Speaker 1: Chapter seven of the British Army from Within by E.
Speaker 1: Charles Vivian. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
Speaker 1: Chapter seven in Camp. In going to camp, transferring from
Speaker 1: the solid shelter of barracks to the more doubtful comfort
Speaker 1: of crowding under a canvas roof, the soldier feels that
Speaker 1: he is getting somewhere near the conditions under which he
Speaker 1: will be placed on active service. The pitching of camp,
Speaker 1: especially by an infantry battalion, is a parade movement, and
Speaker 1: as such is an interesting business. It begins with the
Speaker 1: laying out of the tents in their bags and the
Speaker 1: tent poles beside them, near the positions which the erected
Speaker 1: tents will occupy. The bags are emptied of their contents,
Speaker 1: men are told off to poles, guy ropes, mallets and pegs.
Speaker 1: The tents are fully unfolded, and at a given word
Speaker 1: of command, every tent goes up to be pegged into place.
Speaker 1: In the shortest possible space of time, at the beginning
Speaker 1: of a given ten minutes, there will be lying on
Speaker 1: otherwise unoccupied ground rows of bags and poles. At the
Speaker 1: end of that same ten minutes, a canvas town is
Speaker 1: in being, and the men who are to occupy that
Speaker 1: town are thinking of fetching in their kits. Under ordinary circumstances,
Speaker 1: from four to eight men are told off to occupy
Speaker 1: each tent, but on maneuvers and on active service, these
Speaker 1: numbers are exceeded more often than not. During the South
Speaker 1: African War, the present writer once had the doubtful pleasure
Speaker 1: of being the twenty fourth man in an ordinary military
Speaker 1: bell tent. The next night, and thereafter, wet or fine,
Speaker 1: half the men allotted to that tent made a point
Speaker 1: of sleeping in the open air. It was preferable. Life
Speaker 1: in camp is an enjoyable business so long as the
Speaker 1: weather continues fine and not too boisterous. Discipline is relaxed
Speaker 1: to a certain extent, while under canvas, open air life
Speaker 1: renders the appetite keener, and one's enjoyment of life is
Speaker 1: more thorough than is the case in barracks. Wet weather, however,
Speaker 1: changes all this. The luxury of floor boards is a
Speaker 1: rare one, even in a standing camp, and no matter
Speaker 1: what one may do in the way of digging trenches
Speaker 1: round the tent and draining off surplus water by all
Speaker 1: possible means, a moist unpleasantness renders life a burden and
Speaker 1: causes equipment and arms to need about twice as much
Speaker 1: cleaning as under normal circumstances. Camp life breeds yarns unending,
Speaker 1: and in wet weather or in the hours after dark,
Speaker 1: men sit and tell hearsuit chestnuts to each other for
Speaker 1: lack of better occupation. If the weather is fine. There
Speaker 1: are plenty of varieties of sport, including the ubiquitous football,
Speaker 1: to occupy spare moments, but yarns and tobacco form the
Speaker 1: principal solace of ours, which cannot be filled in more
Speaker 1: active ways. There is one yarn, which, like all yarns,
Speaker 1: as the merit of being perfectly true, but unlike most,
Speaker 1: is not nearly so well known as it ought to be.
Speaker 1: It concerns a cavalry regiment which settled down for a
Speaker 1: brief space at Potchestroom after the signing of peace in
Speaker 1: South Africa. Some months previous to the signing of peace,
Speaker 1: a certain lieutenant of this regiment, known to his men
Speaker 1: and his fellow officers as Bolgie, became possessed of a
Speaker 1: young baboon which grew and throve exceedingly at the end
Speaker 1: of a stout chain that secured the captive to one
Speaker 1: of the transport wagons of the regiment. Bolgie's servant was
Speaker 1: entrusted with the care of the monkey, which, after the
Speaker 1: manner of baboons, was a competent thief from infancy and
Speaker 1: inclined to be savage if thwarted. On one occasion in particular,
Speaker 1: Bolgie's monkey got loose and got at the officer's mess wagon.
Speaker 1: It had a good feed of biscuits and other delicacies,
Speaker 1: and retired at length, followed by the mess caterer, who
Speaker 1: exposed postulated violently both with Bulgie's servant and with Bulgie's monkey,
Speaker 1: until a tin of ox tongues skillfully aimed by the
Speaker 1: monkey caught him below the belt and winded him. After that,
Speaker 1: as brett Hart says, the subsequent proceedings interested him no
Speaker 1: more well. The regiment arrived at Ponchestroom and settled down
Speaker 1: under canvas, with an average of eight men to a tent,
Speaker 1: and the horse lines of each troop placed at right
Speaker 1: angles to the lines of tents. Bulge's monkey was given
Speaker 1: a place away on the outside of the lines, with
Speaker 1: the other end of his chain attached to a tree
Speaker 1: stump and there for a time he rested, fed sparingly,
Speaker 1: and abused plentifully by Bulgie's servant. In the regiment itself.
