[2] The best account of life and training in the Division is contained in the well-known volume, The First Hundred Thousand, by Ian Hay, who was an officer in the 10th Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders.
[3] This was the result of an order issued by G.H.Q. fixing an age limit for Brigadiers.
[4] See The First Hundred Thousand, p. 280.
[5] “Minnie,” the popular name for German Trench Mortars, from Minenwerfer.
[6] On one occasion no horse was provided to take the Prince up to the trenches. He, therefore, borrowed one belonging to the machine-gun officer of the 27th Brigade, and it was afterwards known as “Prince.”
[7] So completely was the chance of success considered to depend upon the use of gas that the attack was to be cancelled if the wind was unfavourable; instead, a minor operation was to be carried out by the 7th Seaforths against the Hohenzollern Redoubt.
[8] On the left of the Ninth the Second Division had to carry out two operations: first, to capture the Givenchy salient, and second, and more important, to attack the German front line trenches and then move on Auchy. Should the latter attack succeed, the Second Division was to form the defensive flank of the Army as far as Haisnes, from which point it was to be carried on by the Ninth Division.
[9] It is common knowledge that at military concert parties the Staff shared with the Sergeant-Major and the Quartermaster the distinction of being the chief butt of the witticisms of the troupe. This is due partly to the British soldier’s inveterate love of “chaff,” and partly to the fact that the duties of the Staff officer, particularly in the higher formations, secured him comparative immunity from danger. The average infantryman was too much occupied with the ordinary details of his daily task ever to give any thought to the harassing and important duties that the Staff had to perform. Occasionally, of course, the latter made a bad slip. During the Battle of Arras, for example, a battalion in the 27th Brigade received a message to the effect that sacks for bayonet training were available! Such blunders were naturally cherished by the Regimental officer.
[10] The effect of the German gas attack in May had produced a powerful impression upon both the army and the public. Since that time the energies and experiments of British scientists and doctors had provided the army with an efficient protection consisting of a chemicalised canvas bag with two gas-proof openings for the eyes. In the event of an attack this bag was pulled over the head, its loose ends being tucked in round the neck and covered up by the tunic so that the gas found no aperture to evade the chemical barrier.