Letters from Irving Russell Flett to his Family, 1915-1916 - Part 9

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doomed to disappointment. Bayonet fighting is such an
important thing that I wanted to make myself acquainted with
all of the many tricks. It is still, always has been, &, I think
always will be the British soldiers favorite weapon & myself I
reckon it is knowledge of the bayonet will either win or lose the war.
There was a Major that came out to lecture to us on the bayonet &
he introduced himself as belonging to "that gentle, loving &
peaceful race - the scotch. This at once gained him the
attention of the large audience. He was great. I could have
listened to him & watched the demonstration he & a sergeant major
gave for hours. He impressed upon us that there is one saying
that is thoroughly worn out & that is - "that it is noble to die for
your country"  His version is "It is noble to kill for your 
country & save the government expense" & when one comes to think
of it, it appears a lot more sensible. He made us laugh when he
told us about a young scotch boy about 19 years of age; who,
in one of the battles, was seen sitting on the chest of a struggling,
fat bosche. He was holding his victim down by his ears, but could
not kill him, as both hands were full of German lug - the only
thing he could do he did do, & that was to try & bite Fritz's nose
off. The major said this was a terrible waste of splendid
rage & courage - if the kid had known how to use his bayonet
he could have struck the bosche as he was running away. It's a funny
game I can tell you, but war is war.
We are atill occupying the same billets, & are
all perfectly satisfied if we remain here for months. It is the best
& most comfortable place we have yet been in, & being near a rather

large town, which, in peace times, has a population of forty thousand,

4

all the men are able to get out and bug stuff. The army canteen

close by sells about 20000 francs worth of stuff a day since the 

Australians arrived in this district, whereas when equal numbers of

Tommies were here 7,000 francs was considered a big day. A franc

is worth tenpence.

I was sorry to hear that Auntie Alice

was under to it again & trust she will soon be able to get about

again. I was very sorry when I saw from Auntie Lizzie's letter

received three days ago the same day as yours, that Mr Adam

died suddenly; he was a fine man & will be greatly missed

by his family & all that knew him. He was such a jovial sort

& could always see a joke. I intend to write to Jack this

mail. Walters letter came to hand same time as yours & will

try & send him a few lines when I finish this as will have to find

a stop to my jabbernut. With love to all & hoping you

all are helping to give the doctor a bad year. Hec, Harold, 

Scotty (who has been for a trip to England) myself & all Brightonites

I have seen lately are all well & happy.

I remain

Your ever loving son,

Irvy.

France 27.5.16

(Letter of no interest)

The Ten Commandments

A Glasgow officer at the front, writing to his brother, gives the following

as the Ten Standing Orders for the British Infantry France:-

1.The Colonel is thy only boss, thou shall have no other Colonels but him

2. But thou shalt make into thyself many graven images of officers

who fly in the heavens above; of Staff Officers who own the earth

beneath, and of submarine officers who are in the waters under

the earth, then thou shalt stand up and salute them, for the C.O.

thy Boss will visit with field punishment unto the 1^st and 2^nd

degree on those that salute not, and shower stripes on those that

salute and obey his commandments.

3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Adjutant in vain, for the C.O.
will not hold him guiltless who taketh the Adjutant's name in vain.

4. Remember thou shalt not rest on the Sabbath day. Six days

shalt thou labor, and the seventh is the day of the C.R.E.* on it

thou shalt do all manner of work, thou and thy officers, thy

non commissioned officers, thy sanitary man and the Kitchener's

army who are in thy trench (for instruction)

5. Honour the Army Staff that thy days may be long in the Corps

Reserve; here one day they may send thee.

6. Thou shalt kill only Huns; slugs; lice; rats and other vermin

which frequent dugouts

7. Thou shalt not not adulterate thy section's rum ration.

8. Thou shalt not steal, or, at any rate not be found out.

9. Thou shalt not bear false witness in the orderly room.

10. Thou shalt not covet the A.S.C's job, thou shalt not covet the A.S.C's 

job, nor his motors, nor his wagons, nor his tents, nor his billets, nor his horses, nor his asses

nor any other cushy + thing that is his.

