The stormy weather of the previous twenty-four hours continued
during the day.
Maj. Edward Borrow (see 22nd August), reflected
on the appalling conditions created by the constant rain in a letter home to
his wife (I am very grateful to Dr.
Bendor Grosvenor for lowing me access to Maj. Borrow's letters),
“… we’ve had marches and counter marches through pouring,
drenching rain and this is August! The ground is appalling. I walked about
eight miles yesterday and felt done when I got back, and the last mile of it I
rode too – on a light railway which happened to be laid in the right direction
for me. We use them for bringing up heavy artillery ammunition and stores of
all kinds. I had been reconnoitring through country where we lived in trenches
last winter. They were trenches then but now they are only shell holes and
ditches. Deep dugouts that last year, last February, last March even, held
whole Companies of men, were now full of water. The tide of battle had moved on
and nobody had had time to keep these places pumped out and in repair. And then
I saw tanks lying derelict – come to grief in a marshy bit of ground. Some hit
by a shell perhaps and all that I saw were behind our old front line,
telling their own stories of failure to get into action. Each of them telling
too their own stories of the poignant grief and disgust of their individual
crew at their own failure. I thought once of joining the tanks and had dreams
of leading battalions of infantry with my rolling ship ploughing through Bosch
wire, crushing enemy dugouts, pursuing flying, shrieking Bosch. But, as
everyone else at that time had the same desire, I thought it was up to me to
stay with the battalion – with what result you know! … The weather is the main
trouble – it’s impossible for war – and yet we must keep pushing the Bosch back”.
 |
| Maj. Edward Borrow |
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