Chapter I

FROM MOBILISATION TO PLOEGSTEERT
_August 1914 to June 1915_

It seemed almost incredible news, too good to be true, when on March 28, 1915, we received orders to proceed overseas. The 48th Division, of which we were part, had been mobilised on August 4, 1914, immediately on the outbreak of war. From that day our thoughts and hearts had been at the Front—and how we longed to follow them; if war news sometimes seemed bad it only made us the keener to be given our chance, more confident that we should help to turn the tide. Since then eight months had all but gone, long months of waiting, full of hopes and expectations so often to be disappointed, but now to be realised.

The Division was commanded by Major-General H. N. C. Heath, C.B., and consisted, as regards Infantry, of three Brigades—the Warwick, the Gloucester and Worcester, and the South Midland, which later became known as the 143rd, 144th, and 145th Infantry Brigades respectively. The 145th Infantry Brigade, commanded by Brigadier-General W. K. McLintock, consisted of four battalions: the 1/5th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment, the 1/4th Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, our own 1/1st Buckinghamshire Battalion, and the 1/4th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment.

Our Battalion was at first commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel F. O. Wethered, T.D., but this officer was taken ill in January 1915, and shortly afterwards the command was taken over by Lieutenant-Colonel C. P. Doig, Seaforth Highlanders.

Before mobilisation, the Bucks Battalion had not adopted the four-company system, but on outbreak of war this was at once organised. The following table shows how it was effected, and from what districts each company drew its recruits:

A Company Marlow │A Company.
│ Captain L. L. C. Reynolds.
B „ High Wycombe│ „
— ——————— ————————————│————————————————————————————
C „ Buckingham │B Company.
│ Captain L. W. Crouch.
D „ Aylesbury │ „
— ——————— ————————————│————————————————————————————
E „ Slough │C Company.
│ Captain G. E. W. Bowyer.
F „ Wolverton │ „
— ——————— ————————————│————————————————————————————
G „ Wolverton │D Company.
│ Captain E. V. Birchall.
H „ High Wycombe│ „

The order to mobilise was received at Battalion Headquarters at Aylesbury at 6.30 p.m. on August 4, 1914. With the exception of the Wolverton Company, whose train was put into a siding owing to some misunderstanding, the whole Battalion was concentrated at Aylesbury before midnight on the 4th/5th. On the evening of the 5th we entrained for Cosham, the Battalion’s war station, where transport was drawn, and three days were spent in digging trenches on the hills overlooking Portsmouth harbour.

Entraining again on August 9, the Battalion journeyed to Swindon, where a week’s hard training was carried out, and after this a succession of moves, partly by rail, but mostly on foot, carried us via Dunstable, Hitchin, Ware, Harlow and Great Dunmow to Chelmsford, where we arrived on August 25. Here, with the exception of a most bitterly cold fortnight in November spent under canvas at Great Totham, where the Battalion was employed digging defences of the East coast, we remained for seven months, training vigorously and praying for our early dispatch to France.

After so long a sojourn in Chelmsford we had become part and parcel of the town, and even rumour, who for four months had been sending us out “in two days’ time,” had given us up as hopeless. Some had even started wondering whether, after all, the war could not be won without the Bucks Battalion winning it.

However, here at last was the order we had longed for, and this time there seemed to be no mistake about it.

Officers, who had spent six months buying useless things for their kit, now bought more feverishly and imprudently than ever. The men took it all very quietly, on the principle, no doubt, that “an order is an order, but it’s got to be cancelled at least twice before being carried out.” For once they were wrong, and on the afternoon of March 30, 1915, the Battalion paraded for the last time on the Chelmsford parade-ground and marched to the station.

Chelmsford turned out _en masse_ and gave us a first-rate send-off. Not a few had become fond of us and we of them, but we were too cheerful and thankful to be off to allow our farewells to damp our spirits. At 5.30 p.m. the train steamed out of Chelmsford Station and we were on our way to the war. The detrainment and embarkation at Folkestone were carried out without difficulty, and at 11 p.m. we were at Boulogne.

The few _Boulonnais_ who were about did not appear to rate our arrival nearly so highly as we did ourselves. In fact, to be honest, they were not interested. They had seen thousands of British troops already, and confidently counted on seeing millions more.

