september 21, 1917
A smashing blow
Today we have dealt the enemy another of those smashing blows which he must be coming to dread. The long period of preparation and suspense is over. We have struck, and, so far as can be seen at present, with shattering force and complete success. We did not seek to go far. The extreme depth to which we sought to penetrate was about one mile, but that mile we have overrun, and grasped, and hold. Already the enemy has been counter-attacking. He is counter-attacking now.It is rash to prophesy, but I have been this morning where the wounded and prisoners were coming along the roads and have talked with some scores of our men, and victory is in the air. The advance included all that blood-soaked region along the Menin road with the dominating spur on the northern and southern slopes of which are Glencorse Wood and Inverness Copse and other high ground beyond. The Germans have, doubtless rightly, held this high ground to be the supreme strategic point in this section of the front, and been willing to make any sacrifice to hold that one commanding point. Here it is that they have flung no less than 16 divisions, all of which have utterly failed to drive us back. We in these last seven weeks have made no, or very little, progress, but we started this morning from slightly in advance of the line to which we won on the first attack, and no praise can be too high for the English troops who have held that ground through these last 50 days. while behind them was maturing the blow which we have just delivered.
The attack was delivered shortly before 6 o’clock this morning. After a bright but windy day yesterday, clouds blew up in the afternoon, and about 9 o’clock it began to rain. It seemed incredibly cruel that the rain should interfere with our attack, and happily, though it rained more or less all night, the ground was surface-dry and no great harm was done. The rain stopped before the hour of attack, though the sky remained black and overcast, so that it was darker than it ought to have been, and none too easy going among the shell-holes. All shell-holes are full of water. Every man I saw was coated with mud, some only to the knees, but many to their very throats, and it is to be feared that some wounded must slip into the holes and never get out again.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-09-20/register/soldiers-chorus-under-fire-pbmbfcnk2
september 20, 1917
Soldiers’ chorus under fire
An incident which deserves to become historic, is that of the Royal Fusiliers who were out in the line of battered trench and shell-hole along the Broenbeek, and the enemy was shelling them. They had practically no shelter, and there was nothing for them to do but stick it until our own guns could beat down the enemy batteries. It was about as heavy shelling as troops can be called on to stand. Then someone among the Fusiliers started singing, and what he sang was an Army version of In these Hard Times. Perhaps you know it: You’ve got to put up with anything In these hard times.Other voices took it up till, from the whole line of shell-holes, where the men crouched with the dead in the blood-stained water, where the living and wounded lay together, the chorus welled up mightily. The earth shook to the shell bursts, and the air was thick with fumes and dirt and debris, and through the crashing and the murk the song rose rollicking on:
Oh, if you live to be ninety-four
And carry on to the end of the war
You may get leave, but not before,
In these hard times.
Our men back in the support lines heard it, and took it up. The enemy across the way must have heard it, too, and marvelled. The Fusiliers tended to their dead and wounded, singing while they worked. They squatted, bowed in their shell-holes, while the great shells shrieked overhead, or, plunging, heaped them with mud, and still they sang:
You may get more or you may get less,
But apple and plum’s your best I guess,
For the strawberry jam’s for the sergeants’ mess,
In these hard times.
Last night at an entertainment in a temporary lath and tarpaulin theatre which holds 500 men one of the numbers on the programme was this song, sung by a man, now a private, but well known in the London music-halls in peacetime. Some of those same Fusiliers were there, and you ought to have heard those 500 voices swing into the chorus till the whole tarpaulin roof bellied to the sound. I do not know whose property the song may be, but all the rights, copyright, and title therein ought henceforward to be deeded to the Royal Fusiliers, so that at mess, in billets, and on the march they may sing it and tell in generations to come how in 1917 the Germans heard them sing it on the Broenbeek.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-09-19/register/the-work-of-our-airmen-snq9c687t
september 19, 1917
The work of our airmen
We are glad to notice in the list of awards for gallantry published yesterday the case of a young airman who has been decorated “for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty when in cooperation with our artillery”. It is recorded of the officer in question that “by dint of great perseverance, skill, and very gallant flying he has accomplished splendid work under very difficult circumstances.” On one occasion, “during a gale of wind, he successfully ranged three of our heavy batteries upon an enemy battery, which was obliterated.”We mention this case because it should help to correct a prevalent delusion about the work of our airmen at the front. The popular impression, to some extent fostered by the daily bulletins, is that airmen are chiefly duellists. They are supposed to be for ever challenging the reluctant German to mortal combat in the air, and these encounters seem to be regarded as the principal duty of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. It cannot be too clearly understood that they are generally incidental, and are not the prime object of the airmen. Their most important work is to cooperate with the guns, a task which calls for incomparable courage and alertness, and is full of risk. Their general reconnaissance work is almost equally arduous, and the photographing of the enemy’s positions is a daily duty often conducted in the face of extreme danger. Latterly attacks on enemy troops, delivered from a very low altitude, have become more frequent, while the bombing of enemy positions and aerodromes is now incessant. The fights with enemy airmen naturally attract public attention, but the records of success and of loss should not be allowed to obscure the other and larger purposes of the air services.
