Front Line Troops Fed Too Well

Saturday 23rd October 1915: An officer of the 6th (Service) Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, writing to a member of our staff says: “How are things at Bedford now? It seems years since I was last there. We are now in our third month our here and still going strong. Our Battalion consists of a splendid lot of men, all very keen on their job. About this time of year I would be thinking of getting out notices for Old Comrades dinners – what happy nights they used to be! Meetings like that ought to go with a boom after this war. This war is quite different from the one I went through in Africa(1). There it was all move; here it is the opposite; of course the power of the modern gun has something to do with that. Then the matter of grub was quite different. The authorities go in to fatten one up, I think: how the devil they manage to obtain and bring the trucks I cannot imagine; but up it comes daily, never a mishap – bread, bacon, cheese, jam and butter thrown in as an extra thrice a week. Personally I think we are fed too well”.

“Reading matter is rather scarce, although we can have the daily London papers, which the proprietors present to the troops up in the trenches by 11 am the day following publication. If your firm present any papers to the troops, please send some to us [This is being done every week – Ed]. I myself get your paper from the wife”.

“Our Battalion are now again in the trenches. Our big guns daily strafe the Germans. Rather interesting to see some of our airmen. Some cool members are in that Corps. Yesterday one of ours kept going to and fro over the enemy’s lines, getting shelled each time, but he didn’t trouble in the least. Today another one, flying rather low, carried on the same business, but instead of getting shelled each time, he had rifle fire, and by the rattle should say about 500 of the bounders were having a go”.

Source: Bedfordshire Times 22nd October 1915

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(1) Presumably with the 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment in the Second Boer War of 1899-1902.

Pig Sticking and the Hazards of Flying

Private Harry Parker

Saturday 13th February 1915: Private Harry Parker, currently serving with the 3rd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment at Languard Camp near Felixstowe has seen service overseas with the 1st Battalion. He has been speaking with one of our correspondents.

"I killed quite a number of Germans. At Ypres I was in two bayonet charges and at la Bassée in another one. At the latter place we were shelled out of the trenches  and although we made three charges to retake them we were not successful(1). Of course, such charges can be made only at night and you might be within a few feet of a German. It is bayonet for bayonet then and if you don't get your man he will have you!"

"As early as the retirement from Mons I got two slight wounds in the legs and more recently I was wounded in the hand at la Bassée in one battle about midnight. In addition to that I had got frost-bitten feet and had to be taken from the trench on a stretcher".

"We can never safely venture into the open to take German prisoners. If they show a white flag it means treachery more often than not. I saw from a distance the 'white flag business' played on the Northamptons. We were on their right and saw them cut up, but were too fully occupied ourselves to go to their assistance"(2).

"We cannot tell how the general thing is going on as we are limited to our own range of vision".

"Conditions now are a great deal better. At the first we had to stay in the trenches as long as 21 days at a time. But now only three days and three nights are necessary. That is quite bad enough when you are up to your knees in mud and water. A 'Jack Johnson' is like an iron foundry coming along!(3) The French howitzers seem quite as powerful. They are like tree trunks flying through the air".

"It is nothing unusual to see soldiers in their spare moments charging with bayonets the pigs in the farmyard. Once he is got to bay, the porker is stuck and a piece is sliced from it and cooked, the remainder being left. The peasants who are plucky enough to keep to their homes within the war zone sometimes walk around after the scraps".

"I saw an English airman chase a German and fetch him down and I have seen one of our own brought to the ground. The pilot and his passenger were dropping smoke bombs and revealing the enemy's position. The Germans fired on it and the aeroplane made a dive towards the earth. Just before it touched one of them fell out and the machine was soon one mass of flames".

Source: Bedfordshire Standard 5th March 1915

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(1) 13th October 1914.

(2) This may have been in late November 1914 when the 5th Division was in the line with the 8th Division, which included 2nd Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment.

(3) A 150mm shell which burst with a lot of black smoke, Johnson, an African American, was world heavyweight boxing champion.