One morning towards the end of May 1915, just before the battle of
Festubert, my pal Bill and I were returning from the village bakery on
the Festubert road to our billets at Gorre with a loaf each, which we
had just bought.
Turning the corner into the village we saw approaching us a company of
the Grenadier Guards in battle order, with a slim young officer at the
head carrying a stick almost as tall as himself. Directly behind the
officer was a hefty Guardsman playing "Tipperary" on a concertina.
We saluted the officer, who, after spotting the loaves of bread
under our arms, looked straight at us, gave us a knowing smile and
acknowledged our salute. It was not till then that we recognised who
the officer was. It was the Prince of Wales.
"Lumme!" said Bill. "There goes the Prince o' Wales hisself a-taking
the guard to the Bank o' England!"--_J. F. Davis, 29 Faunce Street,
S.E.17._
"Just to Make Us Laugh"
We were one of those unlucky fatigue parties detailed to carry
ammunition to the forward machine gun positions in the Ypres sector.
We started off in the dusk and trudged up to the line. The transport
dumped the "ammo" at a convenient spot and left us to it. Then it
started raining.
The communication trenches were up to our boot tops in mud, so we left
them and walked across the top. The ground was all chalky slime and we
slipped and slid all over the place. Within a very short time we were
wet through and, to make matters worse, we occasionally slipped into
shell-holes half full of water (just to relieve the monotony!).
We kept this up all night until the "ammo" had all been delivered; then
the order came to march back to billets at Dranoutre. It was still
pouring with rain, and when we came to Shrapnel Corner we saw the
famous notice board: "Avoid raising Dust Clouds as it draws Enemy's
Shell Fire."
We were new to this part of the line and, just then, the idea of
raising dust clouds was extremely ludicrous.
I asked my pal Jarvis, who came from Greenwich, what he thought they
put boards like that up for. His reply was typically Cockney: "I
'spect they did that just to make us laugh, as we cawnt go to the
picshures."--_Mack (late M.G.C.), Cathcart, The Heath, Dartford._