The time may come when the duties which now occupy the air services will be regarded as subsidiary, and when the offensive possibilities of the new arm will be developed on an larger scale. Such changes, should they ever come, cannot be rapid. It is far easier to talk theoretically of attaining victory through the air than to provide the multitude of machines, and of men to pilot them, which a great expansion of air warfare requires.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-09-18/register/the-womens-army-mdkhfwnw7
september 18, 1917
The women’s army
The War Office needs 10,000 women before the end of October as volunteers for the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, both for home and oversea service. After that date women will be required at the rate of at least 10,000 a month. This large number of women will be recruited through the Employment Exchanges of the country, and all women desiring to apply are being directed to write or call at the nearest Exchange. At the Employment Department of the Ministry of Labour Miss Durham, the Chief Woman Inspector, Mrs Andrews, Recruiting Controller for the WAAC for London area, Captain Russell and Lieutenant Colville, representing the War Office, yesterday revealed the probable needs of the War Office and the terms and conditions of service of the WAAC. It was explained that recruiting would now be done locally, and that recruits would come before local boards of selection. Arrangements have been made to deal speedily with replies, and this will be welcomed by women who have been much disheartened with their treatment in the past.Miss Durham said that excellent pioneer work had been done by the women who had already gone out to France, and they had also proved that they would be welcomed at the base camps at home as well as oversea. A very large employment of women in home service would take place very soon. All arrangements at the Employment Exchanges had been made, and everything was ready for the signal “go ahead”.
Domestic workers were the most urgently needed. Five thousand of the 10,000 women asked for came under this heading, and cooks for officers’ messes, men’s messes, and for the women themselves were an insatiable demand. Forewomen or head cooks, assistant forewomen cooks and vegetable cooks, housemaids, pantrymaids, general domestic workers, and waitresses were wanted immediately.
The next most important demand was for shorthand typist and clerks, 3,000 of whom were needed at once. For transport work experienced driver mechanics were, she said, most urgently required; women offering themselves for this work must be able to undertake minor repairs, clean and grease cars, and must have had at least six months’ experience in commercial driving.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-09-16/register/america-at-war-03bs8qcpk
september 16, 1917
America at war
To the Editor of The TimesSir, So much stress is being laid on the material participation of America in the war that some Americans are apprehensive lest the far greater importance of the deep moral sympathy of their country with the cause of the Allies may to some extent be left out of account.
I hope, therefore, you will find space for the following extracts from a letter just received from a man of business in New York who may be trusted to reflect the sober and impartial view of his environment.
May I add that I have not a single young relation, and do not know of a single young man among my friends, who did not volunteer the day we declared war?
I am, Sir, yours very truly,
“Copy. New York, August 17, 1917. I have wished so often that you could be here in these striving times, for you would be so interested to see the gradual change that is coming in the minds and temperament of the people. You meet men in uniform, officers, soldiers, and sailors, everywhere, in the cities, villages, and country, and there is no question at all that the seriousness of the war is at last being realized. We are taking things as a matter of course that to me are very surprising in a country so accustomed to peace and so unmilitary. The draft is working smoothly, and, I believe, thoroughly, and I have heard of no disturbances anywhere.