Eventually, we got formed up and on the move, being told that there was a march of four or five miles ahead of us. After following a very winding road for some two hours, we scaled a young mountain and found ourselves at Ostrehove camp. Why the wind invariably blows icy blasts, from all directions, on to this peculiarly unattractive spot, is not known, but apparently it always does. However, the majority of the tents remained standing throughout the night, though few of us got much sleep, on account of the cold. Anxiety to see France in daylight turned us all out of our tents early, and breakfast brought with it rumours of moving which proved to be correct.

At 3.30 p.m. on March 31, 1915, the Battalion paraded and marched down another tortuous road to Pont de Briques, where it entrained. We had not thought much about the composition of a French troop-train, but our first sight of one was, to say the least, a disappointment. It consisted of some twenty cattle-trucks, each marked to hold between forty and fifty men. This particular train, being a novelty, did not have such scathing remarks passed on it as those which later had the honour of carrying us, but even this one was not spoken of nicely. When, finally, the guard blew his penny horn, and “puffing Billy” (as the engine was immediately dubbed) got busy, laughter knew no bounds, and French railways were put down as a bad show.

After some five hours of this very crowded travelling, we arrived at Cassel, and detrained at 11 p.m. A three-hour march brought us to Terdeghem, where our billets lay. Accommodation being very scanty, many of us spent the warm night in the open. The wind changed during that night, with the result that we heard the guns for the first time in the morning. We had arrived in the neighbourhood of the war.

BATTALION OFFICERS, CHELMSFORD, MARCH 1915.
]

We were expecting to move hourly closer up to the line, but for three nights we remained at Terdeghem, the only event of importance being an inspection on April 2 of the Brigade at Steenvoorde by General Sir H. Smith-Dorrien, who was at that time commanding the 2nd Army. We then moved to billets on the Oultersteene-Bailleul Road (S.E. of Méteren), where two more nights were spent, and on April 7 the Battalion marched via Bailleul and Armentières to Le Bizet, for trench attachment to the 4th Division. These two marches, although only some twenty-five miles, were formidable ones. Feet, in spite of the number of route marches carried out at home, started to blister on these cobbled roads. Heat, dust, and the monotony of the Flanders country, increased the discomfort. Billeting parties, sent on in advance on bicycles, had not yet learnt that it was no kindness to meet the Battalion five miles from billets and assure them that twenty minutes would see them in.

On April 8, all companies were attached to different units of the 4th Division (2nd Monmouthshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion Essex Regiment), for instruction in the method of holding trenches. It is doubtful whether our brains ever worked again so feverishly and incontinently as they did on that first march up to trenches. The march was carried out in pitch darkness, along a road which ran up to and through the British front line. Guides met us five or six hundred yards behind the line, and escorted us as far as the trenches. These guides, treating us like the ignorant children that we were, kept the pace as slow as possible, knowing quite truly that we liked that the least. Several of them, not content with this, insisted on telling one how the Boche was in the habit of raking that road with machine-gun fire at that hour precisely, and how two men had met their end there the previous evening. We arrived therefore with nerves highly strung.

The number of questions put to our hosts during that night must have seemed to them phenomenal. How far away was Fritz? Did he do much shooting? Was he likely to attack? Had there been many casualties? And a thousand more such questions, all of which were asked for curiosity and with the object of acquiring knowledge, but could well be taken to mean we were frightened out of our lives.

Dawn enlightened us considerably and interested us no less, and by nightfall we thought ourselves veterans at the game. There was, in fact, a tendency to treat the Boche with much less respect than he was entitled to, under the circumstances. Sniping was active, and the Germans were no mean shots at the 50 to 150 yards which separated their trenches from ours.

On the morning of the second day, April 9, the 4th Division exploded a mine under the enemy trenches. This very naturally nettled the Boche considerably, and he retaliated by shelling our line. One shell entered and burst inside the remains of an old house, containing our A Company headquarters. By a miracle everyone escaped unhurt, though many of their possessions were never seen again.

Our attachment for instruction lasted four days, two of which were spent in the front line, and two in support.

