1 00:00:19,516 --> 00:00:25,595 Advertise your product or brand here contact www.OpenSubtitles.org today 2 00:00:40,785 --> 00:00:49,125 This film contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting 3 00:00:52,753 --> 00:00:57,091 I gave every part of my youth to do a job 4 00:00:57,091 --> 00:01:00,594 and to go through a savage war. 5 00:01:00,594 --> 00:01:04,097 It was a different war from year to year, and one's reactions 6 00:01:04,097 --> 00:01:05,932 were completely different. 7 00:01:05,932 --> 00:01:10,561 The intensity changed so much that anybody who'd been out in 1914 8 00:01:10,561 --> 00:01:12,605 and went home and came back in 1917, 9 00:01:12,605 --> 00:01:15,940 wouldn't recognise it as the same war. 10 00:01:15,940 --> 00:01:18,694 I can only say one thing, I wouldn't have missed it. 11 00:01:18,694 --> 00:01:21,737 It was terrible at times, but I wouldn't have missed it. 12 00:01:21,737 --> 00:01:25,532 Oh, yes, if I could have my time again, I'd go through it 13 00:01:25,532 --> 00:01:28,202 all over again because I enjoyed the service life. 14 00:01:28,202 --> 00:01:32,164 I could only say that I have never been so excited in my life, 15 00:01:32,164 --> 00:01:35,750 this was like a boy going to the play the first time. 16 00:01:35,750 --> 00:01:38,919 I never realised there was anything unusual about it. 17 00:01:38,919 --> 00:01:42,422 There was a job to be done and you just go on and did it. 18 00:01:42,422 --> 00:01:45,550 We were all instilled with the idea that this was war 19 00:01:45,550 --> 00:01:49,387 and that we've got to kill the Germans, and this is how we looked 20 00:01:49,387 --> 00:01:50,888 at the thing. 21 00:01:50,888 --> 00:01:53,515 I don't regret having experienced it. 22 00:01:53,515 --> 00:01:57,102 I wish I hadn't, but I don't regret it because I'm safe. 23 00:01:57,102 --> 00:01:58,603 HE LAUGHS 24 00:01:58,603 --> 00:02:00,897 There were good times and bad times in France. 25 00:02:00,897 --> 00:02:03,024 But you took the rough with the smooth. 26 00:02:03,024 --> 00:02:07,069 I was twice wounded and gassed, but it was just war and you made 27 00:02:07,069 --> 00:02:08,821 the best of it. 28 00:02:08,821 --> 00:02:11,281 Just took it in its stride, like everybody else. 29 00:02:11,281 --> 00:02:14,158 We were glad to be in it and we expected it to be rough, 30 00:02:14,158 --> 00:02:17,453 and it WAS rough, but we didn't complain. 31 00:02:17,453 --> 00:02:19,830 There was no real excitement about it. 32 00:02:19,830 --> 00:02:23,458 You'd seen death so many times, you'd seen wounded so many times, 33 00:02:23,458 --> 00:02:25,085 blood didn't excite you. 34 00:02:25,085 --> 00:02:29,297 We were professionals and to us it was just a job of work. 35 00:02:29,297 --> 00:02:33,884 It would be a fallacy to say that one enjoyed it, 36 00:02:33,884 --> 00:02:37,054 but one got afterwards a nice, warm inner feeling that 37 00:02:37,054 --> 00:02:38,596 one had been some use. 38 00:02:38,596 --> 00:02:41,057 It didn't affect me very much because I wasn't 39 00:02:41,057 --> 00:02:43,852 sufficiently open in the ways of the world, I was only a kid, 40 00:02:43,852 --> 00:02:45,769 like other blokes there. 41 00:02:45,769 --> 00:02:48,897 It was more like a great big game to be enjoyed, 42 00:02:48,897 --> 00:02:52,609 apart from the actual killing and all that sort of thing. 43 00:02:52,609 --> 00:02:54,152 It made me a man. 44 00:02:54,152 --> 00:02:55,570 Yes, it did. 45 00:02:55,570 --> 00:02:58,030 I don't think I should have ever been the man I am if it 46 00:02:58,030 --> 00:02:59,990 hadn't been for having to serve. 47 00:02:59,990 --> 00:03:03,202 You'd learn to look after yourself. 48 00:03:03,202 --> 00:03:07,372 Whereas in your civilian life, your mother did all the chores. 49 00:03:07,372 --> 00:03:09,749 You've got to learn how to cook for yourself, 50 00:03:09,749 --> 00:03:12,418 darn your own socks, sew on your own buttons 51 00:03:12,418 --> 00:03:14,212 and all the things like that. 52 00:03:14,212 --> 00:03:15,963 It was just a day's work. 53 00:03:15,963 --> 00:03:19,507 I knew that I was not alone, I knew I wasn't fighting the war 54 00:03:19,507 --> 00:03:23,136 by myself and that what happened to other people might happen to me. 55 00:03:23,136 --> 00:03:25,054 I had no regrets at all. 56 00:03:25,054 --> 00:03:27,807 But, you see, I had no wife, no girl, no nothing. 57 00:03:27,807 --> 00:03:30,100 No regrets, no horrors... 58 00:03:31,893 --> 00:03:35,146 ..because if you survive that, you can survive anything. 59 00:03:46,073 --> 00:03:48,325 We was aware that there was sort of a nasty feeling 60 00:03:48,325 --> 00:03:50,326 between England and Germany. 61 00:03:50,326 --> 00:03:53,204 We knew of the Kaiser's ambition to expand his empire 62 00:03:53,204 --> 00:03:55,664 and all that sort of thing. 63 00:03:55,664 --> 00:03:59,584 During that summer, there was a lot of talk about trouble 64 00:03:59,584 --> 00:04:02,003 going on in the Balkans, but we were a long way 65 00:04:02,003 --> 00:04:05,590 from the Balkans and it didn't worry us at all. 66 00:04:05,590 --> 00:04:07,925 It was that Serbia business, wasn't it? 67 00:04:07,925 --> 00:04:10,302 Serbia, when that chap was shot. 68 00:04:10,302 --> 00:04:13,346 I was paying attention to politics and I realised 69 00:04:13,346 --> 00:04:17,016 that there was going to be trouble between England and Germany. 70 00:04:17,016 --> 00:04:20,352 It was a lovely August the 4th morning. 71 00:04:20,352 --> 00:04:23,522 We were all seated around the table and we were starting 72 00:04:23,522 --> 00:04:25,773 the Rugby football dinner with the German team. 73 00:04:25,773 --> 00:04:28,402 There was a German here, next to him was an Englishman, 74 00:04:28,402 --> 00:04:30,779 and next to him was a German, and so on and so on. 75 00:04:30,779 --> 00:04:34,156 And a runner arrived into the middle of this dinner 76 00:04:34,156 --> 00:04:37,659 with extraordinary news of outbreak of war. 77 00:04:37,659 --> 00:04:40,704 There was a big placard - "War declared on Germany." 78 00:04:40,704 --> 00:04:42,998 We didn't know what we ought to do. 79 00:04:42,998 --> 00:04:45,082 Whether we got to seize a knife off the table 80 00:04:45,082 --> 00:04:47,919 and plunge it into the German or what! 81 00:04:47,919 --> 00:04:51,129 But, after a little bit of discussion, we decided 82 00:04:51,129 --> 00:04:55,092 that as far as we were concerned, the war was going to start tomorrow, 83 00:04:55,092 --> 00:04:57,426 and the party proceeded. 84 00:05:00,513 --> 00:05:03,432 I'm proud of being a British hero. I mean, I think we're as good 85 00:05:03,432 --> 00:05:04,850 a country as any in the world 86 00:05:04,850 --> 00:05:07,477 and you've got to be prepared to fight for that. 87 00:05:07,477 --> 00:05:09,228 There's no doubt about it - 88 00:05:09,228 --> 00:05:13,148 in the First World War, we prepared for war. 89 00:05:13,148 --> 00:05:16,902 The empire was strong, we weren't afraid of anyone. 90 00:05:16,902 --> 00:05:20,155 Everybody bought little buttons and white flags and sang songs, 91 00:05:20,155 --> 00:05:23,241 there was no feeling of despair about it at all. 92 00:05:23,241 --> 00:05:26,869 England couldn't possibly lose, no matter how many Germans pushed 93 00:05:26,869 --> 00:05:29,747 how many Englishmen into the Channel, that they'd get no further. 94 00:05:29,747 --> 00:05:31,999 We couldn't possibly lose. 95 00:05:31,999 --> 00:05:36,252 We were brought up to think that one Englishman was worth ten Germans. 96 00:05:36,252 --> 00:05:39,963 I thought that any enemy of England was an enemy of mine 97 00:05:39,963 --> 00:05:41,674 and I wanted to be in it. 98 00:05:41,674 --> 00:05:44,218 Oh, 6 months or 12 months, it would be all over 99 00:05:44,218 --> 00:05:46,303 and Bob's your uncle. 100 00:05:46,303 --> 00:05:48,805 I went with a friend of mine to Shepherd's Bush Empire 101 00:05:48,805 --> 00:05:51,724 to see the picture show there and they showed the fleet 102 00:05:51,724 --> 00:05:55,811 saving the high seas and played "Britons never shall be slaves", 103 00:05:55,811 --> 00:05:58,439 and one feels that little shiver run up their back and you know 104 00:05:58,439 --> 00:06:00,190 you've got to do something. 105 00:06:00,190 --> 00:06:02,900 A friend of mine said to me, "We're going to join up." 106 00:06:02,900 --> 00:06:05,403 It was from the patriotic point of view, 107 00:06:05,403 --> 00:06:10,533 and from the general excitement of the whole affair, I suppose. 108 00:06:10,533 --> 00:06:13,827 I didn't believe in war to that extent, but I was prepared 109 00:06:13,827 --> 00:06:15,912 to do my part. 110 00:06:15,912 --> 00:06:19,290 You see, in those days, men weren't to think for themselves, 111 00:06:19,290 --> 00:06:23,044 they just had to do what they were told and that's all there was to it. 112 00:06:23,044 --> 00:06:26,297 Oh, my mother was very aggrieved about it. 113 00:06:26,297 --> 00:06:29,716 But, you know, a young man, you decide you're going to go. 114 00:06:29,716 --> 00:06:33,510 At lunchtime, I left the office, went along to Armoury House 115 00:06:33,510 --> 00:06:36,889 and there was a queue of about 1,000 people trying to enlist. 116 00:06:36,889 --> 00:06:39,099 Everybody thought it would be a civilised war 117 00:06:39,099 --> 00:06:41,476 and wanted to be fit enough to go. 118 00:06:41,476 --> 00:06:44,145 Two of us decided to join up together, and when we told 119 00:06:44,145 --> 00:06:46,439 the boss we were going to start training on Monday, 120 00:06:46,439 --> 00:06:47,815 he was very annoyed. 121 00:06:47,815 --> 00:06:50,484 He didn't make any promise at all that our jobs would be there 122 00:06:50,484 --> 00:06:51,902 when we got back. 123 00:06:51,902 --> 00:06:55,363 My mother, she said, "You wait until you're 19." 124 00:06:55,363 --> 00:06:58,908 See, that was the age in those days, 19 to 35. 125 00:06:58,908 --> 00:07:01,243 Well, it was supposed to be. 126 00:07:01,243 --> 00:07:03,162 We were all lads together, you know, 127 00:07:03,162 --> 00:07:04,663 full of excitement 128 00:07:04,663 --> 00:07:06,248 and all this kind of thing. 129 00:07:06,248 --> 00:07:07,666 I mean, I just wanted 130 00:07:07,666 --> 00:07:09,126 to have a go at Jerry. 131 00:07:09,126 --> 00:07:11,836 I just thought that I'd like to go and fight for the country. 132 00:07:11,836 --> 00:07:14,797 This was the thing, you were proud of your country 133 00:07:14,797 --> 00:07:16,549 and you'd do the best you could for it. 134 00:07:16,549 --> 00:07:19,384 And this was what most of the young people thought of doing 135 00:07:19,384 --> 00:07:20,969 in those days. 136 00:07:20,969 --> 00:07:24,389 My mother, she said to me, "Look, we could stop you doing this 137 00:07:24,389 --> 00:07:25,974 "because of your age." 138 00:07:25,974 --> 00:07:29,685 I said, "Yes, I know you could, Mother, but I'm sure you won't." 139 00:07:29,685 --> 00:07:31,437 Which they never did. 140 00:07:31,437 --> 00:07:34,815 I just felt that all the young fellows of that age 141 00:07:34,815 --> 00:07:36,191 were volunteering 142 00:07:36,191 --> 00:07:38,360 and I thought it was my job to do the same. 143 00:07:38,360 --> 00:07:41,237 I was desperately keen and a whole heap of us were. 144 00:07:41,237 --> 00:07:43,156 I said, "Direct enlistment, please." 145 00:07:43,156 --> 00:07:44,657 They were highly delighted 146 00:07:44,657 --> 00:07:47,034 and pushed me in as quick as lightning. 147 00:07:47,034 --> 00:07:49,869 Lots of the lads were joining the local regiments, 148 00:07:49,869 --> 00:07:51,830 like the Bucks and the Middlesex. 149 00:07:51,830 --> 00:07:54,040 Lads that I knew and had been to school with, 150 00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:55,916 played football and cricket with, 151 00:07:55,916 --> 00:07:58,502 we joined up, hoping for the best. 152 00:07:58,502 --> 00:08:01,087 We were good friends, comrades 153 00:08:01,087 --> 00:08:05,258 and it was a relief from rather boring jobs at home, you see. 154 00:08:05,258 --> 00:08:08,511 I was walking down the Camden Town high street, 155 00:08:08,511 --> 00:08:12,723 when two young ladies approached me, "Why aren't you in the Army?" 156 00:08:12,723 --> 00:08:14,600 I said, "I'm only 17." 157 00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:16,518 "Oh, they all say that here." 158 00:08:16,518 --> 00:08:20,104 And to my amazement, she put her hand in her bag 159 00:08:20,104 --> 00:08:23,274 and I put my hand up to sort of safeguard myself, 160 00:08:23,274 --> 00:08:27,069 and this white feather finished up my nose. 161 00:08:27,069 --> 00:08:31,364 As we marched to the station, some of the chaps had bowler hats, 162 00:08:31,364 --> 00:08:35,785 some had straw hats, some had the regulation peaked Army cap. 163 00:08:35,785 --> 00:08:38,204 Some would have tunics, some would be dressed 164 00:08:38,204 --> 00:08:41,748 with their ordinary jackets with a pair of Army trousers. 165 00:08:41,748 --> 00:08:44,251 Some had Army boots, some didn't. 166 00:08:44,251 --> 00:08:46,919 And we really were a motley throng. 167 00:08:46,919 --> 00:08:49,380 Some of them were obviously chaps who had hoped to live 168 00:08:49,380 --> 00:08:52,258 in some comfort and brought suitcases with clothes with them, 169 00:08:52,258 --> 00:08:53,717 which they never saw again. 170 00:08:53,717 --> 00:08:55,635 We had to all get our hair cut. 171 00:08:55,635 --> 00:08:56,928 "How would you like it, sir?" 172 00:08:56,928 --> 00:08:59,222 And you'd say, "Short back and sides." 173 00:08:59,222 --> 00:09:01,516 But the answer was, straight over the top 174 00:09:01,516 --> 00:09:05,435 with horse clippers, and we looked more like convicts than soldiers. 175 00:09:05,435 --> 00:09:07,688 As soon as war broke out, there was a call made 176 00:09:07,688 --> 00:09:09,856 for all ex-soldiers to rejoin, 177 00:09:09,856 --> 00:09:12,608 and they made them sergeants straight away. 178 00:09:12,608 --> 00:09:15,737 So you got a lot of instructors that way. 179 00:09:15,737 --> 00:09:18,905 The people who really carried us through was the old sweats 180 00:09:18,905 --> 00:09:23,243 who'd had previous war experience and gave us a lot of wise advice 181 00:09:23,243 --> 00:09:26,621 as to what to look for and what to dodge. 182 00:09:26,621 --> 00:09:31,041 We were ordered down onto the parade ground and then we were allotted 183 00:09:31,041 --> 00:09:33,585 to different platoons. 184 00:09:33,585 --> 00:09:37,297 When they came to us, they were weedy, sallow, 185 00:09:37,297 --> 00:09:40,633 skinny, frightened children. 186 00:09:40,633 --> 00:09:44,721 The refuse of our industrial system and they were in very poor condition 187 00:09:44,721 --> 00:09:46,972 and had to be made into soldiers. 188 00:09:46,972 --> 00:09:50,976 Many of us had given our wrong ages to join the Army. 189 00:09:50,976 --> 00:09:53,561 The agent walked down the lines and gave an order, 190 00:09:53,561 --> 00:09:59,066 "Every man under the age of 19 should take two paces forward." 191 00:09:59,066 --> 00:10:01,568 Nobody moved. 192 00:10:01,568 --> 00:10:05,530 I was a lad of 17 and they'd probably say I wasn't 19, 193 00:10:05,530 --> 00:10:08,074 which you had to be to join up. 194 00:10:08,074 --> 00:10:11,494 But he says, "How long do you want to sign on for?" 195 00:10:11,494 --> 00:10:14,788 Everyone else was joining up so I called into the recruitment office 196 00:10:14,788 --> 00:10:17,749 and he said to me, "How old are you?" I said, "17, sir." 197 00:10:17,749 --> 00:10:21,086 Well, he said, "Go outside and come back and say you are 18." 198 00:10:21,086 --> 00:10:24,171 So of course, I went outside and said we were 18. 199 00:10:24,171 --> 00:10:26,048 I was straight up there. 200 00:10:26,048 --> 00:10:28,759 The Sergeant said, "How old are you?" 201 00:10:28,759 --> 00:10:30,093 I said, "I'm 18 and one month." 202 00:10:30,093 --> 00:10:32,387 He said, "Do you mean 19 and one month? 203 00:10:32,387 --> 00:10:34,388 So I thought for a moment, I said, "Yes, sir." 204 00:10:34,388 --> 00:10:36,349 He said, "Right, sign here, please." 205 00:10:36,349 --> 00:10:39,977 He asked me how old I was and I said I was 16 in March. 206 00:10:39,977 --> 00:10:41,686 He said, "You're too young, 207 00:10:41,686 --> 00:10:44,314 "you better go outside and have a birthday." 208 00:10:44,314 --> 00:10:47,567 I was 16 years old in 1917 209 00:10:47,567 --> 00:10:52,529 and I was six foot two tall and my father allowed me to go. 210 00:10:52,529 --> 00:10:55,741 So I entered my age as 19 years old, 211 00:10:55,741 --> 00:10:59,244 three years older than what I really was. 212 00:10:59,244 --> 00:11:03,832 I was 15 years, just 2½ years short of 18, 213 00:11:03,832 --> 00:11:07,460 and I got before this medical officer, who said, 214 00:11:07,460 --> 00:11:10,045 "All right, you pass." 215 00:11:10,045 --> 00:11:14,007 I had just turned 17 at the time and I went up to Whitehall 216 00:11:14,007 --> 00:11:16,884 and enlisted in the 16th Lancers. 217 00:11:16,884 --> 00:11:20,304 I was 15 and I thought I'd have a better chance 218 00:11:20,304 --> 00:11:22,098 than when I were 14. 219 00:11:22,098 --> 00:11:26,017 So I walked into the barracks and just said, "I'm 18," 220 00:11:26,017 --> 00:11:27,518 and that was it. 221 00:11:27,518 --> 00:11:30,938 My parents wrote to the commanding officer and asked for me, 222 00:11:30,938 --> 00:11:32,731 as I was underage, to be released. 223 00:11:32,731 --> 00:11:36,652 And he said, "Your parents want you back - do you want to go?" 224 00:11:36,652 --> 00:11:38,153 I said no. 225 00:11:39,612 --> 00:11:42,741 The chaplain asked me my age, and I said I was 16. 226 00:11:42,741 --> 00:11:47,620 He said, "Much too young. Would you like me to pray for you?" 227 00:11:52,791 --> 00:11:56,669 The clothing came piecemeal into the quartermaster stores. 228 00:11:58,713 --> 00:12:01,882 One lad said, "These boots don't fit me." 229 00:12:01,882 --> 00:12:04,677 And the quartermaster said, "There isn't such a thing as boots 230 00:12:04,677 --> 00:12:06,970 "that don't fit in the Army, it's your feet that don't 231 00:12:06,970 --> 00:12:08,346 "fit the boots." 232 00:12:08,346 --> 00:12:12,308 Some men would find a tunic to fit them or perhaps 233 00:12:12,308 --> 00:12:13,809 a pair of trousers. 234 00:12:13,809 --> 00:12:17,062 And so it went on for nearly a fortnight. 235 00:12:17,062 --> 00:12:18,563 Just one uniform. 236 00:12:18,563 --> 00:12:22,776 I was in the Army nearly four years, I only had one uniform. 237 00:12:22,776 --> 00:12:25,653 We were all issued with these famous puttees, 238 00:12:25,653 --> 00:12:29,073 which were news to all of us, and I personally could never quite 239 00:12:29,073 --> 00:12:31,617 master the putting on of puttees. 240 00:12:31,617 --> 00:12:35,828 The main reason for puttees were to support the legs in marching. 