WORLD WAR ONE NORTHAMPTON INDEPENDENT SOLDIER NEWSPAPER ARTICLES   

                TROOPER HAROLD ISLIP of the Yeomanry, Mar 1915

                                Trooper Harold Islip gives some exciting details of our Yeomanry at the front.

                                    “I shall never forget my first experience out here.  When we first got into the trenches I

                                mounted guard, and I thought I would have  a few shots over the top.  As there is not much

                                firing at nights the flash of my rifle attracted the enemy’s guard, and before many minutes I

                                had had my cap blown clean off my head.  So we all learned a lesson to start with.  They say

                                the Germans cannot shoot, bit my opinion is different, for they could get five out of six shots

                                through our porthole anyway.  We have a bit of fun in the day time signalling with a shovel. 

                                We have little else to do in the daytime except cook our food, but fetching water was nearly

                                worth the V.C. where we were.  You had to kneel down to pump it, and one our fellows got

                                a water bottle broken on his back, but he escaped injury.  The second night when I had my

                                relief I went to my dug out only to find the top had fallen in.  I had a night out as a result. 

                                It took my mate and I all the next day to repair it.  It rained all the four days and nights we

                                were in the trenches, and with the mud that was on as well you can guess what the weight

                                of our coats was.  We have had some remarkable escapes.  One morning a shell dropped in

                                the very spot where we had been standing two minutes before for roll call, and on another

                                occasion a star shell lit up a field in which we were.  We were peppered unmercifully, but not

                                one us was hit.  By the way, I must tell you that the new song out here is “My little wet home

                                in the trench.”