THE NEXT DAY, THE PLATOON is ready to move out; Tom picks up his kit and joins the troop along with the other new soldiers, the young lad stays close to Tom.
Bill says “here we go, we’re off to Wipers”
“Wipers?” asks Tom
“He means Ypres” Says Andy
“Yeah, Wipers. Blown to bits, nothing left of it” replies Bill
Andy starts to complain “I don’t want to go to Ypres”
He starts to behave irrationally “I’ve got a wife and kids, I don’t want to go”
Bill says “easy man, we don’t want to go either. But we have to”
“Yeah well, I can sympathise with him” complains Charlie
And they go; Andy calms down and they finally get to Ypres or what is left of it. There are remnants of buildings here and there that say it is a town but the actual landmarks and buildings are gone, not much to guide anyone around. What was the Cloth Hall is now rubble and only people who knew the town intimately could maybe point out what each building used to be. To the soldiers it is a ghost town, eerie and silent. It has been raining for the last two days and everywhere is muddy and finally after an hour walk the countryside appears, although it can’t really be called it that. The trees are just stumps with the land totally devoid of plants, it is just mud.
The platoon stops at an old farmhouse known to the Tommies as Springfield Farm. There are several large tents around which are the sleeping quarters for the troops, the farmhouse is the HQ although it is quite battered and there is a train line close by with some empty carriages on the tracks. The front line trench is less than two hundred metres away; Tom says to himself “that’s where I’ll be going tomorrow”.
Cecil overhears and replies “yes, and we can have a pop at Boche, eh?”
Charlie leans over “don’t get so keen, lad”
The landscape in the distance is of desolation, there are few landmarks as everything has been bombed out of existence while over the horizon are hordes of balloons floating in the sky. Four officers walk in to the tent, the commanding Officer talks first.
“Welcome to Ypres gentlemen”
The troops are introduced to their new commanding officers,
“This is your sergeant, Sergeant Knight”
“Evening men” the sergeant says with a Brummie accent.
“Lance Corporal Bennett”
“Evening”
“And Lance Corporal Addiscott”
“Evening”
After the evening meal (bully beef) Tom settles down to sleep, the bombs going off constantly at the Front, which, he thinks to himself, is not very far away. This worry keeps him thinking about the possibility of being hurt, and keeps him awake. Cecil is in a bed next to Tom and can’t stop fidgeting, further disturbing his colleague’s sleep. Finally, the bombs stop and Tom falls asleep. However, the thought keeps nagging away at his mind, and he drifts in and out of sleep. In the early hours of the morning, the bombing starts again.
Thursday August the second and Tom gets up feeling awful, he had hardly any sleep during the night and decides after breakfast he will try and write a letter. He learns very quickly that the bombing carries out mainly at dusk and dawn although this isn’t a set rule and can happen at any time without warning. However, before he can get pen to paper he sees that a train in the distance is coming up the track and stops. Tom gets up and walks closer. The train driver is standing on the footplate talking to an officer.
The officer asks “why have you stopped here? The depot is at the end there”
“Monsieur, I go no further. Au revoir”
And with that the driver reverses back down the track. The officer calls men over, including Tom and organises them so some are pushing the first carriage and some pull. They slowly inch their way up the two hundred metres of track to the waiting depot, and then once secured, they start to unload the rations inside. Behind them, another platoon of men does the same with the next carriage, then another platoon for the third carriage. The shelling starts again, Tom thinks the train driver wise to get going. The men load the crates on the floor while others open the crates, inside are shells, they then start to fill up bags that are strapped to mules. Tom has the task of leading a mule to pull a wagon to the front guns, Cecil joins in with help. The animal strains with the heavy load and starts to move, with Tom at the reins and the young lad pushing the cart. He gingerly manoeuvres the wagon along the duck-board with the wheels just inside the edges. He guides the mule and moves from side to side to check the wheels are within the edges of the board.
