Forget War Horse meet Charlie

We must not forget that the Pechot military railway system did not only affect human beings. He designed it from the first to do away with animal haulage. This was humane. Horses and other beasts of burden were usually issued with one-way tickets into war zones.  There are stories of dead horses used as blankets during Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. A horse expiring in the siege of Stalingrad hardly touched the frozen earth before a dozen hungry citizens were carving off horse-meat. To these sad stories have to be added the tales of the Western Front. The British and French kept cavalry behind the lines, awaiting the moment of the break-through. At the beginning of the war, especially behind British lines, horse power was used to lug supplies to the newly dug trenches. Poor horses!
In November 1915, my grand father went to the Front near Le Touret with the 222nd Field Company RE . It was very wet and he was not comfortable. In a letter to my grandmother, 12th December, he described his cheerless morning. 'A Bosche sniper heard me splashing along in 3ft of water in the front trenches. Every time I fell into a hole and got extra wet, I cursed and he fired, and made very good shooting too. But I was quite safe as I was in a trench' A couple of days later he added 'None of us are very bright at present. I have my fourth cold since I came outy, Cassells has a West Coast liver, Stevens is seedy and the Little Man (their Major) sits and mopes all day long'

Here is Charlie, looking wary, which is perhaps not surprising. Behind him, a bit out of focus, are the wagons used by the British Army up until mid 1916 to transport supplies up to the trenches, often under the most miserable conditions. Courtesy Jackson family

 At least they were alive! His letter continued by describing their latest return to the Front. ' We had a very funny march back up here. We found three inches (7.5cm) of water over the road, and as all these roads have deep six foot (180 cm wide) ditches on either side, they are pretty difficult. If you drive a little out of the straight, you disappear, wagon and all. We dropped two wagons and a corporal into a ditch but pulled them all out again without mishap. Tomlinson's company which went through in the dark left half their wagons there all night. We have not drowned anybody yet, but a lot of drowned horses are lying about the roads. I don't suppose you can conceive what this countryside is like in parts. Where we were, 1000 yards an hour was jolly good going. and one had probably been down on one's nose three times before the hour was up. Of course that is by night. Walking 1000 yards by day is not encouraged. The Bosche is great believer in flares and sends one up every five minutes to keep his spirits up. At first one hates them but after a bit ones one comes to regard them as a blessing as one can get one's bearings by them'

Here are Charlie and my grandpa.

That winter, he met Charlie the horse. By March they had got to know each other quite well. He wrote to my grandmother. 'March 9th 1916. A beautiful frosty morning, and I am feeling quite jovial which is a new thing for me. I was very late up for the last two nights and am in late tonight as I had to go up to the 212th (the sister Company) to arrange about a working party. I had a slight disagreement with Charlie on the way. Charlie said that "by the rules of his Trade Union an eight hour day was long enough" Our argument lasted some considerable time but in the end I persuaded him.
You wouldn't know him these days. He has had his hair cut and is awfully pleased with himself'

This is an Artillerie 88 wagon as used by the French. It runs on bogies, so that the long overall length of the wagon does not matter. It has a well to keep the centre of gravity low and for ease of loading and unloading, the stanchions can be removed. Its capacity is 5.5 tonnes of compressed hay; animal forage was an important item of freight. Courtesy Raymond PECHOT

 Fortunately for all the Charlies, the British Front were about to learn what the French and Germans already knew. Even as man and horse were having their disagreement about the proper length for a working day, some of the British took over a section of front-line from the French 10th Army. This had three 60cm gauge railway lines which included Artillerie 88 rolling stock and the new lighter Decauville 1915 wagons. Even the 'top brass' realised that what the French had was useful. A railway line doesn't stray into a ditch, even in the dark or wet. A train requires a fraction of the man-power needed by a wagon train. From Charlie's point of view, such trains were of interest because a serious quota of all wagons carried forage. Best of all, for the few, the fortunate few, some mechanical tractors scrounged, stolen or improvised, and the horses could wait peacefully at the rear of the lines..