.
iubeJlerris SKcxre
njthe War
JEXL1BR1SJI
A SUBALTERN'S SHARE IN THE WAR
*** ' ' ' '' '
A
SUBALTERN'S SHARE
IN THE WAR
HOME LETTERS OF THE LATE
GEORGE WESTON DEVENISH
LIEUT. R.A., ATTACHED R.F.C.
WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY
MRS. HORACE PORTER
LONDON^
CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LTD.
1917
Printed in Great Britain.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION - GEORGE DEVENISH
PART!. GOING TO WAR (1914).
PART II. - UBIQUE " (1915-16)
PART III. - " PER ARDUA AD ASTRA "
(1916-17)
CONCLUSION - "BEFORE THE DAWN"
4 90 1. 1
GEORGE DEVENISH, AGED 5
ILLUSTRATIONS
GEORGE WESTON DEVENISH, R.A.,
1914 - - Frontispiece
GEORGE DEVENISH, aged 5 To face p. vi
AN OBSERVATION POST - - To face p. 62
"ARTILLERY MANSIONS"- - To face p. 76
GEORGE DEVENISH, 1917 - To face p. 126
vn
He was the soul of joy and happiness,
All things he loved, and took them as they came ;
In war, in peace, at labour, or at ease,
He laughed and counted each one just the same.
The echo of his cheery, joyous life
His memory which nothing clouds or mars
We hold of him for ever in our hearts,
Tho' he has passed " through hardships to the stars,
C. D.
vni
INTRODUCTION
A MONO our early memories of George
Devenish, there stands out one of him as
a sunny-faced, knickerbockered little fellow,
spinning one of childhood's interminable yarns
for the edification of his nursery companions.
" So then," a fresh episode began abruptly,
" a dragon came out of the forest."
" Stop a minute, Georgie ! " urged his
little sister, following with eager interest.
" What kind of a dragon was it ? "
A difficult question, some of us older
listeners thought, but one of George's charac-
teristics was always his imperturbable readiness
in facing difficulties.
" Oh ! " just an or'nary kind of dragon,"
came the serene rejoinder, and the narrative
resumed its course.
"Just an or'nary kind of dragon," the phrase
passed into a household word, and it comes to
one's mind in gathering together these few
glimpses into what one young officer among
ix
A Subakerris Share in the War.
many thousands rhought, and saw, and did in
the Great War. He would emphatically have
summed himself up as "just an ordinary kind
of officer," and the whole British Empire has
cause to thank God that the phrase is true, and
that the strong, keen, gallant young leader
in danger, equally free from fear and from
self-consciousness, is indeed and in truth the
" ordinary " man upon whose matter-of-course
self-sacrifice the fate of the Empire hangs.
It is this very fact that to the wide world
outside that home where his place will be for
ever empty, George Devenish is only one in
the long ranks of brave men who have bravely
died which gives to his impressions of the
war their touch of general interest, recorded, as
they are in his letters, with the direct simplicity
characteristic of him.
Simplicity and directness were the key-
notes of his character, producing that utter
absence of self-consciousness which showed
itself alike in his disregard of danger and in
the good-night reminder to his mother, given
as openly as his kiss to her, from his earliest
school-days, up to his last night at home :
" Good-night, mother ! I'll call when I'm
ready." The call in question being the signal
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
for her to come up to his room, when he was
in bed, for the brief Bible-reading he never
allowed her to forget. It was by his own
wish that the boyish custom was continued
after boyhood's days were done ; and among
his mother's most dearly cherished memories
is that of the winter's night, in the first days
of 1917, when George and his brother slept
together for the last time in " the boys' room,"
and George's cheerful call summoned their
mother to read to them, and tuck them up in
their beds, and kiss them a last good-night " as
usual."
But upon the deepest and most sacred
things which belong to the intimacy of home-
life this is not the place to dwell. They are
most fitly cherished in the hearts of those
whose love for that gallant, blithe young life
reaches beyond the grave, and who sorrow not
as those that have no hope.
All that can be attempted here is to sketch
one or two of the more external characteristics
of the personality which lay behind George
Devenish's light-hearted records of his own
small share in the Great War.
XI
A Subaltern s Share in the W^ar.
That merry heart of his did indeed " go
all the way " in meeting whatever dangers or
disagreeables fell to his lot. " Still, it wasn't
so bad ! " was his usual summary of any un-
pleasing experience. " Extreme cheerfulness
in all circumstances" was the "chief cha-
racteristic" put down to him in his first
Woolwich report.
He was a soldier by profession, and most
emphatically by choice. From the day he
went to Woolwich, two years before the war,
he was repeatedly assuring his parents that in
the R.F.A. he had found the most entirely
desirable career that the whole world could
possibly have to offer. The training met his
tastes at every point. During his public-
school days at Charterhouse he had already
taken every opportunity offered by the gymna-
sium and O.T.C. to make himself proficient
in drill and rifle shooting and physical exer-
cises. A touching little frame, arranged by
his mother under his directions, still hangs
over his empty bed, displaying the various
badges of distinction gained in his Charter-
house military training. He had enjoyed that
training with his usual zest, and the life at
Woolwich he found still more completely to
xii
A Subaltern s Share in the W^ar.
his mind. It fell in exactly with two of his
most pronounced tastes his bent for all things
mechanical, and his love of animals. Every
detail, theoretical or practical, connected with
the guns, interested him keenly, and he not
only distinguished himself in the riding school
but formed friendships with the horses he
rode.
That was always George's way with the
animals under his care. They were never
mere pets to him ; he made them into friends.
More than once during his time at Woolwich,
on occasions when his people were away, and
his home shut up, he has been known to slip
down to the dismantled house for an hour or
two, on a Sunday afternoon, simply " to look
up the dogs," because he felt it must be " so
beastly for them," with no one to keep them
company.
Side by side with George's sympathy with
animals one seems instinctively to think of his
love of music, not that there is any connexion
to be seen between the two, but because each
was so distinctive a part of his sunny nature.
He had never yet had time, in his short and
full life, to attain any high degree of profici-
ency with any instrument, but he could make
xiii
A Subalterns Share in the War.
himself happy with a piano for any length
of time ; he played the French horn in the
Charterhouse orchestra, and was always ready
to take his part in the chamber-music which
he revelled in at home.
" Could you come and do some music ? "
was always one of his first requests to either
or both of his parents when he got home on
leave, unless he had some mechanical enter-
prise on hand, necessitating the immediate
concentration of all available forces upon the
scene of action in the workshop where he and
his father had passed so many happy holiday
hours together.
Ten days before the fateful 4th of August,
1914, George Devenish had his twenty-first
birthday, and celebrated it in a manner destined
to be strangely dramatic. No one dreamed,
when those birthday festivities were so light-
heartedly planned and so joyously carried
through, that they would prove the ending of
an era. The arrangement for that coming of
age had been devised, in every detail, with the
sole object, on the part of George's parents, of
realizing, as nearly as might be, his own ideal
xiv
A Subaltern s Share in the W^ar.
for the great occasion, and that this aim was
triumphantly fulfilled was George's own un-
hesitating verdict. His birthday, July 25th,
fell on a Saturday that year, so he elected to
have a dance on the Friday evening, to dance
the great day in. A real summer dance it
was to be, in the beloved home of all his life,
with the terrace made part of the dancing
room, and seats in the fragrant dusk of the
garden, with the tall white lilies as torch-
bearers, and the jessamine stars overhead. Rain
there simply must be none, according to his
plans, and there was none.
Looking back upon that night, memory
calls up one brief, joyous pageant of youth and
gaiety ; of brilliant enjoyment in the present,
and yet more brilliant hopes for the future ; of
young men and maidens with the world before
them, dancing together in the lamplight, or
flitting out among the shadows, with light feet
and lighter hearts. The youngest of young
officers were there George's own friends
and older men who never dreamed of warfare
for themselves, and girls to whom life was one
long holiday ; and as the leader in the revels,
the hero of the hour, memory shows George's
tall figure in its slim grace, here, there and
xv
A Subalterns Share in the War.
everywhere, dancing each dance from the first
note to the last, leading the merry scramble to
the favourite seats in the gloaming, and slipping
off by himself, from time to time, for a brief
visit of consolation to the dogs, in the hated
retirement to which they were banished for the
occasion.
George's mother must forgive the inclusion
here of a few sentences from the reminiscences
of her first-born son which she wrote down for
the home circle only.
" His father and I did so rejoice in his
happiness. Neither of us will ever lose the
memory of his radiant face such a handsome
face it was, too ! as he sat between us at the
supper which was timed to be the beginning
of his birthday. It was his own wish to sit
between us two ; he would hear of no other
arrangement, just as he totally refused to let
me off dancing one dance with him. It was no
good pleading that my dancing days were long
since over. ' I must dance with my mother on my
twenty-first birthday ' was his sole rejoinder ;
and I remember, so vividly, when it was all
over, about 4 o'clock in the morning, how he
took my arm, and we strayed on to the terrace
together, while he told me again and again
xvi
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
how he had enjoyed it, and how everything
had been just as he liked it. I kissed him, and
wished him again many happy returns of the
day, little thinking ah ! how little thinking !
that there were to be only two more returns
of his birthday for him on this earth.
"The fairy-lights were flickering outamong
the roses, and the dawn was coming up in the
Eastern sky, with threatening bars of dark
cloud across the golden background. It was
so strange and sinister-looking that we re-
marked it to each other, and stood for a moment
to watch it.
" That dance seems to have been the very
last day of real, unclouded happiness that we
have had."
On the morrow came the news of war
between Austria and Serbia, to cast the first
shade over the merry party still assembled at
George's home, and two days later the " leave
cancelled" telegrams went forth, recalling every
officer to the duty which was beginning to
take on a graver aspect. George's birthday
festivities ended with the end of an era in the
world's history, and the happy-hearted hero of
b xvii
A Subalterns Share in the War.
the hour had become the symbol of the whole
manhood of the nation suddenly " come of
age" to face the stern realities of life and
death.
xvni
" DEO DANTE DEDI." (Charterhouse motto.]
They went with songs to the battle, they
were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and
aglow."
Lawrence Binyon.
PART I
GOING TO WAR
AUGUST TO NOVEMBER, 1914
TT has been possible to include nearly the
whole of George Devenish's home letters
for the first three months of the war, supple-
mented by the diary, which he wrote up in
hospital, of the last few days before he was
wounded.
The names of places were all scrupulously
left blank when the letters were written ; he
filled them in during his last time at home,
two years later.
Sunday ', August 2nd. Shornclijfe.
" The dance and week-end were a success,
weren't they ? I did enjoy them ! It was
annoying, after getting the wire telling me
to rejoin immediately, to find there wasn't
anything particular to do when I got back.
But we're expecting orders to mobilize any
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
moment of the day or night. It rather re-
minds me of ' There was a sound of revelry
by night.'
" It is rather an interesting contrast, just
doing an ordinary day's work, with perhaps
tennis or a dance, and at the same time every-
one is ordering new boots, valises, etc., and
discussing exactly what they are going to take
with them,"
August qth.
" It is annoying ! I got a kick from a
horse yesterday, so I shall have to be in bed
a day or two. It got me on a muscle of the
thigh, so it isn't very serious just made a
small cut. But it makes me fearfully stiff, and
I can't get about yet. The horse was taking
another horse's feed, so I was going up to him
to make him eat his own, when he let fly.
He always goes on the principle of eating the
next horse's feed first, and then eating his own.
I didn't know the horse, so I wasn't prepared
for him.
" We have had no order to mobilize yet,
2
A Subaltern s Share in the
so we can't go for another four or five days
if we do go. What a good thing we didn't get
called away in the middle of my 2ist birthday
week-end ! It would have been a pity, because
it was all so topping."
August 6th.
" My leg is much better to-day, and I
ought to be up to-morrow or the day after.
At present, if nothing particularly serious hap-
pens, we shall probably start on Sunday week
much later than I expected. I have been
detailed to remain at the Overseas Base when
we get there, in charge of the first reinforce-
ment. I shall be called up as soon as any
replacements are required."
August
" I have received the cases and bags and
things you sent me. Thank you most awfully
for them. They will be very useful. The
bags, etc. are rippingly made, and have a very
good selection inside them. Thank you
most awfully for all the things and for all
A2 3
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
the trouble you've taken over making my
things.
" We've heard no news yet of when or
where we have to go. My leg is almost quite
right again now."
August 22nd.
" I may have to start to-night with my lot.
All the others left a few days ago. I'll write
whenever I can.
" Well, good-bye, Father and Mother. I
hope to come back covered with medals ! "
August 2^rd. Southampton.
" We got down here about i o'clock to-
day, and are going off in the transport this
evening.
"Just after I telephoned to you last night,
I got a message to say that I had to take all
the baggage down to the station immediately,
and pack it into trucks. So I had to turn out
all the men, get all the kits packed and cart all
of them down to the station. It was raining,
and we had about 900 kits to take, so we had
4
A Subalterns Share in the War.
rather a cheerful evening ! Still, it wasn't so
bad, and I slept a lot of the way down in the
train Good-bye again. Your loving
son, GEORGE."
August 26th. Havre.
" We started from Southampton at about
8 p.m. on Sunday. We had to stop about a
mile out, and anchor, as a thick mist came up.
The ship was an Argentine cattle-boat, so it
wasn't the height of luxury, especially for the
men. Still, it wasn't bad. I slept out on deck,
and the sleeping bag you made was splendid
for keeping out draughts.
" We got in next day (August 24th) at
about midday."
August 3oM. Havre.
" We are still here, and not doing anything
much. Yesterday another officer and I were
told off to go down to the docks to march some
troops up who were arriving there. We went
down, but finding no one, went to an hotel and
had a bath. It was topping the first since I left
5
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
England. We then telephoned Headquarters
and found that the troops were not expected
till later, so we had dinner at the hotel. During
dinner we saw the transport pass up the river,
so we dashed out to get a taxi to go to the
docks. We couldn't get one for love or money,
but saw a large car outside the hotel. We asked
who it belonged to, and found it belonged to
an English Admiral who was dining in the
hotel. So we tossed up who should ask him
to lend it to us. I lost, so, screwing up my
courage, I went and asked him. He said he
was going to the docks himself in five minutes,
so I asked him to give us a lift. He seemed a
bit surprised at my asking him for the car, but
gave us a lift all right. Rather something to
remember, having commandeered an Admiral's
car ! "
September 3^, Thursday. At Sea, between Havre
and Nazaire.
" We are now on the sea again, moving on
to another place. We started yesterday. The
boat is not even as good as the last one. We've
6
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
got about 3,000 men on board (the normal
carrying capacity is 45), and there literally is
only just room for everyone to lie down, using
all decks, from the boat deck to the bottom of
the hold. Still, it hasn't been bad to-day, as
it's been toppingly fine. I have put a dodger,
of a mackintosh sheet, on the rail, and sleep
in a little corner just next to it on the boat
deck."
September i^th. Monastery of Le Mans.
" We left St. Nazaire on the joth and came
up inland to an advanced Base. We are now
camped at an ancient monastery, with a sort
of park all round and a river, which is quite
good for bathing in. We're always being told
to get ready to move up to the front at any
moment, but nothing ever comes of it, as it's
always cancelled at the last moment. It's a
most nasty job this waiting about, as I have
about 200 men under me raw reservists, with
no idea of discipline, who have to be driven
the whole time and are always being a nuisance
in some way or other.
7
A Subaltern s Share in the
" I have heard that my Brigade has been
doing wonders, and got a special letter from
General French."
September i8M. Monastery of Le Mans.
" At last I have orders to be ready to move
up to join a battery at any moment. I'm afraid
it won't be to join my own Brigade, though.
By an extraordinary piece of luck I managed
to raise quite a decent officer's saddle yesterday.
No new officers' saddles have been sent up here,
so officers are issued with ordinary N.C.O.s'
saddles, which are very uncomfortable and
inconvenient. But I happened to go down to
the Ordnance Depot yesterday (before I knew
I was going to move) and spotted quite a good
officer's saddle under a pile of old saddlery col-
lected at the front. I thought it might be
useful, so, after collecting, from all over the
place, stirrups, bridle, sircingle, etc., I took it,
and now, of course, I'm jolly thankful for it,
as it was the only available one in the place.
I picked up quite a good hunting saddle at
the same time, as I thought it might be useful.
8
A Subalterns Share in the War.
I got a horse this morning not very beautiful
to look at, but strong and serviceable."
September 2$th. Headquarters yd Division.
" I've got up to the front at last ! It took
three days in the train to do about 100 miles
to get here. On the way we stopped for the
night about ten miles out of Paris, so three
other officers and I took a train in, and, after
a jolly good dinner at the station, started to
go round Paris. It was a most extraordinary
sight like London at about 3 a.m. on a
Sunday night everything shut up and hardly
anyone about.
" There were searchlights going on all the
time, looking out for aeroplanes. Two French
aviators passed us in a car, and promptly
offered us a lift, and took us to all the import-
ant places. Rather a funny way of seeing
Paris for the first time !
"... On the aist, we got into [Braine]
at about 5.30 a.m., on the troop-train, only to
find that the tail of our train, with our horses
on board, had been dropped off. We therefore
9
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
walked into the town, while Welch found out
about the A.S.C. transport going back to
[Fere-en-Torchon], where our horses were,
and I bought some meat.
" The town was full of khaki, and the
Market Square full of transport, while the
church was a hospital. The Germans had
been there, but had not done much damage.
" We then all returned to the station, and
I borrowed a car from a French officer there,
and we transported our kit to the Market
Square. Here we got into an empty lorry,
and proceeded to have breakfast of biscuits,
bully-beef and jam.
" On the way to [Fere-en-Torchon] we
passed an ammunition column consisting of
every type of commercial lorry. We found
our horses and servants at the station, and then
walked up to G.H.Q. in the village. Here
we went to the Chief Staff Officer for Artil-
lery, who posted us all to various divisions
myself to the 3rd. We then returned to the
station, and had our bit of steak cooked, and
had lunch at a house near by, where a funny
10
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
old Padre was billeted. After lunch we sepa-
rated, and I arranged for my kit and my
servants to go over to [Braine] in a motor-
lorry. I then set out riding there, and on the
way I saw my first shell burst (I know now
that it must have been an anti-aeroplane shell)
just above the ridge, miles in front.
"The distance was about eighteen miles,
and I didn't get in till dark, about the same time
as my servant and groom, who were put down
by a large house at the entrance to the village.
I found that some officers were billeting in
this house, so I went in and asked the Major
(Royal Irish, I believe) if I could stop the
night there. He was very hospitable, and said
I could. So I picketed my horse in the garden
and had my kit brought in. It was quite a
large house, and had been turned upside down
by the Germans. I actually got a mattress,
with sheets and blankets, on the floor (the
first bed since England). It 'was luxurious.
The dining-room, where we had our meal,
was a fine room, oak-pannelled. We had fried
bully for dinner, and hot rum after.
ii
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
" I went up to the 3rd Division H.Q.
after breakfast next morning. It was a large
country house on a rise just outside the town.