241 00:12:35,828 --> 00:12:39,581 I was issued with a kilt but nothing to wear underneath it, 242 00:12:39,581 --> 00:12:42,084 and I was given a slip of paper to say, 243 00:12:42,084 --> 00:12:45,295 "This man has not been issued with underpants." 244 00:12:45,295 --> 00:12:47,881 I was given strict instructions that I couldn't ride on top 245 00:12:47,881 --> 00:12:50,967 of the tram car, had to ride downstairs. 246 00:12:52,885 --> 00:12:56,555 Now, the pack was for everything that you own. 247 00:12:56,555 --> 00:13:00,934 The overcoat had to be folded very, very neatly and tightly. 248 00:13:00,934 --> 00:13:04,312 There was a needle, thread, spare buttons, knife, 249 00:13:04,312 --> 00:13:11,694 fork, spoon, razor, shaving brush, toothbrush and also a half-pint mug. 250 00:13:11,694 --> 00:13:17,114 One spare shirt and one spare pair of socks, and that was your kit. 251 00:13:17,114 --> 00:13:20,659 The Army razor with which we were issued was absolutely useless, 252 00:13:20,659 --> 00:13:23,913 but it came in handy for cutting up meat and so forth. 253 00:13:23,913 --> 00:13:27,040 The toothbrush, that came in handy for cleaning buttons. 254 00:13:27,040 --> 00:13:29,751 But one of the peculiarities about the Army was that, 255 00:13:29,751 --> 00:13:32,503 though it was a crime to have dirty buttons, 256 00:13:32,503 --> 00:13:34,755 you were never issued with the materials to clean 257 00:13:34,755 --> 00:13:37,341 the buttons, you had to buy them yourself. 258 00:13:37,341 --> 00:13:41,386 We were awakened by the bugle, which sounded Reveille. 259 00:13:41,386 --> 00:13:44,306 Wash, shave, pack your bed up and pack your kit. 260 00:13:44,306 --> 00:13:48,809 About half past six, and you would have an hour, PT before breakfast. 261 00:13:48,809 --> 00:13:53,146 Press-ups and physical exercises, arms upward stretch. 262 00:13:53,146 --> 00:13:56,816 They knew you were fresh and they tried to take it by stages, 263 00:13:56,816 --> 00:13:59,735 there wasn't any bullying or anything like that. 264 00:13:59,735 --> 00:14:03,655 Breakfast consisted of bread, butter, 265 00:14:03,655 --> 00:14:06,783 one rasher of Lance Corporal Bacon. 266 00:14:06,783 --> 00:14:09,619 It was streaky bacon, it had one stripe in it. 267 00:14:09,619 --> 00:14:12,413 Well, there was jam and they seemed to make nothing 268 00:14:12,413 --> 00:14:14,373 but plum and apple, you know? 269 00:14:14,373 --> 00:14:17,709 If you got any other kind, it was a celebration event. 270 00:14:19,419 --> 00:14:22,547 There were the Bruce Bairnsfather cartoons depicting that, 271 00:14:22,547 --> 00:14:24,799 handing him a tin of plum and apple jam. 272 00:14:24,799 --> 00:14:26,843 "When the 'ell is it going to be strawberry?" 273 00:14:26,843 --> 00:14:28,761 It was wonderful, that jam. 274 00:14:28,761 --> 00:14:32,347 Tickler's, the jam manufacturers, 275 00:14:32,347 --> 00:14:36,643 they must have made millions of tins of P&A, plum and apple. 276 00:14:36,643 --> 00:14:40,438 # Oh, oh, oh, it's a lovely war 277 00:14:40,438 --> 00:14:43,190 # What do we want with eggs and ham 278 00:14:43,190 --> 00:14:46,777 # When we've got bags of Tickler's Jam? # 279 00:14:46,777 --> 00:14:50,572 And then it would be parade time and the Sergeant would take over 280 00:14:50,572 --> 00:14:53,741 and you'd have a whole morning of marching 281 00:14:53,741 --> 00:14:56,160 and you would learn all commands, 282 00:14:56,160 --> 00:14:59,412 such as "about turn" and all that sort of thing. 283 00:14:59,412 --> 00:15:03,082 Having been in the Boy Scouts, it was dead easy to me. 284 00:15:03,082 --> 00:15:05,459 When you get the order "right dress", 285 00:15:05,459 --> 00:15:08,296 you turn your head only, to the right. 286 00:15:08,296 --> 00:15:10,505 Some of them managed to turn left, 287 00:15:10,505 --> 00:15:13,633 which didn't exactly please the drill Sergeant. 288 00:15:13,633 --> 00:15:15,927 We were all youngsters, we'd come from 289 00:15:15,927 --> 00:15:18,471 fairly sheltered lives and so forth. 290 00:15:18,471 --> 00:15:22,850 This Sergeant of ours was the loudmouth shouting type. 291 00:15:22,850 --> 00:15:27,813 Coming up against military discipline was a shock, 292 00:15:27,813 --> 00:15:32,191 being chased around from pillar to post by disciplinarian NCOs. 293 00:15:32,191 --> 00:15:34,318 Some of the sergeants were shockers. 294 00:15:34,318 --> 00:15:37,696 They would cause a lot of trouble if you were out of step 295 00:15:37,696 --> 00:15:40,657 or if you didn't keep time, or if you didn't handle 296 00:15:40,657 --> 00:15:42,451 your rifle properly. 297 00:15:42,451 --> 00:15:44,828 They were always having a go at you. 298 00:15:44,828 --> 00:15:47,247 Most of them were all right, the shouting meant nothing, 299 00:15:47,247 --> 00:15:49,164 but some of them never lost it. 300 00:15:49,164 --> 00:15:54,210 One night I'd gone to bed and this pot was brought round to my bed 301 00:15:54,210 --> 00:15:57,339 and they said, "Oh, you want to do a piss?" 302 00:15:57,339 --> 00:15:59,591 So I did the business in the pot. 303 00:15:59,591 --> 00:16:02,259 They'd rested this big, huge pot 304 00:16:02,259 --> 00:16:05,262 which contained gallons, on the door. 305 00:16:05,262 --> 00:16:09,641 And when this Sergeant came along to see that everybody 306 00:16:09,641 --> 00:16:12,060 was in bed, this thing turned up and he was drenched 307 00:16:12,060 --> 00:16:14,270 from top to bottom in fluid! 308 00:16:14,270 --> 00:16:16,564 HE LAUGHS 309 00:16:16,564 --> 00:16:19,649 First of all, I was full of enthusiasm. 310 00:16:19,649 --> 00:16:22,736 But after about the first week, I wished I hadn't done it. 311 00:16:22,736 --> 00:16:26,364 Because the discipline was so strict that I was beginning to get 312 00:16:26,364 --> 00:16:29,366 a little bit nervous as to what was in store. 313 00:16:29,366 --> 00:16:31,868 We weren't out dancing, anything like that. 314 00:16:31,868 --> 00:16:33,621 We were getting ready for a war. 315 00:16:33,621 --> 00:16:38,333 The thing was, you were in the Army, you had to do as you were told. 316 00:16:38,333 --> 00:16:42,503 You had one master, or dozens, but you just had to get on with it 317 00:16:42,503 --> 00:16:43,921 and that was it. 318 00:16:43,921 --> 00:16:46,090 I did find that right through the Army, 319 00:16:46,090 --> 00:16:48,925 if you behaved yourself, you'd nothing much to fear. 320 00:16:48,925 --> 00:16:50,927 This was quite a new world to us. 321 00:16:50,927 --> 00:16:53,388 I mean, you can imagine. I came out of civilian life, 322 00:16:53,388 --> 00:16:55,681 like all the others did, and we weren't in a position 323 00:16:55,681 --> 00:16:57,809 to argue or object. 324 00:16:57,809 --> 00:17:00,436 It was just a matter of doing what we were told. 325 00:17:00,436 --> 00:17:01,812 I liked it. 326 00:17:01,812 --> 00:17:05,565 I liked to be told what I had to do because there was a reason 327 00:17:05,565 --> 00:17:09,819 for doing it, and later on I realised that was the best training 328 00:17:09,819 --> 00:17:11,445 you could have. 329 00:17:11,445 --> 00:17:14,823 The first week, our route march would be ten miles, 330 00:17:14,823 --> 00:17:17,951 the second week it would be 12, and so on and so on. 331 00:17:17,951 --> 00:17:22,372 It intensified, because it's of the utmost importance 332 00:17:22,372 --> 00:17:26,208 that the infantry soldiers could march with a full kit. 333 00:17:26,208 --> 00:17:29,127 What you had to carry was 109 lbs. 334 00:17:29,127 --> 00:17:32,755 The marching was easy for me, but quite a lot of chaps 335 00:17:32,755 --> 00:17:36,383 who were in sedentary jobs found it pretty hard. 336 00:17:36,383 --> 00:17:41,722 It numbed and cramped my muscles on my thighs and calves 337 00:17:41,722 --> 00:17:44,724 until they hurt very much indeed. 338 00:17:44,724 --> 00:17:46,893 Oh, those Army boots. 339 00:17:46,893 --> 00:17:48,394 I could have cried. 340 00:17:48,394 --> 00:17:53,983 My feet and ankles with those heavy Army boots after civilian shoes. 341 00:17:53,983 --> 00:17:57,861 So to get your boots made pliable, you used to urinate in them 342 00:17:57,861 --> 00:17:59,988 and leave it overnight. 343 00:17:59,988 --> 00:18:04,742 Quite a lot of men were clerks or they worked in shops, 344 00:18:04,742 --> 00:18:09,120 and the very nature of their calling didn't make for fitness. 345 00:18:09,120 --> 00:18:12,540 Well, they sent me to hospital and they gave me the cure 346 00:18:12,540 --> 00:18:17,711 for hookworm and I found that I could stand the drill after that. 347 00:18:17,711 --> 00:18:20,506 They used to march us all round the West End. 348 00:18:20,506 --> 00:18:24,759 Crowds used to foregather, and some of the poor, deluded ones 349 00:18:24,759 --> 00:18:28,137 fell for the con trick and lined up behind us 350 00:18:28,137 --> 00:18:30,765 and we used to march them all down to Chelsea barracks, 351 00:18:30,765 --> 00:18:32,224 where they got signed up. 352 00:18:34,809 --> 00:18:38,021 Lunch would consist of inedible stew. 353 00:18:38,021 --> 00:18:42,191 Now, you must remember the chaps in the cookhouse were by no means 354 00:18:42,191 --> 00:18:44,736 experienced cooks, but anybody can make a stew, 355 00:18:44,736 --> 00:18:46,570 and that's what they did. 356 00:18:46,570 --> 00:18:51,616 Sometimes we got a bit of plum duff and milk puddings and tapioca rice. 357 00:18:51,616 --> 00:18:54,368 It was the good old-fashioned, plain stuff 358 00:18:54,368 --> 00:18:55,995 that I was brought up on. 359 00:18:55,995 --> 00:18:58,331 I had no complaint about it. 360 00:18:58,331 --> 00:19:03,543 In the afternoon, it could be a lecture on Vickers machine guns. 361 00:19:03,543 --> 00:19:07,047 We used to strip the machinegun right down 362 00:19:07,047 --> 00:19:08,964 and put it together again. 363 00:19:08,964 --> 00:19:12,676 And, luckily, I seemed to cotton on to that quite quickly. 364 00:19:12,676 --> 00:19:15,721 We were always told the man's best friend is his rifle, 365 00:19:15,721 --> 00:19:17,430 and it was. 366 00:19:17,430 --> 00:19:21,976 Our rifle was a short Lee-Enfield, a very good rifle indeed. 367 00:19:21,976 --> 00:19:23,811 A real sturdy rifle. 368 00:19:23,811 --> 00:19:28,106 You had your ammunition pouches on both sides of the chest, 369 00:19:28,106 --> 00:19:30,317 to counterbalance the weight of the pack, 370 00:19:30,317 --> 00:19:35,279 and those pouches carried 150 rounds of .303 ammunition. 371 00:19:35,279 --> 00:19:37,948 We were supposed to hold the rifle up in one hand, 372 00:19:37,948 --> 00:19:40,534 but I could never hold a rifle properly. 373 00:19:40,534 --> 00:19:43,287 My right wrist wouldn't hold it up. 374 00:19:43,287 --> 00:19:46,289 I'd never fired a rifle in my life, but on the first day we went 375 00:19:46,289 --> 00:19:47,665 onto the rifle range, 376 00:19:47,665 --> 00:19:50,251 and it was amazing the bull's-eyes I was getting. 377 00:19:50,251 --> 00:19:54,045 So, the next thing, I was made a first-class rifleman. 378 00:19:54,045 --> 00:19:56,507 Above all, we learned rapid-fire. 379 00:19:56,507 --> 00:20:00,135 Ten rounds, get those ten rounds onto the target in one minute. 380 00:20:00,135 --> 00:20:02,303 It was known as "the mad minute". 381 00:20:02,303 --> 00:20:05,764 I'd never seen a dead man or anything of that kind, 382 00:20:05,764 --> 00:20:08,517 and I wondered, if it came to my shooting a man, 383 00:20:08,517 --> 00:20:10,560 whether I would be able to do this. 384 00:20:10,560 --> 00:20:13,564 Plunge the bayonet into the sack, shout like hell. 385 00:20:13,564 --> 00:20:15,898 And they would tell you where to put your bayonet. 386 00:20:15,898 --> 00:20:18,401 Either into his left shoulder, his right shoulder, 387 00:20:18,401 --> 00:20:20,527 in the chest or in the body. 388 00:20:20,527 --> 00:20:22,738 We was told to make as much noise as we could. 389 00:20:22,738 --> 00:20:24,906 I think that was to frighten the enemy. 390 00:20:24,906 --> 00:20:28,576 It didn't seem to me to be a likely thing to do, but we used to shout. 391 00:20:28,576 --> 00:20:31,745 When you train as a division, there's 12 battalions, 392 00:20:31,745 --> 00:20:34,873 there's roughly 12,000 men who are on the move, 393 00:20:34,873 --> 00:20:38,793 and you're a very small cog in a big wheel. 394 00:20:38,793 --> 00:20:41,880 Saturday mornings we were let off, but we had to do 395 00:20:41,880 --> 00:20:43,548 sometimes barrack duties. 396 00:20:43,548 --> 00:20:47,009 And then, on Sundays, we were all marched down to church. 397 00:20:47,009 --> 00:20:49,720 It didn't matter what religion you were, you all had to go, 398 00:20:49,720 --> 00:20:51,263 and that was it. 399 00:20:51,263 --> 00:20:53,890 Hardly a day passed without the shout 400 00:20:53,890 --> 00:20:55,183 around the barrack-room, 401 00:20:55,183 --> 00:20:57,560 "Has anybody here had any experience with horses? 402 00:20:57,560 --> 00:21:00,146 "Can anybody here play any musical instruments? 403 00:21:00,146 --> 00:21:02,773 "Anybody had an experience at so and so?" 404 00:21:02,773 --> 00:21:06,401 So gradually, the thousand men who were joined up 405 00:21:06,401 --> 00:21:10,989 as a motley throng, now became a transport man, a bandsman, 406 00:21:10,989 --> 00:21:12,948 signalman and so on. 407 00:21:12,948 --> 00:21:15,075 You didn't want to mess about on the parade ground 408 00:21:15,075 --> 00:21:17,452 with heavy packs on the route marches. 409 00:21:17,452 --> 00:21:21,206 Most of us wanted to go across and do some scrapping. 410 00:21:21,206 --> 00:21:24,834 After good food, fresh air and physical exercise, 411 00:21:24,834 --> 00:21:27,669 they changed so that their mothers wouldn't have recognised them. 412 00:21:27,669 --> 00:21:32,007 They put on an average of one stone in weight and one inch in height. 413 00:21:32,007 --> 00:21:35,385 Although we hated the sight and sound of our disciplinary sergeants, 414 00:21:35,385 --> 00:21:39,180 this reflects greatly to their credit because they knocked us 415 00:21:39,180 --> 00:21:41,890 into shape as regards to marching and foot drills. 416 00:21:41,890 --> 00:21:45,394 But far more than that, they were handsome, 417 00:21:45,394 --> 00:21:48,813 ruddy, upstanding, square-shouldered young men 418 00:21:48,813 --> 00:21:51,482 who were afraid of nobody, not even the Sergeant Major. 419 00:21:51,482 --> 00:21:54,109 After the six weeks, we were informed we were going 420 00:21:54,109 --> 00:21:56,612 to be posted overseas. 421 00:21:56,612 --> 00:22:00,699 They said, "You're leaving tomorrow morning for an unknown destination." 422 00:22:00,699 --> 00:22:03,243 You were never told where you were heading for. 423 00:22:03,243 --> 00:22:06,453 I just wanted to fight the Germans, and as far as that was concerned, 424 00:22:06,453 --> 00:22:09,248 it didn't matter tuppence to me where we went. 425 00:22:09,248 --> 00:22:12,292 And when we pushed them through this crash programme 426 00:22:12,292 --> 00:22:14,086 of military training, 427 00:22:14,086 --> 00:22:16,170 they were pushed off to France in batches. 428 00:22:16,170 --> 00:22:19,340 Before we left, the officer said, "well, you haven't had time 429 00:22:19,340 --> 00:22:22,843 "to be made sergeants, so we'll give you a couple of stripes." 430 00:22:22,843 --> 00:22:26,555 So they made us corporals, and in less than no time 431 00:22:26,555 --> 00:22:29,515 we were marched down to the station. 432 00:22:29,515 --> 00:22:32,727 In my mind I wondered, "Shall I ever come back?" 433 00:22:32,727 --> 00:22:34,812 I didn't think I would at the time. 434 00:22:34,812 --> 00:22:37,106 I didn't worry about it. 435 00:22:37,106 --> 00:22:40,818 Oh, they were all full of euphoria, they were all glad they were going. 436 00:22:40,818 --> 00:22:42,652 Nobody was crying. 437 00:22:42,652 --> 00:22:44,862 I wrote a postcard when I was in the train 438 00:22:44,862 --> 00:22:47,781 and chucked it out of the window, hoping that it would be delivered 439 00:22:47,781 --> 00:22:49,199 to my family. 440 00:22:49,199 --> 00:22:52,036 We arrived at Folkestone in the evening. 441 00:22:52,036 --> 00:22:55,705 We embarked on one of the old Thames pleasure boats. 442 00:22:55,705 --> 00:22:59,875 Well, pretty crowded, but of course there's only 21 mile 443 00:22:59,875 --> 00:23:02,502 from Dover to Calais on the boat. 444 00:23:02,502 --> 00:23:05,547 There were talks by officers to us as to how to behave ourselves 445 00:23:05,547 --> 00:23:08,674 on foreign soil, and that we've got to respect other people's 446 00:23:08,674 --> 00:23:10,885 modes of conduct. 447 00:23:10,885 --> 00:23:14,680 The biggest number of casualties were NCOs, 448 00:23:14,680 --> 00:23:17,140 and we weren't all too keen about this. 449 00:23:17,140 --> 00:23:20,727 So I went into the lavatory and my stripes came off 450 00:23:20,727 --> 00:23:23,355 and they disappeared through the porthole. 451 00:23:23,355 --> 00:23:26,440 And with that, I went back on deck as a private. 452 00:23:30,360 --> 00:23:32,404 As our horses were brought down the gangways, 453 00:23:32,404 --> 00:23:35,365 I noticed the expression on the men's faces. 454 00:23:35,365 --> 00:23:38,201 There were no cheerful, smiling faces coming down 455 00:23:38,201 --> 00:23:39,785 that gangway at all. 456 00:23:42,038 --> 00:23:44,415 It was beautiful weather, very warm, 457 00:23:44,415 --> 00:23:48,168 and every village and town we went through, people rushed out, 458 00:23:48,168 --> 00:23:51,421 bottles of wine, yards of French bread, flowers. 459 00:23:51,421 --> 00:23:54,048 The land flowed in every single aspect. 460 00:23:54,048 --> 00:23:56,217 There were farmers going about their business, 461 00:23:56,217 --> 00:23:58,093 the most lovely country. 462 00:24:00,304 --> 00:24:03,056 If we passed a field of carrots, we used to raid the field 463 00:24:03,056 --> 00:24:06,517 and walk along munching the carrots and turnips. 464 00:24:10,687 --> 00:24:12,856 I was dead scared that the war would be over 465 00:24:12,856 --> 00:24:14,274 before I got out to it. 466 00:24:14,274 --> 00:24:15,901 When I got out to France, 467 00:24:15,901 --> 00:24:18,486 I was terribly pleased, really keen. 468 00:24:21,197 --> 00:24:24,158 You just marched and marched until roughly 20 miles 469 00:24:24,158 --> 00:24:25,868 from the trenches. 470 00:24:25,868 --> 00:24:28,578 We knew we were getting close to the line because the gunfire 471 00:24:28,578 --> 00:24:30,747 was becoming more noisy. 472 00:24:30,747 --> 00:24:33,416 I remember the first shell, I was delighted. 473 00:24:36,168 --> 00:24:39,921 We went through towns, villages that were absolutely derelict. 474 00:24:39,921 --> 00:24:43,424 So we never knew where we were, except that we were in Belgium. 475 00:24:46,094 --> 00:24:49,388 The devastation was something I never could have imagined. 476 00:24:49,388 --> 00:24:52,349 The whole place gave one the most eerie sensation. 477 00:24:56,144 --> 00:24:59,856 There was stunted trees, torn to shreds with shellfire 478 00:24:59,856 --> 00:25:03,776 and there was shell holes all over the place. 