A Short History of the 16th Bn. The Sherwood
Foresters (Chatsworth Rifles),
THE YPRES TIMES
MS
champagne, and a dozen whisky, some German wines, crackers, oranges, fruitin
fact, a dinner! We had the necessaries to cook it, and instituted plum pudding
from our home parcels. Lastlysupreme toucha French chef was eating his
heart out in the kitchen, his talent wasted in the limited function of throwing our
tins from home into a cauldron of boiling water. He fell upon those ducks,
frantic for the fray. So Christmas Eve came, and never have I seen a more
wonderful transformation than that room presented after our two years of squalor.
The locked doors were thrown open, to the astonished eyes of our guestsa
captive's Christmas dreamtables perfectly appointed, candles with shades, table
cloths, silver, glass, and decorations. For once, and once only, we were to feed
like Christians and not animals.
But what of the cinema operator? We sent him on to the Commandant with
deepest regrets that he had forgotten his films and could give no show that night.
He retreated to Berlin, thankful to have got out of a dangerous adventure.
This little story suggests that prisoners of war could do themselves well. But,
indeed, this was a rare occasion, precariously bought.
During my year in camp I saw no food except black horse beans and rotten
potatoes served like porridge in iron bowls, our only meal of the day, except the
burnt-acorn coffee for our breakfast.
During my last eight months as prisoner of war, no parcels arrived from home;
all were stolen in transit.
Christmas, 1917, found me an exchanged prisoner in Switzerland, but I could
only just walk; instead of my 12-stone weight of 1914, I could only turn the scale
at 7-stone.
That is what three Christmases in Germany did for me, and I never wish to
undergo another.
"A Short History of the ióth Battalion The Sherwood Foresters
(Chatsworth Rifles)." By Lieut.^Colonel R. F. Truscott, O.B.E. With a
foreword by His Grace the Duke of Devonshire. K.G.
COLONEL TRUSCOTT has a fine story to tell, and tells it in an excellent
manner. The battalion was raised in April, 1915, and was composed chiefly
of Notts and Derbyshire miners, a class that always makes first-rate soldiers.
In due course it found a place in the 117th Brigade and 39th Division, and under
went the usual course of training at home. The historian notes the peculiar value
to troops, who were quite new to soldiering, of even a short sojourn at Aldershot,
the home of military tradition.
Unlike less fortunate formations, the 39th Division was not kept waiting in
England, but after ten months' training was ordered overseas and embarked for
France on March 6th, 1916. Here they spent some months in the middle sector
of the line, between Laventie and Givenchy, and in August moved south to take a
share in the Battle of the Somme, which had been in progress since July 1st.
They spent eighty days in all on the Somme, and at the end of their service, in
November, took part in the very successful attack on St. Pierre Divion. Then
followed a quiet winter in the Salient, and in the spring of 1917 much training for
the attack, which, after many delays and false starts, came off in July, an elaborate
attack indeed, for Brigade Orders occupied forty pages of foolscap! Kitchener's
Wood and Bulgar Wood stand out as the scenes of two successful actions, the
first in July, the second in September. In the second Corporal Egerton won the
