Brewster 'A Glimpse of War through a Private's Eyes', a retrospective account of experiences in World War I, 1915-1917 / John James Brewster - Page 376
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[Page 376]
They went on, to the line on the right & returned again pretty coolly. From this out their terror would disappear, they had got over their palpable fright & would in future act like ordinary men, but had they been allowed to go back to their quarters after their first experience it would have taken months to have properly steadied them, whereas by having to come back to where they saw the men killed, & made to work just as if nothing had happened they were cooled down quicker and "steadied" in the shortest time.
They admitted the first trip seemed simply awful, but the second time they did not feel it nearly so much & for the future although knowing that every man ran a risk practically every moment, they certainly would, feel very much less scared & act more like normal men instead of frightened sheep.
While working here a change of officers took place, a splendid man who knew his work as an Engineer gave place to an Infantry officer who was evidently trying to qualify for an "Engineer". The Engineer officer was an ordinary human being, the Infantry officer was more like a slave driver than a man, in fact had he been a parsimonious contractor who was losing money on a bad contract, this man could not have tried to make the men work harder.
In fact when the men were using the pump to keep the water "free from down below", the men were making a full stroke to let the plunger go its full length to lift its full weight of water, he gave orders to increase the speed, and when two of the younger men were working at their very top, although the work at that speed was really a useless waste of labor, this "officer" called for "more speed".
The youngsters at once stopped, and one looking into his face said "More speed be [dash] & at once walked away. The whole of the eight men who were working the shift, laughed outright, & one of them went to one of the "working