War Letters of a Public-School BoyJones, Henry Paul Mainwaring
History
War Letters of a Public-School Boy
Jones, Henry Paul Mainwaring
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, British
I am glad you are invigorated and pleased with your trip to the
land of Burns and Harry Lauder. The Scottish Highlands are the
exact opposite of these flat plains. Never in my life have I seen
a district so absolutely level as this. There are but three hills
in these parts, and these are the only landmarks for miles and
miles. Otherwise every road is like every other, every field and
every clump of trees the same. The roads are all either dead
straight or, in the case of side roads, full of right-angle
bends. There is nothing of that sinuous curving which
characterises English country roads. As you get nearer the
firing-line the roads become worse owing to the passage of Army
traffic, till finally they end up in mere broad tracks full of
holes and humps. When the weather is bad the mud is
appalling--even the Dulwich footer-ground variety comes a bad
second--added to which there is, in the case of main roads, the
nuisance of a most unlevel _pave_, which, it is true, keeps free
from mud, but to travel along which in a motor-car is torture.
The way the Army lorries go bumping along--many of them old
motor-buses with the top parts discarded--is stupendous. It is a
strange sight occasionally to see approaching you a real
motor-bus, painted grey and full of Tommies. I almost stopped
one the other day, near the fire zone, and asked to be taken to
Oxford Circus; it all seemed so familiar.
The news from Russia isn't very inspiriting. It looks as if Riga
and Rovno will follow in the wake of Warsaw and Novo-Georgievsk.
Not that the mere capture of a town means anything in itself, but
the Boches must be getting a store of ammunition and guns through
their successes. Still, it might be that 1812 would repeat
itself, though I fear the Germans have studied history too well
to fall into the pit that destroyed Napoleon. _Nous verrons._
I went down the other day to an advanced Field Supply Depot. I
often think of the steady flow of goods across the Channel from
the home port where I began my Army experience, and the vastness
of the silent work behind the scenes that is needed to keep the
Army going. You would be amazed to find how little is known even
in the A.S.C. itself of that which I have been privileged to see.
It has a spice of romance about it, this moving of vast stores
from England to the trenches. Out here one gets fresh bread and
meat regularly. There are also ample supplies of preserved meat.
As for "bully" beef, it is rare good stuff, and I am by no means
averse from the hard Army biscuit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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