For soldiers
Feb. 12th, 2013 09:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xenithThe Soldier's Own Diary was a pocket diary, with two pages for every week. The front pages contained useful information for soldiers. (There's an example of 1918 edition here) The diary part had a useful tips and interest trivia at the bottom of pair of pages. I've pinched some of these from a 1917 diary, and included them below:
HORSES LEFT UNATTENDED
When there is no scout handy to attend to his horse a solider makes use of clever, though a simple device. The reins are brought over the horse's head and pushed under the saddle girth, and then drawn out again. The "ribbons" are then taken back and passed through in the form shown in sketch. The result of this knot is that when the horse tried to move his head forward the reins hold him in, as though someone was holding him and he stands still.
INVISIBLE WRITING
The following is a novel and not very well-known method writing a despatch in such a manner that it appears to be a piece of blank pager. Soak your sheet of paper in water and place it on a sheet of glass. Lay a sheet of dry paper over it while you write your message on this with a blunt pencil. Dry the paper, and give to the despatch bearer. Your friends on receiving it will immerse it in water and read it. Caution: do not dry over a lamp or in front of a fire.
PENETRATION OF BULLETS
When a defensive work of any kind is being made, it is necessary to remember that some substance offer more resistance than others. Neglect of this fact may lead to disaster, for instance, to throw up a breastwork of wood less than four feet thick would be useless, for that thickness of wood is the least that will stop a bullet. Brickwork must be nine inches to be proof, and earthwork at least three feet thick.
SHELTER FROM AIRCRAFT.
When enemy aircraft are sighted orders are immediately given for small bodies of marching men or mounted troops to cluster round the trunks of neighbouring trees, or under bushes. This means of escaping observation from above is more effective than one would at first imagine. The top of a tree is obviously much larger than the base, and the aerial spy sees only the spread of the foliage, which looks like a patch of green on the earth.
FLAGS "SUBS" ARE PROUD OF
Submarine vessels have claimed a little privilege, of which they are immensely proud. This privilege, to which the Admiralty have not yet objected, is the flying of a flag on which is a skull and crossbones when they succeed in destroying a vessel belonging to the enemy.
When the E9 came in harbour after sinking a German destroyer, she was flying two flags--a yellow one for sinking the "Hela" and a white one for the destroyer.
HOW TO WATER A HORSE
It is often necessary to water horses at a running stream, but there is a right and a wrong way of doing this, as the illustration shows you. If you let him walk into the water unattended he will go well in the stream and stir up the mud and so foul the water down the stream. On the other hand, if you check your horse from going right in, keeping him near the edge, it will be possible to water other horses successfully below the spot at which your horse drunk.
THIS WAY TO THE HOSPITAL
When a battle is in progress the field hospitals are invariably pitched in secluded places, away from stray shells and bullets. It is therefore necessary to have some sign by which bearers or slightly wounded men might find the nearest way to the hospital. For this purpose, flags with little red arrows like the sketch show are used, which point in the right direction. The hospital itself is distinguished during the day by means of a red cross flag and a Union Jack flying from the cross tree of a flag pole. At sunset the flags are replaced by the two lamps shows in the sketch.
GUN HEADACHE
Have you ever been near a big gun when it was fired? If yo have, you won't have forgotten the sensation. You feel as if your head had burst, and made you deaf. In the navy, heavy gun firing causes tremendous concussions, and sailors suffer from a complaint called "Gun Headache."
To guars against this, Jack provides himself with a piece of indiarubber, which he places between his teeth, and so prevents the vibration and jar communicating direct with the head. In this way, he manages to escape "Gun Headache."
A SAFETY LAMP
When on night duty, electric torches are safe and very handy, but you can go one better, and make your own. To do this take a small bottle of clean glass and place a piece of phosphorus about the size of a pea in it. The safest way to do is to take your bottle to a chemist, and he will put the phosphorus in it. Fill the bottle one-third full of the best olive oil heated to boiling point and cork it tightly. When a light is required, the cork should be removed to allow the air to enter, and the cork replaced. The whole of the empty space will at once become luminous.
CLEARING WIRE ENTANGLEMENT
At the front they use ordinary life-saving rockets or similar appliances to break down and destroy barbed wire.
When it is necessary to clear away a wire entanglement a number of rockets with life-lines attached to them are served out. In addition to the life-line a grapnel hook is attached. The rockets are fired well over the barbed wire, and when they fall the lines are pulled in until the hooks catch the wire. Men then haul in the lines, gradually tearing away the barbed wire.
