WWI soldier's 90-year-old letter gives horrific account of Christmas in the trenches
13th December 2007
Daily Mail
A recently discovered letter sent by a First World War officer to his family has revealed in shocking detail how soldiers spent Christmas in the trenches.
Trevor Bird was a 24-year-old second lieutenant when he wrote the letter to his father William on Christmas Day 1914.
It reveals there was no sign of the legendary Christmas Truce on his section of the front where he had to endure mortar attacks and waist-deep mud. (The Christmas Truce was when the British and Germans stopped fighting on Christmas Day, met each other in No Man's land, and exchanged handshakes, cigars and photos of their loved ones. They even had a soccer match. Then, later, fighting commenced again)
Stephen Birley with the 1914 letter from his grandfather Trevor Bird, also seen in a family photograph taken in later years
The young subaltern told his father: "I've been having a fairly hairy time". He went on to describe being fired at by trench mortars and spending 26 hours lying in water.
He related how he had crawled under fire on his hands and knees on a patrol only to be arrested as a spy by his own side when he came back.
"I had to crawl on hands and knees for a mile through mud and filth about a foot deep along a ditch at the side of a road," he wrote.
"Every time I showed myself, 'ping' went a bullet!
Trevor Bird was a 24-year-old second lieutenant when he wrote the letter to his father
"However, I finally reached the line of British trenches I was making for where, to cap all my troubles, I was arrested as a German spy!! Nothing would convince the corporal into whose section I had come that I was what I represented myself to be.
"It was not until I had been taken before the commanding officer, with a rifle muzzle in the small of my back, that I was allowed to depart."
Despite his ordeals, the subaltern wrote: "Well, we get well paid so mustn't complain I suppose."
Despite a system of rigorous censorship the letter criticizes senior officers, saying a planned bayonet charge which had been called off at the last moment would have been suicidal and amounted to "a criminal order".
"We had actually formed up for the attack and were about to move off for what would have been certain death for 90 per cent of us, when we were told the attack was off," the lieutenant writes.
"It really seemed like an intervention of God that we were stopped in time. All the Officers must have been killed.
"Well, we weren't, so there's no good grousing, but really, ordering two native cavalry regiments to attack a strong German position on foot seems about as absurd a proposition as you can imagine."
The family trove also includes a Christmas card sent from the King to all officers as well as a cigarette case
The letter had been passed on through family in South Africa and France before being found again a few weeks ago.
A special tin of 16 cigarettes and a Christmas card from King George V sent to all officers have also survived as mementoes of the war.
Now grandson Stephen Birley, 49, from Bradninch, near Exeter, Devon, is trying to find out more about how and where the officer wrote the letter, which appears to be uncensored.
Despite growing up with his grandfather, who went on to become a colonel and died aged 102 in 1992, Mr Birley had no idea that he had served in the trenches.
He said the letter was found in a trunk full of family documents including even older letters dating back to the time of his great-grandfather and great-great-grandparents, who survived the Indian Mutiny in 1857.
Colonel Bird's first name was William but he was always known as Trevor to distinguish him from his father.
He grew up in India and served with the 8th Light Cavalry of the Indian Army, which was shipped to Europe in 1914.
Christmas in the trenches: soldiers had to endure mortar attacks and waist-deep mud
The letter was passed down through Colonel Bird's oldest son and found by Mr Birley's cousin Philip, who now lives in France.
Mr Birley said: "It is an extraordinary document because of what it tells us about life in the trenches.
"I was in the army myself and suffered trench foot, and I am surprised he did not say anything about having had it as well. His generation clearly did not believe in talking about what they experienced in the trenches. I presume it must have been too painful for them."
He added: "Everyone knows the stories about a Christmas truce and the British and Germans playing football in no man's land but this paints a very different picture.
"It is very dramatic and the most extraordinary thing is that after describing what he had been through he wrote that he shouldn't grumble because he was being well paid.
