CHAPTER IVVERMIN

FIGURE 11:Simple entanglements made of barbed wire and rough posts.

A kindred problem with which the authorities sometimes have to deal is that of "unnatural men." Records of the German Army before the war contained many examples of this most revolting form of perversion. In the British Armies that were raised at the outbreak of the war, several cases occurred, the offenders being punished with terms of imprisonment varying from seven to fifteen years with hard labour—much too lenient.

The whole problem is most difficult to deal with, and any one who attempts to deal with it risks public censure. Yet the problem must be faced, nevertheless, and the sooner we apply sane methods to its solution, the better. Ofcourse views will differ as to what constitutes sane methods, but I am convinced from my own experience with soldiers that the method outlined above is a good one. We must not, however, fail to emphasise the dangers that men run. They must be taught the folly of it. We must make it plain to them that it is not worth the candle to run the risk of contracting the most horrible diseases that even our advanced medical science can never cure with certainty, for the sake of a brief gratification. A man's whole life may be ruined; his innocent children afflicted with a loathsome disease; his wife made to endure years of physical and mental torment as the price of that foolish act. Were this book a moral treatise I should spend time in driving this point home with more force. But as the object I desire to achieve is to show men how they can become soldiers and remain fit, it must suffice to say again that the surest way to lay up misery for yourself, to render yourself unfit to remain at your soldier tasks and thus increase the odds of the enemy against your side is to run the risk of venereal disease through contact with women.

I feel that no hints on health would be complete without some brief reference to the "terrors of the trenches"—Lice. A learned Professor of one of the Universities of England published a little book whose exact title I have forgotten but which was something like this—"Flees, Lice and Bugs, or, the Little Brothers of the Prussian." That is pretty hard on the enemy—or the lice—but it serves to emphasise one important point and that is, that the ravages of these vermin is so great that they can well be said to be fighting the same cause as the enemy. In spite of all a soldier can do, lice are sure, sooner or later, to overtake him. They make their nests in the straw upon which he throws himself when fatigued, or in the walls of houses, or on other human beings, and contact is almost sure to bring them. They are most interesting little pets whose sole interest in life seems to be to lay eggs and thus make sure that their race shall be perpetuated. The female louse takes up her abode upon the soldier's body and immediately sets herself to an egg laying competition. If she gets five minutes start of her victim she lays up for him weeks of trouble, and the only thing to do is to go after her and her eggs as soon as her presence is made known. I discovered my first louse while I was at luncheon in the trenches. I seized the spot on my arm where I believed her to be, and calling to my orderly hurried off to the fields some distance behind the lines. There we began the hunt which ended, I am happy to be able to say, in her decease. But the eggs had been laid and not for weeks did I succeed in ridding myself of these unwelcome boarders. I was, much against my will, used as a perambulating incubator, and only the greatest vigilance served to rid me of the pests.

FIGURE 12:Trench periscopes.

It was our custom, as soon as we were relieved from the trenches for a spell of a few days, to turn all the men out into a field and bid them "Hunt!" I used then to walk around amongst the men and enquire of them what luck they had had. "Two," "Seven," "Nineteen," etc., were the frequent replies. One of the saddest men I have ever seen replied "None, Sir." His unhappiness was due to the fact that he was perfectly well aware that there weresome there to be caught, but that he had not yet had the luck to get them.

As to means of combating them, the best is constant vigilance. Make sure that not only the live lice are killed but that the eggs as well are destroyed, say with the ash of a lighted cigarette. The next thing to remember is that body lice are opposed to cleanliness, and that the oftener you can wash yourself, the more you inconvenience them. Gasoline squirted over the body and the clothes also serves to discourage them. Some thin cotton shirts covered with a solution of carbolic, had a good effect, and at the least they served as another barrier to the little rascals before they could reach the body.

Since I returned to this country, a manufacturer of vermin killers told me that the following method will be found effective: Take a goose quill and seal up one end. Put in half an inch of mercury, and then seal the other end making a little phial of about an inch and a half in length. Sew this to the clothes under each armpit and round the belt line. As to whether this will work I do not know, for I am glad to be able to say that I have not needed to test the theory since I returned to America.

Fleasare not so common, but when they occur,they must be hunted with the same vigilance as lice, and the same methods apply to their extermination. As carriers of typhus, they are particularly to be dreaded.

So far I have been dealing with disease from the point of view of the individual and I have said nothing of the duties of officers towards their men in this respect. A word on the subject may not be out of place.

When the new armies were formed in England at the outbreak of war it was summer time and the new troops were placed in tents in open fields. The lessons of camp life were difficult for many of these men to learn, and some of the experience that was obtained was bought dearly. It will occur to every soldier that the greatest care must be paid to the cleanliness of the lines. Men are often too lazy to carry their scraps to the proper garbage pails, and carelessly throw them around in the neighbourhood of the tents. In fine weather they can be easily seen and the culprits, when discovered, can be made to clean up all the lines. When the culprits cannot be discovered, whole companies have to be put to this fatigue work. In wetweather it is worse, for the particles of meat and bread get trodden into the ground and before long there arises a stench from them. Sometimes, too, rats and mice are encouraged by this careless method. We used to find that certain men who had an inherent objection to fresh air, would eat all their meals within the tents. This practice must be stopped at all costs. Bring the men into the open and let them stay there and they will be all the better for it. It is excusable for them to remain in the tents during rain but at no other time. The inspecting officer would frequently find pieces of bacon and butter and cheese trodden into the ground on which the men had to sleep.

