Letters From the Trenches: A Soldier of the Great War (24 page)

In all of Harry’s surviving letters from the Great War, this is the first in which he mentions any of his comrades by name. I have always found it quite astonishing that,
in general, soldiers on active service seem to avoid mentioning their comrades in letters, even though friendships formed in battle were intense and enduring. I suspect that soldiers like Harry
were aware that reporting friends as casualties would cause anxieties back at home.

The Austro-Hungarian Army, and indeed the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire, had disintegrated in the preceding few days, until an armistice became inevitable, as well as necessary if further
suffering were to be avoided. Recording this, the war diary’s entry includes a simple, matter-of-fact statement about an event that was of immense and life-changing importance to the men of
the battalion. No triumphant hyperbole, not even a metaphorical sigh of relief, just a bald record of the fact. I wonder how the men were told, and what their reaction was.

It is hard to believe, too, that with the fighting over the first thing the men have to do is clean up their billets. (Actually, it is not hard to believe, having myself spent some time in the
British Army.)

There may have been serious worries at this point that, having completed the job in Italy, the British, French and American forces there would be transported back to France and Belgium to
support the war effort against the German Army. With hindsight, it is obvious that, with only a week to go until the armistice on the Western Front, there would not have been enough time. But, of
course, the soldiers wouldn’t have known that.

In little over a month after returning from leave, Harry had taken part in the last significant battle on the Italian front. The Battle of Vittorio Veneto had finally completed the destruction
of the Austro-Hungarian Army that had become inevitable after the failure of its June offensive. The fighting in Italy was over, and it was to be only days before the war on the Western Front would
end and Harry could start to plan for his return home.

CHAPTER 11

ITALY – THE WAR IS OVER

T
HERE WAS LITTLE IMMEDIATE
acknowledgement that the fighting had finished. The war had another week to run on the Western Front, and so it was not yet
time for great celebrations. And, of course, this was merely an armistice, an agreement to cease fighting. There was no guarantee, at that time, of permanent peace.

The battalion CO would also be aware that he had several hundred men under his command who needed to be supervised and controlled. Military discipline still had to prevail. (There are stories of
how, when the armistice was signed on the Western Front, some units were ‘ordered’ to celebrate. There were real problems with severe alcohol poisoning, and troops incapable of any
rational behaviour for days.)

The war diary records that, for the 9th York and Lancasters, the routine continued much as before the armistice, mimicking the activities of the previous periods of training. There was, however,
the introduction of ‘recreational training’ and quite a bit more football, so perhaps the pressure was not too intense. Yet the men still spent time on route marches, drill, parades and
inspections. Even so, with the war finally over, the soldiers – or those who were not Regulars, at least – must have expected to be allowed to go home to get on with their lives as soon
as possible. Unfortunately, the process wasn’t quite as straightforward as they must have hoped.

The war diary’s entry for the day after the armistice with Austria is anodyne even by its standards: ‘5th & 6th [November] Recreational training was carried out in the morning.
Football was played in the afternoon.’ Four days later there was a ceremonial return across the Piave with various top brass in attendance: ‘10th The battalion moved by march route to
VASCON. The Corps Commander, Divisional and Brigade Commanders witnessed the recrossing of the PIAVE from the Bridge-head near PALAZZON.’

This was followed, a couple of days later, by a sixty-five-mile (104-km) rail journey to the west, away from the old front line. The training routine continued.

At last, twelve days after Germany signed an armistice on 11 November, here is some acknowledgment that there was something to celebrate. Harry seems to have enjoyed the
dinner, as he makes clear in his next letters.

From the content, especially of his letter to Kate, it looks as though these are the first letters that Harry has written to Jack and Kate since the armistice. The home of his friend ‘E
Kitchen’ would be local to Jack, who was living and working in Hull. Once again, Harry has sent a green envelope, meaning that its contents would not be censored locally, and so could be used
for any personal or potentially embarrassing remarks. Even so, there is rarely anything in Harry’s letters that would have much troubled a military censor.

The month ended with more training, and more of the ordinary tasks that make up so much of an infantryman’s life, as the war diary duly noted.

Harry’s battalion spent the end of November and December in four locations close to Vicenza, in the foothills of the mountains, some twenty-five miles (40km) south of the
Asiago Plateau. ‘Educational’ lectures by officers started, but still the military training continued. Harry sent only one letter to Jack that month, and that a fairly brief one:

Two days before Christmas, the war diary briefly notes what must have been a fairly momentous event for the battalion:

Here was some sign that troops were, at last, heading for home. A small number, but a start. ‘Concentration Camp’ has chilling connotations for the modern reader,
but here it should be taken literally – a camp where the soldiers for dispersal were gathered together. (Tavernelle is some two miles [3km] south-west of Vicenza.)

If Harry recorded anything else of the last month of 1918, the year in which the Great War finally ended, it has not survived. He is clearly longing to be demobilized and allowed to go home;
however, he is enough of a realist to recognize that in his case this is unlikely to happen very soon.