Mud and Khaki: Sketches from Flanders and FranceBartlett, Vernon
History
Mud and Khaki: Sketches from Flanders and France
Bartlett, Vernon
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
Close behind the trenches on the Ypres salient stands part of "Chapel
Farm"--the rest of it has long been trampled down into the mud by the
many hundreds of men who have passed by there. Enough of the ruin still
stands for you to trace out the original plan of the place--a house and
two barns running round three sides of the farmyard that is foetid and
foul and horrible.
It is an uninviting spot, for, close by, are the remains of a dead cow,
superficially buried long ago by some working party that was in a hurry
to get home; but the farm is notable for the fact that passing round the
north side of the building you are out of view, and safe, and that
passing round the south side you can be seen by the enemy, and are
certain to be sniped.
If you must be sniped, however, you might choose a worse place, for the
bullets generally fly low there, and there is a cellar to which you can
be carried--a filthy spot, abounding in rats, and damp straw, and
stained rags, for the place once acted as a dressing-station. But still,
it is under cover, and intact, with six little steps leading up into the
farmyard.
And one day, as I led a party of men down to the "dumping ground" to
fetch ammunition, I was astonished to hear the familiar strains of
"Gilbert the Filbert" coming from this desolate ruin. The singer had a
fine voice, and he gave forth his chant as happily as though he were
safe at home in England, with no cares or troubles in the world. With a
sergeant, I set out to explore; as our boots clattered on the
cobble-stones of the farmyard, there was a noise in the cellar, a head
poked up in the entrance, and I was greeted with a cheery "Good morning,
sir."
We crawled down the steps into the hovel to learn the singer's story. He
was a man from another regiment, who had come down from his support
dug-out to "nose around after a spud or two." The German sniper had
"bagged" him in the ankle and he had crawled into the cellar--still with
his sandbag of "spuds"--to wait until someone came by. "I 'adn't got
nothing to do but wait," he concluded, "and if I'd got to wait, I might
jest as well play at bein' a bloomin' canary as 'owl like a kid what's
'ad it put acrost 'im."
We got a little water from the creaky old pump and took off his "first
field dressing" that he had wound anyhow round his leg. To my
surprise--for he was so cheerful that I thought he had only a scratch--I
found that his ankle was badly smashed, and that part of his boot and
sock had been driven right into the wound.
"Yes, it did 'urt a bit when I tried to walk," he said, as I expressed
surprise. "That's jest the best part of it. I don't care if it 'urts
like 'ell, for it's sure to mean 'Blighty' and comfort for me."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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