A shell explodes twenty metres away sending mud everywhere and, lucky for the men, the shrapnel misses them. Tom is covered by the wagon but he takes a look at the side, embedded into the wood are pieces of hot metal. He quickly moves round and grabs the reins and notices the boy cowering behind the wagon with his arms covering his face.
“Cecil! Get up!”
The lad stands up and puts his hands on the back of the cart.
“Come on mate, move yourself” Tom says to the animal.
Another bomb goes off again but closer and the noise scares the mule. It pulls and jerks, and then it screeches while Tom tries to calm it down. It is too late as one of the wheels touches the edge and goes over, which is enough to drag the whole wagon and mule over into the mud. Cecil stands back not knowing what to do. The mule kicks and squirms, and the more it does, the more it sinks into the mud. Tom pulls at the reins while an officer comes over.
“Come on boy, help me!”
“There’s no point, let it go” says the officer as he pulls out his revolver from its holster, points at the frightened mule and fires a bullet directly through its head. Tom and Cecil stands bewildered while the officer says “right, get this duck-board repaired and get the next wagon, we need to get these shells to the guns”.
Tom starts to walk when Cecil says “where are you going?”
“Get another mule and wagon”
“But…but…he just shot the poor animal”
Tom stops, hangs his head and says “I know” then walks off leaving Cecil standing with a bewildered look.
The next day is the same, noisy evening and morning, and mud everywhere. Tom is tired but sleeps a bit better than the previous evening. He is doing mundane but necessary duties again of moving ammunition and food, when he hears a droning noise. Bombs go off a way off but close enough for worry. A German fighter plane is spotted and the soldiers immediately rush into action. Lewis guns are pulled out and placed in shell holes. They fire at the plane as it flies overhead, the anti-aircraft guns also firing. Tom and his fellow soldiers run to the nearest shell holes, trying to avoid the bullets from the planes’ machine guns. The plane suffers a hit, causing smoke to pour out of the engine. It splutters before flying low and drops to the point of crashing. The flimsy contraption crashes into the ground with a thud as the tail of the plane shoots up. The pilot sits dazed for a moment before regaining enough senses to start climbing out. Masses of British soldiers run to the plane and grab the German pilot, pulling him out of his cockpit.
Cecil turns his head to Tom while saying “come on Tom, it’s a Boche. We can punish him”
The lad runs while Tom stands looking, not knowing whether to join the throng or not. The soldiers start to pound the pilot with their fists just as officers run up behind the mob. The first officer pulls out his revolver and fires it into the air, the crowd stop immediately.
“Step away from that man” he yells
“But he’s a German” comes the reply from a soldier
“Yes, he deserves to be punished” says Cecil
“He is now a prisoner of war” says the officer, and with the help of the other officers, leads the German away to a tent. The soldiers look glum but carry on grudgingly with their duties.
The next day, Tom and a small group of fellow soldiers are ordered to do trench duties. After getting their gear ready the platoon of twelve soldiers make their way to the communication trench, then through the reserve trench, and finally the front trench. Their Sergeant, Alfred Knight barks his orders. Tom thinks to himself that the enemy trench is only about a hundred metres away. Trench duties are mundane; he spends the night walking up and down the trench on sentry, in the rain trying his hardest to stay awake, his overcoat starts to soak through. Every now and then a flare goes up from the enemy, the soldiers have to lie flat against the sides of the corrugated iron wall of the trench to avoid being seen and stay there until the flare dies down, then they carry on. As Tom walks along the trench he meets another soldier also on sentry duty, a large man named Robert McKenzie from Newcastle. He had been a miner since fourteen before joining the Post Office to become a postman. Being a miner gave him his huge bulk of a body, people call him Big Bob. As Tom begins to turn he says to the other soldier “this infernal rain, when will it stop?”
The big man just shrugs his shoulders and turns back down the trench, he was never a man of words.