Staff officers, orderlies, etc. were all over the
place ; motor cycles and cars in yard and
drive, and horses picketed on the lawn. You
could hear our guns firing from the ridge
above about a mile further on.
cc
After waiting a bit I got hold of a
Gunner Staff Officer, and he told me to go
down to the station, where I should find the
Staff Captain, who would tell me off to a
Brigade. So I went down and he told me off
to the 40th Brigade, telling me to go up and
join them that evening. In the meanwhile I
helped to detrain some horses. I returned to
my billet for lunch (a piece of steak purchased
in the town) and afterwards got my kit packed
up and taken round to the billet of the 4Oth
Brigade Ammunition Column, but as they
were sending no wagons up to the Brigade, I
started off with my valise on my horse up a
very muddy and steep road. It had got quite
dark by the time I reached the few houses of
12
A Subaltern s Share in the
[Brenelle], and, on inquiry, I found that the
Artillery Division H.Q. was there. It was at
a largish farm, belonging to the mayor, so I
went there to inquire the way. There I found
General W , who said I should not be
able to find the way at night, so had better
stop there. He asked me to dinner. Towards
the end of an extremely good dinner, the
Colonel of the 4oth Brigade turned up, so he
said I could come back with him, and we set
out by a very muddy track along the ridge.
When we arrived, I found to my surprise that
we were housed in enormous caves, horses
included. I slept that night in the Brigade
H.Q. cave.
"Next morning the Adjutant took me along
to the 6th Battery and introduced me. The
guns (only four there, two having been lost)
were in position on the backward slope of the
hill, which became a plateau, about one mile
wide, at the top. Behind the guns, the hill
dropped steeply away, into a small, wooded
valley running at right angles to the hill imme-
diately below. The guns were on a sort of
13
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
shelf, about four yards wide, on to which our
caves opened. The officers' cave was a two-
roomed cottage, cut out of the side of the hill,
with a brick front. It was inhabited by an
old man (who slept in a bed in the living-
room) and his wife and daughter, who slept in
the little room. We slept on the floor of the
big room. The battery (horses and men) were
in two other large caves, one on each side of
the cottage cave. The observing station was a
haystack about 150 yards to the right front of
the battery.
" After breakfast I was told off to take the
horses down to water. There was a path down
the little valley in rear, through a small wood,
with thick undergrowth. They told me off-
hand that the day before the Germans had
dropped some 5 ' 9*5 on to the watering party
luckily without doing any damage. The
whole atmosphere of war, as it was fought,
struck me as extremely casual. Men were
always coming in with stories of odd Huns
they had seen in this wood, left behind by the
German retreat, so I always made some of the
A Subalterns Share in the War.
men take rifles with them. I found that some
of them (especially reservists) had very few
ideas on the subject of handling a rifle.
" About a week before, when the sergeants
of the battery were sitting round, having their
dinner, half-a-dozen fully -armed Bosches
emerged from the wood, and gave themselves
up. We did talk of having a beat for them,
but it never came off.
" It was rather like our game of ' Red
Indians ' in the wood at home, riding down
through this wood alone, imagining Bosches
behind every tree.
" That afternoon I heard my first 5 g-in.
shell. One could hear it coming in the
distance, and my first instinct was to creep
into a hole in the ground. But I saw a
couple of signallers looking on as if pre-
pared to be amused, so I pretended I didn't
notice it.
"There are a lot of aeroplanes of both
sides about ; the Germans are mostly Taubes.
. . . I don't know for certain, but I don't
believe their aeroplanes had wireless. Ncver-
A Subaltern sShare in the War.
theless the German gunners were marvellously
quick in getting on to anything spotted by
a Hun plane. Sometimes an old Taube, the
most sinister-looking of all machines, I think
like a bird of prey will come over nosing
round. Everyone lies low and hopes they
won't be seen, as they know now what to
expect. You hope he passed you, but no he
turns and circles over you. Suddenly he drops
a bright light, or sometimes some tinsel (which
shines in the sunlight) over you, and you know
you're in for it.
" I don't think I ever saw two aeroplanes
fight then. They usually just flew past each
other, and pretended not to see each other, so
it seemed ! They were only armed with rifles
or revolvers, I believe.
" The old 6o-pounder battery (the heavy
battery) did awfully well. They fired as long
as their supply of ammunition lasted, and were
hated by the Bosches. They were always in
action continuously never a rest. The Huns,
of course, had no guns like them, and only the
5 g-in. and 8-in. howitzers. You can hear a
16
A Subaltern s Share in the
howitzer shell coming, but not a gun shell.
That's what makes a gun so unpleasant.
"The Bosches pour over shells all daylong
into quite harmless spots. There's one place
[Chasemy] which they shell all day, but the
only damage I ever heard of them doing to it
(except knocking down houses) was to rather
do in a sapper or R.A.M.C. (I forget which)
exercising party, who foolishly went there, and
were seen from Conde. The daughter-in-law
of the old people we lived with in the cave
came up one day quite cheerful, merely men-
tioning that most of the houses in Chasemy
(she lived there) had been hit, but hers hadn't
yet !
" Our usual routine for the day is for all to
get up as soon as it is light (about 4. 30 or 5 a.m.)
and stand to, having some tea, dog-biscuits, and
jam. Then either to dig or run about to get
warm (it's usually too misty to see anything).
Afterwards come stables, then we take it in
turns to have breakfast (about 8 a.m.), and take
horses to water about 9.30. Stables at 11.30,
lunch (in turns) at i o'clock, harness-cleaning
B 17
A Subaltern s Share in the
in the afternoon, supper as soon as it's dark, and
bed immediately after (about 9 p.m.).
" I fired my first shot at the enemy on the
23rd.
" The Germans have got some large how-
itzers, firing 90 Ib. lyddite, locally called ' Ker-
rumps,' on account of the noise they make when
the shell bursts. You can hear these shells
coming from a long way off, and can judge
more or less where they are going to fall by
the noise. So you have plenty of time to dive
into a c funk-hole/ '
Sunday, September 2jth.
" We are down in the village in rear now
[Braine] having a couple of days' rest, and are
in quite nice billets here.
" We have a church parade here to-day and
an early service. It's very funny to see all the
townspeople stolidly going on with their jobs
while the guns are booming away on the ridge
above all day."
October bth.
" On Monday, September 28th, we left
[BraineJ at about 4 p.m., and billeted for the
18
A Subaltern s Share in the W^ar.
night at a large Chateau, which had been de-
serted by its awners, and rather smashed up by
the Germans. We slept on the floor of a sort
of library, as all the beds were full up with
other officers. It wasn't at all bad, although
it was stone. There was a piano there, which,
of course, I played. It was very funny going
into a private house which appeared quite
inhabited, with books, needlework, etc. lying
about. It was also rather depressing to see
how the garden had been ruined and trampled
down. . .
" On Tuesday, September 29th, we started
off at 2.30 a.m. to get the guns up into position
in the dark, then took the teams and limbers to
the rear, and picketed them at the side of a wood
to conceal them from aeroplanes. Another
subaltern and I stayed with them to look after
them, as there was nothing much doing at the
guns. We slept in a barn near to the Chateau,
as the latter was full up.
" Great news ! On Thursday I had a hot
bath in the Chateau, the first since Havre. Next
day (Friday, October 2nd) we left the Chateau
B 2 19
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
at about 7 p.m. and got into a small village
[Cremaille] at about 10 p.m. We managed
to get a room to sleep in, in a small cottage,
and put the horses in a farm. We have to
conceal the guns and horses as much as pos-
sible when halted. The Germans had been in
the village, and the proprietress of the local
pub. said that they had taken all her wines and
spirits that they could and smashed the rest.
"I am running the mess of my battery, so
I have to go round and use my best French
on the inhabitants and shops (where there are
any) to get food. It is usually pretty hard to
get anything, as either the Germans have teen
there and taken everything or our troops have
been and bought up everything.
" We left [Cremaille] on Saturday, October
3rd, about 2.30 p.m. After about twelve miles,
we halted at a small village to water and feed
the horses, and, by a piece of good luck, there
happened to be an A. S.C. officer billeted there,
who supplied us with hot chocolate and bread
and jam, which was very welcome. After
about an hour's halt we went on, till we got
20
A Subaltern s Share in the
in just as it was getting dark, at about 8 p.m.
We were just thinking of looking for billets,
when we were told we had to go on another
eighteen miles that night, to be in a certain place
before dawn. We had already done sixteen
miles that afternoon, and about thirteen miles the
night before, and had only had about six hours'
sleep before that, so we were rather tired. We
then had a three hours' halt and got some supper.
We moved on about 1 1 p.m., and marched
all night, through a large forest among other
things. I almost went to sleep sometimes
while I was riding along.
" We got into a largish town [Crepy] at
about 5 a.m. on Sunday (October 4th) and put
the horses and wagons in a long avenue of
trees, sleeping ourselves in a small deserted
house close by. We had breakfast at about
9.30, and later on in the morning went into
the town. There were actually shops open,
with a good stock of things to sell, which was
not at all like any other villages we have seen.
I also was actually able to have my hair cut
in a quite clean shop there. We all put in a
21
A Subaltern s Share in the
couple of hours' sleep in the afternoon. The
worst of it is, having horses, you have always
to get up early, regardless of what time you go
to bed, to see them watered, fed and groomed.
" We started off again about 7 p.m. I went
on ahead with another officer to try and get
billets. The road lay through a large forest,
and was very pretty in the moonlight. On
the way we stopped a car to ask the way, and
found that one of its occupants was the Prince
of Orleans, who has joined the English Army
as an interpreter. We found the village we
were making for at last, and found that it
consisted of a few small cottages and a large
Chateau. The owner of the Chateau happened
to be standing at the gate, so we asked him if he
could put us up (thirteen officers in all). He
was most awfully kind and said he would. So
we went off to find a place for the horses and
guns. The two batteries (the other one of the
Brigade had gone another way) got in about
half an hour later, and when we went to the
Chateau we found that they had got a bed for
each of us, with sheets it was a luxury ! We
22
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
then had a very pleasant supper (our own food,
as they had hardly any, food being very diffi-
cult to get round there because the Germans
had been there and taken it all, also their
horses, so that they could not go into the
nearest town to get food very easily). Our host
gave us some very good wine the only lot
the Germans had left. They had come and told
him that they would burn the Chateau if he
would not give up all his wine. Meanwhile,
his wife and daughter had got ready beds for
all of us. It was a most awfully fine Chateau
and, incidentally, the smallest of the owner's
three, so he must have been rather a big
man. After we had drunk everyone's health
we went to bed, and had a most luxurious
night.
"The Chateau was in the middle of a beauti-
ful forest, with a funny little village round it.
After lunch next day one battery went on, but
we were not to move till 5 p.m. So we got up
a dance the dancers consisting of the daughter
(who was an extremely good dancer), another
subaltern and myself, the orchestra being the
23
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
mother at a piano. They had a beautiful
parquet floor for dancing. I certainly never
expected to get a dance out here !
" At 5 p.m. we went on again for a march
of about six miles, mademoiselle accompanying
me for the first half mile (I was marching
the dismounted party). Before leaving, I took
a photograph of the house-party and family on
the steps of the Chateau.
" After a six-mile march we reached the
town of Compiegne, where we were to entrain.
There were more troops entraining there, so
we halted on the south side of the river, to
allow the station to get clear. All the bridges
had been blown up by the French when re-
tiring, and a German bridge of barges sunk,
because, in making the bridge, they had for-
gotten to unload the barges' cargo first. But
another bridge of barges had been made by the
French. I went off into the town to forage
for the mess and was nobly assisted by two
quite nice girls, who volunteered assistance
when they heard me asking, in what / call
French, the way to a certain shop. These
24
A Subaltern s Share in the
two girls rapidly increased to five, collected as
we went along all sisters, and their chaperon,
or governess, or whoever she was, stalking along
behind. By their invaluable assistance I was
able to get all sorts of things we wanted.
" We got entrained by 9.30 p.m. and started
at about 10 o'clock. We were quite comfort-
able, as we only had two officers in each
carriage. We got into [Abbeville] at about
7 a.m. next morning (October 6th). A lot
of French ladies were giving away coffee and
bread to the men, which was rather nice of
them. We managed to get a jolly good break-
fast at the buffet (which, for a wonder, was
still open) of omelette and coffee and rolls. We
sat in the train there all the morning, and, to
my great joy, I got my first mail of eighteen
letters. They came at a very good moment,
as I had plenty of time to read them in the
train.
" We detrained that afternoon and marched
out of the town, about eight miles, to billet in
a large park at [Hautvilliers]. The people of
the town were very enthusiastic, and gave the
25
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
men apples, pears, cigarettes, etc. That night
we slept at the Cure's house, which was just
outside the park, where the horses and guns
were. The Cure was most awfully kind to us,
and insisted on our taking his wine."
October jth. \Hautvi I Her s.~\
" We rested here the whole ot the next
day. I took a photo of the Cure and the
other officers of our battery, and the Cure's old
housekeeper (which pleased her enormously).
I left a roll of films with the Cure, which he
is going to send on to me after the war."
George Devenish's " after the war " visits
were never to be paid, but he did return to
claim his packet, early in 1917, and the account
of this second visit seems most fitly given
here.
February 24/A, 1917.
" On the way, as we had to pass near the
place where we stayed with the Cure, in
October 1914, 1 asked if they'd mind stopping
there. We got to the village, and at first I
26
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
didn't recognize it and thought it must be the
wrong place ; but suddenly I recognized the
Church as we arrived at it, then everything
came back absolutely vividly. I remembered
almost every detail of the place. We got to
the Cure's house, at first he didn't recognize
me. Then I reminded him of five artillery
officers who had stayed with him for two
nights 2.\ years before, and it all came back
to him.
" He and his old housekeeper then seemed
awfully pleased to see me again, and inquired
after all the others the housekeeper especially
about c le lieutenant qui est appelle " Bebe."
She meant B , who is about 6 ft. 3 ins.,
and who so excited them by his size before.
I asked for my packet and he said that he had
taken it up to the Chateau for safe-keeping.
So we at once went there, I recognizing all
the places where we had had our horses, and
the Chateau lady at once produced the packet,
and we reminisced about our stay there. It
was topping seeing the place again.
" We then went on to Hautvilliers down
27
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
the road which we had so wearily marched up
the evening we got there, passing a tree which
the Cure had told us to make certain and look
out for, as Napoleon had once sat down at its
foot. He (the Cure) said that he thought we
should be very much impressed with it, but
it seemed a very ordinary tree ! "
October loM, 1914.
" We stayed at [Hautvilliers] all Thursday,
leaving at 2 a.m. on Friday morning. It was
pretty cold then. In spite of the earliness of
the hour (of course it was pitch dark) all the
country people came out of their houses to see
us go by, and gave us fruit, and, in one place,
hot milk. We got into the next stopping place
[Raye] at 7 a.m., went into billets in a farm,
with the battery in two orchards. We then
had breakfast, and afterwards turned in for an
hour's sleep. We got ready to move at
2.30 p.m. that afternoon, but did not actually
get off till 5 p.m., being kept waiting all that
time. We marched all night, with a half-
hour's halt in the middle, getting in at 6 a.m.
28
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
this (Saturday) morning, at [Soine]. It was
a pretty long march (25! miles), and we were
very tired when we got in. On the way we
saw a whole lot of French transport on another
road. They all carried lights (which I should
have thought was rather a risky thing to do),
and looked in the distance like a moving vil-
lage. I managed to get some butter, eggs and
milk at a farm, so we had a jolly good break-
fast at the farm where we were billeted, after
which we turned in (at about 7.30 a.m.). We
got up again at 1 1 a.m., and, after stables and
luncheon, we went to bed from 2 o'clock to
4 o'clock p.m. We saw a lot of refugees
streaming along the road from Lille, which,
they said, German cavalry had entered the day
before. After this place, on all the roads,
there were always refugees carrying what they
could in bundles, sometimes wheeling peram-
bulators, on bicycles, driving cows, etc. They
are mostly men either under or over age for
the army. They also leave the towns, as other-
wise they are impressed by the Germans to
work for them, or sent to Germany to bring
in the harvest. After great difficulty I managed
29
A Subaltern s Share in the W^ar.
to get some more eggs that evening, also some
quite good vin ordinaire."
October I2th.
"We started off at 7.15 a.m. yesterday
morning in a column, with a lot of infantry,*
who had been fetched up from the last place
in motor-lorries. I was in charge of the dis-
mounted party, so had to walk all the way
about eighteen miles. A lot of French cavalry
and transport passed us. We heard firing some
way away on our right. It was Sunday, so
everyone was out in his or her Sunday best,
parading the streets of [Choques], and very
much interested in us. It is extraordinary how
very quickly you pass from war to peace !
" One rather pathetic thing was an old lady
refugee, carrying, as her only piece of luggage,
her best hat !
" We got into [Huiges] that night at about
7 p.m., and went into billets in a small cafe,
where there were some French refugees staying
the night. We were quite comfortable with
straw on the floor of one of the rooms.
30
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
" We started at 7 a.m. this morning, and
marched across the canal bridge. My battery
formed part of the advance guard. It was very
misty at first, and we halted after about six
miles, and put the guns in an orchard in a small
village.
" We met some French officers and cavalry
there, who said they had been fighting con-
tinuously since the beginning of the war. We
also saw some mounted Turcos, who were very
picturesque in long red cloaks.
"At about 12 o'clock we suddenly heard
firing from a wood about three or four hundred
yards on our left. Some of the infantry imme-
diately started attacking, and we ordered out
gunners with rifles to the gate of the orchard,
in case of emergency. It turned out to be
some German cavalry our infantry had quite
a job in turning them out. Half our battery
went into action that evening, firing almost
into the blue, at about five thousand yards.
The Germans were shelling a village a bit to
the left, and set the church on fire."
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
October
" To-day we took two guns up to support
the infantry, who were attacking a village
[Croix Barbee] at close range. Another
subaltern and I had a gun each.
" I came into action at the corner of an
orchard (in a ploughed field outside it) at a
range to the German trenches of about six or
seven hundred yards an extraordinary close
range for guns. One of my jobs was to turn
some Germans out of a house straight to my
front at about eight hundred yards. It made
a splendid target, and I knocked some pretty
useful holes in it. Another target was a
machine gun (which I could not see, but
judged direction by the sound). I think I
must have got pretty close, as every time I
fired in a certain direction it turned on me.
But it was shooting a bit high (I expect they
thought we couldn't possibly be so close), and
I saw it cutting twigs off the hedge just
above.
" The German and English trenches were
only about a hundred and fifty to two hundred
32
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
yards apart. There were a lot of snipers about,
and it was rather exciting going down the
road where the Major was observing from in
front. It was a rather interesting experience,
as I hadn't had rifle fire before. The infantry
didn't manage to get into the village that night,
and as guns are no good at night, we went
back to our billets in the schoolhouse."
October \6th.
"We started out again yesterday morning
at 5 a m., so as to be in the same position
before it got properly light. During the
morning I turned a German machine gun
section out of a trench. I got the range to
the trench almost exactly, and, after a few
rounds, 30 men retired, carrying a machine
gun with them.
" I went up later on and observed from
the reserve trenches so as to fire in case they
returned.
"At about 3 p.m. the infantry made an
attack on the village, which I watched from
their trenches. It was extremely interesting,
c 33
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
and a thing that, as a gunner, you don't often
get a chance of seeing. They got through
the village all right, but were held up at the
other side, where they lost rather heavily. I
went up with the Major later to try and spot
the flashes of an enemy battery said to have
been seen by the infantry. We saw the flashes,
and by timing them found that they were
about five thousand five hundred yards away.
It was getting dark, and they were shooting
over our heads, so we did not bring a gun up.
As there was nothing more that we could do,
we returned to our schoolhouse.
"The home-made cake you sent was
very much appreciated. It happened to be
my Captain's birthday, so we had it as his
birthday cake. To-day (Friday i6th) I have
been temporarily transferred to the 2 3rd battery,
to replace a subaltern who is down at the
base."
