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diff --git a/16078-8.txt b/16078-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2f946e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/16078-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2916 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Amateur Army, by Patrick MacGill + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Amateur Army + +Author: Patrick MacGill + +Release Date: June 16, 2005 [EBook #16078] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AMATEUR ARMY *** + + + + +Produced by Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries +(http://www.archive.org/details/toronto), Suzanne Lybarger, +William Flis, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +THE AMATEUR ARMY + +BY PATRICK MACGILL + + + + +BY THE SAME AUTHOR + +CHILDREN OF THE DEAD END + +THE RAT-PIT + +[Illustration: RIFLEMAN PATRICK MACGILL] + + + + +HERBERT JENKINS LIMITED ARUNDEL PLACE HAYMARKET LONDON S.W. MCMXV + + + + +_Wyman & Sons Ltd., Printers, London and Reading._ + + + + +PREFACE + + +I am one of the million or more male residents of the United Kingdom, +who a year ago had no special yearning towards military life, but who +joined the army after war was declared. At Chelsea I found myself a +unit of the 2nd London Irish Battalion, afterwards I was drilled into +shape at the White City and training was concluded at St. Albans, +where I was drafted into the 1st Battalion. In my spare time I wrote +several articles dealing with the life of the soldier from the stage +of raw "rooky" to that of finished fighter. These I now publish in +book form, and trust that they may interest men who have joined the +colours or who intend to take up the profession of arms and become +members of the great brotherhood of fighters. + + PATRICK MACGILL. + + "The London Irish," + British Expeditionary Force, + _March 25th_, 1915. + + + + +CONTENTS + + PAGE + CHAPTER I + + I ENLIST AND AM BILLETED 13 + + CHAPTER II + + RATIONS AND SICK PARADE 23 + + CHAPTER III + + PICKETS AND SPECIAL LEAVE 36 + + CHAPTER IV + + OFFICERS AND RIFLES 48 + + CHAPTER V + + THE COFFEE-SHOP AND WANKIN 60 + + CHAPTER VI + + THE NIGHT SIDE OF SOLDIERING 71 + + CHAPTER VII + + DIVISIONAL EXERCISE AND MIMIC WARFARE 85 + + CHAPTER VIII + + THE GENERAL INSPECTION AND THE EVERLASTING WAITING 99 + + CHAPTER IX + + READY TO GO--THE BATTALION MOVES 111 + + + + +CHAPTER I + +I ENLIST AND AM BILLETED + + +What the psychological processes were that led to my enlisting in +"Kitchener's Army" need not be inquired into. Few men could explain +why they enlisted, and if they attempted they might only prove that +they had done as a politician said the electorate does, the right +thing from the wrong motive. There is a story told of an incident that +occurred in Flanders, which shows clearly the view held in certain +quarters. The Honourable Artillery Company were relieving some +regulars in the trenches when the following dialogue ensued between a +typical Tommy Atkins and an H.A.C. private: + +T.A.: "Oo are you?" + +H.A.C.: "We're the H.A.C." + +T.A.: "Gentlemen, ain't yer?" + +H.A.C.: "Oh well, in a way I suppose--" + +T.A.: "'Ow many are there of yer?" + +H.A.C.: "About eight hundred." + +T.A.: "An' they say yer volunteered!" + +H.A.C.: "Yes, we did." + +T.A.: (With conviction as he gathers together his kit). "Blimey, yer +must be mad!" + +For curiosity's sake I asked some of my mates to give me their reasons +for enlisting. One particular friend of mine, a good-humoured Cockney, +grinned sheepishly as he replied confidentially, "Well, matey, I done +it to get away from my old gal's jore--now you've got it!" Another +recruit, a pale, intelligent youth, who knew Nietzsche by heart, +glanced at me coldly as he answered, "I enlisted because I am an +Englishman." Other replies were equally unilluminating and I desisted, +remembering that the Germans despise us because we are devoid of +military enthusiasm. + +The step once taken, however, we all set to work to discover how we +might become soldiers with a minimum of exertion and inconvenience to +ourselves. During the process I learned many things, among others +that I was a unit in the most democratic army in history; where Oxford +undergraduate and farm labourer, Cockney and peer's son lost their +identity and their caste in a vast war machine. I learned that Tommy +Atkins, no matter from what class he is recruited, is immortal, and +that we British are one of the most military nations in the world. I +have learned to love my new life, obey my officers, and depend upon +my rifle; for I am Rifleman Patrick MacGill of the Irish Rifles, where +rumour has it that the Colonel and I are the only two _real_ Irishmen +in the battalion. It should be remembered that a unit of a rifle +regiment is known as rifleman, not private; we like the term rifleman, +and feel justly indignant when a wrong appellation plays skittles with +our rank. + +The earlier stages of our training took place at Chelsea and the White +City, where untiring instructors strove to convince us that we were +about the most futile lot of "rookies" that it had ever been their +misfortune to encounter. It was not until we were unceremoniously +dumped amidst the peaceful inhabitants of a city that slumbers in the +shadow of an ancient cathedral that I felt I was in reality a soldier. + +Here we were to learn that there is no novelty so great for the newly +enlisted soldier as that of being billeted, in the process of which he +finds himself left upon an unfamiliar door-step like somebody else's +washing. He is the instrument by which the War Office disproves that +"an Englishman's home is his castle." He has the law behind him; +but nothing else--save his own capacity for making friends with his +victims. + +If the equanimity of English householders who are about to have +soldiers billeted upon them is a test of patriotism, there may well be +some doubts about the patriotic spirit of the English middle class in +the present crisis. The poor people welcome to their homes soldiers +who in most cases belong to the same strata of society as themselves; +and, besides, ninepence a night as billet-fee is not to be laughed +at. The upper class can easily bear the momentary inconvenience of +Tommy's company; the method of procedure of the very rich in regard to +billeting seldom varies--a room, stripped of all its furniture, fitted +with beds and pictures, usually of a religious nature, is given up +for the soldiers' benefit. The lady of the house, gifted with that +familiar ease which the very rich can assume towards the poor at a +pinch--especially a pinch like the present, when "all petty class +differences are forgotten in the midst of the national crisis"--may +come and talk to her guests now and again, tell them that they are +fine fellows, and give them a treat to light up the heavy hours that +follow a long day's drill in full marching order. But the middle +class, aloof and austere in its own seclusion, limited in means and +apartment space, cannot easily afford the time and care needed for the +housing of soldiers. State commands cannot be gainsaid, however, and +Tommy must be housed and fed in the country which he will shortly go +out and defend in the trenches of France or Flanders. + +The number of men assigned to a house depends in a great measure on +the discretion of the householder and the temper of the billeting +officer. A gruff reply or a caustic remark from the former sometimes +offends; often the officer is in a hurry, and at such a time +disproportionate assortment is generally the result. A billeting +officer has told me that fifty per cent. of the householders whom he +has approached show manifest hostility to the housing of soldiers. But +the military authorities have a way of dealing with these people. On +one occasion an officer asked a citizen, an elderly man full of paunch +and English dignity, how many soldiers could he keep in his house. +"Well, it's like this--," the man began. + +"Have you any room to spare here?" demanded the officer. + +"None, except on the mat," was the caustic answer. + +"Two on the mat, then," snapped the officer, and a pair of tittering +Tommies were left at the door. + +Matronly English dignity suffered on another occasion when a sergeant +inquired of a middle-aged woman as to the number of men she could +billet in her house. + +"None," she replied. "I have no way of keeping soldiers." + +"What about that apartment there?" asked the N.C.O. pointing to the +drawing-room. + +"But they'll destroy everything in the room," stammered the woman. + +"Clear the room then." + +"But they'll have to pass through the hall to get in, and there are so +many valuable things on the walls--" + +"You've got a large window in the drawing-room," said the officer; +"remove that, and the men will not have to pass through the hall. I'll +let you off lightly, and leave only two." + +"But I cannot keep two." + +"Then I'll leave four," was the reply, and four were left. + +Sadder than this, even, was the plight of the lady and gentleman at +St. Albans who told the officer that their four children were just +recovering from an attack of whooping cough. The officer, being a +wise man and anxious about the welfare of those under his care, fled +precipitately. Later he learned that there had been no whooping cough +in the house; in fact, the people who caused him to beat such a hasty +retreat were childless. He felt annoyed and discomfited; but about a +week following his first visit he called again at the house, this time +followed by six men. + +"These fellows are just recovering from whooping cough," he told the +householder; "they had it bad. We didn't know what to do with them, +but, seeing that you've had whooping cough here, I feel it's the only +place where it will be safe to billet them." And he left them there. + +But happenings like these were more frequent at the commencement of +the war than now. Civilians, even those of the conventional middle +class, are beginning to understand that single men in billets, to +paraphrase Kipling slightly, are remarkably like themselves. + +With us, rations are served out daily at our billets; our landladies +do the cooking, and mine, an adept at the culinary art, can transform +a basin of flour and a lump of raw beef into a dish that would make an +epicurean mouth water. Even though food is badly cooked in the billet, +it has a superior flavour, which is never given it in the boilers +controlled by the company cook. Army stew has rather a notorious +reputation, as witness the inspired words of a regimental poet--one of +the 1st Surrey Rifles--in a pĉan of praise to his colonel: + + "Long may the colonel with us bide, + His shadow ne'er grow thinner. + (It would, though, if he ever tried + Some Army stew for dinner.)" + +Billeting has gained for the soldier many friends, and towns that have +become accustomed to his presence look sadly forward to the day when +he will leave them for the front, where no kind landlady will be at +hand to transform raw beef and potatoes into beef pudding or potato +pie. The working classes in particular view the future with misgiving. +The bond of sympathy between soldier and workers is stronger than that +between soldier and any other class of citizen. The houses and manners +of the well-to-do daunt most Tommies. "In their houses we feel out +of it somehow," they say. "There's nothin' we can talk about with the +swells, and 'arf the time they be askin' us about things that's no +concern of theirs at all." + +Most toilers who have no friends or relations preparing for war +have kinsmen already in the trenches--or on the roll of honour. And +feelings stronger than those of friendship now unite thousands of +soldiers to the young girls of the houses in which they are billeted. +For even in the modern age, that now seems to voice the ultimate +expression of man's culture and advance in terrorism and destruction, +love and war, vital as the passion of ancient story, go hand in hand +up to the trenches and the threat of death. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +RATIONS AND SICK PARADE + + +It has been said that an army moves upon its stomach, and, as if in +confirmation of this, the soldier is exhorted in an official pamphlet +"Never to start on a march with an empty stomach." To a hungry +rifleman the question of his rations is a matter of vital importance. +For the first few weeks our food was cooked up and served out on the +parade ground, or in the various gutter-fringed sheds standing in +the vicinity of our headquarters. The men were discontented with the +rations, and rumour had it that the troops stationed in a neighbouring +village rioted and hundreds had been placed under arrest. + +Sometimes a haunch of roast beef was doled out almost raw, and +potatoes were generally boiled into pulp; these when served up looked +like lumps of wet putty. Two potatoes, unwashed and embossed with +particles of gravel, were allowed to each man; all could help +themselves by sticking their fingers into the doughy substance and +lifting out a handful, which they placed along with the raw "roast" on +the lid of their mess-tin. This constituted dinner, but often rations +were doled out so badly that several men only got half the necessary +allowance for their meals. + +Tea was seldom sufficiently sweetened, and the men had to pay for +milk. After a time we became accustomed to the Epsom Salts that a +kindly War Office, solicitous for our well-being, caused to be added, +and some of us may go to our graves insisting on Epsom Salts with tea. +The feeding ground being in many cases a great distance from the fire, +the tea was cold by the time it arrived at the men's quarters. Those +who could afford it, took their food elsewhere: the restaurants in +the vicinity did a roaring trade, and several new ones were opened. A +petition was written; the men signed it, and decided to send it to +the colonel; but the N.C.O.'s stepped in and destroyed the document. +"You'll not do much good at the front," they told us, "if you are +grumbling already." + +A week followed the destruction of the petition, and then appeared the +following in Battalion Orders: "From to-morrow until further orders, +rations will be issued at the men's billets." This announcement caused +no little sensation, aroused a great deal of comment, and created a +profound feeling of satisfaction in the battalion. Thenceforth rations +were served out at the billets, and the householders were ordered +to do the cooking. My landlady was delighted. "Not half feeding you; +that's a game," she said. "And you going to fight for your country! +But wait till you see the dishes I'll make out of the rations when +they come." + +The rations came. In the early morning a barrow piled with eatables +was dragged through our street, and the "ration fatigue" party, full +of the novelty