Royal Field Artillery
First World War Diary with Anecdotes
The diary and anecdotes of John Price Nunn who was a Driver and Signaller for the 2nd East Lancashire Division.
The diary and anecdotes of John Price Nunn who was a Driver and Signaller for the 2nd East Lancashire Division.
I remember this incident very well and also know the cause of the poison. The cooks for dinner had made a concoction known as “ ? pie” a kind of meat pie set in pastry and made in large shallow tins. The meat part was of course Bully Beef. To speed the making of these pies the cooks (instead of opening each Bully Beef tin in the usual way by turning a tin) just chopped through each tin with a metal chopper and in doing this part of the protective varnish like skin on the outside of the tins mixed in with the Bully Beef and contaminated the pie. In the hut that I was in out of 30 occupants there were 25 that suffered from the poisoning. The other 5 which included myself had their share of the pie but ours must not have been contaminated or alternatively our digestion must have withstood the poisoned content.
I never saw so many men rolling about in agony and being sick. The strange thing was that the occurrence of pain and sickness started in one or two men about 3 or 4 O’clock in the afternoon and then at intervals during the evening first one then another became sick and rushed to the door to vomit. I remember seeing one man in the middle of a four hand game of cards suddenly get up and make a bolt for the door and others in the middle of writing a letter or other evening occupation do the same thing.
The medical officer was notified and he came along with a jar of castor oil and lining the effected men on the duck boards outside the hut, each was given a spoonful, and in a short time the castor oil took effect and there were queues at the latrines. One man whose name was Cotterill (and was normally an aggressive type of man) who was in such agonising pain, that he could not walk, appealing to me to help him to the latrines, which I did of course. It was all very well to have a stomach strong enough to resist poisoned food but there were drawbacks and all those not affected had to do stable fatigue and water and feed the horses of all those affected.
Another day kite balloon above us fired at (by shrapnel) and shell broke the wire. Balloon floated away. Observers reached the ground safely in parachutes.
I remember the steel cable of this balloon falling to the ground and curling and twisting accompanied by a screaming noise and part of it fell over the roofs of the stables causing the horses to rear and kick.
Not long after this incident I remember seeing a whole line of German observer balloons in the distance. About 8 or 9 of them brought down in flames by our airmen who flew over them and firing several rounds of machine gun fire into them.
Jack Barr (who was the pal I ran the roulette with at La Panne) had developed a fever and had a very high temperature. He became very violent at times and had to be held down. I remember him being taken to hospital in a Red Cross ambulance. Later that day I went to see him in hospital when he had calmed down. He seemed to me to be perfectly normal and we had a happy chat about the past times we had been engaged in together, He was sent down to base hospital later and eventually went to hospital in England from where he obtained his discharge from the Army, So there must have been something seriously wrong with him. He later wrote me and sent his photograph
Gladman was court martialed today and was charged with desertion. He was of course a signaller and had been in the signalling pit along with the other signallers and myself on the day when our CO had ordered us to leave our gun positions on account of heavy bombardment. It was this evidence that we had to substantiate. At the close of the court martial Gladman was sentenced to death by shooting but within hours of the sentence, but not until after he had spent a few hours in anguish, his sentence was altered to ten years imprisonment. He was taken away down the line under escort and no one ever knew what became of him. I do not doubt however that when the war was over he was released and discharged.
In my opinion there was no shame in Gladman having deserted. He had not in his action endangered other mens lives. It was unfortunate that when he ran from the gun positions (on instruction to do so) he ran on his own and could not summon the courage to return. Had he been with one or two others I am sure he would have returned with them to the gun positions.
Sudden attaks of diarrhoea which I experienced and which used to effect me mainly in the early hours of the morning when I would suddenly have to leave the pit and go to the latrines – many times, staying there half an hour or so. I reported sick when it first occurred and was given a No. 9 pill which seemed to make it worse and on subsequent mornings I again reported sick because there was no improvement. Everytime I reported I was given a No. 9 pill which is a laxative pill. The medical officer was tired of seeing me and eventually told me he thought I was malingering. I took a very dim view of this remark from the M.O. and although the diarrhoea was still effecting me I did not see the M.O. again. That same day I mentioned my trouble to one of the gunners who immediately gave me a few drops of “Chlorodyne” which he apparently carried about with him and that immediately stopped the diarrhoea.
