Christmas in the Trenches (13 page)

This was the culmination of unrest among Chinese labourers, which had begun in September 1917 with a contractual dispute in which labourers demanded danger money when they believed they would have to work within German artillery range. At Dunkirk, large numbers of labourers fled their camp after an air raid and refused to return to work for four days. In October further disturbances occurred over harsh levels of discipline being used against the Chinese. To quell the affair five labourers were shot dead and fourteen wounded. Matters remained serious, with a similar incident taking place at Fontinettes between 16 and 23 December. Once again armed guards opened fire during attempts to quell the disturbance. News of the troubles got into the British press, where they came to the attention of Chinese government representatives in London. Work was put in hand by the Director of Labour, Brig Gen Evan Gibb, under strong representations from Lt Col Fairfax, organiser of the Chinese Labour Corps. These addressed the staffing of labour units with officers and NCOs who understood the Chinese and looked to remove disaffection felt over living conditions, poor facilities and pay. Such serious incidents did not occur again.

December 1917 also found troops of six British divisions (5th, 7th, 21st, 23rd, 41st and 48th) deployed in Italy. They had been sent, along with six French divisions, from the Western Front to help shore up the Italian Army, which had been severely shaken by the Austro-German attack at Caporetto (24 October 1917). In the following month, Italian forces were pushed back 80 miles to the River Piave, during which time the Italian 2nd Army ceased to exist as a fighting force. By the time the front stabilised in mid-November, the first British and French troops were arriving on Italian soil. First into the line were the British 23rd and 41st Divisions who relieved Italian troops along the Piave between 30 November and 4 December. They were to find northern Italy a pleasant change from France and Flanders. Views of dramatic snow-capped mountains, wooded slopes and wide rivers combined with a lower-intensity war. This was especially true after the Austro-German offensive ceased in early December and German units were withdrawn for service on the Western Front. During December the 23rd Division suffered only 121 casualties and the 41st Division a correspondingly low figure of 158. For the rest of the British force, Christmas 1917 was spent in reserve, allowing time to acclimatise to their new surroundings:

I had a very strenuous day the other day. I took my staff which consists of 4 officers and 6 sergeants and others. We rode about 30 miles on horses, climbed one hill of 1000 feet and another of 4000 feet to the heavy snows – it was intensely cold – only 4 of us got to the top. As it was late we came down in an empty Italian lorry along one of those great spiral military roads recently made – it took 1 hour 10 mins to do 22 miles downhill. It was only about 2 miles straight up. I really don’t know how the Italian soldiers stand the awful cold. One Italian soldier gave me the Edelweiss which I enclose for you – with my love (from Italy at Christmas).

Now we are training hard and we need it – warfare is so different out here to what it was in France. I like this life for a change. The Colonel has been very nice and leaves me alone to carry on how I like. The horses are looking well in spite of the cold weather and the snow.
⁶
(
Capt Archibald Laporte-Payne, 175 Brigade, RFA
)

With the majority of units behind the front line, most British troops were able to spend a relatively relaxed Christmas and, being Italy, wine flowed freely:

We spent our Xmas 1917 amongst French and Italian troops, so we got merry with plenty of wine. I was a bit in the forefront, being able to speak French and we finished up with mixed dancing among the troops. We were twice a week on guard . . . It was indeed long nights with intense cold and snow and freezing hard. It was fine during the day with the hot sun and white carpet, for the atmosphere is dry. Many reported sick with their blood out of order, and the medical officer remarked it was by drinking too much fresh wine. (
Gnr Edmund Lenfestey, 35th Battery, 22nd Brigade, RFA
)

In places the chance was also taken to play a little international football. The 8th Royal Warwicks beat a regiment of French Chasseurs 8–0, though in the return match the French, who had been practising hard, only lost 3–2.
⁷
Although at a respectable distance behind the front line, the British were, on occasion, reminded that they had not come to Italy on a rest cure:

Christmas Day: Breakfast – bacon, rissoles and porridge. Dinner – pork roast, beef roast and potatoes. We were to have had turnips but they were all bad. Christmas pudding with rum sauce and a pint of vino for each man but it was horrible, rough and sour so hardly anyone drank it. Sgts drunk again so I had the biggest part of their dinners and all their pudding. Harris and I went for a walk along the Brenta in the morning, intending to go to a small town we could see about three miles away. After we had gone a couple of miles we heard a familiar whining noise and then a crash and although we had heard thousands of shells before, it quite startled us as it was the last thing we expected on a quiet Christmas morning for we had been told we were at least 8 to 10 miles from the line, so we asked an Italian what it was and it turned out to be an Austrian long range gun shelling this town of Bassano. We often watched it after but that morning we didn’t want our appetites upset so we turned off and had a lift to Marostica, another town near us and so home. (
Pte Albert Bullock, 8th Royal Warwicks
)

