Letters From the Trenches: A Soldier of the Great War (30 page)

Bde
– brigade; also ‘bgde’. A British infantry brigade in the Great War usually consisted of four infantry battalions, one of which often served as a
Pioneer (q.v.) battalion, plus a machine-gun company (heavy – i.e. Vickers [q.v.] – machine guns) and a trench-mortar battery. The 9th York and Lancasters formed part of 70 Brigade,
with the 11th Sherwood Foresters, the 8th King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI) and the 8th York and Lancasters; from October 1915 until February 1916 the brigade also included a
Territorial battalion of the Middlesex Regiment.
See also
Division

BEF
– British Expeditionary Force, the name generally used to refer to the British military forces – including Dominion and Imperial units – on the Western
Front, 1914–18, and especially to the initial (small, by comparison to the French and German armies) force of two corps (q.v.) that arrived in France in August 1914. In fact there were
several BEFs – e.g. in Palestine and other theatres – including the BEF Italy, the title first given to the British force of five divisions under General Plumer that was sent to Italy
in November 1917, to assist the Italian forces after their heavy defeat at Caporetto in October. The title was changed to ‘Italian Expeditionary Force’ early in 1918, to reflect the
involvement of the French and Americans in the Italian campaign

Bn
– battalion; also written as ‘batt’ or ‘battn’. British regiments in 1914 consisted of at least two Regular battalions, at least one Reserve
battalion and at least one and usually several more Territorial battalions. Under the various recruitment schemes instituted by Field Marshal Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War, in
August 1914, regiments raised many more battalions for the conflict, known as ‘New Army’ battalions and given the designation ‘(Service)’ in the battalion title; the 9th
York and Lancasters was a New Army or Service battalion. A British infantry battalion of the Great War had a nominal strength of 30 officers and 977 other ranks (
see
OR), but on active
service the effect of casualties often reduced battalions to far smaller numbers. Commanded by a lieutenant-colonel, each battalion comprised a battalion headquarters and four companies (
see
Coy).

Bomb, bomber
– in the Great War, ‘bomb’ was often used to denote a hand grenade; ‘bombers’ were soldiers selected to attack the enemy with
grenades.
See also
Mills bomb, P bomb, Rifle bomber.

Bully, bully beef
– tinned corned beef, from French
bouillé
, boiled. A staple of British soldiers throughout the Great War

C–in–C
– commander-in-chief, the overall commander of a military force or forces in a theatre or sector of war.

CO
– commanding officer, also referred to as OC (
see below
). Usually a lieutenant-colonel, but because of casualties battalions sometimes ended up under the
temporary command of a major, or even a captain.

Corps
– Originally ‘Army Corps’, a military unit usually consisting of two divisions (q.v.) plus attached troops forming a sub-division of an army. The BEF
in France and Belgium, initially just two corps, grew so large that it was divided into five armies (First, Second, Third, Fourth and Reserve, later renamed Fifth Army), each with its own corps;
there were also a Cavalry Corps, an Indian Corps, a Canadian Corps, and an Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, the famous ANZACs. The word can be misleading, as the British Army applies it to
other formations: the Royal Engineers and the Royal Army Medical Corps, among others, are designated ‘corps’, and at the time of the Great War there was a Machine Gun Corps, a Tank
Corps, the Royal Flying Corps, and even an infantry regiment named the King’s Royal Rifle Corps. The 23rd Division, which included Harry’s battalion in its 70 Brigade, served in X Corps
on the Western Front, and in XIV Corps in Italy.

Coy
– company, the basic unit of an infantry battalion (
see
Bn). In the Great War, British battalions were generally divided into five companies: a headquarters
company (or ‘Company Headquarters’) and four rifle companies, usually designated ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’. Rifle companies were subdivided
into four platoons (
see
Pln). Each company was commanded by a major or a captain, with (usually) a captain as second-in-command; there was a company HQ, as well as a company sergeant-major
(CSM, q.v.) and a company quartermaster sergeant, and at full strength numbered over 220 officers, warrant officers (q.v.), NCOs and other ranks (
see
OR).

