Heroes of Strathkerbet (pdf – 17.5MB) - Get a Free Blog

Life Underground
It was said that almost as much fighting went on underground, in The Great War, as did above ground – an
exaggeration of course, never-the-less there was much digging and activity under the soils of France.
Men who had been miners in a “previous life” were selected and ordered to do the work and tunnels of all
descriptions were dug; communication tunnels, fighting tunnels, support tunnels, listening chamber tunnels,
explosives chambers, supplies tunnels; tunnels which after a collapse, became burial chambers, tunnels to be used
for all manner of purposes. Each group of digging men carried the proverbial lamp and a canary (to check for gas).
Death waited all around.
The enemy too had dug tunnels and one soldier described theirs as being like “all the conveniences of life as if he
were above ground”.
Leaves from the note book of a soldier out on night patrol
10.10 pm. Patrol starts.
11.30 pm. Fall into shell hole. Tread on our listening patrol. They swear. Reprove them for
swearing. Curious smell. Crawl under wire into decaying cow. Remove portions of
dead cow from my face. Corporal suggests more open formation.
Patrol spreads out. Patrol falls into disused trench full of water. Corporal falls over
another wire and into a line of tin cans. Swear at Corporal. Decide to lie low and listen.
11.45 pm. Soldier brings me a drink. Notice he is wearing a respirator.
Discover a good deal of dead cow still adhering.
12.30-2.15 am. Write report to Headquarters. “Distance covered by patrol estimated at five hundred
yards. German trenches overcrowded. Object of patrol attained.”
2.15 am. Went to observe path of patrol by daylight. Distance appears less than it seemed at
night.
3.00 am. Fetch Company Commander and ask him how far it is. Company Commander says
about fifty yards.
4.00 am. Woken by Company Commander who asks me if I realise I am on duty until 8.00 am.
Leaves from a soldier’s diary
November 21st. Relieved from the trenches by the 2nd. Gordons.
November 24th. Returned back to trenches. Took four and a half hours to go two miles owing to
German snipers at work at the communications trench leading to the firing line. Two
men killed and four wounded. Fighting all night. Seven men wounded.
November 25th. Snipers at work. Shot six men getting water. Killed two and wounded four. One man
shot in the eye. Died same night. Told to go off and draw rations with eleven men, but
coming back five men got shot – three killed and two wounded so we lost half the
rations. A and B Company had to go on half rations the next day.
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