of a new job, yelled in chorus, "Bring out your dead, +ladies; rations are 'ere!" + +"What have you got?" asked my landlady, going to the door. "What are +you supposed to leave for the men? Nothing's too good for them that's +going to fight for their country." + +"Dead rats," said the ration-corporal with a grin. + +"Don't be funny. What are my men to get?" + +"Each man a pound of fresh meat, one and a half pounds of bread, two +taters, two ounces of sugar, and an ounce of tea and three ounces of +cheese. And, besides this, every feller gets a tin of jam once in four +days." + +This looks well on paper, but pot and plate make a difference in the +proposition. Army cheese runs to rind rapidly, and a pound of beef is +often easily bitten to the bone: sometimes, in fact, it is all +bone and gristle, and the ravages of cooking minimise its bulk in +a disheartening way. One and a half pound of bread is more than the +third of a big loaf, but minus butter it makes a featureless repast. +Breakfast and tea without butter and milk does not always make a +dainty meal. + +Even the distribution of rations leaves much to be desired; the +fatigue party, well-intentioned and sympathetic though it be, often +finds itself short of provisions. This may in many cases be due to +unequal distribution; an ounce of beef too much to each of sixteen men +leaves the seventeenth short of meat. This may easily happen, as the +ration party has never any means of weighing the food: it is nearly +always served out by guesswork. But sometimes the landladies help in +the distribution by bringing out scales and weighing the provisions. +One lady in our street always weighed the men's rations, and saw that +those under her care got the exact allowance. Never would she take any +more than her due, and never less. But a few days ago, when weighing +sugar and tea, a blast of wind upset the scales, and a second +allowance met with a similar fate. Sugar and tea littered the +pavement, and finally the woman supplied her soldiers from the +household stores. She now leaves the work of distribution in the hands +of the ration party, and takes what is given to her without grumbling. + +The soldiers' last meal is generally served out about five o'clock +in the afternoon, sometimes earlier; and a stretch of fourteen hours +intervenes between then and breakfast. About nine o'clock in +the evening those who cannot afford to pay for extras feel their +waist-belts slacken, and go supperless to bed. And tea is not a very +substantial meal; the rations served out for the day have decreased in +bulk, bread has wasted to microscopic proportions, and the cheese has +diminished sadly in size. A regimental song, pent with soldierly woes, +bitterly bemoans the drawbacks of Tommy's tea: + + "Bread and cheese for breakfast, + For dinner Army stew, + But when it comes to tea-time + There's dough and rind for you, + So you and me + Won't wait for tea-- + We're jolly big fools if we do." + +But those who do not live in billets, and whose worldly wealth fails +to exceed a shilling a day, must be content with Army rations, with +the tea tasting of coom, and seldom sweetened, with the pebble-studded +putty potato coated in clay, with the cheese that runs to rind at +last parade, and, above all, with the knowledge that they are merely +inconvenienced at home so that they may endure the better abroad. + +There is another school of theorists that states that an army moves, +not upon its stomach, but upon its feet, the care of which is of vital +importance. This, too, finds confirmation in the official pamphlet, +which tells the soldier to "Remember that a dirty foot is an unsound +foot. See that feet are washed if no other part of the body is," etc. + +My right foot had troubled me for days; a pain settled in the arch of +the instep, and caused me intense agony when resuming the march after +a short halt; at night I would suddenly awake from sleep to experience +the sensation of being stabbed by innumerable pins in ankle and toes. +Marching in future, I felt, would be a monstrous futility, and I +decided that my case was one for the medical officer. + +Sick parade is not restricted by any dress order; the sore-footed +may wear slippers; the sore-headed, Balaclava helmets; puttees can be +discarded; mufflers and comforters may be used. "The sick rabble" is +the name given by the men to the crowd that waits outside the door of +the M.O.'s room at eight in the morning. And every morning brings its +quota of ailing soldiers; some seriously ill, some slightly, and a few +(as may be expected out of a thousand men of all sorts and conditions) +who have imaginary or feigned diseases that will so often save +"slackers" from a hard day's marching. The aim and ambition of these +latter seem to be to do as little hard work as possible; some of them +attend sick parade on an average once a week, and generally obtain +exemption from a day's work. To obtain this they resort to several +ruses; headaches and rheumatic pains are difficult to detect, and the +doctor must depend on the private's word; a quick pulse and heightened +temperature is engendered by a brisk run, and this is often a means +towards a favourable medical verdict--that is, when "favourable" means +a suspension of duties. + +At a quarter to eight I stood with ten others in front of the M.O.'s +door, on which a white card with the blue-lettered "No Smoking" +stood out in bold relief. The morning was bitterly cold, and a sharp, +penetrating wind splashed with rain swept round our ears, and chilled +our hands and faces. One of the waiting queue had a sharp cough and +spat blood; all this was due, he told us, to a day's divisional +field exercise, when he had to lie for hours on the wet ground +firing "blanks" at a "dummy" enemy. Another sick soldier, a youth of +nineteen, straight as a lance and lithe as a poplar, suffered from +ulcer in the throat. "I had the same thing before," he remarked in a +thin, hoarse voice, "but I got over it somehow. This time it'll maybe +the hospital. I don't know." + +An orderly corporal filled in admission forms and handed them to us; +each form containing the sick man's regimental number, name, religion, +age, and length of military service, in addition to several other +minor details having no reference at all to the matter in hand. These +forms were again handed over to another orderly corporal, who stood +smoking a cigarette under the blue-lettered notice pinned to the door. + +The boy with the sore throat was sitting in a chair in the room when I +entered, the doctor bending over him. "Would you like a holiday?" the +M.O. asked in a kindly voice. + +"Where to, sir?" + +"A couple of days in hospital would leave you all right, my man," the +M.O. continued, "and it would be a splendid rest." + +"I don't want a rest," answered the youth. "Maybe I'll be better in +the morning, sir." + +The doctor thought for a moment, then: + +"All right, report to-morrow again," he said. "You're a brave boy. +Some, who are not the least ill, whine till one is sick--what's the +matter with you?" + +"Sore foot, sir," I said, seeing the M.O.'s eyes fixed on me. + +"Off with your boot, then." + +I took off my boot, placed my foot on a chair, and had it inspected. + +"What's wrong with it?" + +"I don't know, sir. It pains me when marching, and sometimes--" + +"Have you ever heard that Napoleon said an army marches on its +stomach?" + +"Yes, sir, when the feet of the army is all right," I answered. + +"Quite true," he replied. "No doubt you've sprained one of yours; +just wash it well in warm water, rub it well, and have a day or two +resting. That will leave you all right. Your boots are good?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"They don't pinch or--what's wrong with you?" He was speaking to the +next man. + +"I don't know, sir." + +"Don't know? You don't know why you're here. What brought you here?" + +"Rheumatic pains, I think, sir," was the answer. "Last night I 'ad an +orful night. Couldn't sleep. I think it was the wet as done it. Lyin' +out on the grass last field day--" + +"How many times have you been here before?" + +"Well, sir, the last time was when--" + +"How many times?" + +"I don't know, sir." + +"Was it rheumatic pains last time?" + +"No sir, it was jaw-ache--toothache, I mean." + +"I'll put you on light duties for the day," said the M.O. And the +rheumatic one and I went out together. + +"That's wot they do to a man that's sick," said the rheumatic one when +we got outside. "Me that couldn't sleep last night, and now it's light +duties. I know what light duties are. You are to go into the orderly +room and wash all the dishes: then you go and run messages, then you +'old the orficer's horse and then maybe when you're worryin' your own +bit of grub they come and bundle you out to sweep up the orficers' +mess, or run an errand for the 'ead cook and bottle-washer. Light +duties ain't arf a job. I'm blowed if marchin' in full kit ain't ten +times better, and I'm going to grease to the battalion parade." + +Fifteen minutes later I met him leaving his billet, his haversack +on the wrong side, his cartridge pouches open, the bolt of his gun +unfastened; his whole general appearance was a discredit to his +battalion and a disgrace to the Army. I helped to make him presentable +as he bellowed his woes into my ear. "No bloomin' grub this mornin'," +he said. "Left my breakfast till I'd come back, and 'aven't no time +for it now. Anyway I'm going out on the march; no light duties for me. +I know what they are." He was still protesting against the hardships +of things as he swung out of sight round the corner of the street. +Afterwards I heard that he got three days C.B. for disobeying the +orders of the M.O. + +Save for minor ailments and accident, my battalion is practically +immune from sickness; colds come and go as a matter of course, sprains +and cuts claim momentary attention, but otherwise the health of the +battalion is perfect. "We're too healthy to be out of the trenches," +a company humorist has remarked, and the company and battalion agrees +with him. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +PICKETS AND SPECIAL LEAVE + + +One of the first things we had to learn was that our ancient cathedral +town has its bounds and limits for the legions of the lads in khaki. +Beyond a certain line, the two-mile boundary, we dare not venture +alone without written permission, and we can only pass the limit in a +body when led by a commissioned officer. + +The whole world, with the exception of the space enclosed by this +narrow circle, is closed to the footsteps of Tommy; he cannot now +visit his sweetheart, his sweetheart must come and visit him. The +housemaid from Hammersmith and the typist from Tottenham have to come +to their beaux in billets, and as most of the men in our town are +single, and nearly all have sweethearts, it is estimated that five +or six thousand maidens blush to hear the old, old story within the +two-mile limit every week-end. + +Once only every month is a soldier allowed week-end leave, and then +he has permission to be absent from his billet between the hours of +3 p.m. on Saturday and 10 p.m. on Sunday. His pass states that during +this time he is not liable to be arrested for desertion. Some men use +one pass for quite a long period, and alter the dates to suit every +occasion. + +One Sunday, when returning from week-end leave, I travelled from +London by train. My compartment was crowded with men of my division, +and only one-half of these had true passes; one, who was an adept +calligraphist, wrote his own pass, and made a counterfeit signature +of the superior who should have signed the form of leave. Another had +altered the dates of an early pass so cleverly that it was difficult +to detect the erasure, and a number of men had no passes whatsoever. +These boasted of having travelled to London every week-end, and they +had never been caught napping. + +Passes were generally inspected at the station preceding the one to +which we were bound. My travelling companions were well aware of this, +and made preparations to combat the difficulty in front; two crawled +under the seats, and two more went up on the racks, where they lay +quiet as mice, stretched out at full length and covered over with +several khaki overcoats. One man, a brisk Cockney, who would not deign +to roost or crawl, took up his position as far away as possible from +the platform window. + +"Grease the paper along as quick as you know 'ow and keep the picket +jorin' till I'm safe," he remarked as the train stopped and a figure +in khaki fumbled with the door handle. + +"Would you mind me lookin' at passes, mateys?" demanded the picket, +entering the compartment. The man by the door produced his pass, the +one he had written and signed himself; and when it passed inspection +he slyly slipped it behind the back of the man next him, and in the +space of three seconds the brisk Cockney had the forged permit of +leave to show to the inspector. The men under the seat and on the +racks were not detected. + +Every station in our town and its vicinity has a cordon of pickets, +the Sunday farewell kisses of sweethearts are never witnessed by the +platform porter, as the lovers in khaki are never allowed to see +their loves off by train, and week-end adieux always take place at +the station entrance. Some time ago the pickets allowed the men to +see their sweethearts off, but as many youths abused the privilege and +took train to London when they got on the platform, these kind actions +have now become merely a pleasing memory. + +Pickets seem to crop up everywhere; on one bus ride to London, a +journey of twenty miles, I have been asked to show my pass three +times, and on a return journey by train I have had to produce the +written permit on five occasions. But some units of our divisions soar +above these petty inconveniences, as do two brothers who motor home +every Sunday when church parade comes to an end. + +When these two leave church after divine service, a car waits them at +the nearest street corner, and they slip into it, don trilby hats and +civilian overcoats, and sweep outside the restricted area at a haste +that causes the slow-witted country policeman to puzzle over the speed +of the car and forget its number while groping for his pocket-book. + +It has always been a pleasure to me to follow for hours the winding +country roads looking out for fresh scenes and new adventures. The +life of the roadside dwellers, the folk who live in little stone +houses and show two flower-pots and a birdcage in their windows, has +a strange fascination for me. When I took up my abode here and got my +first free Sunday afternoon, I shook military discipline aside for a +moment and set out on one of my rambles. + +There comes a moment on a journey when something sweet, something +irresistible and charming as wine raised to