CSM
– company sergeant-major; a warrant officer (q.v.), rather than an NCO.

DCM
– Distinguished Conduct Medal, a gallantry award for ORs (q.v.) and ranked only one degree below the VC (q.v.).

Div, Divl, Divnl
– abbreviations for division (q.v.) or divisional.

Division
– military formation usually, in the British Army of the Great War, consisting of three brigades (Bde, q.v.) plus ‘divisional troops’ –
artillery, engineers, mounted troops, medical and transport services, and so on. For the time that Harry was with the battalion, 70 Brigade (which included the 9th York and Lancasters) was part of
the 23rd Division, together with 68 and 69 Brigades (for a time between 1915 and 1916, including the Battle of the Somme, 70 Brigade was detached to 8th Division, being replaced for the period by
24 Brigade from that division). The 23rd Division served in X Corps of Plumer’s Second Army in Flanders until November 1917, and then transferred to XIV Corps, also of Second Army, on moving
to the Italian Front.

DSO
– Distinguished Service Order, a decoration for ‘meritorious or distinguished service in war’ instituted in 1886. Awarded only to officers, it ranks
immediately below the VC (q.v.; the equivalent award for other ranks was the DCM, q.v.). It was generally awarded to officers of the rank of major or above, but in exceptional circumstances was
occasionally won by more junior officers.

Entrenching tool
– a two-piece implement consisting of a short wooden helve and a steel head which fitted on to it. The latter had a small spade-like blade at one end
and a short pickaxe head at the other. An invaluable piece of equipment for the infantryman, it was designed in 1908 and was still in service in the Second World War.

GOC
– general officer commanding; that is, the general in command of a particular formation, whether a brigade (a brigadier in the Great War was still designated
brigadier-general), division, corps or army; thus at Messines in 1917 Plumer was GOC Second Army.

ICT
– inflamed connective tissue. Something of a mystery hangs over this acronym, which certainly stands for inflamed connective tissue nowadays. However, that seems to
cover a number of ailments like tendonitis, whereas the war diary’s several mentions of it would point more to something like trench foot, although there has been a suggestion that it may
have been some sort of stomach complaint. I have been unable to find more; perhaps a reader may be able to enlighten me?

IEF
– Italian Expeditionary Force.
See
BEF.

Interior economy
– From time to time during the Italian campaign, the war diary (q.v.) reports an activity known as ‘interior economy’. This was a term used
for the day-today administration of the battalion in respect of the basic housekeeping of the soldiers. Equipment, clothing and weapons would be cleaned, repaired and inspected to make sure that
everything was in order.

Lewis gun
– gas-operated, magazine-fed, rifle-calibre automatic weapon with a nominal rate of fire of 500–600 rounds per minute, the standard light machine gun of
the British, Dominion and Imperial forces during most of the Great War. Invented by an American, Colonel Isaac Newton Lewis, in 1911, it proved accurate and reliable, and was quickly adopted by the
British Army, and tens of thousands were built under licence in the UK. British-built versions were in .303-inch calibre, and US-built ones in .30-inch; there was also a lighter version of the gun,
without the cooling barrel shroud, fitted to countless Allied aircraft. There were two versions of the drum magazine, one holding 47 rounds and the other 97 (the infantry tended to use the former).
At 28 pounds, the weapon was light enough to be operated by a single gunner, and the folding bipod beneath the barrel added to its accuracy. Many thousand Lewises were dug out of store and
refurbished for use in the Second World War, especially as a light anti-aircraft weapon.

LG
– Lewis gun (see under ‘Lewis’ above).

LGS
– Lewis-gun section.

MC
– Military Cross, a gallantry award introduced in 1914 for commissioned officers of the rank of captain and lower (extended, after the Great War, to include majors)
and for warrant officers (q.v.; senior NCOs of the rank of, or equivalent to, sergeant-major). As a decoration for officers (it is nowadays awarded to all ranks) it ranked third below the VC and
the DSO (qq.v.).

Mills bomb
– the standard-issue hand grenade of the British Army during most of the Great War, officially designated the No. 5 grenade. It was invented in 1915 by a
William Mills, who manufactured the grenades at a munitions factory in Birmingham.