The linesmustbe kept clean. Officers will be well advised to assign liberal fatigue work to the men who are guilty of messing up the lines, and littering them with particles of food, papers, cigarette and cigar ends, etc. The regular sanitary squad cannot be expected to do its work unless the soldiers themselves are made to co-operate. It is a good thing to encourage the spirit of rivalry between units, and men can often be jollied on into keeping their lines neat and tidy by pointing out to them lines that are better kept—and sometimes praising them when their lines are up to the required standard. Wefound that a good many of the men had quite an artistic instinct, and would use up the old bottles and stones from around the camp to execute the most beautiful designs representing the battalion colours or the flags of the allied nations.

We also met with considerable difficulty in getting men to thoroughly air the tents. The flaps of round tents should be rolled up just as early as is possible each morning. A good plan is to "strike" individual rows of tents occasionally and give the ground a thorough airing and disinfecting. We followed this plan with tents which contained notoriously lazy men who would not rise at the proper time and developed the habit of leaving the flaps of the tents down. They were awakened by the Orderly Corporal in the usual course of events and given ten minutes in which to appear outside their tents. Promptly at the expiration of this time a squad arrived on the scene and, undoing all their guy ropes, let the tents down very suddenly on their heads. It is very provoking to have a mass of canvas come about your ears in this way, and the slackers soon learned the only way to avoid it.

FIGURE 13:Simple loophole made of steel plate and let into parapet.FIGURE 14:Ordinary hand bomb with fuse lighted automatically as lever is released.

When an army has to live in tents, a certain amount of dampness is almost certainly inevitable. But if proper drains are dug around them, and every advantage taken of the sunlight, much can be done to avoid what frequently ends in rheumatism or pneumonia. It pays to construct good cinder roads in all the camp lines and to see to it that the approaches to the individual tents are prepared in the same way. When we were first dumped down in a field of clay in the Midlands of England and told to prepare it for the horse lines to accommodate the sixteen hundred horses that were due in a few days, we were faced with a colossal task. We were all turned into navvies, and long before we even had shelter for the horses they had arrived. It was a most tedious business to construct lines for them in December in England, and we had to cart many hundreds of tons of cinders and rock to make the place possible. For weeks we worked at it, and there were complaints from the men that they had not joined the army to be navvies. They had joined it to fight, so they said. But when the stables were finished and they could approach the lines over nice smooth dry roads they realised that their labour had not been in vain. There is usually a fitting return in health from all the labour invested in the preparation of a good camp.

Another place in which officers and non-commissioned officers must be on the alert for filth, is the cook house. This is true in winter as well as in summer time. It has been my experience that the laziest and dirtiest men volunteer for the task of cook. The reason is that they are able to get the choicest portions for themselves, be free from the bore of attending drills and parades, and get a little higher pay, besides what they can get from the soldiers on the side for little favours. In an army such as was formed in England at the beginning of the war it was impossible to get enough trained cooks for the work, and all sorts of men were run in for the job. Many of them were thoroughly lazy and incompetent. There was, of course, a rooted objection to calling in the aid of women—though few of us ever think of employing men to do our cooking in private life—and when we suggested it for the purpose of improving the grade of our food in the Officers' Mess, we were met with the reply that it had never been done. That was the reason for keeping out a good many reforms in Dear Old England. But by strategy on our part, and by the eventual demands of the stomachs concerned that some change be made, we were able to introduce a woman manager for the mess kitchen. She reformed everything, including the costs of the food. Our mess bills were considerably reduced, the food was better cooked, and we got a variety that had never seemed to occur to the late robbers that we had employed. When England began to feel the want of fighting men, it entered the brains of some of the Brass Hat officials that this was a sphere in which the women could well supplant the men—and woman came into her own again, at least in part. That was a job that womencoulddo well, but it was a long time before we would agree to let them.

FIGURE 15:Above is trench bomb gun firing bomb with stem; below is trench mortar firing large bomb.

But whether men or women are in charge of this important department of an army, the duty will still devolve upon the officers to see that the cookhouses are kept clean and that the food is up to the proper standard. One case occurred in a camp near London where they were following the principle of allowing outside caterers to supply the food, in which the Orderly Officer of the day just managed to stop in time, the service to the men of meat that was diseased. The desire to make a little additional profit had blinded these unpatriotic people to the welfare of the troops, and they were punished with a fine and with the loss of their catering contract. That is mild punishment.Grafters of every kind, from those who put bad powder into shells or bad leather into boots, to those who risk an outbreak of sickness through supplying improper food, should all be treated the same way that certain other enemies of their country are treated—a Court-martial and a firing party. No condemnation is too severe for them. Officers will not always find it an easy task to detect these thieves, but they must be very much on their job for this purpose.

Then again good food sometimes is allowed to become bad food through the careless handling by the cooks and their assistants. Covers are left off dishes that contain meat, butter, cheese, etc., and they are ruined by dust or flies. Contaminated food is allowed to remain in close proximity to the food that is to be offered to the troops; cooks either use unclean utensils themselves or allow the orderlies from the various units to return dirty utensils to them; or they handle the refuse and then the food without ever a thought to washing their hands. One very knowing old rascal of a cook we had used to have his place in excellent condition at eleven in the morning when the Orderly Officer used to make his rounds, and one day when I came upon him suddenly it was to find that he was using one of the bread bags as a receptacle for his change of clothes—a filthy collection of shirts, socks, etc. He was fired, and cursed me for many a day as he carried his great weight of avoirdupois round the training field with a rifle over his shoulder like any other infantryman.

FIGURE 16:Simple gas mask with flutter valve or check valve. Ambulance dogs and horses in the gas zone were equipped as shown.