479 00:25:03,776 --> 00:25:06,695 We were relieving men of the 28th division, 480 00:25:06,695 --> 00:25:10,114 and as they passed us, we would say, "What's it like up there?" 481 00:25:10,114 --> 00:25:13,493 The reply invariably came back, "Bloody awful, mate." 482 00:25:13,493 --> 00:25:17,037 The old sweats coming back got their tails up all right, 483 00:25:17,037 --> 00:25:20,832 but I didn't know what to expect, just hadn't a clue. 484 00:25:20,832 --> 00:25:24,294 It was deadly warfare, you were facing the Germans. 485 00:25:28,547 --> 00:25:30,007 Follow me. 486 00:25:32,676 --> 00:25:34,302 You got the order, "load". 487 00:25:34,302 --> 00:25:38,264 You put nine in your magazine and one up the spout 488 00:25:38,264 --> 00:25:40,016 and you put the safety catch on, 489 00:25:40,016 --> 00:25:42,768 and you always went into the line prepared to use 490 00:25:42,768 --> 00:25:44,394 your rifle immediately. 491 00:25:46,230 --> 00:25:48,982 That's when you got rigid orders, no talking whatsoever, 492 00:25:48,982 --> 00:25:50,609 keep your head down. 493 00:25:50,609 --> 00:25:52,652 Single file, no smoking. 494 00:25:52,652 --> 00:25:55,947 The captain would then direct you right to the front trenches. 495 00:25:59,450 --> 00:26:01,994 Before a man goes into the trenches, he usually carries 496 00:26:01,994 --> 00:26:06,748 a roll of barbed wire or a bag of bombs, besides his own equipment. 497 00:26:06,748 --> 00:26:09,458 That's the way to get the stuff up to the front line. 498 00:26:09,458 --> 00:26:12,252 Now, a guide would always be sent out. 499 00:26:12,252 --> 00:26:14,964 Extend this part of the trench over there. 500 00:26:14,964 --> 00:26:16,465 What, that way? That's it. 501 00:26:16,465 --> 00:26:18,216 The trenches in France were a maze. 502 00:26:18,216 --> 00:26:20,927 If you didn't have a guide, you could very soon get lost. 503 00:26:20,927 --> 00:26:23,638 Smile, so your mother thinks I'm looking after you. 504 00:26:26,223 --> 00:26:28,016 Coming up, coming up! 505 00:26:32,479 --> 00:26:34,522 The trenches weren't in one straight line. 506 00:26:34,522 --> 00:26:38,026 They were built on what they call a Travis System. 507 00:26:38,026 --> 00:26:40,944 The Travis would break up the shellfire 508 00:26:40,944 --> 00:26:44,281 and stop it spreading right along the trench. 509 00:26:44,281 --> 00:26:46,032 There was a front line of trenches 510 00:26:46,032 --> 00:26:48,409 and then there was a second line of trenches. 511 00:26:48,409 --> 00:26:52,747 The support line would be about 50 yards or more behind the front line. 512 00:26:52,747 --> 00:26:55,415 In between, there would be communication trenches 513 00:26:55,415 --> 00:26:57,834 so that they could move through if the front line 514 00:26:57,834 --> 00:26:59,585 was under jeopardy. 515 00:26:59,585 --> 00:27:02,964 First impression I got of the trenches was they were 516 00:27:02,964 --> 00:27:05,007 very much lived in. 517 00:27:05,007 --> 00:27:07,008 We had to take them as we found them. 518 00:27:07,008 --> 00:27:10,678 You would see an overcoat hanging from a wooden peg. 519 00:27:10,678 --> 00:27:14,390 You would see a mess tin with some tea in it. 520 00:27:14,390 --> 00:27:17,518 A dugout, which had a piece of blanket in it, 521 00:27:17,518 --> 00:27:19,687 a bed made of sandbags. 522 00:27:19,687 --> 00:27:22,772 Our world was divided by no-man's-land, 523 00:27:22,772 --> 00:27:24,566 a sort of Iron Curtain, 524 00:27:24,566 --> 00:27:28,486 beyond which were bogey men who would kill you if they ever saw you. 525 00:27:28,486 --> 00:27:31,656 As you look through your periscope, all you could see were hundreds 526 00:27:31,656 --> 00:27:36,618 of shell holes, your barbed wire and the German barbed wire. 527 00:27:36,618 --> 00:27:39,537 You could see dead bodies hanging on the barbed wire 528 00:27:39,537 --> 00:27:42,582 and they may have been there for a long, long time. 529 00:27:42,582 --> 00:27:45,626 It was one of the most desolate looking places in the world. 530 00:27:45,626 --> 00:27:50,047 You never saw a sign of life, and yet you knew very well that, 531 00:27:50,047 --> 00:27:54,508 within shouting range, there were hundreds and hundreds of men. 532 00:27:54,508 --> 00:27:57,220 A platoon of about 50 men would have about 100 yards 533 00:27:57,220 --> 00:28:00,723 of front line trenches as their responsibility. 534 00:28:00,723 --> 00:28:02,974 There were signs all over the trenches, 535 00:28:02,974 --> 00:28:06,561 Piccadilly Circus and Regent Street and all that sort of thing, 536 00:28:06,561 --> 00:28:08,313 telling you where water points were 537 00:28:08,313 --> 00:28:10,857 and which was the most dangerous part of the land 538 00:28:10,857 --> 00:28:13,025 with regard to snipers. 539 00:28:13,025 --> 00:28:15,694 You had to be extremely careful because a bullet could go 540 00:28:15,694 --> 00:28:18,488 through one layer of sandbags quite easily. 541 00:28:18,488 --> 00:28:21,074 I was talking to a bloke one day and, pop, 542 00:28:21,074 --> 00:28:23,326 his head was bashed in like an egg. 543 00:28:23,326 --> 00:28:26,620 He just happened to be in a place where a sniper could get an aim. 544 00:28:28,038 --> 00:28:30,790 We used to do a four-day stint in a line. 545 00:28:30,790 --> 00:28:35,295 We took with us sufficient food to last the four days. 546 00:28:36,754 --> 00:28:38,631 Go on, lads, give our love to Jerry. 547 00:28:38,631 --> 00:28:40,091 Mind yourselves out there. 548 00:28:40,091 --> 00:28:44,219 Your day would start before dawn when NCOs would go round 549 00:28:44,219 --> 00:28:47,264 this 100 yards and make sure everybody was alive. 550 00:28:47,264 --> 00:28:50,892 Of a day in the trenches, you had two hours on, four off. 551 00:28:50,892 --> 00:28:53,061 A third of the people were on sentry duty, 552 00:28:53,061 --> 00:28:55,896 a third working and a third sleeping. 553 00:28:55,896 --> 00:28:57,689 We just slept where we were. 554 00:28:57,689 --> 00:29:00,317 No beds, just flopped down on the ground. 555 00:29:00,317 --> 00:29:02,902 Been to the pictures, mate! 556 00:29:02,902 --> 00:29:06,071 The trench was very wet and, wherever possible, we would try 557 00:29:06,071 --> 00:29:07,657 and get above the water. 558 00:29:07,657 --> 00:29:10,326 We were able to dig out the side of the trench 559 00:29:10,326 --> 00:29:12,869 and that was when we used to steal our sleep 560 00:29:12,869 --> 00:29:15,371 on the two-on and four-off stretch. 561 00:29:15,371 --> 00:29:18,290 And then you'd have your couple of hours on the parapet 562 00:29:18,290 --> 00:29:20,084 and then rest again. 563 00:29:20,084 --> 00:29:23,253 If nothing untoward happened, there would be perhaps 564 00:29:23,253 --> 00:29:26,923 two or three sentry groups in the whole company's front. 565 00:29:26,923 --> 00:29:29,092 EXPLOSIONS BOOM IN DISTANCE 566 00:29:38,600 --> 00:29:40,351 It was a job to keep awake. 567 00:29:40,351 --> 00:29:43,313 Woe betide you if you were caught asleep. 568 00:29:43,313 --> 00:29:46,440 If you are so tired, you can sleep standing up, 569 00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:48,234 which I've done many times. 570 00:29:49,651 --> 00:29:54,864 The first thing you did when you got into the line was to have a brew-up. 571 00:29:54,864 --> 00:29:57,241 There was one thing about the Vickers gun, 572 00:29:57,241 --> 00:29:59,035 it being a water-cooled weapon, 573 00:29:59,035 --> 00:30:01,495 if you were continuously firing, you'd find that the water 574 00:30:01,495 --> 00:30:04,372 would be boiling. You could disconnect the tube 575 00:30:04,372 --> 00:30:05,874 and make a cup of tea. 576 00:30:05,874 --> 00:30:08,793 The water came up in two-gallon petrol cans. 577 00:30:08,793 --> 00:30:11,254 And we could taste the petrol in it because they couldn't 578 00:30:11,254 --> 00:30:13,130 wash it completely out. 579 00:30:16,091 --> 00:30:18,344 In every bay was a little fireplace. 580 00:30:18,344 --> 00:30:22,805 You used tiny slivers of wood because if you made smoke 581 00:30:22,805 --> 00:30:24,891 in the front line, over would come a shell. 582 00:30:24,891 --> 00:30:26,142 I fancy a brew. 583 00:30:26,142 --> 00:30:28,602 But save a drop of that tea to shave with. 584 00:30:28,602 --> 00:30:31,063 Because we had to shave in the front line. 585 00:30:31,063 --> 00:30:33,856 We used to put a lot of tins out on the parapet 586 00:30:33,856 --> 00:30:37,276 if it rained. You daren't touch any of the other water. 587 00:30:37,276 --> 00:30:40,113 We were scooping water out of shell holes, 588 00:30:40,113 --> 00:30:42,197 there might have been dead bodies underneath. 589 00:30:42,197 --> 00:30:44,283 We thought as long as we boiled it for a long time, 590 00:30:44,283 --> 00:30:46,410 all the green stuff would come off the top. 591 00:30:46,410 --> 00:30:49,120 Nice and gentle. Anyway, we'd made tea with it. 592 00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:51,497 That's how I got my dose of dysentery. 593 00:30:51,497 --> 00:30:54,083 Of course, there was no sanitary arrangements. 594 00:30:54,083 --> 00:30:56,335 They'd dig a trench and stick a pole across, 595 00:30:56,335 --> 00:31:00,088 and you'd get about seven or eight chaps on the pole. 596 00:31:00,088 --> 00:31:02,299 God, to have a clear-out was terrible. 597 00:31:02,299 --> 00:31:03,925 FLIES BUZZ 598 00:31:03,925 --> 00:31:06,385 People used to go to the toilet with no privacy. 599 00:31:06,385 --> 00:31:09,805 Being rather a shy nature, if I had pissed with somebody, 600 00:31:09,805 --> 00:31:11,264 I felt a bit nervous. 601 00:31:11,264 --> 00:31:14,226 But when you were in the Army, you got quite used to it. 602 00:31:14,226 --> 00:31:16,895 Of course, it didn't matter a damn because there was no women 603 00:31:16,895 --> 00:31:18,313 or anything like that. 604 00:31:18,313 --> 00:31:20,940 The flies used to crawl over your bottom. 605 00:31:20,940 --> 00:31:22,274 Most unpleasant. 606 00:31:22,274 --> 00:31:24,151 And no such thing as toilet rolls. 607 00:31:24,151 --> 00:31:26,320 You had to wipe your behind with your hand. 608 00:31:26,320 --> 00:31:28,822 Your hands might have been in all sorts of things, 609 00:31:28,822 --> 00:31:30,490 but you never washed. 610 00:31:30,490 --> 00:31:32,158 Well, you heard a terrific shout... 611 00:31:32,158 --> 00:31:33,826 MEN SHOUT AND YELL, LOUD THUD 612 00:31:33,826 --> 00:31:36,745 ..and the pole had snapped and the poor men 613 00:31:36,745 --> 00:31:39,164 who were sitting on the bar fell down in the muck! 614 00:31:39,164 --> 00:31:40,999 MEN LAUGH 615 00:31:40,999 --> 00:31:44,002 There was always the humorous side of the war. 616 00:31:44,002 --> 00:31:47,130 We had to put rifles down for them to hang onto, 617 00:31:47,130 --> 00:31:52,009 and they came out like slimy rabbits and nobody wanted to go near them. 618 00:31:54,469 --> 00:31:57,430 We had no spare clothes at all and you were living for weeks 619 00:31:57,430 --> 00:32:00,391 without washing or getting a bath. 620 00:32:00,391 --> 00:32:04,436 I personally became really badly infested and chatty, 621 00:32:04,436 --> 00:32:07,105 as we used to call it, with these lice. 622 00:32:07,105 --> 00:32:09,566 Oh, lice was a dreadful problem. 623 00:32:09,566 --> 00:32:13,111 They were funny little things, like little monster sort of things, 624 00:32:13,111 --> 00:32:16,197 with six legs, and they used to feed ten times a day. 625 00:32:16,197 --> 00:32:17,865 You had to kill the bloody things. 626 00:32:17,865 --> 00:32:20,242 My favourite way was burning them. 627 00:32:20,242 --> 00:32:23,202 You would run the seams over the lighted candle 628 00:32:23,202 --> 00:32:25,830 and you could hear the eggs going pop, pop, pop, pop. 629 00:32:25,830 --> 00:32:27,540 POPPING 630 00:32:27,540 --> 00:32:30,167 The sooner you got the shirt back again, the heat of the body 631 00:32:30,167 --> 00:32:32,086 hatched the eggs that you'd missed. 632 00:32:33,504 --> 00:32:36,131 And we was just as lousy the next day. 633 00:32:38,883 --> 00:32:42,219 Each man prepared his own breakfast. 634 00:32:42,219 --> 00:32:46,056 Bread and jam was about 16 men to a loaf of bread. 635 00:32:47,765 --> 00:32:50,101 There'd be a little bit of bacon which would suffice 636 00:32:50,101 --> 00:32:52,228 for half a dozen men. 637 00:32:52,228 --> 00:32:55,564 You'd put your rasher of bacon in your mess tin lid, 638 00:32:55,564 --> 00:33:00,110 put a few more sticks on your fire and you would fry your bacon. 639 00:33:00,110 --> 00:33:03,113 And then soak up the fat with a piece of biscuit 640 00:33:03,113 --> 00:33:05,240 and then there you are with the breakfast. 641 00:33:05,240 --> 00:33:07,950 Dinner time was mostly bully beef cut up and stewed, 642 00:33:07,950 --> 00:33:10,995 along with all sorts of vegetables from tins. 643 00:33:10,995 --> 00:33:14,289 Magonoghie's tinned stew was mixed up with the bully beef. 644 00:33:14,289 --> 00:33:17,750 I've gone into French dugouts and eaten biscuits 645 00:33:17,750 --> 00:33:20,419 which had been left by the troops two years previously, 646 00:33:20,419 --> 00:33:24,757 and tasted the green mould in them, but it didn't do me any harm. 647 00:33:24,757 --> 00:33:28,177 This was how it was. Anything's good, you know, when you're hungry. 648 00:33:28,177 --> 00:33:30,595 And you were always hungry. HE LAUGHS 649 00:33:31,888 --> 00:33:34,682 But any given moment, we could expect to be shelled. 650 00:33:34,682 --> 00:33:36,809 SHELL WHIZZES AND BANGS 651 00:33:36,809 --> 00:33:39,186 You had very little protection against that. 652 00:33:39,186 --> 00:33:43,023 One would hear a mild pop as the gun fired five miles away. 653 00:33:45,275 --> 00:33:48,027 And in the five or six seconds it took to come, 654 00:33:48,027 --> 00:33:51,322 you can pass through quite a number of psychological changes. 655 00:33:57,286 --> 00:33:59,913 I can't remember anything more nerve-racking 656 00:33:59,913 --> 00:34:03,874 than the continuous shelling, without stop, went on day and night. 657 00:34:03,874 --> 00:34:07,294 But we were always told that you never heard the shell that hit you 658 00:34:07,294 --> 00:34:10,255 because most of them travelled faster than sound. 659 00:34:10,255 --> 00:34:14,509 But you could literally feel your heart pounding against the ground. 660 00:34:14,509 --> 00:34:17,094 The emotional strain was absolutely terrific. 661 00:34:17,094 --> 00:34:19,388 Although a shell might burst 50 yards away, 662 00:34:19,388 --> 00:34:22,182 you might find a fragment of jagged iron, 663 00:34:22,182 --> 00:34:24,309 really red hot and weighing half a pound, 664 00:34:24,309 --> 00:34:26,561 arriving in your trench. 665 00:34:26,561 --> 00:34:29,063 You see people blown to little bits. 666 00:34:29,063 --> 00:34:31,440 I've actually had to put a man in a sandbag. 667 00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:33,651 Every now and again, there would be a great roar 668 00:34:33,651 --> 00:34:35,735 like an aeroplane coming in to land... 669 00:34:35,735 --> 00:34:36,986 LOUD BANG 670 00:34:36,986 --> 00:34:39,489 ..and in a fifth of a second, your resolution would break 671 00:34:39,489 --> 00:34:41,366 and you'd throw yourself down into the mud 672 00:34:41,366 --> 00:34:43,659 and the other ones would laugh at you. 673 00:34:43,659 --> 00:34:46,578 The shrapnel shell would burst in the air and spray bullets 674 00:34:46,578 --> 00:34:48,163 on the troops below. 675 00:34:49,998 --> 00:34:51,416 As if they were from a shotgun. 676 00:34:53,335 --> 00:34:56,879 The bullets came down, whistling like all the hobs of hell. 677 00:35:00,716 --> 00:35:03,593 Another one of the annoyances we had was the Germans 678 00:35:03,593 --> 00:35:05,219 were very active with mining. 679 00:35:07,221 --> 00:35:09,307 We crouched down underneath the front parapet 680 00:35:09,307 --> 00:35:10,808 to dodge the debris falling, 681 00:35:10,808 --> 00:35:14,561 and I got the men to open up rapid fire to prevent the Germans 682 00:35:14,561 --> 00:35:18,148 from getting into that crater where they could bomb us. 683 00:35:18,148 --> 00:35:21,067 If the front line gets damaged, it's got to be repaired. 684 00:35:21,067 --> 00:35:22,777 Well, the people who are in the line, 685 00:35:22,777 --> 00:35:24,528 they've got to get on with it. 686 00:35:24,528 --> 00:35:28,991 I had in my mind that we expected big gunfire to light amongst 687 00:35:28,991 --> 00:35:32,327 all us cavalry and absolutely swipe us off the face of the Earth. 688 00:35:36,205 --> 00:35:38,124 I shouted, "Gallop!" like that. 689 00:35:38,124 --> 00:35:40,417 They dropped 'em all at once, the horses. 690 00:35:41,752 --> 00:35:44,003 Oh, a heck of a mess. 691 00:35:44,003 --> 00:35:47,007 The horses were laying down, with their intestines hanging out, 692 00:35:47,007 --> 00:35:50,050 and men with matter hanging out of theirs. 693 00:35:50,050 --> 00:35:52,552 "And that, boys," they said, "the bloody Germans!" 694 00:35:52,552 --> 00:35:55,556 To lose a horse was like losing a friend. 695 00:35:55,556 --> 00:35:58,349 The Brigadier turned to our captain and he says, 696 00:35:58,349 --> 00:36:00,352 "See that the boy has two or three days' rest. 697 00:36:00,352 --> 00:36:01,978 "When a boy likes an animal like that, 698 00:36:01,978 --> 00:36:04,438 "there's not a lot wrong with him." 699 00:36:04,438 --> 00:36:07,065 Over the whole of the front line, there was a smell. 700 00:36:07,065 --> 00:36:09,317 It wasn't a complicated smell, 701 00:36:09,317 --> 00:36:12,362 it was the smell of decaying corpses. 702 00:36:12,362 --> 00:36:14,572 Nasty, sickly smell. 703 00:36:14,572 --> 00:36:16,157 You never forgot that smell. 704 00:36:16,157 --> 00:36:18,743 FLIES BUZZ 705 00:36:18,743 --> 00:36:20,369 It was the smell of death. 706 00:36:20,369 --> 00:36:24,623 If you've ever smelt a dead mouse, it was like that, but hundreds 707 00:36:24,623 --> 00:36:26,582 and hundreds of times worse. 708 00:36:28,459 --> 00:36:29,919 It seemed to cling to everything. 709 00:36:29,919 --> 00:36:33,589 When you was having your food, you could taste it. 710 00:36:33,589 --> 00:36:38,635 The awful stench and bits of human bodies laying about, 711 00:36:38,635 --> 00:36:41,220 it became an everyday thing. 712 00:36:41,220 --> 00:36:44,432 We thought, well, it'll be you too next, what does it matter? 713 00:36:46,559 --> 00:36:50,770 Wherever there was a grave or a body, there were rats. 714 00:36:50,770 --> 00:36:51,980 They were all big fat ones 715 00:36:51,980 --> 00:36:54,649 and we knew where they got the fat from. 716 00:36:54,649 --> 00:37:00,029 Unpleasant animals, because of the filtration into the graves. 717 00:37:00,029 --> 00:37:03,407 They used to feed on the dead and come in the dugouts, 718 00:37:03,407 --> 00:37:04,950 pick up scraps in there. 