Speaker 1: Money was plentiful at the time, and it was the
Speaker 1: custom in the tents which housed drinking men for the
Speaker 1: eight tent mates to get in a can of beer
Speaker 1: before the canteen closed. Over the beer, they would sit
Speaker 1: and yarn and play cards until bill lights out sounded.
Speaker 1: One night, eight men sat around their can of beer
Speaker 1: in a tent of a squadron to which, by the way,
Speaker 1: Bulgey belonged. These eight had nearly reached the bottom of
Speaker 1: the can. They had blown out all the candles in
Speaker 1: the tent, save one, which would remain for illumination until
Speaker 1: lights out sounded. The last man to unroll his blankets
Speaker 1: and get to bed had just finished and was sitting
Speaker 1: up in order to blow out the last remaining candle
Speaker 1: when the flap of the tent was raised from the back,
Speaker 1: and a hairy, grinning, evil face which might have been
Speaker 1: that of the devil himself, looked in on the sleepy warriors. They,
Speaker 1: for their part, were too startled to investigate the occurrence,
Speaker 1: and the sight of that face prevented them from stopping
Speaker 1: to unfasten the tent flap in order to get out,
Speaker 1: they simply went out under the flies. Anyhow, one man
Speaker 1: tried to climb the tent pole, possibly with a vague
Speaker 1: idea of getting out through the ventilating hole at the top,
Speaker 1: but he finally went out under the fly of the
Speaker 1: tent like the rest, taking with him the sting of
Speaker 1: a vicious swack, which the hairy devil aimed at him
Speaker 1: with a chain that it carried. While these eight men
Speaker 1: were fleeing through the night, the devil with a chain
Speaker 1: came out from the tent, and, seeing a line of
Speaker 1: startled horses before it, leaped upon the back of the
Speaker 1: nearest horse, gave the animal a thundering blow with its chain,
Speaker 1: and hopped lightly on to the back of the next
Speaker 1: horse in the row, repeating the performance. There In almost
Speaker 1: as little time as it takes to tell, a squadron
Speaker 1: of stampeding horses followed the eight men of the tent
Speaker 1: on their journey toward the skyline, and in the black
Speaker 1: and windy dark, the remaining men of a squadron turned
Speaker 1: out to fetch their terrified horses back to camp, and
Speaker 1: when they knew the cause of the disturbance to curse
Speaker 1: Bulgi's monkey even more fervently than Bulgi's servant had cursed it.
Speaker 1: The end of it all was that eight men of
Speaker 1: a squadron signed the pledge, and Bulgy left off keeping
Speaker 1: the monkey. It was too expensive a form of amusement.
Speaker 1: This is a typical camp yarn, and a military camp
Speaker 1: is full of yarns, some better than this and some worse.
Speaker 1: In camp, more than anywhere else, the soldier learns to
Speaker 1: be handy. The South African War taught men to kill
Speaker 1: and cut up their own meat, to make a cooking
Speaker 1: fire out of nothing, to cook for themselves, to wash up,
Speaker 1: though most of them had learned this in barracks, to
Speaker 1: wash their own underclothing, darn their own socks, and do
Speaker 1: all necessary mending to their clothes. It taught cavalrymen the
Speaker 1: value of a horse, in addition to giving them an
Speaker 1: insight to the foregoing list of accomplishments. It was, for
Speaker 1: the first year or so a strenuous business of fighting,
Speaker 1: but the last twelve months of the war consisted, for
Speaker 1: many men far more of marching and camp experience than
Speaker 1: actual war service. It was an ideal training school and
Speaker 1: gave an insight into camp life under the best possible circumstances.