October igth.
"We started off on Saturday (ryth) at
6 a.m. (as a reserve battery), and advanced
34
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
through [Croix Barbe] to a small village the
other side, where we remained, in readiness,
for the rest of the day. The 6th battery stayed
in reserve with us, and the 49th came into
action to support some French troops, who
were trying to get into a village to our front.
We went into billets that night in quite a large
house with farm attached near a large distillery.
There was a topping grand piano in the house,
which of course I played. On the table in one
of the rooms was the remains of a sumptuous
champagne (and other wine) dinner which the
Germans had had there. I had quite a com-
fortable night on straw, in one of the rooms.
Next morning we started off at 6 a.m. and
waited in a field for some time. We came
into action in the afternoon but did not fire
much.
" To-day (Monday) we started out at 6 a.m.,
and came into action in the same place. I
went forward to observe the fire.
" I found the observing station of the day
before was not near enough, so, after consulta-
tion with the infantry, I decided to move it
c 2 35
A Subaltern s Share in the
up to a haystack, about four or five hundred
yards from the enemy, who, at that place, were
in a factory. It was rather exciting work
laying out the last part of the telephone wire.
We got it laid out all right about twenty yards
from the farm, when the wire ran out. So I
put the telephonist under the shelter of a
house, and had to go back myself to lay it
across a piece of open as it was shorter that
way.
"Just at that moment, the infantry of both
sides chose to have a burst of fire, so I got the
full benefit of all the c overs,' to say nothing
of not knowing whether they were firing at
me or not. Just at the critical moment the
wire broke, so I had first to run about to find
the two ends and then lie out in the open to
join them up. It was rather uncomfortable !
As a matter of fact I don't think they could see
me, as there was a straw fence between me and
where they were firing from.
" We got the telephone working all right,
and I turned the battery on to the factory,
getting some splendid bursts just over where
36
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
the German trenches were, just in front of the
factory. It was rather nervous work, as I
was always afraid of getting a burst too short
and hitting our own men, who were in the
advanced trenches comparatively close to the
Germans. The wire-cutters Father gave me
came in very useful in joining up the wire.
" My fire stopped the snipers for a bit,
which was a good thing. A bit later, the
Pom-Pom officer came up and said that he
had a better observing station, from a house,
about fifty yards to the rear. So I decided to
move back there."
October 2yd.
" Last Tuesday (aoth) we came into action
in the same place as the day before, and I went
up to observe again. We did not fire that
morning, and I was recalled at about 1 1 a.m.,
when the battery moved off to another position
about a mile more to the left. Another
subaltern and I, and a section of the battery
stayed out all night, ready to fire if the Germans
opened at all. There was a little firing about
37
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
2.30 a.m., so we fired for about five minutes.
After that things quietened down, so we went
to bed again. We were quite comfortable, as
we had a small bivouac, waterproof sheets, a
blanket each, and plenty of straw.
"Next morning (2ist) we went back half
a mile in reserve, near a farmhouse, where we
had breakfast. The people were very kind
indeed. Later on in the morning we went
into action, and I returned to the 6th battery,
as another subaltern joined the 23rd that
morning. We fired during most of the
afternoon at a steady rate. (The 6th battery
got through fifteen hundred rounds the day
before !) We returned to the same billets
that evening, in the chateau by the distillery.
"Next morning (22nd) we were roused
at 2 a.m. and told to be ready to move off at a
moment's notice, as the infantry had retired a
bit. It proved to be a scare, as we didn't move
till 5.30 a.m. At this particular part of the
line we had pushed rather far forward as com-
pared with the rest of the line, so it was decided
that we should retire here a bit so as to get
38
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
into the same line as the troops on our right
and left. So we retired about half a mile and
went into billets in a small village there. Later
on we came into action close to where we were
billeting, but did not fire. That night a
section was left in action, ready to fire if the
enemy did, and another subaltern and I stayed
out with it. I used my improvised bivouac
for the first time. It was a great success. But
at about 10 p.m. an order came round that we
must get everything packed up ready to move,
so I had to give up my bivouac, and go and
sleep with a blanket and waterproof sheet by
a haystack.
" It wasn't so bad, as it wasn't a very cold
night, and it did not rain. We did not fire
during the night, and moved off this morning,
at about 5 a.m., to a position about 600 yards
in the rear.
" The infantry trenches were now about
fifty yards in front of the spot where we came
into action the day before. I was sent up to
observe from near the infirmary, so I improved
one of the funk-pits we had dug for the
39
A Subaltern s Share in the
guns the day before, and am now sitting in it,
writing this, as there is nothing much doing.
There is also a dog in with me. He would
persist in following me, so I had to take him
in to put him under cover.
" He is rather a nice mongrel a cross
between a bull-dog and I don't know what.
I spoke to him this morning on the road, and
he has followed me ever since.
" I have forgotten to say before how the
different animals take the fighting. Cows
usually appear quite indifferent, and often you
see them wandering about in between our
trenches and the enemy's, quite unconcerned.
At Croix Barbee one would persist in getting
in front of my gun, so we had to drive it off
by chucking empty cartridge-cases and clods
of earth at it. One dog there was in abject
terror, and tried to burrow its way into the
ground in a barn.
"The Germans opened fire about 10.30
a.m. shrapnel just in front and to the left,
also H.E. howitzers just over the trenches to
the left extraordinarily accurate, but no one
40
A Subaltern s Share in the
was hurt. In the evening we went into billets
in an old farm at [Le Plouiche]."
October
" I went out again this morning to observe
at the same place as yesterday. A cottage
behind us has been burnt down, and I cooked
some tea on the smouldering ruins. We shelled
the wood for snipers. A battalion of Indian
troops had moved up during the night on our
left. Everyone is very pleased at their coming.
" There's nothing much doing to-day on
my front, only a few snipers and an occasional
shell, so I am able to write home. I went to
talk to the infantry officers in the trench in
front just now. They were very cheery and
nice to me.
" There was heavy firing towards dusk,
and in the middle of it something went wrong
with my 'phone wire. I went back along it,
but found no break. I sent a message to the
Major by the Royal Scots and returned to the
Observing Station. The 'phone was no good,
so, at 8 p.m., I went home and turned in, as
A Subaltern s Share in the
B. was on duty with the battery that had to
be in action all night. There was very heavy
firing just before I went to sleep, and I
almost got up to see if the Germans were ad-
vancing (as there were wild rumours about),
but I was too lazy."
October 2$th.
" I went up to [Fauquissart] to observe
again, and had the telephone at the same place.
After I had deposited my things in the funk-
pit, I went along to the Gordons to see how
things had been getting on. The Gordon
officers (what were left of them) were trying
to reorganize their men in the trenches.
" I found that the Middlesex had come up
during the night, from where they were in
reserve in rear, and had taken over half the
Gordons' trenches. (The Gordons had lost
pretty heavily during the night in killed,
wounded, and prisoners.) It appeared that the
Germans had broken a piece of the line about
two hundred yards long. Everyone is vague
as to what happened after that. But when the
42
A Subalterns Share in the War.
Middlesex came up to retake the trenches,
they found that the Germans had already
cleared out. The place where the attack had
come through was marked out by dead Ger-
mans. There were several in the ditches on
each side of the road, but it appeared that they
did not get much further than the road.
" There were several of our wounded being
carried off. The i8th Brigade subaltern came
up, and we improved the funk-hole, putting
on a bit of a roof, improving the parapet, and
putting in a couple of chairs out of the farm
(which was practically burnt out by now).
We also got some plates, knives and forks.
" The 4/th Heavy Battery subaltern came
up, and started digging a funk-hole in the
orchard, behind the hedge. The i8th Brigade
subaltern had his telephonist in the next funk-
hole, dug a day or two before for the 6th bat-
tery. They shelled the village a bit in the
morning, and again in the afternoon. There
was a good deal of sniping going on all day.
" I got back to the battery about 7 p.m.
and stayed out till supper with a section that
43
A Subalterns Share in the War.
was going to stay out in action all night.
After supper, I went out again to stay there
with B. till 12 midnight. It was raining, so I
had my bivvy up. At about 1 1 p.m. we heard
some pretty heavy rifle-firing, so we opened
fire for a bit. The firing soon died down, and
we stopped. A heavy gun, somewhere out on
our left, kept on firing for some time. At
midnight G relieved me, and I went in,
to sleep till 4 a.m. I had had a lot of trouble
with the 'phone all day."
October 26th.
" I went up again to the same place. First
of all I visited Col. H , who now had his
H.Q. in a farm in the village. I also visited
the Gordons, to see if they had anything they
wanted shelling, or had any news. I then
returned to my funk-pit, where the i8th
subaltern had already arrived. (He went
back tD his Brigade during the morning, as
his 'phone broke down entirely.) c Crumps'
started about 10.30 a.m. first on the village,
setting the house by the cross-roads on fire,
44
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
and smashing up one or two others, besides
dropping a few in the church. (The latter
was always a favourite objective.) They then
switched into the trenches in front of us, with
' crumpets/ They gradually reached up to
us, and dropped one just outside our funk-pit,
covering us with earth. When it had calmed
down a bit, I went along to the Gordon
trenches to see about a report that a gun had
been seen being brought into action there. I
saw several cows, which I expect the look-
outs mistook for horses (of course they wouldn't
admit it), and also several Germans making a
trench, and bringing stuff for overhead cover.
I tried a few shots, but, as far as we could see,
had no luck. The range was about 600 yards ;
I could see their faces plainly with a telescope.
" They started c crumpeting ' the trench I
was in, so I lay low for a bit, sharing an under-
cut hole with a sergeant and another man. I
gave them each a cigarette, which the sergeant
much appreciated, for a wonder it being
Turkish. They didn't get very near with the
shells about 20 yards short most of the time.
45
A Subaltern s Share in the
After a while they stopped, and I made my
way back through the village to my funk-hole.
On the way they started shelling with shrap-
nel, and I saw a house hit about fifty yards in
front of me, as I was coming from the trenches
to the village. I then went up the trench in
front of my funk-pit and tried to put the 4 7
battery on to the German trenches.
"Just as it was beginning to get dark I
got a message from the Sikhs that they wanted
me, so I went over to them and was directed
up to one of the advanced trenches, where an
English officer pointed out where he thought
a lot of Germans were collecting, near a burn-
ing house. So I shelled this for some time.
" I returned to the battery for the night.
As I was going back along the village street,
a Tommy came up to me and said there was
a German c in that house.' I went in and had
a look, and there was one sitting in a chair,
with a bullet through his thigh, quite happy.
He loosed off a lot of German at me, but
I forgot every word I ever knew for the
moment."
46
A Subalterns Share in the War.
October 2jth.
" I decided to shift my funk-hole to a
place just to the right of the church. Here
were the remains of some gun-pits made by
the 49th about a week before. One of these
we improved, and put a large stable-door on,
as overhead cover, with some earth on the top
of that. Just as we were finishing it (I and
my telephonists) they started shelling just
over us. So we retired into the funk-hole,
and just afterwards they dropped a genuine
Crump about 30 yards over, and one piece
landed on our roof. We were rather thankful
for the latter.
" Incidentally, a day or two before, as I
was sitting in my old funk-pit, a bit of one of
the German anti-aeroplane shells dropped in,
missing me by about four inches.
" As I was walking along the road to see
Col. H they started on the village with
Crumps again. Luckily they were just over,
so I only got some bits falling round me. The
Colonel sent me along to the Sikhs, who were
complaining of snipers in a house about three
47
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
hundred yards in front of the trenches. They
gave me some very good tea, and I took a
photo of some of them. They told me they
thought there must be some snipers behind
their line ; they were sending out parties to
hunt for them. They also told me that they
had noticed that when the sails of a certain
windmill turned, their trenches were imme-
diately shelled, so they were sending a party
to the mill too.
" I then went back to my funk-pit and
ran a wire up into the trenches, so as to get to
work on the cottage. They were rather slow
at the battery for some reason, and it was
maddening having to keep your head up for
ages, waiting for them to fire each time,
especially as the Germans started shelling, but
luckily not getting very near.
" I hit the house all right, but as no one
ran out (I had men with rifles waiting for
them) and the shells didn't do much damage,
I stopped. There was no more trouble from
the house after that.
" In the afternoon I went up into the
48
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
Middlesex trenches, to try and spot the flash
of a German gun behind [Aubers]. I think I
got it once, but it was not definite enough, and
appeared to be some way behind [Aubers].
" The Q.M.S. arrived later with my rations
and a blanket. I dined with Colonel H
off German bully-beef (dropped by them when
they broke through here). It was rather good.
After 10 a.m. fairly heavy firing broke out,
and I tried to get through to my guns, but
found the wire gone, as usual. (A burning
house had fallen on it.) Rifle-firing is quite
alarming at night till you get used to it. You
can see shells going through the air all red-hot.
The firing continued for about a quarter of an
hour pretty heavily, but then died down, and
we retired to bed.
"Next day (Wednesday, October 2 8th)
I went up first thing to my Observation Post
at [Fauquissart]. On the way I visited the
Sikhs, and cadged some more tea off them.
There was a rumour of a mortar in the enemies'
trenches. I went up to our trenches to look,
but could see no signs of it.
D , 49
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
" The village was being shelled on and off
all the morning, and they were also shelling
the batteries behind us we could hear the
shells going overhead. I saw a Crump burst
inside a house, about thirty yards from where
I was standing, and knock the whole thing to
pieces.
" I met P (a Hodgsonite) in the
trenches. While I was talking to some officers
there, a Crump burst just behind the trench a
bit further along. (It was aimed at the church,
I think.) It halt buried three men. They came
running along to us, in a fearful state of nerves.
(I don't blame them !) We tried to calm them
down, and in going back with them across a
short piece of open, we suddenly heard the
4-in. ' bang-whrrs ' of shrapnel luckily just
over. They must have been keeping a pretty
sharp look-out.
"I had some lunch at Colonel H.'s house,
and afterwards they started shelling with heavy
shrapnel first some trenches in the rear ot the
village, then the village itself, gradually work-
ing along the street towards us. So we put the
50
A Subaltern s Share in the
men of the Headquarters into the cellar of the
house, and were just looking round for some
cover for ourselves (Colonel H.,two officers of
the Middlesex and myself) when they got one
on the roof just above us, quickly followed by
another which got me in the leg.
" The Colonel helped me into a little room
by the gateway and put on my first field dress-
ing, and when the shelling had quieted down
I was carried back on a stretcher to a farm
about a mile back. There were shells going
overhead at the time, but quite safely.
" At the farm (the Middlesex first-aid post)
my wound was properly dressed, and a splint
put on, made out of a piece of biscuit-box and
a bit of an old petticoat. When it got dark
I was put into a horse-ambulance and taken
further to the rear. On the way I passed the
battery, and all of them came out to see me.
We got to another farm later on, where I was
deposited for the night in charge of a dear old
Scotch R.A.M.C. Major. My stretcher was
just laid on the floor, and I remained on it.
D 2 51
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
" In the morning I was taken in a motor-
ambulance to Bethune Hospital, and from there,
later in the day, to a hospital-train. The train
seemed to wander about all over the place, and
we didn't get into Boulogne till 2 a.m. next
morning (Friday, October 3Oth), when I was
taken in a motor-ambulance to the Allied
Forces Hospital (in the Hotel Christol and
Bristol)."
So ends George Devenish's record of the
opening phase of the war or, rather, of that
small part of it which came within his range
of vision during his first period of service in
France. The postcript to that record came
in the letter which his Major wrote to
inform Mr. and Mrs. Devenish of their son's
wound :
" He is a very keen and plucky young officer,
and has done very good work, and we are very
sorry to lose him."
George remained at the Hospital at Bou-
logne for three weeks, his parents coming over
to be near him. He was kept five weeks more
52
A Subalterns Share in the War.
in hospital in London, getting home just in
time for Christmas.
He rejoined the Army in March, 1915,
and was stationed at Aldershot until he went
out to France again early in June.
53
" There is a word you often see, pronounce it as
you may
c You bike/ c you bykwe,' ( ubbikwe ' alludin' to
R.A.
It serves 'Orse, Field, an' Garrison as motto for a
crest,
An' when you've found out all it means, I'll tell
you 'alf the rest.
By what I've 'card the others tell an' I in spots
'ave seen,
There's nothin' this side 'Eaven or 'Ell Ubique
doesn't mean."
Rudyard Kipling.
54
PART II
"UBIQUE"
JUNE, 1915, TO APRIL, 1916
June ist, 1915, George Devenish went
back to France again, and for the next
ten months he was with his battery, rilling up
day after day with the organized routine of
the second phase of the war. His division
was in the northern part of the line, so that,
to his frequently expressed disgust, he " missed
all the big shows" of this period of the war,
although he seems to have come in for what
would ordinarily appear to be a very adequate
share of considerable and constant activities.
Almost every day's work seems to have
included some measure, less or more, of
"strafing the Gerboys," "loosing off at the
Allebosches," together with all the artillery
observation involved.
This last-named part of his duties involved
much congenial work in the way of construct-
ing observation posts and dug-outs ; tasks after
55
A Subaltern s Share iu the War.
his own heart, and reminiscent of many holi-
day enterprises at home.
" It was just like building our workshop,"
he wrote to his father about the construction
of a marvellous dug-out which he named
"Artillery Mansions," and fitted up with a
lavish expenditure of labour and ingenuity
and of such materials as he could " find," or
" wheedle out of the sappers." His foraging
expeditions in quest of timber or fittings
seem to have been uniformly crowned with
success, attributed by himself always to the
fact that some one or other had been proved
"jolly decent," in allowing or ignoring his
depredations.
George always found people "jolly decent"
to him, and his readiness to recognize and
record the fact may well have had something
to do with the sunny atmosphere of enjoyment
which went with him into even the most un-
promising conditions. Each new billet in turn
was found to possess some admirable features
or possibilities which he speedily set himself
to develop, and which he deplored having to
leave when the next move came. Every change
of surroundings and, still more, of com-
panions was a wrench which he dreaded,
56
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
even though it might be advantageous to him-
self, for it always meant parting from friends
he had grown fond of, and places he had
worked to improve.
" It may be an honour, but I hate leaving
the battery ! " was his comment upon his
appointment, in the autumn of 1915, to be
Orderly Officer at Brigade H.Q., but a week
or two later he was recording the kindness of
the Colonel he was under, and the interesting
and " ripping " times they spent together.
Looking through and beyond the brief and
simple records in George Devenish's letters
to the picture of himself which they uncon-
sciously present, one seems to discern, as one
of his chief characteristics, that quick appre-
ciation of other people's good qualities, and
the readiness to see things from their side,
which made him a staunch friend and generous
foe. He freely noted any act of gallantry, or
skill in firing, 'or excellence in organization
which he had seen or heard of on the part of
the " Gerboys," as he commonly termed the
enemies in the opposite trenches.
It was this same habit of seeing things
from the " other side " which lay at the root
of his living sympathy with animals great or
57
A Subalterns Share in the War,
small. They were always individuals to George,
even to the mouse which he found in the cap-
tured German trenches, killed by a lyddite
shell, and whose obituary he wrote in the brief
comment :
" Rather rotten luck on the mouse ! "
A trivial tragedy in face of the titanic one
that caused it ! and many of the duties and
enterprises chronicled in his letters may seem
trivial, too, compared with the vast issues of
the world's greatest war. Yet they represent
a few of the myriad unseen individual efforts
which lie behind each stage in the war's ad-
vance, and they show also the lighter side of
the self-same spirit which has carried George
Devenish, and the thousands like him, gallantly,
readily, simply, to the supreme sacrifice.