On April 12, the Battalion marched to billets at Steenwerck, some eight miles distant. Here, although all companies were again very scattered in farms, the inhabitants were most tolerant to us. Provided their manure was left alone, and their pigs allowed to move about as they wished, no objection would be raised to us. The importance in life of owning large quantities of manure speedily became evident. One might almost say that a man’s riches were gauged by the size and aroma of the heap he possessed.

On the 14th the Commanding Officer, Adjutant and company commanders received orders to reconnoitre the line with a view to the Battalion relieving the 1st Battalion Somersetshire Light Infantry, who were in support in Ploegsteert Wood.

As one tour in the line was so like another, it is proposed to give a general outline of our life during the next two months, which were spent at Ploegsteert or in billets at Romarin.

The weather, during the first few days we passed in reserve in the wood, was gorgeous, and one felt grateful to those who had been responsible for choosing this spot for us to carry on our war. Our quarters were certainly not luxurious, consisting chiefly of what cover could be made with a waterproof sheet. But with the whole wood at our disposal, comfort of a kind was quite obtainable, provided one made the effort. Some Canadians who had been there before us had indeed started building operations, and erected a magnificent log hut, known as Plugstreet Hall. C Company were fortunate enough to secure this as their company headquarters at first, to the complete astonishment of D Company, who had no notion that such a palpable error could be made.

To enhance our enjoyment of those first few days in the wood, we were troubled with very few shells, but few of us will forget the distant thunder, which reached our ears coming from the direction of Hill 60, on the evening of the second or third day we were there. It was the first real, continuous roar of bombardment we had heard, and it impressed us mightily, suggesting to our minds that we were living in a fool’s paradise.

The trees had been damaged very little, and the fresh green foliage and undisturbed bird life made it most difficult to believe in the existence of a war, and that at no great distance. Paths had been cleared in all useful directions through the wood, and duck-board tracks laid down to prevent the paths becoming mud channels in wet weather. The majority of these tracks were known by London names, such as The Strand, Rotten Row, Hyde Park Corner, but here and there names like “Dead Horse Corner” appeared. All the houses behind our lines had names, those which received the most attention from the German gunners being the best known: Hull’s Burnt Farm, Three Huns, St. Yves Post Office, are names which conjure up innumerable memories.

The trenches most frequently held by the Battalion in this area were situated in front of the village of St. Yves, the line being held with three companies in the firing line and one in support. The 1/5th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment relieved us every four days, when we were in the habit of moving either into the wood or back to billets at Romarin.

The trenches consisted of sand-bagged walls, a duck-board bottom, a host of large flies and an enormous smell. The flies were kindly quiescent at night, but the smell—never; presumably because it had so many sources to draw upon that the wind could never really help us.

A TYPICAL FLANDERS ROAD.
]

THE 1ST BUCKS BATTALION CEMETERY, PLOEGSTEERT.
]

Our fire trench ran about 200 yards from the German front line, though in places the two trenches approached to within 100 yards of each other. To show one’s head over the top of the parapet was therefore risky, in view of the enemy snipers, who were really first-rate shots and always on the look-out for a target. Desultory rifle fire was kept up by both sides throughout the twenty-four hours, always increasing in volume at “stand to,” each morning and evening, and generally reaching the most absurd pitch about one hour after darkness. The lunacy of expending thousands of rounds of small arms ammunition per diem, in this way, had yet to be fully realised.

Shells were not nearly so plentiful on either side. Certainly the Boche fired considerably more than did our gunners, who—poor souls—had next to none to fire. The main targets for German gunners were:

(1) Any new sandbagging in the front line;

(2) St. Yves Post Office and Hull’s Burnt Farm;

(3) Battalion Headquarters.

His dislike for the last-named was often intense. On one memorable afternoon he put 67 six-inch high-explosive and incendiary shells within a 70-yards radius of their domain. This shoot was watched by our front line with enormous interest, bordering with a callous few on satisfaction.

Rifle grenades were used extensively by the enemy, and as far as possible by us. But the German grenades had a far greater range than our own, which could only be employed where trenches were within 170 yards of each other. One German grenade, fired into the rear of A Company’s trench, wounded two company commanders, another officer, a company sergeant-major, and five other ranks.

