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Updated: May 28, 2025
He had been nearly four years with the Battalion and was greatly beloved by all ranks; as I went down the line at stand-to that morning many of the men of old F Company, which he commanded at Chelmsford, were crying.
Some distance outside the camp we dug a series of little trenches for pickets which were occupied at night by companies in rotation. Stand-to for everyone was at 3.45 and was often prolonged by mist.
His days were spent scouring the scrub, rummaging among the dwarf palms with the end of his carbine and going "Frt!... Frt!" At each bush... Then every evening a stand-to of two or three hours... A wasted effort. No lions appeared.
We are almost content with our lot. We laugh a good deal, we joke, we play the eternal penny ante, and possibly the letters come. Just before stand-to at sundown the quiet will be broken. The artillery behind our lines will open up with great activity.
The "Stand-to" had come as a distinct relief that morning. And always there had been the glowering fires of a score of villages. The greater mass of burning Ypres stood up amongst them like the warning finger of God. Occasionally the roaring burst of an ammunition dump flared up into a volcano of fiery sound.
Orders were issued during the morning for a "stand-to" in readiness to move at very short notice, and about 3.45 p.m. instructions were received to entrain at Gouzeaucourt. In less than an hour the Battalion was on the march, the transport moving at the same time by road.
The constant clash of wits over the wires, and the necessity of framing words quickly, sharpens his faculties and acidulates his tongue. Incidentally, he is an awkward person to quarrel with. One black night, Bobby Little, making his second round of the trenches about an hour before "stand-to," felt constrained to send a telephone message to Battalion Headquarters.
Owing to the kindness of some friends of the battalion in England, both officers and men were supplied with sheep-skin coats or jackets which were wonderfully good in keeping out the cold at night. 'Stand-to' was a regular institution of trench warfare, both an hour before dark and an hour before dawn.
Morning in the Trenches The Artillery Preparation for the Infantry Attack The P.P's Chosen to Stem the Tide The Trust of a Lady Chaos Corporal Dover The Manner in Which Some Men Kill and Others Die. It seemed as though I had just stepped off my whack of sentry go for my group when a kick in the ribs apprised me that it was "Stand-to." I rubbed my eyes, swore and rose to my feet.
It was the hour of 'Stand-to. All round the Salient, and north and south of it far beyond the horizon, the trenches were filled with watching men, weary from the night's toil at digging or wiring or 'carrying' fatigues, but standing ready until the dangerous hour of dawn should pass.
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