HEALTH AND OFFICERS
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 wet weather 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 lines _must_ be 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. We found 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.
[Illustration: FIGURE 13:
Simple loophole made of steel plate and let into parapet.]
[Illustration: 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 women _could_ do well, but it was a long time
before we would agree to let them.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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 be established 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 in large 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 down flat 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.