The cause of these uninformative entries was because the Germans opened up a tremendous offensive barrage which enabled them to advance right up to the town of Villers Brettonneux which was within only a short distance of Paris. It will have been noted from my previous description that our Battery along with others in this area had a lazy and enjoyable period of almost 3 weeks, with green field around us and spring weather, and then with this sudden fury in the morning of March 21st 1918 at 4.45am we were subjected to continuous rain of German 5.9 shells for a period of 7 hours. At the time this started I was on pit duty but most of the Battery were asleep but were soon awakened but the first shell that dropped. Everyone was taken by surprise and before many minutes had passed all of us realized that this sudden blitz was the beginning of something big but we did not guess at how big it was going to be. In previous engagements at Ypres Sector when concentrated fire had been rained down on us, we had been given orders to quit the position temporarily. We got no such orders this time and as far as we signallers were concerned we sat huddled together waiting for the worst to happen any minute. Most of the shells came across the wood and many dropped in our immediate surrounding. Reading about this attack in official histories I now know that the British and French had been expecting it but did not know the day it would start. They had been completely surprised and the German onslaught was of such intensity that before long there was general retirement along the British and French fronts. Very soon there was a loss of communication and there was danger of the retirement becoming a rout. To me and all our other ranks it was most bewildering and on our own orders to retire there was immediate confusion and our ranks split up and moved backwards in all direction. Since our movement backwards was one of long duration I was not able to make diary entries day by day and so soon as I could after the event I endeavoured to remember and record what had happened each day from March 21st onwards.
Our retirement had been going on daily for well over a week before any substantial stand was attempted. Since we were traversing land and roads recently in the occupation of French peasants the majority of these people were also feeling and the roads were thronged by refugees carrying what they could of their possessions. Many of them driving cattle and others using all manners of vehicles to carry their belongings including poultry, cats, dogs etc. It was a sight I shall never forget. Our vehicles moved rather quicker than they did and so every now and the refugees had to move to the sides of the roads to let us pass, and this was the scene that went on day after day and increasing in numbers all the time.
I remember that by the time we reached Villers Brettoneaux (at which place a stand was made) practically all the inhabitants of the town had forsaken it and most of the houses and buildings had been severely damaged. When passing through this town we noticed a large warehouse contained all manner of tinned goods. Although we had to pass it by at the time, when we came to rest just outside Villers Brettoneaux many of us decided that (rather than the Germans come into possession of this warehouse and its contents) we would revisit it and take possession of as many tins as possible and this we did despite the fact that it was a bit of a dangerous mission with shells flying about. Of course some of the tins were rather bulky to carry. I remember taking several tins of peas, but the ones I went for most, because they were flat and easy to carry, were the sardines, and later these came in very useful.
I well remember the day I was sent as Orderly to 66th Division A, which I interpret now as Divisional Artillery Headquarters. I know that I was given 48 hours rations which to my surprise was about half a pound or more of sliced cold ham (this was certainly not issued army rations and I came to the conclusion that the cookhouse orderlies had paid a visit to the warehouse in Villers Brettoneaux and had pilfered tins of ham from there.
I remember setting off on horseback to go to Boves, it was early evening and just going dark. I could think of nothing else but this boiled ham in my pack and eventually could not resist tasting it and as a result long before I reached Boves I had consumed the lot, all my 48 hours rations. Since I had now the prospect of no food for the next two days I went to the cookhouse of 66th D.A. and requested my meals for those two days but was refused. I suppose I was fortunate that I had bought with me about 6 tins of sardines which I had pilfered from the warehouse in Vellers Brettoneaux and I had to be content on the consumption of these accompanied by a hard biscuit during the next 48 hours.
I also remember well the horseback journey to 66th D.A. It was a fair distance and my destination lay on the other side of a very thick wooded track with dense woods on either side and it was just going dusk. I found it very eerie and lonely and wondered if there were wild boars about. I was glad when I was through it.
Since our period of retreating from the German onslaught had in all (including the various movements referred to from the 8th April to 27th) taken about 5 weeks. All letters and parcels had been held up at the base and it was only after the front line had been stabilized that these began to come through. This delay in delivery of parcels meant that any food contents in them were not likely to be in a very good state.
