Wipers times

Soldiers have always used dark sense of humor as a way of coping with the Grim realities of War a good example of this is the wipers times, one of the finest of many trench Publications produced on the Western Front during the first world war, the wipers times was the brainchild of Captain Fred Roberts and Lieutenant Jack Pearson of the 12th Battalion Sherwood Foresters they found a damaged but serviceable printing press among the ruins of a heavily shed city of Ypres, pronounced wipers by the soldiers.

one of the sergeants in their regiment a printer in civilian life was able to get it working they used it to produce a witty and sophisticated newspaper across between a parish magazine a school magazine and The Illustrated magazines of the day the first edition of the wipers times was printed in the 12th of February 1916 these 100 copies were rapidly snapped up by Roberts and Pearson's comrades although the print runs were small more limited by the availability of the cost of paper the readership was significant. each copy would have passed through many hands with parts read out loud in dugouts and trench.

the name of the newspaper changed as the Battalion moved around the Western Front at various stages it was known as the new Church times, the kemel times, the S times and the bef times at the end of the war it became the better times.

the wipers times were witching with wit but never strayed into smut, the Articles often satz popular poets and authors such as the mock serial featuring herlock sches and the Diary of Lieutenant Samuel peepers.

the paper was also the perfect place to event frustration a certain journalist who produced overall articles from the front William Beach Thomas of the Daily Mail was a particular Target despite the new paper's prolific use of satire, Roberts claimed they generally had little trouble with censorship however it was for reasons not connected with censorship that its location based titles were replaced with the bef times