HORSES LEFT UNATTENDED
When there is no scout handy to attend to his horse a solider makes use of clever, though a simple device. The reins are brought over the horse's head and pushed under the saddle girth, and then drawn out again. The "ribbons" are then taken back and passed through in the form shown in sketch. The result of this knot is that when the horse tried to move his head forward the reins hold him in, as though someone was holding him and he stands still.
INVISIBLE WRITING
The following is a novel and not very well-known method writing a despatch in such a manner that it appears to be a piece of blank pager. Soak your sheet of paper in water and place it on a sheet of glass. Lay a sheet of dry paper over it while you write your message on this with a blunt pencil. Dry the paper, and give to the despatch bearer. Your friends on receiving it will immerse it in water and read it. Caution: do not dry over a lamp or in front of a fire.
PENETRATION OF BULLETS
When a defensive work of any kind is being made, it is necessary to remember that some substance offer more resistance than others. Neglect of this fact may lead to disaster, for instance, to throw up a breastwork of wood less than four feet thick would be useless, for that thickness of wood is the least that will stop a bullet. Brickwork must be nine inches to be proof, and earthwork at least three feet thick.
SHELTER FROM AIRCRAFT.
When enemy aircraft are sighted orders are immediately given for small bodies of marching men or mounted troops to cluster round the trunks of neighbouring trees, or under bushes. This means of escaping observation from above is more effective than one would at first imagine. The top of a tree is obviously much larger than the base, and the aerial spy sees only the spread of the foliage, which looks like a patch of green on the earth.
FLAGS "SUBS" ARE PROUD OF
Submarine vessels have claimed a little privilege, of which they are immensely proud. This privilege, to which the Admiralty have not yet objected, is the flying of a flag on which is a skull and crossbones when they succeed in destroying a vessel belonging to the enemy.
When the E9 came in harbour after sinking a German destroyer, she was flying two flags--a yellow one for sinking the "Hela" and a white one for the destroyer.
HOW TO WATER A HORSE
It is often necessary to water horses at a running stream, but there is a right and a wrong way of doing this, as the illustration shows you. If you let him walk into the water unattended he will go well in the stream and stir up the mud and so foul the water down the stream. On the other hand, if you check your horse from going right in, keeping him near the edge, it will be possible to water other horses successfully below the spot at which your horse drunk.
THIS WAY TO THE HOSPITAL
When a battle is in progress the field hospitals are invariably pitched in secluded places, away from stray shells and bullets. It is therefore necessary to have some sign by which bearers or slightly wounded men might find the nearest way to the hospital. For this purpose, flags with little red arrows like the sketch show are used, which point in the right direction. The hospital itself is distinguished during the day by means of a red cross flag and a Union Jack flying from the cross tree of a flag pole. At sunset the flags are replaced by the two lamps shows in the sketch.
GUN HEADACHE
Have you ever been near a big gun when it was fired? If yo have, you won't have forgotten the sensation. You feel as if your head had burst, and made you deaf. In the navy, heavy gun firing causes tremendous concussions, and sailors suffer from a complaint called "Gun Headache."
To guars against this, Jack provides himself with a piece of indiarubber, which he places between his teeth, and so prevents the vibration and jar communicating direct with the head. In this way, he manages to escape "Gun Headache."
A SAFETY LAMP
When on night duty, electric torches are safe and very handy, but you can go one better, and make your own. To do this take a small bottle of clean glass and place a piece of phosphorus about the size of a pea in it. The safest way to do is to take your bottle to a chemist, and he will put the phosphorus in it. Fill the bottle one-third full of the best olive oil heated to boiling point and cork it tightly. When a light is required, the cork should be removed to allow the air to enter, and the cork replaced. The whole of the empty space will at once become luminous.
CLEARING WIRE ENTANGLEMENT
At the front they use ordinary life-saving rockets or similar appliances to break down and destroy barbed wire.
When it is necessary to clear away a wire entanglement a number of rockets with life-lines attached to them are served out. In addition to the life-line a grapnel hook is attached. The rockets are fired well over the barbed wire, and when they fall the lines are pulled in until the hooks catch the wire. Men then haul in the lines, gradually tearing away the barbed wire.
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Date: 2013-02-12 11:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-12 11:12 am (UTC)