I remember the Battery arriving one night at a village and after the horse had been watered and fed there was a hand out of letters and parcels. By this time it was quite dark and our sleeping quarters for the night were on the first floor of large barn amongst the hay. We had been ordered not to light candles; so that none of us could read our letters received and since we knew that we were to be off early about 4am the next morning very few of us opened our parcels since it would be easier to carry them the next day in an unopened state. I knew exactly what would be in my parcel. There would be a coconut cake, an apple tart and some sweets and several packets of woodbine cigarettes.
I knew that if I opened the parcel at one end or side I would be able to feel the shapes of the contents and recognize them from touch. Because I was very hungry I did this and first of all broke off a large chunk of the coconut cake. Following this I drew out the apple tart and took a good mouthful. This although the apple tart tasted good, seemed to have a peculiar flavour but I had another mouthful before replacing the tart and cake in the parcel and tying up the parcel I placed it at the top of my haversack.
The following morning we left about 4am. I was mounted but quite a few of the men were on foot. Shortly after day break I remembered the parcel and after some difficulty, since the haversack was on my back, I extracted the apple tart and proceeded to consume it. Taking the first bite I immediately got the same peculiar flavour of the previous night and wondering what was the cause I turned the tart over for examination and to my disgust saw that the bottom of it was a sickly green colour with a white fluffy appearance on top of this. Recognising what it was, as well as the cause of it, I threw the rest of the tart on to the grass verge. One of the men walking close by picked it up and finished it off. It is strange but true that I never had any ill effects from the consumption of the green mould.
Another of the incidents worth recording relates to a 48 hours Observation Duty that I did along with another Signaller and an Officer (Lieut Walton).
This I know took place in the Spring of 1918. Rations were on short supply and the three of us had only been allowed 24 hours rations. During the morning of the first day Lieut Walton sent us both down to the gun line for additional rations and instructed us particularly to ask the Officers’ Cook to send him something tasty. This we did and the cook gave us a sandbag with something in it for the Officer (we did not know what at the time) . As for ourselves we were given Bully Beef and hard biscuits.
We set off on our journey back, the sun was shining and all was quiet and part of our route lay along a stream. As far as it was to be happy we were in a very contented mood, the only shadow in the immediate future was the fact that we had nothing to look forward to but Bully Beef and hard biscuits. I remember sitting down with my companion on the bank of a stream and having nothing better to do, one of us, I do not remember which, suggested that we might investigate the contents of the Officer’s Sandbag rations. To our great surprise there was (apart from Bully Beef and hard biscuits) quite a number of ham sandwiches and an apple pie.
At first we thought that he would not miss an odd sandwich, but the taste of one led to another and another until they had all gone. We then deliberated on the apple pie and finally came to the conclusion that it would be better to eat this and then when we got back to the Observation Post to tell him the cook had nothing to send him but Bully Beef and hard biscuits.
Thus the apple pie went and how enjoyable it was. The question now arose as to who was to give the sad news. We tossed a coin and I lost. When we got to the Observation Post he was not there but on looking round we found in the vicinity an Infantry Brigade Head Quarters and were told by an Orderly that L. Walton was there. We asked the Orderly to notify him that we had returned and he came to us. I immediately told him that the cook could not send special rations for him but of course there was the Bully Beef and hard biscuits.
To my great relief he replied that the Infantry Brigade C.O had invited him to mess with him and he would not now need the Bully and biscuits and we could have them, and so we thought we got away with it. For the time being we had.
Later there is a sequel to this story which I shall be telling about in due course.
Leutenant Walton
Every night Jerry sent over his planes and dropped bombs. Regular almost as clockwork these planes would approach us with an ever increasing drone from about midnight till 2 or 3am.
If I was on Telephone Duty I was always glad if I had the second period from 8-10 at night and 4-6 in the morning for I could get to sleep before the planes came and after they had gone and once asleep I never heard them. Once the drone of them started no sleep was possible and as soon as the search lights pin pointed them they dropped their bombs.
