1917. 'I shall never forget the night Hill 60 was blown up,' wrote Youell. 'I had gone to bed, the ground rocked and trembled. I though I was in a cradle then our artillery opened with a roar. It must have been awfull [sic] in the German lines they would be a mass of bursting shell.'

You can read more of Corporal Youell's experiences in my book 'Letters From The Trenches' which is due out at the end of 2014.

 

Keeping romance alive with a rhyme

 

MANY romances fell by the wayside when men enlisted for war, but Nellie Jones was determined to keep hers going when her sweetheart Harry Poole, right, joined the Army Veterinary Corps.

 

Nellie sent him picture postcards which came with rhyming messages that were lighthearted - but still serious enough to get the point across.

 

'It seems a thousand years ago, the day you went away. I'm lonesome and I'd like to know, how long you're going to stay,' was the message on one of the first cards she sent Harry in March 1916 when he was stationed at the Army Veterinary Hospital at Round Green, Luton.

 

The following month another followed in similar vein: 'I'm truly glad that you have had this chance to be a rover. A trip is nice, but I'll be twice as glad when it's over.'

 

Harry's work involved looking after army horses and he was moved to bases all over southern England including Pitt Corner Camp at Winchester, the veterinary hospital at Bulford, Wiltshire, and the Remount Depot at Shirehampton, near Bristol. This is where 'war horses' that were shipped to Avonmouth from abroad recovered before being put to work.

 

As the months passed by Nellie appears to have grown used to separation although she still sent Harry the odd nudge if letters became infrequent: 'Here's a picture of a penny I will very gladly lend, if you'll promise to invest it in a postcard for your friend.'

 

And by the end of 1916 it was Nellie who was doing the apologising:'Oh, what's the use of an excuse, to send along to you! I owe a letter, I should do better, and send it when it's due!'

Harry remained at Shirehampton until demobilisation in1919 and then went to work in Staffordshire as a gamekeeper for Sir Geoffrey Congreve. He and Nellie were finally married in 1923.

CAN YOU HELP?

The postcards have been passed down to the couple's grandaughter, Helen Frost, who also has some lovely informal photographs of Harry's friends in the Army Veterinary Corps, like the picture on the left.

However, she is puzzled by one piece of information which has recently come to light, that at some point in his career Harry was invalided out of  'the Blues' (the Royal Horse Guards) under a 'Sergeant Norman'. It's a shot in the dark, but if anyone knows how Helen could shed more light on Harry Poole's service in the Guards, do contact me at jacwadsworth@hotmail.com and I'll put you in touch.

A taste of things to come in my book ...

This month you can take a sneak preview of my book 'Letters from the Trenches' in the latest issue of Discover Your History magazine.

Among the articles is one in which I examine some of the themes most often found in letters written home by First World War soldiers - and surprisingly, perhaps, they're rather mundane.

The weather, the post and toothache were among the most common talking points, which just goes to show that for much of the time Tommies weren't living lives that could be described as exciting. On the contrary, they were often tedious, boring, dirty and cold, with few of the comforts we take for granted

Discover Your History is a new magazine - this is only the second edition - which is packed with fascinating features and colourful illustrations which will inspire anyone with an interest in social history.

This month you can read about the English secretary who became a French Resistance leader in the Second World War, the man who worked as a film set carpenter at the famous London Film Studios in the 1930s, and Henry Poole & Co, the company which founded Savile Row - the bespoke tailor patronised by royalty, statesmen and the aristocracy.

Discover Your History is on sale now, but you'll have to wait a little longer for Letters from the Trenches which will be out next year.