And more letters from Front (1915)

Post date: Jan 23, 2014 8:7:37 PM

Extract from Parish Magazine of April 1915

NOTES AND NOTICES.

I have received two additional names of men who are serving in the Army:—Edward Albert James, Loyal North Lancers (Africa) and John Pluck, Army Service Corps.

Private Edward Pursey is now Motorman to the General Headquarters, 7th Division.

Private George Maytum, of the Army Service Corps, has come home on a month's leave⁴ owing to a nasty accident which occurred not long after he had been chosen with twenty-four others to go to the front. He was stationed at Ascot, and with one or two other men, was exercising some of the very wild and half-broken Canadian horses². A companion's horse caused the one he was riding to shy. In the scuffle which followed it slipped on the greasy road and fell, the rider's arm being broken. Pte. Maytum expects to go to the front shortly after the close of his month's leave.

The following interesting letter has been handed to me by the recipient for publication in the Magazine :—

At last I get time to write you a few lines, which I hope will find you are quite well. I am sending this letter with one of our drivers, who is Captain Spender Clay's driver. He is leaving here for London, and, as he goes through Wateringbury, he said he would deliver this letter for me. I have never had a chance to tell you much of our whereabouts.

First of all we landed in Belgium at Zeebrugge, from there we went to Bruges, from there to Ostend, and from there to Ghent, and between Ghent and Antwerp is where we saw our first fight. The Germans were too strong for us, they soon blew us out of our trenches. We lost a few men, but not many. We had a very hard march from Ghent to Thielt, Germans following us all the time.

Then we went on to Ypres, where we had a very hard time, and we knew we had a big fight to face; the waiting for it was the worst part. We had taken up our positions, and then it set in foggy for two days, so we couldn't do anything. We were about 20,000 strong, when we started the fight, and when we finished we were 3,000 strong. We were nineteen days in our dugouts; we gained two miles the first few days, but the Germans drove us back. It was a very hard fight, we had 80,000 Germans up against us, and we had to hold on till other troops came up to help us, and it was nineteen days before they came. It was a sight to see our men and horses lying dead all over the place, some men with their heads blown off, and some in half, some with legs off. I shall never forget it.

The Scots Guards lost very heavily. One night a German got into their trenches dressed up in one of our officer's clothes, and gave the order for the Scots Guards to retire at a certain time. The Germans were waiting for this. As soon as the Scots got out of their trenches the Germans opened fire, and only six men out of eleven hundred got away. The Germans shelled us all the time, night and day. It was a job for us to get food, as the transport could not get to us. I think I was very lucky to get out of it as I did. The day that I was hit with a piece of shell it was a wonder I got off as I did, a man was standing only a few feet from me, and he got his face blown in half, and pieces of steel went into the wall where I was standing, and knocked a lot of bricks out. You can always hear these shells coming, but it's no use moving. I just simply stand and take my chance, because if you try to get shelter, you might come worse off; a lot of their shells don't burst now.

The other day I was waiting for an officer, and the Germans sent over thirty shells, and only three burst. We are not doing much fighting now, as we can't do much on account of the floods. We made a night attack just before Christmas, and lost 750 men. Our men got into a bob wire trap; it was too dark to see anything.

Now I will tell you how I spent Christmas Day. I was sent out early in the morning with the officers, took them to a house for early service, then I took the army chaplain round to different lots of troops for open-air service. I had a cold tin of meat and vegetables for my dinner, which made me bad. It was a very cold day. In the afternoon I went round to all the trenches to see what was to be done about burying the dead men that laid between our trenches and the Germans, which had been there since the night attack. Some of them were laid across the bob wire. I shall be very glad when this war is over but I think it will be a long time yet.

We are still close to Ypres; can't seem to get the German's away yet, but they can't get through us. Well, I am very glad Christmas is over, we shall be looking forward to better weather, and I hope we shall be able to drive the Germans back. We seem to be having the same weather as you, rain every day. I am standing it all right except my feet, and they are very bad. I got them frost-bitten time back, and now the skin rubs off, but hope to get them well soon: we have so much standing about in the water and mud.

General Capper³ sent for me the other day, and asked me to take a commission, but I said I would rather stay where I was. He asked me if I had enough money to take a commission. I told him I hadn't. He asked me if there was anything he could for me. I said no, I was quite happy as I was. It was all so sudden I wasn't expecting anything like that. I think I would have asked him for a few days' leave if I had thought of it. I feel as though I should like to see you, as I didn't see you before I left England, but any way, I hope to soon. How long do you think the war will last, I should think this time next year ought to see an end to it ?

The hardships here are not so bad as the South African war, so far I have not been through anything like I did in South Africa¹, but the fighting here is much worse than in South Africa.

Now I think I must close, hoping you are keeping quite well.

Notes:

1. See War (1900) for list of Wateringbury men in Boer war.

2. For somes notes about horses in WW1 see WW1 Postcards. Many were imported from Canada because of the large losses.

3. Sir Thomas Capper was the 7th Division's commander. He is quoted in Max Hastings Catastrophe (p. 486) after he had lost 4/5s of the division's strength in 3 weeks. "I'm a curiosity- a divisional commander without a division."

4. The average British soldier got only 10 days home leave for every 15 months service; a French soldier got 7 days leave every 3 months.