His letters in this second and longer period
are necessarily more numerous, and less varied
in contents, than those of the first three months
of the war. The rapidly changing conditions
of those early days had been stereotyped, on
the Western front, into the routine of organ-
ized trench warfare.
" There's no doubt about it," George wrote
regretfully, " war is not what it used to be."
58
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
The selections from his 1915 letters are
therefore a good deal more curtailed than those
in the former chapters, in order to avoid repe-
tition. No attempt has been made to piece
together a complete record of this one young
officer's doings from day to day, but rather to
gain a glimpse of the general conditions under
which he took his part in the war during this
its second phase.
He had been back in England for more
than half a year, and the developed organiza-
tion was what first struck him on his return
to the front. In the letter despatched just
after his arrival, he wrote :
"This place is absolutely wonderful !
Everything is so wonderfully organized, and
so complete in details."
Then follows the description of his billet.
June 8t/i, 1915-
" We live in a cottage about one hundred
yards from the guns. It is quite comfortable,
and has a lot of little details added by the battery
59
A Subaltern s Share in the
which was here before us (they were here two
months). They've got up a lot of pictures
and shelves, and brought two lovely old carved
armchairs from a ruined chateau near."
The title to the armchairs seems, how-
ever, subsequently to have been called in
question, according to a letter of later date.
" A most horrible calamity came to us this
day ! I think I told you that we had two
very comfortable tapestry armchairs which
had originally come out of the chateau on the
hill, and apparently the mother of the owner
of the chateau had been making inquiries all
round, and had run the chairs to earth at our
farm. She sent someone round for them in
the afternoon, and left us armchairless a per-
fectly horrible condition ! I don't know what
we shall do without them. There was a fight
for them regularly every day."
The first change of billets came before the
end of June, and was recorded with George's
customary regret.
60
A Subalterns Share in the War.
" We have heard to our great disgust that
we are going to move on Monday. It is
sickening, although the next place is quite
comfortable
" Still, we've all got quite attached to our
present place, with the cottage to ourselves,
so conveniently near to the guns.
"We had all just begun to know all the
various targets, and the 'phone lines, and had
been making various improvements, and then
we have to leave. I suppose it's rather a bad
frame of mind to get into losing the offensive
spirit, etc.
"After a while here, you settle down to
the routine of the place, and make yourself
comfortable, shoot the daily allowance of
ammunition, and, after a bit, almost entirely
forget there is a war on, until awakened to
the fact by the Germans being vulgar enough
to put a shell in an inconvenient spot."
June 2 1 st.
"I went up to the Obs. station at 8. 30; very
quiet all round. I came back in the afternoon
61
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
and spent it getting ready for the move (all
moves have to be done in the dark, of
course) .
"A sapper officer, who had been building
up a small house near us for an experiment,
came in to tea, and I got a lot of boards, which
he had over, out of him. They will be very
useful.
"We moved into the new position that
evening at about 10.0. It's not at all a bad
place, with a largish farm (with inhabitants
still there, going about their usual vocations)
as a billet. The observing station doesn't seem
too healthy, though you can see extremely well
from it."
June 2 yd.
"We had breakfast at about 9.0, and after-
wards I spent the morning going round the
artillery 'phone dug-outs in various trenches.
"Again, after a preliminary burst of M.G.
fire, the night went off peacefully. Our people
spent part of it in cutting the corn in front of
62
AN OBSERVATION POST
(Drawn from a snapshot, by I. Kitson Clark)
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
the trenches, which has grown up so high that
in most places here you can't see the German
trenches at all. The Germans are, I believe,
cutting their half of it. The trenches are here
between one hundred yards to three hundred
yards apart. I was only called for the 'phone
once during the night."
June 2\th.
" Breakfast about 7.30. After some 'phon-
ing, I went along the trenches to see about a
new wire that was being laid out.
"After a second breakfast with the inhabi-
tants of that trench (who suspect that there
is a German mine under their mess !), I was
about to return when they started shelling.
They weren't particularly good, and didn't do
any damage.
"When they had quieted down, I came
home to lunch. It's rather a funny life, living
perpetually half underground, with the crack
of rifles going on at intervals all day and
night, occasionally varied by machine guns
or shells."
63
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
June 26th.
"We spent the first part of the morning
looting all the sandbags, planks, wire netting,
etc. that had been left about by the sappers,
and later H and I went over to our new
position with a fatigue party to start building
emplacements. On the way we managed to
wheedle some more timber from a sapper
depot.
"We spent quite an amusing day at it, and
got quite a lot done. We are going to make
a small shed for each gun, out of sandbags and
timber. Rather reminds me of building the
workshop.
"I have been designing a patent telephone
exchange switchboard, with bullets and cart-
ridge cases as plugs and sockets/*
"We seem," he wrote in another letter,
"to live in a world consisting mostly of tele-
phones and telephone wires. More trouble
comes from them than from anything else, but,
on the other hand, it would be practically im-
possible to run the show out here without
them."
64
A Subaltern s Share in the W^ar.
Into that world of mechanical contrivances
the " behind scenes " of the fighting-
George Devenish's letters of this period carry
one, with keen appreciation of the joys of
successful construction and reconstruction, and
with only the slightest of references to the
danger always at hand.
June %ot/i.
" Yesterday H. and I went out along an
old wire with a view to diverting it for use to
our Observation Station. On the way we ran
across the E. Surrey H.Q., which happened
to be only about half a mile from the battery,
and found Purcell* there. He was in reserve
for four days, and this morning I met him on
his way back into the trenches for four days.
I was taking a party out to relay the first part
of the wire clear of a Brigade H.Q.
" In the afternoon I continued my long
wire on to the Battalion H.Q. of the infantry
we are supporting. It was a very slow job as
* His only brother, Lieut. H. Purcell Devenish, who took a
commission in the yth East Surrey Regiment in August, 1914.
E 6
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
a lot of the way was through a wood, and I
didn't get back till late."
Thursday ', July ist.
" H. and I started out at about 12.40 to
tap a wire into the wire I had put down the
day before, and run aline on to the Observation
Station.
" We got it up there all right through the
wood, and then registered the night lines with
a few rounds. Then we ran a wire on to the
trench in front, where we have to keep a
telephonist at night, so that the infantry can
ring us up for support at any time.
" The Germans here have some pretty
good snipers. They broke a periscope mirror
when we were there. We then returned some
distance and started to run out an auxiliary
wire to the observation station across the open.
It was getting dark, but at one place we were
sniped a bit, but no damage done. Further on
we ran across the path of a fixed rifle, firing
up a road, which was rather unpleasant.
" As it got darker, flares started going up,
66
A Subalterns Share in the War.
giving out a weird and brilliant light, and the
shooting increased somewhat we getting the
full benefit of the overs.
" We got the wire there all right, and got
home at about 10.30, rather tired.
" I don't think Fve described our billet.
It consists of an ancient farmhouse, built on
the usual principle round the manure heap.
" It is inhabited by an old farmer and his
seven daughters (all of whom, except the very
smallest, who goes to school, work on the
farm). They also make butter and bread, and
sell eggs and milk, which is very convenient.
<c We have a small room, facing outwards
(not towards the manure heap luckily), to live
in, with a kitchen opposite for our servants.
" We sleep in a large loft, which is quite
comfortable. The telephone exchange is in a
small out-house room, and the men sleep in a
large barn (except three per gun, who sleep in
dug-outs round the guns). The guns are in
a field just outside the farm.
" There is a topping black dog at the farm,
which is always kept chained up never been
E 2 67
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
loose in his life, so, the farmer told us, he
would not let us let him loose. His one
amusement is a little game he invented himself.
There is a long ladder hanging upright on the
wall by his kennel, and he solemnly stands in
front of this and pats it with his paw so as to
make it swing. The ladder is quite worn
where he pats its."
July
"In the morning I went out on a wire-
bagging expedition. There are simply hun-
dreds of yards of wire lying about, old lines
not used now.
" I raised quite a lot, which came in very
useful, as we can't get any issued.
"I lunched at C. Battery. They have
quite a nice billet a largish house in the
village of [Ploegsteert]. The village is shelled
most days, but so far they havn't been troubled
by it.
" The village becomes entirely depopulated
every afternoon by 2.0 p.m., as the Germans
have a hate every day after that hour. The
68
A Subalterns Share in the War.
inhabitants return in the evening. Rather a
peculiar existence. So far, they have only
been known to be shelled in the morning eight
times in the last six months."
July jth.
"There was a show arranged for 8.30 last
evening, in the form of a demonstration by
artillery and rifle fire to make the Germans
think they were going to be attacked, so H.
and I had dinner early, and started out imme-
diately after, to the observing station, to watch
it. It rather reminded one of dinner early, to
rush out to the theatre. We got up there in
time to get good seats (which consisted of
what remained of the loft of a very much
dilapidated roofless cottage, just about one
hundred yards behind our trenches) and to get
the telephone working in case the Germans
were vulgar enough to take the thing seriously
and make a real attack on their own.
"Exactly at 8.30 the curtain rose with a
round of lyddite from the mountain guns into
the Gerboys trench. This was the signal for
69
A Subalterns Share in the War.
a colossal fusilade of rifles ana machine-guns,
and various howitzer and 1 8-pounder batteries.
It had really rather a fine effect the brilliant
flashes of the bursting shells followed by the
noise of the explosion, the almost deafening
crackle of the rifles, interspersed with the tap-
tap-tap-tap of the machine-guns and the bangs
of the exploding bombs and grenades, and, as
it grew darker, the brilliant illumination of the
Verey lights.
"This went on solidly for about half an
hour, but the Germans treated it in the right
spirit i.e., simply as a demonstration and very
soon the fire began to slacken ; then there
would be intervals of silence, followed by a
burst ; then fewer and fewer shots, and by
9.20 the night had settled down to its accus-
tomed state, with only the occasional crack ot
the sentry's rifle to show that there was a war
on. I don't believe the Gerboys treated our
little effort at frightfulness at all in the way
our Staff meant them to ; they didn't seem
a bit frightened, and only fired as much as they
felt in duty bound to.
70
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
" When things had resumed the normal
calm, H. and I returned home, and after eating
and drinking respectively the biscuits and wine
of the country left out for us, in the approved
after-theatre manner, we retired to bed."
July loth.
" I went up to Observation Station in morn-
ing, and then went into trenches in front to
see how obvious our Observation Station was.
It seemed quite difficult to spot. There was
a large hole in the front wall made by one of
the shells of the night before.
" In the afternoon H and I prospected
for a new Observing Station, as the present one
obviously would not be at all healthy if the
enemy ever meant any serious business.
" After looking in every imaginable place,
we decided on building a lookout place in a
support trench.
" I started off at about 8.30 a.m., with a
fatigue party, to start on the new Observation
Station.
" First of all we put in a strong floor, about
A Subaltern s Share in the
four feet from the bottom of the trench, and
on top of that built a square room of sand
bags.
" We then removed a large H girder from
a ruined convent near by. It was rather a job
moving it, as it was about 10 feet long by i foot
deep and f inch thick, and weighed some.
This we put up along the top of the parapet,
on edge, and after enormous labour, cut a slot
in it with a cold chisel, to look out of. It
seemed an almost impossible job at first, but
it got finished at last.
" We then put on a roof of planks and
sandbags, making a sliding trap-door at one
corner near the front, so that you could put
your head or a periscope out to get a better
view.
" The sniping was rather annoying this
day.
"About 5.0 p.m. H and I went up to
the ist line trench and the Infs. loosed off
some rifle-grenades into the German trenches
for our benefit, and we put a dozen shells over
and into them for their amusement. A rather
72
A Subaltern s Share in the
extraordinary thing happened. As I was
kneeling behind the parapet observing with a
periscope, suddenly a bullet cracked into the
traverse just beside me. We decided it must
have been fired from a place where the trenches
curved round at least 1,500 yards to 2,000 yards
away. Jolly good shot it was."
July
t: I worked all day at the Observation Station.
Sniping a bit more lively. As the fitter and I
were putting sandbags on the roof, one of the
Allemands rang the girder about five inches
below us. Rather a lucky escape. We put in
a speaking-tube between the top and bottom
floor, i.e.) between where the observer stands
and the little rabbit-hutch underneath, where
the telephonists sit."
The Observing Station being completed,
the next task was the construction, close beside
it, of the famous " Artillery Mansions " dug-
out, and the fitting of it, inside and out, with
every convenience that could be devised, or
73
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
looted, and crowded into the very narrow limits
of space available.
July
" I took up a fatigue party yesterday, and
after prospecting around decided on a place
for the dug-out near the trench Observing
Station we made the other day.
" We then got to work on digging out a
place in the side of the trench for it and col-
lecting material for building it. The sappers
said that we could indent for materials for it,
but, knowing all official ways, we decided to
find our own stuff, which we did quite success-
fully. We got the framework up that evening
and the roof on, and to-day we got the walls
up, and the floor in. Two sides were made of
corrugated iron on the outside. The roof was
also of corrugated iron (collected from various
places), with about two feet of earth on it."
July 2$th.
" My birthday.
" I spent a most pleasant day at work on
74
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
the dug-out. We have, by the way, a very
good fitter, who works nobly at all these works
.... The fitter is a great man. He goes
round all the semi-demolished houses and col-
lects hinges, door-handles, and all things of
that sort."
The next letter contains the triumphant
announcement : " Finished the dug-out ! "
followed by a description of the many com-
forts and conveniences of this palatial abode
of 8 feet by 5^ and under 6 feet in height.
"At the door-end is a locker, which at night
serves as a rest for the bed.
" The bed consists of an oblong wooden
frame with canvas stretched over it. When in
use it rests at one end on the locker, and at the
other, and along one side, on a ledge nailed to
the wall. During the day it tips up on the
ledge, and stands upright on one side against
the wall, held there by a turning button at
the top.
75
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
"Just by the head of the bed is a small
shelf for the telephone, with a hook just over
the bed for hanging up the receiver.
" Under the window (which is a glass open
and shut one, looted from a neighbouring
house) is a collapsible table, which is hinged
to the wall by means of a bar which once
belonged to a sewing machine, and a couple
of staples ; it has a hinged leg at its outer end.
It is shut up when the bed is required for use.
" Below the 'phone shelf is a rack for
holding a rifle, with a canvas bandolier of
ammunition hanging up above it.
" It really is a most awfully comfortable
place. Everyone comes and envies it and ad-
mires it, including generals and sappers, etc.
I slept in it for the first time that night.
" The luxury of the 'phone again comes in
there. From this dug-out, lying in bed at
night I can ring up H., also in bed at the
battery, or the guns, or our telephonists at
the Company Headquarters in the front trench
and several other places. I thoroughly enjoyed
76
"ARTILLERY MANSIONS
(Drawn from a snapshot, by I. Kitson Clark)
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
building it. It reminded me very much of
making the workshop . . .
" We are thinking of calling it * Artillery
Mansions.' It's getting quite famous as a
dug-out. The Divisional General had a look
at it the other day. The sappers are putting
in for a brass door knocker for it. It certainly
is an extremely comfortable place (I'm writing
this in it now, on the collapsible table)."
July 2jth.
" H. was relieved after lunch, and we both
rode into [Armentieres] to get a lock for our
new dug-out. On the way back we called in
on Purcell, and had tea there. Coming out of
[Armentieres] we saw a most remarkable sight
two officers participating in a mixed tennis
double in the garden of one of the larger
houses this in a town shelled regularly two
or three times a week or sometimes more. It
did take one home seeing it."
August \th.
" In the morning I started the trench for
the buried wire to B. Battery. I went up to
77
A Subaltern s Share in the
relieve H immediately after lunch. It was
very quiet all the afternoon. After dining with
the Infs. there I went on to Observation farm,
where I was sleeping the night. I found that
the roof, or rather the upstairs floor (as the
roof had been removed by a shell) leaked
badly, and that the blanket which I keep
there was soaked.
" After reporting to the Inf. Colonel I
turned in at about 10 p.m."
August $fh.
" I woke at 5.30 a.m., and as I was feeling
rather cold, got up and went down to the
trenches. It was a topping morning after the
rain of the day before.
" After visiting the Observing Station to
see if there was anything worth shooting at, I
went up to the front trench. Here one of
the sentries reported that he could see a Gerboy
working at the parapet of a small salient in
their line, so I looked through a magnifying
periscope (which has been presented to the
Battery and is extremely good) and saw him
78
A Subaltern s Share in the W^ar.
quite plainly, appearing for a few seconds and
then getting down, apparently building up
sandbags. So I dashed to a loophole and
waited with a rifle, but he was extremely hard
to pick up without a glass. I'd have given
anything for a telescopic rifle. But I waited,
looking through the glass. After a bit I
thought I saw the top of his head with its
round cap again, so I had a shot and just
skimmed their parapet. I don't think I got
him, but he didn't do any more work there.
After breakfast, I noticed them working in
the salient in front of our line, and put a
shell in it to stir them up. We keep a gun
always laid on it now, and fire when there is
any signs of work there.
" H relieved me in the afternoon.
Later on he fired two rounds, and he told us
that the Germans had put up a notice,
' Warsaw gef alien] and he had made them take
it down."
August jth.
" Visited the sappers to find out what they
79
A Subaltern s Share in the
had in the way of wood, etc., as we are planning
to build huts for the men.
"Afterwards went up to relieve B at
the Observing Station.
" The Huns went in for a bit of shelling
at various times during the day in the after-
noon dropping three about fifty yards from the
infantry mess where I was naving tea. This
was rather annoying, so I turned the battery
on to what we think is their Observing Station,
and they shut up.
" I slept the night at Artillery Mansions.
(Did I tell you the name of our dug-out is
Artillery Mansions ? )"
August qth.
" After dinner we went up to the front
trench and found the Gerboys very cheery,
shouting out remarks, and singing, and one
man playing a penny whistle. We sent up a
Verey light which dropped in their wire and
made quite a bonfire, which they tried to put
out. But we got a machine-gun on it, and
kept them off. Unfortunately the fire died
down and went out.
80
A Subalterns Share in the War.
" We then sent up another flare, and it
again dropped in their wire. But I distinctly
saw a German dash out and stamp it out and
get back before he was fired at. Rather a good
effort on his part.
"Then we suddenly spotted a very loud
sound of transport moving along a road in rear
of their position, also troops going along with
it singing.
" So I at once reported to our H.Q., and
we turned two batteries on to a road which
we knew ran about 1,000 yards in rear of
their trenches.
" After firing a few salvos we stopped to
listen again. The shelling seemed to have had
no effect, except that there was no more
singing.
" So we turned on to another road about
2,500 yards further on. At the first salvo we
heard an extraordinary explosion and thought
it might possibly be an ammunition wagon,
but of course we could not tell. We imme-
diately gave them several more rounds. The
transport seemed to stop and then go on again,
F 81
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
the tail of the column apparently turning off
down another road.
" When we had finished, the Germans
, retaliated with about half-a-dozen rounds on
our trenches, without, however, doing any
damage.
" It was quite an amusing evening."
August ijth.
"About 9 p.m. I was just settling down
comfortably in Artillery Mansions when I
heard the Infs. report on the 'phone that they
could hear transport. So 1 had to put on my
boots and splash up to the front trench again.
"We could hear it there very distinctly,
so the battery loosed off at it, but I don't
think we got it at all. The Germans were
very cheery again to-night. Shouting and
singing, etc. one man saying that he wished
he was back in the good old Mile End
Road.
