Sniping

Lieutenant H de Buriatte [X550/1/81]

Saturday 7^th August: Lieutenant H de Buriatte of the 2nd Bedfords tells us that he has been put in charge of a newly formed sniper squad. Sniping, or picking off individual soldiers at range using telescopic sights, is something at which the enemy has been our master hitherto. By collecting the best shots in the battalion together and by nominating them as snipers it is hoped that we will now begin to catch up. Snipers only kill a handful of men compared to the great killers – artillery and machine guns, but their effect on morale is out of all proportion to the numbers they “bag”.

A sniper means one is frightened to show any portion of oneself over the parapet at any time, causing men to creep about bent over like their grandfathers and this continual fear eats away at even the strongest nerves.

Explorer, adventurer, big game hunter and Hampshire fast bowler Major Hesketh Hesketh-Prichard has been put in charge of training for our armies’ snipers. He points out the need for telescopic sights, as the army presently has very few. These bring the image of the target sharply into focus and closer to the firer, making a killing shot more certain. It is hoped that appeals to private individuals for sights and for hunting rifles will yield enough for the first few snipers to use.

The Battalion also heard today that Major Cranleigh Onslow has been promoted to temporary Lieutenant-Colonel and Lieutenant J W Hurrell to Temporary Captain.

Source: X550/3/wd

Blown Up by a Bomb

Friday 6^th August: In these pages we devote ourselves to the activities of our local units at the front, the Bedfordshire Regiment, the Bedfordshire Yeomanry and the East Anglian Royal Engineers. But, of course, many men from this county (around three-quarters it is reckoned) serve in other units and in other branches of the services such as the Royal Navy and the Royal Flying Corps.

Bearing this in mind it is hoped that readers will indulge a moment of private grief. Guardsman George Claude Kershaw, 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards, from West Hill, Aspley Guise was killed yesterday near Givenchy-lès-la-Bassée. We had a letter from him a few weeks ago, when newly arrived at the front which ran as follows: “We are out of the trenches for a few days’ rest. I actually saw my first tragedy the last time I was in the trenches. We had put up a porthole in the sap(1), where I was on duty as a bomber, and we had given the Germans a warm time. Of course, they had to go one better and they got round so that they could shoot up our trench. They spotted a chap who had been out here eleven months. We did what we could but the odds were against us, and, while we were getting him away they were firing at the parapet above us. The Welsh miners should see these things; they would not put a few pence above duty then(2). All we want is a fair chance against the Germans but we have to wait. The bombs which they fire are much larger than ours and come sailing through the air like sky-rockets and where they hit little remains”.

The young fellow joined the forces soon after the outbreak of hostilities, enlisting in the Grenadiers and had been at the front for some weeks, the latter part of the time being one of the bomb-throwers, and according to information conveyed it was while engaged in this dangerous work that he met his death. He was only 21 years of age.

Source: Bedfordshire Standard 30th July 1915 and 20th August 1915

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(1) A sap was an extension of the trench forward into no-man’s-land made by digging forward.

(2) Welsh miners were on strike over pay and the strike was ended by an agreement

More Trench Poetry

Thursday 5^th August: We have received the following poem from a Bedfordshire Regiment soldier at the front who wishes to remain anonymous. He says: When the tumult and the shouting dies we get a leisure hour and the circumstance is bad verse. But if you have spare space and think it worth while “faites ce que vous voulez” I hope you don’t mind, but having read and re-read your last issue, which is in my dug-out here, I have smeared it with a little ration honey and hung it up. Whether it is the good reading or the honey I don’t know but, my word, the flies!”

A Summer Holiday for 1915

When Summer blends to Autumn,

And the corn is turning brown,

My year of work is past and gone,

I lose life’s care and frown

For me a month to wander

I holiday at ease,

Just here or there or yonder,

Homeland or overseas

I loved my month by mountain stream,

I’ve tanned my face on the sea,

I’ve seen the cities of Europe,

I’ve rested and felt myself free,

But this year I am having a change,

And I trust it is not ill spent,

In a little mud hut just four feet high,

Lent by the Government

My outlook isn’t hill or dale,

It’s simply a sand-bagged trench;

When wet it is full of mud that sticks,

When dry there’s a deuce of a stench.

And one hundred yards or so in front,

A Strafing foe lies hid

And to show yourself in the open

Is from Hell to raise the lid.

