����ý

Part II A

With The B.E.F in France.

The station at Cherbourg gave us a cold and desolate welcome with its walls and bare platforms, but even worse was to come, all had imagined a French train, but our imaginations had not run to what stood before us, to think that a civilized country should own such contraptions …. amazing. As usual the men were crowded into the various compartments, kit was placed where possible and the men settled to a tiring journey. The French countryside was far from interesting, and sleep if possible, was the order of day. Many hours passed and we finally arrived at a small French station, minus platform if remember correctly. We de-trained, as the army term has it and up ready for a march, where to, nobody knew or hardly cared by this time. The march started along the typical cobbled roads of the continent, after the first hour a break announced and the pavement offered itself as a very comfortable sitting place for the war weary soldiers, yes, after an hour they were very weary, strange as it may seem. The march started again and by this time I was beginning to feel the weight of my food supply in my large pack which consisted of tinned pineapple, tinned crab and various other tasty dishes, but on went the march until we at last reached a fairly good road. My first drink in France was a large cup of black coffee, offered to me by a poor French peasant, - this was very acceptable by this time as we all found that our water bottles were getting rather empty. At last we approached civilization in the form of a village, the first sight was an Estaminet or Public House, the second was a good looking blonde in a blue dress, quite a welcome sight after such a journey. The next shock came when we saw our living quarters for the night, an old barn with a hard concrete floor and doors which offered plenty of fresh air, a cheerful prospect for tired men. Before settling down for the for the night food was prepared, that was the term used anyway, I believe the meal consisted of cold bully .....rather tasty.
We had marched from Orchies to Templeve, the latter the name of our new home, the first impression not too good, but as you will see, we did make ourselves quite comfortable as time went on. The billet settled down except for the men who were lucky enough to do a guard that night. The floor was very hard and cold, we had only one blanket to keep away the cold which was coming through the ill-fitting doors, nevertheless the night passed and everyone had a certain amount of sleep but woke in the morning feeling rather stiff in parts of the body. The morning brought new excitement, we were to move to another billet, this time in the form of a two storey building but as usual without any home comforts. Straw was laid on the floor and beds made down, parties were detailed for various tasks and the first day passed, After really settling down work commenced, various jobs being given to the different Platoons, our chief tasks were pillboxes built with reinforced concrete, unfortunate for us as the weather was very cold and to face work each morning was rather gruesome. A short time passed and the billet began to look like home, beds were made from timber and chicken wire in two tiers, fires put in and a wireless set was bought, thing were looking up but even so we did not see life through coloured glasses. The normal working started with a Works Parade at eight o’clock, after that trucks would then take us to the different work sites where we would remain for the remainder of the day. Dress for work consisted of anything which was warm, sometimes three or four jackets and two pairs of gloves. Work would continue until ten o'clock when we all dash to the nearest Estaminet for an egg sandwich and a cup of coffee, a cheap but enjoyable meal, after that back to work until dinner time. The afternoon passed very quickly and we were soon taken back to the billets by truck. Tea was the next consideration, usually quite a good meal, when we had finished that the was free unless on guard or other detail. The first call was Germaine’s, a small Estaminet just along the road from the billet, a quick and then on to the pictures. The picture place must be described, a unique building with four walls and a roof, also a small fire in the centre, this fire was poked at regular intervals during the performance causing much smoke to permeate through the building, the projector also caused trouble by breaking down at least three times a night but after a time all that was expected by the troops who visited the Cinema. Another visit to the Estaminet followed the Cinema, a supper of eggs and chips, bread and butter and one bottle of beer which only cost a shilling, it was then time to return to the billet for the nightly roll call, the was if the Orderly Sergeant was still sober.
The same routine was carried out for the remainder of the week, but week-ends were a little different. Sunday usually brought a Church Service of some description, after which we could please ourselves as to how we spent the remainder of the day. A small party of men, including myself, again patronized Germain’s for dinner, specially prepared by the owner. This meal generally consisted of Roast Pork and the normal trimmings followed by a bottle of Champagne, the Estaminet closed at two o’clock so we all went back to bed for the afternoon. The mornings always brought an interesting feature, one brave man had to break the ice to get the washing water,… hardly ever myself. The aforementioned man would then return and endeavour to heat the water and proceed to wash and shave, when he had finished he would pass it on to the next man who required it, this went on until it would have been cleaner to go without a wash, I think many people did that many mornings of the week.
A strange task came our way one day, we were to prepare a brick factory for a large number of troops, theses troops turned out to be the cream of the British Army, the Pioneer Corps. On the first parade for this new job carpenters were fallen out in the normal Army style, after looking round I found that other tradesmen were also falling out as carpenters, for example, printers, milkmen and other odds and ends, so I followed suit much to the amazement of several of my friend, even the sergeant looked rather perturbed
