World War I Anecdotes

Rudolph Stark, Jasta 34b

Rudolph Stark was a pilot in Jasta 34b. He describes his accommodation at Foucaucourt aerodrome during 1918.

'Some of us have dogs, one owns a cat, another has brought three magpies along, while yet another has caught a fox-cub. All this menagerie has to be parked in the one hut, over and under the beds, thus curtailing the space available for humans. Unfortunately all the dogs are at war with one another in addition to cherishing the most evil intentions towards the cat. The latter lies in ambush for the magpies, with the result that we often arrive home in the middle of a scrap and just in time to prevent a tragedy. The fox-cub is the only one that sits good and quiet in his corner, but he gets so bored that he goes and grabs everyone's boots in turn and gnaws them. Owing to the presence of the aforesaid menagerie the air in our hut is not exactly what one would call pure ozone.'

Captain Sadler, Royal Sussex Regiment

from Trevor at Waterloo Battlefield Tours

Captain Sadler of the Royal Sussex Regiment describes how the over zealous pursuit of a trophy of war resulted in an unexpected gain during the battle of the Somme.

"Private Broughall had promised himself the best spiked helmet (pickelhaube) in France........While we were clearing up the front line we put up a big German wearing a very smart spiked helmet. Broughall, unaware that they were dozens of other helmets in the dug outs, gave chase to the wearer. His platoon rallied to the cry of "Get that bloody hat" and followed him. The quarry ran up a communication trench and was finally pulled down in the German fourth line, where Broughall and his platoon settled in and held their own against repeated counter attacks."

Private J. Singleton, 1/7th Sherwood Foresters

Private Singleton had tried to join the Regular Army but was turned down because of his height. 5' 3" was the minimum height in 1914 (later reduced to 5' in March 1915 for the Bantam Division).

'My four brothers had all joined up and I was very ashamed not to be in the army. So I went to the Territorial Army Drill Hall in Derby Road, Nottingham and offered the recruiting Sergeant there a two shilling postal order if he would accept me. He did so and, when it was over, we both went along to the Sir Borlace Warren (a local pub), cashed the postal order and drank the proceeds. My wife was working in the shell factory at the time and, when she came home, I told her I had joined up.'

'Tin Hats' in the Trenches

Until the spring of 1916, the men in the trenches wore only a soft service-cap. When steel helmets were introduced they proved so effective that they reduced the number of head wounds by 75%. However, one Divisional Commander refused, at first, to allow his men to wear a steel helmet, feeling that it would encourage the men to get soft!

Lance-Corporal H. C. Lancashire, 1/4th London

Lance-Corporal H. C. Lancashire remembers an incident as the 1/4th London moved up the trenches to their attack positions the night (30th June, 1916) before the opening of the Battle of the Somme.

'Orders were to lie down when star shells lit up the surroundings. On one such occasion, no more followed after the light from the star shells died out. After much shouting of, "Get a move on in front", the C.S.M. went along to find out why we were not moving. He found one of our second-lieutenants (nicknamed Charlie Chaplin on account of his splayed feet) waiting for the man lying in front to move, but he was lying behind a corpse.'

Having been one of the few to make it to the first line German trench during the morning of July 1st, Lance-Corporal Lancashire relates the following incident which happened during the mop-up of the German dug-outs.

'One of our bombers, ignoring instructions, pulled a hessian curtain aside in the entrance of a dug-out, instead of calling out first. As he bent down to call out, a German hiding behind the curtain delivered an upper-cut. Infuriated that a German should punch him on the jaw, he screamed at him to come out. It was a low entrance, the German had to emerge bending down. The bomber raised his knobkerrie (in trench warfare, a spiked iron ball on the end of a stick) and felled the German with one blow.

General Chretien at Fort Douaumont

from Trevor at Waterloo Battlefield Tours

Due to the incompetence of French General Chretien, the "impregnable" Fort Douaumont was captured by a single German sergeant in February 1916. The Fort formed part of the defences at Verdun. It was a formidable position. Two fields of barbed wire 30' deep were backed by a line of spiked railings 8' high on the edge of a dry ditch 24' deep. Inside stood a low concrete structure 200 yards long and 100 yards wide dominated by armoured gun turrets and loopholed for machine guns.

Chretien had received orders to occupy the fort in strength and defend it to the last man. He should have passed these orders on to his successor before going on leave, but he forgot. As a result, at the start of the German offensive, the Fort was horribly undermanned by a mere 56 gunners.

Sergeant Kunze was in charge of a party of pioneers whose job it was to clear wire and other obstacles to assist an assault by the 24th Brandenburgs. They found a way through the wire and spikes, dropped into the moat and crept along the wall of the fort itself. Kunze got his men to form a human pyramid and got into the fort through a gun embrasure. He began exploring the deserted corridors and bumped into four startled Frenchmen whom he took prisoner. Next he stumbled into a room where a lecture was taking place and captured 20 more Frenchmen. He locked them in the room. Next he found himself in the officers' mess where he sat down and enjoyed a hearty breakfast! The rest of the garrison was rounded up by three German officers who had been appraised of the situation by Kunze's men in the moat.

An American Marine

'No Sir', he replied, 'I'm a Marine'.

Robert Graves on Making Tea

from Trevor at Waterloo Battlefield Tours

Robert Graves, the famous poet and author, served as an officer in the Royal Welch Fusiliers during the Great War. In his book "Goodbye to All That" he describes an expensive method of making a cup of tea :-

"Our machine-gun crew boil their water by firing off belt after belt of ammunition at no particular target, just generally spraying the German line. After several pounds' worth of ammunition has been used, the water in the guns - which are water cooled - begins to boil. They say they make German ration and carrying parties behind the line pay for their early morning cup of tea. But the real charge will be on income tax after the war."

Kaiser Wilhelm II

On 19th August 1914, Kaiser Wilhelm II ordered General von Kluck, commanding the German First Army to 'exterminate the treacherous English and walk over General French's contemptible little army.' The adjective 'contemptible' appealed to the sense of humour of French's soldiers, who cared little about the Kaiser and immediately adopted the aspersion like a treasured regimental title - hence 'The Old Contemptibles'. A more considered evaluation of the BEF was that of Sir Basil Liddell-Hart, the universally respected military writer and critic, who called it 'the most highly trained striking force of any country - a rapier among scythes'.

Sergeant Peter Quinn

from Trevor at Waterloo Battlefield Tours

Don't you just love those people who seem to be good at everything? Peter Quinn takes some beating. As Sergeant Quinn of the Liverpool Scottish, he won the Military Medal and bar for bravery at Ypres and Festubert in the First World War. After the War he played professional football as a "crack left winger" for Blackpool, transferring to Preston North End in 1920 for £3,000 (a considerable transfer fee for a footballer in those days) and later playing for Bury and New Brighton. Whilst with Preston he played in the F.A. Cup Final in 1922, the last one before Wembley Stadium was opened. Preston lost 1-0 to Huddersfield Town.

Some of the black & white photos courtesy of 'Photos of the Great War'

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