Tommy’s Four Legged Foes

Sunday 30th April 1916: A rather blood-curdling account has been sent home by Corporal J Partridge, the ex-secretary of the Toddington Social Club, who is now serving in the Signal Section of the 7th Beds Regiment, of alarming, if amusing, experiences in the trenches with swarms of wretched rats, which, he says, “run all over your body at nights”. “The other night” he writes, “I got the fair pip and creeps with them running about me, so I covered my head up with my only blanket. I couldn’t bear the ugly brutes on my face. I looked like a frightened nipper hiding from ghosts, I guess. Anyhow, to breathe, I left my nose exposed and I’m blessed if in the middle of the night one of the saucy bounders didn’t pin my nose. I woke up with a start you can guess and then flew all rods round the dug-out and out of it. I put my hand to my nose and it was covered with blood. I didn’t get into bed again that night (I said bed, but ‘tis only wire-netting and a blanket). In the morning I saw a doctor to see if it was likely to be poisoned. He put some stuff on and it is nearly better now except for a small cut-like scar, which will disappear in a month. My officer ordered wire netting (very small mesh) to be put all round the dug-out to keep them out, so things will not be so bad. I can tell you they were beginning to get on my nerves”.

Source: Biggleswade Chronicle 28th April 1916

Swarmed with Rats

Sunday 5th March 1916: Sapper Harper from Bolnhurst told us yesterday of a visit he had made to Lieutenant Collisson’s grave at Cérisy-Gailly. He then told us of his other experiences: “I am at present in one of the most advanced positions of the British line and am living in a dug-out twenty feet below the ground level. We are swarmed with rats and have to chase them away in the middle of the night. They have eaten half my great coat. I have often read in English papers that the Germans cannot shoot, but that is a great mistake. I was pulling down some wood for new dug-outs, when a sniper put a bullet into a piece a foot from my head. I hung up my hat for him to shoot at, but he was too sharp for that. Now I must ring off as my candle is short and I must get to sleep before the rats parade”.

Source: Bedfordshire Standard 31st March 1916

The East Anglian Royal Engineers and the Rats

Friday 5th February 1915: Sapper F Parker of the 1st Field Company, East Anglian Royal Engineers serving with 2nd Division tells us: “We have moved further along the firing line, shifted yesterday. There has been some very severe fighting about this part recently, so it seems as though we are in the thick of it now”. We gather they are at le Quesnoy.

“Our Company has relieved some more Royal Engineers who are going back for a rest. We are having better weather now, thank goodness. I very often sit in my abode of love and think about you all at home and wish I had a bottle of good old English beer by my side. The stuff we get out here is rotten trash, like weak water. Most of us as a rule drink coffee with a dash, and the French know how to make it. It’s very good”.

“Our batteries are always around our neighbourhood sending over presents for the Germans, souvenirs as the French say. It’s a fine sight on a dark night to see the flash and the illuminating rockets going up. We had some visitors last night in our “bedroom”, some nice sized rats. You can hear them skipping round and feel them when they run over your feet, but we don’t object to that, as long as they keep off our faces. I am thinking of training some of them. I give you my word they are very active, so don’t be surprised to see me appearing on the stage at Bedford with my wonderful long-tailed pets”.

Source: Bedfordshire Times 12th February 1915