The British also quickly developed a warm rapport with the Italian civilian population. For example, the war diary of the 1/4th Royal Berkshires records of their stay at San Croce-Bigolina in December 1917:

During the month the welcome from the
ITALIANS
has grown more cordial and we are receiving great kindness from them. As soon as they got to know us, they will do anything to help us that we ask and quite a good feeling now exists between us; the Parish Priest especially doing everything he can to help us.

On Christmas Day the priest assisted by giving over the largest room in his house as Battalion HQ Mess, where all the officers dined together in the evening, using all the crockery that he could provide for them. The men of the battalion dined earlier in the day, with ‘A’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ Companies eating by companies and ‘B’ Company by platoons, while HQ staff, the battalion band, stores and transport staff ate separately. Extras, such as pork, fruit, beer, coffee and vegetables were provided by the officers through subscriptions in proportion to their pay:

In addition a very kind letter was received from the Secretary of the County Association enclosing a cheque for £50 raised by the President, Members of the Berkshire Territorial Force Association and some of the residents of Berkshire for the provision of Christmas gifts for the men. The Association wished the CO and all ranks the very best of good wishes for Christmas and the New Year and a telegram to this effect was also received. (
War Diary 1/4th Royal Berkshires
)

Gifts were also organised for British troops by the Italian Touring Club, the distribution of those for the 5th and 48th Divisions (XI Corps) took place at Piazzolo on 23 December. One officer and nine men represented each infantry battalion; there were also representatives from other units such as artillery and transport. The selected troops were formed up in four lines on three sides of the town square. At 2.20 p.m. a car carrying Lt Gen Sir Richard Haking (XI Corps commander) and senior members of the Touring Club pulled into the square. The 5th Division band struck up the Italian national anthem and all troops presented arms. This was followed by the British national anthem after which Haking thanked the Italian Touring Club for their kindness in arranging for the presentation of gifts, which consisted of a dictionary, pocket book, chocolates and bar of soap for each man. After a marchpast, the troops gave three cheers for Italy and then returned to their respective parade grounds from where they were dismissed.

Across the Adriatic, men of the BSF were settling in for another Christmas in the Balkans, either in the wilds of the Macedonian countryside, where few comforts were on hand, or in the large base camp area around Salonika. The year had seen the first major action fought by Milne’s troops, namely the First Battle of Doiran (24–25 April and 8–9 May 1917). This was in support of a Franco-Serbian offensive west of the River Vardar in which the Allied commander, Gen Sarrail, hoped to decisively break the Bulgarian line. For their part the men of XII Corps were to pin Bulgarian units to the maze of trenches in the hills around the town of Doiran, thus preventing them moving west of the Vardar. This aim was achieved at a price of 5,024 casualties, although ultimately it proved a wasted effort as Sarrail’s offensive failed to achieve anything close to a breakthrough. Failure led to the removal, during the summer of 1917, of the 10th (Irish) and 60th (London) Divisions to Palestine, where Gen Sir Edmund Allenby was building up forces for a major offensive against the Turks. One point in favour of the Allies in the Balkans was the entry of Greece into the war on 29 June, following the abdication of King Constantine. The availability of Greek troops went some way to offsetting the Allied manpower shortage in the Balkans and made it possible to consider offensive operations for 1918. However, it would not be Sarrail who would be in charge as his military failures and meddling in Greek political affairs led to his replacement by Gen Guillaumat in December 1917.