" One of the Gerboys was getting rather
obstreperous, so two of the infantry subalterns
and myself got a rifle laid, and next time he
82
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
shouted we put a volley in his direction which
was greeted with yells of derision."
August 26th.
" On getting home [from an expedition to
another part of the line] I found that a battle
had been raging, i.e., the Gerboys had been
shelling [Ploegsteert] with 5*9 and 4*2 H.E.,
and we had replied with our shrapnel. H ,
who had been sleeping in the clover just before
the incident, was aroused by a shell bursting
about thirty yards away. I went up to the
trenches that evening to stay the night at
Observation farm. It was a glorious night,
the Germans were having a concert of part-
songs very well sung."
September 26th.
" The other evening, when we were all
sitting in our room, we heard one or two bangs
outside. It didn't occur to us what was
happening till Webb, the immaculate ex-butler,
knocked at the door and said in his most precise
and expressionless tone, ' Excuse me, sir, but
I believe we are being shelled/ We went
F 2 83
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
out, and found that they were putting them
over pretty close, but no damage was done and
they soon shut up.
" On Friday (September 24th) I went up
to our ordinary Observing Station in the after-
noon. The usual peaceful atmosphere was
quite disturbed, and the general idea was
that we were attacking there first thing next
morning. They had orders to be ready to
at a moment's notice.
" Great preparations were being made for
a huge ruse to be perpetrated on the Huns
next morning. Large bundles of straw and
tins of water were collected all along the front
trench, together with some paraffin. The
scheme was to light the straw bundles (after
suitably damping them) and, at a given signal,
heave them over the parapet.
" The idea of this was to put the wind up
the Bosches, and make them think they were
being gassed (we were gassing properly further
South, I believe).
"Next morning (25th) we all stood to at
4.45 a.m., and at 5.56 a.m. the straw was lit
and heaved over.
84
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
" It was top-hole all along the line there
suddenly rose (in complete silence) clouds of
smoke which rolled gradually across to the
Gerboy trenches. It worked splendidly. We
heard them ring their gas bell and send up
shower of red rockets (signal for artillery
support) and then open a terrific fire on our
parapet, while we sat and roared with laughter
in our trenches.
" Then our guns opened, and sprayed their
first line with shrapnel. They retaliated quite
a lot, but did not do an enormous amount of
damage.
" We have just heard that our attacks at
other parts of the line have been quite success-
ful. We are now supposed to be ready to
move at any moment ; it's an awful nuisance
having to pack."
September 2jth.
" At last the blow has fallen we're going
to leave our position. It's perfectly beastly
after being here four months we've really got
quite fond of the place, and of course know it
85
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
inside out. The biggest wrench, perhaps, is
leaving Artillery Mansions. It would be rather
interesting after the war to come back and see
if it's still standing. Our old farmer made us
promise to come back and call on him some
time. He's always been very nice to us, and
I think he's quite sorry we're leaving. We've
been packing up hard all day, and it's rather
like leaving school for the last time ! "
October 2nd.
" This afternoon I had to go up to the
trenches as forward observation officer for the
brigades. I laid a line up as I went, but it
was cut as fast as it was laid and mended, by
shells and men tripping on it, etc., and I never
got through on it the first twelve hours I was
there. After some difficulty I found my way
through old German trenches to the Infantry
Brigade H.Q., which was in a house which
had been occupied by a German battery com-
mander, according to a painted notice on the
outside. He had made himself pretty comfort-
able. I spent that night with the Berks. It
was pretty cold, there was only the bottom of
86
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
the trench to sleep in, but acting on someone's
brilliant suggestion, I got hold of a lot of sand,
bags and covered myself with a layer of about
twenty deep it wasn't so bad."
October $th.
" We are now living in a small cottage, one
of a little village of miners' cottages. It is not
a bad little place except that when we got into
it, it had no doors or windows. But this defect
is being remedied by the simple expedient of
going round the other houses (which are all
made on the same plan) and taking the required
door or window.
" Most of the doors have already been
bagged for making dug-outs.
" Yesterday I was sent out reconnoitring
all over the place with B , and had a very
interesting though rather shelly day. The
awful news that our Colonel is leaving us
awaited our arrival home. He is to be a
Brigadier-General.
" During our wanderings we came across a
German gun position which had been captured.
87
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
It was very well fitted up the dug-outs all
had beds, chairs, tables, clocks, carpets, etc.,
and there was a speaking tube to each gun-
pit. I noticed in a field a mouse which had
obviously been killed by a large lyddite shell !
Rather rotten luck on the mouse !
"... I came up to relieve H to-day
at the Observing Post in the reserve trenches.
I took our fitter up with me, as he was very
keen to' see the old German trenches. . . .
" At one place on the main road the Huns
had apparently caught some of our transport,
as the place is littered with every imaginable
store blankets, picks, sand-bags, bicycles, a
Douglas motor-cycle, wagons of every descrip-
tion, etc. On our way, the fitter looted a lot
of bike lamps from the transport mess on the
road. They will be very useful for lighting
up the sights at night.
" He is going to piece together two or three
bikes on the way back, also a S.A. A. wagon ;
also collect some picks, shovels, axes, etc., which
will all come in very handy. The motor-bike
we decided was beyond us to repair/'
88
A Siihalterris Share in the War.
The first faint-hearted counsel, however,
was subsequently revised, and with the aid of
the invaluable fitter the shattered remnants
were reconstructed by George and his friend
" H.," by whom the machine was still being
used in the summer of 1917.
October jth.
" The fitter, by the way, also collected the
remains of the motor-bike I mentioned, and
we spent an amusing afternoon to-day patching
it up. It is just possible we might be able to
get it to go.
" This place was just as cushy as [Ploeg-
steert], where we were before this strafe was
started, so one of its former inhabitants, in the
Camerons, told us. He was quite sick with
the authorities for disturbing the peace. It
used apparently to be quite a pleasant spot with
[Bethune] within easy reach for recreation."
October %th.
' c I spent this morning alternating between
the motor-bike and the gun-pits, both of which
were being reconstructed.
89
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
" In the afternoon H and I were poring
over the bike with the fitter, when we noticed
that our eyes began to smart a bit. We were
working near a wood fire, and thinking the fire
was the cause we moved round the corner.
There had been some considerable shelling, by
the way, all day, and there was quite a lot going
on there, but not very near us, so we didn't
take any notice, as we had been told not to
fire till we received orders to do so from Head-
quarters. The smarting got worse and worse,
and we were just cursing the cook about the
fire, when one of the sergeants came up from
the battery (about two hundred yards off), with
eyes streaming, saying that the Gerboys were
sending over gas shells. So we all stood to,
in smoke helmets or goggles, and very soon
received the order to fire, which we proceeded
to do with varying intensity for about four hours.
" There was a hell of a row going on
every battery, English, French, and German,
pooping as hard as they could. The gassing
was extremely unpleasant, though the effects
were not lasting.
90
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
" The Bosches did quite a lot of strafing
round us, knocking out a French battery in
front, and one behind us, but luckily not
touching us.
" The fitter, who went down to the wagon
line on a bike for more ammunition, got blown
off his bike twice by shells, but he didn't seem
to mind. People did look priceless sights in
their smoke helmets.
"That night I had to go out to try and
relieve the telephonists in the trenches, but,
getting hopelessly lost after three hours' wan-
dering, I returned home, and went up next
morning."
October gth.
" In the trenches I heard more about the
fight of the day before. Apparently the
Germans had made a very strong counter-
attack, especially on the chalk pit which was
our zone. All morning they shelled our infantry
like blazes, but, as a matter of fact, did not
do so much damage as might be expected.
None of our guns replied at all. The Infs.
9 1
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
couldn't understand it, and we couldn't under-
stand why we weren't allowed to fire. But
the Gerboy couldn't understand it either,
and thought it meant that we were rather
done, and that he had a nice cushy job before
him.
" Then in the afternoon they came on.
Even then no one fired at first. Then suddenly
everybody opened. Infs., field, and heavy artil-
lery. We made a curtain of fire behind the
people advancing, so then they were trapped
between the infantry fire in front and the
shrapnel behind. Only one man reached our
parapet, and he only by hiding in a shell hole
about thirty yards short of our trench and then
coming forward with his hands up. He was,
I believe, the only prisoner taken that day.
But, on the other hand, mighty few of them
ever got back.
" This evening we moved out to another
position about a mile further North. We got
in, in pitch darkness, after having had some
difficulty in finding the way. But the battery
next door gave us some supper, so it wasn't so
bad when we got in.
92
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
" We each had a dug-out to sleep in, made
in a bank near by.
" The next day was very peaceful, as we
were connected up to no one on the 'phone,
and as we had only been brought there to be
used in our attack which was going to come
off, we were not liable to be called upon for
S.O.S. or retaliation.
" We spent the next day or two laying out
lines to the Observing Station, and making dug-
outs there and at the battery, and generally
making arrangements for our attack. We got
up a lot of H.E. as well as shrapnel, and one
brigade of howitzers have been dished out with
a lot of gas shells (lachrymal) which they are
going to poop off.
" If the wind's all right, we're going to gas
too. It'll do the Gerboys a lot of good.
" Our Brigade was complimented on its
shooting, as apparently it was where we were
firing that the biggest attack was to have come,
but was entirely swamped by fire. Did a lot
of work on 'phone dug-out this afternoon.
" The new Colonel came over and asked
me to be his orderly officer, as the present one
93
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
is going. It may be an honour, but I'm
awfully sick, as I don't want to leave the
battery at all."
October
" We had a battle all to-day. We started
firing at 1 2 midday, and went on till 6.30 p.m.,
and then continued at fifteen rounds an hour
all night. From our point of view it was
very boring. H --- was up at the Observing
Station, and saw the whole thing.
" First of all our bombardment, then gas
for an hour, then our infantry going forward.
He saw them rush into the Hohenzollern
Redoubt, which we were trying to take, and
then start bombing. After a time he saw
them wavering, and starting to go back.
Then their officers urging them on again, and
running on in front. He said it was madly
exciting, watching, and wondering which way
the fight would go. After a bit they seemed
to go on again, and then towards evening they
suddenly all seemed to come back in a mass,
this time to our old front-line trenches. So
94
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
once more we have taken this redoubt and
been driven out of it again.
" You know that advertisement of Sana-
togen a stream of limping, decrepit people
walking along a road ? Well, I saw that
reproduced in the afternoon. As it was begin-
ning to get dark, I could see, walking along a
road on the sky-line, silhouetted against the
sky, a stream of men staggering along, some
helping others who limped ; all bandaged ;
the walking cases of the wounded."
October 1 6th.
" To-day B and I rode down to the
wagon-line, the first time I had left the battery
since we had been here, except once to make
a place for the Observing Station.
" On the way we passed the East Surrey
billets, so I asked for Purcell, and found that
he was wounded. As far as I could gather it
was a Blighty one ; so, if it isn't at all serious
it's a jolly good thing, as the infantry isn't par-
ticularly healthy nowadays especially round
here. I hope it isn't very serious.
95
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
" I went down the very trench that he was
hit in one day about ten days ago, and was
warned of the sniper. It isn't much of a trench,
only about two feet deep in places. We got
a splendid view of the Gerboys from it.
"... Yesterday I waylaid a motor lorry
and got a couple of water-bottles, that I had
brought with me, filled with petrol. So in
the afternoon the great trial of the motor-bike
took place. Enormous triumph ! It fired,
first go !
" It's extraordinary what a change has been
wrought in it since we first got it. Its original
defects were as follows : Front wheel buckled,
front forks bent, handle-bars removed bodily,
tank split, flywheel bent, gear sprocket bent
and cracked, back-stays bent, rear wheel buckled,
carrier bent, both mud-guards bent, foot-rests
broken, saddle-spring bent, all tools gone, high-
tension wire broken, everything full of earth
and no paraffin to clean it with and now it
goes, and looks comparatively respectable.
" If you know of anyone who wants a
first-class mechanic, builder, painter and general
96
A Subaltern s Share in the
maker of bricks without straw, let him get
our fitter."
October ijth.
" This morning, at 5 a.m., we were aroused
to support a bombing attack, so we started
firing away. I immediately started out on the
motor-bike to get up more ammunition from
the wagon-line. I got down there all right
although the engine was only firing in one
cylinder, and got the ammunition up in time
to keep us going, so the bike has been useful
already. . . .
"... We've heard that we're likely to
stay here some time, so I took out a party this
afternoon to remove all the remaining wood
from a neighbouring ruined house for im-
proving our abodes. We're getting quite good
at housebreaking. H also went off on
the motor-bike to rout round the various
sappers and squeeze some stuff out of them.
"... The method, by the way, by which
we keep supplied with petrol is easy. One
simply sits on the bike on some main road,
e 97
A Subalterns Share in the War.
stops the first lorry one sees, and asks if the
driver could spare you some petrol as you've
run out and there the job is done ! The
Q.M.S. also has a friend in the A.S.C. who
can sometimes get a tin for us.
" It's been extremely pleasant for the
last two days we gave up firing fifteen rounds
an hour (also all the other batteries round us),
so we had an almost entire rest from noise. It
was very funny at first, quite difficult to know
what was happening, and then suddenly one
realises that one is hearing the silence."
October 2ist.
"Yesterday we heard that we shall pro-
bably move in two days' time.
" It's rather a nuisance as we had just
started improving the place. I had just
planned and started a dressing-room (4 feet by
4 feet) to my dug-out, which would have
been a great improvement. . . .
" 1 went off first thing this morning to
Guards' Divisional H.Q. on the bike to get
orders, which I took to Brigade H.Q. I have
98
A Subaltern s Share in the
now been taken on to Brigade H.Q. as Orderly
Officer, to look after the Brigade 'phones, and
assist the Colonel and Adjutant generally.
" In the afternoon I went out on the bike
to look for billets for us if we went into rest.
. . . After some fruitless searchings I went
to our R.A.H.Q., and there found that the
whole move had been cancelled. So all my
wandering round was wasted.
" But still, I got a promise out of the R. A.
Signal Officer to get me a new pair of handle-
bars for the bike."
October 3O///.
" Been very busy indeed the last two or
three days. We changed H.Q., and the bat-
teries changed positions three days ago, and
I've been spending all my time sorting out the
wires, which are in an awful tangle. I have
eight working lines here, and another seven up
at our liaison office with the infantry brigade,
and there are at least another seven disused
wires on this house, so it's rather a job sorting
them out and keeping them going. It is quite
G 2 99
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
a nice house much more room than our last
place. PurcelFs brigade are now in the
trenches/'
George did not long hold the post of
Orderly Officer, as three weeks later he was
made Adjutant.
November
" F -- went to-day to command the
column ... so I take on the job of Adju-
tant, and Cotterill comes as Orderly Officer.
I'm going to continue to run the brigade
'phones, Cotterill taking on the returns."
Lieut. Cotterill was one of George Deve-
nish's most intimate friends. They came to
be very closely linked together in their work,
as they were destined to be also in their death.
George's duties as Adjutant afforded him
a fresh variety of experiences, out of which he
contrived, as usual, to extract his full share of
entertainment. A letter that he wrote, de-
scribing some of his difficulties in the matter
100
A Subaltern s Share- in- the-* W'ctr.
of H.Q. billets, seems worth quoting in full,
for the sake of the picture it gives of one of
the varied episodes which made up his life at
this time.
December
" Yesterday I rode on here to take over the
new H.Q.
"The billet is quite good two rooms
downstairs, one for 'phone and clerks, one for
our office and mess but there has been trouble.
This morning the proprietor of the house (he
is a horsedealer, and therefore probably a spy)
came to interview the Colonel of the outgoing
Brigade. He wanted to know if the Brigade
who were coming wanted the living-room as
a mess, and said that if they did they (that is
we) must pay five francs a day for it. The man
got very excited, but the Colonel took him
very calmly, and said that that was obviously
absurd. The room was an office and not a
mess, and as such he was only entitled to half-
franc. The man went out bursting with
fury, and I foresaw that there would be con-
siderable trouble in keeping the room, as the
101
A Subalterns Share in the War.
rest of my H.Q. would not arrive till lunch-
time and this H.Q. was going out at 9 a.m.
" Sure enough, I was just outside saying
good-bye to them, and on returning found that
the family (father, mother, daughter) and two
or three friends were sitting round the table
in the room drinking coffee (this they con-
tinued to do for the rest of the day).
" Luckily I had brought some telephonists
with me, whom I deposited in the telephone
room with orders not to move out of it under
pain of death, so I managed to keep that room
all right.
" Well, when I discovered the family thus
ensconced, I walked through the room to get
something. The man promptly said that I
was not to go through the room, and on my
remarking that I didn't see any reason why I
shouldn't, as it was my office, he replied that
I was quite mistaken, but that it was his salle
a manger (all his remarks were chorused by his
family).
" I therefore proceeded to the Mairie and
got an order to turn the man and family out
102
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
of the room. This was brought along by a
doddering old Garde Champetre.
" When it was handed to the man, he
started a torrent of expostulations and refusals,
ably backed up by mother, daughter, andfriends.
After a bit I got rather angry and told him
that it was quite unnecessary to have any back-
chat on the subject, and that it did not matter
a bit what he said, but that I was going to have
the room. I then departed, leaving them
to think it over. Immediately after, the
daughter came out and wanted me to come and
have a glass of wine. But I said I hadn't
time (I afterwards saw the Garde Champetre
drinking with them), and went off to lunch at
A. Battery. After lunch I returned and found
them still in possession, and taking no notice
of the order of Mairie, so I rode into [Bethune]
and got from the A. P.M. a gendarme, and
an English M.P. Sergeant who could talk
French like a bird, and I rode out with them
to interview my people.
"Then started the most wonderful discussion
I have ever heard. The gendarme, a Marechal
103
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
de Logis, was a splendid orator. He appealed
to their better feelings where would they be
if we weren't here ? he appealed to them
as brothers, Frenchmen ; and mademoiselle,
would she like to see us without a place to
live in ?
" As they still remained obdurate he would
sit down and start writing out an order for
them to move out, and then in the middle stop
and start the argument over again. This went
on for about i| hour. Towards the end of
the time, wine was produced, and we started
drinking to each other, solemnly at first, and
then as the question got more settled, with
an occasional joke, or praise for the wine, till
finally, when it had at last been settled, a bottle
of old wine was produced with great ceremony,
and we all solemnly shook hands and clinked
glasses and made absurd jokes, and made-
moiselle showed off" her very slight knowledge
of English. The last half-hour consisted en-
tirely of bargaining for the price of the room.
I think it was money they were out for the
whole time."
104
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
In December George succeeded, to his
great joy, in getting leave for Christmas, which
he spent at home, after two or three strenuous
days in London, with all the engagements that
could by any possibility be fitted in, together
with some very complicated shopping connected
with a telephone switchboard for the brigade
office, which he had set his heart upon con-
structing during his short leave.
The G.S. one served out to him did not
meet with his approval, so he designed another
which he considered more convenient, with
connections, switches, labels, etc. exactly to his
mind. It was an ambitious undertaking, re-
quiring exact measurements and a great deal
of very careful work, materially increased by
his determination to achieve also a mahogany
case to fit the switchboard. He called in the
aid of his entire family (his brother happened
to be at home on sick leave, so they were all
together again that Christmas), and by dint
of strenuous exertions the whole was finished
by midnight on Christmas Day.