*Commanadament Royal Engineers.

*Cushy = soft job, easy, cushy job.

France 
6.6.16
P. of no interest

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Have you or has uncle Tas & Aunties yet received the

big batch of photos of Lone Pine & surrounding beauty

spots that I posted you from Canal Zone. I would like

you to receive them as they will be valuable.

It is rather a hard job to write you

an interesting letter without any to acknowledge, as

news is as scarce as seagulls in the desert. The man bit

of "excitement" during the past week was an inspection

of our Brigade by the "King of Australia" & the man

that English people have "done their blocks on":-

Andrew Fisher & Willie Hughes. We had to march

about six miles altogether to hear them tell us some

great "news", that was to assure us that our friends

& relations had not forgotten us, we would get a great

reception when we get back All Australia was proud

of us & such like gibberish I felt like asking them

did they know we received a mail every week, which in

itself testifies that we are not quite forgotten. However

I suppose it is one of the hardships we have to put up with

to listen to political gas bags out of a job touring

France. Mr Fisher has got very grey lately, & there is

precious little to see of the other gentleman, so really

cannot say whether he is grey or blue, as we would

scarcely see him.

Well, Britain has once again

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shown the world that she has a little bit to say with

regards to ongoings at sea. The North Sea fight must

have been a tremendous battle - the results we have to date

are British losses 14 ships & Germany 22, which speaks

for itself, & although both sides have lost heavily, it has

proved a great victory for us. The only thing we are all

waiting for is for the two full navies to meet in a

ding dong go, after which I guarantee the war will not

last a great deal longer, as we all think that a great

sea victory for us will have an undoubted influence on

land doings. Today altogether has been a day of

great news, & we are just waiting to see the English

papers tomorrow morning to have everything we have heard

confirmed as "furfies" are still very plentiful, & just

about keep us alive, the same as they did on the Peninsula.

Yesterday afternoon Bob Raws &

myself went in to a neighbouring town to do a bit of shopping

& ran across a major who is a doctor in the 1^st Aust Clearings

Hospital in that town whom he used to go to school with.

He promptly invited us to stay to dinner, which of course

we did, as we have religious scruples against refusing

any good stunts, in the shape of dinners etc. Well

this was a special occasion as they were celebrating

with the Military Cross. This is the first time I have

been out of bounds after hours but got a lift home in a 

motor ambulance car which was much better than pushing

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along the road at night more especially as we are not

permitted to show any lights.

Our chief work at present is the

same as when I last wrote, & that is a 12 miles march

every night, & when we get there we have to set to

work on digging & Cable laying. The march along the

cobble stones is the worst part of the business as they

are pretty rough & play up with the feet a little. All

the roads in the French towns are paved the same way

& must be pretty severe on vehicles, motor tyres etc..

The weather is still fine but keeps pretty cool for

summer. I suppose you into be getting pretty cool

stretches now & plenty of rain. No doubt the Larcrosse &

different other Clubs have started work for the season.

I had a letter from I.J. last week, & he states he has

taken on the Boys Club again. I am disappointed at the 

way they have treated Will Ellis last season, & I wonder

that some of the Church gentlemen who take an interest in

the club did not step in & see he got a fair deal.

Hope Auntie Alice is now better,

& will not get frozen this winter, as I have an idea she is

not fond of the cold. I will be writing to Wally when I 

get his letter - the mail should be delivered to us any

day now. Give my love to Aunties at Lupra, Uncle Tas

Rest of no interest

France 

14.6.16

P. of no interest

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the weather at Easter, as if usually turn out wet, but

even a wet Easter at home would do me after the slime

mud & slush of this place. It has been raining for

about four days now, & they call their summer I don't

know what winter is like. So Bob has at last been on

final leave, but very likely he will have a few

more final leaves before he really gets away, as

Charlie McLean & Will D'Alton were treated. It

seems pretty hard to get away now, attached definitely

to any battalion. - It is best to come as we did

work a definite battalion, a chap always has a 

much better time & gets to know all the men

properly, not only by name.