Speaker 1: Its lessons were invaluable, and much of the practice of
Speaker 1: the army of today is derived from experience obtained during
Speaker 1: that campaign. One failing to which men, and especially young soldiers,
Speaker 1: are liable in camp life, consists in that when they
Speaker 1: return to camp thoroughly tired after a long day's maneuvering
Speaker 1: or marching, they will not take the trouble to cook
Speaker 1: and get ready for themselves the food without which they
Speaker 1: ought not to be allowed to retire to rest. In
Speaker 1: the French Army, officers make a point of urging their
Speaker 1: men to prepare food for themselves immediately on their return
Speaker 1: to camp, but in the English Army this matter is
Speaker 1: left to the discretion of the men themselves, with the
Speaker 1: result that many of them frequently go to bed for
Speaker 1: the night without being properly fed. This course, if persisted in,
Speaker 1: almost invariably leads to illness, and it is imported that
Speaker 1: men under canvas should be properly fed at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, as well as at the beginning and
Speaker 1: during the course of their work when under canvas in
Speaker 1: time of peace, the authorities of most units reduce their
Speaker 1: demands on their men in comparison with barrack life. It
Speaker 1: is generally understood that a man cannot turn out in
Speaker 1: review order or in burnish and fake with the restrictions
Speaker 1: of a canvas town about him. In some units, however,
Speaker 1: this point is not sufficiently considered, and as much is
Speaker 1: asked of men as when they have the convenience of
Speaker 1: barracks all about them. The result of this is sullenness
Speaker 1: and bad working on the part of the men. The
Speaker 1: short sightedness of officers leads them to press their demands
Speaker 1: while men are in a bad temper caused by too
Speaker 1: much being put upon them, and the final result is
Speaker 1: what is known technically in the army as an excess
Speaker 1: of crime. A string of men far in excess of
Speaker 1: the usual number is whe up in front of the
Speaker 1: company or commanding officer to be weighed off, and the
Speaker 1: number of men on defaulter's parade or undergoing punishment fatigues
Speaker 1: steadily increases. Although in theory the soldier has the right
Speaker 1: of complaint if he feels himself aggrieved to successive officers,
Speaker 1: even up to the general officer commanding the brigade or division.
Speaker 1: In which he is serving. In practice, he finds these
Speaker 1: complaints of so little real use to him that he
Speaker 1: expresses his discontent by means of incurring a crime, or
Speaker 1: in other words, of getting into trouble in some way.
Speaker 1: There is no accounting for this habit. It is the
Speaker 1: way of the soldier, and no further explanation can be given.
Speaker 1: Squadrons of cavalry have been known to cut all their
Speaker 1: saddlery to pieces, and companies of infantry to render their
Speaker 1: belts and equipment useless by way of expressing their discontent
Speaker 1: or disgust at undue, harshness, the relaxation of discipline, and
Speaker 1: the absence of barrack room. Soldiering, when under canvass is
Speaker 1: a privilege which the soldier values highly, and it ought
Speaker 1: not to be curtailed in any way. A pleasant form
Speaker 1: of camping, which many units on home service enjoy is
Speaker 1: the annual musketry camp. It happens often that there is
Speaker 1: no musketry range with inconvenient marching distance of the place
Speaker 1: in which a unit is stationed, and in that case
Speaker 1: the unit sends its men one or two companies or
Speaker 1: squadrons at a time to camp in the vicinity of
Speaker 1: the musketry range allotted to their use. The firing of
Speaker 1: the actual musketry course is in itself an interesting business,
Speaker 1: and it brings out a pleasant spirit of emulation among
Speaker 1: the men concerned. Keenness is always displayed in the attempt
Speaker 1: to attain the coveted score, which entitles a man to
Speaker 1: wear crossed guns on his sleep for the ensuing twelve
Speaker 1: months and proclaims him a marksman. In addition to this,
Speaker 1: there is the pleasant sense of freedom engendered by life
Speaker 1: under canvas and the access of health induced thereby. The soldier,
Speaker 1: in common with most healthy men, enjoys roughing it up
Speaker 1: to a point, and life in a musketry camp seldom
Speaker 1: takes him beyond the point at which enjoyment ceases. Infantry
Speaker 1: units serving in foreign and colonial stations are frequently split
Speaker 1: up into detachments, consisting of one or more companies and
Speaker 1: serving each at a different place. This detachment duty, as
Speaker 1: it is called, as often as not, involves life under canvas,
Speaker 1: and it may be understood that life under the tropical
Speaker 1: or subtropical conditions of foreign and colonial stations can be
Speaker 1: very pleasant thing. Here, as in home stations, sufficient work
Speaker 1: is provided to keep the soldier from over much meditation.
Speaker 1: Time is allowed, however, for sport and recreation, and even
Speaker 1: when thrown entirely on their own resources for amusement, troops
Speaker 1: are capable of making the time pass quickly and easily.
Speaker 1: While on the subject of camping, there is one more
Speaker 1: yarn of South Africa and the war which merits telling,
Speaker 1: although it only concerns a bad case of nerves. It
Speaker 1: happened during the last year of the war that a
Speaker 1: column crossed the Motor River from south to north, going
Speaker 1: in the direction of Brantford, and camp was pitched for
Speaker 1: the night just to the north of Glen Drift. At
Speaker 1: this point in its course, the Morter runs between steep
Speaker 1: cliff like banks, from which a belt of mimosa scrub
Speaker 1: stretches out for nearly a quarter of a mile on
Speaker 1: each side of the river. After camp had been pitched
Speaker 1: for the night, the sentries round about the camp were
Speaker 1: finally posted with a special view to guarding the drift.
