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Chapter XXVI Of a Summer in Picardy That was Quieter Than It Might Have Been

—T. P. Cameron Wilson.

Throughout the months of April, May, June and July the New Zealand Division held the line on the sector from Auchonvillers to Rossignol Wood. During this time extremely heavy fighting took place round Armentières in the north and Rheims in the south. The enemy drove deep salients in our line, but always they were stopped just short of victory. The New Zealanders would probably have been withdrawn and flung into one of these great battles but for the fact that a renewed German offensive was continually threatened against Amiens. Unexpected successes, however, elsewhere opened up new and dazzling possibilities to them and they diverged from what was perhaps their true line of strategy. Still, on more than one occasion, attacks were expected and all were in constant readiness for an enemy move.

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There was New Zealand leave now, "tour of duty," for Main Body men and the early reinforcements. Some took advantage of it; others refused and carried on. "Old soldiers never die, they only fade away" is not true of good soldiers; but only of those who, having by good fortune come through terrible times, secretly determined to take opportunity as it presents itself and to slip inconspicuously into the various "safe" jobs on the lines of communication, in base camps, canteens, as drill instructors, clerks, as specialists in technical lines, or even as military policemen.

One does not wish to blame them. Life is sweet to us all and death very strange and dreadful at a time when body, mind and soul are calling for adventure, expression and experience. Men, not seldom, were able to determine their own fate within certain limits. Probably there were few men who were so fortunate as to survive six months of frontline service who did not have some chance of at least greatly lengthening the time they were away from the trenches. A wound that took a man to England, a call for experts, sometimes a school; indeed numberless opportunities arose by means of which men could go back and stay back. Of course these "cushy" jobs did not always last. One remembers the state of angry exasperation in which numbers of "dugouts" came back to France when, after the German offensive, the base camps were combed out and men who had been away for two years got what they deemed to be a resurrection back to hell.

Sometimes, too, paradoxical as it may seem, men page 278who were anxious to be as forward as they could be had the utmost difficulty in getting up into the fighting zone. One man who was in nearly every great battle in which the division fought should really have been in two only, but by argument, bluff, and even straight out disobedience to orders he managed to thrust his way in.

The army machine worked blindly and somewhat haphazardly, but left to its own volition it tended to throw men up into the furnace and to keep them there until they became casualties or managed to "wangle" back. At the front Death swung a great scythe. He came to the brave man and to the coward alike. Sometimes he reaped his harvest in wide swathes and at others he took men one by one as a gleaner picks ears of wheat. But always it was the best and bravest who were most like to meet the dread reaper. Among the old Main Body and the early reinforcements there was a minority of great-hearted men who had refused every opportunity of leaving their units, and who when wounded had taken the first chance of rejoining. Some survived for a year and were then killed; some by extraordinary good fortune went yet a second year; a small band by some miracle were still fighting at the end of the third. They were marked men about whom gathered a tradition as of older times. They were living symbols of the terror and tragedy and triumph of tremendous years. In most of the battalions there were at this time a very few, one could count them usually on the fingers of one hand, who had been present at the Landing and who had re-page 279mained great-hearted volunteers ever since. Perhaps it was because they were now so few that when one fell his death was a notable thing. During the months on the Somme and in the advance this remnant almost vanished. The good soldiers did not fade away. They died one by one—sometimes by chance shots, sometimes in the heat of a great attack, but nearly all died.

In the waste of war the valour of such men is the one availing thing. For the most part they left no heirs of their flesh, but it may be that there is a procession from them to men of another generation. In the Pilgrim's Progress we read that when Mr Valiant-for-the-Truth came to the river he gave his sword to whosoever should come after him and his courage and skill to those who could catch them. If anything is to come to us of New Zealand from the years of bloody ruin, it can only be because we catch something of the marvellous valour and steadfastness and devotion to a high ideal of conduct that led men in however mistaken a cause to keep rendezvous with Death at a hundred disputed barricades.

The country-side of Picardy and Artois was different altogether from that around Armentières and Ypres. Instead of level flats stretching mile after mile there were here rolling hills with beautiful valleys in between. Stretches of grassland were broken by fields of wheat and frequent patches of pleasant woodland. From Hébuterne which remained roughly the central point in the line the road ran back to Sailly-au-Bois which, before the war, must have been a pleasant place nestling amongst its page 280hedgerows and trees. From here it continued down a long valley past Rossignol Farm, Coigneux, and Couin, and so to St Léger. Authie, a considerable village, with a fine chateau in the middle of it, was a kilometre farther on. Farther down still was Orville, and then Doullens, which, without being of any considerable size, had yet sufficient attractions to justify a visit when funds were available and a day's leave forthcoming. As one faced the front line, Marieux Wood, Louvencourt, Bertrancourt, Bus, Courcelles and Colincamps were all on the righthand side of the road from Doullens to Hébuterne, while on the left were Pas, Hénu, Souastre, Foncquevillers, and finally, right on the line, Gommécourt. The entrenching battalions encamped in the beautiful wood at Pas, and as all reinforcements and wounded who were returning passed through here there were many visitors who came for news of home or news of old friends. Authie itself was the social centre of the division. There was a large Y.M.C.A., a number of excellent estaminets, and also a first-class natural amphitheatre which served excellently for the numerous concerts given by one or other of the divisional troupes.