Tom, with his rifle that had his bayonet fixed to, stands and looks up and down the trench. The corrugated iron that holds up the soil. The wall that is on the side of the Front is taller than the other wall. He tries not to think about it but every now and then, flashes enter his mind that he will have to go over that wall. Hanging up the other side is the gas bell; it is an empty shell with the flat end removed and inside hangs a chain with a ball. Tom thinks about the re-use of materials, but the bell hangs there ominously, he hopes it will never have to ring as it reminds him of when his father was gassed. At eleven o’clock Sergeant Knight comes along and tells Tom he is relieved of sentry duty and is replaced by another.
“Have fun” says Tom
“I’m enjoying it already” replies Charlie sarcastically
Sergeant Knights sends Harry to replace Bob.
Tom makes his way back to the reserve trench into a small dugout to settle down for something to eat. He pulls back the curtain that is hanging across the doorway and walks in, quickly followed by Big Bob.
“Ah, you’ve just reminded me lads” says one of the soldiers sitting inside.
Tom props his rifle up against the wall, put away his bayonet and takes off his wet coat to hang up, as does Bob. Bill picks up a container with a push handle on the top; it is a converted crop sprayer. With the other hand, Bill points a hose towards the curtain and sprays it. It is vermorel spray to neutralise gas. The curtain is there for protection in the event of a gas attack when soldiers are asleep, to give them a little bit of extra time to get their masks on. The soldier put the container back and sits down to finish off his tea.
A parcel waits for Tom; he tears open the lid and pulls out a letter, as he slips onto his bunk he starts to read the letter. There is no real news, just everything is alright but times are hard, food is getting scarce, stuff that Tom knows about already. That isn’t the point; the letter from Ellen means so much to Tom, it is his connection to home, as it is for so many soldiers who receive letters from loved ones. As he reads his letter, he starts to eat his meal which consists of a tin of bully beef, some cheese and jam, hard biscuits to go with sweetened tea, which is the same meal for all the lads who sit around in the dugout.
“Huh, jam again” is the complaint from Bob “we’ve had jam ever since we’ve been here”
Tom still has his partially-opened parcel next to him, his colleagues urge him to see what is in it.
“It might be something nice” says Bill
He picks up the parcel and put his hand in.
“It’s from my Ellen” he says as his hand feels something familiar.
He stops and looks in, he starts to laugh.
“What” says Bill “what is it?”
“Yes Tom, what has she sent you?”
He pulls out the item and says “a jar of jam”
The rest of the gang start to laugh. Much needed relief from the turmoil of war.
The soldiers start to talk about what they will do when the war is over. Most are going to return to the work they left behind, most are sure that their jobs will be left open for them. Frank and Joe are playing cards in the far corner, arguing as they normally do.
Bill starts by saying “I just want to get out of this stinking war”
Andy nods and replies an agreement
“I’ve only been here since the beginning of the year, and I’m sick of it”
Andy says “yeah, sick of it”
“Still, if I’m lucky enough to get through then I’ll go back to posting letters”
Ed says he just wants to get back to Battle
“What, you already fought?” says Charlie
“No! Battle, it’s a village in Sussex. That’s where I’m from”
Charlie screws his face up “strange name for a village”
“Hey” replies Ed “it’s probably the most famous village in the country”
Charlie sits up “famous for what?”
“It’s where the Battle of Hastings took place”
“But that was at Hastings”
“No, the battle took place just north of Hastings. There wasn’t a village there at the time; that came later”
Charlie replies with an “ooh” like he’s not really interested in history.
Bob says “I just can’t wait to go home, away from this hell-hole”
The other soldiers nod in agreement.
“What about you Cecil?”
“I’ll probably go back to being a postman”
“You sound like you don’t like it”
“It’s alright, but I wanted to come here to fight the enemy. I’ll be hero when I go back”
“Is that all you want?”
“Yes. My parents are farmers, I’m a postman. I want more. You know, excitement and all that sort of stuff”
“Well if its excitement you want, you’re in the right place”
“Too right. I’ll get me some Germans” says Cecil
“What about you Tom?”
“Oh I think I will play in a big band and become a star”
The soldiers laugh.
“Yes, I seen you play. You’re good” says a soldier bringing the laughter to a halt
“How long have you played the piano then Tom?”
