THE YPRES TIMES
A Few Impressions.
By an Ex. R.B.
18
IT occurred to the writer a few days ago, after seeing one of Meissonier's pictures in a
shop just off Great Portland Street, A halt by the wayside," that pictorial records
of the Great War are still incomplete. No doubt a difficulty lay in the many incidents
that would need to be depicted, in the manner of The Advance of the 3rd Worcesters
The Guards at Landrécies The Canadians meeting the first gas attack," differing
therein from campaigns which were decided mainly by a single battle Meeting of
Wellington and Blucher," by Maciise Waterloo by Night," by J. M. W. Turner),
and inspiration must be sought also in the lulls of battle as in Meissonier's 1814 and
Lady Butler's The Roll Call." Another pointAs readers know only too well, much
of the duty in the line was done by night, and being mostly shades and little or no lights
attempts at illustration would fail through lack of outline. And last but not least, a
faithful artist must round off the major scenes with those of minor incidents both in
and out of the line.
Pictures visualise actions but not always conditions. For example Only ex-service
men, seeing a picture of troops in action; would discern that the equipment may at times
be a handicap, and this although it becomes a second habit when men work, fight, sleep,
eat, wash and shave in it. But its weight tells on a man over soft ground, especially if
he be loaded up like a walking ironmonger's shop, and also when jumping a trench or
other obstacle. Apropos of this Added to the normal joys of a soldier's life was that,
in the Passchendaele Sector, of getting drowned if he slipped off a duckboard. Just
as two or three chums were trying to rescue a friend who slipped in this way and was
sinking deeper the Colonel came up. Said he "I'll have this man out even if it costs
every man in the Battalion," and a determined effort then met with success.
A quality one noticed about one Section (the S.B.'s) was the efficient, matter-of-
fact way they did their job. One night in the Salient when the Company was on its way
up, but still some distance from its objective, the enemy put over a heavy shelling and
the troops took meagre cover in a trench which was much battered about.. The firing
was prolonged, and at a moment when a shell bursting on the slope killed a chum who
was crouching next the writer a stretcher party led up from the left and lay low for a
brief interval, the casualty being covered with a great coat. The going was very
difficult as the party presently went forward, and it is certain many a casualty owes
his life to the S.B.'s dogged and unfaltering sense of duty.
Readers may have observed how custom holds good even when at variance with
the work in hand, and so it was on a Christmas night in the Arras Sector. As the writer
stood on the fire step looking through the wire and across the snow at the enemy line,
and listening to the Germans lustily singing carols, it did strike one as being funny.
Like the Angels of Comfort and Joy masquerading in the armour of Mars. But the
singers soon fell back into their bad old ways. On Boxing Night the troops stood to
ready for a German gas attack, and here Luck took a hand the wind dropped. The
Luck still held at noon next day the wind blew towards the enemy and a two hour's
shelling broke up his cylinders, as well as other things, and dosed him with his own
medicine. He vacated his front line and the skeleton force in ours had an undisturbed
view.
It is highly probable that War makes a soldier a-fatalist. How can it be otherwise
when, for example, the Company gets an order to be ready to move at a minute's notice
(Ypres) and unexpectedly this order is cancelled and the movement delayed until next
day. Or, the Company is under cover and listens to the din of attack (Tour de Wancourt)
waiting for the order to go," but presently is ordered back to shell-holes for the time