There were various social functions; brigade horse shows and transports competitions; and finally a divisional show and sports, which was very largely attended by civilians and some New Zealand nurses, who lent a bright touch of colour to the mass of khaki-clad men. Not the least interested spectator Was an enemy airman who flew leisurely over and page 281took stock of proceedings. Somebody evidently disturbed his peace of mind by shooting upon him with an anti-aircraft gun. Not long afterwards, and probably at his instigation, a big gun commenced to shell the area of the sports ground, and as the programme was almost over, the majority took the hint and went home. There was much debating also, and regular competitions were arranged between the battalions that were out of the lines. Out in the open air hundreds of men assembled on occasions to hear discussed such subjects as, "Is a League of Nations Desirable?" In some divisions such subjects would have probably been censored, but General Russell, a man of culture and wide reading, and of broad mind, was willing that his men also should think. By this time, too, a divisional reference library had been formed where men were able to do serious reading and borrow first-class books, especially such as related to social, political, and international problems that were being raised by the world war. From the groups of keen thinkers who gathered round the library and who took part in the Y.M.C.A. debates came the idea of the education scheme that gradually assumed such proportions during demobilization. Several very distinguished scholars, among them Dr Holland Rose, of Cambridge, delivered lectures that were greatly appreciated by many of the men. A first-class man lecturing seriously on a serious subject could always get a large and attentive audience.

It was here that Mr Massey and Sir Joseph Ward took the opportunity of visiting the men in the field.

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Their first appearance was at the pierrot show in the open-air theatre at Authie. It was perhaps regrettable but nevertheless a fact that the politicians were not taken very seriously, and were regarded more in the light of an extra humorous turn than anything else. Something of the same sort happened a few days later at a church parade. The politicians were not of course allowed to preach and so enliven the proceedings a little, but were given an opportunity after the service. The congregation became somewhat ribald. There was a considerable body of opinion that New Zealand was something finer than her political representatives. The men in the field felt that New Zealand was more than a geographical expression, and that they were more truly representative of their people than the politicians of a generation that was dead, but which, in the rush of war, there had not been time to bury. If the men of the Expeditionary Force had been given representation at Versailles their choice would have fallen on neither of the politicians but upon either General Russell, one of the Y.M.C.A. secretaries, or quite possibly some private soldier from the ranks. There was a tremendously deep-seated pride in the New Zealand name, and a deep desire that the nation should be worthily represented. Small people as we were, our name stood very high and if we had been able to send the equivalent of General Smuts to the Peace Conference our part there would not have been a negligible one.

The mention of church parades brings up the exceedingly interesting question of religion insofar page 283as it affected the lives of men in the army. In ordinary times probably only a minority of men had displayed any great concern with regard to religion. They were not antagonistic, but they were certainly indifferent and careless. The habits of the majority were of course influenced by the ethical teachings of the Christian faith, which, in the course of 1500 years, had done much to leaven the thinking of the race. But these habits had been formed within a complex of social relationships which was with great suddenness, temporarily at least, swept away. The result naturally enough was that men who were without any very strong religious convictions threw restraint aside and exercised considerable licence in their manner of life. "Our armies in Flanders" have always sworn lustily, gambled heavily, drunk deeply, and associated with bad or reckless women. These doings have left deep scars.

The army, however, is a department of State, and the State as such has always paid homage to Almighty God. And so from the time of Constantine there has been observable in the army of every state in Christendom a strange phenomenon—the army chaplain. He has usually been a commissioned officer attached for discipline, pay and rations. His business is to pray for victory and to pay attention to the minor morals of the men. He has been sometimes an heroic but more often rather a lonely and pathetic figure. Heroic because, after all, war is from one angle so utterly Christian. The true business of a soldier, Ruskin says, is on due occasion to die for his country. Sacrifice is funda-page 284mental in the whole conception of the Christian religion. When utterly true to itself its method has always been that of the Cross. An appeal then to die for one's country, for some lofty ideal, or for the welfare of the world, calls out an immediate response from all Christian hearts. In modern war there is seldom much visible killing, but a tremendous deal of being killed, and, in consequence, it was not difficult for many high-souled men to shut their eyes to the fact that the whole movement of the war machine was to slay and not to be slain. Hence they were able to fling themselves into the furnace with a very splendid forgetfulness of self and their living and their dying counted for much.

