SINAI
The view at Ashton is superb. Looking back on Africa, we saw on the
horizon the pale contour of the Gebel Ataki beyond the silvery line of
the Bitter Lakes and the Canal. On its Asiatic side, the detached posts
of Oldham, Railhead, and Salford, held by other battalions of the
Manchesters, glittered under a torrid sky amid the great waste of
desert. Facing our front, the wilderness stretched towards Palestine in
endless undulation.
The sultry days spent by the Battalion at Ashton were, however, spoiled
by excessive heat and repeated sandstorms. Double-lined tents were only
supplied after much delay, and promised wooden dining huts only
approached completion by the time we left.
This arid outpost of Empire was linked to civilisation by a camel trail
to Railhead. Its garrison duties were performed by some Essex
Territorials, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Jameson, afterwards killed
before Gaza. Yeomanry passed by frequently, scouting far into the waste.
The Manchesters were occupied exclusively in digging trenches and in
laying entanglements in the deep soft sand, "according to plan" and on
a scale sufficient to daunt any invader who could have surmounted the
huge physical obstacles that already barred all approach to this spot
from the Wadi Muksheib and the East.
The arms of Britain have by now made these particular defences of the
Canal of most trifling importance. Her foot is in Palestine. Work done
at Ashton may well be gradually obliterated. Yet a few words can be said
of the men who lived and laboured here in June, 1916, in a temperature
rising often to 120 deg. F. in the shade and rarely falling under 100 deg. F. at
night. No digging was practicable between 7.30 A.M. and 4.30 P.M. The
men rose before four in the morning for the day's work. Progress was
necessarily slow, partly owing to constant silting, partly to the common
weakness of the authorities for varying the sites and types of the
trenches. Materials were often wanting. Nevertheless the Manchesters won
unqualified praise. Their civil life had fitted many for the task of
reveting trenches with hurdles. The defences of Ashton-in-Sinai were
improved in a few weeks beyond recognition.
One incident that occurred here illustrates amusingly the contrast
between the outlooks of the new soldier and the old. Our Manchester
Territorials were distressed to find that thousands of yards of hurdles
were being lined with the best tent cloth at 1s. 4d. a yard, instead of
with cheap cotton at a quarter the price. I repeated their plaint to a
Regular officer of the old school, expecting sympathetic indignation.
"Magnificent," was his reply. "It shows the world in what spirit England
goes to war."
It was at Ashton that we first heard the news of the Jutland Battle from
Colonel Fremantle, R.A.M.C., who could only give us the version spread
by German wireless. A few days later we learnt of Lord Kitchener's
death.
It is clear that this particular phase of soldiering has in itself no
place in the annals of the Great War. Ashton is already nothing but a
desert site. The tide of victorious warfare has left it high and dry. It
always was high and dry. At probably no other period, however, did the
personality of the Manchester Territorial show to greater advantage, as
the life was one of peculiar privation. Water was carried up daily by
camels from Railhead, but was most scanty, and always warm. The sand was
too soft for any game to be played--too soft even to permit of trotting
horses. The heat was constant and intense. The men were as cheerful and
uncomplaining as ever.
To have developed such a spirit in men entirely civilian in habits and
traditions was the glory of the Territorial system.
All ranks toiled together to make life in this corner of Sinai liveable.
History hardly looks beyond the Army Corps at the smaller unit. Still
less does she concern herself with the humble pawn in some unimportant
corner of the great game. In reality, however, his lot is of moment to
the race. The tone of an army is the tone of its individual men. An
unhappy soldiery cannot win wars. "An army moves on its stomach," said
Napoleon; and the recognition of the soldier's hunger and thirst, his
desire for rest, amusement and sympathy helps, almost as much as skill
and self-confidence help, to make the successful leader of men.
It was, therefore, a soldier's job to keep up the hearts of our colony
at Ashton-in-Sinai. Captain C. Norbury, as acting President of
Regimental Institutes, and Captain H. Smedley, as stage-manager and
singer, worked on the only sound lines.
Journalism, theatrical performances, lecture courses, concerts and
canteen business, as initiated and practised by the officers and men of
the Battalion at Ashton, were true factors towards efficiency and
discipline.