But inside the trench we’re a merry crew,

For the right tight comrades are we;

We grouse and quip, we laugh and chip,

A jolly fine company.

We all our doing our sundry bits

In a cause that is right and just,

And we care not a hang for Karl and Fritz

Or the whiz-bangs as they bust.

We come from the corners of the Earth,

From the cities and countryside;

From Colonies across the sea,

From the Empire far and wide.

Both rich and poor have sent their sons,

Links of a wonderful chain.

Hanging together against all foes,

Till a lasting Peace shall reign.

And though Death comes to some each day,

What better end can there be?

For a man who knows he is fighting

In the cause of Liberty.

And I like to think in the Courts above,

There’s a special Hall kept today

For the bonnie lads who don’t return

From their chosen Holiday

Source: Bedfordshire Times 6th August 1915

German Watch Saves Soldier’s Life

Wednesday 4^th August: Today is one year since war was declared. Sergeant A. Humphries of the 1st Bedfordshire Regiment, has had a remarkable escape from death at the Front. The Sergeant went out with the second draft of the now famous County Regiment and landed at Zeebrugge on October 6th. He took part in the first great battle of Ypres and fought continuously on until the struggles of Neuve Chapelle and Festubert. Since those fights he has been in the trenches at Festered and Givenchy and on the night of July 31st he was engaged in repairing the parapets of the trenches under continual fire from the enemy’s snipers, whose aim, of course, was uncertain in the darkness. However, at about 10 o’clock a German bullet found its billet, piercing Sergeant Humphries’ tunic right above the heart and then glancing across the body, inflicted a severe flesh wound. When the tunic was removed it was seen that a watch which the Sergeant carried had saved his life, for the bullet had gone clean through the face of the time-piece, smashed the works and emerged at the back, in an oblique direction, it being evident that the metal works of the watch had turned the bullet out of its course. The irony of it all is that plainly stamped upon the works of the watch are the words “Made in Germany”.

Source: Bedfordshire Standard 10th September 1915

An Inspection by its Old Colonel

 Thomas Pilcher in South Africa

Tuesday 3^rd August : The adjutant of the 2nd Bedfords tells us that Major-General Thomas D Pilcher CB has gone over to France and will inspect the Battalion today and distribute Bravery Certificates. Colonel Pilcher, as he then was, commanded the 2nd Battalion during the Boer War and, though now general officer commanding 17th (Northern) Division, which has just arrived for active duty in France, he still takes an active interest in his old Battalion(1)

Source: X550/3/wd

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(1) Major-General Pilcher was sacked and sent home in July 1916 because he did not prosecute an attack vigorously because he considered it doomed to failure, having seen his division take huge numbers of casualties in previous actions.

1st Battalion on the Somme, 7th Battalion on Parade

Monday 2^nd August : We hear from the adjutant of the 1st Bedfords that they have moved to the area of the town of Albert, just north of the River Somme, where the British Expeditionary Force, with new divisions swelling its ranks, is taking over a substantial portion of the line from the French. This will mean that the British armies in Belgium and France will hold the whole of the front line from Ypres to the Somme

The Battalion will relieve the 410th French Regiment in trenches near the village of Fricourt, east of Albert during the night. This is deemed a quiet sector with little likelihood of serious fighting(1)

The 7^th Battalion will march to Val-des-Maisons today to be inspected by General Officer Commanding 3rd Army, Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Monro, at 2.30pm. He tells us that it is raining heavily.

Sources: X550/2/5; X550/8/1

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(1) Fricourt would be the scene of fierce fighting on 1st July 1916, first day of the Battle of the Somme.

What to Do If You See a Zeppelin

Sunday 1^st August: The adjutant of the 2nd Battalion tells us that they have received instructions on what to do if they see a Zeppelin. These menaces to civilization have, since January this year, been inflicting terror on innocent women and children all over this country, now, it seems, they are being used over the front line. The Battalion is to report sightings as follows:

(a) Name of individual who saw the airship.

(b) Its general appearance.

(c) Its estimated height and speed.

(d) Whether any noise of engines was heard.

(e) Whether any signal lights were fired.

“The telegraphic report is not to be delayed for inclusion of this information, which should be transmitted by letter to the nearest Squadron Royal Flying Corps with least possible delay”.

Source: X550/3/wd