{"id":9739,"date":"2014-10-27T06:00:49","date_gmt":"2014-10-27T10:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.royalmontrealregiment.com\/?p=9739"},"modified":"2014-10-27T06:00:49","modified_gmt":"2014-10-27T10:00:49","slug":"what-soldiers-needed-in-1914","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/what-soldiers-needed-in-1914\/","title":{"rendered":"What Soldiers Needed in 1914"},"content":{"rendered":"

THIS DAY IN RMR HISTORY, 27 October 1914 – From the 14th<\/sup> BATTALION (RMR) WAR DIARY:<\/p>\n

Tuesday, October 27, 1914<\/em><\/p>\n

Camp Salisbury Plain, West Down South<\/em><\/p>\n

The Battalion War Diarist wrote for this day: \u201cRain.\u00a0 Training under difficulties on account of bad weather.\u201d \u00a0[1]<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"27<\/a>On this day, The Montreal Daily Mail<\/em> carried this article, presumably copied from an English newspaper of the time.\u00a0 Although it tells of the needs of British soldiers at the front, in many ways it foretells of the needs of Canadian troops once they reach the front lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cWriting of the needs of the troops an English worker after enumerating several things which the \u201cboys\u201d themselves mentioned, says, \u201cSocks are needed.\u00a0 They wear through so quickly on the march, and our brave fellows suffer terribly with their feet.\u00a0 They like to soap their socks but they can\u2019t get hold of a bit of soap, so please, with every pair of socks send a cake of soap and a packet of boracic powder for dusting.\u00a0 They don\u2019t use Vaseline, they tell me, for it softens the feet, but they like to have Vaseline to ease chaffing in other parts.\u00a0 Sleeping helmets, mufflers and body-belts, as many as ever you can send they ask for; the nights are bitterly cold, and the service sweater, and top-coat, too, are often left behind in hurried obedience to an order to march.\u00a0 \u2018In the morning we are like men with an ague,\u2019 they say.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t send playing cards. \u2018No time for them at the front,\u2019 is the unanimous answer.\u00a0 \u2018Any time we can snatch we want for sleep – our biggest average is two hours.\u00a0 You could sleep on your head pretty nearly when it\u2019s nothing but fighting and marching, marching and fighting.\u2019<\/p>\n

Shirts are badly wanted.\u00a0 What they are supplied with they often lose in sudden moves and emergencies.\u00a0 If plenty of these comforts are sent to the military base the men can get renewals as they pass through any base, their own or that of another division. One man told me of a shirt he had on from August 4th<\/sup> till September 5th<\/sup>, while he toiled ceaselessly each day. \u2018If I\u2019d had another,\u2019 he said, \u2018I could have washed it when we did sight water, which wasn\u2019t too often!\u2019<\/p>\n

Peppermints they like, but not so much as chocolates. Chocolates are the troops\u2019 favourite, said one\u2026\u201cThese requests from the fighting boys themselves are very helpful.\u201d\u00a0 [3]<\/a><\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0 \u00a0War Diary, 14th Canadian Battalion, The Royal Montreal Regiment<\/em>, Oct. 25, 1914.\u00a0 Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa,\u00a0http:\/\/data2.collectionscanada.ca\/e\/e044\/e001089670.jpg<\/a>\n\n[2]\u00a0 \u201cSome of the Things That Soldiers Need,\u201d The Montreal Daily Mail<\/em>, Tuesday, October 27, 1914, pg. 6, col. 5.\n\n[3]<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0Ibid.<\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THIS DAY IN RMR HISTORY, 27 October 1914 – From the 14th BATTALION (RMR) WAR DIARY: Tuesday, October 27, 1914 Camp Salisbury Plain, West Down South The Battalion War Diarist<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-this-day-in-rmr-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9739\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmrmuseum.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}