719 00:37:04,950 --> 00:37:06,952 I woke up in the bottom of the trench 720 00:37:06,952 --> 00:37:09,412 and felt something warm on my face. 721 00:37:09,412 --> 00:37:12,415 And a little heart going bang, bang, bang. 722 00:37:12,415 --> 00:37:15,083 The devil scratched my face with the claws of his hind feet 723 00:37:15,083 --> 00:37:16,251 as he took off. 724 00:37:16,251 --> 00:37:18,670 We used to try and shoot them, hit them, kill them, 725 00:37:18,670 --> 00:37:20,171 chase them, do anything. 726 00:37:20,171 --> 00:37:21,715 GUNSHOTS AND BANGING, RATS SQUEAK 727 00:37:21,715 --> 00:37:23,757 Then you've got gas. 728 00:37:23,757 --> 00:37:26,886 We saw this green cloud coming towards us. 729 00:37:26,886 --> 00:37:28,929 Just rolling slowly along the ground. 730 00:37:28,929 --> 00:37:30,514 They'd shout "gas"... MEN SHOUT 731 00:37:30,514 --> 00:37:32,724 ..and you had to take your mask out and stick it on 732 00:37:32,724 --> 00:37:34,267 in two, three seconds. 733 00:37:34,267 --> 00:37:38,605 Yes, it was phosgene gas, later on there was mustard gas. 734 00:37:38,605 --> 00:37:40,522 That was very effective. 735 00:37:40,522 --> 00:37:43,692 I never saw a slightly gassed man. 736 00:37:43,692 --> 00:37:46,819 If you couldn't get your gas mask, you were to pee on your handkerchief 737 00:37:46,819 --> 00:37:49,072 and stuff this round your nose and mouth. 738 00:37:49,072 --> 00:37:51,574 I don't mind admitting that I didn't think much of the 739 00:37:51,574 --> 00:37:54,618 urinating on the handkerchief, so I went into one of 740 00:37:54,618 --> 00:37:58,163 the trench's latrines and I stuck my head in a bucket. 741 00:37:58,163 --> 00:38:00,414 But I'll tell you, I couldn't hold my breath any more, 742 00:38:00,414 --> 00:38:03,418 came up, took a good breath of air, down again. 743 00:38:03,418 --> 00:38:05,586 We were very soon enveloped in this thick, 744 00:38:05,586 --> 00:38:07,379 yellow, filthy cloud. 745 00:38:07,379 --> 00:38:10,674 The more we tried to get rid of the sting in our eyes, 746 00:38:10,674 --> 00:38:12,342 the worse it got. 747 00:38:14,427 --> 00:38:16,638 And I thought deeply of what the effect of blindness 748 00:38:16,638 --> 00:38:18,305 was going to be. 749 00:38:18,305 --> 00:38:22,267 The extraction of clotted blood and the injection of saline 750 00:38:22,267 --> 00:38:24,436 could alleviate a lot of the trouble. 751 00:38:24,436 --> 00:38:27,481 And as I was gassed myself, I can speak from experience. 752 00:38:29,774 --> 00:38:32,485 In the winter time, as the weather deteriorated, 753 00:38:32,485 --> 00:38:35,695 so the trenches got more and more sodden with water 754 00:38:35,695 --> 00:38:37,989 until they just became ditches. 755 00:38:37,989 --> 00:38:40,701 The water was swirling about our feet and rising higher 756 00:38:40,701 --> 00:38:44,161 and higher until it reached our chests. 757 00:38:44,161 --> 00:38:47,081 Our difficulty was frostbite. 758 00:38:47,081 --> 00:38:50,834 Our gumboots filled with water, and in the mornings we could not 759 00:38:50,834 --> 00:38:54,629 split them off because they were frozen to our feet. 760 00:38:54,629 --> 00:38:56,840 When you're talking about trench feet, 761 00:38:56,840 --> 00:38:58,424 you're talking about gangrene. 762 00:38:58,424 --> 00:39:02,762 Send him straight down the line, hack the legs off. 763 00:39:02,762 --> 00:39:04,638 Give us a hand with that, will you? 764 00:39:04,638 --> 00:39:08,809 When the water had soaked into the earth, the floors of the trenches 765 00:39:08,809 --> 00:39:13,729 were just paved with liquid mud, and that became like glue. 766 00:39:13,729 --> 00:39:17,858 It was a curious sucking kind of mud. 767 00:39:17,858 --> 00:39:20,443 Very disgusting indeed, very tenacious. 768 00:39:20,443 --> 00:39:22,112 It stuck to you. 769 00:39:22,112 --> 00:39:25,698 If one had to go to the rear for rations, 770 00:39:25,698 --> 00:39:28,117 well, that was just a nightmare journey. 771 00:39:28,117 --> 00:39:29,868 Slithering about. 772 00:39:29,868 --> 00:39:33,205 When it was pouring with rain and on slippery duck boards, 773 00:39:33,205 --> 00:39:35,665 the language was really edifying. 774 00:39:35,665 --> 00:39:38,459 You heard words that you never dream existed. 775 00:39:38,459 --> 00:39:41,671 And if you slipped off the duck boards, you just sank into the mud 776 00:39:41,671 --> 00:39:44,881 of decomposed bodies of humans and mules, 777 00:39:44,881 --> 00:39:47,217 and that was the end of you. 778 00:39:47,217 --> 00:39:50,595 The boy, he was in the middle of this huge sea of mud, struggling, 779 00:39:50,595 --> 00:39:52,221 and we couldn't do a thing. 780 00:39:52,221 --> 00:39:53,723 There was no hope of getting to him. 781 00:39:53,723 --> 00:39:56,517 The look on the lad's face, and he was a mere boy, 782 00:39:56,517 --> 00:39:58,561 was really pathetic. COUGHING AND SPLUTTERING 783 00:39:58,561 --> 00:40:02,230 I've seen men sinking into the mud and dying in the slime. 784 00:40:02,230 --> 00:40:04,899 I think it absolutely finished me off. 785 00:40:06,442 --> 00:40:08,944 It was supposed to be quiet and then you might get 786 00:40:08,944 --> 00:40:11,864 some drunken German saying, "I'm going to give them hell today," 787 00:40:11,864 --> 00:40:13,532 and opened up with all his batteries 788 00:40:13,532 --> 00:40:15,534 and catch hundreds of people in the line-up. 789 00:40:15,534 --> 00:40:19,078 And that was what they called holding the line. 790 00:40:19,078 --> 00:40:22,874 We were in conditions that isolated us completely from civilisation. 791 00:40:22,874 --> 00:40:27,252 We got so generate, so isolated living in this mud. 792 00:40:27,252 --> 00:40:31,005 And you could sympathise with how a rabbit must feel 793 00:40:31,005 --> 00:40:34,258 because we were hunted by mankind, just the same as a rabbit. 794 00:40:34,258 --> 00:40:36,760 You knew your lives were in one another's hands 795 00:40:36,760 --> 00:40:39,429 and it united you very closely and you didn't let anything 796 00:40:39,429 --> 00:40:41,431 interfere with that. 797 00:40:41,431 --> 00:40:43,850 You knew what was going on within your vision. 798 00:40:43,850 --> 00:40:46,769 Beyond that, you hadn't got a clue. HARMONICA PLAYS 799 00:40:46,769 --> 00:40:50,480 You didn't care how the war was going, whether we were winning. 800 00:40:50,480 --> 00:40:52,524 You weren't bothered with that at all. 801 00:40:52,524 --> 00:40:55,526 You lived like tramps, you didn't polish any buttons, 802 00:40:55,526 --> 00:40:59,238 you wore any uniformed bits that you liked and nobody worried. 803 00:40:59,238 --> 00:41:02,366 All they were concerned with was that you were fit to fight. 804 00:41:02,366 --> 00:41:04,535 If nothing's happening, you chat about life, 805 00:41:04,535 --> 00:41:06,787 where he came from and you came from. 806 00:41:06,787 --> 00:41:08,080 Everything was friendly. 807 00:41:08,080 --> 00:41:10,290 There was a terrific lot of kindness in a way, 808 00:41:10,290 --> 00:41:11,750 to each person. 809 00:41:11,750 --> 00:41:14,752 When the war was not very active, it was really rather fun 810 00:41:14,752 --> 00:41:16,337 to be in the front line. 811 00:41:16,337 --> 00:41:19,798 It was not very dangerous, the sort of outdoor camping holiday 812 00:41:19,798 --> 00:41:24,594 with the boys, with a slight spice of danger to make it interesting. 813 00:41:24,594 --> 00:41:28,305 We used to raid the trenches and get a prisoner if possible. 814 00:41:28,305 --> 00:41:32,184 And a typical trench raid would be perhaps eight in passing. 815 00:41:33,560 --> 00:41:35,813 If you was going to make a raid, somebody would cut 816 00:41:35,813 --> 00:41:38,064 a passage through the wire at night-time. 817 00:41:40,775 --> 00:41:43,026 The only way to do it was silently... 818 00:41:45,195 --> 00:41:47,447 ..to rush it, and that was the arrangement. 819 00:41:47,447 --> 00:41:49,741 We would bomb and bayonet the Germans coming out 820 00:41:49,741 --> 00:41:52,368 on their hands and knees out the dugout, we'd smack them 821 00:41:52,368 --> 00:41:54,954 over the head and throw in a couple of bombs. 822 00:41:59,500 --> 00:42:02,002 And there were three ways of getting rid of him. 823 00:42:02,002 --> 00:42:05,130 One was to knife him, garrotte him or to bayonet him. 824 00:42:05,130 --> 00:42:08,340 Quietest was the quick wrap around the throat 825 00:42:08,340 --> 00:42:09,842 and knife into the back. 826 00:42:13,846 --> 00:42:16,139 I threw a revolver at poor little Rudolph, 827 00:42:16,139 --> 00:42:17,474 he was only about 18. 828 00:42:17,474 --> 00:42:19,058 I hit him in the face with it. 829 00:42:19,058 --> 00:42:21,727 He screamed and came back at me, and that's when I got him. 830 00:42:21,727 --> 00:42:24,146 Got him with a Very pistol. 831 00:42:24,146 --> 00:42:25,981 Well done, chaps! Good raid! 832 00:42:25,981 --> 00:42:28,608 I always had a full flask and I gave him a drink. 833 00:42:28,608 --> 00:42:30,569 I felt very sorry for him. 834 00:42:30,569 --> 00:42:33,696 He said, "Danke schoen, das ist gut," and died. 835 00:42:41,327 --> 00:42:44,706 And it was a very successful raid, they got two prisoners, I think, 836 00:42:44,706 --> 00:42:46,958 which was all they all wanted. 837 00:42:46,958 --> 00:42:49,877 By the way, the men who were captured on the trench raid 838 00:42:49,877 --> 00:42:54,924 were the first Germans I saw on the Western Front. 839 00:42:54,924 --> 00:42:58,134 A lot of the German troops, they were very good, very friendly. 840 00:42:58,134 --> 00:43:01,971 In fact, some of those Bavarians were dammed good, decent people. 841 00:43:01,971 --> 00:43:04,264 The snipers would fire but not hit anybody, 842 00:43:04,264 --> 00:43:05,474 know what I mean? 843 00:43:07,309 --> 00:43:09,686 They put up a sign - "Gott mit uns." 844 00:43:09,686 --> 00:43:11,437 God is with us. 845 00:43:11,437 --> 00:43:14,524 And we put a sign up in English - "We've got mittens too!" 846 00:43:14,524 --> 00:43:17,151 We don't know if the Germans enjoyed that joke or not. 847 00:43:17,151 --> 00:43:20,278 There was a wounded German, he was a Wartenberger, I think. 848 00:43:20,278 --> 00:43:22,530 We did what we could for him, we gave him a bit of food 849 00:43:22,530 --> 00:43:26,242 and that sort of thing, and he was cursing the Prussians. 850 00:43:26,242 --> 00:43:30,496 The Saxons were in front of us and they gave us the warning 851 00:43:30,496 --> 00:43:34,083 that there were going to be relieved by the Prussians. 852 00:43:34,083 --> 00:43:37,127 And they said to us, "Give them hell." 853 00:43:37,127 --> 00:43:39,337 They hated the Prussians. 854 00:43:39,337 --> 00:43:41,256 The Prussians were cruel bastards. 855 00:43:43,591 --> 00:43:45,551 Hurry up! This way. Schnell, schnell! 856 00:43:45,551 --> 00:43:47,803 Watch yourself. Come along! 857 00:43:47,803 --> 00:43:49,847 The Bavarians or the Saxonians, 858 00:43:49,847 --> 00:43:52,224 they were the more civilised of the Germans. 859 00:43:52,224 --> 00:43:54,016 Part English, if anything. 860 00:43:57,103 --> 00:44:00,188 After a four-day spell in the front line, 861 00:44:00,188 --> 00:44:03,942 we were relieved and we had to march back to the billets 862 00:44:03,942 --> 00:44:06,277 a few miles behind the lines. 863 00:44:06,277 --> 00:44:09,822 We were going for a supposed one-week's rest. 864 00:44:09,822 --> 00:44:11,907 Everybody was dead whacked. 865 00:44:11,907 --> 00:44:13,742 We were all pretty knocked up. 866 00:44:13,742 --> 00:44:15,911 We extricated ourselves from the mud 867 00:44:15,911 --> 00:44:18,955 to what was, somewhat ironically, called rest. 868 00:44:18,955 --> 00:44:22,625 In the front line itself, you didn't criticise people 869 00:44:22,625 --> 00:44:25,252 and if you had a chap who was a bit dicky, 870 00:44:25,252 --> 00:44:27,713 you would keep an eye on him, just like in a family. 871 00:44:27,713 --> 00:44:30,340 But when you got out of the line, you'd want nothing to do 872 00:44:30,340 --> 00:44:31,758 with those people at all. 873 00:44:31,758 --> 00:44:33,968 I mean, you can't call it comradeship exactly, 874 00:44:33,968 --> 00:44:35,428 it was the way you did it. 875 00:44:35,428 --> 00:44:38,264 Come and get your mail! Welcome back! 876 00:44:38,264 --> 00:44:42,142 The thing which always struck me as being absolutely stupid 877 00:44:42,142 --> 00:44:46,604 was the next morning, every man had to be spick and span, 878 00:44:46,604 --> 00:44:48,189 not a trace of mud on him. 879 00:44:50,107 --> 00:44:53,819 You'd brush off clothes or dry them off the best way you could 880 00:44:53,819 --> 00:44:55,278 and clean your boots. 881 00:44:55,278 --> 00:44:57,906 In other words, smarten yourself up. 882 00:44:57,906 --> 00:45:00,992 THEY PLAY It's A Long Way To Tipperary 883 00:45:10,709 --> 00:45:13,211 The men would always appear the same - 884 00:45:13,211 --> 00:45:17,089 cheerful and, in the circumstances, happy as they could be, 885 00:45:17,089 --> 00:45:19,049 making the best of everything. 886 00:45:19,049 --> 00:45:21,593 You know, in true British fashion. 887 00:45:22,803 --> 00:45:26,974 What? The Cockney wit was prevalent and we were all lads together, 888 00:45:26,974 --> 00:45:30,101 you know, we didn't care about it. 889 00:45:30,101 --> 00:45:34,230 We'd make a fuss about nothing, the little things that didn't matter 890 00:45:34,230 --> 00:45:37,482 really, because it was something to fill the time in. 891 00:45:37,482 --> 00:45:40,234 We used to have to make our own amusements. 892 00:45:40,234 --> 00:45:41,528 Bloody bastard! 893 00:45:41,528 --> 00:45:43,196 You laughed at the slightest things. 894 00:45:43,196 --> 00:45:46,449 I think probably it was the general tension of the atmosphere 895 00:45:46,449 --> 00:45:48,617 that used to make us like that, you know? 896 00:45:50,702 --> 00:45:54,289 My mother sent me a parcel with a plum pudding, of all things, 897 00:45:54,289 --> 00:45:56,916 and had no thought of not being able to cook it, 898 00:45:56,916 --> 00:45:58,543 so we used it as a rugby ball. 899 00:46:00,211 --> 00:46:03,130 We had this regimental sports day. 900 00:46:03,130 --> 00:46:05,715 And I won't say I was the only sober one, 901 00:46:05,715 --> 00:46:08,926 but most of them were merry about it. 902 00:46:13,472 --> 00:46:15,390 MEN LAUGH AND SHOUT 903 00:46:17,101 --> 00:46:19,728 I mean, you took part in everything because you had to fill 904 00:46:19,728 --> 00:46:22,105 your time in, you know. 905 00:46:22,105 --> 00:46:24,149 Otherwise all you did was sit about and smoke. 906 00:46:24,149 --> 00:46:26,150 CHILDREN LAUGH 907 00:46:28,277 --> 00:46:31,863 The only time we saw the artillery was when we was out of rest. 908 00:46:31,863 --> 00:46:33,573 Fire! 909 00:46:36,158 --> 00:46:38,703 They would be, say, two miles behind the line. 910 00:46:40,413 --> 00:46:42,665 Fire! 911 00:46:42,665 --> 00:46:45,500 We wanted to neutralise enemy batteries, so we were registering 912 00:46:45,500 --> 00:46:47,336 our batteries on his. Fire! 913 00:46:49,713 --> 00:46:51,714 We used to know the line and elevation 914 00:46:51,714 --> 00:46:53,549 because it was done by aircraft. 915 00:46:55,843 --> 00:46:59,012 It was pretty ghastly, but the idea was to kill as many German gunners 916 00:46:59,012 --> 00:47:00,305 as you could. 917 00:47:00,305 --> 00:47:01,556 Ready! 918 00:47:03,474 --> 00:47:05,142 Fire! 919 00:47:11,649 --> 00:47:14,692 There was no motorised transport for guns. 920 00:47:14,692 --> 00:47:17,445 The guns used to be brought up by horses. 921 00:47:17,445 --> 00:47:19,072 Eight horses to each gun team. 922 00:47:19,072 --> 00:47:20,781 Four horses to each wagon team. 923 00:47:20,781 --> 00:47:22,282 About 60 horses. 924 00:47:23,826 --> 00:47:26,703 The gunners made a filthy noise, jingling and jingling 925 00:47:26,703 --> 00:47:28,705 and the horses making noises both ends. 926 00:47:28,705 --> 00:47:30,873 And it was always of great concern for those of us 927 00:47:30,873 --> 00:47:32,500 who were going into battle. 928 00:47:32,500 --> 00:47:35,211 Heave! MEN GRUNT, HORSES BRAY 929 00:47:36,837 --> 00:47:38,254 Heave! 930 00:47:43,301 --> 00:47:45,552 Each company officer paid his own company. 931 00:47:45,552 --> 00:47:49,181 Now, it was generally the first morning after we were out 932 00:47:49,181 --> 00:47:51,934 of the line, you got five francs. 933 00:47:51,934 --> 00:47:54,769 A franc was worth 10p, so 50p was your pay 934 00:47:54,769 --> 00:47:56,980 for a fortnight, 50p. 935 00:47:56,980 --> 00:47:59,982 Now, that's a week of riotous living. 936 00:47:59,982 --> 00:48:03,402 Every town of any size at all had a brothel 937 00:48:03,402 --> 00:48:07,030 and that was where most of these boys learned a little bit 938 00:48:07,030 --> 00:48:10,533 more about life than they would ever have done in normal civil life. 939 00:48:10,533 --> 00:48:13,452 So although they were young in years, it wasn't long 940 00:48:13,452 --> 00:48:16,080 before they were quite worldly men. 941 00:48:16,080 --> 00:48:18,499 One of the lads said, "Let's go and have a look 942 00:48:18,499 --> 00:48:21,168 "in the White Star. It's like a pub." 943 00:48:21,168 --> 00:48:23,837 I'd led a very sheltered life. 944 00:48:23,837 --> 00:48:27,673 And they were beautiful girls with just a piece of lace on, 945 00:48:27,673 --> 00:48:31,969 and, oh, my word, I'd never seen anything like it before! 946 00:48:31,969 --> 00:48:35,221 There was I, a young lad, knowing nothing about this, and off we go, 947 00:48:35,221 --> 00:48:38,433 and these men were going up to see the girls. 948 00:48:38,433 --> 00:48:40,810 I was very keen. I said to one of these fellas, 949 00:48:40,810 --> 00:48:42,478 "I've only got a sixpence." 950 00:48:42,478 --> 00:48:45,105 He said, "That's no good, it's a shilling." 951 00:48:45,105 --> 00:48:47,941 That was my first experience of a brothel. 952 00:48:47,941 --> 00:48:51,027 Anyway, we looked in there for a couple of minutes, 953 00:48:51,027 --> 00:48:54,030 when four or five naked girls came running down the corridor. 954 00:48:54,030 --> 00:48:56,282 We turned tail and ran! 955 00:48:56,282 --> 00:48:58,408 It was an eye-opener to me. 956 00:48:58,408 --> 00:49:00,785 There she stood, great, big woman, 957 00:49:00,785 --> 00:49:03,329 with this little cane in her hand and she belted my backside 958 00:49:03,329 --> 00:49:04,831 as if I was a little schoolboy. 959 00:49:04,831 --> 00:49:07,167 Pelted Sergeant this and pelted Sergeant the other, 960 00:49:07,167 --> 00:49:08,834 thump, thump, thump, thump, thump! 961 00:49:08,834 --> 00:49:11,253 HE LAUGHS 962 00:49:11,253 --> 00:49:12,796 Oh, gambling? 963 00:49:12,796 --> 00:49:14,423 People were gambling all day long. 964 00:49:14,423 --> 00:49:17,050 The Canadians and the Australians used a gamble terrific 965 00:49:17,050 --> 00:49:18,468 amounts of money. 966 00:49:18,468 --> 00:49:20,094 More money than any of us seen. 967 00:49:23,639 --> 00:49:25,724 The beer was very thin indeed. 968 00:49:25,724 --> 00:49:30,228 It was one and nine stuff - one pint, nine piddles. 