“Oh since I was a boy. I was made to have lessons. I’m glad I did now because I love playing. You know, at one time, we were moving house. They lifted the piano on the back of this cart, and piled the rest of our belongings on there as well. As the horse was about to pull away, I was lifted onto the back of the cart and made to play the piano. What a sight, this horse’n’cart travelling down the road with me playing the old Joanna, people came out of their houses to watch me go past”
“Weren’t you a postman?”
“Yes, and I enjoy the job. I’m hoping that soon I’ll have enough money to buy a car”
“A car?”
“Yes, I love mechanical things. I would love to drive through town in my car”
“What kind of car would you like?”
“A big black shiny one”
The soldiers laugh.
Tom settles back in his bunk. He nibbles a piece of cheese but is so tired he starts to drift off.
“I wouldn’t fall asleep with your food out like that, Tom” says Bill
“Mmmm” was all Tom can say as he falls into a deep sleep.
He dreams of happier times of when he was a postman. He likes that job, especially when he used to make friends with the dogs. He also thinks of Ellen. He imagines the dogs again, turns to Ellen and laughs. But the dog eats the chocolate in Toms’ hand and keeps licking. He brushes off the dog and tells it that is enough but the dog keeps licking and licking, but Tom keeps brushing the dog off. He is starting to wake up now, but still feels the touch of the dogs’ tongue on his hand.
“Get off” he says in a mock telling off, “you’ve had enough chocolate”.
He is coming round now and brushes his chest, but the feeling is still there. There are no dogs here, what is it? He looks down and there on his chest eating his cheese is a pack of rats. He jumps up while letting out a cry while the cheese drops to the floor but the rats won’t go away, they carry on eating the cheese. The other men laugh especially Bob who hasn’t shown much joy since coming here. Tom he looks at them in mock anger, and then he lies back on the bunk, brushes off the remaining food on his chest and falls into a deep sleep.
Tom has a good sleep until the barrage starts again in the early hours of the morning. He is on duty again at dawn so there is no point in trying to sleep more. He gets up and goes through his kit. During these bouts of shelling soldiers get scared. No one can hear each other talk and some men silently pray. On hearing the initial whistle of the shell coming over it seems like hours. When the shell explodes it is a further two seconds before the shrapnel comes over. The noise of the hot pieces of metal make a ‘ring ting’ noise on the tin roof of the dugout. After going through his kit for the umpteenth time the shelling stops, then all the men laugh together. Tom picks up his rifle and put his tin hat on and steps outside. The sun is coming up but the sky is still grey from the powder off the explosions.
The order comes for inspection. The men line up while the sergeant stands to attention while the Commanding Officers walk in, Lance-Corporals Addiscott and Bennett. The three men look up and down the men, check their equipment is war worthy. They randomly pick up one of the soldiers rifle and checks the bolt moves back and forth smoothly then he checks the gas masks by asking the soldiers to remove them from their chest bags for closer inspection. Once satisfied the troops are dismissed and the two Lance-corporals go on their way back to HQ, this happens every morning and evening. Now it is Tom’s turn for sentry duty again, he walks up and down the trench while other soldiers are milling around doing similar tasks, carrying ammunition back and forth.
“How long was it that I had a decent bath?” he thinks to himself.
He is itching so bad and stands with his back against the trench wall and rubs his back up and down, he can’t take his jacket off as it is forbidden to take items of clothing off at the front.
“Aw, me back” he says to Bob.
“Yeah, that’ll be the lice” replies the big man
Tom tries to carry on as usual, the dirt and the mud, if it wasn’t for this duckboard he would be walking in water. The pumps do their job but only up to a point. Although it is August, it has rained almost continuously although today the rain has stopped but it is still damp. Tom has a brief shiver then carries on walking. Frank and Joe are standing in a corner section of the trench.