Things continued and I joined the Ancient Order of Carpenters and by doing so escaped much hard and dirty work. The building began to show the signs of many improvements, canteens were built, rooms cleared of the remains of bricks and rubble and everything in general made fairly presentable for the new tenants. At last, the day for the new men to arrive, we waited with bated breath to see the fine column march through the gates, of course we hardly expected to see a parade equal to that of the Guards Regiment as we had already had reports of the behavior of the Pioneer Corps. They arrived, - if anyone had stated that these men belonged to the British Army we should all have laughed….. impossible, never before have such a collection of men been seen. They moved in and started to wreck the building, they wasted no time in doing that, the same evening the Orderly Sergeant made a very undignified exit from a top storey window only to be followed by the Orderly Officer, but that was only the beginning, we all appreciated the quiet way in which these new tenants behaved. The work still went on but as time passed our tools began to disappear, and we knew where they were going, our dear friends took a great liking to them and removed them as quickly as possible, we had to do something about this new outbreak. It was then decided that their rations should be made smaller, so every each day several men would be seen leaving the building with a haversack, in it would be several tins of jam and butter and anything else which took their fancy, this went on for some time until we thought that we had repaid ourselves for our tools. The men of the Pioneer Corps were met again at a later date. Whilst on works we were told that several of the nice boys would be giving us a hand building pillboxes….we were not amused by this statement, however they arrived with picks and shovels and not feeling too pleased about the prospect of work under the Engineers. Work started and the men were told what to do but after a short time had passed no one but the Engineers could be seen on site, a search party went out and continued until voices were heard, they approached the scene very carefully and listened to the trend of the conversation, it appeared that the Pioneer Corps were discussing which prison in England offered the most comforts, quite amusing to the listener. In the end the men were taken back to their various tasks but remained unmoved, in the end the services of the Pioneer Corps were no longer required. During our stay at Templeuve the first leave to England was announced, married men were to go first to be followed by the happy ones. All the single names were put into a hat and drawn out, when there were three names left in the hat mine was still not drawn, the first and the last had to come out but I as usual was unlucky and mine was the last, which meant that I should get home to England sometime during the next two years, still life was bearable at that time and nobody was really home-sick. Every man had a chance to go to one of the neighbouring towns for a day, Lille and Arras were the chief ones and one could have a good day for a few Franc, pictures and food interested most people but there were other amusements available which I will not mention here, but do not get me wrong, I mean drinking! Mail came through quite well and we were able to send small parcels home, that was if we had enough money to spare at the end of the week. Christmas drew near and we began to make preparations for a bright and noisy time. Parcels arrived from England filled with the usual fare which all helped to swell the collection of foodstuffs, we all put a small amount of money towards the liquid refreshments which would be the main item of the day. On Christmas Day we all crawled from our beds at a fairly late hour, many men crawled back at night, so I was told. The dinner was served by the Sergeant, he actually did some work for a change! It was really a good meal for those who managed to eat it, some men had already drunk too much lemonade during the morning. The afternoon found most men in bed or placed on their bed by some person or persons a little more sober, and so the day went until the lights went out and another festive season was over. Many people said that the war would be over by Christmas but failed to say which one.
Our stay at Templeuve came to an end and we were on the move once again. This move was done in real style, cattle trucks were at our disposal, forty men or eight horses was written on the side of the truck, but we were not certain which category we came under. The journey was a very cold one as the frost had really set in for the winter. Many trucks arrived at the destination devoid of all floor boarding as they had been taken up to burn as fuel, rather a good idea, or at least we thought so. The new location did not appear too exiting to us at the time as we were too cold to appreciate the wonders of the French country. It was impossible to march to the new billets as nobody could stand on the icy roads with their full kit on their back so one and all rambled along as best as possible. Our new living quarters hove into sight, this time we were presented with an old sugar factory, things seemed to be getting worse but we at least had a roof and four walls. Before we could settle down, a large supply of coal had to be removed from our bed space, this was done in record time and straw laid down, by this time everyone could do with some food and sleep, and after a little arranging we had both. In the vicinity of our building there was a rather offensive pool of stagnant water which gave forth a definite “stink”, but however we could do nothing about that. Bapaume was the nearest town, if it could be called a town at all, one or two small Estaminets, a dance hall and a Church. In this town an Engineer dump was made and most of us had a fairly good job which kept us all very busy during the day. There was a small staff of Frenchmen working with us as well, this helped to improve our French from day to day. It was near the dump that I met a very charming family, although of the peasant class they always made me very comfortable, the small boys did my shopping and the Mother cooked for me, the Mother’s life was not a pleasant one, because she told me that her husband came in late at nights and chased her with a large knife, this was due no doubt to drink! The evenings were spent in the normal manner, Estaminets and large suppers and then back to bed, some nights we found it rather hard to sleep as the local population of rats and mice would make a meeting place of our beds.

Continued in Part II B

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.