Sometime in August 1918 (about the 16th) I got my weeks leave to go home to England. I say a weeks leave, it may have been perhaps 10 days because travelling time would have been at least 4 days and I now I spent two days of my leave at Llandudno with Mabel. I had not been home for 18 months since Feb 18th 1917.
Three or four days before leaving for home I was at the wagon line and one night feeding the horses the driver next to me (who was to leave for home the next day) was kicked by one of the horses full in the face and instead of going on leave was landed in hospital for many months. Seeing this happen and knowing that I was due for my leave in a day or so made me very apprehensive lest some accident should happen to me.
Strangely enough I do not recollect any part of the journey home nor the welcome of my parents and the rest of the family must have given me. My first thoughts were of seeing Mabel as soon as possible and when I went to her home her parents told me she was on holiday in Llandudno. This was a great disappointment to me, but not a deterrent for having spent a day or two at home I boarded a train for Llandudno and spent to days there. As I look back now I am inclined to think that knowing I was coming home on leave and having a very guilty conscience, she fled to Llandudno perhaps thinking I should not seek her out, or as did so happen the time available for me to be with here would be a short duration
I remember my parents were very disappointed with me for having gone to Llandudno at all. At the time I did not read all their thoughts but now I can quite well imagine that they thought that perhaps some furtive thoughts might arise from such a visit.
My visit to Llandudno was a fiasco. I remember a very cool reception and I returned home downcast and miserable.
During the time I was home I met a pal of mine in civilian life – John Cartner(?). He took me to his home in Grecian Street where I met his family. He had two sisters, both of them older than me. One of them, Rosie, I had know since 1915. Very naturally she ask she asked me about Mabel and it did not take me long to tell her just what the position was. She was very comforting and sympathetic and promised to write me when I got back from leave. This is a photo of her which she sent me later. On the back of it she wrote “Good Luck Kid”.
The only other incident I remember whilst on leave was a visit to my school, The Salford Secondary School. And the only person I can recollect seeing was Mr Altham the History Master.
And so on Friday August 23rd 1918 I said goodbye to my parents and set off for France again.
This was a change of shelling tactics by Jerry. Every so often day or night time Jerry would choose a particular area, roughly about a square mile of ground surface, and he would shell the area over a period of about 20 minutes or so, outing every last shell onto it. Then all of a sudden everything would be quiet for an hour or so. After this another area would be chosen and the same thing would happen all over again. By the sound of the shells coming over we could locate the areas he was “blitzing” and the sound of the shells; screaming and exploding, would be much more pronounced the nearer they were to our position.
I remember one night in the signalling pit, one of the blitzes starting up and it was quite evident that our position was on the fringe of the area selected. We were all lying down in the pit in darkness. I was so scared that I was dithering. I just could not keep my body still. I remember Cpe Unsworth who was next to me admonishing me for lack of control, for he could feel the effect of my dithering, but no matter how I tried I could not stop.
It was also during one of these concentrations of shell fire that I saw something that vividly stayed in my memory. Although now when I think of it I find it hard to believe that I saw it. At a distance away from where I stood I saw a German shell, somewhat larger than a 5.9 just at the end of its journey about to enter the ground. It appeared to me to be as a fiery coloured cylinder and in less that a second later it exploded. I have after thought of this incident and have wondered whether all shells become red hot due to their speed of flight through the air. If this is true then I must have been looking just a the spot of entry at the right time.
When we knew that there were rats in the area a few of us staged a rat hunt the next day/ Close by there was a fair sized mound with what we thought were rabbit holes around its sloping sides. We decided that they could not be rabbits. What we did was set a man outside each hole but one armed with a stout wooded stick. On the remaining hole we placed some explosive material (cordite) from an 18 pounds shell case. This was ignited in the hole and sandbag canvas was stuffed in afterwards.
I remember waiting beside the hole I was watching ready poised with the stout rod, ready to clobber any rats that came out. None came and straight away after waiting for some time my tension eased and I relaxed and probably looked away, and that was the moment a rat emerged and fled, again I waited tensed up but no more rates emerged.
The others however did manage to kill one or two and we were able to sleep easier that night, but we never go the chance to stage another hunt.
It was in April last that I was on observation post duty with Lt Walton and that was time when I and the other signaller on duty with me consumed the special sandwiches and apple tart that Walton had asked the officer’s cook to send him. As Lt Walton had never said anything to me I had presumed that he had accepted our word that the cook had nothing special for him.
