Bone, Muirhead, Sir, 1876-1953; World War, 1914-1918 -- Art and the war; World War, 1914-1918 -- Pictorial works
Every soldier on active service has more or less of deferred sleep, as
well as deferred pay, due to him. If he be wounded he usually recovers
a large instalment of both--the former during his first nights and days
in hospital, the latter when he leaves the convalescent hospital for
the ten days’ sick leave given to all wounded or sick men who have been
sent to England for treatment.
[Illustration]
LVI
DISTANT AMIENS
As you walk southward from Amiens, across meadows and cornfields, the
ground rises more gently than the immediate south bank of the Somme, on
which the Cathedral and the City stand. Thus the city sinks gradually
out of sight until nothing is left but the thin Cathedral spire,
looking like the mast of a sunken ship. Mr. Bone’s drawing was done
from a point, about a mile south of the city, at which the Cathedral
roof, the tower of Saint Martin’s Church, and one or two factory
chimneys are still unsubmerged.
[Illustration]
LVII
SCOTTISH SOLDIERS IN A FRENCH BARN
A typical billet for troops on the march or enjoying a “Divisional
rest” between two turns of duty in the trenches. An average-sized barn
at a French farm will house about thirty men. If the straw be deep
and the roof sound it makes better quarters than anything but a good
bedroom. Its chief drawback in the men’s eyes is that smoking has to be
forbidden because of the straw. In the winter evenings the men usually
cross the farmyard to the kitchen, where they smoke and make friends
with the farmer, and buy coffee, at a penny a bowl, from his wife.
[Illustration]
LVIII
WELSH SOLDIERS
Characteristic trench attitudes, two of the men with their heads well
down, the cheek cuddling the small of the butt, while the N.C.O. beyond
directs their fire, with his head a little free. There is just the same
soldierly combination of “much care and valour” in the typical Welshman
in France to-day as there was in Shakespeare’s Fluellen.
[Illustration]
LIX
A BRITISH RED CROSS DEPOT AT BOULOGNE
Dead low water in Boulogne Harbour, and a slack time for the motor
ambulances parked on the quay above. The work of the R.A.M.C.
inevitably comes in rushes, with lulls in between. The great thing
is, when a rush comes, to treat every case with a rapidity exactly
proportioned to its urgency, removing instantly to the base hospitals
or to England every serious case which will be the better, or none the
worse, for a slight delay in operation. To work this system perfectly
there must always be in readiness, at every point where wounded are
entrained or transhipped, a supply of ambulances equal to the maximum
call.
[Illustration]
LX
INDIAN CAVALRY
Our Indian Cavalry on the Somme were given a chance of showing their
quality at the Bois de Foureaux on July 17th, 1916. They used it. Apart
from other soldierly qualities, the grave dignity of their bearing
impresses all foreign visitors to the battlefield. They always salute a
passing officer as if they were Kings and he an Emperor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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