So Bert Corr has at last been

snared - I thought he was past catching - I knew the

Stewarts of Black Street pretty well & have an idea

that he was "tracking square" before I left.

We are again in the firing line but

are in a rather quiet spot, but the weather we have

been having of late has been simply rotten, rain, rain

slime, slush & muck all round. It is a terribly hard

job to keep clean. There are multitudes of rats

about. I have never seen such specimens before. We

amuse ourselves in the evening by having revolver shots

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at them, but it is terribly annoying when you have a

shot at one & he only stands & looks at you. I was

walking along the other night & heard a crunch under

my feet, & when I looked down saw a big rat about the

size of a rabbit that I had trodden on - this is a fact

& just shows how thick they are. We had rather a

lively night last night - dozen of our big guns opened

fire about 11 oclock & the din was terrific - you have

no idea what an artillery duel sounds like - It was very

one sided, as the Germans scarcely replied; but later

on in the night they launched a gas attack about

3 miles on our left. However we scorn gas now, as we

have ample protection against it, as the helmets we

are issued with are absolutely proof against it. About

a week ago we went through a trench with gas in it,

over one hundred percent stronger than the Germans use,

& all it did was to rust the buckle on our tunics, &

discolored the decorations on our shoulders. Even the 

women & children in the towns & villages near the front have

always to carry gas helmets with them, & if they are

caught by any of the authorities without them are

liable to a heavy penalty. Whenever there is gas about

bells & gas horns for miles round are heard & they scream

a warning to prepare, & once we get the helmets on

well we can defy the gas.

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The Australian & New Zealand artillery

has been getting great praise for their accurate

shooting, & men from English batteries have been sent to

some of our batteries for coaching & finishing off, so that

is a bit of a tribute to pay us. Many a parapet I

have seen vanish before our deadly 18 pounder high

explosive shell; this gun is rekoned to be as effective

as the French 75, & everyone has heard about their

performance against the Huns at Verdun.

At this time of the year it is only dark

from about 10pm until 1.45am. As you can see we have

plenty of daylight. We usually allow every one to sleep

until about midday as we are all awake during the

hours of darkness, having to keep on the alert. We have

been getting some great news through about the Russians

lately - they do seem to be getting a move on, & I dont

think anything will now stop them as they have both

the numbers & munitions to force their way. When our big

push comes on it should not take long to finish things off.

Hec & Harold are both alright when I

saw them last & am going down to see them this afternoon if

I can get time - it is pretty hard to get away from our own

section when in the firing line as we are practically always

on duty.

I wrote toUncle last mail & was pleased

Rest of no interest

France, 25^th June 1916.

Dear Mother & Father,

As I have some of your letters

to acknowledge, somethings having gone wrong with

the postal blighters, who don't seem to care a ∼

you know what whether we get letters or not. Im afraid
this will be rather a feeble attempt at a letter as

I am no orator, & can no more give you much interesting

news than we can induce Fritz to put his head over

the parapet, & that is pretty hard to do.

This week my letter to you will be

a sort of double barrelled affair as I have written

to Auntie Alice today, & intend sending Wally a

card. In the middle of my letter to Auntie our

artillery started to squirt love letters at our friends

in the opposing trenches, & as I was in charge of the

Company for the day I had to get out and see that

everything was alright, besides which it is wonderfully

interesting to watch the effects of artillery fire on the

enemy trenches. The Australians must have a very

aggressive spirit for when the Englishmen were in this

particular part of the line, Englishmen themselves tell is

that scarcely a gun was fired on either side, but since we

came here our artillery is going day & night & it has now

developed into quite an interesting little corner, & I can