For the troops ‘up country’, Christmas 1917 once again proved to be a generally quiet affair, with Briton and Bulgar again respecting each other’s holidays. As comforts were generally lacking, commanders tried to make an effort over the Christmas period to make the lives of their troops more enjoyable:

This is the one day in the year when the Army really lets its hair down and tries to make our miserable lives happy! To start with, we get decent grub – bacon and tomatoes for breakfast for a kick off. The weather is perfect and, for once, Johnny behaves himself and does not annoy us whilst our own guns also kept quiet . . . After a voluntary Church Parade which lasted exactly 21 minutes (I timed it!) we have more football before the piece de resistance of the day – our Christmas dinner. This turns out to be a real Lucullan feast, consisting of roast turkey or roast goose, with all the fillings, or roast beef, spuds and greens with liberal helpings of ‘pudden’ to follow, so we all do ourselves remarkably well. Free beer is also provided and we finish off with cigarettes, cigars and oranges. We were apparently not too full up to enjoy a ‘comic’ football match in the afternoon between the ‘old crocks’, which was great fun, and then back to a very satisfying tea of pears, milk and rock cakes, with coffee and rum in the evening. The whole far exceeds our expectations and proves miles ahead of the proverbial ‘Christmas Day in the Workhouse’.
⁸
(
Pte William Denton Mather, 8th Ox & Bucks Light Infantry
)

This was done despite the ravages to shipping in the Mediterranean caused by German and Austro-Hungarian U-boats, which accounted for the non-arrival of much mail and gifts from home as well as official supplies. Where possible, trading was done with local villagers for rabbits, turkeys, geese, hens and even goats. Some enterprising soldiers even tried rearing their own livestock or poultry. One of these was Pte Fred Warburton, serving with an ammunition column in the village of Gugunci behind the Doiran Front:

One of the drivers had some months before discovered some nests with 5 goslings in so it had been decided that we would rear them for Xmas. There was an old church without a roof in our compound so I made shelters and with a bit of care we got them on their feet. I may tell you we were very jealous of those geese and as we saw them grow we would do voluntary guard . . . the week before Christmas I weighed them and they were over 15lb gross each so we worked it out that we would have over 2lb of goose each as there was only 22 of us including the officers and we had decided to give them one for themselves.

I should explain that while our camp was on a hillside on the other side over the nullah and facing us was a forward unit of the RAMC.

Christmas Eve and we had arranged for a two hour spell to watch the geese and Dick Best had relieved for the 4 to 6 after which we would all be up, our cook Reg usually got up before that time to make gunfire, all of a sudden we heard Reg shouting so we all hurried out to find Dick fast asleep in the corner of the old church, we tried to waken him but it seemed impossible, at his side was a water bottle still quarter full of rum and all we could identify was RAMC in indelible ink and there were NO geese so our Xmas dinner had vanished and all we had left was a tin of Daily Mail pudding. Although we could smell them cooking they, the Medics, said they had bought them, it took us all our time to stop a free for all but as usual the Rob-All-My-Comrades won.

Some of the more remote detachments, such as the anti-aircraft gun section on the Aegean island of Thasos, appear to have been forgotten by the authorities and were in no position to forage for themselves:

Dec 25th. Tuesday. Christmas Day. As I thought we had a splendid dinner of bully beef and preserved potatoes our usual fare. I think I have tasted roast beef once since last June, we seem to be forgotten for everything on this fever stricken island, while at Headquarters at Mudros they live on the fat of the land. (
Sgt Howard Couldrake, 3rd Royal Marine Light Infantry
)

The resentment felt by Couldrake towards those in the rear areas was common in Macedonia as even officers had but limited chances to visit the bright lights of Salonika. This created a real division between the front-line soldiers and those they nicknamed ‘Base Wallahs’. Such differences were very apparent at Christmas time:

Well, here Xmas is over, and also my birthday; nothing very exciting. On Xmas Eve we had a very good concert party here and a lot of people including my Colonel. I had asked the General up but he was unable to come, for which I was devoutly thankful when the time came, as he is always late and we had very little time for dinner, as it was. There were a lot of fair sisters from a neighbouring hospital, and altogether our mess was crammed to suffocation. All my men celebrated freely and several of my old Irish P.B. policemen set to and had a fierce encounter, several being laid out. Xmas day I went to church in the morning; in the afternoon we had a footer match and in the evening the men sat down to their Xmas dinner at 6pm and we at 7pm. I had to go round and make speeches, read messages from the G.O.C. etc. The men had a terrific dinner and Heaven knows how much they drank. They follow up by what they called a free and easy which consisted of more liquors and doing as much damage as possible. However there was no serious trouble so I got off easy; one gent however was carted off to hospital 36 hours after, still unconscious; presumably he had a bad fall when tight. We, the officers, had a very quiet evening. Boxing day, my birthday, was like any other day, except I had to stand drinks all round . . .