969 00:49:30,228 --> 00:49:33,439 Friday was always the issue day for cigarettes 970 00:49:33,439 --> 00:49:36,317 and the cigarettes were Three Witches, 971 00:49:36,317 --> 00:49:39,944 which soon became Three Bitches or Red Hue Tsars. 972 00:49:39,944 --> 00:49:44,157 I think they were made from stable returns. 973 00:49:44,157 --> 00:49:48,118 But generally, in good-sized villages, you could get Woodbines 974 00:49:48,118 --> 00:49:54,374 and Player's, and they were far preferable to the issue cigarettes. 975 00:49:54,374 --> 00:49:57,169 Of course, we were always bartering with the Frenchmen. 976 00:49:57,169 --> 00:49:59,170 We used to barter some of our under-clothing 977 00:49:59,170 --> 00:50:01,255 and get a loaf of bread with it. 978 00:50:01,255 --> 00:50:04,883 We used to swap our British cigarettes for their French wine. 979 00:50:04,883 --> 00:50:08,428 It could be just as tiring out of the line as in the line 980 00:50:08,428 --> 00:50:10,179 and it was sometimes worse. 981 00:50:10,179 --> 00:50:12,140 If you were chosen for fatigue, 982 00:50:12,140 --> 00:50:15,142 you'd have to go on the working party. 983 00:50:15,142 --> 00:50:19,355 You collected stores from a big dump three or four miles back. 984 00:50:19,355 --> 00:50:21,982 Enormous bundles of sandbags, 985 00:50:21,982 --> 00:50:25,568 many made-up duck boards and, worst of all, barbed wire. 986 00:50:26,944 --> 00:50:28,570 It was always hard work. 987 00:50:28,570 --> 00:50:32,115 You were a bonny labouring boy more than you were a fighter. 988 00:50:32,115 --> 00:50:35,202 All the chaps were very tired, but it made no difference. 989 00:50:35,202 --> 00:50:37,119 And they were mentally tired out. 990 00:50:37,119 --> 00:50:39,247 They'd just come out of a trench tour for a rest 991 00:50:39,247 --> 00:50:41,707 and this was the kind of rest they were getting. 992 00:50:43,166 --> 00:50:47,421 You would be carrying stuff up on a light railway. 993 00:50:47,421 --> 00:50:51,382 Yes, they laid a narrow gauge, light railway track. 994 00:50:51,382 --> 00:50:55,219 It was the simplest of things, just platforms on wheels, 995 00:50:55,219 --> 00:50:57,429 driven by light locomotives. 996 00:51:05,562 --> 00:51:07,689 Light railways were always a blooming nuisance 997 00:51:07,689 --> 00:51:10,691 because they were always coming off the track. 998 00:51:10,691 --> 00:51:14,569 And they lost control of this truck going down a slight incline 999 00:51:14,569 --> 00:51:16,821 and it would barge into the one in front, 1000 00:51:16,821 --> 00:51:21,159 which scattered the duck boards all over the place. 1001 00:51:21,159 --> 00:51:24,579 We used to take our mess tins up to the engine driver 1002 00:51:24,579 --> 00:51:27,914 and get some boiling water for our brew-up of tea. 1003 00:51:31,001 --> 00:51:32,460 And another. 1004 00:51:34,796 --> 00:51:39,300 The Germans could see the steam and smoke from the steam engine. 1005 00:51:39,300 --> 00:51:41,969 So then it was mostly petrol engines 1006 00:51:41,969 --> 00:51:44,471 which used to run up to the trenches. 1007 00:51:47,348 --> 00:51:50,309 The light railway only went as far as the communication trench, 1008 00:51:50,309 --> 00:51:53,020 and then we had to push the thing along by hand. 1009 00:51:56,940 --> 00:51:59,275 Somebody came along and said, "This is it, we're going 1010 00:51:59,275 --> 00:52:00,860 "to be home by Christmas! 1011 00:52:00,860 --> 00:52:02,528 "We'll just go down the road 1012 00:52:02,528 --> 00:52:04,906 "and look in a field there, you'll see." 1013 00:52:04,906 --> 00:52:07,199 Wouldn't tell us why. Anyway, we went down. 1014 00:52:07,199 --> 00:52:10,535 They were on the roadside covered with tarpaulin sheets. 1015 00:52:10,535 --> 00:52:14,413 You could see nothing except a square outline. 1016 00:52:14,413 --> 00:52:17,291 And then the officer said, "These are supposed to be hush-hush." 1017 00:52:17,291 --> 00:52:20,335 When we asked what it was, the simple reply was "tanks". 1018 00:52:20,335 --> 00:52:24,298 Knowing the shortage of water, we naturally assumed water tanks 1019 00:52:24,298 --> 00:52:26,633 and thought that we were getting reserve supplies. 1020 00:52:26,633 --> 00:52:29,051 It was one of the best-kept secrets. 1021 00:52:29,051 --> 00:52:31,428 We were delighted because these wonderful machines 1022 00:52:31,428 --> 00:52:32,763 were going to win the war. 1023 00:52:34,265 --> 00:52:36,266 Soon everybody would be home again. 1024 00:52:36,266 --> 00:52:38,309 Of course, it didn't happen like that. 1025 00:52:41,103 --> 00:52:45,357 We were taken out of the line and had intensive training. 1026 00:52:45,357 --> 00:52:49,652 Plunge the bayonet into the sack, shout like hell. 1027 00:52:49,652 --> 00:52:53,239 It was to get used to plunging them into somebody's body. 1028 00:52:53,239 --> 00:52:55,992 Then we fired our rifles on the rifle range. 1029 00:53:03,290 --> 00:53:05,834 Firing rifle grenades is a specialist job. 1030 00:53:07,960 --> 00:53:09,545 But they were clumsy. 1031 00:53:10,755 --> 00:53:12,548 I didn't like them much. 1032 00:53:14,133 --> 00:53:18,261 Forced marching, marching without a rest and also a frontal attack, 1033 00:53:18,261 --> 00:53:20,680 right flank attack, left flank attack, 1034 00:53:20,680 --> 00:53:23,016 both flanks attack, night attack, 1035 00:53:23,016 --> 00:53:25,559 and we wondered what the devil all this training was for. 1036 00:53:25,559 --> 00:53:28,478 BAGPIPES PLAY 1037 00:53:28,478 --> 00:53:31,690 The corps commander said that he had just received instructions 1038 00:53:31,690 --> 00:53:35,818 to go ahead with an operation to break through the German lines. 1039 00:53:37,903 --> 00:53:40,655 Suddenly we were called to parade with full marching order, 1040 00:53:40,655 --> 00:53:43,492 and we had to go back up the front, and we'd only been out of the line 1041 00:53:43,492 --> 00:53:44,910 a couple of days. 1042 00:53:44,910 --> 00:53:48,746 We could see streams of supplies, mostly ammunition columns, 1043 00:53:48,746 --> 00:53:51,082 going up toward the front. 1044 00:53:51,082 --> 00:53:53,459 We didn't have a lot of notice, but we knew it was going 1045 00:53:53,459 --> 00:53:54,918 to be a big advance. 1046 00:54:09,306 --> 00:54:10,807 So batteries pushed forward, 1047 00:54:10,807 --> 00:54:13,101 forward positions filled up with ammunition. 1048 00:54:13,101 --> 00:54:15,645 Let's get these ladders up. 1049 00:54:15,645 --> 00:54:19,648 As the great push drew nearer, the line livened up. It began to get 1050 00:54:19,648 --> 00:54:22,318 much more dangerous and not nearly so much fun. 1051 00:54:22,318 --> 00:54:25,195 And we learnt that a bayonet charge was to be made 1052 00:54:25,195 --> 00:54:28,323 on German machine gunners. 1053 00:54:28,323 --> 00:54:31,284 "I wish it to be impressed on all ranks, the importance 1054 00:54:31,284 --> 00:54:33,994 "of the operations about to commence. 1055 00:54:33,994 --> 00:54:36,746 "The Germans are now outnumbered and outgunned 1056 00:54:36,746 --> 00:54:38,998 "and will soon go to pieces if every man goes 1057 00:54:38,998 --> 00:54:41,125 "into the fight determined to get through 1058 00:54:41,125 --> 00:54:43,211 "whatever the local difficulties may be. 1059 00:54:43,211 --> 00:54:46,296 "I am confident that the brigade will distinguish itself in this, 1060 00:54:46,296 --> 00:54:47,714 "its first battle. 1061 00:54:47,714 --> 00:54:51,342 "Let every man remember that all England is watching him." 1062 00:54:51,342 --> 00:54:55,055 We marched all through the night, and it got so bad that officers 1063 00:54:55,055 --> 00:54:58,808 at the side were pushing men back into line who were straggling out, 1064 00:54:58,808 --> 00:55:02,395 and your legs just seemed to go automatically forward. 1065 00:55:02,395 --> 00:55:04,897 I had a feeling that we were walking in our sleep. 1066 00:55:04,897 --> 00:55:06,690 More men were brought into the line, 1067 00:55:06,690 --> 00:55:09,693 regiments were crowded up closer together. 1068 00:55:09,693 --> 00:55:13,821 We were filling up the trenches, packed in like sardines. 1069 00:55:13,821 --> 00:55:17,741 Our captain was a splendid man. He would never bark an order at you, 1070 00:55:17,741 --> 00:55:20,368 he would give an order in a conversational way. 1071 00:55:20,368 --> 00:55:22,495 "We don't know exactly how far this trench is, 1072 00:55:22,495 --> 00:55:25,372 "but between 200 and 300 yards. 1073 00:55:25,372 --> 00:55:28,542 "I will go over with the first wave and you will be in the second wave. 1074 00:55:28,542 --> 00:55:32,004 "And as soon as the curtain fire starts, we'll move. 1075 00:55:32,004 --> 00:55:34,506 "Now, go along and tell your men to be ready." 1076 00:55:34,506 --> 00:55:37,341 And this is the sort of order we got. 1077 00:55:37,341 --> 00:55:40,428 I had two assorted companies, both ignorant of what their conduct 1078 00:55:40,428 --> 00:55:42,137 would be when they got into action. 1079 00:55:42,137 --> 00:55:45,015 So Captain Neville thought it might be helpful if he could furnish 1080 00:55:45,015 --> 00:55:47,767 each platoon with a football and allow them to kick it forward 1081 00:55:47,767 --> 00:55:49,144 and follow it. 1082 00:55:49,144 --> 00:55:51,562 I think myself that it did help them enormously, 1083 00:55:51,562 --> 00:55:53,439 it took their minds off it. 1084 00:55:53,439 --> 00:55:56,733 We had an extra bandolier of ammunition around our necks, 1085 00:55:56,733 --> 00:55:59,319 and if you didn't have a shovel, you had a pick. 1086 00:55:59,319 --> 00:56:02,447 We got in the trenches and we waited for zero hour. 1087 00:56:02,447 --> 00:56:05,199 All the watches were synchronised. 1088 00:56:05,199 --> 00:56:07,576 I was what's called a first bayonet man, 1089 00:56:07,576 --> 00:56:09,912 which meant that I carried the rifle with the bayonet 1090 00:56:09,912 --> 00:56:11,413 in the attacking position, 1091 00:56:11,413 --> 00:56:13,748 and the rest of the men carried bags of bombs. 1092 00:56:16,209 --> 00:56:18,919 And we were warned to be ready to advance at any moment. 1093 00:56:18,919 --> 00:56:22,131 "Any moment" was quite a long time coming and, of course, that added 1094 00:56:22,131 --> 00:56:24,133 to the tension that we were feeling. 1095 00:56:26,259 --> 00:56:29,679 My platoon had been told to go out and test the fire. 1096 00:56:29,679 --> 00:56:32,557 We had to get out and walk towards the enemy. 1097 00:56:32,557 --> 00:56:37,185 We went about 200 yards and then they called us back again. 1098 00:56:37,185 --> 00:56:41,148 There was to be no preliminary bombardment the days beforehand, 1099 00:56:41,148 --> 00:56:45,109 there was only one short, sharp barrage just before the battle. 1100 00:56:47,153 --> 00:56:49,905 You've got to have the artillery preparation 1101 00:56:49,905 --> 00:56:51,656 to smash their wire down. 1102 00:56:51,656 --> 00:56:52,949 Fire! 1103 00:56:52,949 --> 00:56:57,078 I ordered fire on possible enemy assembly and forming-up positions. 1104 00:56:57,078 --> 00:57:01,540 The bombardment started and the ground shook. 1105 00:57:03,375 --> 00:57:07,963 And we could see the hundreds and hundreds of gun flashes. 1106 00:57:09,089 --> 00:57:10,715 Ready, fire! 1107 00:57:19,973 --> 00:57:23,977 As soon as the bombardment started, the German retaliation came. 1108 00:57:27,772 --> 00:57:30,149 For four hours, we had to sit there and take everything 1109 00:57:30,149 --> 00:57:31,816 they slung at us. 1110 00:57:33,235 --> 00:57:36,112 And first of all, a large number of tanks went in. 1111 00:57:36,112 --> 00:57:39,324 We could hear them rumbling and rattling. 1112 00:57:39,324 --> 00:57:41,993 320 tanks crawling along. 1113 00:57:41,993 --> 00:57:44,953 We waited for the signal to move off. 1114 00:57:44,953 --> 00:57:49,791 Already, everybody was anxious to go, but we waited and waited. 1115 00:57:51,835 --> 00:57:54,045 We got no sleep at all that night, owing to the noise 1116 00:57:54,045 --> 00:57:58,799 of our artillery barrage, which was continuous, the whole time. 1117 00:57:58,799 --> 00:58:01,385 We was asked to hand over any personal belongings 1118 00:58:01,385 --> 00:58:04,720 to our company officer, such as photographs and letters 1119 00:58:04,720 --> 00:58:07,390 that we valued. 1120 00:58:07,390 --> 00:58:10,601 I heard soft voices talking to one another quietly, 1121 00:58:10,601 --> 00:58:13,604 and I wondered - how many are going to live to see the sun rise? 1122 00:58:13,604 --> 00:58:16,481 In a man's pay book, there was provision for making a valid will 1123 00:58:16,481 --> 00:58:19,025 if they were going into action for the first time. 1124 00:58:19,025 --> 00:58:21,402 I didn't bother with it, I had nothing to leave anybody. 1125 00:58:21,402 --> 00:58:23,196 HE LAUGHS 1126 00:58:23,196 --> 00:58:26,031 The fellow next to you, he was your best friend. 1127 00:58:26,031 --> 00:58:28,575 You perhaps didn't know him the day before. 1128 00:58:28,575 --> 00:58:30,827 And then an hour to go, they were the longest 1129 00:58:30,827 --> 00:58:33,537 and the shortest hours in life. 1130 00:58:33,537 --> 00:58:35,915 We had unlimited time for thinking, 1131 00:58:35,915 --> 00:58:39,084 and I know I found myself thinking much more deeply 1132 00:58:39,084 --> 00:58:41,795 than I had ever thought before. 1133 00:58:41,795 --> 00:58:43,797 Some people might be incapable of thinking, 1134 00:58:43,797 --> 00:58:46,216 they might have regarded the situation as being such 1135 00:58:46,216 --> 00:58:47,925 that they were incapable of thought. 1136 00:58:47,925 --> 00:58:49,927 I don't think there was any feeling of fear, 1137 00:58:49,927 --> 00:58:52,305 it was just that we were doing a job 1138 00:58:52,305 --> 00:58:54,431 and if it came, it came. 1139 00:58:54,431 --> 00:58:59,018 We realised that, sooner or later, we were going to get the chop. 1140 00:58:59,018 --> 00:59:01,395 You were either going to be killed or wounded. 1141 00:59:01,395 --> 00:59:04,607 I was not in the least frightened being killed, 1142 00:59:04,607 --> 00:59:08,443 but I was terrified lest I should lose an arm or a leg. 1143 00:59:08,443 --> 00:59:11,612 Waiting for an hour for an attack is not a very pleasant thing. 1144 00:59:11,612 --> 00:59:15,866 We sort of chatted away, trying to keep the spirits up, you see. 1145 00:59:15,866 --> 00:59:19,578 We told dirty stories and made crude remarks. 1146 00:59:19,578 --> 00:59:22,455 We had 1,000 guns massed on a mile front behind us. 1147 00:59:22,455 --> 00:59:24,791 Well, you can imagine all this stuff coming over you, 1148 00:59:24,791 --> 00:59:26,834 we had the German stuff coming the other way. 1149 00:59:26,834 --> 00:59:30,796 The noise rose to a crescendo such as I'd never heard before. 1150 00:59:30,796 --> 00:59:32,840 You wouldn't hear a word. 1151 00:59:32,840 --> 00:59:36,968 The shells were passing over you probably three foot, four foot. 1152 00:59:36,968 --> 00:59:40,846 And the air, it was an inferno, and your line was another inferno. 1153 00:59:40,846 --> 00:59:43,140 Reason was completely blasted out of it. 1154 00:59:43,140 --> 00:59:46,518 The bombardment created a sort of hysterical feeling. 1155 00:59:46,518 --> 00:59:48,937 All of a sudden, one of our fellas started crying, 1156 00:59:48,937 --> 00:59:51,856 really screaming and crying. The officer in charge telling 1157 00:59:51,856 --> 00:59:55,610 the Sergeant, "Find that man and shoot him, shoot him!" 1158 00:59:55,610 --> 00:59:58,112 It's difficult to explain the reaction of a man 1159 00:59:58,112 --> 01:00:00,656 when he is in a big bombardment. 1160 01:00:00,656 --> 01:00:04,409 He thought that this man's screaming and crying would be a danger 1161 01:00:04,409 --> 01:00:06,202 to the rest of the men. 1162 01:00:06,202 --> 01:00:08,621 As soon as it was light, we were given a ration of rum, 1163 01:00:08,621 --> 01:00:10,998 any amount of it, as much as you can drink. 1164 01:00:10,998 --> 01:00:13,333 And we got the order to fix bayonets. 1165 01:00:13,333 --> 01:00:15,294 Fix bayonets! Fix bayonets! 1166 01:00:15,294 --> 01:00:16,920 Bayonets fixed! 1167 01:00:16,920 --> 01:00:21,132 It was a beautiful day, the way it dawned after a rainy night. 1168 01:00:21,132 --> 01:00:22,508 A beautiful day. 1169 01:00:22,508 --> 01:00:26,678 Five minutes to go, I remember those lads standing there, dead silent, 1170 01:00:26,678 --> 01:00:28,221 couldn't make a noise. 1171 01:00:28,221 --> 01:00:30,933 I was more frightened sitting, waiting to start. 1172 01:00:30,933 --> 01:00:33,726 I was very frightened then, very frightened indeed. 1173 01:00:33,726 --> 01:00:37,313 And an officer shouted along the line, "Is everybody ready?" 1174 01:00:37,313 --> 01:00:40,315 And I called out, "I can't get my bayonet on my rifle, sir." 1175 01:00:40,315 --> 01:00:42,734 And he said, "Damn you, mate, hurry up." 1176 01:00:42,734 --> 01:00:44,986 I sent back a message to brigade headquarters 1177 01:00:44,986 --> 01:00:46,487 to say we were all ready. 1178 01:00:46,487 --> 01:00:48,823 But unfortunately a slight mistake occurred. 1179 01:00:48,823 --> 01:00:51,867 The first thing they knew was a terrific tremor on the ground. 1180 01:00:51,867 --> 01:00:54,911 We blew a mine, which should have been under the German trenches 1181 01:00:54,911 --> 01:00:56,538 but it wasn't. 1182 01:00:59,957 --> 01:01:02,669 It was in no-man's-land, and that gave the Germans five minutes 1183 01:01:02,669 --> 01:01:04,836 to occupy the crater, which they did. 1184 01:01:07,673 --> 01:01:11,301 Sergeant Moore, he was standing behind the trench with a revolver 1185 01:01:11,301 --> 01:01:14,428 in his hand and he said, "Any boy goes back, I shoot them." 1186 01:01:14,428 --> 01:01:17,806 So that if we didn't go one way, we wouldn't go the other. 1187 01:01:17,806 --> 01:01:20,309 There wasn't a reluctance to go over the top, 1188 01:01:20,309 --> 01:01:21,977 not with people I were with. 1189 01:01:21,977 --> 01:01:23,603 Fire! 1190 01:01:25,355 --> 01:01:26,731 Fire! 1191 01:01:26,731 --> 01:01:29,942 They put a curtain of shells over you and you advanced. 1192 01:01:31,235 --> 01:01:33,070 That was the theory, I think. 1193 01:01:33,070 --> 01:01:34,863 Fire! Fire! 1194 01:01:34,863 --> 01:01:37,783 I realised this was the moment of the assault. 1195 01:01:37,783 --> 01:01:39,492 And then zero hour. 1196 01:01:39,492 --> 01:01:42,536 Somebody shouted, "There they go!" BAGPIPES PLAY 1197 01:01:42,536 --> 01:01:45,206 To the left were the London Scottish, running forward. 1198 01:01:45,206 --> 01:01:47,791 I gave the order of "up the ladders, over the top". 1199 01:01:47,791 --> 01:01:50,002 WHISTLE BLOWS 1200 01:01:51,128 --> 01:01:54,130 And after this, you lived in a world of noise, 1201 01:01:54,130 --> 01:01:56,091 simply noise for hours. 1202 01:01:59,593 --> 01:02:02,304 As soon as you get over the top, fear has left you. 1203 01:02:02,304 --> 01:02:05,265 You didn't run, there was no shouting nor cheering, 1204 01:02:05,265 --> 01:02:07,309 everybody was deadly quiet. 