"I have been trying to find out where it was written. It is obviously on the Western Front but I have not been able to track down where his regiment were serving in Christmas 1914."
dailymail.co.uk
13th December 2007
Daily Mail
A recently discovered letter sent by a First World War officer to his family has revealed in shocking detail how soldiers spent Christmas in the trenches.
Trevor Bird was a 24-year-old second lieutenant when he wrote the letter to his father William on Christmas Day 1914.
It reveals there was no sign of the legendary Christmas Truce on his section of the front where he had to endure mortar attacks and waist-deep mud. (The Christmas Truce was when the British and Germans stopped fighting on Christmas Day, met each other in No Man's land, and exchanged handshakes, cigars and photos of their loved ones. They even had a soccer match. Then, later, fighting commenced again)
Stephen Birley with the 1914 letter from his grandfather Trevor Bird, also seen in a family photograph taken in later years
The young subaltern told his father: "I've been having a fairly hairy time". He went on to describe being fired at by trench mortars and spending 26 hours lying in water.
He related how he had crawled under fire on his hands and knees on a patrol only to be arrested as a spy by his own side when he came back.
"I had to crawl on hands and knees for a mile through mud and filth about a foot deep along a ditch at the side of a road," he wrote.
"Every time I showed myself, 'ping' went a bullet!
Trevor Bird was a 24-year-old second lieutenant when he wrote the letter to his father
"However, I finally reached the line of British trenches I was making for where, to cap all my troubles, I was arrested as a German spy!! Nothing would convince the corporal into whose section I had come that I was what I represented myself to be.
"It was not until I had been taken before the commanding officer, with a rifle muzzle in the small of my back, that I was allowed to depart."
Despite his ordeals, the subaltern wrote: "Well, we get well paid so mustn't complain I suppose."
Despite a system of rigorous censorship the letter criticizes senior officers, saying a planned bayonet charge which had been called off at the last moment would have been suicidal and amounted to "a criminal order".
"We had actually formed up for the attack and were about to move off for what would have been certain death for 90 per cent of us, when we were told the attack was off," the lieutenant writes.
"It really seemed like an intervention of God that we were stopped in time. All the Officers must have been killed.
"Well, we weren't, so there's no good grousing, but really, ordering two native cavalry regiments to attack a strong German position on foot seems about as absurd a proposition as you can imagine."
The family trove also includes a Christmas card sent from the King to all officers as well as a cigarette case
The letter had been passed on through family in South Africa and France before being found again a few weeks ago.
A special tin of 16 cigarettes and a Christmas card from King George V sent to all officers have also survived as mementoes of the war.
Now grandson Stephen Birley, 49, from Bradninch, near Exeter, Devon, is trying to find out more about how and where the officer wrote the letter, which appears to be uncensored.
Despite growing up with his grandfather, who went on to become a colonel and died aged 102 in 1992, Mr Birley had no idea that he had served in the trenches.
He said the letter was found in a trunk full of family documents including even older letters dating back to the time of his great-grandfather and great-great-grandparents, who survived the Indian Mutiny in 1857.
Colonel Bird's first name was William but he was always known as Trevor to distinguish him from his father.
He grew up in India and served with the 8th Light Cavalry of the Indian Army, which was shipped to Europe in 1914.
Christmas in the trenches: soldiers had to endure mortar attacks and waist-deep mud
The letter was passed down through Colonel Bird's oldest son and found by Mr Birley's cousin Philip, who now lives in France.
Mr Birley said: "It is an extraordinary document because of what it tells us about life in the trenches.
"I was in the army myself and suffered trench foot, and I am surprised he did not say anything about having had it as well. His generation clearly did not believe in talking about what they experienced in the trenches. I presume it must have been too painful for them."
He added: "Everyone knows the stories about a Christmas truce and the British and Germans playing football in no man's land but this paints a very different picture.
"It is very dramatic and the most extraordinary thing is that after describing what he had been through he wrote that he shouldn't grumble because he was being well paid.
"I have been trying to find out where it was written. It is obviously on the Western Front but I have not been able to track down where his regiment were serving in Christmas 1914."
dailymail.co.uk