With regard to water, while the regular line officers must also keep an eye to its general purity, it is generally left to the care of the medical staff to test it from time to time to make certain of its fitness for human use. We experienced a good deal of trouble in making the men keep their wash lines clean and in making them refrain from throwing soapy, greasy water on the ground. It is the easiest method—for them—but the costliest in the long run, and they must be made to throw it into the proper drains.

Then, too, no camp will be complete without a thorough system of garbage disposal. The refuse should be collected into tins that can be closed to keep away the rats, etc., and then taken at certain specified times to the incinerator. The latter can easily be built under any circumstances and there can be no reason for a camp not being well supplied in this matter.

Latrines, also, must be thoroughly inspected by the officers of every unit. They should beestablished at some distance from the tent lines, and as far removed as possible from the kitchen. Sand and lime should be liberally supplied. The tasks of attending the latrines will normally fall to the sanitary squad who can be assisted by those who are convicted of the crime of failing to keep their lines clean. It is wonderful what a wholesome effect on a lazy man has the imposition of three days latrine duty! In the trenches this was one of the few punishments at our disposal for the slackers, for they welcomed any punishment that would send them away out of the firing line.

The same principles that have been laid down for tent life will apply more or less to life in billets. When the winter came all the troops in England and Scotland were moved into billets in towns where they could be accommodated. These were usually manufacturing towns that had numerous small homes that could each accommodate a soldier or two. From the point of view of training this is a system far from satisfactory for the men so easily get out of control. But it is the best system that we had at the time. Later on, extensive villages of huts were constructed, and the training proceeded normally.

Sometimes groups of men were assembled inlarge vacant houses. There was no furniture in them and the troops had to sleep on the floor. Cooking facilities were inadequate, but worst of all were the toilet facilities. These houses had been constructed to serve as the homes for average families of five to ten, and when fifty or sixty men were turned into them the result is imaginable. The same problems will probably be presented if ever American soldiers are housed in this way, and those who happen to be officers will have to exercise the greatest vigilance.

Then again we found that there are some men who have no idea of the risk they run in leaving food lying about a house or hidden away. After a certain group had moved away from Bedford, England, it was my business to go round the houses they had occupied to see if they were fit for occupation by the incoming troops. I found to my horror in one of the houses that some of the men, instead of taking surplus meat out to the garbage cans, had put it under a board in the floor! It had been there a few days when I found it, and examination of the other rooms disclosed the fact that all sorts of things from meat and bread and tins to old clothes had been hidden in similar places by these lazy fellows.

My reader will soon realise that the officer of to-day has to keep his eyes constantly open to preserve the best conditions for the training of his men. And while I am on this point I would just add this word. Not only must the officers see to it that the food and water are good and the camp kept clean, but he must also have the men's health constantly in mind when he is planning their schedule of training. Moderation is the word. It is possible to be too enthusiastic and do the men more harm than good with hasty training. Exercises should be graduated. It must be remembered that many of the men who will constitute civilian armies are not used to out-of-door life and their training must be gentle. It is not fair for an officer to expect his men to be able to march twelve or twenty miles on a hike while he rides comfortably with them on a horse! It is a good thing for him to share the fatigue of his men that he may be the better able to direct their training. I have found that a good many of these hikes were planned by the higher officers who never walked and never understood when men began to fall out from fatigue. Rests during marching should be fairly frequent and the men should be taught the advantages to be gained by loosening their packs and throwing themselves downflat on the ground to relax all their muscles. Singing and whistling should be encouraged on the march, for there is nothing like it to make a long road seem short, but smoking should be reserved for the rest periods.

The principle of "plenty of rests" should also be followed during physical exercises and a man should never be asked to hold his arm long in any uncomfortable position. A thoughtful officer is soon rewarded by the increased efficiency of his men. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"—will bring big returns in the army.

This war is being fought out, not in great open battles, but in successive conflicts from the security of trenches in what "Papa Joffre" has called the "nibbling process." It is not simple work but such as calls for healthy bodies, trained minds, and steady nerves. Quick action is often necessary. Independence of thought, ingenuity and personal courage, combined with implicit obedience, make up the ideal soldier.

The training through which a civilian must go, then, will be such as to develop these qualities. Every syllabus of training must be drawn up with this in view, and all the time the attention of the officers must be kept on the fact that the training must be such as to make soldiers who will be efficient in the kind of war that is being waged. Much that has been written in the text books for armies has had to be discarded as out of date. It is no exaggeration to say that the British knew very little about modern warfare when we went to France, in spite of thefact that we had, during this century, waged a war in South Africa, not to mention the numerous border engagements in India. We did not know the tremendously important part that artillery was to play; we knew practically nothing of the use of bombs; we had never made gas and did not know its constitution; and in the work of trench construction we were in the kindergarten class. Our enemy taught us many of these things and we learned them slowly. Now we have reached his standard and gone past him as the Tanks testify. But in pure frightfulness we can never compete with him and never intend to.

Eight hours a day of hard but varied training was our rule with frequent evening lectures. Conditions were arranged as much like those on active service as possible, even to the use of "live" bombs. Men are very reluctant at first to handle these explosive little instruments of war, and they must be given confidence in themselves long before they reach the firing line. There they are used as freely as a mechanic uses a machine.

It is said that one general who was training his men in the Midlands of England had a difficulty in getting them to keep their heads down. They could not see the necessity for it and alwayswanted to see all that was going on. Now in actual warfare the individual soldier is able to see very little of what is transpiring round about him, and he has to be content to come through with a whole head. Accordingly the General served out to a few trustworthy men a number of live, ball cartridges. During the manœvres the men who would put their heads up heard some of these missiles singing round their ears, and soon learned that it was unwise to be too curious. I am not sure that I would recommend this method—for were an accident to happen it would bring disgrace and dismissal to the officer who had employed it—but it is certainly an effective means.