On going up to the OP he never said anything to me. The post was an isolated house that had been badly battered. It was two storey and only the rafters remain of the roof. Lt Walton used the upper floor or what remained of it as his quarters and for observation purposes.
In the afternoon of the first day I took him a cup of tea and he turned on me and angrily castigated me for having eaten his special tasty food the cook had sent him when last he was on duty with me. For a moment I was flabbergasted and did not attempt to explain. He then went on to say that on the day that he had finished that previous observation duty he had called in the cookhouse and had admonished the cook for not sending him anything and the cook said he had.
Of course he could do nothing about it at that time but he waited his chance and gave me the length of his tongue. I stood there silent and very uncomfortable. He dismissed me and I went down to my signallers companion and told him what had happened. The following morning about 7am I noticed in the field at the back of this house that there were some mushrooms here and there so as recompense I decided to make him some mushrooms on toast for his breakfast.
This was easier said than done for because of our closeness to the trenches I could not just walk around this field and pick them up quickly. Furthermore I had to be certain that what I picked up were in fact mushrooms. I just had a consultation with Eyre as to the difference between mushrooms and toadstools and then I went on all fours (and sometimes my belly when a shell whistled overhead) and brought in as many as I could carry. Eyre fried them and made the toast and I took this upstairs to Lt Walton. He was very pleased and ate them and was still very pleased he was still living at the end of the day!
During the morning he sent me to the gun position with a message and asked me to call at the cookhouse for a bottle of whisky. This I did but did not get full bottle only about half a bottle.
The cook put a small piece of sticking plaster along the level of the whisky. Before I went back to the OP I called to see Drinkwater, one of the gunners and when he saw the bottle in my hand he made to grab it. I evaded him and ran but he followed me and wrestled the bottle from me and took a good swig of it before I could retrieve it. Thus I had now to amend the height of the sticking plaster before returning to the OP. I told Walton that the cook could not send him a full bottle and that was why the height of the whisky had been recorded by him. I’m sure he did not believe me but again he could do nothing about it except of course get confirmation from the cook when he returned to the gun position.
The actual fighting personnel including many of its commissioned officers knew nothing of the war strategy of the High Command at any time during the war and certainly about this period this was indeed the case. For quite a few months our Brigade seemed to have been pushed in and out of action at various places along the front line. The diary indicates that from 21st October to the 25th October we were being rushed down to the same area from which we had retreated in March 1918 and we had some idea that we were being concentrated in this area along with other units for a big offensive. We did not know however that actually that offensive had already started even as far back as July 1918 and had continued until the 29 Sept when a great Flanders offensive had opened. Nor did we know when this offensive action started Hindenburg had advised his War Council that an armistice must be sought. The continuance of the war for the Germans was doomed on the 28th September but dragged on until Nov 11th 1918. All our troops knew was that there were rumours of an armistice in the near future.
However, whatever was happening in the minds of the German high Command their troops were still fighting and using delaying tactics. One of the main delaying tactics was the stationing and leaving machine gun outposts whilst making their retreat. They usually died at their posts but did considerable damage before they died.
The entries in my war diary from the 21st October onwards indicate that our Brigade was being sent back to the Somme front – the are from which we retreated in March 1918.
If my memory is true it was on this long journey, part by train, part by road, that on reaching our destination late at night I was so tired and sopping wet that after staggering in with the horses and feeding and watering them I just dropped at the side of the road and slept the rest of the night. Having recently been issued with a new greatcoat my knees were barely covered on horse back and the rain soaked into the knees of my riding breeches and were skin tight and most uncomfortable. Whilst at the time I could not care less, I did in civilian life suffer with rheumatism in my knees for which this was the cause.
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This I think was a photo taken at Philipville when the Battery was on the way to go into action near Le Cateau. I do not know the significance of the sign ‘The Storm Troops’ or where I got the photo from. I show it because a few of the persons are referred to in this diary. By sight I know all of them but cannot remember all their names.