thirsty lips, wells up in +the traveller's being. I have never striven to analyse this feeling or +study the moment when it comes, and that feeling has been often mine. +Now I know the moment it floods the soul of the traveller. It is at +the end of the second mile, when the limbs warm to their work and the +lungs fill with the fresh country air. At such a moment, when a man +naturally forgets restraint to which he has only been accustomed for +a short while, I met the picket for the first time. He told me to +turn--and I went back. But it was not in my heart to like that picket, +and I shall never like him while he stands there, sentry of the +two-mile limit; an ogre denying me entrance into the wide world that +lies beyond. + +There is one thing, however, before which the picket is impotent--a +pass. It is like a free pardon to a convict; it opens to him the whole +world--that is for the period it covers. The two most difficult things +in military life are to obtain permit of absence from billets, and the +struggle against the natural impulse to overstay the limit of leave. +There are times when soldiers experience an intense longing to see +their own homes, firesides, and friends, and in moments like these it +takes a stiff fight to overcome the desire to go away, if only for a +little while, to their native haunts. Only once in five weeks may a +man obtain a week-end pass--if he is lucky. To the soldier, luck is +merely another word for skill. + +With us, the rifleman who scores six successive "bulls" at six hundred +yards on the open range has been lucky; if he speaks nicely to the +quartermaster and obtains the best pair of boots in the stores, he has +been lucky; if by mistake he is given double rations by the fatigue +party he is lucky; but if the same man, sweating over his rifle in +a carnival of "wash-outs," or, weary of blistered feet and empty +stomach, asks for sympathy because his rifle was sighted too low or +because he lost his dinner while waiting on boot-parade, we explain +that his woes are due to a caper of chance--that he has been unlucky. +To obtain a pass at any time a man must be lucky; obtaining one when +he desires it most is a thing heard of now and again, and getting a +pass and not being able to use it is of common occurrence. Now, when I +applied for special leave I was more than a little lucky. + +It was necessary that I should attend to business in London, and I set +about making application for a permit of leave. I intended to apply +for a pass dating from 6 p.m. of a Friday evening to 10 p.m. of the +following Sunday. On Wednesday morning I spoke to a corporal of my +company. + +"If you want leave, see the platoon sergeant," he told me. The platoon +sergeant, who was in a bad temper, spoke harshly when I approached +him. "No business of mine!" he said; "the company clerk will look into +the matter." + +But I had no success with the company clerk; the leave which I desired +was a special one, and that did not come under his jurisdiction. "The +orderly sergeant knows more about this business than I do. Go to him +about it," he said. + +By Wednesday evening I spoke to the orderly sergeant, who looked +puzzled for a moment. "Come with me to the lieutenant," he said. +"He'll know more about this matter than I do, and he'll see into it. +But it will be difficult to get special leave, you know; they don't +like to give it." + +"Why?" I asked. + +"Why?" he repeated; "what the devil does it matter to you? You're paid +here to do what you're told, not to ask questions." + +The lieutenant was courteous and civil. "I can't do anything in the +matter," he said. "The orderly sergeant will take you to the company +officer, Captain ----, and he'll maybe do something for you." + +"If you're lucky," said the sergeant in a low whisper. About eight +o'clock in the evening I paraded in the long, dimly-lighted passage +that leads to our company orderly-room, and there I had to wait two +hours while the captain was conducting affairs of some kind or another +inside. When the door was opened I was ordered inside. + +"Quick march! Left turn! Halt!" ordered the sergeant as I crossed the +threshold, and presently I found myself face to face with our company +commander, who was sitting by a desk with a pile of papers before him. + +"What is it?" he asked, fixing a pair of stern eyes on me, and I +explained my business with all possible despatch. + +"Of course you understand that everything is now subservient to your +military duties; they take premier place in your new life," said the +officer. "But I'll see what I can do. By myself I am of little help. +However, you can write out a pass telling the length of time you +require off duty, and I'll lay it before the proper authorities." + +I wrote out the "special pass," which ran as follows: + +"Rifleman ---- has permission to be absent from his quarters from +6 p.m. (date) to 10 p.m. (date), for the purpose of proceeding to +London." + +I came in from a long march on Thursday evening to find the pass +signed, stamped, and ready. On the following night I could go to +London, and I spent the evening 'phoning, wiring, and writing to town, +arranging matters for the day ahead. Also, I asked some friends to +have dinner with me at seven o'clock on Friday night. + +Next day we had divisional exercise, which is usually a lengthy +affair. In the morning I approached the officer and asked if I might +be allowed off parade, seeing I had to set out for London at six +o'clock in the evening. + +"Oh! we shall be back early," I was told, "back about three or +thereabouts." + +The day was very interesting; the whole division, thousands of men, +numberless horses, a regiment of artillery, and all baggage and +munition for military use took up position in battle formation. In +front lay an imaginary army, and we had to cross a river to come +into contact with it. Engineers, under cover of the artillery, +built pontoon bridges for our crossing; on the whole an intensely +interesting and novel experience. So interesting indeed that I lost +all count of time, and only came to consciousness of the clock and +remembrance of friends making ready for dinner when some one remarked +that the hour of four had passed, and that we were still five miles +from home. + +I got to my billet at six; there I flung off my pack, threw down my +rifle, and in frenzied haste consulted a railway timetable. A slow +train was due to leave our town at five minutes to seven. I arranged +my papers, made a brief review of matters which would come before me +later, and with muddy boots and heavy heart I arrived at the station +at seven minutes to seven and took the slow train for London. + +When I told the story of my adventures at dinner a soldier friend +remarked: "You've been more than a little lucky in getting away at +all. I was very unlucky when I applied--" + +But his story was a long one, and I have forgotten it. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +OFFICERS AND RIFLES + + +As I have said, I have learned among other things to obey my officers +and depend upon my rifle. At first the junior officers appeared to me +only as immaculate young men in tailor-made tunics and well-creased +trousers, wearing swords and wrist-watches, and full of a healthy +belief in their own importance. My mates are apt to consider them +as being somewhat vain, and no Tommy dares fail to salute the young +commissioned officers when he meets them out with their young ladies +on the public streets. For myself, I have a great respect for them and +their work; day and night they are at their toil; when parade comes to +an end, and the battalion is dismissed for the day, the officers, who +have done ten or twelve hours' of field exercise, turn to their desks +and company accounts, and time and again the Last Post sees them busy +over ledgers, pamphlets, and plans. + +Accurate and precise in every detail, they know the outs and ins of +platoon and company drill, and can handle scores and hundreds of men +with the ease and despatch of artists born to their work. Where +have these officers, fresh youngsters with budding moustaches and +white, delicate hands, learned all about frontage, file, flank, +and formation, alignment, echelon, incline, and interval? Words of +direction and command come so readily from their lips that I was +almost tempted to believe that they had learned as easily as they +taught, that their skill in giving orders could only be equalled by +the ease with which I supposed they had mastered the details of their +work. Later I came to know of the difficulty that confronts the young +men, raw from the Officers' Training Corps, when they take up their +preliminary duties as commanders of trained soldiers. No "rooky" fresh +to the ranks is the butt of so many jokes and such biting sarcasm as +the young officer is subjected to when he takes his place as a leader +of men. + +Soon after my arrival in our town a score of young lieutenants came +to our parade ground, accompanied by two commanders, a keen-eyed +adjutant, brisk as a bell, and a white-haired colonel with very thin +legs, and putties which seemed to have been glued on to his shins. The +young gentlemen were destined for various regiments, and most of them +were fresh and spotless in their new uniforms. Some wore Glengarry +bonnets, kilts, and sporrans, some the black ribbons of Wales; one, +whose hat-badge proclaimed the Dublin Fusilier, was conspicuous by the +eyeglass he wore, and others were still arrayed in civilian garb, the +uniform of city and office life. Several units of my battalion were +taken off to drill in company with the strange officers. I was one of +the chosen. + +The young men took us in hand, acting in turn as corporals, platoon +sergeants, and company commanders. The gentleman with the eyeglass had +charge of my platoon, and from the start he cast surreptitious glances +at a little red brochure which he held in his hand, and mumbled words +as if trying to commit something to memory. + +"Get to your places," the adjutant yelled to the officers. "Hurry up! +Don't stand there gaping as if you're going to snap at flies. We've +got to do some work. There's no hay for those who don't work. Come on, +Weary, and drill your men; you with the eyeglass, I mean! I want you +to put the company through some close column movements." + +The man with the eyeglass took up his position, and issued some order, +but his voice was so low that the men nearest him could not hear the +command. + +"Shout!" yelled the adjutant. "Don't mumble like a flapper who has +just got her first kiss. It's not allowed on parade." + +The order was repeated, and the voice raised a little. + +"Louder, louder!" yelled the adjutant. Then with fine irony: "These +men are very interested in what you've got to tell them.... I don't +think." + +Eyeglass essayed another attempt, but stopped in the midst of his +words, frozen into mute helplessness by the look of the adjutant. + +"For heaven's sake, try and speak up," the adjutant said. "If you +don't talk like a man, these fellows won't salute you when they meet +you in the street with your young lady. On second thoughts, you had +better go back and take up the job of platoon sergeant. Come on, +Glengarry, and try and trumpet an order." + +Glengarry, so-called from his bonnet, a sturdy youth with sloping +shoulders, took up his post nervously. + +"A close column forming column of fours," he cried in a shrill treble, +quoting the cautionary part of his command. "Advance in fours from the +right; form fours--right!" + +"Form fours--where?" roared the adjutant. + +"Left," came the answer. + +"Left, your grandmother! You were right at first. Did you not know +that you were right?... Where's Eyeglass, the platoon sergeant, now? +Who's pinched him?" + +This unfortunate officer had dropped his eyeglass, and was now groping +for it on the muddy ground, one of my mates helping him in the search. + +Other officers took up the job of company commander in turn, and all +suffered. One, who was a dapper little fellow, speedily earned the +nickname of "Tailor's Dummy;" another, when giving a platoon the +wrong direction in dressing, was told to be careful, and not shove the +regiment over. A third, a Welshman, with the black ribbons, got angry +with a section for some slight mistake made by two of its number, and +was told to be careful and not annoy the men. He had only got them on +appro'. + +Spick and span in their new uniforms, they came to drill daily on our +parade ground. Slowly the change took place. They were "rookies" no +longer, and the adjutant's sarcasm was a thing of the past. Commands +were pronounced distinctly and firmly; the officers were trained men, +ready to lead a company of soldiers anywhere and to do anything. + +No man who has trained with the new armies can be lacking in respect +for the indefatigable N.C.O., upon whom the brunt of the work has +fallen. With picturesque scorn and sarcasm he has formed huge armies +out of the rawest of raw material, and all in a space of less than +half a year. His methods are sometimes strange and his temper short; +yet he achieves his end in the shortest time possible. He is for ever +correcting the same mistakes and rebuking the same stupidity, and the +wonder is, not that he loses his temper, but that he should ever be +able to preserve it. He understands men, and approaches them in an +idiom that is likely to produce the best results. + +"Every man of you has friends of some sort," said the musketry +instructor, as we formed up in front of him on the parade ground, +gripping with nervous eagerness the rifles which had just been served +out from the quartermaster's stores. We were recruits, raw "rookies," +green to the grind, and chafing under discipline. "And some sort of +friends it would be as well as if you never met them," the instructor +continued. "They'd play you false the minute they'd get your back +turned. But you've a friend now that will always stand by you and play +you fair. Just give him a chance, and he'll maybe see you out of many +a tight corner. Now, who is this friend I'm talking about?" he asked, +turning to a youth who was leaning on his rifle. "Come, Weary, and +tell me." + +"The rifle," was the answer. + +"The crutch?" + +"No, the rifle." + +"I see that, boy, I see that! But, damn it, don't make a crutch of it. +You're a soldier now, my man, and not a crippled one yet." + +Thus was the rifle introduced to us. We had long waited for its +coming, and dreamt of cross-guns, the insignia of a crack shot's +proficiency, while we waited. And with the rifle came romance, and the +element of responsibility. We were henceforward fighting men, +numbered units, it was true, with numbered weapons, but for all that, +fighters--men trained to the trade and licensed to the profession. + +Our new friend was rather a troublesome individual to begin with. In +rising to the slope