



Produced by Janet Kegg and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed
Proofreading Team







 [Illustration: CORPORAL HOLMES IN THE UNIFORM OF THE 22ND LONDON
 BATTALION, QUEEN'S ROYAL WEST SURREY REGIMENT, H.M. IMPERIAL ARMY.
 _Frontispiece_.]


A YANKEE IN THE TRENCHES

By

R. DERBY HOLMES

CORPORAL OF THE 22D LONDON BATTALION OF THE
QUEEN'S ROYAL WEST SURREY REGIMENT


_ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS_


BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1918



  Dedication

  TO MARION A. PUTTEE, SOUTHALL, MIDDLESEX,
  ENGLAND, I DEDICATE THIS BOOK AS A
  TOKEN OF APPRECIATION FOR ALL THE LOVING
  THOUGHTS AND DEEDS BESTOWED UPON ME
  WHEN I WAS A STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND




FOREWORD


I have tried as an American in writing this book to give the public
a complete view of the trenches and life on the Western Front as it
appeared to me, and also my impression of conditions and men as I
found them. It has been a pleasure to write it, and now that I have
finished I am genuinely sorry that I cannot go further. On the
lecture tour I find that people ask me questions, and I have tried
in this book to give in detail many things about the quieter side
of war that to an audience would seem too tame. I feel that the
public want to know how the soldiers live when not in the trenches,
for all the time out there is not spent in killing and carnage. As
in the case of all men in the trenches, I heard things and stories
that especially impressed me, so I have written them as hearsay,
not taking to myself credit as their originator. I trust that the
reader will find as much joy in the cockney character as I did and
which I have tried to show the public; let me say now that no finer
body of men than those Bermondsey boys of my battalion could be
found.

I think it fair to say that in compiling the trench terms at the
end of this book I have not copied any war book, but I have given
in each case my own version of the words, though I will confess
that the idea and necessity of having such a list sprang from
reading Sergeant Empey's "Over the Top." It would be impossible to
write a book that the people would understand without the aid of
such a glossary.

It is my sincere wish that after reading this book the reader may
have a clearer conception of what this great world war means and
what our soldiers are contending with, and that it may awaken the
American people to the danger of Prussianism so that when in the
future there is a call for funds for Liberty Loans, Red Cross work,
or Y.M.C.A., there will be no slacking, for they form the real
triangular sign to a successful termination of this terrible
conflict.

R. DERBY HOLMES.




       CONTENTS


       FOREWORD
     I JOINING THE BRITISH ARMY
    II GOING IN
   III A TRENCH RAID
    IV A FEW DAYS' REST IN BILLETS
     V FEEDING THE TOMMIES
    VI HIKING TO VIMY RIDGE
   VII FASCINATION OF PATROL WORK
  VIII ON THE GO
    IX FIRST SIGHT OF THE TANKS
     X FOLLOWING THE TANKS INTO BATTLE
    XI PRISONERS
   XII I BECOME A BOMBER
  XIII BACK ON THE SOMME AGAIN
   XIV THE LAST TIME OVER THE TOP
    XV BITS OF BLIGHTY
   XVI SUGGESTIONS FOR "SAMMY"
       GLOSSARY OF ARMY SLANG




  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


  Corporal Holmes in the Uniform of the 22nd London
    Battalion, Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment, H.M.
    Imperial Army  _Frontispiece_

  Reduced Facsimile of Discharge Certificate of Character

  A Heavy Howitzer, Under Camouflage

  Over the Top on a Raid

  Cooking Under Difficulties

  Head-on View of a British Tank

  Corporal Holmes with Staff Nurse and Another Patient, at
    Fulham Military Hospital, London, S.W.

  Corporal Holmes with Company Office Force, at Winchester,
    England, a Week Prior to Discharge





A YANKEE IN THE TRENCHES




CHAPTER I

JOINING THE BRITISH ARMY


Once, on the Somme in the fall of 1916, when I had been over the
top and was being carried back somewhat disfigured but still in the
ring, a cockney stretcher bearer shot this question at