One of the first things to be insisted upon in training a man is that he learn the use ofCover. He must learn not only that cover is necessary, but also what constitutes effective cover of various materials. The most common form of cover is that afforded by piled up earth. A rifle bullet fired at short range will pierce about forty inches of earth so that nothing less than thirty-six inches can be considered as giving protection from ordinary bullets. Where sand can be obtained ten inches less will suffice. Ordinary turf is not nearly so good and nothing less than five feet in thickness is sufficient.Bricks are effective. If they are placed end on giving a thickness of nine inches this will be found sufficient so that a man can feel fairly secure from rifle bullets standing behind an ordinary brick wall. Where wood is used much depends on its degree of hardness; thirty inches for hardwood and forty-five for softwood can be taken as affording complete protection. Any of the harder substances such as iron and steel, etc., are preferable, but they can seldom be obtained. Of ordinary iron plate three-fourths inch is necessary and less for the different varieties of steel. Usually several of these media must be used. Boards can be arranged with stones and sand or litter, etc., between them. The point to be remembered is that the required thickness must be obtained, not at the base of the cover but at the top, to support which a much larger base will usually be required.

When a man has learnt what thickness of materials he needs to have to protect his life, it will be a good thing to take him out and let him see how far bullets are able to pierce these media by actually firing at them from point blank range. That will give him a respect for bullets and impress the lesson on him.

But he must also be told that cover that protects is only half what is required. It must besuch as to allow him to become offensive while giving him defence. The problem is a simple one in actual trenches, where he has no alternative but to build them continuously and then fire over the top or through loopholes of steel. But when more open fighting develops he must learn that his business is not only to get reasonable protection for his own body but to be able to bring his rifle to bear on the enemy. This necessitates a certain amount of exposure. Certain devices have been developed during this war to allow a man to fire his rifle from beneath the parapet of the trench by means of specially adapted periscopes. These are of great use for snipers but cannot be used by all the men.

In open fighting men often make the mistake of seeking cover in what is obviously the most protected place from rifle bullets, but equally obvious to those of experience as the most likely place for the enemy to choose as marks for his artillery. Orchards, woods, houses, etc., come within this category, and it is only experience that will teach a man what places to choose and what places to avoid. Wherever the enemy can view the approaches to these shelters, either by direct vision from their positions or by means of aeroplanes or observation balloons, they become dangerous as cover.

Modern trenches are intended to give cover from fire and from view. They are seldom roofed over, so that, as a matter of fact, they can be seen from the air, but it is not by any means an easy task either for an aeroplane to drop bombs there (a ditch three feet wide) nor yet for the artillery to hit them. But we seldom are able to inherit trenches—they usually have to be dug under cover of darkness while the enemy is sniping. For this purpose each man in the British army carries a small entrenching tool on his back, as well as two sandbags. Every man is trained in the use of this valuable little tool, and soon learns never to be without it. When, during an advance, he needs to provide cover for himself, he throws himself down on the ground placing his rifle at his left side, and begins to dig away the earth at his right side, throwing the loose earth up in front of him. Just as soon as he can he takes the sandbags from his back and fills them, placing them in front of him. Under this imperfect cover he proceeds to deepen the hole till he can roll his body into it. This miniature trench should be two feet wide and three feet long. Then if time permits he should add small comforts such as a recess for his feet, drainage for water, etc. He will find that he needs to dig down to about twofeet, all the time throwing the earth out in front and occasionally pushing it out a little so as to make it of sufficient width, for, of course, he will be seeking to get a parapet of about a yard in thickness at the top. If he has an opportunity of firing he should do so, not over the top of his cover but round the right side of it. To fire over it is to ask for trouble. The body and legs should be placed in such a position that they are covered as much as possible by the earth thrown up in front.

If an advance has to be made from this position, the small trench will have served its purpose in giving temporary shelter. But there are times when troops have to consolidate positions won in this way, and on the site of these primitive trenches, more elaborate ones have to be made. At the battle of Neuve Chapelle the troops took up a certain line, dug themselves in in a rough way, and then during the night they set to work to construct the very trenches that still shelter them to this day. But it was due to the entrenching tools and the few sand bags that they were able to hold the line during the hours of daylight, and when the next morning dawned they had a fairly adequate protection.

While the question of cover is very important,I do not wish to convey the impression that men should have this subject always in their minds. To use a rock or a tree or a mound of earth as a temporary shelter is one thing; but to continue to hide behind it at the time an advance is needed, is another. The man who hesitates to go forward when he has recovered his wind, but who takes care of his precious skin by remaining under cover, is worse than useless. The object of all troops must be to get into touch with the enemy and drive him out with the bayonet. Cover will help to keep a man alive for a little while to be able to do that work.

When through adverse circumstances—usually the presence of the enemy in superior force—an army has to go to ground, it sets to work in dead earnest to build its trenches. We have learned that the best fortifications that can be got are those that are constructed in the earth. The guns of Verdun have practically never been in operation—indeed at the present time there are no guns in the old forts—and the reason for this is that earth works of such strength were thrown up at a distance from the forts that the Germans were never able to get their heavy guns to bear on them. The forts of Liége, and Namur, and Antwerp all fell before the great howitzers, but the earth works of Verdun weretoo much for them. It is doubtful if large forts will ever again be used in inland places, for the earthworks have proved their great superiority.

