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ON THE
KING'S SERVICE
Inward Glimpses of Men at Arms
BY THE REV.
INNES LOGAN, M.A.
CHAPLAIN TO THE FORCES
SEPT. 1914-MAY 1916
HODDER AND STOUGHTON
LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO
MCMXVII
TO MY WIFE
This little book is written as a slight tribute of love and respect
for those with whom the writer had, for over twenty months, the honour
of association.
UNITED FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND MANSE, BRAEMAR.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
MUSTERING MEN
PAGE
I. THOSE GAUNT UNLOVELY BUILDINGS 3
II. WHY THE FIRST HUNDRED THOUSAND ENLISTED 7
III. UBIQUE 10
CHAPTER II
A REINFORCEMENTS CAMP
I. THE SUNNY VALLEY 19
II. THE MAN FROM SKYE 22
III. 'YOU CAN HEAR THEM NOW' 26
CHAPTER III
A CLEARING STATION WHEN THERE IS 'NOTHING TO REPORT'
I. FROM PARAPET TO BASE 33
II. 'DO YOU THINK THAT SORT OF THING MATTERS NOW?' 45
III. THE NAME OF JESUS 50
CHAPTER IV
THE AFTERMATH OF LOOS
I. THE FLAVOUR OF VICTORY 57
II. DOUBTS AND FEARS 63
III. OUR SHARE OF THE FIFTY THOUSAND 69
CHAPTER V
DUMBARTON'S DRUMS
I. BACK AGAIN! 79
II. THE FIRST SHOCK OF WAR 81
III. AT THE NOSE OF THE SALIENT 88
CHAPTER VI
WINTER WARFARE
I. THE SHELL AREA 95
II. 'I HATE WAR: THAT IS WHY I AM FIGHTING' 103
III. BILLETS AND CAMPS 106
CHAPTER VII
HOW THE ROYALS HELD THE BLUFF: AN EPISODE OF TRENCH WARFARE
I. WAITING 117
II. THE BLUFF 125
III. 'WE'VE KEEPIT UP THE REPUTATION O' THE AULD MOB, ONYWAY' 128
CHAPTER VIII
THE HISTORIC TRIANGLE 135
MUSTERING MEN
CHAPTER I
MUSTERING MEN
I
_Those gaunt unlovely buildings_
The War Office built Maryhill Barracks, Glasgow, to look exactly like a
gaol, but these gaunt unlovely buildings, packed beyond endurance with
men of the new army, were at least in some way in touch with what was
happening elsewhere. Even in that first month of the war it seemed
callous to be breathing the sweet, clear air of Braemar, or to let one's
eyes linger on the matchless beauty of mountain and glen. The grey spire
of my church rising gracefully among the silver birches and the dark
firs, bosomed deep in purple hills, pointed to some harder way than
that. Stevenson, who wrote part of _Treasure Island_ here, called it
'the wale (pick) of Scotland,' but just because it was so we saw more
clearly the agony of Belgium and the men of our heroic little Regular
Army dying to keep us inviolate.
Up to the 10th of September recruits poured in in such numbers that it
was hard to cope with the situation in the most superficial way. On that
date the standard was raised, and, as though a sluice had been dropped
across a mill dam, the stream stopped suddenly and completely. I suppose
that was the object of the new regulation, but it caused
misunderstanding, and to this day the spontaneous rush of the first
month of the war has never been repeated. Beyond doubt the numbers were
too great to be properly handled. Men slept in the garrison church, in
the riding school, on the floor in over-crowded barrack-rooms, in leaky
tents without bottoms to them. There were no recreation rooms. It rained
a great deal, and once wet a man with no change of clothing or
underclothing remained wet for days in his meagre civilian suit. There
were too few blankets, no braziers, and the cheap black shoes of civil
life were soon in tatters. Everybody became abominably verminous, and
though the food was good enough in its way the cooks were overwhelmed,
and it was often uneatable. Nobody was to blame, and in an astonishingly
short time order began to emerge, but in those early days one enormous
'grouse' went up continually from the new army that was not yet an army,
and those conditions were partly responsible for the fact that when the
standard was lowered again the flow of recruits was so much less than
before. This, the faculty for hearty grousing, in the army whimsical,
humorous, shrewd, sometimes biting, never down-hearted, is evidently an
old national custom, for Chaucer uses the word half a dozen times. But
the aggravated discomfort of men soft from indoor life was really
pitiful.
Before long all recruits except those for the Royal Field Artillery were
sent elsewhere, and the barracks became a great depot for this arm of
the service, with Colonel Forde in command. What marvels were done in
those early days, and how hard pushed the country was, will be realised
when it is understood that for months a body of men numbering never less
than two thousand, and sometimes as many as three times that number,
had only two field guns for training purposes, and that officers had to
be sent out to the Expeditionary Force who had worn a uniform only for
three, four, or five weeks.
