SOUTH STAFFORDS WAR DIARY

WULVERGHEM TRENCHES

7th May 1915, Fri:   2nd Howitzer Battery 46th Division shelled fortified house opposite Trench 8 with great effect about 10.am.  Enemy’s Artillery dropped 18 shells in & near Trench 10a making two breaches in parapet.  CASUALTY: 2 Lt F. Wilkinson wounded while repairing wire entanglements in front of 10 b trench.

8th May, Sat:   Enemy’s Artillery fired 40 shells at 10a trench and SPA and 4 shells at Trench 9 but without effect.  1/6th Souths  relieved trenches. Lt Lamond 2 Bn The Royal Scots joined as adjutant. 

9th May, Sun:  NEUVE EGLISE – In Hutments  ‘BULFORD CAMP‘

Pte BERTIE HIBBETT: LETTER to his FATHER & MOTHER, 95, Foden Rd, Walsall.

Rogation Sunday.(1)   May 9th/ 15

My dear Father & Mother,

What a dainty little parcel, so neatly packed.  The sweets are lovely, just what Sid & I like and want now the weather is getting warm and sunny.  Rather a cold wind blowing though this afternoon as I came out of the hut to write this letter in the field, so I took a seat in the corner of a trench which is in the precincts.

My word, Mother, what a long letter you wrote & I did enjoy reading it. In fact I did what you did with our letters, re-read it.  We came back to camp last night & on the 1st day after getting back we have 2 posts. On the 1st post I got the towel & sweets & on the 2nd post, which we got after dinner, Sid got Dad’s interesting letter.  That’s why I have again addressed this letter to both of you.

I was so glad to get another  ‘epistle’ from Dad, (as Miss Foster calls a long address.   I’m sorry for Capt. B. & for the Mayor but we OTC (2) could not help but feel amused on hearing of the kind of measles [they had]!

I guess Harold is with you today, by what Mother said in her letter.  It will  be a pleasure for Mother to go to Bedale, I’m sure.  When you see him next tell him that those Milk Tablets seem to have had a rather dramatic ‘life’ (if I can put it like that).  He had to keep the parcel waiting for them & when I got them they eventually got buried through the [action] of the enemy.  I found them safely afterwards though & now the bottle comes in handy for my share of the sweets, which will last a long time.  They are a change to chocolate which we have had so many times.

I’m afraid I was not such a brick as Sid was when I had my teeth out for it  was like ‘sitting in a rose bed’ compared with the ‘Tug of war on just a wooden chair’ with Sid’s teeth (7). At any rate I am grateful that Sid has no more pain now.

PS Alan Machin* specially told me that he wished to be remembered to you both, Father & Mother.  He is still keeping well.

Monday:  Just got a letter from Ida which I expected & now thank her – will get another reply bomb ready soon.

‘Through the Mill -something like Warfare‘ Typically Pte Bertie Hibbett makes sure he reassures & thanks his parents for their parcels &letters before he mentions his ‘exciting times‘.

(1) Rogation Sunday: ‘Beating the Bounds‘ is still practiced before Ascension Day, when priest & congregation process around the parish, stopping at boundary stones, trees and farms to ask God’s blessing on fields and crops & for ‘God’s mercy on all creation’ (from Latin rogare -‘to ask’).  (2) ‘We OTC’ : Pte Bertie differentiates  himself  & his QMS pals from other volunteers. His parents expect their sons to take commissions in due course..

(3) Listening Post: a very dangerous duty out in No Man’s Land, for which my father & his QMS pals volunteered from their first day in the trenches at Armentiers. See Posts for March 1915.

Description of Duty: ‘Running out at right-angles from the frontline trenches were saps (narrow, shallow, trenches). These saps were about 30 yards long. Small groups of soldiers were sent to the sap-head (listening post) and were given the task of . . . finding discovering information about enemypatrols, wiring parties, or sniper positions. After a heavy bombardment soldiers would be ordered to seize any new craters in No Man’s Land which could then be used as listening posts. From August 1916 all British Army units were under orders to occupy any shell-hole within 60 yards of their forward trench. John Simpkins@sparticus-educational.com  See also Listening Post <www.firstworldwar.com>

In My Memory of the First World War  1967, my father, writes: I shall never forget my experience at Neuville St Vaast, for it was there that I went with a party underground to listen for the enemy tapping their way in underground passages towards our Front Line.  It happened one dark night which made it all the more ‘exciting’.  Whose mine would go up first, theirs or ours?  Our feelings were indeed tense. “Pass the word down for Bomber Ford”, came the command from the officer in front of our column, as we lined up to throw hand grenades over the parapet. “Pass the word back I aint,” retorted Bomber Ford from the rear.  The German mine went up first – and we tried to occupy the crater before the enemy advanced to take possession of it.   The Revd A. H. Hibbett, 1967.

(4) Training in Underground fighting for Tunnellers/ Sappers/bomb layers.  (5) Wisemore Schools were erected in 1883 in poor districts of Walsall/ St Matthew’s Ward, once the location of Ragged Schools early 19th C. Average attendance: 328 boys, 305 girls and 316 infants. See Town End Bank at the Wisemore, John Griffiths. The Local History Centre, Essex Street, Walsall has the registers. See also The Story of Walsall Education – Wolverhampton History & Heritage – useful photographs of school buildings. <www.historywebsite.co.ukarticles/walsallschool.htm>  See also Menu Page: 1925 Walsall Observer article on my Grandfather, Arthur Hibbett’s Retirement as Education Officer. 

(6) Red Cross photos pending. (7) Army Dentists: no dentists at the Front at beginning of war. Both Pte Bertie Hibbett & L Corp. Sydney Hibbett had to endure ‘rapid extraction‘ with crude instruments (as found in dental practice in some African countries today). 12 dentists were attached to Casualty Clearing Stations (after Sir Douglas Haig got toothache in France!) Ambulance Cars began to be used in 1915 & in May 1916 a Mobile Dental Laboratory was given to the Army in by the Civil Service Ambulance Fund through the British Red Cross. 

(8)

PS You remember the blankets you sent us & when we got to Luton after Home Leave we found new ones for us – well we have  just been issued with towels.  We go to the baths the day after we leave the trenches.  I am keeping the new paper you sent for a letter to Mrs Jones. I think I ought to write a combined letter.  I sent  Field PC but Mrs Jones seems to treasure a letter from the Front.  Did you, Mother have a pleasant hour that Monday afternoon?  Oh Sid & I would be delighted with a small pot of Mother’s brawn, the parcel only takes four days at the most to come so the brawn will keep fresh & Ida could send some pineapple chunks for tea.

With best of good wishes to harold & Miss Bore & fopndest love to you both dear Mother & Dad.

Your affectionate son,  Bertram.

PS Keep this letter & when I come home I will tell you what a time I had in writing it.  God save Our King.