Minenwerfer
– German trench mortar (q.v.).

MM
– Military Medal, a decoration for gallantry awarded to other ranks (
see
OR); the equivalent for officers was the MC (q.v.).

NCO
– non-commissioned officer. In the British Army, subordinate officers, such as lance-corporals, corporals and sergeants, appointed from the ranks, rather than
holding a commission from the sovereign, as an officer does, or a warrant, as a warrant officer (q.v.) does.

OC
– officer commanding – as in ‘OC B Company’.

OR(s)
– other rank(s); that is, all soldiers who are not officers, namely warrant officers (WOs), non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and privates (qq.v.).

‘Pals’ battalions
– the name often given to certain New Army (
see
Bn) battalions made up from men who had enlisted together in local recruiting
campaigns, and who were given a promise that they would be allowed to serve together rather than being split up and sent to already existing battalions. This meant that groups of friends, fellow
workers and neighbours from the same areas were able to join up, train and fight together, and in the North Country and Midlands, especially, there was an enthusiastic response to the idea. Many
famous units came to be known by their Pals designation, among them the Accrington Pals (11th East Lancashire Regiment), and the Sheffield City Battalion (12th York and Lancaster Regiment). In
practice, however, the idea proved something of a disaster, for when these battalions suffered heavy casualties – as they did, notoriously, on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July
1916 – the effect upon their local communities at home was that these cities and towns suffered disproportionate losses among their young men. Once conscription was introduced in January 1916
no more Pals battalions were raised.

Pass
– a signed paper, usually issued by battalion headquarters, permitting a soldier to go on leave for a specified period of time. Should he fail to return by the due
date or time, he would be ‘absent without leave’ (AWOL).

P bomb
– a smoke grenade containing a main charge of phosphorus, which gives off a dense white smoke once detonated.

PH helmet
– phenate hexamine helmet, an early type of gas mask, consisting of a cloth hood with eyepieces and a valve for exhaling; the permeable cloth was treated with
chemicals to neutralize noxious gases, and was reasonably effective against phosgene, chlorine and tear gas.

Pioneer
– pioneers are soldiers employed to perform basic construction duties, such as repairs to roads or military railways, work on trenches and other defences, the
establishment of barbed-wire entanglements, and so on. In the Great War they were essentially trained infantrymen, often from mining or construction backgrounds, who performed these tasks, to the
extent that a number of infantry battalions were converted into Pioneer units, although later in the war specialist Pioneer units were raised.

Pln
– platoon. Infantry battalions were divided into companies (
see
Coy), which were sub-divided into platoons, each under a lieutenant or second lieutenant.
Platoons were further sub-divided into sections, each under an NCO (q.v.); Harry, for instance, served in the Lewis-Gun Section (or Machine-Gun Section) of No. 12 Platoon, C Company, 9th (Service)
Battalion, the York and Lancaster Regiment.

Rifle bombers, rifle grenade
– a rifle bomb or rifle grenade is a grenade equipped with a rod that is inserted down a rifle barrel, and then fired at the enemy using a
special blank cartridge. They could travel much further than hand-thrown grenades, and were usually more accurate, so several soldiers in any infantry company would be trained in their use.

Pte
– private (soldier), the lowest rank of fully trained soldier in the British Army. Not all private soldiers are so called: thus a private in the Royal Artillery is
designated Gunner; in the Royal Engineers, Sapper; in a cavalry regiment, Trooper; in a Rifle regiment, Rifleman, and so on.

SBR
– small box respirator, a type of gas mask introduced in 1916 to replace the PH helmet (q.v.). It consisted of a rubberized mask with eyepieces and a mouthpiece
connected by a hose to the ‘box’ filter contained in a cloth bag worn on the soldier’s chest. More effective than the PH helmet, and easier to use because the filter was separate
from the mask, it was much preferred by the soldiers.

Semaphore
– a system of signalling with flags (or, if necessary, the arms) using an alphabetic code, each letter signified by the position at which the signaller holds
the flag or flags. Semaphore was a vital communication technique in the Great War, being much more reliable than the then primitive radio or field telephones.