Trenches are laid out and dug as shown in the accompanying diagram [Figure 4]. They do not consist of one long straight line, but what may be described as a succession of little rooms, about twenty feet long, seven feet deep and three feet broad. They are seldom roofed over. Each little room is connected to the ones on either side by a trench that runs behind the four-feet-square traverse that is of solid earth and which serves the purpose of localising the effect of shells, bombs, etc. If the trenches were in one straight line, a shell that fell there would be liable to injure a great many men; whereas under the present system the traverse acts as a buffer and limits the radius of its explosive force. The trench itself is dug about three feet deep, care being taken to lift off the top layer of grass and keep it aside to place over the front of the earth on completion of the trenches, to render them less visible. As the earth is lifted out it is thrown to the front and rear, and some of it put into sandbags which are then laid like stones as shown. The front part of the trench is then called the parapet and the rear part the parados. Both must be made strong,the parapet for reasons already given, and the parados in order to protect the men from the force of shells that fall just behind the trenches. About a foot from the ground there is placed a board that is called the "firing step," on which the men stand when they are about to fire. I have said that there is seldom any roof over the trenches. It is difficult to cover in the trenches because of the limited supply of materials. Then again it is questionable if roofing pays; for, admitting that they may be able to keep out small bombs and rifle bullets, they can never hope to be able to keep out shells. The Germans used to roof in a great deal—but then they were there to wage a defensive war and did not propose to move for a good while.

In some ground the earth will "hold itself up" at the sides of the trenches, in other ground it will have to be revetted. This is done with chicken wire, or with willows or old staves where they can be had. It is important to have the sides firm, or else in wet weather especially, they will prove a nuisance to the occupants of the trenches.

Some kind of floor should be provided for the trenches. The simplest and best are made in the following way: Take two seven-inch boards about ten feet in length, nail them together tomake a fourteen-inch plank, and then cover the whole with fairly fine chicken wire. Place these boards on the ground with the side on which the wires are joined downwards. They keep the feet from slipping, are easily cleaned by being upended when they are dry, and allow the space under them to be reached easily to pick up scraps of food, etc. There is nothing more heart breaking than having to pursue your weary course for miles, sometimes, up trenches with slippery sides and sloping, wet, treacherous bottoms.

In each trench there must be dugouts for the men to sleep in. The first ones that are made will be very primitive, and will be very much like a fireplace in a room—simply excavations in the back wall of the trench almost on a level with the bottom of it. At first they used to be dug in the front of the trench, but this practice was discontinued as it was found to weaken the power of resistance of the very important parapet. In the course of time more labour can be expended upon the dugouts, and it will be found advisable to construct them of uniform size, six feet long by four feet wide by four feet high. By having them uniform we give the engineers a chance to make frames that can be used to support the roof and the sides and bring themwell from the rear to construct the dugouts. These dimensions do not make a very commodious home for four men, but never more than three of a section (of four) are off duty at the same time, and besides there is considerable danger in having large dugouts, as they present a correspondingly larger target for the guns. A direct hit on a large dugout will often bring the whole thing crashing about the ears of the inhabitants. My own adjutant and one of my brother officers were killed by falling beams in large dugouts. The entrance to the dugouts must be kept as small as possible so as to protect the occupants from shells that fall just outside.

The Germans used to follow the custom of digging many of their "funk holes," as they were called, many feet underground. Sometimes they went down twenty and even thirty feet. The idea of this was that they could retreat into these secure places during a bombardment and then emerge with their machine guns as soon as the attacking infantry had started to approach over "No Man's Land." We never followed that custom, for while it will work at times, yet the attacking infantry may be upon you before you are aware of it and have you at their mercy with bayonets and bombs from theparapet. This the Germans have learnt to their cost many times on the Somme.

Many efforts have been made to construct dugouts, reasonably near the surface, that would be shell proof. This is a most difficult matter. It is easy enough to make them shrapnel-proof. A layer of galvanised iron on the roof covered with a foot of loose earth will accomplish this for the velocity of shrapnel is not great. But with high explosive shells it is different. It was seen at Liége and Namur what terrific effects high explosive shells fired from howitzers could have even on re-enforced concrete. I am told that at Port Arthur, a Russian General was killed in a shelter that was covered with over twelve feet of concrete. The closest we can approach to a shell-proof dugout on the field is as follows: Dig an approach trench about ten feet deep, leading into a hole of this depth, by any dimensions you may choose—say six feet square. Put in supports for the roof that shall be four feet from the floor. Roof in with steel rails, such as are used on railroads, then cover them with two or three layers of bricks that have been broken into small pieces. Leave a five-foot air space and then place an exactly similar roof above and cover the whole with earth. Small shells will be stopped at thefirst set of rails, while large ones may possibly pierce them. But the effect of the explosion will mostly be taken up in the airchamber and the dugout itself protected. The reader will readily perceive the difficulty of constructing such dugout on the field and they can certainly not be provided for the accommodation of the common soldier however precious his life may be.

As the days go by, every effort must be made to improve the trenches. This can be done in many ways, some of which will be obvious. The front line is, of course, the most important one, and the greatest amount of work has to be done there. But support and reserve lines as well must be constructed and many communicating trenches. Support lines were usually dug at a distance of thirty to eighty yards from the firing line. In them we kept a few men to be used in case of emergency. This line was an exact duplicate of the front line and was intended to be used in case we were pushed back. The reserve line was about five to eight hundred yards back from the front line and was not brought to any very great degree of completion. Interspersed between these three lines were many redoubts, or especially strong points containing machine guns, etc., whose defenders were expectedto hold on to the very last and take advantage of their more secure position to make the attacker pay dearly for his advance. All these lines had to be linked up by communicating trenches, which started about a mile in the rear of the front line and went up in zigzag lines to the latter position, crossing the other trenches on their way. These communicating trenches are used for the purpose of bringing up troops and supplies, etc., and for taking to the rear the men that have been wounded. It is usually arranged to have some of these trenches "Up" and some of them "Down" roads. Each line of trenches (except of course the "communicating") contain dugouts for the use of the troops that hold them. The distance between the communicating trenches varies from twenty-five yards to three or four hundred according to the state of perfection of the trench system.

