A Yankee in the Trenches · Chapter
IV: A Few Days’ Rest in Billets explained
After a successful trench raid, the narrator and his comrades enjoy a brief rest in the battered village of Bully-Grenay.
What happens
After a successful trench raid, the narrator and his comrades enjoy a brief rest in the battered village of Bully-Grenay. They endure miserable cellar quarters infested with giant rats, but pass the time with cootie hunts, a lost fox terrier, and visits to a local estaminet where the narrator's attempts to charm a mademoiselle earn him the nickname 'Darby the Yank.' A French woman's harrowing story of German atrocities deepens the soldiers' hatred of the enemy.
Themes in this chapter
Survival and Daily Life
The chapter focuses on the mundane yet essential routines of rest: bathing, cootie hunts, and finding dry spots in rat-infested cellars, highlighting the struggle for basic comfort.
Comradeship and Camaraderie
The shared cootie hunts, teasing at the estaminet, and collective care for a lost terrier illustrate the bonds formed among soldiers during rest periods.
Propaganda and Moral Justification
The French woman's story of German cruelty reinforces the narrative of the 'beastly Hun,' justifying the soldiers' hatred and their resolve to fight viciously.
Characters to notice
- The Narrator
Describes the rest in billets, cootie hunts, and his attempts to flirt with a mademoiselle at the estaminet, earning the nickname 'Darby the Yank.'
- Tommy
Engages in cootie hunts, jokes about the cootie's size, and teases the narrator at the estaminet.
- Fritz
Behaves meekly after the raid, sending up Very lights and avoiding offensive actions, though a later raid fails due to his vigilance.
- Yank
Nicknamed 'Darby the Yank' by the Tommies after they discover his middle name is Derby; he is the narrator himself.
- Garn
Mentioned in the cootie hunt dialogue: 'Hi sye, ’Arry,' you'll hear someone sing out. 'Look ’ere. Strike me bloomin' well pink but this one ’ere's got a black stripe along ’is back.'
- Arry
Addressed in the cootie hunt dialogue as '’Arry' during the shirt hunt.
Key passages
“I try, but they hold my feet over the fire until the very flesh cooks. See for yourselves the burns on my feet still. “My husband dies from the blow he gets, for he is very old, over ninety. Just then mon beau-fils sees a revolver that hangs by the side of the German officer, and putting all his strength together he leaps forward and grabs the revolver. And there he shoots the officer—and my poor little daughter—and then he says goodbye and through the head sends a bullet.”
A French woman describes how Germans tortured her by holding her feet over a fire, killed her elderly husband, and forced her son-in-law to shoot his own family before committing suicide.
This story of German atrocities deepens the soldiers' hatred and motivates them to fight more fiercely.
“The cootie is the soldier’s worst enemy. He’s worse than the Hun. You can’t get rid of him wherever you are, in the trenches or in billets, and he sticks closer than a brother.”
Body lice are more troublesome than the enemy, as they are impossible to escape and constantly torment soldiers.
Highlights the daily struggle against lice, a pervasive aspect of trench life.
“A soldier was going over the top when one of his cootie friends bit him on the calf. The soldier reached down and captured the biter. Just as he stooped, a shell whizzed over where his head would have been if he had not gone after the cootie. Holding the captive between thumb and finger, he said: “Old feller, I cawn’t give yer the Victoria Cross—but I can put yer back.” And he did.”
A soldier's cootie bite causes him to bend down, saving his life from a shell; he spares the louse as a reward.
A darkly humorous anecdote illustrating the ironic role of lice in survival.
“The worst feature of these billets was the rats. They were the biggest I ever saw, great, filthy, evil-smelling, grayish-red fellows, as big as a good-sized cat. They would hop out of the walls and scuttle across your face with their wet, cold feet, and it was enough to drive you insane.”
The cellar billets were infested with enormous rats that crawled over sleeping soldiers, causing extreme distress.
Emphasizes the miserable conditions even during rest periods.
““I say, Yank,” someone would call, “don’t be a blinkin’ ’og. Give somebody else a chawnce.” Whereupon I would pursue my conquest all the more ardently.”
The Tommies tease the narrator for monopolizing the mademoiselle at the estaminet, but he flirts even more determinedly.
Shows the camaraderie and lighthearted banter among soldiers during rest.