Yet the padres were pathetic figures! They had to conduct church parades and most of them were very anxious to do so. It was such a wonderful opportunity to preach to perhaps a thousand—men! They had never had such congregations before—so quiet and orderly, too! So the brass bands droned out "Onward, Christian Soldiers" or "Fight the Good Fight" and the men listened in dour silence. And after this the padre told them how naught]/ it was to swear.

When the service was over they went back blaspheming at the system that compelled a man to be religious by numbers or go on cooks' fatigue. The average man was utterly disgusted with these parades and from the point of view of real religion they did untold harm. He felt, too, although he could not give articulate expression to his thoughts perhaps, that there was a deep underlying contra-page 285diction between the teachings of Jesus Christ and participation in a world war. What was the use of a Church in which one part was continually praying against the other for victory? The Church should be leading us out of the mess, not helping to thrust us more deeply into the bloody mire. And there was the poor padre, a man in chains! He could talk about swearing, with Europe rocking to its foundations, but he couldn't say much about loving one's enemy or turning the other cheek or praying for those who despitefully used us; and he couldn't preach that the Boche was our brother. He was in an impossible position and it is not to be wondered at that the official organization of religion was an utter and complete failure.

Nearly all the padres were good men. Their private lives were for the most part unimpeachable. A few were saints and some were heroes. Nearly all were anxious to do what they could to bring comfort and cheer to their men. So they went round with cigarettes and buckshee stuff. Some were popular and most were respected fairly well, but there was always the barrier of rank which many never managed to surmount. They always had a tendency to be obsessed with the fact that they were army officers and not primarily "men of God." Whether as chairman of the unprintable sex lectures delivered at Sling by an expert with a mind like a sewer, or as the central figure in the ceremonial church parade, or on the battlefield itself, they tended to become ineffective. They had become page 286part of a machine the natural operation of which blocked and thwarted them in the performance of their real functions. They cannot be blamed as individuals or even as a class.

The trouble went far back into history to the fatal compromise made by the persecuted but vietorious Church with pagan Rome. The Church will never speak with full authority until she ceases to be a subservient body, and realizes that her mission is, not to support tottering social systems inherited from old hard paganisms but, to lead the world to new conceptions of brotherhood and peace.

Despite the failure on the official side, religion did not entirely disappear. Before the first sailing from Egypt a group of men gathered frequently in the Y.M.C.A. at Zeitoun. Sadly depleted, they maintained a precarious footing at Anzac to revive strongly again on a bleak hillside at Lemnos and to grow again during the reorganization at Moascar. There were not many left after the first Somme, but in the training period before Messines they formed a divisional organization and established groups in many units. The new movement was called the "Brotherhood of Men of Goodwill." At Messines many were killed and wounded; during the spell it gathered impetus, but was nearly shot to pieces at Passchendaele; and yet it grew again in ' numbers and in influence until at Authie representatives of every unit in the division gathered together in the large upper room of the big estaminet. All the denominations were represented from Roman page 287Catholic to Brethren. It was a truly remarkable gathering of catholic Christianity. So men must have gathered in the breathing spaces between persecutions during the first three centuries and so probably will the whole Church come together in the midst of the tremendous perplexities and persecutions of the generation that is to come. But even as the men knelt to receive the Sacrament the windows rattled and the house shook as great pieces of cannon rumbled along the main road toward the fighting front. From this time on the Brotherhood grew and grew. It was the reintegration of the Christian Church. There was among the members intense interest in the teachings of Jesus, especially as these applied to the social, economic and international problems that were then commencing to loom large on the horizons of world thought. What would have been the result if the war had gone on for another eighteen months it is hard to say. Very many of the leaders of the Brotherhood turned Christian Pacifist afterwards. The integration of a Church might and indeed probably would in the long run have commenced the disintegration of the division.

The weeks passed without any great excitements beyond the normal trench spells and a great deal of work in preparing the new defensive systems of the Purple and Red Lines. The influenza epidemic swept across No Man's Land. Commencing in the east and centre of Europe, among populations whose resisting power had been lowered by the food scarcity and page 288lack of drugs, it had swept across Germany and so to France. Very many men went down with it, but in the pleasant weather and among men so physically fit, there were few serious cases. For the majority an attack meant nothing more than a few days' spell in the lovely wood at Marieux. Morale was excellent.