he had the trick of breaking free and falling on +the muddy barrack square. A muddy rifle gets rusty, and brings its +owner into trouble, and a severe penalty is considered meet for the +man who comes on parade with a rusty rifle. Bringing the friend from +the slope to the order was a difficult process for us recruits at the +start the back-sight tore at the fingers, and bleeding hands often +testified to the unnatural instinct of the rebellious weapon. But the +unkindest kick of all was given when the slack novice fired the first +shot, and the heel of the butt slipped upwards and struck the jaw. +Then was learnt the first real lesson. The rifle kicks with the heel +and aims for the jaw. Control your friend, humour him; keep him well +in hand and beware his fling. + +I was unlucky in my first rifle practice on the miniature range, +and out of my first five shots I did not hit the target once. The +instructor lay by my side on the waterproof ground-sheet (the day was +a wet one, and the range was muddy) and lectured me between misses on +the peculiarities of my weapon and the cultivation of a steady eye. + +"Keep the beggar under control," he said. "You've got to coax him, and +not use force. Pull the trigger easily, as though you loved it, and +hold the butt affectionate-like against the shoulder. It's an easy +matter to shoot as you're shooting now. There's shooting and shooting, +and you've got to shoot straight. If you don't you're no dashed good! +Give me the rifle, you're not aiming at the bull, man, you're aiming +at the locality where the bull is grazing." + +He took my rifle, slid a cartridge into the breech, and coaxed the +trigger lovingly towards him. Three times he fired, then we went +together to look at the target. Not a bullet fired by him had struck +it. The instructor glared down the barrel of the gun, made some +nasty remarks about deflection, and went back to yell at an orderly +corporal. + +"What the dickens did you take this here for?" he cried. "It's a +blooming wash-out,[1] and was never any good. Old as an unpaid bill +and worn bell-mouth it is, and nobody can fire with it." + +[Footnote 1: "Wash-out" is a term used by the men when their firing is +so wide of the mark that it fails to hit any spot on the card. The men +apply it indiscriminately to anything in the nature of a failure.] + +On a new rifle being obtained I passed the preliminary test, and a +rather repentant instructor remarked that it might be possible to make +a soldier of me some day. + +Since then my fellow-soldiers and I have had almost unlimited rifle +practice, on miniature and open ranges, at bull and disappearing +targets, in field firing at distances from 100 to 600 yards. On a +field exceeding 600 yards it is almost impossible to hit a point +the size of an ordinary bull; fire then must be directed towards a +position. Field or volley firing is very interesting. Once my company +took train to Dunstable and advanced on an imaginary enemy that +occupied the wastes of the Chiltern Hills. Practice commenced by +firing at little squares of iron standing upright in a row about 200 +yards off in front of our line. These represented heads and shoulders +of men rising over the trenches to take aim at us as we advanced. In +extended order we came to our position, 200 yards distant from the +front trenches. At the sound of the officer's whistle, we sank to +the ground, facing our front, fixed our sights, and loaded. A second +whistle was blown; we fired "three rounds rapid" at the foe. The +aiming was very accurate; little spurts of earth danced up and around +the targets, and every iron disc fell. The "searching ground," the +locality struck by bullets, scarcely measured a dozen paces from front +to rear, thus showing that there was very little erratic firing. + +"That's some shooting!" my Jersey friend remarked. "If the discs were +Germans!" + +"They might shoot back," someone said, "and then we mightn't take as +cool an aim." + +We are trained to the rifle; it is always with us, on parade, +on march, on bivouac, and recently, when going through a dental +examination, we carried our weapons of war into the medical officer's +room. As befits units of a rifle regiment, we have got accustomed +to our gun, and now, as fully trained men, we have established the +necessary unity between hand and eye, and can load and unload our +weapon with butt-plate stiff to shoulder and eye steady on target +while the operation is in progress. In fact, our rifle comes to hand +as easy as a walking-stick. We shall be sorry to lose it when the war +is over, and no doubt we shall feel lonely without it. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE COFFEE-SHOP AND WANKIN + + +What the pump is to the villager, so the coffee-shop is to the soldier +of the New Army. Here the men crowd nightly and live over again the +incidents of the day. Our particular coffee-shop is situated in our +corner of the town; our men patronise it; there are three assistants, +plump, merry girls, and three of our men have fallen in love with +them; in short, it is our very own restaurant, opened when we came +here, and adapted to our needs; the waitresses wear our hat-badges, +sing our songs, and make us welcome when we cross the door to take up +our usual chairs and yarn over the cosy tables. The Jersey youth +with the blue eyes, the Oxford man, who speaks of things that humble +waitresses do not understand, the company drummer, the platoon +sergeants, and the Cockney who vows that water is spoilt in making +every cup of coffee he drinks, all come here, and all love the place. + +I have come to like the place and do most of my writing there, +catching snatches of conversation and reminiscence as they float +across to me. + +"I wasn't meanin' to 'urt ole Ginger Nobby nohow, but the muck I +throwed took 'im dead on the jor. 'Wot's yer gime?' 'e 'ollers at me. +'Wot's my gime?' I says back to 'im. 'Nuffin', if ye want ter know!' I +says. 'I was just shyin' at squidges.'" + +Thus spoke the bright-eyed Cockney at the table next me, gazing +regretfully at his empty coffee-cup and cutting away a fringe of +rag-nails from his finger with a clasp-knife. The time was eight +o'clock of the evening, and the youth was recounting an adventure +which he had had in the morning when throwing mud at sparrows on the +parade ground. A lump of clay had struck a red-haired non-commissioned +officer on the jaw, and the officer became angry. The above was the +Cockney version of the story. One of my friends, an army unit with the +Oxford drawl, was voluble on another subject. + +"Russian writers have had a great effect on our literature," he said, +deep in a favourite topic. "They have stripped bare the soul of man +with a realism that shrivels up our civilisation and proves--Two +coffees, please." + +A tall, well-set waitress, with several rings on her fingers, took the +order as gravely as if she were performing some religious function; +then she turned to the Cockney. + +"Cup of cawfee, birdie!" he cried, leaning over the table and trying +to grip her hand. "Not like the last, mind; it was good water spoilt. +I'll never come in 'ere again." + +"So you say!" said the girl, moving out of his way and laughing +loudly. + +"Strike me balmy if I do!" + +"Where'll yer go then?" + +"Round the corner, of course," was the answer. "There's another bird +there--and cawfee! It's some stuff too, not like 'ere." + +"All right; don't come in again if yer don't want ter." + +The Cockney got his second cup of coffee and pronounced it inferior to +the first; then looked at an evening paper which Oxford handed to him, +and studied a photograph of a battleship on the front page. + +"Can't stand these 'ere papers," he said, after a moment, as he got +to his feet and lit a cigarette. "Nuffink but war in them always; I'm +sick readin' about war! I saw your bit in one a couple of nights ago," +he said, turning to me. + +"What did you think of it?" I asked, anxious to hear his opinion on an +article dealing with the life of his own regiment. + +"Nuffink much," he answered, honestly and frankly. "Everything you say +is about things we all know; who wants to 'ear about them? D'ye get +paid for writin' that?" + +One of his mates, a youth named Bill, who came in at that moment, +overheard the remark. + +"Paid! Of course 'e gets paid," said the newcomer. "Bet you he gets +'arf a crown for every time 'e writes for the paper." + +All sorts and conditions of soldiers drift into the place and discuss +various matters over coffee and mince pies; they are men of all +classes, who had been as far apart as the poles in civil life, and are +now knit together in the common brotherhood of war. Caste and estate +seem to have been forgotten; all are engaged in a common business, +full of similar risks, and rewarded by a similar wage. + +In one corner of the room a game of cards was in progress, some +soldiers were reading, and a few writing letters. Now and again a song +was heard, and a score of voices joined in the chorus. The scene was +one of indescribable gaiety; the temperament of the assembly was like +a hearty laugh, infectious and healthy. Now and then a discussion took +place, and towards the close of the evening hot words were exchanged +between Bill and his friend, the bright-eyed Cockney. + +"I'll give old Ginger Nobby what for one day!" said the latter. + +"Will you? I don't think!" + +"Bet yer a bob I will!" + +"You'd lose it." + +"Would I?" + +"Straight you would!" + +"Strike me pink if I would!" + +"You know nothin' of what you're sayin'." + +"Don't I?" + +"Git!" + +"Shut!" + +In the coffee-shop Wankin is invariably the centre of an interested +group. As the company scapegrace and black sheep of the battalion he +occupies in his mates' eyes a position of considerable importance. His +repartees are famous, and none knows better than he how to score off +an unpopular officer or N.C.O. He has the distinction also of having +spent more days in the guard-room than any other man in the battalion. + +On the occasion when identity discs were being served out to the men +and a momentary stir pervaded the battalion, it was Wankin who first +became involved in trouble. + +He employed the disc string to fasten the water-bottle of the man +on his left to the haversack of the man on his right, and the +colour-sergeant, livid with rage, vowed to chasten him by confining +him eternally to barracks. But the undaunted company scapegrace was +not to be beaten. Fastening the identity disc on his left eye he fixed +a stern look on the sergeant. + +"My deah fellah," he drawled out, imitating the voice of the company +lieutenant who wears an eyeglass, "your remarks are uncalled for, +really. By Jove! one would think that a scrap of string was a gold +bracelet or a diamond necklace. I could buy the disc and the string +for a bloomin' 'apenny." + +"You'll pay dearly for it this time," said the colour with fine irony. +"Three days C.B.[2] your muckin' about'll cost you." And before Wankin +could reply the sergeant was reporting the matter to the captain. + +[Footnote 2: Confinement to Barracks.] + +Wankin is eternally in trouble, although his agility in dodging +pickets and his skill in making a week's C.B. a veritable holiday are +the talk of the regiment. All the officers know him, and many of them +who have been victims of his smart repartee fear him more than +they care to acknowledge. The subaltern with the eyeglass is a bad +route-marcher, and Wankin once remarked in an audible whisper that +the officer had learned his company drill with a drove of haltered +pack-horses, and the officer bears the name of "Pack-horse" ever +since. + +On another occasion the major suffered when a battalion kit inspection +took place early one December morning. Wankin had sold his spare pair +of boots, the pair that is always kept on top of the kit-bag; but when +the major inspected Wankin's kit the boots were there, newly polished +and freed from the most microscopic speck of dust. Someone tittered +during the inspection, then another, and the major smelt a rat. He +lifted Wankin's kit-bag in his hand and found Wankin's feet tucked +under it--Wankin's feet in stockinged soles. The major was justly +indignant. "One step to the front, left turn," he roared. "March in +front of every rank in the battalion and see what you think of it!" + +With stockinged feet, cold, but still wearing an inscrutable smile of +impudence, Wankin paraded in front of a thousand grinning faces and in +due course got back to his kit and beside the sarcastic major. + +"What do you think of it?" asked the latter. + +"I don't think much of it, sir," Wankin replied. "It's the dirtiest +regiment I ever inspected." + +Wankin was sometimes unlucky; fortune refused to favour him when he +took up the work of picket on the road between St. Albans and London. +No unit of his regiment is supposed to go more than two miles +beyond St. Albans without a written permit, and guards are placed at +different points of the two-mile radius to intercept the regimental +rakes whose feet are inclined to roving. Wankin learned that the +London road was not to be guarded on a certain Sunday. The regiment +was to parade for a long route-march, and all units were to be in +attendance. Wankin pondered over things for a moment, girt on his belt +and sword and took up his position on the London road within a hundred +yards of a wayside public-house. At this tavern a traveller from St. +Albans may obtain a drink on a Sabbath day. + +Soldiers, like most mortals, are sometimes dry and like to drink; +Wankin was often dry and Wankin had seldom much money to spend. The +first soldier who came out from the town wanted to get to the tavern. + +"Can't pass here!" the mock-picket told him. + +"But I'm dry and I've a cold that catches me awful in the throat." + +"Them colds are dangerous," Wankin remarked in a contemplative voice, +tinged with compassion. "Used to have them bad myself an' I feel one +coming on. I think gin, same as they have in the trenches, is the +stuff to put a cold away. But I'm on the rocks." + +"If you'll let me through I'll stand on my hands." + +"It's risky," said Wankin, then in a brave burst of bravado he said, +"Damn it all! I'll let you go by. It's hard to stew dry so near the +bar!" An hour later the young man set off towards home, and on his way +he met two of his comrades-in-arms on the road. + +"Going to ---- pub?" he inquired. + +"Going to see that no one does go near it," was the answer. "Picket +duty for the rest of the day, we are." + +"But Wankin--" + +"What?" + +The young man explained, and shortly afterwards Wankin went to +headquarters under an armed escort. Three days later I saw his head +sticking out through the guard-room window, and at that time I had not +heard of the London road escapade. + +"Here on account of drink?" I asked him. + +"You fool," he roared at me. "Do you think I mistook this damned place +for the canteen?" + +I like Wankin and most of his mates like him. We feel that when +detention, barrack confinement and English taverns will be things +of yesterday, Wankin will make a good and trustworthy friend in the +trenches. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE NIGHT SIDE OF SOLDIERING + + +There are three things in military life which make a great appeal to +me; the rifle's reply to the pull of the trigger-finger, the gossip of +soldiers in the crowded canteen, and the onward movement of a thousand +men in full marching order with arms at the trail. And at no time is +this so impressive as at night when with rifles held in a horizontal +position by the side, the arm hanging easily from the shoulder, we +march at attention in complete silence. Not a word is spoken by anyone +save officers, little is heard but the dull crunch of boots on the +gravel and the rustle of trenching-tool handles as they rub against +trousers or haversack. Seen from a flank at the rear, the moving +battalion, bending round the curve or straining to a hill, looks +like the plesiosaur of the picture shown in the act of dragging its +cumbrous length along. The silence is full of mystery, the gigantic +mass, of which you form so minute a unit, is entirely voiceless, a +dumb thing without a tongue, brooding, as it were, over some eternal +sorrow or ancient wrong to which it cannot give expression. Marching +thus at night, a battalion is doubly impressive. The silent monster is +full of restrained power; resolute in its onward sweep, impervious to +danger, it looks a menacing engine of destruction, steady to its goal, +and certain of its mission. + +A march like this fell to our lot once every fortnight. At seven in +the evening, loaded with full pack, bayonet, haversack, ground-sheet, +water-bottle, overcoat, and rifle, we would take our way from the town +out into the open country. The night varied in temper--sometimes it +rained; again, it froze and chilled the ears and finger-tips; and +once we marched with the full moon over us, lighting up the whole +county--the fields, the woods, the lighted villages, the snug +farmhouses, and the grey roads by which the long line of khaki-clad +soldiers went on their way. That night was one to be remembered. + +We went off from the parade ground, a thousand strong, along the +sloping road that sweeps down the hill on which our town is built. +Giggling girls watched us depart--they are ever there when the +soldiers are on the move--old gentlemen and ladies wished us luck as +we passed, but never a head of a thousand heads turned to the left +or right, never a tongue replied to the cheery greetings; we were +marching at attention, with arms at the trail. + +The sky stood high, splashed with stars, and the moon, pinched and +anĉmic, hung above like a whitish speck of smoke that had curled into +a ball. Marching at the rear, I could see the long brown line +curving round a corner ahead, the butt-plates of the rifles sparkling +brightly, the white trenching-tool handles shaking backward and +forward at every move of the men. + +"March easy!" + +Half an hour had passed, and we were now in the open country. At +the word of command rifles were slung over the shoulders, and the +battalion found voice, first in brisk conversation and exchange +of witticisms, then in shouting and song. We have escaped from the +tyranny of "Tipperary," none of us sing it now, but that doggerel is +replaced by other music-hall abominations which are at present in the +full glory of their rocket-reign. A parody of a hymn, "Toiling on," is +also popular, and my Jersey mate gave it full vent on the left. + + "Lager beer! lager beer! + There's a lager beer saloon across the way. + Lager bee-ee-eer! + Is there any lager beer to give away." + +Although the goddess of music forgot me in the making, I found myself +roaring out the chorus for all I was worth along with my Jersey +friend. + +"You're singing some!" he remarked, sarcastically, when the chorus +came to an end. "But, no wonder! This night would make a brass monkey +sing. It's grand to be alive!" + +Every battalion has its marching songs. One of the favourites with us +was written by a certain rifleman in "C" Company, sung to the air of +"Off to Philadelphia in the Morning." It runs: + + "It is said by our commanders that in trenches out by Flanders + There is work to do both trying and exciting, + And the men who man the trenches, they are England's men and + French's + Where the legions of the khaki-clad are fighting. + Though bearing up so gaily they are waiting for us daily, + For the fury of the foemen makes them nervous, + But the foe may look for trouble when we charge them at the double, + We, the London Irish out on active service. + +_Chorus._ + + "With our rifles on our shoulder, sure there's no one could be + bolder, + And we'll double out to France when we get warnin' + And we'll not stop long for trifles, we're the London Irish + Rifles, + When we go to fight the Germans in the mornin'. + + "An' the girls: oh it will grieve them when we take the train and + leave them, + Oh! what tears the dears will weep when we are moving, + But it's just the old, old story, on the path that leads to Glory, + Sure we cannot halt for long to do our loving. + They'll see us with emotion all departing o'er the ocean, + And every maid a-weepin' for her lover; + 'Good-bye' we'll hear them callin', while so many tears are fallin' + That they'd almost swamp the boat that takes us over. + +_Chorus._ + + "With our rifles," etc. + +Our colonel sang this song at a concert, thus showing the democratic +nature of the New Army, where a colonel sings the songs written in the +ranks of his own battalion. + +At the ten minutes' halt which succeeded the first hour's march, +my Jersey friend spoke to me again. "Aren't there stars!" he said, +turning his face to the heavens and gripping his rifle tightly as if +for support. His wide open eyes seemed to have grown in size, and were +full of an expression I had never seen in them before. "I like the +stars," he remarked, "they're so wonderful. And to think that men are +killing each other now, this very minute!" He clanked the butt of his +gun on the ground and toyed with the handle of his sword. + +Hour after hour passed by; under the light of the moon the country +looked beautiful; every pond showed a brilliant face to the heavens, +light mists seemed to hover over every farmhouse and cottage; light +winds swept through the telegraph wires; only the woods looked dark, +and there the trees seemed to be hugging the darkness around them. + +On our way back a sharp shower, charged with a penetrating cold, fell. +The waterproof ground-sheets were unrolled, and we tied them over our +shoulders. When the rain passed, the water falling in drops from our +equipment glittered so brightly that it put the polished swords and +brilliant rifle butt-plates to shame. + +We stole into the town at midnight, when nearly all the inhabitants +were abed. With arms at the trail, we marched along, throwing off +company after company, at the streets where they billeted. The +battalion dwindled down slowly; my party came to a halt, and the order +"Dismiss!" was given, and we went to our billets. The Jersey youth +came with me to my doorstep. + +"'Twas a grand march!" he remarked. + +"Fine," I replied. + +"I can't help looking at the stars!" he said as he moved off. "There +are a lot to-night. And to think--" He hesitated, with the words +trembling on his tongue, realising that he was going to repeat +himself. "Anyway, there's some stars," he said in a low voice. "Good +night!" + +There is a peculiar glamour about all night work. The importance of +night manoeuvring was emphasised in the South African War, and we had +ample opportunities of becoming accustomed to the darkness. On one +occasion at about nine o'clock we swung out from the town with our +regimental pipe-band playing to pursue some night operations. So far +the men did not know what task had been assigned to them. + +"We've got to do to-night's work as quiet as a growing mushroom," +someone whispered to me, as we took our way off the road and lined up +in the field that, stretching out in front and flanks, lost itself in +formless mistiness under the loom of the encircling hedgerows. Here +and there in the distance trees stand up gaunt and bare, holding +out their leafless branches as if in supplication to the grey sky; a +slight whisper of wind moaned along the ground and died away in the +darkness. + +Our officer, speaking in a low voice, gave instructions. "The enemy is +advancing to attack us in great force," he explained, "and our scouts +have located him some six miles away from here. We have now found that +it is inadvisable to march on any farther, as our reinforcements +are not very strong and have been delayed to rear. Therefore we have +decided to take up our present position as a suitable ground for +operations and entrenching ourselves in--ready to give battle. +Everything now must be done very quickly. Our lives will, perhaps, +depend at some early date on the quickness with which we can hide +ourselves from the foe. So; dig your trench as quickly as possible, as +quickly, in fact, as if your life depended on it. Work must be done +in absolute silence; no smoking is allowed, no lighting of matches, no +talk. + +"A word about orders. Commands are not to be shouted, but will be +passed along from man to man, and none must speak above his breath. +The passing of messages along in this manner is very difficult; words +get lost, and unnecessary words are added in transit. But I hope +you'll make a success of the job. Now we'll see how quickly we can get +hidden!" + +A "screen" of scouts (one man to every fifty yards of frontage) took +up its place in line a furlong ahead. A hundred paces to rear of the +"screen" the officers marked out the position of the trenches, placing +soldiers as markers on the imaginary alignment. In front lay a clear +field of fire, a deadly area for an enemy advancing to the attack. + +We took off our equipment, hafted the entrenching tools which we +always carry, and bent to our work in the wet clay. The night was +close and foggy, the smell of the damp earth and the awakening spring +verdure filled our nostrils. In the distance was heard the rumbling of +trains, the jolting of wagons along the country road, the barking of +dogs, and clear and musical through all these sounds came the song of +a mavis or merle from the near hedgerows. + +In the course of ten minutes we were sweating at our work, and several +units of the party took off their tunics. One hapless individual got +into trouble immediately. His shirt was not regulation colour, it was +spotlessly white and visible at a hundred yards. A whispered order +from the officer on the left faltered along the line of diggers. + +"Man with white shirt, put on his tunic!" + +The order was obeyed in haste, the white disappeared rapidly as the +arms of the culprit slid into sleeves, and the covering tunic hid his +wrong from the eyes of man. + +The night wore on. Now and again a clock in the town struck out the +time with a dull, weary clang that died away in the darkness. On both +sides I could see stretching out, like some gigantic and knotted +rope, the row of bent workers, the voiceless toilers, busy with their +labours. Picks rose into the air, remained poised a moment, then sank +to tear the sluggish earth and pull it apart. The clay was thrown out +to front and rear, and scattered evenly, so that the natural contour +of the ground might show no signs of man's interference. And even as +we worked the section commanders stole up and down behind us, urging +the men to make as little sound as possible--our safety depended on +our silence. But pick and shovel, like the rifle, will sing at their +toil, and insistent and continuous, as if in threat, they rasped out +the almost incoherent song of labour. + +A man beside me suddenly laid down his shovel and battled with a cough +that strove to break free and riot in the darkness. I could see his +face go purple, his eyes stare out as if endeavouring to burst from +their sockets. Presently he was victor, and as he bent to his shovel +again I heard him whisper huskily, "'Twas a stiff go, that; it almost +floored me." + +Thrown from tongue to tongue as a ball is thrown in play, a message +from the captain on the flank hurried along the living line. "Close in +on the left," was the order, and we hastened to obey. Trenching tools +were unhafted and returned to their carriers, equipments were donned +again, belts tightened, and shoulder-straps buttoned. Singly, in +pairs, and in files we hurried back to the point of assembly, to find +a very angry captain awaiting us. + +"I am very disappointed with to-night's work," he said. "I sent +five messages out; two of them died on the way; a third reached its +destination, but in such a muddled condition that it was impossible to +recognise it as the one sent off. The order to cease work was the only +one that seemed to hurry along. Out at the front, where all orders +are passed along the trenches in this manner, it is of the utmost +importance that every word is repeated distinctly, and that no +order miscarries. Even out there, it is found very difficult to send +messages along." + +The captain paused for a moment; then told a story. "It is said that +an officer at the front gave out the following message to the men in +the trenches: 'In the wood on the right a party of German cavalry,' +and when the message travelled half a mile it had changed to: 'German +Navy defeated in the North Sea.' We don't know how much truth there +is in the story, but I hope we will not make a mistake like that out +there." + +Lagging men were still stealing in as we took up our places in columns +of fours. A clock struck out the hour of twelve, and the bird in +the hedgerow was still singing as we marched out to the roadway, and +followed our merry pipers home to town. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +DIVISIONAL EXERCISE AND MIMIC WARFARE + + +Divisional exercise is a great game of make-believe. All sorts of +liberties are taken, the clock is put forward or back at the command +of the general, a great enemy army is created in the twinkling of an +eye, day is turned into night and a regular game of topsy-turvydom +indulged in. On the occasion of which I write the whole division +was out. The time was nine o'clock in the forenoon, and an imaginary +forced march was nearly completed, and an imaginary day was at an end. +We were being hurried up as reinforcements to the main army, which was +in touch with the enemy ahead and an engagement was developing. Our +battalion came to a halt on the roadway, closing in to the left in +order to give full play to the field telephone service in process of +being laid. + +Our officers went out in front to seek a position for a bivouac; the +doctor accompanied them to examine the place chosen, see to the +water supply, the drainage, and sanitation. In addition to this, our +commanders had to find the battalion a resting-ground easy to defend +and of merit as a tactical position. + +At ten o'clock we lay down, battalion after battalion, just as we +halted: equipment on, our packs unloosened but shoved up under our +heads, and our rifles by our sides, muzzles towards the enemy. One +word of command would bring twenty thousand men from their beds, ready +in an instant, rifles loaded, bayonets at hips, quick to the route and +ready for battle. We would rise, as we slept, in full marching order, +and the space of a moment would find us hurrying, fully armed, into +battle, with the sleep of night still heavy in our eyes. + +For miles around the soldiers lay down, each in his place and every +place occupied. Hardly a word was spoken; commands were whispered, and +our officers crept round explaining the work ahead. Two miles in front +the enemy was assembled in great strength on a river, and by dawn, if +all went well, we would enter the firing line. At present we had to +lie still; no man was to move about, and sentries with fixed bayonets +were stationed at front, flank, and rear, ready to give the alarm at +the first sign of danger. + +Behind us were the kitchen, horse-lines, and latrines. The position of +these varies as the wind changes, and it is imperative that unhealthy +odours are not blown across the bivouac. The battalion lay in two +parallel squares, with a gangway, blocked up with baggage and various +necessaries, between. On these squares no refuse was to be thrown +down; the ground had to be kept clean; papers, scraps of meat, and +pieces of bread, if not eaten, had to be buried. + +Even as we lay, and while the officers were explaining the work in +hand, the artillery took up its stand on several wooded knolls that +rose behind us. What a splendid sight, the artillery going into +action! Heavy guns, an endless line of them, swept over the greensward +and rattled into place. Six horses strained at each gun, which was +accompanied by two ammunition wagons with six horses to each wagon. +How many horses! How many guns! Out of nowhere in particular they +came, and disappeared as if behind a curtain barely four hundred +yards away. Thirty minutes afterwards I fancied as I looked in their +direction that I could see black, ominous muzzles peering through +the undergrowth. Probably I was mistaken. Anyhow, they were there, +guarding us while we slept, our silent watchers! + +About eleven o'clock an orderly stole in and spoke to the colonel, a +hurried consultation in which all the officers took part was held, +and the messenger departed. Again followed an interval of silence, +only broken by the officers creeping round and giving us further +information. The enemy was repulsed, they told us, and was now in +retreat, but before moving off he had blown up all the bridges on +the river. The artillery of our main army in front was shelling the +fleeing foe, and our engineers had just set off to build three pontoon +bridges, so that the now sleeping division could cross at dawn and +follow the army in retreat. + +Our dawn came at one o'clock in the afternoon; a whistle was blown +somewhere near at hand, and the battalion sprang to life; every unit, +with pack on back, cartridge pouches full, rifle at the order, was +afoot and ready. Only two hours before had the engineers set out to +build the bridges which the whole division, with its regiment after +regiment, with its artillery, its guns, ammunition wagons and horses, +its transport section, and vehicles of all descriptions, was now to +cross. The landscape had changed utterly, the country was alive, and +had found voice; the horse-lines were broken, and all the animals, +from the colonel's charger to the humble pack horse, were on the move. +The little squares, dotted brown, had taken on new shape, and were +transformed into companies of moving men in khaki. We were out on the +heels of the retreating foe. + +Two hours' forced marching brought us to the river, a real one, with +three pontoon bridges, newly built and held firm on flat-bottomed +boats moored in mid-stream. We took our way across, and bent to the +hill on the other side. Half-way up, in a narrow lane, a wagon got +stuck in the front of our battalion, and we were forced to come to a +halt for a moment. Looking back, I could see immediately behind three +lines of men straining to the hill; farther back the same lines were +crossing the bridges and, away in the far distance, pencilled brown on +the ploughed fields, the three lines of khaki crawled along like long +threads endlessly unwinding from some invisible ball. Now and again +I could see the artillery coming into sight, only to disappear again +over a wooded knoll or into an almost invisible hollow. + +Thus the division, the apparently limitless lines of men, horses, and +guns crawled on the track of the fleeing enemy. As we stood there, +held in check by the wagon, and as I looked back at the thousands of +soldiers in the rear, I felt indeed that I was a minute mite amongst +the many. And then a second thought struck me. The whole mass of men +around me was a small thing in relation to the numbers engaged in +the great war. Even I, Rifleman Something or Another, No. So-and-so, +bulked larger in the division as one of its units than the division +did in the war as a unit of the Allied Forces. + +Even more interesting than divisional exercises is the mimic +warfare that is heralded by a notice in battalion orders such as the +following: "The battalion will take part in brigade exercise to-day. +Ten rounds of blank ammunition and haversack rations will be carried." + +At eight o'clock in the morning whistles were blown at the bottom of +the street in which my company is billeted, and the soldiers, rubbing +the sleep from their eyes or munching the last mouthful of a hasty +breakfast, came trooping out from the snug middle-class houses +in which they are quartered. The morning was bitterly cold, and +the falling rain splashed soberly on the pavement, every drop +coming slowly to ground as if selecting a spot to rest on. The +colour-sergeant, standing at the end of the street, whistle in hand, +was in a nasty temper. + +"Hurry up, you heavy-footed beggars," he yelled to the men. "The +parade takes place to-day, not to-morrow! And you, what's wrong with +your understandings?" he called to a man who came along wearing carpet +slippers. + +"My boots are bad, colour," is the answer. "I cannot march in them." + +"And are you goin' to march in them drorin'-room abominations?" roared +the sergeant. "Get your boots mended and grease out of it." + +At roll-call three of the company were found to be absent; two were +sick, and one who had been found guilty of using bad language to a +N.C.O. was confined to the guard-room. Those who answered their names +were served out with packets of blank ammunition, one packet per man, +and each containing ten cartridges wrapped in brown paper and tied +with a blue string. + +The captain read the following instructions: "The enemy is reported +to be in strong force on X hill, and Battalions A and B are ordered +to dislodge him from that position. A will form first line of attack, +B will send up reserves and supports as needed." The rifles were +examined by our young lieutenant, after which inspection the company +joined the battalion, and presently a thousand men with rifles on +shoulder, bayonets and haversacks on left hip, and ammunition in +pouches, were marching through the rain along the muddy streets, out +into the open country. + +The day promised to be an interesting one from my point of view; I had +never taken part in a mimic battle before, and the day's work was to +be in many ways similar to operations on the real field of battle. +"Only nobody gets killed, of course," my mate told me. He had taken +part in this kind of work before, and was wise in his superior +knowledge. + +"One-half of the brigade, two thousand men, is our enemy," he +explained; "and we're going to fight them. The battalion that's +helping us is on in front, and it will soon be fighting. When it's +hard pressed we'll go up to help, for we're the supports. It won't be +long till we hear the firing." + +An hour's brisk march was followed by a halt, when we were ordered +to draw well into the left of the road to let the company guns go by. +Dark-nosed and cold, they wheeled past, the horses sweating as they +strained at the carriage shafts; the drivers, by deft handling, +pulling the steeds clear of the ruts; out in front they swung, and the +battalion closed up and resumed its march behind. + +The rain ceased and a cold sun shot feeble rays over the sullen +December landscape. Again a halt was called; the brigadier-general, +followed by two officers and several orderlies, galloped up, and a +hurried consultation with our colonel took place. In a moment the +battalion moved ahead only to come to a dead stop again after ten +minutes' slow marching, and find a company detailed off to guard the +rear. The other companies, led by their officers, turned off the road +and moved in sections across the newly furrowed and soggy fields. A +level sweep of December England broken only by leafless hedgerows and +wire fencing stretched out in front towards a wooded hillock, that +stood up black against the sky-line two miles away. The enemy held +this wood; we could hear his guns booming and now considered ourselves +under shell fire. Each squad of sixteen men marched in the rear or on +the flank of its neighbour; this method of progression minimises the +dangers of bursting shrapnel, for a shell falling in the midst of one +body of men and causing considerable damage will do no harm to the +adjacent party. + +Somewhere near us our gunners were answering the enemy's fire; but so +well hidden were the guns that I could not locate them. We still +crept slowly forward; section after section crawled across the black, +ploughed fields, now rising up like giant caterpillars to the crest +of a mound, and again dropping out of sight in the hollow land like +corks on a comber. On our heels the ambulance corps followed with its +stretchers, and in front the enemy was firing vigorously; over the +belt of trees that lined the summit of the hillock little wisps of +smoke could be seen rising and fading in the air. + +Suddenly we came into line with our guns hidden in a deep narrow +cart-track, their dark muzzles trained on the enemy, and the gunners, +knee-deep in the mire of the lane, sweating at their work. "We're +under covering fire now," our young lieutenant explained, as we +trudged forward, lifting enormous masses of clay on our boots at every +step. "One battalion is engaged already; hear the shots." + +The rifles were barking on the left front; in a moment the reports +from that quarter died away, and the right found voice. The men of +the first line were in the trenches dug by us a fortnight earlier, and +there they would remain, we knew, until their supports came to their +aid. Already we passed several of them, who were detailed off on the +anticipated casualty list in the morning. These wore white labels in +their buttonholes, telling of the nature of their wounds. One label +bore the words: "Shot in right shoulder; wound not dangerous." Another +read: "Leg blown off," and a third ran: "Flesh wounds in arm and leg." +These men would be taken into the care of the ambulance party when it +arrived. + +When within fifteen hundred yards of the enemy, the command for +extended order advance was given, and the section spread out in one +long line, fronting the knoll, with five pace intervals between the +men. We were now under rifle-fire, and all further movements forward +were made in short sharp rushes, punctuated by halts, during which +we lay flat on the ground, our bodies deep in the soft earth, and the +rain, which again commenced to fall, wetting us to the skin. + +Six hundred yards from the enemy's front we tumbled into the trenches +already in possession of Battalion B, and I found myself ankle-deep in +mire, beside a unit of another regiment who was enjoying a cigarette +and blowing rings of smoke into the air. Although no enemy was visible +we got the order to fire, and I discharged three rounds in rapid +succession. + +"Don't fire, you fool!" said the man who was blowing the smoke rings. +"Them blanks dirty 'orrible, and when you've clean't the clay from +your clothes t'night you'll not want to muck about with your rifle. +There's a price for copper, and I always sell my cartridge cases. The +first time I came out I fired, but never since." + +Several rushes forward followed, and the penultimate hundred yards +were covered with fixed bayonets. In this manner we were prepared for +any surprise. The enemy replied fitfully to our fire, and we could now +see several khaki-clad figures with white hat-bands--the differential +symbols--moving backwards and forwards amidst the trees. Presently +they disappeared as we worked nearer to their lines. We were now +rushing forward, lying down to fire, rising and running only to drop +down again and discharge another round. Within fifty yards of the +coppice the order to charge was given. A yell, almost fiendish in its +intensity, issued from a thousand throats; anticipation of the real +work which is to be done some day, lent spirit to our rush. In an +instant we were in the wood, smashing the branches with our bayonets, +thrusting at imaginary enemies, roaring at the top of our voices, and +capping a novel fight with a triumphant final. + +And our enemies? Having finished their day's work they were now +fifteen minutes' march ahead of us on the way back to their rest and +rations. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE GENERAL INSPECTION AND THE EVERLASTING WAITING + + +One of our greatest trials is the general inspection, which takes +place every month, and once Lord Kitchener inspected the battalion, in +company with the division quartered in our town. But that was before +I joined. It involves much labour in the way of preparation. On one +occasion, midnight the night before, a Friday, found us still busy +with our work. My cot-mate was in difficulties with his rifle--the +cloth of the pull-through stuck in the barrel, and he could not move +it, although he broke a bamboo cane and bent a poker in the attempt. +"It's a case for the armoury," he remarked gloomily. "What a nuisance +that ramrods are done away with! We've been at it since eight o'clock, +and getting along A1. Now that beastly pull-through!" + +What an evening's work! On the day following the brigadier-general +was to inspect us, and we had to appear on parade spick and span, with +rifles spotless, and every article of our equipment in good order. +Packs were washed and hung over the rim of the table by our billet +fire, web-belts were cleaned, and every speck of mud and grease +removed. Our packs, when dry, were loaded with overcoat, mess-tin, +housewife, razor, towel, etc., and packed tightly and squarely, +showing no crease at side or bulge at corner. Ground-sheets were +neatly rolled and fastened on top of pack, no overlapping was allowed; +rifles were oiled and polished from muzzle to butt-plate, and swords +rubbed with emery paper until not a single speck of rust remained. + +Saturday morning found us trim and tidy on the parade ground. An +outsider would hardly dream that we were the men who had ploughed +through the muddy countryside and sunk to the knees in the furrowed +fields daily since the wet week began. Where was the clay that had +caked brown on our khaki, the rust that spoilt the lustre of our +swords, and the fringes that the wire fences tore on our tunics? All +gone; soap and water, a brush, needle and thread, and a scrap of emery +paper had worked the miracle. We stood easy awaiting the arrival +of the general; platoons sized from flanks to centres (namely, the +tallest men stood at the flanks, and the khaki lines dwindled in +stature towards the small men in the middle), and company officers at +front and rear. The officers saw that everything was correct, that no +lace-ends showed from under the puttees, that no lace-eye lay idle, +and that laces were not crossed over the boots. Each man had shaved +and got his hair cut, his hat set straight on his head, and the +regimental badge in proper position over the idle chin-strap. +Pocket-flaps and tunics were buttoned, water-bottles and haversacks +hung straight, the tops of the latter in line with the bayonet rings, +and entrenching tool handles were scrubbed clean--my mate and I had +spent much soap on ours the night before. + +One of our officers gave us instructions as to how we had to behave +during the inspection, more especially when we were under the direct +gaze of the general. + +"Not a movement," he told us. "Every eyelash must be still. If the +general asks me your name and I make a mistake and say you are Smith +instead of Brown, your real name, you're not to say a word. You are +Brown for the time being. If he speaks to you, you're to answer: +'Sir,' and 'Sir' only to every question. If you're asked what was your +age last birthday, 'Sir' is to be the only answer. Is that clear to +every man?" + +It was, indeed, clear, surprisingly clear; but we wondered at the +command, which was new to us. To answer in this fashion appeared +strange to us; we thought (the right to think is not denied to a +soldier) it a funny method of satisfying a general's curiosity. + +He came, a tall, well-set man, with stern eyebrows and a heavy +moustache, curled upwards after the manner of an Emperor whom we +heartily dislike, attended by a slim brigade major, who wore a rather +large eyeglass, and made several entries in his notebook, as he +followed on the heels of the superior inspecting the battalion. + +We stood, every unit of us, sphinx-like, immovable, facing our front +and resigned to our position. To an onlooker it might seem as if we +were frozen there--our fingers glued on to our rifles and our feet +firm to the earth at an angle of forty-five degrees. I stood near the +rear, and could see the still platoons in front, not a hat moved, not +a boot shifted. The general broke the spell when he was passing me. + +"Another button. There were forty-seven the last time," he said, and +the man with the eyeglass made an entry in the notebook. Through an +oversight, I had helped to lower the prestige of the battalion: a +pocket flap of my tunic was unbuttoned. + +Kit inspection was a business apart; the general picked out several +soldiers haphazard and ordered their packs to be opened for an +examination of the contents--spoons, shirts, socks, and the various +necessaries which dismounted men in full marching order must carry on +their persons were inspected carefully. A full pack is judged best by +its contents, and nearly all packs passed muster. One man was unlucky: +his mate was chosen for kit inspection, but this hapless individual +came out minus a toothbrush and comb, and the friend in need took his +place in the freshly-formed ranks. Here, the helper found that his own +kit was inefficient, he had forgotten to put in a pair of socks. That +afternoon he had to do two hours' extra drill. + +Perhaps an even greater trial than Divisional Inspection was that of +waiting orders when we were the victims of camp rumours. But this was +as nothing to the false alarms. There is some doggerel known to the +men which runs: + + "We're off to the front," said the colonel, + as he placed us in the train, + "And we went at dawn from the station, + and at night came back again." + +For months we had drilled and drilled, all earnest in our labours and +filled with enthusiasm for our new profession, and daily we await the +order to leave for foreign parts. Where are we going to when we leave +England? France, Egypt, or India? Rumour had it yesterday that we +would go to Egypt; to-day my mate, the blue-eyed Jersey youth, heard +from a friend, who heard it from a colour-sergeant, that we are going +out to India, where we will be kept as guardians of the King's Empire +for a matter of four years. Ever since I joined the Army it has been +the same: reports name a new destination for my battalion daily. + +Afterwards we had to go and help the remarkable Russians who passed +through England on the way to France; but when the Russians faded from +the ken of vision and the Press Bureau denied their very existence, +it was immediately reported that we had been drilled into shape in +order to demolish De Wet and all his South African rebels. De Wet was +captured and is now under military control, and still we waited orders +to move from the comfortable billets and crowded streets of our town. +Dry eyes would see us depart, mocking children would bid us sarcastic +farewells, the kindly landladies and their fair daughters would laugh +when we bade adieu and moved away to some destination unknown. We had +already taken our farewell three times, and on each occasion we have +come back again to our billets before the day that saw our departure +came to an end. + +The heart of every man thrilled with excitement when the announcement +was made for the first time, one weary evening when we had just +completed a ten-hour divisional field exercise. Our officer read it +from a typewritten sheet, and the announcement was as follows: + + "All men in the battalion must stand under arms until further + orders. No soldier is to leave his billet; boots are not to be + taken off, and best marching pairs are to be worn. Every unit + of the company who lacks any part of the necessary equipment + must immediately report at quartermaster's stores, where all + wants will be supplied. Identity discs to be worn, swords + must be cleaned and polished, and twenty-four hours' haversack + rations are to be carried. The battalion has to entrain for + some unknown destination when called upon." + +The news spread through the town: the division was going to move! On +the morrow we would be sailing for France, in a fortnight we would be +in Berlin! Our landladies met us at the doors as we came in, looks of +entreaty on their faces and tears in their eyes. The hour had come; we +were going to leave them. And the landladies' daughters? One, a buxom +wench of eighteen, kissed the Jersey youth in sight of the whole +battalion, but nobody took any notice of the unusual incident. All +were busy with their own thoughts, and eager for the new adventures +before them. + +I did not go to sleep that night; booted and dressed I lay on the +hearthrug in front of the fire, and waited for the call. About four +o'clock in the morning a whistle was blown outside on the street; +I got to my feet, put on my equipment, fastened the buckles of my +haversack, bade adieu to my friends of the billet who had risen from +bed to see me off, and joined my company. + +Five or six regiments were already on the move; transport wagons, +driven by khaki-clad drivers with rifles slung over their shoulders, +lumbered through the dimly-lighted thoroughfares; ammunition vans +stood at every street corner; guns rattled along drawn by straining +horses, the sweat steaming from the animals' flanks and withers; +an ambulance party sped through the greyness of the foggy morning, +accompanied by a Red Cross lorry piled high with chests and stretcher +poles, and soldiers in files and fours, in companies and columns, were +in movement everywhere--their legions seemed countless and endless. + +Ammunition was given out from the powder magazine; each man was handed +150 rounds of ball cartridge--a goodly weight to carry on a long day's +march! With our ammunition we were now properly equipped and ready for +any emergency. Each individual carried on his person in addition to +rifle, bayonet (sword is the military name for the latter weapon) +and ball cartridge, a blanket and waterproof sheet, an overcoat, a +water-bottle, an entrenching tool and handle, as well as several other +lighter necessaries, such as shirts, socks, a knife, fork, and spoon, +razor, soap, and towel. + +At eight o'clock, when the wintry dawn was breaking and the fog +lifting, we entered the station. Hundreds of the inhabitants of the +town came to see us off and cheer us on the long way to Tipperary: and +Tipperary meant Berlin. One of the inhabitants, a kindly woman who is +loved by the soldiers of my company, to whom she is very good, came +to the station as we were leaving, and presented a pair of mittens to +each of fifty men. + +The train started on its journey, puffed a feeble cloud of smoke +into the air, and suddenly came to a dead stop. Heads appeared at +the windows, and voices inquired if the engine-driver had taken the +wrong turning on the road to Berlin. The train shunted back into the +station, and we all went back to our billets again, but not before +our officers informed us that we had done the work of entraining very +smartly, and when the real call did come we would lose no time on the +journey to an unknown destination. + +Later we had two further lessons in entraining, and we came to fear +that when the summons did come dry eyes would watch us depart and +sarcastic jibes make heavy our leave-taking. Indeed, some of the +inhabitants of our town hinted that we should never leave the place +until the local undertakers make a profit on our exit. So much for +their gentle sarcasm! But well they knew that one day in the near +future it would suddenly occur to our commanders to take us with them +in the train to Berlin. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +READY TO GO--THE BATTALION MOVES + + +Rumour had been busy for days; the whole division was about to move, +so every one stated, except our officers, and official information was +not forthcoming. + +"You are going between midnight and five o'clock to-morrow morning," +announced my landlord positively. He is a coal-merchant by trade. + +"How do you know?" I inquired. + +"Because I can't get any coal to-morrow--line's bunged up for the +troops." + +"No, he'll be going on Tuesday," said his wife, whose kindliness and +splendid cooking I should miss greatly. + +"Is that so?" I asked, feigning an interest which I did not feel. A +sore toe eclipsed all other matters for the time being. + +"The ration men have served out enough for two days, and it doesn't +stand to reason that they're going to waste anything," the little lady +continued with sarcastic emphasis on the last two words. + +Parades went on as usual; the usual rations were doled out to billets +and the usual grumbling went on in the ranks. We were weary of false +alarms, waiting orders, and eternal parades. Some of us had been +training for fully six months, others had joined the Army when war +broke out, and we were still secure in England. "Why have we joined?" +the men asked. "Is it to line the streets when the troops come home? +We are a balmy regiment." + +One evening, Thursday to be exact, the battalion orders were +interesting. One item ran as follows: "All fees due to billets will be +paid up to Friday night. If any other billet expenses are incurred +by battalion the same will be paid on application to the War Office." +Friday evening found more explicit expression of our future movements +in orders. The following items appeared: "Mess tin covers will be +issued to-morrow. No white handkerchiefs are to be taken by the +battalion overseas. All deficiencies in kit must be reported to-morrow +morning. Bayonets will be sharpened. Any soldiers who have not yet +received a copy of the New Testament can have same on application at +the Town Hall 6 p.m. on Saturday. + +"Where are we going?" we asked one another. Some answered saying that +we were to help in the sack of Constantinople, others suggested Egypt, +but all felt that we were going off to France at no very distant date. +Was not this feeling plausible when we took into account a boot parade +of the day before and how we were ordered to wear two pairs of socks +when trying on the boots? Two pairs of socks suggested the trenches +and cold, certainly not the sun-dried gutters of Constantinople, or +the burning sands of Egypt. + +Saturday saw an excited battalion mustered in front of the +quartermaster's stores drawing out boots, mess-tin covers, blankets, +ground-sheets, entrenching tools, identity discs, new belts, +water-bottles, pack-straps, trousers, tunics and the hundred and one +other things required by the soldier on active service. In addition +to the usual requisites, every unit received a cholera belt (they are +more particular over this article of attire than over any other), +two pairs of pants, a singlet and a cake of soap. The latter looked +tallowy and nobody took it further than the billet; the pants were +woollen, very warm and made in Canada. This reminds me of an amusing +episode which took place last general inspection. While standing easy, +before the brigadier-general made his appearance, the men compared +razors and found that eighty per cent. of them had been made in +Germany. But these were bought by the soldiers before war started. At +least all affirmed that this was so. + +Saturday was a long parade; some soldiers were drawing necessaries +at midnight, and no ten-o'-clock-to-billets order was enforced that +night. I drew my boots at eleven o'clock, and then the streets were +crowded with our men, and merry and sad with sightseers and friends. +Wives and sweethearts had come to take a last farewell of husbands and +lovers, and were making the most of the last lingering moments in good +wishes and tears. + +Sunday.