1205 01:02:07,309 --> 01:02:10,436 Just as I stepped into no-man's-land, somebody was shot 1206 01:02:10,436 --> 01:02:13,647 through the head and his skull was splintered. 1207 01:02:13,647 --> 01:02:16,399 It wasn't a good send-off, I can assure you. 1208 01:02:16,399 --> 01:02:22,321 The barrage proceeded into the enemy lines in steps of 100 yards 1209 01:02:22,321 --> 01:02:23,739 at a time. 1210 01:02:23,739 --> 01:02:26,241 Fire! 1211 01:02:26,241 --> 01:02:29,203 The line of British troops, fixed bayonets, walking quite steadily 1212 01:02:29,203 --> 01:02:30,995 behind the barrage. 1213 01:02:30,995 --> 01:02:32,789 It is a sight I shall never forget. 1214 01:02:32,789 --> 01:02:35,875 To start with, we'd had the odd machinegun firing, 1215 01:02:35,875 --> 01:02:39,545 but remarkably little, and it seemed almost too good to be true. 1216 01:02:39,545 --> 01:02:43,674 We then realised the Germans had been containing their fire 1217 01:02:43,674 --> 01:02:46,634 until they saw how far the attack was developing. 1218 01:02:46,634 --> 01:02:50,388 Unknown to us, there was 10 to 20 German machine guns. 1219 01:02:50,388 --> 01:02:52,681 Then all hell broke loose. 1220 01:02:52,681 --> 01:02:55,976 And, my God, he really opened up and he let us have it. 1221 01:02:55,976 --> 01:02:57,602 It just swept us. 1222 01:02:57,602 --> 01:02:59,604 MACHINE-GUNFIRE 1223 01:02:59,604 --> 01:03:01,647 MEN SHOUT 1224 01:03:03,566 --> 01:03:05,360 Keep moving, laddie! 1225 01:03:10,322 --> 01:03:13,199 MEN SCREAM AND SHOUT 1226 01:03:15,034 --> 01:03:18,370 Machinegun bullets came at us like hailstones. 1227 01:03:18,370 --> 01:03:21,540 I didn't realise that it was swish, swish with bullets. 1228 01:03:21,540 --> 01:03:24,334 I looked round and people were dropping all round you. 1229 01:03:24,334 --> 01:03:27,671 I mean, they just faded away on either side of you. 1230 01:03:27,671 --> 01:03:31,340 And I thought, what are they shooting at me for? 1231 01:03:31,340 --> 01:03:35,052 I hadn't gone more than a few yards before I was shot in the thigh. 1232 01:03:35,052 --> 01:03:37,637 There was a captain alongside me with his revolver out 1233 01:03:37,637 --> 01:03:39,390 and, all of a sudden, he dropped. 1234 01:03:39,390 --> 01:03:41,599 And then another chap, he was hit in the leg, 1235 01:03:41,599 --> 01:03:46,437 but he continued with great bounds, hopping on one leg. 1236 01:03:46,437 --> 01:03:49,690 When the bullets hit the tank, the metal flakes were whirling 1237 01:03:49,690 --> 01:03:52,025 around like razor blades inside the tank. 1238 01:03:52,025 --> 01:03:54,652 You could see men dropping, but you didn't take any notice. 1239 01:03:54,652 --> 01:03:56,863 If you didn't get hit, you just carried on. 1240 01:03:56,863 --> 01:03:59,490 I suddenly found myself with a terrible pain in my left hand 1241 01:03:59,490 --> 01:04:02,576 as if someone had caned me, and I found a big hole in it. 1242 01:04:02,576 --> 01:04:06,120 A man was running across the front of me and he was shot to the body 1243 01:04:06,120 --> 01:04:10,750 because the contents of his wallet were flung out forward of me. 1244 01:04:10,750 --> 01:04:13,168 I felt a terrific bang on my right arm 1245 01:04:13,168 --> 01:04:16,213 and the blood started running off the end of my hand. 1246 01:04:16,213 --> 01:04:18,632 I just didn't think that this German machinegun would 1247 01:04:18,632 --> 01:04:20,967 trouble to even fire at me, but the next thing I felt 1248 01:04:20,967 --> 01:04:24,804 a shock of quite a number of bullets hitting the right side of my body. 1249 01:04:24,804 --> 01:04:28,724 A hare crossed my path with eyes bulging in fear, 1250 01:04:28,724 --> 01:04:32,102 but I felt that it couldn't have been half as frightened as I was. 1251 01:04:32,102 --> 01:04:34,688 You could see your mates going down right and left, 1252 01:04:34,688 --> 01:04:37,481 and you were face-to-face with the stark realisation 1253 01:04:37,481 --> 01:04:38,982 that this was the end of it. 1254 01:04:38,982 --> 01:04:42,236 The two in front of me went down wounded in the head and chest. 1255 01:04:42,236 --> 01:04:44,988 Those bloody bullets got me in the leg and blew a great big hole 1256 01:04:44,988 --> 01:04:48,074 in the back. It didn't hurt. 1257 01:04:48,074 --> 01:04:50,326 Life was very, very hazardous indeed 1258 01:04:50,326 --> 01:04:52,579 and we proceeded in this fashion, some getting hit 1259 01:04:52,579 --> 01:04:54,080 and others carrying along. 1260 01:04:54,080 --> 01:04:56,248 You hadn't got time to deliberate upon things. 1261 01:04:56,248 --> 01:04:58,917 Machinegun bullets might be coming over, but they weren't 1262 01:04:58,917 --> 01:05:01,753 hitting you and you just go on. 1263 01:05:01,753 --> 01:05:04,881 They say your past comes up when you think you're going to die, 1264 01:05:04,881 --> 01:05:07,633 but I hadn't got very much past at 19. 1265 01:05:07,633 --> 01:05:10,010 And when I saw these bullets coming along, 1266 01:05:10,010 --> 01:05:12,387 all I thought was - am I going to live? 1267 01:05:12,387 --> 01:05:14,598 Of course, if the thing hits you fair and square 1268 01:05:14,598 --> 01:05:17,267 and you die immediately, you don't feel anything at all, 1269 01:05:17,267 --> 01:05:19,185 nothing to it. 1270 01:05:19,185 --> 01:05:21,937 First wave were all absolutely wiped out. 1271 01:05:21,937 --> 01:05:23,939 Everybody was either killed or wounded. 1272 01:05:23,939 --> 01:05:26,525 There were so many dead laying about, it was hard to avoid 1273 01:05:26,525 --> 01:05:27,901 treading on them. 1274 01:05:27,901 --> 01:05:30,612 I was trying to step over them and the sergeant behind me said, 1275 01:05:30,612 --> 01:05:32,614 "Go on, you mustn't take any notice of that, 1276 01:05:32,614 --> 01:05:34,323 "you keep going." 1277 01:05:34,323 --> 01:05:37,034 And we were literally walking over the dead bodies 1278 01:05:37,034 --> 01:05:38,493 of our comrades. 1279 01:05:38,493 --> 01:05:41,830 The carnage is just indescribable. 1280 01:05:41,830 --> 01:05:44,958 I had in my path about 2,000 dead, British and German. 1281 01:05:44,958 --> 01:05:48,628 An attempt to clear any dead man from our path was impossible 1282 01:05:48,628 --> 01:05:52,547 because of the shelling and we ploughed over the lot. 1283 01:05:52,547 --> 01:05:55,759 Any shell bursting within a few yards of the tank 1284 01:05:55,759 --> 01:05:58,136 seemed to lift it up in the air 1285 01:05:58,136 --> 01:06:01,931 and you felt a tremendous back pressure. 1286 01:06:01,931 --> 01:06:04,600 The noise of battle when you're out in the middle of it 1287 01:06:04,600 --> 01:06:08,186 is so terrific that you don't hear any individual shots even. 1288 01:06:08,186 --> 01:06:11,147 And we had to stop in front of the German wire. 1289 01:06:11,147 --> 01:06:13,983 It was quite impossible to advance any further because of the 1290 01:06:13,983 --> 01:06:16,652 barbed wire and the machinegun posts, which were about 1291 01:06:16,652 --> 01:06:18,112 50 yards further on. 1292 01:06:18,112 --> 01:06:20,405 The wire in front of us was quite uncut, 1293 01:06:20,405 --> 01:06:22,365 despite the intense bombardment. 1294 01:06:22,365 --> 01:06:24,367 You couldn't see anything but this wire, 1295 01:06:24,367 --> 01:06:26,702 it seemed to be acres and acres of it. 1296 01:06:26,702 --> 01:06:29,288 It was just black with rust. 1297 01:06:29,288 --> 01:06:31,915 I don't think a rabbit could have got through it. 1298 01:06:31,915 --> 01:06:35,085 Then our own artillery started dropping shells amongst us. 1299 01:06:38,505 --> 01:06:40,297 SCREAMING 1300 01:06:41,340 --> 01:06:43,842 Obviously they hadn't got their range or they didn't know 1301 01:06:43,842 --> 01:06:45,928 where we were. 1302 01:06:45,928 --> 01:06:49,348 I heard the first shrapnel shell burst above my head. 1303 01:06:49,348 --> 01:06:51,933 There was a terrific whiz, that was the disappearance 1304 01:06:51,933 --> 01:06:53,892 of my steel helmet. 1305 01:06:53,892 --> 01:06:55,770 I never found it again. 1306 01:06:55,770 --> 01:06:59,106 I got a bit off the cheek of my backside, a piece in my hip, 1307 01:06:59,106 --> 01:07:02,442 a piece in my leg, then a piece right through my leg. 1308 01:07:02,442 --> 01:07:05,070 The fellow to my left took the full blast of the shell 1309 01:07:05,070 --> 01:07:07,489 and had half his head blown away. 1310 01:07:07,489 --> 01:07:10,699 Bullets were catching us and shrapnel was coming down overhead 1311 01:07:10,699 --> 01:07:13,911 and we had all the German artillery banging away at us 1312 01:07:13,911 --> 01:07:15,828 and our own artillery going over. 1313 01:07:15,828 --> 01:07:17,705 The shells were exploding all round you 1314 01:07:17,705 --> 01:07:20,458 and it was a real good old battle and it got hold of you, sort of. 1315 01:07:20,458 --> 01:07:23,043 BAGPIPES PLAY 1316 01:07:23,043 --> 01:07:27,297 One had no sanity at all because the inferno was so blasting 1317 01:07:27,297 --> 01:07:29,549 that you had no time to think. 1318 01:07:29,549 --> 01:07:34,720 That din, that numbing din seemed to stop one doing the things 1319 01:07:34,720 --> 01:07:38,307 that one would normally do, no matter how well-intentioned one was. 1320 01:07:39,891 --> 01:07:41,477 You don't look, you see. 1321 01:07:41,477 --> 01:07:43,145 You don't hear, you listen. 1322 01:07:43,145 --> 01:07:45,480 You taste the top of your mouth, your nose is filled 1323 01:07:45,480 --> 01:07:47,231 with fumes and death. 1324 01:07:47,231 --> 01:07:50,568 The veneer of civilisation has dropped away. 1325 01:07:50,568 --> 01:07:54,154 I was literally blown about 12 or 14 yards and all that I could hear 1326 01:07:54,154 --> 01:07:56,865 was the cries and screams from the survivors, 1327 01:07:56,865 --> 01:07:59,492 sometimes in two, sometimes in three parts. 1328 01:07:59,492 --> 01:08:02,203 Legs, arms all strewn all over the place 1329 01:08:02,203 --> 01:08:04,830 and that arid smell of explosion. 1330 01:08:04,830 --> 01:08:09,668 Well, all my romantic ideas of war completely vanished. 1331 01:08:09,668 --> 01:08:12,920 A shell had hit this man, it knocked off his left arm, 1332 01:08:12,920 --> 01:08:14,631 knocked off his left leg, 1333 01:08:14,631 --> 01:08:17,049 his left eye was hanging on his cheek 1334 01:08:17,049 --> 01:08:19,468 and he's calling out for Nanny. 1335 01:08:19,468 --> 01:08:21,679 His bleeding eye was hanging on, pulsing. 1336 01:08:23,221 --> 01:08:25,056 So I shot him. 1337 01:08:25,056 --> 01:08:27,726 I had to, I had to shoot him. 1338 01:08:27,726 --> 01:08:31,937 He'd have died in any case and it put him out of his misery. 1339 01:08:31,937 --> 01:08:33,605 HE SOBS: It hurt me. 1340 01:08:35,899 --> 01:08:37,859 I knew there was no hope of getting any orders 1341 01:08:37,859 --> 01:08:40,070 because there was nobody to give any. 1342 01:08:40,070 --> 01:08:43,698 All officers was killed and wounded, and most of the NCOs. 1343 01:08:43,698 --> 01:08:45,407 I jumped into this big shell hole. 1344 01:08:45,407 --> 01:08:48,284 You dropped down anywhere, shell holes, anywhere at all 1345 01:08:48,284 --> 01:08:51,579 just to take cover until the barrage lifted. 1346 01:08:51,579 --> 01:08:54,624 I'm not one of those heroes who want to take the German army on my own, 1347 01:08:54,624 --> 01:08:57,210 so I went to work and I got down behind the lip 1348 01:08:57,210 --> 01:08:59,294 of a big shell hole. 1349 01:08:59,294 --> 01:09:02,339 Fortunately, I was able to drop into a shell hole. 1350 01:09:02,339 --> 01:09:05,091 Used to call them shell hole droppers, they would drop down 1351 01:09:05,091 --> 01:09:06,676 into a shell hole 1352 01:09:06,676 --> 01:09:09,762 because of the barrage and seeing a few men killed. 1353 01:09:09,762 --> 01:09:11,931 It's a pity they didn't all drop into shell holes. 1354 01:09:11,931 --> 01:09:14,349 Before the barrage lifted, they were dead. 1355 01:09:14,349 --> 01:09:15,851 SCREAMING 1356 01:09:15,851 --> 01:09:19,020 And the bullets were hitting the back of the shell hole where I was. 1357 01:09:19,020 --> 01:09:20,480 It was raining bullets. 1358 01:09:20,480 --> 01:09:22,231 I don't know how I got missed. 1359 01:09:22,231 --> 01:09:25,776 From behind the lip of this shell hole, the dirt was spraying down 1360 01:09:25,776 --> 01:09:27,445 the back of my neck. 1361 01:09:27,445 --> 01:09:30,113 There were three chaps in the shell hole and one of them said, 1362 01:09:30,113 --> 01:09:32,114 "They're firing into a bloody shell hole." 1363 01:09:32,114 --> 01:09:35,076 We looked round to see the bullets go right through his head. 1364 01:09:35,076 --> 01:09:36,535 So that was the end of that. 1365 01:09:36,535 --> 01:09:40,080 A sergeant came down into the shell hole on top of us 1366 01:09:40,080 --> 01:09:41,999 and he was dead, he got it through the neck. 1367 01:09:41,999 --> 01:09:44,918 Anyway, he had a lovely pair of field glasses round his neck 1368 01:09:44,918 --> 01:09:47,587 and I nabbed them. Because things were so scarce, 1369 01:09:47,587 --> 01:09:50,465 if there was anything like that, you'd collar it. 1370 01:09:50,465 --> 01:09:54,801 Jerry slapped shell after shell into us until one shell penetrated 1371 01:09:54,801 --> 01:09:56,678 the forward part of the tank. 1372 01:09:56,678 --> 01:09:59,139 What happened then, I cannot tell you but I believe 1373 01:09:59,139 --> 01:10:00,932 there was an explosion. 1374 01:10:00,932 --> 01:10:04,018 These were fully trained soldiers, we always had the rifles loaded, 1375 01:10:04,018 --> 01:10:06,562 but we stuck in the extra five rounds to make it 1376 01:10:06,562 --> 01:10:08,355 a ten for rapid-fire. 1377 01:10:08,355 --> 01:10:11,608 The Germans got up in their own trenches and fired at us. 1378 01:10:11,608 --> 01:10:15,444 In my opinion, they were very brave, very brave men indeed. 1379 01:10:15,444 --> 01:10:19,114 There was a German standing up on his parapet and flinging bombs. 1380 01:10:19,114 --> 01:10:21,033 So I shot him. 1381 01:10:21,033 --> 01:10:24,119 They officer gave us orders, "Open immediate rapid-fire." 1382 01:10:24,119 --> 01:10:28,080 We all opened up as fast as we could go and continually fired. 1383 01:10:28,080 --> 01:10:30,416 It was a real mad minute, I'll tell you. 1384 01:10:30,416 --> 01:10:32,709 They stood up and I was picking the Germans off 1385 01:10:32,709 --> 01:10:34,920 because I was a sniper. 1386 01:10:34,920 --> 01:10:37,797 I was trying to pick a shot and something hit me 1387 01:10:37,797 --> 01:10:40,425 between the eyes like a sledgehammer. 1388 01:10:40,425 --> 01:10:42,093 I dissolved into unconsciousness 1389 01:10:42,093 --> 01:10:45,053 with no pain, but with millions of golden stars 1390 01:10:45,053 --> 01:10:47,097 in a dark blue heaven. 1391 01:10:47,097 --> 01:10:49,224 After I'd used up a whole lot of bullets, 1392 01:10:49,224 --> 01:10:51,768 I got down, I says, "You have a go, Bill." 1393 01:10:51,768 --> 01:10:55,355 He didn't even fire a shot, he was killed immediately. 1394 01:10:55,355 --> 01:10:56,981 That's how things were. 1395 01:10:56,981 --> 01:10:59,650 You felt aggrieved, it was a pal of yours. 1396 01:10:59,650 --> 01:11:04,404 But you took it casually because I suppose you become battle hardened. 1397 01:11:04,404 --> 01:11:07,615 We kept up rapid-fire there as long as our rifles would work. 1398 01:11:07,615 --> 01:11:09,366 They got too hot to fire any more. 1399 01:11:09,366 --> 01:11:11,785 Fat was pouring out the woodwork of the rifles, 1400 01:11:11,785 --> 01:11:14,079 the muzzles were beginning to extend. 1401 01:11:14,079 --> 01:11:16,665 Then we got an order from the captain, we must make 1402 01:11:16,665 --> 01:11:21,085 a barricade of the dead, the German dead and our own dead. 1403 01:11:21,085 --> 01:11:24,505 My captain, at that time, was anxious to go on and keep it up, 1404 01:11:24,505 --> 01:11:26,799 but I'm afraid he died. 1405 01:11:26,799 --> 01:11:29,051 I had three men loading up these rifles with me 1406 01:11:29,051 --> 01:11:30,636 and I peppered the whole line. 1407 01:11:30,636 --> 01:11:34,764 And judging by the shouts and screams, I took a very good toll. 1408 01:11:34,764 --> 01:11:38,225 There was machinegun spraying on the lip of our shell hole. 1409 01:11:38,225 --> 01:11:40,561 I waited until the belt of that gun had fired 1410 01:11:40,561 --> 01:11:42,938 and immediately carried on the advance. 1411 01:11:42,938 --> 01:11:46,399 The sergeant said, "Follow me." 1412 01:11:46,399 --> 01:11:48,276 I managed to crawl under the wire - 1413 01:11:48,276 --> 01:11:51,154 a lot of us got through in that way - and gathered together 1414 01:11:51,154 --> 01:11:53,448 on the German side of the wire. 1415 01:11:53,448 --> 01:11:56,325 All the shells screamed over our heads onto the German posts 1416 01:11:56,325 --> 01:11:57,784 and then suddenly stopped. 1417 01:11:57,784 --> 01:12:00,203 "Come on, lads, give them hell," and we just got up 1418 01:12:00,203 --> 01:12:02,038 and rushed forward. 1419 01:12:02,038 --> 01:12:04,832 In the bayonet charge, the majority of us always 1420 01:12:04,832 --> 01:12:08,002 had a round up the spout, besides the magazine. 1421 01:12:08,002 --> 01:12:10,671 There was a feeling of exultation that with a rifle, bayonet 1422 01:12:10,671 --> 01:12:13,465 and a couple of Mills bombs in your pocket, we were going to be able 1423 01:12:13,465 --> 01:12:16,217 to get stuck into the bastards that had been killing our mates. 1424 01:12:16,217 --> 01:12:18,802 And we went like hell, straight into the Germans. 1425 01:12:19,887 --> 01:12:22,765 SCREAMING AND RAPID GUNFIRE 1426 01:12:27,351 --> 01:12:30,063 And we fired at anything that moved. 1427 01:12:30,063 --> 01:12:32,273 I dropped down on my knees and the sergeant fired 1428 01:12:32,273 --> 01:12:35,150 over my shoulder and hit the German. 1429 01:12:35,150 --> 01:12:37,361 He was on the ground but still firing, so he went up 1430 01:12:37,361 --> 01:12:38,570 and killed him. 1431 01:12:38,570 --> 01:12:41,031 There was only one method of bayonet fighting, that is to 1432 01:12:41,031 --> 01:12:43,283 shove your bayonet in as hard as you could. 1433 01:12:43,283 --> 01:12:45,868 There was this German on the floor of the trench, 1434 01:12:45,868 --> 01:12:47,411 and the poor bugger was dead scared. 1435 01:12:47,411 --> 01:12:49,872 So one of them wondered whether to stick him or shoot him, 1436 01:12:49,872 --> 01:12:52,332 the German jumped out away to my left, another one 1437 01:12:52,332 --> 01:12:54,918 on the right, so I pinned this German down, then shot 1438 01:12:54,918 --> 01:12:58,296 the German on the left, worked my bolt, put another one 1439 01:12:58,296 --> 01:13:01,381 up the spout, and shot the German who was running away on the right. 