A SOLDIER'S SKETCHES
UNDER FIRE
A PDF ebook of this illustrated book is available for ordering and download here
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A SOLDIER'S SKETCHES UNDER FIRE
By HAROLD HARVEY
LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & CO., LTD.
SLM & Co.
MDCCXCIV
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FORENOTE
A title such as "A Soldier's Sketches Under Fire" indicates at once the
nature, scope and limitations of this unpretentious volume of annotated
drawings to which it has been given.
Faked pictures of the war are plentiful. Sketches taken on the spot they
depict, sometimes by a hand that had momentarily laid down a rifle to take
them, and always by a draughtsman who drew in overt or covert peril of his
life, gain in verisimilitude what they must lose in elaboration or
embellishment; are the richer in their realism by reason of the absence of
the imaginary and the meretricious.
All that Mr. Harold Harvey drew he saw; but he saw much that he could not
draw. All sorts of exploits of which pictures that brilliantly
misrepresent them are easily concoctable were for him impossible subjects
for illustration. As he puts it himself, very modestly:
"There were many happenings—repulsions of sudden attacks, temporary
retirements, charges, and things of that sort that would have made capital
subjects, but of which my notebook holds no 'pictured presentment,'
because I was taking part in them."
He also remarks:
"Sketched in circumstances that certainly had their own disadvantages as
well as their special advantages, I present these drawings only for what
they are."
Just because they are what they are they are of enduring interest and
permanent value. They have the vividness of the actual, the convincing
touch of the true.
Mr. Harvey was among the very first to obey the call of "King and
Country," tarrying only, I believe, to finish his afterwards popular
poster of "A Pair of Silk Stockings" for the Criterion production. To join
the Colours as a private soldier, he left his colours as an artist,
throwing up an established and hardly-won position in the world of his
profession, into which—sent home shot and poisoned—he must now fight his
way back. His ante-war experiences of sojourn and travel in India, South
and East Africa, South America, Egypt and the Mediterranean should again
stand him in good stead, for the more an artist has learned the more
comprehensive his treasury of impressions and recollections; the more he
has seen the more he can show. To Mr. Harvey's studies of Egyptian life,
character and customs was undoubtedly attributable the success of his
"Market Scene in Cairo," exhibited in the Royal Academy of 1909. Purchased
by a French connoisseur, this picture brought its painter several special
commissions.
I venture to express the opinion that the simple, direct and soldierly
style in which Mr. Harold Harvey has written the notes that accompany his
illustrations will be appreciated. His reticence as regards his own
doings, the casual nature of his references—where they could not be
avoided—to his personal share in great achievements, manifest a spirit of
self-effacement that is characteristic of the men of the army in which he
fought; men whose like the world has never known.
Robert Overton.
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To
LADY ANGELA FORBES
Whose Work for Soldiers in France and at Home has been as untiring as it
has been unostentatious.
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CONTENTS
Forenote
ON THE WAY TO THE FRONT.
Chapter
I.— From Southampton to Malta
II.— From
Malta to Marseilles
III.— From
Marseilles to Armentières
AT THE FRONT.
Chapter
IV.— Some Sample Excitements of Life in the Trenches
V.— The
Lighter Side of Trench Life
VI.— The
"Make" of a British Trench
VII.— The
Ruse of a German Sniper
VIII.—
Three Death Traps
IX.—
German Beasts in a French Convent
X.—
Another Scene of Boche Brutality
XI.— The
Trick that Didn't Trick us
XII.— The
Barred Road to Calais
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SKETCHES
Private Harold Harvey Frontispiece
Aboard the
Transport
Bivouac at
Malta
Casement
Gardens, Malta Sergeants' Mess
Ordnance
Department, Malta
On the
Quayhead at Marseilles
Quayside,
Marseilles
Forty
Passengers in each Cattle Truck
A Wash and
a Wait
"Doomsday
Book": a French Lesson in a Cattle Truck
Lady
Angela Forbes's Soldiers' Home at Etaples
Road to
the Trenches
My
Sketch-Book Map: La Bassée-St. Julien
Outskirts
of a Village
My First
Sniping-Place
Captured
German Trench
The
Woodcutter's Hut
Typical
Figures and Figure-Heads
"Hammersmith Bridge"
"Dirty
Dick's"
"Entrenching" the Piano
"Seventy-Five Hotel"
Chicken
Farm
A French
Comrade-Comedian
A Trench
Sniper, Resting A Traverse
The
Birth-Place of a Song
Trench
Periscope in Use
"The White
Farm"
A German
Sniper's Nest
"Suicide
Bridge"
"Suicide
Signal Box"
A Ghastly
Promenade
The Hole
in the Wall
A Violated
Convent Where Germans Raped and Murdered
"The Black
Hole"
The Black
Tower Where the Trap was Set
"Golgotha"
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PART I.
ON THE WAY TO THE FRONT.
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A SOLDIER'S SKETCHES UNDER FIRE.
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INTRODUCTORY.
ON THE WAY TO THE FRONT.
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CHAPTER I.
From Southampton to Malta.
"On the outbreak of the war I joined the Royal Fusiliers, uninfluenced by
the appeal of wall-posters or the blandishments of a recruiting sergeant.
My former experience as a trooper in the Hertfordshire Yeomanry being
accounted unto me for military righteousness, I sailed with my regiment
from Southampton on September 3rd, 1914. We thought we were bound for
France direct, and only discovered on the passage that we were to be
landed, first, at Malta.
I think I know the reason why the short trip across Channel was avoided,
but, as it behoves me to be very careful about what I say on certain
points, I don't state it.
I show the fore part of the boat, the bows being visible in the distance.
The doorways on the right are those of the horse boxes, specially erected
on the deck. In fact, the whole liner, with the most creditable
completeness and celerity, had been specially fitted up for the use of the
troops, still retaining its crew of Lascars, who did the swabbing down and
rough work required.
My sketch shows a crane bringing up bales of fodder for the horses from
the hold, with two officers standing by to give orders.
We experienced some exciting incidents on the way out; for instance, in
the Bay we ran into a fog, and the order was given for all to stand by.
For the next two or three hours all were in doubt as to what might
happen—of course there was fear of torpedoes.
We heard in the distance several shots fired, presumably by the
battle-cruiser which was our escort. When the fog lifted, we could just
see the smoke lifting on the horizon of some enemy craft, which had been
chased off by our own warship. We again steamed ahead towards our
destination and were soon sailing into smooth and calm waters, the
temperature becoming quite genial and warm as we approached the Straits of
Gibraltar. As we passed through the Straits the message was signalled that
those two notorious vessels, the "Goeben" and the "Breslau," were roaming
loose in the Mediterranean..........."
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