The referencing to finishing the needlework may seem strange to the reader. Actually some weeks back I had found a ball of red twine and wondering what I could make of it I decided (using as the basic canvas, a sandbag, empty of course) to do some embroidery work and hit on the idea of using the artillery badge as the feature using the red twine that I had found. I had worked on the needlework for some time especially when I was on pit duty at night. The work gave me something to occupy my mind. When I was demobilised I gave it to my Mother who treasured it very much. When my Mother died I would have liked it back for my own keeping but was told by one of my sisters that she could not find it anywhere. At the time I was very annoyed about this for I know that Mother would never have thrown it away.
I remember well finding the potatoes (of course the potatoes were not our property). We saw a dwarf door in the wall of a farmhouse building and on opening the door was a whole stack of potatoes. Unfortunately whilst we were in the process of stowing as many of these potatoes in our pockets we were caught by the farmer and so we had to give them up. I have explained that we were very hungry – I knew sufficient French to convey this and he proffered to cook some that night and said we might bring along some of our pals. This we did and about 7 or 8 of us sat down to a meal only of boiled potatoes which we thoroughly enjoyed.
I think the reader must bear in mind that the British and French armies had by now advanced in corduroy that for the greater part of the war had been in enemy hands, excepting for recent bombardment had not received much damage to property. The normal peasant and farming life was still in existence.
Also due to the success of the allies continuous offensive the armies were advancing at too quick a rate for supplies of all sorts to keep up with the advancing troops. We did not know at this at the time excepting for the fact that food supplies were scarce and thus we were continually hungry.
This incident of collecting a Jerry wagon has remained in my memory for years. I had been on observation duty with an Officer just behind front line and he had noticed an abandoned German General Surface Wagon in a side lane (see sketch)
I could see he was interested in acquiring this because it would enable both he and his fellow officers to transport more easily some of their private chattels during the advancement movement we were engaged in. This Lieutenant rang through to me at the gun position telephone pit and asked me if I remembered seeing the wagon. I sense that he wanted me to go with a driver to collect it and bring it back to the wagon line; so at first I said I did not remember seeing it. He ignored this statement and intimated that he knew I was lying, which of course I was) and ordered me to meet a driver (Jim Bradbury) who would bring 2 horses and harness and that we were to proceed on the road from the gun position to the lane where the G.S. Wagon was, and Bradbury was to take the wagon to the Wagon Lines dropping me on the way back to the gun position. As Bradbury and I proceeded up the road (he on a saddle on one horse and I on bareback on the other) we observed that at about regular intervals the T-junction shown above was being shelled. Thus we had to get as near as was safely possible to the junction, and then after a shell had dropped make a dash to get round the corner. We also had to do this in the return journey, Of course the wagon was already loaded with ammunition of all sorts; so because of casual shell fire on that area too, Bradbury thought it best to leave the ammunition in and hitch up and get away with it as quickly as possible. And this we did.
I shall never forget the ride back. Bradbury was in the saddle but this time I was on a single seat at the front of the wagon which was fixed onto a flat spring and with the wagon in motion swayed about from side to side. What a ride it was – we went hell for leather until we got to a comparatively safe place on the road, and them had the slow and arduous task of removing all the ammunition from the wagon to the side of the road.
After this was completed Bradbury proceeded to the wagon line and I cut across the fields (some of which were in a ploughed state) and I remember several times having to drop on my belly because of casual shells overhead. As I aid in my diary it was a fools errand and neither Bradbury or myself received any thanks from the officer concerned.
I remember the above quite clearly. The guns had been moved forward on the Sunday evening and our telephone pit was on some low ground behind a hedge. During the night and until the early hours of the morning we heard continuous rumblings but could not guess what it was until daybreak when on coming out of the pit we saw whole white linen tapes on either side of the pit as well as at other regular intervals crossing the hedge. Then we realized that these had been laid to act as guides for tanks moving forward to the front line. The Jerries also must have know something about these tanks and that was probably the reason they sent over Pip Squeaks all through the night. At 6.10am our guns started firing as fast as they could. The noise was deafening and this went on until 11am.
