Brigade responded in mid-afternoon with areminder that it was in breach of Army Regulations to call a local truce. Noaction was proposed.
Ammunition and replacement rifles began toappear, brought all the way to the front on muleback because there was a truceand it was safe.
Richard was called to the rear, foundBraithwaite there together with Major General Fotherby.
“Shouldn’t have accepted a truce, Baker. Verywrong. What’s done is done. No point fussing about it now. What are the chancesof an advance, Baker?”
“Given artillery support, sir, it could bedone. Big howitzers to batter the bunkers down and two hours of HE from fourbatteries of sixty pounders to take out the wire. We could then push as far asthe bunkers and see what was feasible next, sir. The bunkers are the key. Whilethey remain intact, we cannot move. One of my boys, young Second LieutenantMichaels, did very well in bombing two bunkers and a pompom. Can’t be doneagain – they have wire up and are alert for bombing parties.”
“No rounds for the big guns, Baker. Allhave been expended. No more until the New Year.”
General Fotherby was regretful, acceptedthey could go no further.
“Done as well as most and better thanmany, Baker. We have wire. I will get it across to your rear.”
“Thank you, sir. Extra machine guns wouldbe useful. We have two Vickers, could make use of eight more.”
“Eventually, no doubt, Baker. For themoment, no. HQ is concerned that machine guns use up too much ammunition.Battalions should be encouraged to fire them less often and in shorter bursts.”
“What war are they fighting, sir?”
“The important one – in Whitehall, wheremoney is more important than blood. The victor will receive his earldom. Farmore important than winning the war. Forget I said that, by the way, Baker.”
“Of course, sir. We could do with a rumissue, sir. Buck up the men’s spirits.”
“Speak to your Sergeant Major, Baker. Ifhe can’t arrange that, there’s something wrong.”
“It was worth a try, sir.”
“So it was. I shall see what may be done.Send me a report on that boy, Michaels, was it?”
“Yes, sir. A good MC, sir, and tworiflemen at his side as well.”
“Mentions for them. I shall do what I canfor the boy. Pity he used Mills Bombs. French don’t like them.”
“Impossible to blow up a bunker with abayonet, sir.”
“Nonsense, Baker. To the willing mind,nothing is impossible!”
Fotherby permitted a smile, gavepermission to his juniors to laugh.
“Communications trenches, sir.”
“Ah, yes. Haven’t got any and you needthem. I shall get a labour battalion up at soonest. They should start worktonight.”
“Labour battalion, sir? New one on me.”
“Hired them in, just arrived. Chinks.Coolies. From China. You know, the yellow buggers with the slant eyes?”
Richard did know who Chinese were, saw nothingwrong in Fotherby’s description of them, perfectly normal in ordinaryconversation.
“They say there are hundreds of thousandsof them going spare in China, sir. Cheap, as well. Good idea to pick up a fewthousand. I read somewhere that the Americans did the same when building theirrailways. San Francisco is supposed to be full of them.”
“Didn’t know that, Baker. Never been there,of course. Not been to China, either. Regiment was sent to South Africa, wasn’tavailable when the Boxer business blew up. Pity. Good little campaign, thatone. Nice and tidy. Not to worry. I should be able to lay my hands on a goodnumber. Get them to dig a proper zigzag forward.”
There had been a problem in the early daysof the trenches, the unwary digging in straight lines which a bullet could traverseend to end.
“Get the telephone wires in as well, sir.Useful thing to have up in the second line.”
“So it is. Get yourself settled in, Baker.The General wants us to keep pushing forward. It might be possible elsewhere,won’t be here. Get yourself comfortable for the winter.”
The German trenches were far betterconstructed than the British. Concrete had been used in places and the drainagesystem actually worked. Reversing the trench was a nuisance but the end productwas more comfortable, the dugouts deeper and larger than the British and timberlined, making them far less muddy. The bunks were equipped with thicker mattressesas well, although just as full of lice as the British. They fumigated the dugoutsand carpeted their floors with thousands of dead insect corpses. At least asmany survived, hidden away and emerging to greet the new occupants.
The Medical Officer was worried about thepossibility of typhus, which apparently was carried by some sorts of lice, orticks, perhaps… bugs of some sort, certainly. Not the right sort for thesetrenches, it seemed, typhus and enteric and its various subspecies all stayingclear for the winter.
“Always a chance of cholera, sir. Dysenteryis a certainty, of course. I shan’t be happy when the winter influenza strikes,as it always does. Living in cold and damp conditions with too little ofheating and poor food makes the men vulnerable to all of the infectious diseases.Still, not as bad as the Crimea, and that was worse than the Boer War. They saythe Peninsula was appalling – losses of twenty to sickness for every one killedin battle. We are running no more than three to one in ordinary weeks. Ofcourse, whenever there is a push, the figures do show a change…”
“So, Doctor, what you are saying is thatwe must take care of the men over winter. Disease will be the enemy.”
“Very much so, Colonel. Not so bad for ourmen now that they have had a blankets issue. All of them have two at least nowof the new, thick, fleecy sort. Some picked up a third, of course, from thecasualties.”
Richard had not considered that. Hewondered how the dead men’s blankets had been shared out, had a quiet word withO’Grady.
“Done by the sergeants, sir, in the companies.The oldest and the youngest are the ones most needing to sleep warm in thenature of things. They dished them out as was right, sir. Where they could,they sent a couple to the sickbay, sir.”
“Best I know nothing about the business?”
“You have played your part, sir, as themen know. Not the details, as goes without saying, it’s just