For special weapons such as machine guns and bomb guns, special shelters have to be made. Extra strong parapets are provided as well as head cover of railroad ties, and every effort is made to keep the exact position of the machine guns secret from the enemy. We soon learnt that he was very anxious to find our machineguns and would shell us liberally in the hope of being able to locate them.

Care must be given to the question of drainage. Small ditches should be dug at intervals of a few yards to lead the water to pits in the rear. In Flanders, where we were very near river level, we installed hand and power pumps to keep the water from taking possession of the trenches. Even then, on rainy days we sometimes were in water up to our waists.

Great care must also be taken in the construction of latrines. The method that was followed was to dig a short "blind alley" trench at right angles to one of the communicating trenches, and at a distance of twelve or fifteen yards from the front line. Starting from the end of this blind alley, the trench was gradually filled in with earth as it was used. In other cases biscuit tins were used as receptacles and the ordinary sanitary squads emptied them at specified times into a fairly deep pit. These latrines should be well protected with sandbags to keep the enemy from finding them and training a machine gun on them, in the knowledge that they were very likely to get some of the men who used them during the day.

This, I believe, gives the principal points in the construction of the trenches. Men shouldbe taught to dig them in broad daylight at first and then when they have learnt the knack, they should be set to dig them at night. From time to time during their training they should be made to return—preferably to the same sections of the trenches—to improve them and maintain them. An excellent scheme is to arrange competitions among the men to spur them on to invent ingenious devices for protecting themselves and their fellows during their occupation of them. At certain times they should also be made to spend a night and then several nights there, going through the regular routine of sentry duty, stand to arms, etc., just as they will have to do in real warfare. Another scheme is to choose opposing sides with trenches within easy reach, say, twenty-five yards apart. Arrange a three-day tour of the trenches, and let each side attempt to surprise the other. Umpires can be stationed in No Man's Land to decide as to the relative merits of the two sides. At certain times, additional interest can be given to the conflict by some harmless missiles such as sand bags (without the sand!) rolled up and made into a ball the size of a base ball with string. These will also give excellent practice in bomb throwing.

The rules of the trenches can be summed up in a few words: "Keep your spirits up and your head down."

FIGURE 17:British soldier fully equipped with pack, entrenching tool, sandbags and steel helmet.

There are two things to be done after the trenches have been dug—one is to keep them in order, and the other is to provide outside protection for them. The elements themselves are enough to play havoc with the sand bags and the walls of trenches, but if you add to this the fact that they will immediately become the marks for the enemy gunners you will see that the cost of upkeep is liable to be high.

During the first year of the war the Germans were supplied with an amount of shells that enabled them to do what they pleased with our trenches without our being able to reply. Indeed, for many months, as is now well known, we were on an allowance of six shells per battery per day, or about one shell per gun per day! Gunners will readily appreciate the uselessness of a stock of this kind. The result of this discrepancy in the number of shells was that the enemy could shell us with impunity. He usedto set to work to break down our parapets early in the morning, and then, knowing that we should have to repair them during the night, would train machine guns on the breeches that had been made. It is a very disheartening business to have the parapets that you have laboured so hard to construct, knocked down in a few minutes. There would be some consolation in being able to serve him the same way, but that was denied us at that time. Indeed, one of the best ways to preserve your trenches is to let him know by experience that every time he breaks them down, you will do the same thing to him.

Every night there will be something to do in this connection. No effort must be spared to get the trenches into first-class condition and keep them thus. It is very annoying to relieve a battalion that has lain down on their job during their tour of duty in the line, and to find that you have a great deal of work to do—work that could have been avoided if they had taken reasonable care of the work that had already been accomplished when they took over the trenches.

As to the outside protection for the trenches, that consists for the most part of barbed wire. Sir Ian Hamilton, in his report on the DardanellesExpedition, paid a tribute to the effectiveness of the Turkish barbed wire. It was the means of stopping a British advance more than once on the Peninsula, just as it was in France. At the battle of Aubers Ridge, fought on May 9, 1915, we suffered most heavily from the fact that the wires had not been cut, and therefore we were unable to make progress. We had to retreat, leaving a number of our dead and wounded before the enemy lines. It would be difficult to exaggerate the part that barbed wires have played in this war. Wherever they are set up it means that a thorough bombardment must be made before an advance can be risked.

The erection of these entanglements is really the work of Engineers, but so extensive is the task that infantrymen have to be called in to do the pick and shovel work while the engineers do the directing. Stakes are driven deep into the ground, and round them the wire is twisted as it is taken from stake to stake. Some wires are laid on a level with the ground, some a few inches above it, then all the way up to ten or fifteen feet into the air, making a regular network. We tried to have our wires extending over a width of ground of at least twenty feet.

But not only are barbed wires used, but alsoelectrically charged wires in some cases, though between the lines they will seldom be of much use for a single shell may short circuit the system and it be rendered harmless. An effective method was that of placing trip wires near the ground, and then a little beyond them bayonets with the sharp points uppermost, or pointed sticks, so that when the man tripped over the wire he would fall and impale himself on the spikes. Sometimes bombs were attached to the wires in places where it was thought likely that the enemy would attempt to cut them or come through them.