--No church parade; and all men stood under arms in the +streets. The officers had taken off all the trumpery of war, the +swords which they never learned to use, the sparkling hat-badges and +the dainty wrist-watches. They now appeared in web equipment, similar +to that worn by the men, and carried rifles. Dressed thus an officer +will not make a special target for the sniper and is not conspicuous +by his uniform. + +Our captain made the announcement in a quiet voice, the announcement +which had been waited for so long. "To-morrow we proceed overseas," he +said. "On behalf of the colonel I've to thank you all for the way in +which you have done your work up to the present, and I am certain +that when we get out yonder," he raised his arm and his gesture might +indicate any point of the compass, "you'll all do your work with the +spirit and determination which you have shown up till now." + +This was the announcement. The men received it gleefully and a hubbub +of conversation broke out in the ranks. "We're going at last"; "I +thought when I joined that I'd be off next morning"; "What price a +free journey to Berlin!"; "It'll be some great sport!" Such were the +remarks that were bandied to and fro. But some were silent, feeling, +no doubt, that the serious work ahead was not the subject for idle +chatter. + +A little leaflet entitled "Rules for the Preservation of Health on +Field Service," was given to each man, and I am at liberty to give a +few quotations. + +"Remember that disease attacks you from outside; it is your duty to +keep it outside." + +"Don't drink unboiled water if you can get boiled water." + +"Never start on a march with an empty stomach." + +"Remember that a dirty foot is an unsound foot. See that feet are +washed if no other part of the body is. Socks should be taken off at +the end of the march, be flattened out and well shaken. Put on a clean +pair if possible, if not, put the left sock on the right foot, and +vice versa." + +"Remember, on arrival in camp, _food before fatigues_." + +"Always rig up some kind of shelter at night for the head, if for no +other part of the body." + +At twelve noon on Monday the whistles blew at the bottom of the street +and we all turned out in full marching order with packs, haversacks, +rifles and swords. I heard the transport wagons clattering on the +pavement, the merry laughter of the drivers, the noise of men falling +into place and above all the voice of the sergeant-major issuing +orders. + +Yet this, like other days, was a "wash-out." All day we waited for +orders to move, twice we paraded in full marching kit, eager for the +command to entrain; but it was not forthcoming. Another day had to +be spent in billets under strict instructions not to move from our +quarters. The orders were posted up as usual at all street corners, +a plan which is adopted for the convenience of units billeted a great +distance from headquarters, and the typewritten orders had an air of +momentous finality: + +The battalion moves to-morrow. + +Parade will be at 4.30 a.m. + +Entraining and detraining and embarking must be done in absolute +silence. + +I rose from bed at three and set about to prepare breakfast, while my +cot-mate busied himself with our equipment, putting everything into +shape, buckling belts and flaps, burnishing bayonets and oiling the +bolts of the rifles. Twenty-four hours' rations were stored away in +our haversacks all ready, the good landlady had been at work stewing +and frying meat and cooking dainty scones up to twelve o'clock the +night before. + +When breakfast, a good hearty meal of tea, buttered toast, fried bacon +and tomatoes, was over, we went out to our places. The morning was +chilly, a cold wind splashed with hail swept along the streets and +whirled round the corners, causing the tails of our great coats to +beat sharply against our legs. It was still very dark, only a few +street-lamps were lighted and these glimmered doubtfully as if ashamed +of being noticed. Men in full marching order stamped out from every +billet, took their way to the main street, where the transport wagons, +wheels against kerbstones, horses in shafts, and drivers at reins, +stood in mathematical order, and from there on to the parade ground +where sergeants, with book in one hand and electric torch in the +other, were preparing to call the roll. + +Ammunition was served out, one hundred and twenty rounds to each man, +and this was placed in the cartridge pouches, rifles were inspected +and identity discs examined by torch-light. This finished, we were +allowed to stand easy and use ground-sheets for a shelter from the +biting hail. Our blankets were already gone. The transport wagons had +disappeared and with them our field-bags. I suppose they will await +us in ---- but I anticipate, and at present all we know is that our +regiment is bound for some destination unknown where, when we arrive, +we shall have to wear two pairs of socks at our work. + +We stood by till eight o'clock. The day had cleared and the sun was +shining brightly when we marched off to the station, through streets +lined with people, thoughtful men who seemed to be very sad, women who +wept and children who chattered and sang "Tipperary." + +Three trains stood in the sidings by the station. Places were allotted +to the men, eight occupied each compartment, non-commissioned officers +occupied a special carriage, the officers travelled first-class. + +Soon we were hurrying through England to a place unknown. Most of my +comrades were merry and a little sentimental; they sang music-hall +songs that told of home. There were seven with me in my compartment, +the Jersey youth, whom I saw kissing a weeping sweetheart in the cold +hours of the early day; Mervin, my cot-mate, who always cleaned the +rifles while I cooked breakfast in the morning; Bill, the Cockney +youth who never is so happy as when getting the best of an argument +in the coffee-shop of which I have already spoken, and the Oxford man. +The other three were almost complete strangers to me, they have just +been drafted into our regiment; one was very fat and reminded me of a +Dickens character in _Pickwick Papers_; another who soon fell asleep, +his head warm in a Balaclava helmet, was a tall, strapping youth with +large muscular hands, which betoken manual labour, and the last was a +slightly-built boy with a budding moustache which seemed to have been +waxed at one end. We noticed this, and the fat soldier said that the +wax had melted from the few lonely hairs on the other side of the lip. + +Stations whirled by, Mervin leant out of the window to read their +names, but was never successful. Cigarettes were smoked, the carriage +was full of tobacco fumes and the floor littered with "fag-ends." +Rifles were lying on the racks, four in each side, and caps, papers +and equipment piled on top of them. The Jersey youth made a remark: + +"Where are we going to?" he asked. "France I suppose, isn't it?" + +"Maybe Egypt," someone answered. + +"With two pairs of socks to one boot!" Mervin muttered in sarcastic +tones; and almost immediately fell asleep. He had been a great +traveller and knows many countries. His age is about forty, but he +owns to twenty-seven, and in his youth he was educated for the church. +"But the job was not one for me," he says, "and I threw it up." He +looks forward to the life of a soldier in the field. + +Our train journey neared the end. Bill was at the window and said that +we were in sight of our destination. All were up and fumbling with +their equipment; and one, the University man, hoped that the night +would be a good one for sailing to France. + +If we are bound for France we shall be there to-morrow. + + +THE END. + + * * * * * + + + + +JUST PUBLISHED + + +THE RAT-PIT + +BY PATRICK MACGILL, AUTHOR OF "CHILDREN OF THE DEAD END." CROWN 8VO. +PRICE 6/-. INLAND POSTAGE 5D. EXTRA. + +"Children of the Dead End" came upon the literary world as something +of a surprise; it dealt with a phase of life about which nothing +was known. It was compared with the work of Borrow and Kipling. +Incidentally three editions, aggregating 10,000 copies, were called +for within fifteen days. In his new book Mr. MacGill still deals with +the underworld he knows so well. He tells of a life woven of darkest +threads, full of pity and pathos, lighted up by that rare and quaint +humour that made his first book so attractive. "The Rat-Pit" tells the +story of an Irish peasant girl brought up in an atmosphere of poverty, +where the purity of the poor and the innocence of maidenhood stand +out in simple relief against a grim and sombre background. Norah Ryan +leaves her home at an early age, and is plunged into a new world where +dissolute and heedless men drag her down to their own miry level. Mr. +MacGill's lot has been cast in strange places, and every incident of +his book is pregnant with a vivid realism that carries the conviction +that it is a literal transcript from life, as in fact it is. Only +last summer, just before he enlisted, Mr. MacGill spent some time in +Glasgow reviving old memories of its underworld. His characters are +mostly real persons, and their sufferings, the sufferings of women +burdened and oppressed with wrongs which women alone bear, are a +strong indictment against a dubious civilisation. + +HERBERT JENKINS LD., 12 ARUNDEL PLACE, LONDON, S.W. + + * * * * * + + + + +10,000 COPIES CALLED FOR IN 10 DAYS. + +CHILDREN OF THE DEAD END + +The Autobiography of a Navvy. By PATRICK MACGILL. Crown 8vo. Price +6/-. Inland Postage 5d. extra. + + MANCHESTER GDN. "A grand book." + GLOBE "A living story." + D. CITIZEN "Still booming!" + STANDARD "A notable book." + SATURDAY REVIEW "An achievement." + BOOKMAN "Something unique." + OUTLOOK "A remarkable book." + BYSTANDER "A human document." + COUNTRY LIFE "A human document." + TRUTH "Intensely interesting." + EV. STANDARD "A thrilling achievement." + D. TELEGRAPH "Will have a lasting value." + PALL MALL GAZ. "Nothing can withstand it." + SPHERE "The book has genius in it." + BOOKMAN "A poignantly human book." + ENGLISH REVIEW "A wonderful piece of work." + GRAPHIC "An enthralling slice of life." + D. SKETCH "A book that will make a stir." + ATHENĈUM "We welcome such books as this." + ILL. LONDON NEWS "An outstanding piece of work." + D. CHRONICLE "Tremendous, absorbing, convincing." + REV. OF REVIEWS "The book is not merely notable--it is remarkable." + LA STAMPA "Un nuovo grande astro della litteratura inglese." + D. EXPRESS "Will be one of the most talked-of books of the year." + SPECTATOR "A book of unusual interest, which we cannot but praise." + +HERBERT JENKINS, LD. 12 ARUNDEL PLACE, LONDON, S.W. + + * * * * * + + + + +_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ + +SONGS OF THE DEAD END + +POEMS BY PATRICK MACGILL + + +"Remarkable."--_Daily Express_. + +"Work of real genius."--_Bookman_. + +"This is a remarkable book."--_Graphic_. + +"He can do things, can our navvy poet."--_The Clarion_. + +"This extraordinary man of the people."--_Public Opinion_. + +"The greatest poet since Kipling."--JAMES DOUGLAS, in _The Star_. + +"Verses of remarkable vigour, variety and ability."--_Pall Mall +Gazette_. + +"MacGill's work is taking the literary world by storm."--_Morning +Leader_. + +"His poems show a power of direct observation and of strong +emotion."--_Spectator_. + +"We are at a loss to understand what manner of youth he +is."--_Manchester Guardian_. + +"The author has a very considerable gift."--ANDREW LANG, in +_Illustrated London News_. + +"It is a life which has been an Odyssey, the picturesque life a tone +poet can weather through as Mr. MacGill has done."--_Book Monthly_. + +"The traits of an ardent, fearless personality, expressed in words of +fire, are here again in all their lyrical richness.... The poet says: + + 'I sing my songs to you--and well, + You'll maybe like them--who can tell?' + +We do like them."--_Daily Chronicle_. + +"When, in the terse vernacular of his calling, he gives voice to the +sorrows and impatience, the humour and the resignation of his workmen +comrades, and lets his songs find their own natural bent, then at +length he attains real lyrical strength and sincerity.... For we need +have no hesitation in hailing Mr. MacGill as a poet."--_Sunday Times_. + + * * * * * + + + + +40,000 SOLD IN 14 DAYS + +QUICK TRAINING FOR WAR + +SOME PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. ILLUSTRATED BY DIAGRAMS BY LT.-GEN. +SIR ROBERT BADEN-POWELL, K.C.B. Price 1/- net. Post Free by all +Booksellers 1/2.</b> + +FIRST REVIEWS + +_Daily Mail_.--"B.P. has a reputation which is second to none, and +this little book is so brightly and cleverly written that it will be +read with advantage by the recruit and studied with infinite pleasure +and profit by the professional soldier." + +_Lady's Pictorial_.--"Ladies who are anxious to give a practical +present which not one of their soldier men-folk should disdain to +accept would certainly find this acceptable." + +_Globe_.--"I advise every young officer, Regular or Terrier, to get +'Quick Training for War' and study it.... It is a most sunny and +stimulating book." + +_Sporting Chronicle_.--"Great interest is being taken in +Baden-Powell's book 'Quick Training for War' which is enjoying a +tremendous boom." + +_Daily Chronicle_.--"The volume is full of good things for every +officer, N.C.O., and man in the British Territorial Forces, and rifle +club." + +_Daily Telegraph_.--"This little handbook should be a companion of all +officers and men now training or being trained for war." + +HERBERT JENKINS LD., 12 ARUNDEL PLACE, LONDON, S.W. + + * * * * * + + + + +QUICK TRAINING FOR WAR + +FIRST REVIEWS (_CONTINUED_). + +_Academy_.--"If books were sold on intrinsic value, Sir Robert +Baden-Powell's little volume would be issued at a sovereign." + +_Sporting Life_.--"Should be studied by every man who is entering the +service of his country or contemplates doing so." + +_Spectator_.--"In heartily commending General Baden-Powell's little +book to the trainers of the New Army we should like," etc. + +_Athenĉum_.--"Sir Robert's hundred pages teem with evidence of how +common-sense helps." + +_Truth_.--"Will prove a valuable gift to those who have answered the +appeal of the War Office." + +_Sunday Times_.--"The book should be in the knapsack of every recruit +in the New Army." + +_Daily Express_.--"A copy ought to be in the pocket of every officer +and man in the new armies." + +_Daily Sketch_.--"Every young officer, N.C.O. and private should have +a copy." + +_Morning Post_.--"As instructive as it is interesting." + +_Saturday Review_.--"A manual of great good sense." + +_Daily Graphic_.--"It is concentrated wisdom." + +_Observer_.--"Clear and persuasive to a degree." + +HERBERT JENKINS LD., 12 ARUNDEL PLACE, LONDON, S.W. + + * * * * * + + + + +SIR JOHN FRENCH + +AN AUTHENTIC BIOGRAPHY BY CECIL CHISHOLM, M.A. WITH A PORTRAIT OF SIR +JOHN FRENCH BY HIS SON, J.R.L. 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