“Gentlemen, we are fighting a war. Nofighting – no war! We cannot indulge in trench raids, I know. Therefore we mustdisplay other forms of hostility. What do you suggest?”
His own words were thrown back at him. Snipers,attacks on wiring parties, bombing raids – everything he had said on the previousday.
“We really need new weapons, sir.”
“Such as, Captain Harris?”
“Mortars, sir. Little ones, no more than aone or two pound bomb. Quickly set up and dismantled and shifted. Mortars canbe very accurate, sir, if the range can be calculated. Saw them used in India.Bigger ones, carried on mules. Their gunners measured the distance to thetarget – some sort of surveying kit like a theodolite.”
There was an indrawn breath all round thedugout. ‘Theodolite’ was a word unknown to almost all and they were impressedat Harris’ erudition. He preened and continued.
“Saw them drop their bombs to the yard,directly on top of sangars – rifle pits, you know – on the opposite hillside.Utterly precise - one sangar, one bomb and quickly to the next. Those were fourinch, I think. Took them a few minutes to lay a baseplate precisely on thehorizontal and then set up their tube. Using a small mortar, we could havefixed bases – concrete or brick platforms – for them to quickly set down on.Take post, check the range and rattle out five or six bombs then shut up shopand trot along the trench to do the same somewhere else. Could cause the Hun noend of bad temper, sir.”
“So it could, Harris. Damned good notion!Write it up in proper form, Sandhurst style, and I’ll take it to Brigade. Makesure your name is on the paper. You deserve recognition for your own idea. Sameapplies to all the rest of you. If you have an idea, present it properly andmake good and damned sure it’s properly topped and tailed with your nameprominent. Staff will still probably pinch it as their own but at least yourname will be heard.”
Most proposals that left battalion had thecolonel’s name on them and no other. They were impressed by Richard’s integrity,which was his intention in giving the instruction. Promotions would come fromhis recommendation in any case and their innovations would have little effecton their wartime careers. They might work the better for thinking they would berecognised in the outside military world.
Richard took the mortar proposal toBrigade, received a brief hearing.
“Can’t be done, Baker. The plum-puddingmortars are to hand and have been tried out. They invite counter-battery fire –they are noisy, give off a lot of smoke and a flash and the projectile is slow,can be observed in the air, they tell me. Effective enough, with a forty poundcharge, thereabouts. They look a bit like a toffee-apple, you know. Shove thestick down the barrel, fire the charge at the bottom and duck. The head goesflying off and the ‘stick’, which is made of steel, cartwheels back. Bit dodgyif you get one round your ears. Decision has been made to give them to the artillery.They will set up their batteries of them in saps off the main trench and usethem for bombardment according to orders from above. Wire cutters, mostly.Might be for trench bashing as well or counter-battery work if they can locatea minenwerfer in the German trenches. Not available to the infantry.”
“A pity, sir. We could use light artilleryright at the front.”
“Stokes mortar is due out from sometime inthe late winter. New design and smaller than the plum-pudding. That may well beput in your hands. You will get them if I do. Now, this demand for wire. Bit ofa problem there, Baker. Are you sure you won’t be able to mount a push? Anothercouple of hundred yards might be enough to make a breakthrough, you know.”
“The RFC says the defences are three milesthick, sir. A series of redoubts supporting each other laterally and gunneryemplacements separately. Where there are gaps in their wire, it is to channelus more efficiently in front of the guns. We can be sure they are digging in aswell, setting up a new line of trenches.”
Braithwaite nodded gloomily.
“You heard what happened on the secondday, directly in front of Loos, Baker?”
Richard had not.
“No, not making a song and dance of it.Trying to keep it quiet. The reserves, which were held too far back to come in onthe first day, mounted an attack, directly into unbroken wire. Ripped to pieces.Artillery and machine guns both. The word is that the Germans ceased fireunilaterally, sickened by the butchery, let the remnants pull back with theirwounded. There are dozens of bodies still hanging on the wire, they say. Totalcasualties are in excess of forty thousand, killed and gravely wounded. Thebody pits are full. French is scrabbling for any advance on the flank that mayenable him to bring the cavalry round and in behind the German defensive area.”
“Not a hope, sir. There are no weak pointsto burst through.”
Braithwaite agreed that was the fact.
“Reality don’t matter too much just at themoment, Baker. General French is in need of a miracle and hopes he can pull oneout of the hat. He knows he can win this war if he can just set thirtyregiments of cavalry loose and he cannot understand why we are unable todeliver that requirement. He is inclined to think that we in the infantry aredeliberately holding back so that he can be seen to fail and be replaced byHaig.”
“Does he not know that we regard Haig asno better than him, sir? Another cavalry general with no knowledge of the whatthe front looks like. Add to that, word is that Haig is a little shy. Got caughtup in the fighting at Le Cateau and discovered just what machine guns could doand has kept well out of their range since. They say he has never seen atrench.”
Braithwaite reluctantly agreed that probablyto be true.
“I do not know that he has ever come forwardof Headquarters, Baker. The better part of thirty-five miles distant from theline. I understand it makes
