大象传媒

In the winter of 1914, thousands of troops were based at Morn Hill near Winchester, preparing for war. But their plans were thrown into chaos by the wettest local December on record. Rain turned the camp into 鈥渁 sea of liquid mud鈥�. It sparked a full-scale evacuation 鈥� and 12,000 men were sent to Winchester to find shelter.

Soldiers reported horses disappearing up to their chests in mud. Major General Thomas D鈥橭yly Snow, commanding the 27th Division, said the camp in Winchester was far worse than anything experienced in Flanders afterwards: 鈥淚t was the first time and the last that I have ever seen troops allow themselves to be defeated by the weather.鈥�

To escape the mud, troops were billeted in accommodation ranging from private homes to schools. A few weeks later, they marched to Southampton bound for the Western Front. Some men dropped out along the road and mud-caked equipment was abandoned.

Location: Morn Hill, Hampshire SO21 1HE
Image: Cartoon of mud at Morn Hill camp by the cartoonist Howard Lloyd Roberts who died in 1935
Presented by Marcus White