For quite a few months I had been over troubled with lice and at frequent intervals when I had the time I used to take my shirt off and run a lighted candle along the seams to kill off the lice and also some of their eggs. However even four hour later the shirt would be just as lousy again. So I was glad to wear a cotton shirt as this did not seem to encourage the breeding of the lice. Everyone else was in the same state and all of us contracted a habit, especially when in the telephone pit at night when resting, of having one had inside our shirts, particularly under the arm pits, feeling continuously for the live lice, and from time to time bringing one out and squashing it between our thumb nails. On odd occasion we actually initiated races between 3 or 4 of them on a piece of paper or card. It not matter which one for they all were put to death at the end of the race.
Of the entry made on the 6th Nov I can remember nothing at all nor the one on the 7th. But the entry on Friday 8th Nov when I mention having stood to all day on the road brings a very happy memory back to me, and it was also the day I met Polly (Laurence Pollard) with whom I made very good friends later.
We had moved off along the road from Maibaux(?) at 7am but it was not long before we were brought to a standstill where we remained until the end of the afternoon. I never knew the cause, but quite possible it was congestion of the roads ahead. Nor can I remember how it was that the General Service Wagon which contained the quartermaster stores came to be crippled and unusable on the road. Since it could not be moved on its wheels the contents of it were removed and placed in a field close by. For some reason also each article or group of articles were spread apart. I think this was done so that Quartermaster Hughes could check on the content. However when this was done a runner was sent with a message to Brigade for a replacement G.S.Wagon. It was at least 4 to 5 hours before a replacement arrived. Meanwhile the Quartermaster sat down among his stores looking very dejected.
It was at this moment that Laurence Pollard, a driver who had not been with us long, turned to me and suggested that we go and cheer up the Quartermaster. I did not know Pollard as I was to know him later on. From his photograph shown he displays quite an innocent face. I think he knew that and used his appearance to disarm those persons whom he was destined to have dealings with.
However we both went on to the field and the Quartermaster looked up on our approach with rather a resentful face and Polly in a naive sort of manner attempted to comfort him. By degrees he managed to get the Quartermaster to converse. Then after a short conversation Polly brought the subject round to food, first of all enquiring as to whether the Qmaster was hungry and then when the Quartermaster ? said he was, Polly asked him if he had any Bully Beef. The answer was in the affirmative, but said the Quartermaster “what was the use of that?” to which Polly said “Do you mind if we have a few tins of it”. Again the answer was in the affirmative. And so Polly got what he had been after. He did not rest at that but asked me to start a small fire while he scrounged a biscuit tin lid. The Quartermaster remonstrated about this but Polly took no notice and proceeded to open a couple of Bully Beef tins and to spread the contents on the lid and place over the fire.
As the beef sizzled the Quartermaster watched us quite disdainfully. When it was ready for eating we offered him some but he refused in what we thought a rather week manner; so we set to and consumed it and because we were hungry we relished it and we registered contentment both facially and in comments. He was watching us and we could se he was weakening so Polly said he would fry some especially for him. I sensed this was a political move rather than a willing offer. The Quartermaster now had developed (after watching us eat) some slight pangs of hunger and agreed to have some cooked for him. When it was done he eat it and admitted that it was very tasty. It was then that Polly got to work on him. First of all he suggested that among the stores on the ground the Quartermaster might have some other food that he did not know he had. Although the Quartermaster denied this Polly got up and began rummaging and without saying anything discovered a sack of Bully Beef and porridge oats, another sack of “Tommy Cookies” (these were small tins in which was wax impregnated with methylated spirits, and could be used for boiling water for tea or for heating up food such as Bully Beef, and he also found some tins of Nestle Milk in a sack. He came back to the Quartermaster and said he did not find anything So we continued sitting with the Quartermaster whilst he awaited the replacement truck and Polly whispered to me that he hoped this would come before the column on the road moved off.
As I have mentioned previously it was 4 to 5 hours before this replacement vehicle arrived and to the Quartermaster’s disappointment it was not a G.S. Wagon but consisted of two, one small square and shallow vehicles. Polly said we would help him to load up and he was very glad of the help but on saying this he told us that there would not be room for everything on the replacement trucks. So Polly said he would get his agreement before putting any article or groups of articles on the trucks. Polly’s manoeuvre now was most amazing.
