World War I

My Grandpa Fred Woodmansey served in the Territorial Army of England during World War I.  He signed up for a five year enlistment or the duration of the war.  It turned out to be a week's difference.  The territorial army is like the National Guard in the United States.  He was very young.   Of the five years he served, 3.5 years were in the trenches in France.  He hated the British officers, as they didn't treat their men very well.  With all the deaths on the front line, time and time again he had the chance to become an NCO or officer, but he refused.

After a year in the trenches, he refused to make friends, because everyone in his platoon would be killed and he was the only one to survive.  It hurt him to the bone that his friends were killed.  His secondary skill was that of a mule tender.   He always said that mules were smart.  You took care of the mule, they took care of you.  But if you abused a mule, they remembered, and they would get their revenge.

One story that Fred told was that as a private training in England, they were housed with a family (unlike America, there was no constitutional prohibition from quartering troops with the populace).  The woman of the house would cook breakfast for the men and she would say:  "Eat hearty boys, there is more in the pantry."  But in reality, she didn't cook much.  One day, one of the privates said:  "Well, mum, I wish you would cook some more up."  The families resented having to house soldiers and didn't feel like they got paid enough, so of course, the soldiers didn't get any extra food.

The officers were given strawberry jam with their breakfast and enlisted were given orange marmalade while on the front lines.  Grandpa Fred never would eat marmalade after the war.

One story was that in the middle of the night, Grandpa Fred and another soldier were bringing supplies back to the front lines.  Grandpa Fred drove the wagon with mule beyond their front lines by accident.  Grandpa Fred heard German voices in the pitch dark.  Grandpa Fred turned the the cart around and headed back to their lines.   The Germans heard the noise and opened fire.  In the haste to escape, the mule got tangled up in barbed wire.  The other man fled back to the English position, but Grandpa Fred got down and untangled the wire from the mule.  He then went back to his lines and as he was crossing safely into his lines, he heard:  "Yorkie, is that you?  We heard you was dead!"  Fred had some choice words for the sentry that let him accidentally go through the front lines.  An officer came up and asked: "Is the mule ok?"  To the British officers, mules were more valuable then the enlisted soldiers.

Grandpa Fred was shot in the leg two days before the end of the war.  He spent 9 months in a hospital in Scotland.