George had to leave for the front next
morning, and in his anxious care for the switch-
board, he succeeded in leaving his bag behind
him, and never realized the fact until his father,
105
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
by desperate efforts and great good fortune,
succeeded in bringing it to him just before the
departure of the leave-train. The matter is
disposed of in his diary in one brief sentence :
" Motored to Victoria to catch the 9.50
a.m., and father just got up in time with my
bag."
The success of the switchboard is recorded
with far more interest a few days later :
" Everyone is very much impressed with
the switchboard. To-day the O.C. Divisional
Signals' and the R.A. Signals' officers came to
inspect it, and were very appreciative."
1916.
The New Year found George Devenish
back in the familiar round of moves and tele-
phones, varied with " hates " and " strafings,"
of which the following letters treat.
January 2$tA, 1916.
" We've been in the new position four or
five days now. It was pretty hard work the
first few days answering the 'phone every
106
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
other minute, sending in return after return
with intervals of being strafed by the Brigade
Major or Staff Captain (a dear old gent from
the Stock Exchange) for not getting them in
in time. We've got quite a small cottage now
(at least two rooms of it and another small one
that the Colonel shares with the pig there
is a rather leaky wall between them). I started
building operations to-day a hut outside for
use by the servants as a kitchen.
" The Colonel and I went for a stroll down
to the trenches the other night, Alice, his dog,
of course coming with us.
" There is a most extraordinary mine
crater just behind our front line. It is about
forty feet deep and one hundred and fifty
feet across. It looked enormous in the moon-
light. We timed our exit from it quite nicely,
as just after we got out they put a very nicely-
burst time H.E. over it.
" We then proceeded to stir them up by
firing our enfilade gun into their trenches.
" We had quite an amusing night and Alice
saw a lot of rats."
107
A Subaltern s Share in the
February 2nd.
" The Gerboys have been very uppish
lately. On the a8th they gave us one of the
heaviest bombardments they've ever risen to
(except that they hadn't the larger howrs.
there). It did extraordinarily little damage to
personnel. In one battalion only two shells
out of probably over 1,000 being effective.
"There was an awful lot of wind up going
round a night or two ago.
" It was probably originated by a nice,
gentle, East wind an ideal gas wind.
" Anyhow the effects were far-reaching.
" We were just sitting down to our even-
ing game of Double Demon, when someone
started loosing off, soon to be joined by others.
" After that the Staff started ringing up
what was all the strafing about ? was it on our
front ? could we smell gas ? had the Germans
attacked ? etc., continually interrupting us with
some sort of question. Then Corps suddenly
rang up (they live, by the way, seven or eight
miles behind the line), and told us that we
were being attacked by gas.
108
A Subaltern s Share in the
" Still the only gas that arrived was over
the 'phone, so at about i i.o p.m. we were at
last allowed to go to bed. . .
". . . I've been back to my old job all
this week making dug-outs for an O.P.
Exchange.
" I got some rather good material for them
sort of sectors made of steel, like a Two-
penny Tube is made.
" I put a wire up into one of the biggest
of the new craters the other day. It is perfectly
huge about 70 yards across and 40 feet deep.
" The Huns had been making it very un-
pleasant there for the few days before, but it
was quite quiet that morning except for snip-
ing. In this they were very uppish. I looked
over with a periscope and saw a couple ol
Bosches looking over the parapet, and one at
once pointed out my periscope to the other,
who had a shot at it. We hadn't any place
made to reply from, and it wasn't done to look
over the parapet with them up first."
109
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
The next letter was filled with the compli-
cations created by repeated changes of orders
from H.Q., in connexion with the brigade's
next move, the " conclusion of the whole
matter" being, however, summed up with
George's usual philosophy.
" Still, as a matter of tact, I believe they
have some excuse, there are things afoot down
South, so they say. Still there is a silver
lining to quite a lot of unpleasant things it
you know how to turn them inside out (see
popular song), and there looks to be a possi-
bility of one here for us personally. We are
not to have a group this time, which is some-
thing, as it means awfully hard work, and by
the original orders we were to have our H.Q.
in a beastly little cottage in [Neuville St.
Vaast], a rather unpleasant spot near here."
February zjth.
" The move is o'er, the battle done (for
the moment at any rate).
" We've absolutely fallen on our feet, and
no
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
no question about it. Why on earth this bil-
let (it doesn't seem right to call it a billet
palace is more like it) isn't a Division, or
Corps H.Q., I don't know !
" It's true only two of us have dressing-
rooms, and the water in the geyser bath doesn't
come out quite boiling ; but apart from that
the place is quite bearable. There is a huge
room divided by folding doors, with a parquet
floor that would make a topping dancing-room !
It was rather like leaving school to go home
on the holidays coming in here.
". . . It is perfectly delightful to be away
from a 'phone. The other day I rang up the
Staff Captain from a signal office in Bethune,
to see if he had anything to grouse about. He
immediately thought that I had got the 'phone
in my office, and was awfully pleased, think-
ing that he'd always be able to get at me.
But I soon disillusioned him, and broke it to
him that I didn't propose having it on, either
now or, if possible, as long as we are here."
in
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
The occupation of the palatial billet did
not last many weeks.
March 2$th.
" Alas, the blow has fallen. We're being
turned out of our topping billet in B
to-day, as it is no longer in our Corps area.
" It is sickening. It's easily the best billet
we've struck yet or are likely to strike. Be-
sides it was very nice living in a town again."
April \th.
" We've got quite a good billet here,
L Chateau. I've just finished a new
exchange at the batteries. I've been working
at it every day since we came here, riding up
to the batteries immediately after breakfast
and coming back after tea.
" It has been quite interesting work, and
seems to be very successful. I've put in quite
a lot of patent gadgets."
At the end of March, 1916, George
Devenish responded to the call for volunteers
112
A Subaltern s Share in the
from among the junior artillery officers to act
as observers in the Flying Service. He did
this, not with any desire for change his heart
was always with his beloved battery but
simply because " some one had to take it on."
The fact that the change meant postponement
of the promotion which would have soon come
to him did not weigh with him in the least, but
he hated leaving his friends, and it is pleasant
to know, from more than one of them, how
sorry they were to lose him. His Colonel
expressed himself anything but desirous of
sending away so promising a young officer, but
he felt bound to recommend him as fitted in
every particular for this special work.
Accordingly on March 23rd, 1916, George
notes that he "went off to G.H.Q. about
being taken on as an observer in R.F.C."
A few days' leave followed early in April,
and when he returned to France it was to join
the R.F.C.
H 113
Up in the air, in the circling sky,
Here alone am I
Over the sun-lit clouds to fly,
My engine, wings, and I.
Far below is the warring earth,
High in heaven the sun :
In a new world I have made my birth,
A world where is only one.
Down ! Through the clouds to the old, old world
That is boiling with life and death !
The shrapnel-smoke like wool is curled ;
I am chilled with an icy breath,
As the air-plane rocks, and the air-plane rolls,
And the screaming shells explode :
Their bullets fly like new-loosed souls
To show me the lonely road.
Death is sure if they strike me here ;
Death is sure below ;
Death in the clouds is very near
But I have seen ! I know !
Back through the teeth of death we tell
Our tale to the circling sky :
We have saved a brigade from their tangled hell,
My engine, wings, and I.
George Bidder.
114
PART III
" PER ARDUA AD
ASTRA"
APRIL, 1916, TO JUNE, 1917
DEVENISH'S service in the
Royal Flying Corps began in April, 1916,
and ended on the 6th of June, 1917.
During the first four months of that time
he was acting as artillery observer, in France,
after which he was sent home to be trained as
a pilot.
It is tempting to give all his letters of
this period, but the following passages must
suffice :
1916.
April zyth.
"Glorious day. I went to the range with
the Lewis gun in the morning; in the evening
went up for a joy ride to get my bearings of
the country from a new point of view.
H 2 115
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
"I spotted the th Brigade, but after that
very soon lost my bearings. It is very difficult
to find one's way at first.
"It was two years since I had last been
up."
April 2qth.
"Another glorious day. I went up for a
joy ride again in the evening, and this time
kept my bearings much better."
May iqth.
"We had quite an exciting time to-day.
We were having a long-distance shoot, escorted
by two fighting machines.
"We spent an hour getting height round
about the aerodrome, and then started off" in
formation over the lines.
"Archy, of course, at once got to work,
but was not very patent at first.
"Well, we flew out over the place, and fired
three shots, but could observe none of them,
for some reason or other. Then, suddenly, a
Fokker shot along a short way below us, loos-
ing off at us as he passed. We immediately
116
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
did a sharp turn, and I opened fire on him as
he was going away from us. He thereupon
dived down steeply, and went off. Later, we
saw him dive at one of the other machines
(being fired at hard by them) and go straight
on down, where I lost sight of him. L ,
however, saw him loop twice sideways, and
end in a spinning nose-dive.
"The next thing that came on the scene
was an Albatross, which we suddenly spotted
flying towards us, shooting. But he turned at
about two hundred andfifty yards off and started
going away, so we dived after him firing, and
he went off altogether. It was clearly quite
impossible to continue the registration with all
these machines about interfering with us, so
we set out for home.
"Just as we were approaching the line, we
suddenly heard a machine-gun firing at us. I
couldn't spot where it was coming from, but
L saw and swerved. It was a Fokker
diving down from the rear. He went straight
down past us, putting about twenty bullets
through our tail, but doing no very serious
117
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
damage and disappeared off home. After turn-
ing to see if we could see him, we did like-
wise. Throughout the whole time there was
an old German sausage calmly floating about
2,000 feet below us (we were working at about
9,000 at the time).
"The observers on it must have felt
very uncomfortable as any of us could have
dived and strafed it ! Although we were
Archied the whole time (except when we were
fighting), about three-quarters of an hour in
all, only about two pieces hit us, one of which,
which must have been fairly spent, hitting the
petrol tank on which I sit, and only denting
it. The fighting part was quite exciting."
May 22nd.
"L and I were out doing a target
to-day some little way over the line. It was
rather cloudy, and we had to get well over it.
There were two F.E.s about, so we weren't
expecting any attack. Suddenly, as I was
wirelessing down an observation and L
was busy dodging Archies, an M.G. started
1x8
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
just behind us. I knew what to do this time,
and was kneeling up on my seat, firing over
the back mounting, before he'd really got
going. It was a Fokker again, but the firing
rather put him off, also the proximity of the
F.E.s, and he moved away without coming
nearer than one hundred yards or so, and
made off home to trouble us no more."
May 2$th.
"To-day I went up to do some targets
with another pilot. He said he'd get the K.
out on the aerodrome when he'd got some
height, so I left him to his own devices, and
spent the time studying the map round where
my targets were. After about a quarter of an
hour, during which time we had been climb-
ing, I sent a note back to the pilot telling him
to fly over the target, as I was then ready. I
then saw him looking anxiously round, and he
replied that he had lost his way. I looked
round and didn't recognize any of the country
and had only got a large-scale map showing
the immediate neighbourhood. We were
obviously off that map.
119
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
"At that time we were passing over a large
town, which I was certain I did not know
(afterwards found to be Hazebroucke), so I
told him to steer due East, so as to strike the
line, when we should probably recognize where
we were.
"After some time, I noticed the ground
becoming very pock-marked, and suddenly a
very much strafed town appeared with the
line just goinground one side of it. (Did I say
that it was rather misty and one could not see
any distance ?) Well, this town was obviously
eitherYpres orArras(two towns not far apart !).
As it had a canal we decided that it was pro-
bably Ypres, so we turned South, and after a
time struck a large town. I knew this ought
to be Armentieres, but it didn't seem to me
as if it was, so we decided to land at a place a
little further on. This we successfully did,
and found that the town was Armentieres.
"When coming down I looked very care-
fully to see if the men walking about were in
khaki, and not field grey ! One never can
tell.
I2O
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
"Here I went to the nearest H.Q., and
got a small-scale map out of them. Then,
with the assistance of some men to hold back
and with me to swing the prop., we got off
all right and home safely.
"It was a most extraordinary thing, getting
so hopelessly lost. I'm never going up with-
out a small-scale map again."
June
" I went into [Bethune] the other day, and
passing the club saw the well-remembered
Douglas bicycle outside (the one we got at
Loos), so I went in, and sure enough H --
was there.
"He had biked in from where they were
back in rest. So we had dinner together there.
He was in great form, and is always a tonic.
"I came back here afterwards on a motor
machine gun, which happened to come my
way."
June 22nd.
" Heard that the division had gone down
121
A Subaltern $ Share in the War.
to join in the Push. It is sickening. I do
wish I could go with them ! I've missed every
big show in the whole war so far. Still it
can't be helped."
June 26th.
" L and I were up doing some registra-
tions this evening. I had just finished the last
one, and we were some way over the line.
L was about to drop his bombs (we always
take up bombs now a days and drop them when-
ever we cross the lines). I was hanging over
the side, trying to observe the bombs, and
L had his head in the office, the bomb-
gear having jammed, when there was a loud
rat-tat-tat-tat, and splinters began to fly out of
the side of the fusilage.
" I at once turned round in my seat, in
time to see a smallish Hun biplane coming
straight up behind us, at about forty miles an
hour faster than us, and therefore doing over
a hundred.
" He was firing as hard as he could.
" He came straight on until I thought he
122
A Subaltern s Share in the W^ar.
must collide with us, but at the last moment
he turned slightly and dived under us.
" All this happened so quickly that I hadn't
time to get a shot at him.
" He then turned sharply in front of and
below us. I think I got a few shots in then,
but I can't be certain.
" Then he circled round and came on our
tail again. This time I was ready, and I gave
him a drum straight off. He thereupon turned
offwithout getting nearer than a hundred yards.
But he hadn't quite done, and started to come
on again rather half-heartedly.
" So I gave him another drum, and he went
off out of sight. Our engine had been hit
somewhere and was missing a bit, so we
went home. . . .
" The skirt of my leather coat was torn
with bullets that came in at the side. We
were extraordinarily lucky to get off as we
did not a scratch on either of us."
July ibth.
"Nasty job to-day C.B. patrol with the
123
A Subaltern s Share in the W^ar.
clouds at only 1,800 feet. Meant going up
and down the line at anything under that
height, while every Hun who felt so disposed,
and happened to have a rifle handy, took pot
shots at us whenever we came in range, which
was pretty often. Still, they only hit the
machine twice, which was lucky."
" It's a funny game, this job. One's some-
how quite detached from the ordinary vulgar
war that's going on between the opposing
infantry and artillery and their immediate
hangers-on. We've got quite a separate war
of our own, and look upon everything from
a different point of view.
" Take Archie for instance ; on the ground
it used to be quite a pleasant summer evening's
diversion to watch him at work, and see the
planes dodging about from him ; in the air
it's almost impossible to extract any pleasure
from him.
" Then take the weather. In the infantry, if
it rains, it means twice the amount of work and
124
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
about ten times the amount of unpleasantness.
With us it means we don't do any work at all.
" We hear a heavy bombardment at night
we turn over in our beds and wish the dickens
that They, the ordinary vulgar fighters, wouldn't
make such a row. There's not much turning
in beds and trying to sleep with those assisting,
voluntarily or otherwise, at the said bombard-
ment.
" We've a very limited field of excitement,
really, compared with land fighting ; very few
of its varieties and really very little of the
personal element. When a Hun attacks one,
I don't think one thinks of the pilot at all
(not that one usually has any time to think of
anything) as attacking one, but simply of a
machine, armed with a machine-gun, which
must be hit with one's own machine-gun as
often as possible."
" I hate reading about the show down
South and being so hopelessly out of it. I'd
give anything to be with my battery there
125
A Subaltern s Share in the
but still it can't be helped, and this game's
quite interesting."
July i8M.
" Good news though I suppose it's selfish
to say so Fve just heard that my brigade is
not in the show, but attached to the French
right South. That quite alters things.
" I heard from H and Cotterill. They
seem to be having a very pleasant and peaceful
time.
" H has a position in a forest, and has
made a complete colony there. ... R.E.
material is apparently plentiful, and they've
made topping huts for themselves. I should
like to have been there for it."
August loth.
" Heard to-day that I'm 'going home to-
morrow to learn to fly. Not wildly excited,
as I am quite peacefully content here, and am
in the middle ot a new scheme for shooting
i8-pounders with aeroplanes, and I'm afraid
it may be dropped now I'm leaving."
126
GEORGE DEVENISH, 1917
A Subalterris Share in the War.
There followed the usual course of training
at Brooklands and elsewhere, a brief Christmas
leave with his family, a last night at home,
early in the New Year, a few more days with
his squadron in England, practising combined
flights, and waiting upon the weather, and
then George flew back to France, as leader of
one of the flights of his squadron.
1917.
February Sf/i.
" Our transport duly departed by road with
all our kit (except what we proposed carry-
ing in our machines) on Wednesday morning,
January 3ist. We were due to start at 10 a.m.
on Wednesday morning, February 7th.
" It was a beastly day and we didn't start,
which was very lucky, as I, personally, and
most of the others weren't anything liked
packed and should probably have left most
of our things behind.
" Next morning looked almost as bad, but
we were told to be ready to start and to see
that we got all stuff on our machines all right.
127
A Subaltern s Share i?i the War.
I didn't for a moment think we should go, but
I got everything on board, and then suddenly
we got orders to get off as soon as possible.
"Just before this C had taken his
repaired machine up fora test and had crashed it
on landing I think he said the engine conked.
I was therefore leading A. Flight over.
"We got off the ground at 11.15 and
cruised round the aerodrome for the others
to get into formation behind. After a quarter
of an hour I found that only three machines
were behind me, so I decided not to wait any
longer for the fourth. It turned out afterwards
that it broke a tail-skid getting off, and had
to land again.
" So I told S , who was my observer,
to fire a Verey light, and we started off.
" The clouds were only about 1,800 feet,
and just after I ran into one lower than
the rest, and on coming out found that I now
had only one follower, Cr . . . ."
(Then followed a short itinerary of his flight
as far as Folkestone.)
128
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
" My engine was not going very well, so
I decided to land at Folkestone, which we
reached at about 1.30. I found the aero-
drome all right, landed and filled up with
petrol, and cleaned the magneto.
" At about 2.45 we got off again just as
another flight (C. Flight it turned out to be)
flew over.
"The clouds were at about 2,500, so I
climbed up above them, in the end getting to
about 6,500. I wanted plenty of height in
case the engine conked, so that I might pos-
sibly be able to get to land or at least hit the
water near some steamer.
" I found that Cr had now disappeared,
and the other flight were apparently crossing
under the clouds, as I could not see them.
" The engine again started giving trouble,
and got steadily worse and worse. The air
pressure pump wouldn't work at all, and I had
to keep the pressure up by hand, and the engine
started missing. I kept my eyes glued to the
watch, as I had reckoned that we should get
across in about twenty minutes, and never have
i 129
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
twenty minutes gone so slowly. I was expecting
every moment that the engine would go.
" Of course, we should have been picked
up all right, but it would have been very un-
pleasant. Then I saw land some way ahead
through a gap in the clouds. It seemed to get
nearer very, very slowly, although we were
doing about seventy.
" At last we got within gliding distance,
if the engine were to go, and just at that
moment it went ! I knew we should get
the shore all right, and all the terrors of a
forced landing disappeared when one on the
land was possible, as opposed to one in the sea.
S , who'd only been flying for about a
week, didn't realise that we could reach the
land, and started looking out for steamers, so
he told me afterwards. Of course, I should
have chosen one heading towards England, if
possible !
" I then saw that the pressure had entirely
gone, and, pumping it up by hand, to my great
joy the engine picked up again ! Of course
all this happened in a very short time, and I
130
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
really got the engine going almost immediately.
