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 53
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[Page 53]
The utter needlessness of the exercises & drills performed most of the time became incomprehensible & irksome both from a physical & diciplinary point of view
Constantly orders would be issued, to be altered or cancelled, almost immediately without a thought of the needless trouble & inconvenience such a procedure would entail, and repeatedly many men refrained from taking notice of an order till the very latest moment in anticipation of its usual alteration or cancellation.
It conveyed the impression that orders were continually being issued without proper authority, which when sought, considerably altered the aspect. This certainly did not suggest the highest organization or effective administration
Imagine the feelings of a body of men observing the first order setting off to prepare accordingly & then to be told at the eleventh hour, by another body of men, who had seen it, of the alteration, not only causing their time & energy to be wasted, but probably rendering the additional work of adjustment hardly practicable, in the time then allowed. Or take an instance, where an order was read out one evening that the next day, "Anzac Day" looked upon by all Australian soldiers as the "day of days" was to be strictly held as a close holiday, that all drills parades, fatigues, (except daily essential fatigues) were cancelled & that the men could devote the whole day to recreation or attend a sports meeting organised for the occasion.
Just picture the feelings, & the exclamations used by the men to show them, when next morning before breakfast, the order was altered in such a way, that it was the duty of one Company of a battalion to proceed to a parade ground & dig trenches, this work could just as well have been left till the following or any other day as the trenches (for drill purposes only) would not be required for at least a month. To do this work this Company went, although it was Anzac Day.
The altered order informed another Company of the same battalion, that the day was a close holiday, but all the men must remain