Ishrub
That's my name ....built like a truck
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2016
- Messages
- 8,857
- Location
- Duffy, Canberra, ACT, AUSTRALIA
- Ride
- 2x2010 ABS Roadsters, Sprint ST 1050 ABS, 3x250s
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The real trench runners of WW1
Sam Mendes’s blockbuster film 1917 follows two young British Army messengers in an against-the-clock attempt to deliver a message behind enemy lines. Historian Alexandra Churchill reveals what the conflict was like for the real trench runners of World War One
With the release of 1917, film director Sam Mendes promises a unique, continuous-shot cinematic experience that won’t feel like your average war film. The premise concerns two British Army messengers crossing enemy lines to deliver a crucial communication that could save the lives of 1,600 of their comrades. The action is set amid the German staged retreat to the Hindenburg Line at the beginning of 1917, and as a time of chaos and unpredictability, it gives a writer much scope to stretch their imagination. I should know – I chose exactly the same setting for my 2016 novel Black Winter. It makes the plot improbable, rather than impossible, and I’m looking forward to a hugely entertaining watch. But what was life really like for messengers in the First World War?
Firstly, they didn’t necessarily operate on foot. A feature of the First World War was the graduation from horse-mounted men delivering information to the motorcycle despatch rider. Operating towards the rear of the front lines, it was still a risky existence. The terrain was difficult, as was the maintenance of temperamental vehicles by complete amateurs at times when the British Army was still fighting a war dominated by movement.
One 27-year-old messenger, named George Fletcher, grew to despise his motorbike. He had no experience of them before the war and spent much of late 1914 pushing it rather than riding it, kicking it, cursing it at every opportunity, and wishing he had a horse instead. With all sides covering ground rapidly, it was easy to end up with the wrong army. On one night during the retreat of 1914, Fletcher rode into the middle of a German patrol. Luckily for him, he taught French and German at Eton, and he simply began bellowing at the men and pretending to be one of their officers, before jumping on his bike and making his escape before they realised what was happening. Luckily, on this occasion, the motorbike behaved.
George Fletcher, who served as a trench messenger during the First World War. (Image by Alexandra Churchill)
Despatch riders are a good example of how new technologies and innovations changed communications at the front. But although innovation exploded during the Great War – especially in terms of artillery – in actual fact, the progression of technology did not make the humble runner, who had operated on the field of battle for thousands of years, redundant. Radio communications were still primitive, and therefore units relied on contact maintained by field telephones linked up by vulnerable copper wire, often laid tentatively around surviving tree stumps and along trenches. As soon as battalions disappeared into the lines for a spell in the trenches, all it took was one shell among thousands to smash the delicate telephone wire and cut them off from those in charge. Then, officers would begin calling on their runners, because the best way to ensure that your orders had definitely arrived was still to send a man on foot.
Despatch riders, such as these soldiers at Gallipoli, show how new technologies and innovations changed communications at the front. (Image by Alexandra Churchill)
What was the job of a trench messenger like?
A lot of runners doubled up as ‘batmen’, or officer’s servants. This could be a plum job, with better conditions. Often, if a man had experience as a runner, he would be continually recruited by new officers throughout the war. As commanders died, the runners moved on and changed units.
Others remained with the rest of the men until they were called back to headquarters to deliver a sealed envelope or a discreetly folded piece of paper. The runner would shove it safely in his pocket and be on his way. This could go on for days as German batteries continually shelled telephone communications out of existence. Messages went from company to company in the trenches, back to battalion headquarters or even further, to brigade or divisional HQ.
A messenger delivers information on the western front. (Image by Alexandra Churchill)
The real trench runners of WW1
Sam Mendes’s blockbuster film 1917 follows two young British Army messengers in an against-the-clock attempt to deliver a message behind enemy lines. Historian Alexandra Churchill reveals what the conflict was like for the real trench runners of World War One
With the release of 1917, film director Sam Mendes promises a unique, continuous-shot cinematic experience that won’t feel like your average war film. The premise concerns two British Army messengers crossing enemy lines to deliver a crucial communication that could save the lives of 1,600 of their comrades. The action is set amid the German staged retreat to the Hindenburg Line at the beginning of 1917, and as a time of chaos and unpredictability, it gives a writer much scope to stretch their imagination. I should know – I chose exactly the same setting for my 2016 novel Black Winter. It makes the plot improbable, rather than impossible, and I’m looking forward to a hugely entertaining watch. But what was life really like for messengers in the First World War?
Firstly, they didn’t necessarily operate on foot. A feature of the First World War was the graduation from horse-mounted men delivering information to the motorcycle despatch rider. Operating towards the rear of the front lines, it was still a risky existence. The terrain was difficult, as was the maintenance of temperamental vehicles by complete amateurs at times when the British Army was still fighting a war dominated by movement.
One 27-year-old messenger, named George Fletcher, grew to despise his motorbike. He had no experience of them before the war and spent much of late 1914 pushing it rather than riding it, kicking it, cursing it at every opportunity, and wishing he had a horse instead. With all sides covering ground rapidly, it was easy to end up with the wrong army. On one night during the retreat of 1914, Fletcher rode into the middle of a German patrol. Luckily for him, he taught French and German at Eton, and he simply began bellowing at the men and pretending to be one of their officers, before jumping on his bike and making his escape before they realised what was happening. Luckily, on this occasion, the motorbike behaved.
George Fletcher, who served as a trench messenger during the First World War. (Image by Alexandra Churchill)
Despatch riders are a good example of how new technologies and innovations changed communications at the front. But although innovation exploded during the Great War – especially in terms of artillery – in actual fact, the progression of technology did not make the humble runner, who had operated on the field of battle for thousands of years, redundant. Radio communications were still primitive, and therefore units relied on contact maintained by field telephones linked up by vulnerable copper wire, often laid tentatively around surviving tree stumps and along trenches. As soon as battalions disappeared into the lines for a spell in the trenches, all it took was one shell among thousands to smash the delicate telephone wire and cut them off from those in charge. Then, officers would begin calling on their runners, because the best way to ensure that your orders had definitely arrived was still to send a man on foot.
Despatch riders, such as these soldiers at Gallipoli, show how new technologies and innovations changed communications at the front. (Image by Alexandra Churchill)
What was the job of a trench messenger like?
A lot of runners doubled up as ‘batmen’, or officer’s servants. This could be a plum job, with better conditions. Often, if a man had experience as a runner, he would be continually recruited by new officers throughout the war. As commanders died, the runners moved on and changed units.
Others remained with the rest of the men until they were called back to headquarters to deliver a sealed envelope or a discreetly folded piece of paper. The runner would shove it safely in his pocket and be on his way. This could go on for days as German batteries continually shelled telephone communications out of existence. Messages went from company to company in the trenches, back to battalion headquarters or even further, to brigade or divisional HQ.
A messenger delivers information on the western front. (Image by Alexandra Churchill)
