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Updated: May 22, 2025
"Then," said Cotter, "the beach is the place where we shall have to meet them, and the strand is where our trenches ought to be." There was no answering that argument. Even Haines gave way. "With barbed wire entanglements," said Cotter, "down to the water's edge." The weather round about Christmas-time was extraordinarily severe in Ballyhaine.
The strand there are three miles of it is one of the glories of Ballyhaine. We did most of our manoeuvring there and dug our trenches there. Haines was opposed to this plan at first. "If the Germans come at all," said Cotter, "they'll come from the sea. They must, this being an island." "Of course," said Haines.
I came out of town by the 5.10 train, and called at the club on my way home. I found a notice posted up: "Ballyhaine Veterans' Corps. "Tonight, December the 8th, trenches will be relieved at 12 midnight No. 1 and No. 2 Platoons to parade at 10.30, march to north end of the strand, and occupy trenches." That meant a six-mile march for those platoons three there and three back.
There is not in the whole British Isles a more efficient military body than the Ballyhaine Veterans' Corps. The men look like soldiers when they have their grey uniforms on and their brassards on their sleeves. They talk like soldiers. They have the true military spirit.
The drawback to Ballyhaine as a centre of military activity is the difficulty of finding a place for practising field manoeuvres. There is the golf links, of course, but we got tired of marching round and round the golf links, and we did not want to dig trenches there. Haines, who does not play golf, drew up a plan of trench digging which would have ruined the golf links for years.
There is not a man in the company under fifty years of age, but if the Germans attempt a landing on the Ballyhaine beach, by submarine or otherwise, they will be sorry for themselves afterwards those of them who remain alive. Ballyhaine is a residential suburb, entirely built over with villas of the better kind. Each villa has its garden.
Every other member of the corps had similar experiences. It was Tompkins who hit on a way of dealing satisfactorily with the women. Tompkins is our local doctor. He stays in Ballyhaine all day long when the rest of us go up to town, so he naturally knows a good deal about women. He enrolled them in a volunteer ambulance brigade, and after that they were just as keen as any of us.
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