On occasions when anything in the nature of an attack was taking place on some other part of the front, we received orders to make a demonstration. Some idea of what these demonstrations consisted of should be given here, not only to suggest their utter futility, but to show the gradual way in which we learnt to play the game of frightfulness. The demonstration would be carried out by all units who happened to be holding the Divisional front.

9 a.m.—Long-range rifle fire directed on roads in rear of enemy
trenches.

11 a.m.—Artillery bombard a certain section or sections of enemy
trench with the object of breaching their parapet. (Nothing was ever
to be seen taking place at the spot indicated, but on more than one
occasion shells did reach the war zone, and went dangerously near
breaching _our_ parapet.)

11.5 a.m.—Whole of front-line garrison open five minutes’ rapid fire
on German front line.

1.45 p.m.—A few rifle grenades fired by companies within range of
enemy.

4.15 p.m.—A trench mortar fired; three rifle grenades fired at same
time from either side of it.

6.15 p.m.—Long-range rifle fire directed on roads in rear.

The enemy seldom paid the smallest attention to these demonstrations, except possibly by spending five minutes in flooding our trench with rifle grenades.

Soon after one of our demonstrations, however, the Boche pulled our leg quite successfully. He had been very quiet during one afternoon, and also during “stand to” in the evening. About an hour after “stand down” every German in that part of the world started shouting at the top of his voice. The immediate result (as had been anticipated by the enemy) was to draw all our men on to their fire-steps; men who were working in the trench, and those carrying rations, with one accord set aside their work, took up their rifles, and manned the parapet to see what was happening. They at once became good targets for the Hun, who opened rapid fire on our parapet, and hurled at us every available grenade he could lay his hands on. Twenty minutes later silence reigned again. We had sustained several casualties, for although it was dark and no shots could be aimed ones, a few of them succeeded in finding homes.

It is permissible perhaps to give one illustration of the fact that our gunners were at this time not too well supplied with shells, and that gunnery had not yet attained that high standard of proficiency which it afterwards reached. A house which was occupied by a listening post from our centre company by night and by a German sniper by day, was causing us considerable annoyance, as it was placed so that from a window in the gable end the sniper could fire at anyone entering or leaving our right company headquarters, unless the movement was carried out on hands and knees. Captain Reynolds, who was commanding the centre company, applied for some sappers to come and blow the house up at night. That was refused, but he was told that the gunners would knock it down. This idea was not received enthusiastically, as the house was at so short a distance from our line. However, a battery of 15-pounders was ordered to carry out the shoot, and at 10 o’clock one morning, after we had carefully cleared that portion of our trench which came in the line of fire, the excitement started. Several gunner officers superintended the shoot. Twelve rounds were fired; only one hit the house, and that one caused no damage. One penetrated our own trench. We were then informed that the battery had expended their ration of shells for one week (12 rounds), and that they would have another go next week.

The company, however, were quite determined that the gunners should have no further “go’s.” The next morning, at “stand to,” Captain Reynolds gave orders that one platoon was to open rapid fire at the gable end. This soon brought down the entire gable end, exposing the whole attic of the house. The sniper had lost his nest, and never fired from there again.

We were fortunate in our sector to be rather too far away from the enemy for mining operations, though in the sector on our right the 1/4th Battalion Oxford & Bucks L.I., who owned a section of trench known as the Birdcage, were blowing up or being blown up most days.

So much for our trench conditions and little excitements. Our billets lay at Romarin, a village about two and a half miles from Ploegsteert. Days here were spent in a variety of ways—making roads, digging rear lines, writing and censoring letters, kit inspections, baths, etc. Here also was enacted one of the real tragedies of the war, the surrender of our cameras.

The last period we spent in the line in these parts was in the Douve trenches facing Messines, after which we began on June 24 a four-day march to other climes.

Our casualties while in the Ploegsteert area were:

_Officers_: Killed None
Wounded 5
_Other ranks_: Killed 9
Wounded 57

In the middle of June, owing to illness, Major-General H. N. C. Heath, C.B., handed over command of the Division to Major-General R. Fanshawe, C.B., D.S.O. (52nd L.I.).