II
_Why the First Hundred Thousand Enlisted_
The first hundred thousand had some characteristics of their own
compared with their successors. They contained a large number of men who
do things on the spur of the moment, the born seekers after adventure,
men to whom war had its attractions. Many a man who had never found his
place in life, because his was the restless, roving spirit which could
not settle, or that chafed against ordered conventional ways, found his
happiness at last in August 1914. Alongside those were the men who were
passionately patriotic and saw very clearly and quickly the long issues
involved to the country they loved. The fate of Belgium had a far more
moving influence with the ranks of the new army than the officer class,
I think, quite realised. Indeed, with the later recruits I gathered the
impression that indignation at the German atrocities in Belgium was the
prevailing motive in their enlistment. There can be no question in the
mind of any one who worked intimately among the men of the new armies in
the autumn and winter of 1914 that the invasion of Belgium was the one
shocking stroke that rallied the country as one man, and that nothing
else in the situation, as it was known, would have done this. The people
as a whole did not grasp the imminence of the German menace. Of the
torturing pressure on the thin khaki line that barred the pass to the
sea we knew nothing. Day by day and night by night we were regaled with
stories of 'heavy German losses' and futile tales of the deaths of
German princes; neither our manhood nor our imagination was fully
captured, for of the almost unbelievable heroism of our brothers we were
never told. Perhaps the silence was justified; the enemy might have
learned how near they were to victory, and with a supreme effort have
broken through. At all events, unavoidably or not, the youth of the
country as a whole was never, throughout this winter, really roused to
its best. All the more honour to the first hundred thousand!
III
_Ubique_
After this war is over no soldier can ask 'What does the Christian
Church do for me?' The members of the Church, acting through its
organisation, or more frequently through other organisations of which
its members were the moving spirits, rose to the occasion nobly all over
the country. Glasgow was no exception. It did the Churches, too, much
good, teaching them to work together. Here is an example. The men were
lodged all over the city, two or three hundred in one hall, more than
that in another. In every instance arrangements were made for their
recreation and comfort. In a given district one congregation gave its
hall as a recreation room, another paid all expenses, a third supplied
a church officer for daily cleaning, the members joined in giving
magazines and papers, and in providing tea and coffee; the missionary of
one congregation held services, and all united in giving concerts. The
Y.M.C.A., which does not accept workers unless they are members of the
Christian Church, came on the scene and built a hut, through the
generosity of Mrs. Hunter Craig, in the barrack square.
On this, in the early months of 1915, there followed a revival of
religion among the Maryhill Barracks men, whose centre was the Y.M.C.A.
hut. This revival had the marks in it which we younger men had been told
were the marks of a true revival, but from which many had shrunk because
they were associated in our days with flaming advertisement, noise, and
ostentation.
A wise old Scots minister was once asked, 'How are we to bring about a
revival?' 'It is God who gives revival.' 'But how are we to get Him to
give it?' 'Ask Him,' he said. Perhaps in this case we may say humbly
that our asking was largely in the form of gaining the confidence of the
men, for when we had all become friends the movement began quietly one
night through the action of an agent of the Pocket Testament League, who
was spending the evening with us. The meetings looked prosaic enough to
the eye; there was no band or solo singing or outward excitement, and
the hut was a plain wooden building, but the strain was very intense at
times. Sometimes as many as a hundred in one week would stay behind and
profess conversion, desiring to yield to the profound spiritual impulse
urging them from within to make Christ's mind and spirit their principle
in life. All had been cast loose from their moorings and had been trying
to find their feet in new surroundings. Most of them were just decent
lads who had never thought much about it before. There were others who
at last saw a chance to make a fresh start and grasped thankfully at it.
A few were 'corner-boys,' learning in discipline and comradeship a
lesson they had never dreamed of. I think there was everywhere in the
new army a certain moral uplift arising from the consciousness of a hard
duty undertaken, and it was not difficult to lead this on to a more
personal and spiritual crisis. There was something very lovable about
them. A tall, handsome fellow from a Canadian lumber camp said, with
real distress in his face, 'I've tried and tried, and, God help me, I
can't. It's no use.' His chum tucked his arm through his and declared
with a warmth of affection in his voice, 'I'll look after him, guv'nor.'
Many months afterwards in a Flemish town I saw some of their batteries
go by clattering over the stony streets. The flashlight from an electric
torch lit up the riders flitting from darkness to darkness on either
side of the broad pencil of light. It showed bronzed faces, competent
gestures, stained uniforms, the marks of veterans, men who had been in
action many times with their guns. I am sure that they do their duty not
only to their king but to One Higher, too, in the words of the brave
motto of their corps, '_Ubique quo fas et gloria ducunt_.'
In April orders came to join the Expeditionary Force.
A REINFORCEMENTS CAMP