It only seemed a long time.
" So we managed to stagger on, and, at last,
to my unbounded joy, I saw the St. Omer
aerodrome below me, and landed just before
C. Flight (who had come a slightly round-
about way) arrived. So I was the first Service
machine to land in France, and jolly thankful
I was to get down all right ! We reported,
saw our machines put away, and then betook
ourselves to the town in a tender and got
rooms at the hotel.
" I had been to the town for one night not
quite a year before, when I reported to the
. R.F.C. the first time. After we had deposited
our baggage, we went out and had tea at a
pattisserie which I remembered in the town.
" It was an extraordinary feeling getting
back to France. It took ages to realize that
one was there. There had been none of the
usual interminable journey shoving men and
guns and horses from train to boat, to rest
camp, etc.
i 2 131
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
" One had simply had breakfast as usual in
the morning, pushed off in a machine for a
cross-country flight, and then found oneself in
France ! It seemed quite unnaturally, yet
vaguely familiar, to hear the guns away in the
distance (we were about thirty miles from the
line there). Then getting down into the town
and going out for tea once more one was in
a land where the streets are decently lighted
and the shops and houses aren't afraid to
leave their blinds up, adding to the natural
cheeriness of a French town.
" One noticed a reproduction on a much
smaller scale of the same feeling one gets when
one steps out of Victoria Station from the leave
train. I suppose it is an unconscious pleasure
at getting back to surroundings which one
connects with pleasure, and, of course, going
into a French town usually means that one is
off duty for a while, and there for amusement.
I found that I was quite fairly efficient in
French of the conversational order."
February qth.
" Next day we went over to see our new
132
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
aerodrome, in a tender. It was about fifty
miles there and fifty back, and I don't think I
have ever been so cold before. Tenders seem
to be specially constructed to supply draughts
from every possible direction.
" On getting back to our hotel we found
that B. Flight had arrived."
February i8M.
" On Friday, February 1 6th, we flew over to
our new aerodrome. Our transport were sup-
posed to be there, but of course they weren't.
So we trundled our machines into the sheds,
borrowed a tender, and went down to H
to stay the night.
" We went up to the aerodrome next
morning (it's about seven kilos away), and
looked round our machines, but still no signs
of our transport. So we returned to H
for lunch.
" After lunch, B and I went out to see
if there was any available place for skating.
After a bit we came across a pond with one
Staff" Colonel, two Staff Majors, and various
133
A Subaltern s Share ^n the War.
other lesser deities very earnestly and solemnly
sliding. Wouldn't it have appeared astound-
ingly frivolous to a Hun, seeing such a thing !
" On getting back to the hotel we found
that the transport and rest of the personnel had
arrived at the aerodrome after a most appalling
journey of over a fortnight (it took us about
four hours). They had gone all the way by
road and boat, had been three days on the sea,
and had been practically frozen most of the
time.
" Several lorries had taken the ditch ; the
petrol, even, had frozen in some of the motor
bicycles.
" Still, there they were, and so next day
we moved up to the aerodrome. It is right
out in the wilds, with no village near it. We
live in Nisson huts (semi-circular huts of cor-
rugated iron, lined with match boarding).
The huts normally take six or eight.
" I luckily got in a half-hut, sharing it
with M and B . I hadn't brought
a camp bed, but managed to get some straw
from a farm to put under my valise. It's
A Subalterns Share in the War.
really warmer than a camp bed, and not very
hard.
" There is a stove made out of a kerosene
tin, but we couldn't get it to work for the first
few days.
" Still, between us we had two oil-stoves
and two primuses, so we managed to get a
certain amount of heat into it. Still, even
then I found that my handkerchief, by my
pillow even, was frozen in the morning ! On
the first day after the arrival of the transport
I found that B , one of our cavalry ob-
servers, knew the O.C. of a Field Squadron,
R.E., which was not far away. So we went
over in a tender, and he very kindly promised
us fifty feet of half-inch planking, which I
called for next day. With this I made some
much-needed shelves. By going round the hut
with some paper instead of oakum, and a comb
as a caulking iron, I managed to stop some of
the draught-producing cracks.
" The next two days were spent in extreme
aerial activity on our part. Living so near to
the H.Q. our doings are prominent, and the
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A Subalterns Share in the
aforesaid decided that we hadn't been taking
the air enough. The result was that we were
forced into the air as often aspossible, andno time
was allowed for much needed adjustments to
the machines. Still, it calmed down a bit after
a few days, as such outbursts usually do. The
squadron is divided into two messes H.Q.
and C. Flights, and A. and B. Flights, each
having a room in a farm near the huts
(which are about ten minutes' walk from the
aerodrome). It's rather a crowd in our mess
about twenty of us.
" It's been most marvellous flying weather,
though it is very difficult to keep one's feet
warm on long flights.
" I have discovered that G is the
adjutant to the C.R.E. of the Corps near
here. I must go over and see him at the first
opportunity. Quite apart from wanting to see
him personally (and I do very much I haven't
seen him since the shop days), he may possibly
have some timber ( to spare."
Apparently he had, for next week George
wrote with glee :
A Subalterns Share in the War.
"... I found that G - lived in the next
village, so I took the car on and had lunch
with him. It was topping seeing him again.
I casually broached the subject of planking,
and he said, by all means, so I hope to send
a tender over to-morrow for it."
February
" A really good day's work to-day !
" I started by going round to H.Q., R.F.C.,
and there found the Major who selects observers
for the R.F.C. I asked him if I could get
Cotterill (orderly officer of the 64th Brigade)
as my observer. He said, certainly, and at
once put him down for me. I hope he comes
all right."
March $th.
" A day or two ago I took up a Major in
S - 's regiment.
" It was a very rough day, but when I got
above the bumps I did a few mild stunts, and
then cut the engine down and shouted back to
him to ask him how he liked it. I thought
137
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
he said ' Very much/ so I did a few more.
Then he tapped me on the shoulder, and
shouted that he wanted to come down. So
down I went. When we landed he was just
on the verge of being ill, and it turned out
that he hadn't said c Very much/ but that he
wanted to go down, as he was already beginning
to feel the pangs ! Poor man ! I was awfully
sorry for him. Fancy when beginning to feel
a bit unstable to be stirred up more and
more ! "
March ijth.
" I had a very interesting trip this
morning.
" I flew up the whole line from the Somme
to Bailleul, looking up all the aerodromes on
the way. The ground in front of Albert is
grown over already, and quite different to when
I saw it last July. I didn't go up into our
salient there, but could see a big fire going on
at Bapaume. I then flew on up the line all
new country to me of course. Then suddenly
I got into the old atmosphere of the Bethune
138
A Subalterns Share in the War.
district I could almost feel it and saw the
old view of the Loos salient.
" I then went on North, past the burnt-
out church of Vieille Chapelle, which I saw
hit in October 1914, and then I saw Armen-
tieres away on my right. And there was
Plugstreet, and our old farm ; the latter still
apparently all right, Plugstreet itself rather the
worse for wear, or rather for shelling. What
an extraordinarily different idea of country
one does get in the air and on the ground !
Distances seem so much smaller. In the old
days we used to think it an enormous journey
into Bailleul, but now I look down on one
side of the machine and see our old farm, and
then look down on the other side and see
Bailleul ! It shows you, too, what wrong ideas
one gets of the relative position of various
places on the ground.
" It was a glorious day, and one could see
for quite a long way. Messines showed up on
the ridge very plainly."
March i^th.
" Cotterill, who was orderly officer to
139
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
the 64th, suddenly rang me up yesterday
morning. It turned out that he was at
R.F.C. H.Q., reporting, on being called up
to become an observer, and was on his way
back to England for a month's course before
coming out here again as an observer.
" I asked him along to lunch, and he gave
me a full account of the Brigade's doings.
Apparently it was about as ideal a piece of the
line as anyone could want. What would I not
have given to have been with them !
" . . . Their next move was to go up to
the Somme about the middle of September.
There they had a very unpleasant but very
interesting time. It made me very regretful
at having missed it all."
March i8M.
" A great day to-day ! I went to see the
War, as carried out on the ground in this
case by the dear old 64th Brigade.
" We had a day off for as many of the
squadron as could be spared, and I managed to
raise a side-car to take me up to the line. The
140
A Subaltern s Share in the
distance was about 35 miles, and a side-car
is at the best of times not the last word in
travelling appliances, and over some of the
roads we ran across it was worse than bad.
Anyhow it got me there and got me back
safely, which was the great thing.
"I didn't manage to get off till 12.0, and
we had to stop at a squadron on the way to
patch up a broken fork-spring and shock
absorber, so we didn't fetch up at the village
where the Brigade H.Q. was until about
2.45 p.m.
" Needless to say no one had ever heard of
the 64th Brigade. (' Only been in these parts
three weeks, sir/) At last I managed to find
the orderly room of the Royal Scots Battalion,
and there a telephone. I asked the operator
to put me on to the 64th. Then followed the
good old parley, consisting mostly of 'Hullo '
-< Is that the 64th ? ' ' Get off the line.'
' Exchange,' etc. Then I took it on. Once
more I heard the wonderful jumble of sounds
only to be heard on a 'phone close up to the
line. Distant voices shouting at each other ;
141
A Subalterns Share in the TPar.
three or four buzzers, each emitting a different
note, from a high squeak, sharp and clear
(usually belonging to 'Signals'), to the low
intermittent croak of a badly adjusted buzzer,
probably belonging to a battery or a battalion.
" Anyhow I added to this noise by saying,
' Is that the 64th ? ' c I say, Exchange, can't
you get the 64th ? ' etc., when suddenly,
to my great surprise, a voice said : ' Is that
Mr. Devenish ? '
" I replied in the affirmative (as they
say in Parliament), and it turned out that I
had got on to A. Battery by mistake, and the
telephonist had recognized my voice. Pretty
extraordinary, after being away almost a year,
to return suddenly and be recognized on the
end of a 'phone !
" Well, he also was fairly vague where the
H.Q. was, but gave me a sort of general direc-
tion. Then some one, whom I asked on the
way, had the brilliant notion of asking the
town major (it hadn't occurred to me that
there was one), and from him I at last found
them. The first man I saw was of course dear
142
A Subaltern s Share in the
old T (my servant), who simply rushed
out, even before I had got out of the side-car,
beaming with joy (I don't know how he knew
I was there). He immediately started fussing
round me, pressing food upon me (which I
didn't refuse, as I was pretty hungry, by then),
etc. The Colonel and the others seemed quite
pleased to see me again, which was nice of
them.
" Then old H came in from looking
for a new O.P. or something. He was just as
cheery and amusing as ever, and worth coming
miles to see again !
" After tea we walked up to the ridge in
front, where we could see the Hun trenches,
and hear machine guns doing their evening hate.
" It was wonderful to be back and hear
all the old sounds again. Then I went back
to H.Q. for supper, and got off at about 8.30,
getting in safely at about 1 1.45 p.m.
" (I forgot to say that Alice, the Colonel's
Irish terrier, is still going strong, and that she
remembered me.)
143
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
" My motor cyclist was seeing War for
the first time. He was very interesting to
watch. The look of surprised interest on see-
ing a shelled-down house for the first time,
hearing a gun fired, seeing a shell burst in the
distance, and generally realizing that here he
was at last near the actual Front, about which
he had read such a lot for two years or so, was
quite worth seeing.
" His excitement was great when we got
to the battery, and one of the gunners offered
to take him up to the trenches (reserve trenches
about 2,000 yards back but that didn't mat-
ter). The gunner played up well, by making
him get into a communication trench just in
front of the battery and creeping up it with
head well ducked.
" When H and I were strolling up
there later we came across the two cautiously
peeping out of a trench, on the parapet of
which you could have sunned yourself all
day without danger ! Still it helped bring
the realities home to him.
" His cup of joy was filled to overflowing
144
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
by the purchase (at probably an exorbitant
price) of a German steel helmet, which had
been captured in a raid the morning before,
and which, as my motor cyclist pointed out to
me with great pride, had some blood on it !
" War, red War, at last ! He is now
doubtless the hero of the squadron.
" It was just getting dark as we went from
the battery to H.Q., and the wonderful activity
which occurs every evening behind the lines
was just starting. Strings of ammunition
wagons, cooks' carts, G.S. wagons of R.E.
material stream up along the roads to the bat-
teries. Small parties of infantry, loaded down
till it seems marvellous how they stagger along
at all, march slowly by on the way up to the
trenches.
" Other parties of men, with picks and
shovels and rifles slung across their backs, going
up as digging parties. G.S. limbered wagons
bringing up rations and all manner of other
things for the men in the line, on their way to
dump their contents where it will be picked
K 145
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
up by carrying parties. Despatch riders,
taking the evening orders, together with an
ever-increasing amount of unnecessary paper,
to the various H.Q.s, trying to dodge the
machines between skidding lorries, jibbing
mules, and all the other abominations that
infest the road at night.
" (By the way, I notice that it has been
decided that type-writers are now contraband
of war, as being essential for the carrying on
thereof. Quite a lot of people out here seem
to think the same, to the great disadvantage
of harassed subordinates who have to decipher
such things as c Reference my D/32/M.T./R
i/4/C of 21/4/16; etc.)
" Then, as one gets on the larger roads,
continuous streams of lorries pour along filled
with everything, from road material to heavy
gun and howiz. ammunition.
" Along the sides of the road run narrow-
gauge tram-lines, with large bogie trucks be-
ing dragged along by anything up to ten mules
all in tandem an occasional caterpillar bring-
ing a new gun into position. Added to these
146
A Subaltern s Share in the
are various staff officers driving home in their
cars,, heavy battery subalterns returning on
their motor-bikes from their O.P.s, odd motor
ambulances, a few mounted officers riding back
to their billets, sapper officers on their way
up to the trenches for some job or other, and
one thousand and one other odd people.
" And all this on one, not too wide, appal-
lingly cut-up, French road ! All round are
the flashes and reports of various batteries
having their usual evening strafe, probably on
some such road as this in Hun-land. East, two
or three miles away, the sky is periodically lit
up by Verey lights, and the occasional rattle
of machine-guns and odd rifle shots can be
faintly heard sometimes. Quite close to the
road, huge gun-pits loom up ; side by side,
and close by, outlined against the sky, can be
seen a wireless aerial, used for working with
aeroplanes.
" The whole thing's rather worth seeing.
But, oh ! how war's changed ! Compare the
same place with what it was in, say, summer
'15. There would probably have been one or
K 2 147
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
two odd G.S. wagons, ammunition wagons,
and cooks' carts, trundling along. Local in-
habitants driving their cows home, and very
possibly certain battery officers riding home
from tea in the nearest town. There's no
doubt about it war's not what it used to be !
" There is very little human connection
and sympathy between the land and air wars.
" Each regards the other as more or less
machines, except when they happen to know
each other personally, such as a battery shooting
with a pilot it knows.
" The people on the ground see an aero-
plane getting Archied, and icomment on the
badness or otherwise of the shooting, or think
what a pretty sight the smoke balls are against
the blue sky.
" It doesn't usually occur to them that
there are two people in the bally machine who
can't see anything pretty in it, and object
strongly to it ; nor do they remember that one
can't carry about a pocket dug-out in a machine
into which one can retire when shelled ! And
148
A Subaltern s Share in the VPar.
vice versa, especially with people who haven't
seen any of the grand side of the show."
March 20th.
"A very sad thing happened on the i6th.
W , a Flight Commander, who was at
Charterhouse with me, was killed in a crash
merely a piece of very bad luck.
" He was an extraordinarily nice man, and
one of the most efficient in the Squadron, I
should think. He had been in the Flying Corps
since November 1914, starting as an observer
straight from Sandhurst. All the best people
always get done in somehow."
April ist.
" I was sent over to O yesterday, to take
some new machine from there to F . . . .
" . . . . On arriving back I found that
A. Flight was to be ready to move to the new
aerodrome at 5.30 a.m. ; why at that appalling
hour I don't know, as the transport couldn't
possibly arrive till the afternoon (it was starting
at 9.30 a.m.) and it would only take about 30
149
A Subaltern s Share in the
minutes by air. Still, there it was. Orders is
orders ! these being supplied by the Brigade.
" I got to bed as soon as possible, and got
up in the dark next morning. At 5.30 a.m.
it was still dark, a fact which the Brigade
hadn't realized, and we didn't get off till
about 7. The clouds were very low, but we
did quite a good formation flight, and all
arrived intact on the new aerodrome.
" We then proceeded to decide what huts
each of us should have. I got an Armstrong,
sharing it with S .
" We spent the day settling into our huts
and hangars.
" Next day (and) was quite dud, in fact
it snowed most of the day. (Each time the
snow goes we say, c Well, anyhow, there can't
be any more,' but there always is.) So we
didn't take the air at all. We were not allowed
to take our machines near the line at all, as
they were supposed to be going to give the
Huns a shock when loosed on them when the
Push came off, so I managed to borrow a dear
old 2 C. on Tuesday afternoon.
150
A Subalterns Share in the War.
" On this S and I set forth to explore
the line and the country we were going
to work over.
" It felt almost like flying a scout after air
tanks. I hadn't flown one since last October.
S didn't like it a bit after the palace the
observers got on our machines.
" We went up to the line, having a look
at the Bde. H.Q. and the batteries. Then
we flew over the country the Huns have
just been evacuating. It was extraordinarily
interesting. It was very hard to spot where
the line went, there were no signs of our
trenches.
" All the villages were smashed up. There
were huge mine craters at all the cross roads
and in the village streets, but already we had
made roads round them.
"At first I thought that the trees along
the roads were throwing extraordinary shadows,
then I saw that they were all cut down, prob-
ably originally across the roads, but now pulled
on one side by our people. Even in the
villages all the trees had been cut down.
A Subalterns Share in the War.
" Elaborate third lines and strong points,
wonderfully wired, had been left behind. . . .
" We got our first Archying, though only
one shot was much good. I find I've got
quite unused to Archie. I've also come to the
conclusion (which I strongly suspected before)
that he is much more unpleasant for a pilot
than for an observer. As an observer you
know that there is nothing that you can do to
stop his hitting you if he wants to, whereas it's
up to the pilot to dodge the machine in such
a way that he can't. The observer has a
delightful irresponsibility; at least, I always
used to feel that.
" After we had been going round for some-
thing over an hour, the engine suddenly conked.
We were luckily at about 5,000 feet, and inland
a bit, but the country below us looked ex-
tremely unpromising for a forced landing
nothing but shell-holes and trenches. I saw
a sausage not very far away, and decided to
make for that, as they'd be certain to have
transport and a telephone. I didn't think I
should reach it at first, but I just did. Even
152
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
then there were a good many shell-holes, but
I chose a field just alongside^ and by astounding
luck managed to get down into it without
straining anything, missing shell-holes by
inches, and, as I afterwards heard, the kite-
balloon cable (which I didn't notice) by about
ten yards, to the horror of the people at the
winch, who thought that I was going to hit
it. We found that we were at , just behind
the old front line. The balloon people were
very hospitable, and asked us in to tea, and I put
a call through to the Squadron. It took about
an hour to get it, and then we were cut off just
as I was telling them what had happened, and
I had to start another call.
" I got through again at about 7.0 p.m.
I told them that I thought that either a piston
or a big-end had gone, so they said that they
would send out a new engine.