As these entanglements have to be erected during the night and under the fire of the enemy it will be seen that it becomes exceedingly dangerous work. But it has to be done, and the risk must be taken for the sake of the additional security it will give to the trenches. It has been suggested that this is work to which the conscientious objectors in England—the Pacifists here—might be put. It is necessary work for the preservation of life, and is not specifically military. It is labourer's work. There is no chance of fighting out there nor of taking human life. Then it offers an excellent opportunity of winning the martyr's crown because some one is sure to turn a machine gunon you if you remain out there long enough. All of these points should appeal to Pacifists. But the greatest reason from our point of view is that it would save the lives of valuable men!

The men in the trenches are further protected by men whose business it is to go out into No Man's Land and remain there hours at a time, lying in some kind of hole, and listening to be able to detect the presence of the enemy. Should the enemy make his appearance in small parties, these listening posts can usually take care of them, but when they are in large parties, the listening post men return to the trenches and give warning. The best nerves are needed by the men who go out into the open to do this work, and sooner or later every one has to take a turn at it. These listening posts are sometimes entirely disconnected from the trenches, and out beyond their own barbed wire, through which the men have to make a passage for the time being, and of course keep it secret. But sometimes they are connected with the fire trench by a shallow trench or sap which is dug out into the neutral territory whenever circumstances are favourable.

When the troops landed at Suvla Bay, on the Peninsula, they found several excellent water holes that were most inviting to parched andthirsty men. A rush was made for them, when suddenly a terrific explosion was heard, and dozens of men fell flat on the ground, some dead, some wounded. The Turks had taken the precaution to place land mines round these wells, and as soon as they were stepped upon, the mines went off. This is a genuine ruse of war and was used also between the lines. The Turks never resorted to the treachery that General Botha had to overcome in German East Africa where he found the wells, not mined, but poisoned. A recent report from France tells us that in the present retreat the Germans are employing the same dastardly tactics. It is one thing to protect your trenches or your line of retreat; it is quite another to take the lives of men in this barbarous way.

Trenches dug in the foregoing manner and protected by barbed wire will give the infantryman a chance to live. But he will increase or decrease the probability of coming out alive according as he is careful or careless during the time he is there. Nothing, of course, can save the men if the enemy is determined to thoroughly shell the line, and the orders are to hold it. The sanest thing when a bombardment begins is to withdraw to the next safe line. But the enemy will sometimes be content to allowmen to remain in their trenches for a while without shelling them provided they do not wilfully provoke him. A column of smoke arising from the trenches where the men were cooking was usually considered by the enemy as provocation, and over the shells would come. This brings us to the point that I wish to make regarding fires. The men must eat during their tour of duty, and they must have hot food, consequently fires of some kind are needed. But they should be made of very small pieces of wood cut up with a pocket knife so small that they will not give off any smoke. By following this method a safe and very hot fire can be made. At times we were supplied with small quantities of charcoal which was very acceptable. As a matter of fact, more liberties in this connection can usually be taken in the firing trench than in the support or reserve trenches. The enemy knows perfectly well men are in the firing trench. He sees from the rifle fire that that is manned, but it is a good thing to keep him guessing about the other trenches.

For the same reason there should never be any unnecessary noise in the trenches. It provokes the enemy to throw bombs and other unwelcome missiles.

I have indicated that the present form oftrenches, being in a continuous line, makes it necessary either to construct loopholes or to look over the top of the parapet in order to fire. I have indicated too that there are several forms of rifles that can be fired through periscopes, but these must as yet be considered special and are not for the ordinary man to use. No doubt such a rifle will be invented and generally used in the future. But in this war we soon learned that it was "unhealthy" to put our heads above the parapet any more frequently than we had to. Therefore, in order to see what the enemy was about, and to wait for sniping opportunities we used periscopes. Some of those that were brought to France were huge cumbersome boxes that made a fine mark for the enemy's sharpshooters. But the kind that was most generally used after the first six months of the war was that which consisted of a stick with two slanting grooves in it, one near each end, into which grooves small mirrors could be fitted. We found them quite effective, and should an accident happen and a mirror be broken they were easily replaced from the store we carried with us for that purpose. Not having a box of any kind they were very difficult to see from the enemy lines.

Certain gunners who used to come to thetrenches as Forward Observing Officers were equipped with a splendid periscope that had beautiful lenses in it. But it was very costly and could not easily be repaired if once damaged.

To make the image in the periscope clearer, binoculars can be applied to the lower glass at the proper angle, and almost as clear a view obtained as by looking over the parapet. One disadvantage of the periscope is that it makes the distance seem greater than it really is, and many a man receives a shock when he places his head above the parapet after looking through a periscope for a while, to see how close the enemy trenches are.

Trenches are exposed to attack not only from the surface but also from the air and from beneath the surface of the ground. Aeroplanes come over and drop steel darts or bombs, and only very strong head cover can give protection against them. But it is very hard to hit a trench from the air with a missile of this kind, and the danger to the men in the trenches is not very great. By far the greater danger comes from mining. Men must be on the watch all the time to detect these operations of the enemy and to forestall them where possible. Special instruments like giant stethoscopes have beeninvented and men are told off to hold them to the ground to detect the sounds of digging. But, while these instruments are of use, the best means is a well trained ear. If the enemy is discovered mining towards your position, the only thing to do is to countermine him and try and blow him up before he is ready to touch off the fuse that is intended for your destruction. It is not an easy matter to decide just where the countermine should be sunk or how far to go. Many combats have been fought with pick and shovel in the bowels of the earth in cases where one side or the other has broken through the gallery. But any risk must be taken rather than let the enemy enjoy uninterrupted his work of mining you.