“Morning chaps” says Tom to the soldiers, trying to be cheery “lovely day”
“Yeah, an’ me Mam’s making me a lovely roast dinner” says Frank
Tom understands the sarcasm, this is a hell hole, and if it isn’t the damp then the boredom kills. The officers try to get the men to do anything, even if it is mundane work, just to keep the soldiers occupied. Tom comes across the young lad who is climbing up the wall.
“You shouldn’t be doing that Cecil” he scolds the boy.
“I just want to have a look” he replies.
Just then, Sergeant Knight comes along.
“Soldier, get down from there!” he bellows.
The boy turns his head down to look at the sergeant just as he hears his helmet ring which causes him to fall to the duck-board. The two men help him up as the sergeant picks up the helmet; a piece at the side is missing with cracks radiating out from the broken section.
“You had a near miss then” says the sergeant.
The boy looks confused.
Sergeant Knight explains “that section that’s missing is due to an enemy sniper bullet”; he moves closer to the boy “you could have been shot”
He straightens up and says a bit louder “don’t….look….over….the….top. Understand?”
The boy nods. He gives a quick glance to Tom then says to the boy “now go to reserves and get yourself a new helmet!”
The boy runs off down the trench with his broken helmet in his hand.
“Anything to report Private?” enquires the sergeant but before Tom can answer, shells start to rain down.
The soldiers in the trench brace themselves for the explosions, mud flies everywhere and rattle on the soldiers helmets, after a few minutes the shelling peters out. The soldiers slowly stand up with relief of no more exploding shells. Sergeant Knight walks up and down the trench as he usually does everyday. Frank and Joe are still in the corner section when a shell lands right by their feet and they recoil in horror as the shell makes a plop sound. There is no explosion, the Frank says laughingly “hey don’t worry, this one’s a dud”.
Sergeant Knight however recognises the shell and bellows “GAS! GET YOUR MASKS ON!”
Soldiers in ear shot needn’t be told a second time and immediately get their gas masks out of their bags and put them in the same fashion they had done in training hundreds of times. Bill has heard the command and starts frantically ringing the bell. However, it is too late for the Frank and Joe as they are right next to the shell and within seconds start to gasp for air. They fumble for their masks but they can’t get them out in time, and fall to their knees choking. They are taken away for medical treatment but being so close, they got almost maximum dosage; they will be dead in a few days.
The rest of the soldiers in the trench have to carry on, there is no going away. The temptation to take off the masks is great, they are uncomfortable and breathing is difficult. Tom stands there with his gun along with other soldiers, at the ready although not knowing what for. The alarm call is sent to the rear and within twenty minutes, men turn up with their containers and spray all along the trench with vermorel spray, the troops are ordered to stay out of the dugouts. It seems liked forever but after a few hours the all clear is given, the soldiers can take their gas masks off. There are sighs of relief all round as the men can breathe properly again, with sweat dripping down their faces. The masks can be so claustrophobic.
The troops are told not to touch the walls of the trench as the gas is still there.
“If it’s still there Sarge, then why have we taken our masks off?” asks Tom
“Because the gas has been blown away but the residue has soaked into the soil. If it stays there then it’ll stay there”
Unfortunately Harry touches a sandbag section of the wall but nothing happened.
“See, nothin’ there” he says with triumph of self knowledge
But there isn’t as Harry put it “nothin’ there” because after a few hours, he develops a rash on his hand, and not long after blisters appear. He is sent off to the casualty station.
The troops are relieved of trench duties and they happily trudge their way through the warren of trenches back to the farmhouse in the dark, Tom is back on day to day duties again of moving ammunition and food and it is like this for all soldiers serving at the front. Four days in the trench then four days out, unless of course they are on a mission, which is usually carried out at night.
Later, Tom thinks about the two soldiers who were taken away. His regiment is debriefed and told that the Germans are using Yprite or mustard gas which doesn’t kill immediately and has no smell. However, the effect on the air passages are quick, giving a feeling of not being able to breath as the gas burns the linings of the lungs. But the worst is to come after as the victims take days to die, and sometimes in stronger individuals, maybe a few weeks. Frank and Joe, they were such great mates and it seems to Tom that they’ll never be coming back.