“There is a splendid spirit of determination abroad which means to see this business through. It is very hopeful for the future spirit and character of the country, and is a sign of a real underlying intelligence of the perils facing us in the future if Germany is not beaten, and of sympathy for what other countries have already suffered at her hands in the past. The reception that our troops have had in France, and our engineers in London, has been very gratifying to all, and has added much to the already strong feeling towards our Allies. I believe we are now passing through an awakening of a people that means to do its work thoroughly and from the highest motives. There are of course some ‘blatherskites’ and bounders; but what country has not suffered from them?”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-09-15/register/objectors-complaint-of-ill-treatment-trjxk2qdp
september 15, 1917
Objector’s complaint of ill-treatment
Allegations of rough treatment were made by a Manchester conscientious objector, Cecil Foster, of Moss Side, who was court-martialled yesterday for refusing to obey an order.Sergeant Jackson said the accused was sent to Cleethorpes with a draft from the regimental depot and on arrival took off his tunic and cap and put them on the ground. The witness ordered him to put them on, but he refused, saying: “I am not a soldier. I am a Christian objector, and cannot obey.” The accused was defiant, and he (the witness) had a struggle to make him resume his tunic.
The accused, in evidence, said that he was a Christian objector. All his life he had striven to follow the teaching of Christ, and he could not reconcile military service with Christ’s injunction to love one another. On September 1 he refused to strip for medical examination. An attempt was made to strip him forcibly, but it was abandoned, and his papers were marked “Refused examination”. His boots and clothes were removed, and Army clothes laid out for him. When he declined to put them on he was seized and forcibly dressed in khaki. On being confined in a cell he removed his uniform and spent the day in his underclothes. On September 5 he was ordered by a military policeman to dress, and when he declined the policeman and another soldier struck him. Two more men were summoned and all used violence to force him into uniform. He was handcuffed so that he could not take off his tunic and removed to the colonel’s room. Outside the door his handcuffs were taken off and when he tried to unfasten his tunic again he was ill-used by his guards. He called to the colonel, saying, “I am a Christian, and they are ill-treating me for refusing to wear uniform.” The colonel told him that if he did not wear uniform he would be court-martialed. On being removed to the cell again he was struck and his arms twisted by his guards. When the draft for Cleethorpes was ready he was removed to the parade ground. On his refusal to carry his kit bag it was tied about his bare throat by a cord, and he was compelled to march two miles to the station. When he tried to ease the weight his hands were knocked away by the escort. On reaching the station he was retching, chafed, and choking.
The decision will be promulgated.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-09-14/register/employment-after-discharge-5wgmg0602
september 14, 1917
Employment after discharge
To the Editor of The TimesSir, One hears a great deal of very pleasant talk of what we shall do to help our discharged soldiers, but I indeed pity them if they have anything like the experience I have had lately.
Being discharged, as I was, with the highest of non-commissioned rank, well educated and a caterer by profession, I quite prided myself on being still able to do useful work for my country. I applied for every post that I thought I could fill well and efficiently, answering literally hundreds of advertisements in hotel, club, canteen, or officers’ messes, inserted advertisements in several of the leading papers, and have not received one reply, satisfactory or otherwise. I have spent sovereigns on going round to different towns where I thought my services would be appreciated, written to Central Boards, &c, and nothing is offered.
If this is the state of things now, when men are so scarce, what will it be when all our brave lads come back? In my profession there are lady managers, lady superintendents, &c, and in some cases they fall very short of the best standard.
I have never in my life accepted a penny of charity, never had before to take less wages than I first asked for; but now it does seem that something is wrong, for nothing on earth is worse for one who knows his value (especially at a time like this, when food economy is the watchword), as I do myself, being wasted when there is such vast need of really capable men. I have in mind several large munition canteens, Army canteens, &c, where the waste is appalling and stocks of unsaleable goods enormous. These are run either by women or men who have never had any actual experience of catering at all.
Through this want of foresight I can vouch for the fact that in 10 days no less than 110 gallons of milk were allowed to go sour, and, to my mind it is criminal of a firm to employ a man whom they know full well is incapable of doing his work to the exclusion of a man like myself, who has fought and bled for his country in more campaigns than one.
Yours most sincerely,
A young veteran.
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