After three hours' work and their breakfast, the men would gather in our
recreation tent with its flaps rolled up, and listen to a lecture on
some historical or military subject which bore upon the topic of the
hour. They then slept and smoked and played cards or sang through the
long midday heat until the time came again for digging. In the evening,
on a stage cleverly made by Sergeant Taylor, the dramatic company would
act some play that appealed to their emotions, or a concert party would
indulge them with a medley of ragtime and sentimental songs, Addison's
_Stammering Sam_ alternating with Sergeant Shields' _When Irish Eyes
are Smiling_. The taste of Lancashire is catholic.
On Sundays we often merged "Church and Chapel" in a common service.
Davey, the Methodist padre, was an ex-gunner of the Royal Navy and a
great athlete--attributes that enhanced his influence as preacher.
"Crime," however, did not exist at Ashton-in-Sinai. Nor did temptations.
The real danger was mental and physical deterioration under the
depressing influence of the country and the climate, for the intense
heat sapped every man's vitality. We set ourselves to combat these
risks, and to give the men the food and recreation without which
soldiering becomes a burden, and discipline degenerates to servitude.
Towards evening I would ride into the desert and watch from the east our
men labouring on the great sand ridge in a haze of heat. On this side of
Ashton there were no tracks at all. The eye could see nothing but
endless sand hills, broken only by patches of dry scrub and shimmering
yellow under the burning sun. If nature has changed little in the desert
since Israel came out of captivity, it is easy to sympathise with their
regret for the fleshpots of Egypt. So penetrating was the sun that the
colour of the men's khaki breeches faded into purple.
There was, indeed, a certain charm in our remoteness from the outer
world. Camping out in the wilderness had more than a touch of the desert
island of boyish imagination. There was glamour in the extraordinary
simplicity of a life where the higher command was but a distant name,
and where men dressed themselves and spent the long, hot day as they
pleased. The fret and competition of Europe were felt no more. I
remember our arguing about Irish Home Rule one night till the stars
paled in the eastern sky, but the episode was unique. In spite of its
hardships, no manner of life was ever more calculated to banish ancient
feuds, to strip human nature of envy and uncharitableness, or to mould
that most perfect of all democracies--a brotherhood in arms.
On the afternoon of the 22nd June 1916 we left the wilderness under
orders for Kantara. We spent several days near Shallufa sidings, and
then, having obtained leave for England, I left for Suez with W.H.
Barratt and W.T. Thorp, two subalterns who had made their mark while in
the ranks by distinguished service in the field. Early in July we sailed
from Port Tewfik to Marseilles and watched from its deck the distant
camp of the Turkish prisoners from Arabia twinkling in the sunlight
across the most southerly reaches of the Canal.
I need say no word more in praise of the men of our Battalion, whom I
saw for the last time in my eighteen years of service resting in a dusty
gorge near Shallufa. Knit together by common ideals and experiences,
they were, in Nelson's phrase, "a band of brothers."
We crossed France from Marseilles to Boulogne in an atmosphere of war.
We had glimpses of Lyons and Paris, talked with _poilus_ on leave, heard
from a French officer (who professed to know) that the War would be over
in March, 1917, and bought from vivacious street hawkers pretty metal
souvenirs of Verdun. We saw our own wounded coming back in Red Cross
trains from the first days of the great push on the Somme. Then, after
exactly a year's absence, I was once more at home.
Within the ensuing month all but three of the original combatant
officers still on the strength of the Battalion were seconded for
service elsewhere. "The old order changeth, giving place to new." ...
A Regiment in war rises like the phoenix from its own ashes and renews
its immortal youth. The vicissitudes here recorded fill but a few
shining chapters in what will no doubt prove a long history. They by no
means necessarily contain its most distinguished pages. The close of the
second year of the Battalion's active service is, however, a fitting
point to end this volume. It marked the stage at which the distinctively
"1st line" unit, composed of officers and men enlisted and trained
voluntarily in time of peace, had passed into the normal type of British
Battalion of 1916--a unit born of the War, with its personnel mainly
recruited and trained after its outbreak.
It is to the memory of the original volunteers of August, 1914, that
this book is dedicated.