He first of all told the Qmaster that he need not do any loading, that we would do it all, and then from time to time he would hold up some equipment or article – that he knew the Qmaster might consider unnecessary to be included and having got the Qmaster permission to leave it there he would throw it over the hedge close by. By doing this a few times he was able to get into the position to do this with the sack of Tommy Cookies, porridge oats, tins of Nestles etc. He could only achieve this by describing them to the Qmaster as articles which he sensed the Qmaster would not be bothered to take. And so by this very cleverly executed manoeuvre we placed the things we wanted and we were able to retrieve them after the Qmaster’s trucks were loaded up and before our column moved off.
This was my first experience of Laurence Pollard and his cool techniques, which no doubt he had employed on various circumstances many times before I knew him.
The food and Tommy Cookies that we had filched from the Qmaster he never missed since he did not know he had them, or if he knew he never said anything to us about it later. We on the other hand were able to swap some of the Tommy Cookies for fags, and on many occasions right up to Armistice Day we made our own porridge sweetened with Nestles milk, not only for ourselves but for quite a few others.
On Saturday 9th Nov Polly and I were walking through Aresnes(?) when we saw an Army Service Corp wagon loaded with food of all sorts, drawn up alongside a building. The driver had just got out of his cab and was having a smoke. Quickly Polly told me to engage the drive in conversation for as along as I could and he went round the back of the wagon, which had its tail flap down and proceeded to fill his pockets with small cans nearest to hand, which proved to be Nestles milk tins. Later we consumed these as we wanted them. In those days I could eat a whole tin without feeling sickly.
On another occasion when we had stopped for two or three days rest, I think this was after Armistice Day, and the Qmaster stores were laid out on the floor of an old stone building. One of the nights I was on picquet duty with Pollard and we were using candles in the storm lamp. At about 1am the candle ran out on us and although we had a refill for it Polly said he was going to concoct a story and go the Qmasters stores for another candle and this he did and he not only came back with another candle but had also filched some half dozen tins of fruit.
Asking him how he had come by this he told me he had wakened the Qmaster by knocking on the outside door and had asked for another candle. The Qmaster had remonstrated about having to get up but Polly had replied that he needn’t do this. If he told Polly roughly where they were he would go and get them himself. The Qmaster agreed to this; so Polly went in and started roaming round the boxes on the floor in the semi dark. Using slight of hand and continuous chatter to the Qmaster he filled his pockets with various kinds of food in tins.
Laurence Pollard:
On the night before the armistice our billet was at a large chateau in good condition but completely empty (Chateau de Libois) and devoid of furniture of any sort. It was however the best billet we had for some time. We slept on the boarded floor and had a good nights rest excepting for a continuous series of violent explosions that went on all through the night in the near distance. By morning these explosions had died down and quietness prevailed. We were told by passers by that the explosions had been caused by Jerry having shelled or dropped bombs on the railway sidings close by. It appeared that on these railway sidings there had been railway wagons full of guns ammunition of all sorts and the Jerry’s having had to leave them were not going to let their enemy benefit by their capture; so by dropping a few shells and bombs the whole area was blown up. During the morning of the armistice a few of us went to look at the scene and what a sight it was. Not only had the wagon bodies been disintegrated but railway lines and sleepers had been flung about all over the place. Some of the railway lines had been flung into the air and had come down vertically and had embedded themselves like posts stuck in the ground.
From the armistice day until Wed Jan 1st 1919 I made no further diary recordings and so will be relying on my memory until that date. Needles to say, the fact that peace had been declared mad a big difference to our state of mind, even though our mode of life did not alter much, particularly in the short supplies of food and also the quality of that which did reach us. Admittedly we were on the move forward every day and In such circumstances it was difficult for the A.S.C to keep up regular and wholesome supplies. Many of us were so hungry that we resorted to begging from the residents of villages that we passed through and they had little enough for themselves having been in German hands for the greater part of the war.
There were also many signs that the German army had been tightening their belts for a long time for when we came across the bread supplied to the German army it was very course and tasted like brown sawdust. Their sandbags were woven paper and even their boots were made of a tough paper. I forget how long we stayed in the Chateau after armistice day but it was not a long time and we were soon on the move, our forward movement took us through Phillipville, Dinant, Ciney, Havelange and we finally came to rest in a small village called Ossogne near Havelange. We were there not very far from the main road leading from Namur through Huy to Liege.