Trenches

Heroes Remember

Trenches

Transcript

Life in the trenches was bad. It was a, it didn`t, it didn`t matter whether it was a fine day or a warm day, cold day. Conditions were bad. If it was a hot day, you were down in the trenches. You couldn`t get up top get a breath of air. The sun was beating down on you, cooking you. If it was raining, you just stayed there and took it. It didn`t matter whether it was a fine day or a bad day, you still had it tough in the trench. Interviewer: What about health conditions? (Which?) Health conditions. The things you could stand up against is fairly good. Not too much sickness in it. Interviewer: We often hear now about lice and rats. Oh, yes, there were a lot of rats and lice. I was there about three weeks, I think it was, and I took a rash around my waist and I went to the doctor and he said, "You have scabies so I'll send you to the hospital". So I guess I went to the hospital there and the doctor said, the hospital doctor looked at it and he said, "You haven't got scabies, you're allergic to lice" he says. "All's you need is a bath, and a clean change of clothes". He give me that and sent me back to my unit. Interviewer: How often would you be able to have a bath in the front? That's the only bath I had until I was in the Engineers. Interviewer: How long would you normally be as an infantryman, how long would you normally be in the front trenches before you would be relieved. There was really, there was really no set time. It was more or less dependant on conditions. You didn't, you didn't have no bath until you were relieved from the trenches and went back for a rest, is when you get your bath and change of clothes. And while you stayed in your trenches, you were lucky if you get water enough to drink. Interviewer: And this would be brought up, the food and water would be brought up by field. It was brought up by horses and then carried from there by men. Interviewer: So some of the men in the trenches would be detailed to go back and bring the food forward? Sometimes, and sometimes it was brought in by other men that, say that worked around the kitchen and that. Interviewer: While you were in the infantry, did your unit come in, come in to, come under attack? Did your unit come under attack while you were in the infantry? No, no things seemed to be fairly quiet there. Interviewer: Were there trench raids back and forth? Back and forth, only really small raids, just a few, matter of a few men is what I mean. There was no real attack while I was in the trenches. Interviewer: These trench raids, what was the purpose of them? It was to get information. Interviewer: And how deep would these raids go? Only perhaps just go to the front line. Just pick up a man if you could get him, find out something and go back. Interviewer: In the construction unit that you were in , the Engineers, when you were constructing trenches, would this be, would you be reconstructing trenches that had been damaged by shellfire? That's what our work was. We didn't dig any new trenches. That was left to the infantry and that. But if a shell would land in the trench and blow it out we'd go up and repair that so they could use it again and the trench would follow right along, you know. The trench would, open it up and you couldn't go from one one part to the other. And we'd repair the damage back in the condition it was before. Interviewer: How wide would the trench be, normally? Oh, it was about two feet wide at the bottom and about four feet wide at the top. Interviewer: Were there, was there a step? A firing step. It was up about two feet high. Interviewer: The firing step was up about two feet high. Yes, and then you'd step off that down on to the communication part of it to walk along. That would be deep enough so that your head would be down below the surface of the ground. If you showed your head above the ground, a sniper would get you. Interviewer: So if you were going over the top to attack, you would step up on the firing... On the firing line and then go up over the top of it. Interviewer: The trenches that would be running parallel with the German trenches, how would, how would you connect back to the rear area from your forward trench? What they called a communication trench. It was just a narrow trench that you'd walk along and it zig-zagged you know so they couldn't get a straight line of fire on anybody coming up. You'd be walking this way for awhile and then you'd walk over again. Interviewer: And it would be five feet deep or six feet deep as well? It would, yes, so that your head would be underground. Interviewer: So to bring food forward, would the men have to bring the food forward through that communication trench? Yes, oh you couldn't, you couldn't, you get out out in the open there, there'd be a sniper right there waiting for you. Interviewer: How far apart were our trenches from the German trenches usually? Oh, they varied. There was no set, no set pattern. Interviewer: How close, are you aware of how close they could be? Well, I don't know, where I was I suppose it'd be perhaps three or four hundred yards apart, perhaps more. Interviewer: They could come closer than that, I take it. Oh, yes they could come closer. Interviewer: The tunneller sometimes tunnelled under (Blow, blow the trench up ). Was that kind of work done by sappers? Ya, a lot of it. But you had to be fairly close or that wouldn't pay, you know. There'd be so much clay going out that they'd know that something was going on. Interviewer: Would that be part of your job, to get rid of the dirt and clay? I never dug a tunnel. (Ok) Interviewer: There were no sheds or buildings anywhere near the front that you'd be involved in repairing or maintaining? (No) Anybody that was wounded or (were carried back) carried back, how far back would you have to go before it was relatively safe from artillery? They carried them back beyond shell fire, is where the hospitals were. Interviewer: Would that be a mile or more? About that, yes, or more.

Description

Mr. Lidstone gives a good account of life at the front in the trenches of France during the latter part of the First World War, followed by the war's ending.

Harold Lidstone

Harold Lidstone was born in Waltham, Massachusetts on March 4, 1896. He moved, with his family, to Prince Edward Island around 1905 where his father began a farm operation at Mount Royal, PEI. At the age of 19, Mr. Lidstone went to Summerside to enlist in the Canadian Army, joining the 82nd Battalion which became the 105th Battalion comprised entirely of men from Prince Edward Island.

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