The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mud and Khaki, by Vernon Bartlett

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Title: Mud and Khaki
Sketches from Flanders and France

Author: Vernon Bartlett

Release Date: May 14, 2008 [EBook #25470]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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MUD AND KHAKI

MUD AND KHAKI

SKETCHES FROM FLANDERS
AND FRANCE

BY

VERNON BARTLETT

SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON,
KENT & CO. LTD., 4 STATIONERS'
HALL COURT : : LONDON, E.C.

_Copyright_
_First published April 1917_

TO

R.V.K.C.

AND MY OTHER FRIENDS

IN THE REGIMENT

APOLOGIA

There has been so much written about the trenches, there are so many war
photographs, so many cinema films, that one might well hesitate before
even mentioning the war--to try to write a book about it is, I fear, to
incur the censure of the many who are tired of hearing about bombs and
bullets, and who prefer to read of peace, and games, and flirtations.

But, for that very reason, I venture to think that even so indifferent a
war book as mine will not come entirely amiss. When the Lean Years are
over, when the rifle becomes rusty, and the khaki is pushed away in some
remote cupboard, there is great danger that the hardships of the men in
the trenches will too soon be forgotten. If, to a minute extent,
anything in these pages should help to bring home to people what war
really is, and to remind them of their debt of gratitude, then these
little sketches will have justified their existence.

Besides, I am not entirely responsible for this little book. Not long
ago, I met a man--fit, single, and young--who began to grumble to me of
the hardships of his "funkhole" in England, and, incidentally, to
belittle the hardships of the man at the front. After I had told him
exactly what I thought of him, I was still so indignant that I came home
and began to write a book about the trenches. Hence _Mud and Khaki_. To
him, then, the blame for this minor horror of war. I wash my hands of
it.

And I try to push the blame off on to him, for I