It may be desirable to indicate the various kinds of shell fire to which trench men are exposed. (I pass over rifle fire which is harmless so long as men keep their heads down and avoid corners from which they can be enfiladed.) No amount of caution will save a man from shells if they happen to be falling in his neighbourhood. The most frequent visitor of the shell variety is of course the shell from the field gun. The British use an 18-pounder, the French a 75 millimetre, and the Germans a 77 millimetre—all shells of about the same calibre (3 inches). Of these the best gun is undoubtedly the French, which is a perfectly marvellous piece of mechanism. But all of them are deadly in their effects. They may fire either shrapnel or high explosive—always spoken of in the army as H. E. In the former case, the shell that is fired contains a nose that comes off at the time for which it is set, and liberates hundreds of small round leaden bullets. These goout in cone shape and spray the ground round about. Shrapnel is very effective against men in the open but of little use when they are entrenched, for very few of the bullets from any shell will enter the ditch itself. When the British army first took the field they had very little H. E. Shrapnel had been used successfully in South Africa, and it was thought it would do in France. The proportions used were 96 per cent shrapnel to 4 per cent H. E. We learnt our lessons dearly—as we usually do—and in time we came to realise that for breaking down parapets shrapnel was absolutely useless. The proportion that is now used is about 90 per cent H. E. to 10 per cent of shrapnel.

The soldiers used to call the 77 mill. shells of the Germans "Pip-squeaks." They used to give a "pip" and then a "squeak." If you heard the first and did not hear the second you were dead, while, if you heard them both you could consider yourself still alive. Another familiar name for them was that of "Cheeky Charlies," from the fact that they had the habit of coming in without being announced.

In addition to the field guns there are the "Mediums" or guns of about 5 inches calibre. The familiar name for the German shell fired from them was "the Crump"—by reason of thefact that they sat down alongside you with a terrific "Crump" as their greeting. As in the former case, those who could report having heard the "Crump" were still alive.

Then there are various long range guns between five and nine inches in calibre. But long range guns do not play the part that high-angle or Howitzer guns do. The Germans wasted a good many shells in firing at targets even as far away as twenty-three miles, but nowadays shells are usually kept for targets that there is a fair chance of hitting and not for blind firing.

The Howitzer that has come to play a very large part in the operations of the British is the gun that is familiarly called "Mother"—a gun of 9.2 inches calibre and which projects a very weighty shell. The Germans have a corresponding gun of a little larger bore.

Last of all there come the great guns of 15 and 16 inch calibre. These guns need concrete foundations and cannot be set up in a hurry. Fortunately—for them—the Germans had a number of these foundations already prepared in unsuspecting France and Belgium long before the war. Our own gun of this size we call "Grandmother." The shells that fall from the German guns of the largest size we call by various names—either "Bertha Krupps" from thename of the proprietress of the great gun works at Essen; or "Fat Berthas" for the same reason; or "Jack Johnsons" from their hard-hitting capacity; or "coal boxes," "black marias," etc., etc. The effect of these shells was terrific, as may be imagined, but there were many occasions when they pierced so deep into the soft ground that a good deal of the force of their explosion was lost. Of course for work against forts there is nothing like them. They opened the eyes of the world from their terrible destructive force shown at Liége and Namur.

Akin to shells in their effects are the now familiar bombs. These are of all varieties and sizes. They range from the small hand grenade that is about the size of an ordinary lemon and is simply heaved into the opposing trench by the soldiers, to the immense bombs weighing two hundred and fifty pounds that are thrown from trench mortars, or guns of short barrel and very wide mouths. It was a long time before the British army appreciated the value of bombs and we could not get a supply of them. The "Tommies" set to work to manufacture them in the trenches and a good many lives were lost there through premature explosions.

Practice is absolutely necessary before a man is fit to be allowed to handle a live bomb. Heshould be trained first of all to throw a tin filled with stones, and learn the trick of letting it go at the correct moment. The first time a man throws a bomb he is simply anxious to get rid of it without any regard for the time the fuse has been burning. Most fuses now are five seconds and that time must be calculated to a nicety to get the best results. If a bomb is thrown too soon, the enemy may pick it up and throw it back—this has happened many hundreds of times. It should be retained in the hand during the first and second seconds at least and then thrown so as to explodeoverthe enemy trench on the fifth second. Our men were taught to get out of the way of bombs coming into the trenches if they could—there is no use staying to be blown up under ordinary trench conditions—but if they were under such circumstances that they could not get out of the way they were supposed to catch them and throw them away, or throw them back as hastily as possible. Men become experts in this just as they do in catching base balls. Where a bomb could not be picked up and endangered the lives of men in the trench who could not get away from it, men have often thrown their bodies upon it, and thus, in a most gallant andself-sacrificing way, given their lives for their comrades.

Of course catching them is out of the question when it comes to the large bombs. Absence of body then is better than all the presence of mind. When they actually hit the trench—which is a very difficult thing to do—they do frightful damage. But when they miss their mark they usually open up a lot of earth either before or behind the trench, and perhaps lay out a man or two with concussion.

Of the same variety are aerial torpedoes which are simply bombs with flanges on their tails to give them direction.

Sometimes the bombs that were sent over were not H. E. in the sense that they exploded a steel shell that sent its various pieces large and small hurtling through the air, but were simply large oil drums with a quantity of H. E. in them. Men were killed right and left, not from being hit with anything, but merely from having been in the neighbourhood when they exploded.

Rifle grenades are a form of bomb on the end of a stick that fits into the muzzle of the rifle and is then discharged by means of a blank cartridge. They are effective only at short distances. Indeed, even with trench mortars, theprojectiles can seldom be hurled more than four hundred yards, so that they are almost always used on the fire trenches and are never directed to trenches farther back.

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