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 61
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[Page 61]
of water was limited for all purposes, drinking, washing, shaving & bathing, to one bottle a day. During the day we were shovelling sand out of the trenches, & making Machine Gun positions, & doing Sentry work at night.
The sand was blown in every direction by every little gust of wind, but when the wind strengthened the sand penetrated & permeated everywhere & every thing.
As men were relieved during the night from the sentry post, they had to lie down in the trench to sleep, but this was almost impossible for little rivulets of sand would trickle from the sand bags into the eyes & ears, and as the heat was so great no covering could be placed over the head. Those in the trenches stuffed their ears with rag, but after one night of this, the difficulty was surmounted by all sleeping on the parapet. Of course when an officer was seen approaching for inspection they were "rudely" awakened, but later it became quite the proper thing officers present or not.
After a couple of weeks weary watching & waiting for the enemy to appear, our Company covered itself with glory, by capturing one wizen faced, half starved Arab & two lean & skinny Camels, however he was duly dubbed "Spy" & we proudly realized that we really were "on active service". The man could easily have been a Spy although he looked as if he "was after a feed".
However he was properly handed over to be escorted in Custody to be base. We were not taking any risks.
So intolerant & depressing did the work become on account of the heat & sand & the constant demand for more water that the O/C rode in one day to Headquarters base, & demanded more water for his men failing which he would march his men back to where the supply was plentiful
Next day an additional water train (Camels) was put on & from this out every man received at least 3 bottles a day & things were much more cheerful