The 47th London Division were holding the line in the Bluff sector,
near Ypres, early in 1917, and the 20th London Battalion were being
relieved on a very wet evening, as I was going up to the front line
with a working party.
Near Hell Fire Corner shells were coming over at about three-minute
intervals. One of the 20th London Lewis gunners was passing in full
fighting order, with fur coat, gum boots, etc., carrying his Lewis gun,
several drums of ammunition, and the inevitable rum jar.
One of my working party, a typical Cockney, surveyed him and said:
"Look! Blimey, he only wants a field gun under each arm and he'd be a
bally division."--_Lieut.-Col. J. H. Langton, D.S.O._
"Nah, Mate! Soufend!"
During the heavy rains in the summer of 1917 our headquarters dug-out
got flooded. So a fatigue party was detailed to bale it out.
"Long Bert" Smith was one of our baling squad. Because of his abnormal
reach, he was stationed at the "crab-crawl," his job being to throw the
water outside as we handed the buckets up to him.
It was a dangerous post. Jerry was pasting the whole area unmercifully
and shell splinters pounded on the dug-out roof every few seconds.
Twenty minutes after we had started work Bert got badly hit, and it was
some time before the stretcher-bearers could venture out to him. When
they did so he seemed to be unconscious.
"Poor blighter!" said one of the bearers. "Looks to be going West."
Bert, game to the last, opened his eyes and, seeing the canvas bucket
still convulsively clutched in his right fist, "Nah, mate!" he
grunted--"Soufend!"
But the stretcher-bearer was right.--_C. Vanon, 33 Frederick Street,
W.C.I._
"I Got 'Ole Nelson Beat!"
Several stretcher cases in the field dressing station at the foot of
"Chocolate Hill," Gallipoli, awaited removal by ambulance, including a
Cockney trooper in the dismounted Yeomanry.
He had a bandage round his head, only one eye was visible, and his left
arm was bound to his breast with a sandbag.
His rapid-fire of Cockney witticisms had helped to keep our spirits up
while waiting--he had a comment for everything. Suddenly a "strafe"
started, and a shrapnel shell shot its load among us.
Confusion, shouts, and moans--then a half-hysterical, half-triumphant
shout from the Cockney: "Lumme, one in the blinkin' leg this time. I
got 'ole Nelson beat at last!"--_J. Coomer (late R.E.), 31 Hawthorn
Avenue, Thornton Heath._