1440 01:13:01,381 --> 01:13:04,176 Quite a number of Germans came in a rush and we shot them, 1441 01:13:04,176 --> 01:13:05,719 one by one. 1442 01:13:05,719 --> 01:13:07,303 We probably killed the lot. 1443 01:13:07,303 --> 01:13:11,724 Some chap said, "Poor old Dick got it," and I looked around and saw him 1444 01:13:11,724 --> 01:13:13,976 lying with the top of his head off. 1445 01:13:13,976 --> 01:13:17,313 On their right flank came a German with a canister on his back, 1446 01:13:17,313 --> 01:13:19,898 squirting this liquid fire out of the hose. 1447 01:13:19,898 --> 01:13:22,900 I looked towards jets of flame coming across the trench. 1448 01:13:22,900 --> 01:13:24,652 We'd never heard of flame-throwers. 1449 01:13:24,652 --> 01:13:26,445 Burnt 23 of our chaps to death. 1450 01:13:26,445 --> 01:13:28,947 I plonked one into his chest, but it didn't stop him, 1451 01:13:28,947 --> 01:13:31,658 he must have had an armour-plated waistcoat on. 1452 01:13:31,658 --> 01:13:34,661 I got a bang in the arm and found I was bleeding. 1453 01:13:34,661 --> 01:13:36,871 But I could bomb pretty well with my left arm 1454 01:13:36,871 --> 01:13:38,748 as I could with my right. 1455 01:13:38,748 --> 01:13:41,375 Somebody threw a Mills bomb, and it burst behind him, 1456 01:13:41,375 --> 01:13:43,752 and he wasn't armour-plated behind him, he went down. 1457 01:13:43,752 --> 01:13:46,129 One German came running out of this trench, 1458 01:13:46,129 --> 01:13:49,091 screaming his head off, he nearly knocked me over. 1459 01:13:49,091 --> 01:13:51,676 Three Germans came out with their hands up, 1460 01:13:51,676 --> 01:13:54,011 and they were young chaps about our own age, 1461 01:13:54,011 --> 01:13:55,971 about 19 or 20. 1462 01:13:55,971 --> 01:13:59,349 If Jerries came up with their hands up, we just waved them on, 1463 01:13:59,349 --> 01:14:02,101 we didn't fire at them, obviously. 1464 01:14:02,101 --> 01:14:04,603 Prisoners were a nuisance! 1465 01:14:04,603 --> 01:14:06,897 We were shooing them back, you know, get rid of them. 1466 01:14:06,897 --> 01:14:10,901 The only Germans we were really fighting were the machine gunners. 1467 01:14:10,901 --> 01:14:13,069 They were firing belt after belt after us, 1468 01:14:13,069 --> 01:14:14,655 and they never stopped firing. 1469 01:14:14,655 --> 01:14:17,615 The bloody cartridge cases were piled up in a heap. 1470 01:14:17,615 --> 01:14:20,076 They'd got all their best men on machine guns, 1471 01:14:20,076 --> 01:14:21,618 and they fought to the death. 1472 01:14:21,618 --> 01:14:24,496 The cog opened, and there was three Jerries there in front 1473 01:14:24,496 --> 01:14:26,707 of the machinegun, and of course the bloody gun 1474 01:14:26,707 --> 01:14:31,085 was pointing at me, and I just swung the Lewis gun, I opened fire first. 1475 01:14:32,253 --> 01:14:33,963 It was split-second stuff. 1476 01:14:33,963 --> 01:14:36,382 Thankfully, I moved on. 1477 01:14:36,382 --> 01:14:39,259 As the war progressed, it was inevitable that we developed 1478 01:14:39,259 --> 01:14:42,095 the animal characteristic of killing. 1479 01:14:42,095 --> 01:14:44,264 Well, we've got some young Lincolnshire lads, 1480 01:14:44,264 --> 01:14:45,681 you know, the 18-year-olds. 1481 01:14:45,681 --> 01:14:47,933 The machine gunners were putting their hands up - 1482 01:14:47,933 --> 01:14:49,810 it didn't make any difference. 1483 01:14:49,810 --> 01:14:51,020 They were killed. 1484 01:14:52,813 --> 01:14:55,356 And I'm afraid there was a little bit of slaughter going on, 1485 01:14:55,356 --> 01:14:57,734 until we got in some sort of order. 1486 01:14:57,734 --> 01:15:01,946 Everybody was screaming, laying down, moaning and groaning, 1487 01:15:01,946 --> 01:15:05,073 and eventually there was silence. 1488 01:15:05,073 --> 01:15:07,617 I found a German officer with his lung hanging out. 1489 01:15:07,617 --> 01:15:09,869 He was still alive, but he wasn't conscious. 1490 01:15:09,869 --> 01:15:14,040 You could see his lung was expanding and contracting as he was breathing. 1491 01:15:14,040 --> 01:15:17,084 It was the nearest I ever came to shooting a man point-blank, 1492 01:15:17,084 --> 01:15:19,503 but we had to go on. 1493 01:15:19,503 --> 01:15:22,005 One dead German leaning against a shell wall, 1494 01:15:22,005 --> 01:15:24,924 he was a handsome bloke, he reminded me of my father. 1495 01:15:24,924 --> 01:15:29,678 A shell had dissected him nicely, it had taken the whole of the front 1496 01:15:29,678 --> 01:15:33,641 of his chest down to his stomach, neatly cut aside. 1497 01:15:33,641 --> 01:15:36,726 What a fantastic exhibition of anatomy. 1498 01:15:38,853 --> 01:15:41,897 The real shooting was over in about ten minutes. 1499 01:15:41,897 --> 01:15:45,901 There was about 100 of us coming out, instead of 600 who'd gone over, 1500 01:15:45,901 --> 01:15:47,944 and a band came to meet us. 1501 01:15:47,944 --> 01:15:49,821 It was a wonderful feeling. 1502 01:15:49,821 --> 01:15:51,281 "I've been in a battle! 1503 01:15:51,281 --> 01:15:54,534 "And I'm so very proud about it." 1504 01:15:54,534 --> 01:15:55,993 Hang on. 1505 01:15:58,329 --> 01:15:59,913 You got it? Yeah. 1506 01:15:59,913 --> 01:16:02,290 And if you'd anybody wounded or killed... 1507 01:16:02,290 --> 01:16:04,001 FLIES BUZZ 1508 01:16:04,001 --> 01:16:07,795 ..if you didn't get them out straight away, they went down 1509 01:16:07,795 --> 01:16:11,173 in the soil and disappeared, it was so bad. 1510 01:16:11,173 --> 01:16:12,675 That's it. 1511 01:16:14,134 --> 01:16:18,805 Well, you had to ascertain whether a man was alive or not. 1512 01:16:18,805 --> 01:16:24,143 If he was dead, then he was no trouble - medically. 1513 01:16:24,143 --> 01:16:26,103 I can't put that any clearer! 1514 01:16:27,187 --> 01:16:28,855 Keep him level. 1515 01:16:30,231 --> 01:16:31,857 Give me some room! 1516 01:16:31,857 --> 01:16:34,902 I felt some pain, I suppose about an hour later. 1517 01:16:34,902 --> 01:16:38,697 I'd got these thigh boots on, and the bullet had gone in sideways, 1518 01:16:38,697 --> 01:16:42,409 all the way down the leg, in, out, in, out, and hit the ankle bone 1519 01:16:42,409 --> 01:16:43,910 and turned upside down. 1520 01:16:45,828 --> 01:16:48,331 Oh, God! 1521 01:16:48,331 --> 01:16:49,665 Jesus! 1522 01:16:51,375 --> 01:16:54,711 The Sergeant Major brought me a dixie of hot tea, 1523 01:16:54,711 --> 01:16:58,464 which was just what I needed, it went down beautifully. 1524 01:16:58,464 --> 01:17:01,551 And casualties started coming back, walking casualties, 1525 01:17:01,551 --> 01:17:05,137 men with their arms smashed up, legs trawling, and they got back 1526 01:17:05,137 --> 01:17:07,764 to different dressing stations the best way they could. 1527 01:17:07,764 --> 01:17:10,433 The walking wounded, they were coming down in droves. 1528 01:17:10,433 --> 01:17:13,478 Some were holding one another, and some were walking on their own, 1529 01:17:13,478 --> 01:17:16,105 a light wound in the hand or arm, but some were hobbling along, 1530 01:17:16,105 --> 01:17:18,106 and some were looking quite cheerful as 1531 01:17:18,106 --> 01:17:20,150 they'd been free of something. 1532 01:17:20,150 --> 01:17:21,526 Hello, Mum! 1533 01:17:22,944 --> 01:17:25,321 My officer had said, "Are you all right, Kane?" 1534 01:17:25,321 --> 01:17:27,656 And I said, "Oh, yes, sir, I can still walk." 1535 01:17:27,656 --> 01:17:31,118 And he said, "But you've been hit in the back of the head." 1536 01:17:31,118 --> 01:17:34,079 And he handed me quite a dose of rum. 1537 01:17:36,247 --> 01:17:41,336 The worst cases were those who were shot through the chest. 1538 01:17:41,336 --> 01:17:44,630 Well, the difficulty of breathing, you see, you only had 1539 01:17:44,630 --> 01:17:48,091 field dressings, which every man carried. 1540 01:17:48,091 --> 01:17:50,093 Yeah, we'll have a better look at it. 1541 01:17:50,093 --> 01:17:51,553 Who's waiting, boys? 1542 01:17:51,553 --> 01:17:54,305 You got a bottle of iodine and they'd tip it in the hole. 1543 01:17:54,305 --> 01:17:57,058 Oh, the pain was terrific. 1544 01:17:57,058 --> 01:17:58,434 Well done. 1545 01:18:01,270 --> 01:18:04,188 How about that for luck, chum? Shot right through it. 1546 01:18:07,400 --> 01:18:11,612 I was not in very good shape at all, and I was getting somewhere near 1547 01:18:11,612 --> 01:18:14,906 the end of my tether, I don't think I could go on much longer. 1548 01:18:14,906 --> 01:18:19,369 Every soldier, I suppose, had this breaking strain. 1549 01:18:22,664 --> 01:18:24,998 The medics will be waiting for you. 1550 01:18:24,998 --> 01:18:27,501 Well done, lads, well done. 1551 01:18:27,501 --> 01:18:29,294 That's it. 1552 01:18:29,294 --> 01:18:34,090 We had some remarkable doctors who worked day and night 1553 01:18:34,090 --> 01:18:38,969 in various stations on the British front, looking after the wounded. 1554 01:18:40,512 --> 01:18:41,930 Nice cup of Rosie Lee. 1555 01:18:41,930 --> 01:18:43,557 You all right, Jack? 1556 01:18:43,557 --> 01:18:47,518 They seemed never to need any sleep, so what they hadn't got in numbers 1557 01:18:47,518 --> 01:18:49,479 they made up in effort. 1558 01:18:49,479 --> 01:18:51,355 We need a shell dressing. 1559 01:18:53,440 --> 01:18:57,402 Both my officers, all my sergeants and three quarters of my men 1560 01:18:57,402 --> 01:18:59,737 were killed or wounded. 1561 01:18:59,737 --> 01:19:03,616 Their ranks were made up with lads of 18 from England 1562 01:19:03,616 --> 01:19:05,868 who'd been pushed out of factories. 1563 01:19:05,868 --> 01:19:07,577 Easy, that's it. 1564 01:19:08,745 --> 01:19:10,247 BIRDS SQUAWK 1565 01:19:10,247 --> 01:19:12,373 Bloody birds! Get out of it! 1566 01:19:12,373 --> 01:19:13,792 Go on! 1567 01:19:15,001 --> 01:19:19,046 My mob were helping the battalion to bury these... 1568 01:19:19,046 --> 01:19:22,883 ..only little kids, they were, 17 or 18 years of age. 1569 01:19:22,883 --> 01:19:26,011 In sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life 1570 01:19:26,011 --> 01:19:27,804 through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1571 01:19:32,766 --> 01:19:35,435 A lot of those kids, it was their first action, 1572 01:19:35,435 --> 01:19:37,687 and they never knew any more. 1573 01:19:37,687 --> 01:19:40,732 So we'd wrapped them up in blankets, dug a little shallow grave 1574 01:19:40,732 --> 01:19:42,108 and put them in there. 1575 01:19:45,235 --> 01:19:48,322 I was putting a dressing on a German, and he was very shaky 1576 01:19:48,322 --> 01:19:51,157 and fearful of what we were going to do to him. 1577 01:19:51,157 --> 01:19:53,326 But they were more frightened than we were. 1578 01:19:53,326 --> 01:19:55,620 And we were frightened, I don't mind telling you! 1579 01:19:55,620 --> 01:19:58,706 Mostly, they were just boys, as we were. 1580 01:19:58,706 --> 01:20:01,750 They seemed glad to be captured, they were out of it. 1581 01:20:01,750 --> 01:20:02,918 Is this yours? 1582 01:20:02,918 --> 01:20:05,128 Mein. This is his. Ah, it's yours. 1583 01:20:05,128 --> 01:20:07,213 Put it in your pocket. 1584 01:20:07,213 --> 01:20:09,716 There was a little German fella, I gave him a cigarette, 1585 01:20:09,716 --> 01:20:12,968 and he was terrified, and I was very, very sorry for him, 1586 01:20:12,968 --> 01:20:15,345 really, you know. He was only about 16. 1587 01:20:15,345 --> 01:20:18,056 And we had a chinwag, and I just took his pocket watch, 1588 01:20:18,056 --> 01:20:19,683 you know, it was a normal thing. 1589 01:20:19,683 --> 01:20:21,309 We used to rob them, you see? 1590 01:20:21,309 --> 01:20:22,685 Right, let's go. 1591 01:20:23,728 --> 01:20:27,648 Yes, they were underfed, and they were in very poor shape. 1592 01:20:27,648 --> 01:20:29,024 Come on, come on now, lads. 1593 01:20:29,024 --> 01:20:30,401 Pick him up. Come on! 1594 01:20:30,401 --> 01:20:33,195 And funnily enough, five or six German prisoners came along, 1595 01:20:33,195 --> 01:20:36,489 and they helped carry me, and I got another six watches, 1596 01:20:36,489 --> 01:20:39,492 because I robbed these fellas who helped me down. 1597 01:20:39,492 --> 01:20:43,703 Every time we captured prisoners, a number of German prisoners 1598 01:20:43,703 --> 01:20:46,290 would immediately take up stretcher duty. 1599 01:20:46,290 --> 01:20:49,458 Now, I'm sure the Geneva Convention never required them to do that. 1600 01:20:49,458 --> 01:20:50,835 There you go, lads. 1601 01:20:50,835 --> 01:20:52,628 I've got him. Steady. 1602 01:20:54,004 --> 01:20:55,339 You're all right, chum. 1603 01:20:55,339 --> 01:20:56,923 That's it. Keep going. 1604 01:20:56,923 --> 01:20:59,926 I took about a dozen prisoners back with me, 1605 01:20:59,926 --> 01:21:02,512 they were all unarmed and I just had my old gun. 1606 01:21:02,512 --> 01:21:05,848 In some cases, there were a whole lot of Germans without even 1607 01:21:05,848 --> 01:21:08,100 a Tommy with them. 1608 01:21:08,100 --> 01:21:13,938 Oh, they were really cowed, they were, yes, very subdued. 1609 01:21:15,982 --> 01:21:20,986 I slept next to a German man who'd been wounded in the arm, 1610 01:21:20,986 --> 01:21:25,740 and to my amazement he started talking to me in English. 1611 01:21:25,740 --> 01:21:28,118 And he said he'd been a waiter at the Savoy. 1612 01:21:31,829 --> 01:21:35,624 I mean, I don't think the average British soldier ever had 1613 01:21:35,624 --> 01:21:38,960 any deep feelings regarding revenge against the German. 1614 01:21:38,960 --> 01:21:40,753 He admired him and respected him. 1615 01:21:41,921 --> 01:21:43,340 Go on, show him. 1616 01:21:43,340 --> 01:21:46,050 As the war went on, I felt as much sympathy for them 1617 01:21:46,050 --> 01:21:47,968 as I did for myself. 1618 01:21:47,968 --> 01:21:50,512 The German I always thought was a good fighter. 1619 01:21:50,512 --> 01:21:53,598 I'd sooner have him on my side than on the opposite side. 1620 01:21:53,598 --> 01:21:56,559 I think some of the Germans thought we ought to have been fighting 1621 01:21:56,559 --> 01:22:00,312 with them against the French and the Russians, but none of them 1622 01:22:00,312 --> 01:22:02,189 thought we ought to be fighting each other. 1623 01:22:02,189 --> 01:22:03,607 Keep on moving forward! 1624 01:22:03,607 --> 01:22:07,986 You see, the German had been an unknown horde 1625 01:22:07,986 --> 01:22:10,613 with their coal-scuttle helmets, and then we met them. 1626 01:22:10,613 --> 01:22:13,407 Well, the German soldier, he was a very nice fellow as a rule. 1627 01:22:13,407 --> 01:22:15,784 You know, I think he was really a barber or a shopkeeper 1628 01:22:15,784 --> 01:22:19,121 or something, and, the same as us, he was stuck in uniform. 1629 01:22:19,121 --> 01:22:22,332 You're too tall. Get you next time, Jerry! 1630 01:22:22,332 --> 01:22:25,043 We got on very well together, actually, and they used to 1631 01:22:25,043 --> 01:22:26,377 mix in with us. 1632 01:22:26,377 --> 01:22:28,337 Want your hat back? 1633 01:22:28,337 --> 01:22:30,089 Here, give it him back! 1634 01:22:30,089 --> 01:22:33,049 They were decent, sort of family people 1635 01:22:33,049 --> 01:22:36,136 and thought a great deal of their children. 1636 01:22:37,845 --> 01:22:41,223 They didn't seem to bear any malice against us. 1637 01:22:41,223 --> 01:22:43,767 They'd had to do what they were told, like us. 1638 01:22:45,561 --> 01:22:47,645 Go on, go on tracking... 1639 01:22:47,645 --> 01:22:50,648 I couldn't speak German, but some could, and the Germans, 1640 01:22:50,648 --> 01:22:52,358 some of them could speak English. 1641 01:22:52,358 --> 01:22:54,360 Anyhow, we could understand each other. 1642 01:22:54,360 --> 01:22:57,279 The general agreement when we were talking to Germans 1643 01:22:57,279 --> 01:23:01,825 was how useless war was and why did it have to happen. 1644 01:23:04,619 --> 01:23:07,079 When you're passing bodies all day long, 1645 01:23:07,079 --> 01:23:10,499 it's bound to have an effect on whoever it is, isn't it? 1646 01:23:10,499 --> 01:23:12,584 This big fat German was lying in a street... 1647 01:23:12,584 --> 01:23:13,794 FLIES BUZZ 1648 01:23:13,794 --> 01:23:16,254 ..you know, his stomach was all gassed up, 1649 01:23:16,254 --> 01:23:19,048 his intestines lying out on his belly. 1650 01:23:19,048 --> 01:23:21,968 And somebody had stuck a pipe in his mouth! 1651 01:23:21,968 --> 01:23:25,137 Yeah, we all told him to get up! HE CHUCKLES 1652 01:23:26,554 --> 01:23:30,517 German troops were very brave and very stubborn. 1653 01:23:30,517 --> 01:23:33,977 The Germans fought rearguard actions almost back to the Rhine, 1654 01:23:33,977 --> 01:23:37,857 and regiment after regiment was smashed up and cut about. 1655 01:23:37,857 --> 01:23:41,568 We had an idea that they were beginning to crack. 1656 01:23:43,569 --> 01:23:46,364 I would say that they were, if anything, rather despondent. 1657 01:23:46,364 --> 01:23:48,240 They knew they had lost the war. 1658 01:23:48,240 --> 01:23:52,118 We, as front-line soldiers, knew they were giving up. 1659 01:23:52,118 --> 01:23:56,664 Quite frankly, the Germans were fed up with the whole thing. 1660 01:23:56,664 --> 01:24:00,584 And, gradually, that is how the war itself came to an end. 1661 01:24:00,584 --> 01:24:03,754 I got the impression that most of the German soldiers 1662 01:24:03,754 --> 01:24:07,924 couldn't care less who won as long as the war finished. 1663 01:24:07,924 --> 01:24:10,426 Of course, that's what everybody was thinking about then - 1664 01:24:10,426 --> 01:24:12,303 we'd had enough. 1665 01:24:12,303 --> 01:24:15,931 And after a time, perhaps nobody cared. 1666 01:24:15,931 --> 01:24:17,766 All right, boys, here it comes. 1667 01:24:17,766 --> 01:24:19,351 We're in the pictures! 1668 01:24:20,477 --> 01:24:23,104 There was a fella in the war called Rumour, 1669 01:24:23,104 --> 01:24:26,190 he knows everything, you see, and Mr Rumour told us 1670 01:24:26,190 --> 01:24:29,693 that the Germans were also negotiating for an Armistice. 1671 01:24:29,693 --> 01:24:31,737 There was a huge poster, 1672 01:24:31,737 --> 01:24:36,658 "All hostilities will cease on the Western Front at 11 o'clock 1673 01:24:36,658 --> 01:24:39,786 "on the 11th of November 1918." 1674 01:24:39,786 --> 01:24:42,163 So we said to each other, "What day is it?" 1675 01:24:42,163 --> 01:24:46,625 And somebody discovered it was November the 11th! 1676 01:24:46,625 --> 01:24:49,920 And then we had to shine our boots, clean our buttons, 1677 01:24:49,920 --> 01:24:52,588 we knew the war was over then, and we were quite confident 1678 01:24:52,588 --> 01:24:55,007 that we would be there when it ended. 1679 01:24:55,007 --> 01:24:59,428 This proclamation was read out, stating that the hostilities 1680 01:24:59,428 --> 01:25:03,098 would cease from 11 that morning, and actually there wasn't 1681 01:25:03,098 --> 01:25:06,392 a cheer of any kind raised when that was read out. 1682 01:25:06,392 --> 01:25:10,771 At 11 o'clock, the noise of the gunfire just rolled away, 1683 01:25:10,771 --> 01:25:13,065 like a peal of thunder, in the distance. 1684 01:25:13,065 --> 01:25:16,443 SHELLFIRE AND GUNFIRE FADES OUT 1685 01:25:21,156 --> 01:25:24,241 BIRDSONG, SOLDIERS CHATTER 1686 01:25:25,326 --> 01:25:27,035 Never heard it being quiet. 