Speaker 1: The northward front of the column and its flanks. Only
Speaker 1: two or three centuries, however, were considered necessary to protect
Speaker 1: the rear, which rested on the impenetrable belt of mimosa scrub.
Speaker 1: Along the river bank. One of these entries along the
Speaker 1: scrub came on duty at midnight, just after the moon
Speaker 1: had gone down. He took over from the sentry who
Speaker 1: preceded him on the post, and started to keep watch
Speaker 1: according to order, though in his particular position there was
Speaker 1: little enough to watch. Quite suddenly he grew terribly afraid,
Speaker 1: not with a natural kind of fear, but with a
Speaker 1: nightmarish kind of terror that children are known to experience
Speaker 1: in the dark. His reason told him that in the
Speaker 1: position that he occupied, there was nothing which could possibly
Speaker 1: harm him, for behind him was the bush through which
Speaker 1: a man could not even crawl, while before him on
Speaker 1: either side was the chain of centuries of which he
Speaker 1: formed a part, surrounding his sleeping comrades. His imagination, however,
Speaker 1: or possibly his instinct, insisted that something uncanny and evil
Speaker 1: was watching him from the darkness of the tangled mimosa bushes,
Speaker 1: and was waiting a chance to strike at him in
Speaker 1: some horrible fashion. He tried to shake off this childish fear,
Speaker 1: to assure himself that it could not possibly be other
Speaker 1: than a trick of nerves brought on by darkness and
Speaker 1: the need for keeping watch. When crash. Something struck him
Speaker 1: with tremendous force in the back and sent him forward
Speaker 1: on his face. Half stunned, he picked himself up from
Speaker 1: the ground, and the pain in his back was sufficient
Speaker 1: to assure him that he had not merely fallen asleep,
Speaker 1: and imagined the whole business. With his loaded rifle at
Speaker 1: the ready, he searched the edge of the mimosa bush
Speaker 1: as closely as he was able, but could discover nothing.
Speaker 1: He had an idea of communicating with his sentry next
Speaker 1: in a line to himself, but since there was no
Speaker 1: further disturbance and nothing to show, he decided to say nothing,
Speaker 1: but simply to stick to his post until the next
Speaker 1: relief came round. Suddenly, the uncanny sense of terror returned
Speaker 1: to him, intensified. He felt certain this time that the
Speaker 1: evie thing which had struck him before would strike again,
Speaker 1: and he felt certain that he was being watched by
Speaker 1: unseen eyes. He was new to the country as an irregular,
Speaker 1: He was new to military ways, and he promised himself
Speaker 1: that if he ever got safely home, he would not
Speaker 1: volunteer for active service again. The sense of something unseen
Speaker 1: and watching him grew, and with it grew also the
Speaker 1: nightmarish terror until he was actually afraid to move. Then,
Speaker 1: by means of the same mysterious agency, he was struck
Speaker 1: again to the ground, and this time he lay only
Speaker 1: partially conscious and quite helpless, until the reliefs came round.
Speaker 1: The sergeant in charge of the reliefs had an idea
Speaker 1: at first of making the man a close prisoners for
Speaker 1: lying down and sleeping at his post, but after a
Speaker 1: little investigation he changed his mind and sent one of
Speaker 1: his men for the doctor instead. The doctor announced, after
Speaker 1: examine nation that if the blow which felt the man
Speaker 1: had struck him a few inches higher up in the back,
Speaker 1: he would have not been alive to remember it, and
Speaker 1: the man himself was taken into hospital for a few
Speaker 1: days to recover from the injuries so mysteriously inflicted. In
Speaker 1: the morning, the column moved off on its way, and
Speaker 1: no satisfactory reason could be a deuce for the midnight occurrence.
Speaker 1: But residents in the district will tell you unto this
Speaker 1: day that one who has the patience to keep quiet
Speaker 1: and watch in the moonlight can see baboons come up
Speaker 1: from the mimosious shrub and amuse themselves by throwing clods
Speaker 1: of earth and rocks at each other. It is a
Speaker 1: good camp story, and I tell it as it was
Speaker 1: told to me, without vouching for its truth. Any man
Speaker 1: who cares to go into a military camp by permission
Speaker 1: of the officer commanding, of course, and has the tact
Speaker 1: and patience to win the confidence of the soldiers in
Speaker 1: the camp, can hear stories equally good, and plenty of them, for,
Speaker 1: as previously remarked, camp life breeds yarns. End of Chapter
Speaker 1: seven