" So we picketed down the machine, and
the Balloon Company Commander, who hap-
pened to be at the section, took us along in
his tender, gave us dinner at his headquarters,
and sent us back to the Squadron for the night. "
'53
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
Apri
" Next morning we went back to the
machine in a tender. It was only about ten
miles direct, but it took about 2.\ hours. The
roads were awful.
" It was raining or snowing periodically,
the mud formed a cream two inches or three
inches deep over the surface of the road, and
a deep morass each side of it. All the roads
were packed with troops and transport of every
description. I passed a lot of the old division,
but didn't recognize anyone.
" We came through some of the villages
which had been close up behind the old line
(Purcell probably knows them). They were
really very little smashed considering."
April Jth.
" We have been up a good lot for the last
three or four days learning the country as hard
as we can. This afternoon M - , P - , and
I went up to see my battery. There was an
absolutely continuous stream of lorries going
up the road probably well over ten miles long,
A Subaltern s Share in the
and as close to each other as possible. We got
on one, a Leyland, and went as far as it was
going our way, then got a Dennis, and then a
Thornycroft, and then, as we were deciding
what make to take next, a Staff Major in a
Sunbeam car picked us up, and took us right
up to the village where my Brigade was.
" As we were going along, suddenly we
saw two men jump out of a sausage near the
side of the road, in parachutes. Near the
balloon, Archie (ours) was bursting ; going
away towards the Hun lines was a Hun scout.
" The next moment the balloon burst into
flames and started coming down. It was an
awful sight. For a terrible moment it looked
as though it was going to fall on the two para-
chutists which were slowly descending below
it. But it cleared all right, and very soon
after the two observers landed quite all right,
and a huge cheer went up from all the men
round about."
April 8M.
S and I went up at 7.0 a.m. to look
'55
A Subalterns Share in the War.
round the country. It was a topping morn-
ing. There was a thick blanket of cloud at
about 7,000 feet which ended abruptly at the
C B Road, and north of this the air
was quite clear. This was very convenient.
We got up to about 9,000, and could then go
out over the clouds almost as far as C
without being seen, and then work round up
North and see the country splendidly, with the
clouds always there to get back over. After
about an hour and a half the engine suddenly
went, so we glided home. That's the best of
this machine you can glide an enormous dis-
tance. We missed the way on the way home,
taking the wrong road out of A , but landed
all right at the aerodrome.
" By the way, I don't know how people
manage to hear the guns in England on these
occasions, as here, about nine miles behind the
line, we've heard very little of the bombard-
ments which have been pretty useful (this is a
full-sized Push), except when the wind was
our way or when it was absolutely calm.
" To-day I flew over to N for lunch,
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
and the Major said he'd like to have me as
a Flight Commander at his first vacancy if
it could be worked. I wish it could, though
I like this Squadron very much."
April 20th.
" Major C flew over to lunch here
to-day. They are going to get , and he
is going to ask for me to come and stay
with him for a day or two to get them in
the way of the peculiarities of flying and
maintaining the machines. It rained in the
afternoon, so he had to go back by car."
April 22nd.
" Yesterday morning I flew Major C 's
2 C. back to No. 2, taking B with me.
We stayed to lunch there. That evening an
order came that I was to go and stay there for
a few days, so to-day I flew over with my
luggage in the back seat (one can take
an enormous amount of luggage in these
machines).
157
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
"It was a very misty morning, but I got
there all right after losing my way at first.
" It's always funny going back to a place
one has lived at for a time it seems natural
to be there, but at the same time rather
unnatural ! I talked about the machine to the
pilots in the morning, and took one up.
" That evening we had a concert. It was
very good, indeed. A lot of the songs were
parodies on topical events, written by the
Major. They were very clever.
" Quite by chance, it was the anniversary
of the day I joined No. 2.
" That night, just as I was going to bed,
I suddenly heard a shell come over. I could
hardly believe my ears. That place has never
been shelled the whole of the war. They only
put over four or five, and didn't do any damage.
Still, it was awful cheek !
" On the 24th I flew home."
May \th.
" Since I came back from No. 2 we've
been doing defensive patrols every day,
A Subaltern s Share in the
but so far have not met any Huns at close
quarters.
"The day before yesterday, my engine
boiled, just over L , and I had to come
down, just managing to get into No. a's aero-
drome. I had to stay the night there, and
send for and put in a new engine. The Huns
had the cheek to bomb us the night I was
there, but didn't do any damage.
" I forgot to say that Cotterill of the th
suddenly came here the other day as an observer.
It's great luck. He was with me when I
landed at No. 2.
" That afternoon, while I was waiting for
the new engine, I borrowed a side-car from
the Corps Intelligence man there and went into
Bethune with Cotterill. (Incidentally the side-
car hadn't got a brake, a fact which I did not
discover till I wanted to stop it !)
" Bethune is awfully changed. It had been
shelled the day before, and six civilians killed.
It's beginning to become a dead city.
" A very large proportion of the windows
are broken, and there are much fewer people
A Subaltern s Share in the W^ar.
about. The largest tea-shop has been shut up ;
the Globe, of oyster and champagne cocktail
fame, is shut, also the Hotel de France.
" I went and bought some gloves at the
best shop, and was remembered by the occu-
pants, who asked after H , ' le grand
capitaine d'artillerie,' and also ' le petit
lieutenant' (B -).
" We also visited the Point de Jour a
sort of officers' pub., complete, with piano,
where we often used to look in. The owners
remembered us there too. I was awfully glad
to be able to get into Bethune, as now I have
been there in '14, '15, '16, and '17.
" I wonder if I shall go there in '18 ! "
May 1 1 th.
" Yesterday Cotterill and I took part in a
practice scheme with the s. We got on
all right, but had a forced landing, with some-
thing the matter with the engine. We 'phoned
for some mechanics, and lunched with the
s, who were very hospitable.
" The mechanics didn't turn up till about
1 60
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
5 p.m. We couldn't find anything wrong,
but after one or two adjustments we ran the
engine up and it seemed all right. It was
8.40 p.m. by now, and rather inclined to rain,
so we had a difficult problem deciding whether
to start or not, as it was getting so dark. We
did decide to, and the engine went like a
bird. It was very difficult finding the way
home, and we were very pleased to see the
aerodrome.
" We got down all right, although I rather
misjudged the landing and hit the ground ages
before I expected to, as one always does when
there's a bad light."
May i2th.
" We moved to-day down to . We
are only staying at this new place for a few
days (it is now about twenty miles behind the
line) while hangars and huts are being put up
at a new aerodrome about seven miles behind
the line. We shall move up there as soon as
it's ready.
" We managed somehow to get all our kit
L 161
A Subaltern s Share in the W^ar.
packed into the lorries by 6 a.m., and got off
ourselves at about 7.30. It's awful the amount
of kit one amasses !
" From a Flying Officer's point of view a
move's a very simple thing. The only thing
he's responsible for is his machine and his own
kit. There's no dusty march he just gets
into his machine, pushes into the air, and
gets to the new place in about one- tenth of
the time the transport takes, and in absolute
comfort.
" We arrived there at about 8.45, and pro-
ceeded to spend the rest of the day waiting
for the transport. It is a most peaceful spot.
No signs of war at all, except the continuous
streams of cars of all sorts making for Amiens,
the Mecca of the B.E.F. (You probably
get a better lunch or dinner there than in
town.)
"The aerodrome is quite close to the
village, and we all have billets there ; the first
time we've had them since the squadron has
been out here.
" The weather is still stewingly hot."
162
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
May
I went into Amiens yesterday. A lot of
us went in in a tender at about 4.30 p.m. I
had tea and a hair-cut, and we all met for
dinner at the famous Godbert's ; an extra-
ordinarily good dinner it was too.
" Godbert's is a large private house which
was bought and converted into a restaurant by
M. Godbert, who then proceeded to make his
pile and has now retired, the place being taken
on by his chef.
" This is without exception the most civi-
lized town I've come near in France. It's
actually got trams running through the streets,
you can buy almost anything, and there are
various quite respectable hotels where one can
feed, instead of the usual maximum of one, and
rather indifferent at that. I went and had a
look at the cathedral. It's rather a fine one,
and at present it is an excellent example of
good sand-bag work (presumably as a protection
from bombs)."
May 20t/i.
" I've been employed for the last three or
L 2 l6 3
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
four days in putting up huts at our new aero-
drome, which we are making in the evacuated
territory. I usually fly up there after break-
fast, and return in time for dinner.
" It's very interesting going up there in a
car. You pass through various stages. First
the shelled area (none of it very bad) behind
the original French line, then the old French
front line, then you can just trace the old
No-Man's Land.
" From here onwards for three or four
miles the country is completely churned up
by old trenches, shell holes and mine craters ; all
the villages are completely flattened none of
the trees have a branch left. In the evening
the whole place swarms with rats. In the usual
French fashion, there are odd graves all over
the place. Then comes the river, with the
new bridges the sappers have put up over it.
" It's a funny sort of river, mostly a con-
tinuous marsh at the bottom of a fairly deep
valley, with various streams running in and out
of banks of weed, clumps of trees, and small
islands, and a canal running along one side,
164
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
with built-up sides and trees along each
tow-path.
" For about a quarter of a mile on the other
side of it we still get shell holes, but after that
the country entirely changes.
"The villages are practically all knocked
down, but not by shells (mostly blown up, or
burnt) ; all the fruit trees are cut down (but
are now blossoming on the ground), and a cer-
tain number of other trees also. But with all
this it's easily the best part of France I've come
across to spend the summer in.
" The Bosches have done for it what no
one else could have done ; it's quite difficult
to recognize it as France. No longer is it a
land of miles of ploughed fields, with someone
always on the look-out to claim damages if
you even look like getting off the road. Grass
has grown up all over, and it's now a land of
rolling downs, where you can go anywhere you
like, make a camp anywhere you like, can land
almost anywhere, and have got an indefinite
supply of bricks and rough timber, etc., etc.
In fact, quite a Promised Land for the B.E.F.,
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
with the one exception, that with all the ad-
vantages of the absence of the French peasants,
there's the very serious disadvantage of being
unable to buy milk and eggs.
" Of course all this is merely our very
selfish point of view. The poor French-
man's must be very different. It's bad enough
having your house shelled down, but having it
deliberately blown up is worse, I think.
u The amount of work the Hun has put
in, in destruction, is enormous. All the houses
destroyed, and enormous number ot trees cut
down, all farm implements and machinery
smashed up, even down to holes punched in
any odd water jugs !
" Seeing former Hunland, too, impresses
one with the extraordinary industry of the
Hun.
" For miles back every village has a ring of
wire and trenches round it, there are deep dug-
outs seven miles behind their own line, and all
sorts of fortifications everywhere.
" The Cavalry Horse Gunners who were
here for the advance said the fighting was
166
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
perfectly wonderful absolutely general open
warfare for about ten days. I'd have given
anything to have been there in a battery.
" By the way, I forgot to tell you a rather
good (and quite true) story about when the
Huns evacuated Lievan.
" As usual they left all sorts of booby traps
behind. In one house two perfect officers'
helmets were hanging up on the wall. All
the old hands were not to be caught. They
all thought that they were probably connected
to some bomb.
" Everyone longed to take them, but
didn't dare, so they stayed untouched, the
desire of everyone, for three days.
"Then one of our heroic (non) fighting-
men who normally lived a secluded life miles
behind the line, came up on a jaunt to the
latest piece of recovered France. He went
into the house and his eyes lighted on the
two helmets. Here was what he had always
wanted he could take them home, and show
them to an admiring family, and thrill them
A Subaltern s Share in the
with tales of his prowess in capturing them.
He knew nothing about booby traps !
" He went up to the helmets and without
hesitation took them off the pegs and the next
moment nothing happened ; nothing at all !
He walked happily home, proudly displaying
the helmets, and couldn't understand why all
the people round about began violently to kick
themselves. Truly, fools rush in where angels
fear to tread and quite often score by so
doing.
" A. Flight moved in here yesterday, and
everyone is embellishing his hut according to
his own taste. A great fight goes on to get
materials. The other two Flights are coming
in to-morrow.
" I am sharing half a Nisson with Cotterill,
who is now my permanent observer."
May 2$th.
"The weather has been marvellous
absolutely exactly the right temperature."
168
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
June 2nd.
" Yesterday, by the way, was the second
anniversary of the 64th Brigade coming out to
France. I celebrated it in three ways.
" First I went for a ride on my mare,
which has just been lent to me by General
R., and found her an extraordinarily pleasant
mount.
" Secondly I heard the cuckoo for the
first time this year.
" Thirdly I went up in the evening with
Cotterill, and met a Hun for the first time in
my capacity of pilot. We had just spotted an
Archie battery, and wirelessed it down, and
were waiting for our shells to arrive on it,
when suddenly a Hun scout came past us,
turned, and opened fire on us from about
one hundred and fifty yards range. Cotterill
replied, and we proceeded to wander along,
both firing at each other. But the Hun was
an exceptionally gutless one, as he never
attempted to close in.
" Then I shouted to Cotterill to hold his
fire, and at the same time throttled down, in
169
A Subaltern s Share in the W^ar.
order to lure him on closer. But just at that
moment I saw three other scouts above him,
and at once thought that they were brother
Huns, and that he had been waiting for them.
So I stuffed the nose down to try and get back
over the lines before they could close.
" Then suddenly I saw them dive not on
to me, but on the Hun, who turned, dived,
and disappeared in the mist. He was a most
timid Hun altogether !
" Incidentally, he didn't hit us once. Cot-
terill fired about 3! double drums at him.
" To-day we went out as escort to a photo-
graphy machine. The clouds were too thick,
so we returned. Our top plane was holed by
Archie."
June $th.
" Went up yesterday to direct our fire on
to a hostile battery. Fired twenty shots, then
the wireless key shorted, and our battery could
not get our calls. Got two holes in planes
from Archie.
" It was a brilliant morning to-day, but
170
A Subaltern s Share in the W^ar.
rather a thick haze. We went up on patrol,
and saw two Huns."
Other letters were written by George on
this same date, and on the preceding days, to
his home and his best friends in England, con-
cerning the leave he had just been promised.
It really was going to come off at last, he
wrote, sending pages of detailed exposition of
all the things he wanted to do and see, and the
friends he wanted to meet, during the precious
ten days that were to begin so soon.
On June gth he was expected at his home,
but he never came, and next day brought a
telegram from the War Office, to announce
that he had been reported " missing " on
June 6th.
Another two days of suspense dragged by,
and then the letter arrived in which another
hand than George's own penned the last record
of his Flying Service.
Letter from Major Holt to Mr. Weston
Devenish.
June jth, 1917.
u DEAR SIR,
" I am afraid you will have heard that
171
A Subaltern s Share in the
your son, Lieut. G. W. Devenish, was missing
on June 6th.
" It would be wrong of me to hold out too
high hopes of his being alive, as one of my
other machines saw them attacked by a German
machine and go straight down out of control,
and, I am afraid, in flames.
" The fact that they were in flames is not
in itself enough to make the machine go down
like that, so I fear your son must have been
hit by the same burst of fire. Cotterill, his
great friend from the same battery, was with
him.
" I can't tell you what a loss he is. Quite
fearless, he was a great deal further over the
German lines than most people would go on
the same job. He had great enthusiasm, and
I looked upon him as a perfect type of English-
man, who has made our air service what it is.
" Please accept the sincere sympathy of
myself and the whole squadron.
*' Yours truly,
"A. W. HOLT
"(Major)."
172
Before the dawn, before the dawn.
Towards the opening gates of morn.
Above the foe he sweeps in scorn
With squadrons of the sky.
To him th' expected challenge came,
That threw him earthward, wrapped in flame,
His fellows pass him by ;
They may not pause, tho' one remain
The winged warrior is slain,
Can his brave spirit die ?
No ! Night and Death he holds in scorn.
Lift up your heads ! ye gates of morn !
Nor the young soul deny.
Behind the lines of earthly foes
Of earthly follies, earthly woes
Bid him in triumph fly!
He leaves this shadowed world, to see
The glorious dawn of days to be,
Where God's great sun is high.
Though here the battle hides the morn
Before the dawn, before the dawn.
Ina Kitson Clark.
CONCLUSION
"BEFORE THE
DAWN "
/^EORGE DEVENISH'S letters have come
^-* to an end, and the cheery record of the
dangers and difficulties, the work and play, the
hardships and interests and enjoyments which
made up his share in the war, breaks off un-
finished, before the dawn of the victory he
helped to win. Before the dawn, too, of so
much that life held in store for one whom
there were many both to love and praise.
" A fine soldier and a good pal," wrote one
of the closest comrades of his fighting days, and
the verdict has been endorsed again and again
by those who called him friend. To quote
the words of just one other among these :
" No one could have taken a more active
share in the war, or done it better."
So many, many letters George's death has
brought to his home ; some from his own
contemporaries, some from the superiors who
found in him the qualities that make for high
achievement. The Colonel under whom he
A Subaltern s Share in the War.
had served in his beloved R.F.A. battery wrote
to his parents :
" Your son was such a cheery, gallant lad,
and a most magnetic personality. He had
the right qualifications for flying, and I'm
certain he would have gone far."
So that it was not only in the fond imagina-
tions of those to whom George Devenish was
dearest that the sun of recognized success
seemed like to rise and gild his world when
the end came for him, before the dawn.
His birthday has come round again the
dawn of his twenty-fifth year, it would have
been and his father and mother stand together
where they stood with him, three years ago,
to watch the golden light of the new day
deepen in glory behind its bars of heavy cloud.
The twilight is closing in upon them now, as
they look down upon the silent garden, where
the late summer glories of purple and red are
fast fading into the dusk. Only the tall white
lilies stand out among the shadows, like spirit-
sentinels keeping watch through the hours of
darkness, and the starry jessamine lightens the
gloom, and fills the air with the haunting
fragrance that is like remembered joy.
A Subaltern s Share in the W^ar.
It is all so exactly the same as it was three
years ago, yet with so vast a difference. In-
stead of the echoing laughter there is silence,
heavy and chill ; in place of the birthday hero
with the world before him there is the bundle
of possessions sent home from the front because
he will never use them any more.
Very simple possessions they are, and very
characteristic of him. There are all the in-
genious contrivances that he loved to devise,
and to get his mother to make for him, in the
way of odd-shaped bags and cases all to the
most precise measurements for economizing
space or time in packing, or for serving the
greatest possible number of purposes. There
are his notes and papers, untidily written but
carefully kept, the shabby little account-book
in which he entered his expenditure with the
conscientiousness which underlay his casual
ways, a packet of paid bills (his parents have
not been able to find a single debt left owing
by him). There is his flight log-book, too,
with its brief entries up to the last day of his
life, the 5th of June, and his small Bible, with
the daily reading card left in at the passage
appointed for that date.
So little they seem, the "things seen"
M 177
A Subaltern s Share ^n the War.
which remain in place of the blithe presence
that has vanished for evermore. Yet the
" things unseen," for the which these trifles
stand, are not little at all, but very great in all
that makes for strength and hope aye, and
for comfort, too, when the first agony of grief
is past. Strength, in the resolve which those
who love George Devenish best have taken,
worthily to bear their part in the sacrifice he
made with such a single heart ; hope, that this
sacrifice shall bear fruit in the future he fought
for, in wider and more wonderful ways than
our dull eyes can see ; and comfort, too not
all at once, perhaps, yet surely, in God's good
time in the thought of the steadfast upright-
ness, and the simple trust in God, to which
that handful of valueless possessions bear their
witness.
" For the things which are seen are temporal \
but the things which are not seen are eternal"
Eyre and Spottiswoode, Ltd., East Harding Street, E.CA.
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