1687 01:25:27,035 --> 01:25:29,955 Now it was dead silent. 1688 01:25:29,955 --> 01:25:33,082 You were so dazed that you could stand up straight and not be shot. 1689 01:25:33,082 --> 01:25:34,584 It was eerie. 1690 01:25:36,502 --> 01:25:39,212 There was a feeling of relief and gladness, 1691 01:25:39,212 --> 01:25:41,840 I suppose, but no celebration. 1692 01:25:41,840 --> 01:25:44,759 The staff officer shut his watch up and said, 1693 01:25:44,759 --> 01:25:47,511 "I wonder what we're all going to do next." 1694 01:25:47,511 --> 01:25:51,140 There was no demonstration of any kind, nobody said a word, 1695 01:25:51,140 --> 01:25:53,808 everybody just slumped away. 1696 01:25:53,808 --> 01:25:56,352 The only way we could have celebrated as regards 1697 01:25:56,352 --> 01:25:59,855 to a liquid would have been tea, that's all. 1698 01:25:59,855 --> 01:26:02,525 It was one of the flattest moments of our lives. 1699 01:26:02,525 --> 01:26:04,860 We just couldn't comprehend it. 1700 01:26:06,570 --> 01:26:08,864 We had that sort of feeling as though we'd been kicked 1701 01:26:08,864 --> 01:26:10,157 out of a job. 1702 01:26:10,157 --> 01:26:13,743 For some of us, it was practically the only life we'd known. 1703 01:26:13,743 --> 01:26:15,912 What was one going to do next? 1704 01:26:15,912 --> 01:26:18,163 It was just like being made redundant. 1705 01:26:18,163 --> 01:26:21,125 That was very much the feeling of everyone. 1706 01:26:21,125 --> 01:26:24,419 We were thoroughly upset, we'd all got no work to go to. 1707 01:26:24,419 --> 01:26:26,462 "I don't want to go back." 1708 01:26:26,462 --> 01:26:31,676 There was no cheering, no singing - we were drained of all emotion. 1709 01:26:31,676 --> 01:26:36,346 We were too far gone, too exhausted to enjoy it. 1710 01:26:36,346 --> 01:26:40,600 All things come to an end, and even a drama can go on too long. 1711 01:26:40,600 --> 01:26:43,895 It didn't end with a whimper, but something very much like one. 1712 01:27:00,242 --> 01:27:03,745 I was very happy to leave. I'd had enough, you know? 1713 01:27:03,745 --> 01:27:07,373 After a time, it begins to wear on one, you know? 1714 01:27:07,373 --> 01:27:10,251 "Thank goodness the bloody thing is over," that was all. 1715 01:27:10,251 --> 01:27:12,544 But so far as I was concerned, I was out of it, 1716 01:27:12,544 --> 01:27:14,630 and now the next step in life. 1717 01:27:14,630 --> 01:27:17,674 The first thing we did was write home, say we were all right, 1718 01:27:17,674 --> 01:27:20,092 making sure we got the date on the envelope right. 1719 01:27:20,092 --> 01:27:22,929 To someone like myself, who was interested in nature, 1720 01:27:22,929 --> 01:27:25,681 after the horrors that man had made of the battlefront, 1721 01:27:25,681 --> 01:27:29,726 I was immensely delighted to find shell holes in which I picked 1722 01:27:29,726 --> 01:27:33,772 lilies of the valley and larkspur, and I pursued Camberwell Beauties 1723 01:27:33,772 --> 01:27:37,608 and swallowtail butterflies along the banks of the Aisne river. 1724 01:27:37,608 --> 01:27:39,485 We went to Boulogne. 1725 01:27:39,485 --> 01:27:41,612 By the way, we came home with full pack, 1726 01:27:41,612 --> 01:27:44,322 the only thing we left behind was the bullets, 1727 01:27:44,322 --> 01:27:46,199 we had to discard those. 1728 01:27:46,199 --> 01:27:47,992 But we still kept our rifle. 1729 01:27:47,992 --> 01:27:53,038 We went over to Folkestone, and there were long trestle tables 1730 01:27:53,038 --> 01:27:56,499 with very kind ladies, and they gave you a sausage roll 1731 01:27:56,499 --> 01:28:01,170 or a bun and a cup of tea, and that was very welcome. 1732 01:28:01,170 --> 01:28:05,341 We entrained to Victoria, and there we broke up. 1733 01:28:05,341 --> 01:28:08,385 We went to the barracks, and we just dumped rifles, 1734 01:28:08,385 --> 01:28:11,137 bayonets and everything, and there were a lot of suits 1735 01:28:11,137 --> 01:28:13,556 on display, hats, shoes. 1736 01:28:13,556 --> 01:28:16,183 You could tell her which one you wanted, style and colour, 1737 01:28:16,183 --> 01:28:17,685 and they measured you. 1738 01:28:19,145 --> 01:28:22,523 I was horrified by what I saw when I came back here 1739 01:28:22,523 --> 01:28:24,441 and when one tried to get a job. 1740 01:28:24,441 --> 01:28:26,734 There was mass unemployment, and I thought, 1741 01:28:26,734 --> 01:28:28,361 "This isn't much of a life." 1742 01:28:28,361 --> 01:28:30,571 It was a most difficult thing to realise you're of 1743 01:28:30,571 --> 01:28:31,989 no commercial value. 1744 01:28:31,989 --> 01:28:34,449 It was a shame, the way ex-servicemen were treated. 1745 01:28:34,449 --> 01:28:35,826 You weren't wanted. 1746 01:28:35,826 --> 01:28:39,245 Some places said, "No ex-servicemen need apply," 1747 01:28:39,245 --> 01:28:41,957 and that was the sort of attitude you were up against. 1748 01:28:41,957 --> 01:28:46,335 One of my pals was killed, and when I went home, the very first thing 1749 01:28:46,335 --> 01:28:48,754 that I did was go to his mother, who, 1750 01:28:48,754 --> 01:28:51,131 if she'd had a frying pan, she'd have hit me. 1751 01:28:51,131 --> 01:28:53,633 Her son had been killed and I'd come back alive. 1752 01:28:53,633 --> 01:28:55,468 She was very bitter. 1753 01:28:55,468 --> 01:28:58,596 The first night I came home, I got into my old bed, 1754 01:28:58,596 --> 01:29:01,974 the first bed I'd laid in since I joined the Army. 1755 01:29:01,974 --> 01:29:04,309 When mother brought my cup of tea up in the morning, 1756 01:29:04,309 --> 01:29:06,478 she found me fast asleep on the floor. 1757 01:29:06,478 --> 01:29:08,396 People never talked about the war. 1758 01:29:08,396 --> 01:29:11,441 It was a thing that had no conversational value at all. 1759 01:29:11,441 --> 01:29:14,318 Most people were absolutely disinterested. 1760 01:29:14,318 --> 01:29:16,611 When I got home, my father and my mother 1761 01:29:16,611 --> 01:29:19,197 didn't seem in the least interested in what had happened, 1762 01:29:19,197 --> 01:29:21,282 they hadn't any conception of what it was like. 1763 01:29:21,282 --> 01:29:22,450 SOLDIER WHISTLES TUNE 1764 01:29:22,450 --> 01:29:24,744 And there was no reason why any one of us millions 1765 01:29:24,744 --> 01:29:27,038 should have been favoured with a thank you very much 1766 01:29:27,038 --> 01:29:31,208 for having got a little bit muddy and out of touch with good manners. 1767 01:29:31,208 --> 01:29:33,626 And on occasions when I did talk about it, 1768 01:29:33,626 --> 01:29:37,380 my father would argue points of fact that he couldn't possibly have known 1769 01:29:37,380 --> 01:29:39,298 about because he wasn't there. 1770 01:29:39,298 --> 01:29:42,134 Every soldier I've spoken to experienced the same thing. 1771 01:29:42,134 --> 01:29:45,095 We were a race apart from the civilians, 1772 01:29:45,095 --> 01:29:47,180 and you could speak to your comrades, 1773 01:29:47,180 --> 01:29:50,016 and they understood, but the civilians, 1774 01:29:50,016 --> 01:29:51,934 it was just a waste of time. 1775 01:29:51,934 --> 01:29:55,812 However nice and sympathetic they were, attempts of 1776 01:29:55,812 --> 01:30:00,192 well-meaning people to sympathise reflected the fact that they 1777 01:30:00,192 --> 01:30:02,360 didn't really understand at all. 1778 01:30:02,360 --> 01:30:06,280 I think the magnitude was just beyond their comprehension, 1779 01:30:06,280 --> 01:30:10,492 they didn't understand that people that you'd known and played football 1780 01:30:10,492 --> 01:30:13,036 with were just killed beside you. 1781 01:30:13,036 --> 01:30:16,790 My friend who enlisted with me, and he just lay there like a sack 1782 01:30:16,790 --> 01:30:21,376 of rags until he went black, before anybody troubled to bury him. 1783 01:30:21,376 --> 01:30:24,255 They knew that people came back covered with mud and lice, 1784 01:30:24,255 --> 01:30:27,507 but they'd no idea of the strain of sitting in a trench 1785 01:30:27,507 --> 01:30:30,968 and waiting for something to drop on one's head. 1786 01:30:30,968 --> 01:30:33,554 You couldn't convey the awful state of things, 1787 01:30:33,554 --> 01:30:37,015 the way you lived like animals and behaved like animals. 1788 01:30:37,015 --> 01:30:42,228 People didn't seem to realise what a terrible thing war was. 1789 01:30:42,228 --> 01:30:46,732 I think they felt that the war was one continual cavalry charge. 1790 01:30:46,732 --> 01:30:49,652 They hadn't any conception - how could they? 1791 01:30:49,652 --> 01:30:51,861 Well, it started off in a reasonable manner, 1792 01:30:51,861 --> 01:30:54,615 it was people fighting on horseback with swords, 1793 01:30:54,615 --> 01:30:56,908 but it developed into something ghastly. 1794 01:30:56,908 --> 01:31:00,327 People don't realise the potential of military equipment. 1795 01:31:00,327 --> 01:31:03,080 A man's life wasn't worth anything at the end of the war. 1796 01:31:03,080 --> 01:31:05,416 We were none of us heroes, you know - we didn't 1797 01:31:05,416 --> 01:31:08,501 like this business of being killed at all. 1798 01:31:08,501 --> 01:31:10,420 When we were talking amongst ourselves, 1799 01:31:10,420 --> 01:31:13,714 we used to say, "Christ, they won't have any more wars like this." 1800 01:31:13,714 --> 01:31:15,341 How did we endure it? 1801 01:31:15,341 --> 01:31:18,301 The answer must be partly the fear of fear, 1802 01:31:18,301 --> 01:31:20,554 the fear of being found afraid. 1803 01:31:20,554 --> 01:31:23,389 Another is belief in human beings, your colleague, 1804 01:31:23,389 --> 01:31:26,016 and there's no letting people down. 1805 01:31:26,016 --> 01:31:30,145 There may be right on both sides, but I think war is horrible. 1806 01:31:30,145 --> 01:31:33,189 Everything should be done to avoid war. 1807 01:31:33,189 --> 01:31:36,192 I still can't see the justification for it. 1808 01:31:36,192 --> 01:31:38,570 It was all really rather horrible. 1809 01:31:38,570 --> 01:31:41,197 I think history will decide, in the end, 1810 01:31:41,197 --> 01:31:43,324 that it was not worthwhile. 1811 01:31:45,826 --> 01:31:49,621 The only thing that really did annoy me was when I went back to work, 1812 01:31:49,621 --> 01:31:52,874 after I'd got demobilised, I went down the stores, 1813 01:31:52,874 --> 01:31:56,085 and the bloke behind the counter was a bloke who I knew. 1814 01:31:56,085 --> 01:31:58,170 He said, "Where have you been? 1815 01:31:58,170 --> 01:31:59,838 "On nights?" 1816 01:32:59,891 --> 01:33:03,894 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres Parlez vous 1817 01:33:03,894 --> 01:33:08,189 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres Parlez vous? 1818 01:33:08,189 --> 01:33:12,068 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres She hasn't been kissed in 40 years 1819 01:33:12,068 --> 01:33:16,322 # Hinky dinky, parlez vous 1820 01:33:16,322 --> 01:33:20,784 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres Parlez vous 1821 01:33:20,784 --> 01:33:24,746 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres Parlez vous 1822 01:33:24,746 --> 01:33:28,791 # Our top kick in Armentieres broke the spell of 40 years 1823 01:33:28,791 --> 01:33:31,752 # Hinky dinky, parlez vous 1824 01:33:33,295 --> 01:33:37,048 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres Parlez vous 1825 01:33:37,048 --> 01:33:41,386 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres Parlez vous 1826 01:33:41,386 --> 01:33:45,681 # You didn't have to know her long to know the reason men go wrong 1827 01:33:45,681 --> 01:33:48,559 # Hinky dinky, parlez vous 1828 01:33:50,143 --> 01:33:53,563 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres Parlez vous 1829 01:33:53,563 --> 01:33:57,816 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres Parlez vous 1830 01:33:57,816 --> 01:33:59,985 # She's the hardest working girl in town 1831 01:33:59,985 --> 01:34:02,195 # She makes her living upside down 1832 01:34:02,195 --> 01:34:04,364 # Hinky dinky, parlez vous 1833 01:34:10,620 --> 01:34:12,621 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres 1834 01:34:12,621 --> 01:34:14,414 # Parlez vous 1835 01:34:14,414 --> 01:34:16,917 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres 1836 01:34:16,917 --> 01:34:18,543 # Parlez vous 1837 01:34:18,543 --> 01:34:19,752 # She sold her kisses 1838 01:34:19,752 --> 01:34:20,961 # For ten francs each 1839 01:34:20,961 --> 01:34:22,046 # Soft and juicy 1840 01:34:22,046 --> 01:34:23,255 # As sweet as a peach 1841 01:34:23,255 --> 01:34:25,674 # Hinky dinky, parlez vous 1842 01:34:27,175 --> 01:34:29,511 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres 1843 01:34:29,511 --> 01:34:31,096 # Parlez vous 1844 01:34:31,096 --> 01:34:33,473 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres 1845 01:34:33,473 --> 01:34:35,058 # Parlez vous 1846 01:34:35,058 --> 01:34:37,143 # Madame, you've got a daughter fair 1847 01:34:37,143 --> 01:34:39,061 # To wash the soldiers' underwear 1848 01:34:39,061 --> 01:34:42,064 # Hinky dinky, parlez vous 1849 01:34:43,982 --> 01:34:46,317 # I didn't care what came of me 1850 01:34:46,317 --> 01:34:47,485 # Parlez vous 1851 01:34:47,485 --> 01:34:49,945 # I didn't care what came of me 1852 01:34:49,945 --> 01:34:51,446 # Parlez vous 1853 01:34:51,446 --> 01:34:53,532 # I didn't care what came of me 1854 01:34:53,532 --> 01:34:55,909 # So I went and joined the infantry 1855 01:34:55,909 --> 01:34:58,536 # Hinky dinky, parlez vous 1856 01:35:33,234 --> 01:35:35,443 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres 1857 01:35:35,443 --> 01:35:36,904 # Parlez vous 1858 01:35:36,904 --> 01:35:39,364 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres 1859 01:35:39,364 --> 01:35:41,073 # Parlez vous 1860 01:35:41,073 --> 01:35:42,867 # Went in her bed, she sure was fun 1861 01:35:42,867 --> 01:35:44,160 # Working her arse 1862 01:35:44,160 --> 01:35:45,453 # Like a Maxim gun 1863 01:35:45,453 --> 01:35:48,705 # Hinky dinky, parlez vous 1864 01:35:49,748 --> 01:35:51,916 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres 1865 01:35:51,916 --> 01:35:53,501 # Parlez vous 1866 01:35:53,501 --> 01:35:56,003 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres 1867 01:35:56,003 --> 01:35:57,422 # Parlez vous 1868 01:35:57,422 --> 01:35:59,173 # I had more fun than I could tell 1869 01:35:59,173 --> 01:36:01,383 # Beneath the sheets with Mademoiselle 1870 01:36:01,383 --> 01:36:04,260 # Hinky dinky, parlez vous 1871 01:36:06,221 --> 01:36:10,016 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres, parlez vous 1872 01:36:10,016 --> 01:36:14,061 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres, parlez vous 1873 01:36:14,061 --> 01:36:16,063 # She did a wink and cried, "Oui, oui! 1874 01:36:16,063 --> 01:36:18,398 # "Let's see what you can do with me" 1875 01:36:18,398 --> 01:36:21,275 # Hinky dinky, parlez vous 1876 01:36:22,485 --> 01:36:24,862 # They say they mechanised the war 1877 01:36:24,862 --> 01:36:26,405 # Parlez vous 1878 01:36:26,405 --> 01:36:28,782 # They say they mechanised the war 1879 01:36:28,782 --> 01:36:30,409 # Parlez vous 1880 01:36:30,409 --> 01:36:32,618 # They say they mechanised the war 1881 01:36:32,618 --> 01:36:34,870 # So what the hell are we marching for? 1882 01:36:34,870 --> 01:36:37,832 # Hinky dinky, parlez vous 1883 01:36:55,430 --> 01:36:58,475 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres 1884 01:36:58,475 --> 01:36:59,601 # Parlez vous 1885 01:36:59,601 --> 01:37:02,312 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres 1886 01:37:02,312 --> 01:37:03,813 # Parlez vous 1887 01:37:03,813 --> 01:37:05,773 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres 1888 01:37:05,773 --> 01:37:07,816 # She hasn't been kissed for 40 years 1889 01:37:07,816 --> 01:37:10,402 # Hinky dinky, parlez vous 1890 01:37:11,862 --> 01:37:14,656 # The officers get all the steak 1891 01:37:14,656 --> 01:37:15,782 # Parlez vous 1892 01:37:15,782 --> 01:37:18,825 # The officers get all the steak 1893 01:37:18,825 --> 01:37:20,078 # Parlez vous 1894 01:37:20,078 --> 01:37:22,204 # The officers get all the steak 1895 01:37:22,204 --> 01:37:24,164 # And all we get is a belly ache 1896 01:37:24,164 --> 01:37:27,166 # Hinky dinky, parlez vous 1897 01:37:28,376 --> 01:37:29,710 # You might forget 1898 01:37:29,710 --> 01:37:32,004 # The gas and shells, parlez vous 1899 01:37:32,004 --> 01:37:33,589 # You might forget 1900 01:37:33,589 --> 01:37:36,216 # The gas and shells, parlez vous 1901 01:37:36,216 --> 01:37:37,343 # You might forget 1902 01:37:37,343 --> 01:37:38,552 # The groans and yells 1903 01:37:38,552 --> 01:37:39,636 # But you never forget 1904 01:37:39,636 --> 01:37:40,971 # The mademoiselles 1905 01:37:40,971 --> 01:37:43,515 # Hinky dinky, parlez vous 1906 01:38:01,697 --> 01:38:04,324 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres 1907 01:38:04,324 --> 01:38:05,450 # Parlez vous 1908 01:38:05,450 --> 01:38:08,203 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres 1909 01:38:08,203 --> 01:38:09,287 # Parlez vous 1910 01:38:09,287 --> 01:38:11,206 # Many and many a married man 1911 01:38:11,206 --> 01:38:13,415 # Wants to go back to France again 1912 01:38:13,415 --> 01:38:16,543 # Hinky dinky, parlez vous 1913 01:38:17,919 --> 01:38:20,838 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres 1914 01:38:20,838 --> 01:38:21,923 # Parlez vous 1915 01:38:21,923 --> 01:38:24,759 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres 1916 01:38:24,759 --> 01:38:25,843 # Parlez vous 1917 01:38:25,843 --> 01:38:28,178 # Just blow your nose and dry your tears 1918 01:38:28,178 --> 01:38:30,305 # We'll all be back in a few short years 1919 01:38:30,305 --> 01:38:33,100 # Hinky dinky, parlez vous 1920 01:38:34,601 --> 01:38:37,228 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres 1921 01:38:37,228 --> 01:38:38,313 # Parlez vous 1922 01:38:38,313 --> 01:38:40,898 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres 1923 01:38:40,898 --> 01:38:42,024 # Parlez vous 1924 01:38:42,024 --> 01:38:44,485 # I fell in love with her at sight 1925 01:38:44,485 --> 01:38:46,612 # Wet myself for half the night 1926 01:38:46,612 --> 01:38:49,197 # Hinky dinky, parlez vous 1927 01:38:50,865 --> 01:38:54,618 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres, parlez vous 1928 01:38:54,618 --> 01:38:58,747 # Mademoiselle from Armentieres, parlez vous 1929 01:38:58,747 --> 01:39:00,957 # You might forget the gas and shell 1930 01:39:00,957 --> 01:39:02,917 # You never forget the mademoiselles 1931 01:39:02,917 --> 01:39:05,753 # Hinky dinky, parlez vous 1932 01:39:07,171 --> 01:39:08,923 # You might forget the gas and shell 1933 01:39:08,923 --> 01:39:11,258 # But you'll never forget the mademoiselles 1934 01:39:11,258 --> 01:39:12,926 # Hinky dinky, parlez vous. # 1935 01:39:13,699 --> 01:39:20,317 Support us and become VIP member to remove all ads from www.OpenSubtitles.org