they shall2

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INDOXXI
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This film contains some scenes which
some viewers may find upsetting

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I gave every part of my youth
to do a job

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and to go through a savage war.

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It was a different war from
year to year, and one's reactions

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were completely different.

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The intensity changed so much
that anybody who'd been out in 1914

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and went home and came back in 1917,

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wouldn't recognise it
as the same war.

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I can only say one thing,
I wouldn't have missed it.

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It was terrible at times,
but I wouldn't have missed it.

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Oh, yes, if I could have
my time again, I'd go through it

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all over again because
I enjoyed the service life.

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I could only say that I have never
been so excited in my life,

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this was like a boy going
to the play the first time.

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I never realised there was
anything unusual about it.

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There was a job to be done
and you just go on and did it.

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We were all instilled with the idea
that this was war

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and that we've got to kill the
Germans, and this is how we looked

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at the thing.

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I don't regret
having experienced it.

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I wish I hadn't, but I don't
regret it because I'm safe.

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HE LAUGHS

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There were good times
and bad times in France.

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But you took the rough
with the smooth.

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I was twice wounded and gassed,
but it was just war and you made

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the best of it.

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Just took it in its stride,
like everybody else.

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We were glad to be in it
and we expected it to be rough,

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and it WAS rough,
but we didn't complain.

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There was no real excitement
about it.

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You'd seen death so many times,
you'd seen wounded so many times,

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blood didn't excite you.

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We were professionals
and to us it was just a job of work.

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It would be a fallacy to say
that one enjoyed it,

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but one got afterwards
a nice, warm inner feeling that

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one had been some use.

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It didn't affect me very much
because I wasn't

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sufficiently open in the ways
of the world, I was only a kid,

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like other blokes there.

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It was more like
a great big game to be enjoyed,

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apart from the actual killing
and all that sort of thing.

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It made me a man.

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Yes, it did.

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I don't think I should
have ever been the man I am if it

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hadn't been for having to serve.

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You'd learn to look after yourself.

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Whereas in your civilian life,
your mother did all the chores.

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You've got to learn
how to cook for yourself,

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darn your own socks,
sew on your own buttons

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and all the things like that.

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It was just a day's work.

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I knew that I was not alone,
I knew I wasn't fighting the war

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by myself and that what happened
to other people might happen to me.

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I had no regrets at all.

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But, you see, I had no wife,
no girl, no nothing.

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No regrets, no horrors...

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..because if you survive that,
you can survive anything.

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We was aware that there was
sort of a nasty feeling

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between England and Germany.

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We knew of the Kaiser's ambition
to expand his empire

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and all that sort of thing.

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During that summer, there was a lot
of talk about trouble

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going on in the Balkans,
but we were a long way

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from the Balkans
and it didn't worry us at all.

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It was that Serbia business,
wasn't it?

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Serbia, when that chap was shot.

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I was paying attention
to politics and I realised

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that there was going to be trouble
between England and Germany.

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It was a lovely
August the 4th morning.

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We were all seated around the table
and we were starting

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the Rugby football dinner
with the German team.

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There was a German here,
next to him was an Englishman,

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and next to him was a German,
and so on and so on.

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And a runner arrived into the middle
of this dinner

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with extraordinary news
of outbreak of war.

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There was a big placard -
"War declared on Germany."

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We didn't know what we ought to do.

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Whether we got to seize
a knife off the table

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and plunge it into the German
or what!

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But, after a little bit
of discussion, we decided

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that as far as we were concerned,
the war was going to start tomorrow,

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and the party proceeded.

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I'm proud of being a British hero.
I mean, I think we're as good

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a country as any in the world

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and you've got to be prepared
to fight for that.

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There's no doubt about it -

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in the First World War,
we prepared for war.

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The empire was strong,
we weren't afraid of anyone.

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Everybody bought little buttons
and white flags and sang songs,

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there was no feeling of despair
about it at all.

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England couldn't possibly lose,
no matter how many Germans pushed

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how many Englishmen into the
Channel, that they'd get no further.

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We couldn't possibly lose.

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We were brought up to think that one
Englishman was worth ten Germans.

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I thought that any enemy
of England was an enemy of mine

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and I wanted to be in it.

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Oh, 6 months or 12 months,
it would be all over

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and Bob's your uncle.

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I went with a friend of mine
to Shepherd's Bush Empire

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to see the picture show there
and they showed the fleet

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saving the high seas and played
"Britons never shall be slaves",

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and one feels that little shiver run
up their back and you know

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you've got to do something.

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A friend of mine said to me,
"We're going to join up."

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It was from the
patriotic point of view,

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and from the general excitement of
the whole affair, I suppose.

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I didn't believe in war
to that extent, but I was prepared

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to do my part.

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You see, in those days, men weren't
to think for themselves,

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they just had to do what they were
told and that's all there was to it.

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Oh, my mother
was very aggrieved about it.

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But, you know, a young man,
you decide you're going to go.

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At lunchtime, I left the office,
went along to Armoury House

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and there was a queue of about
1,000 people trying to enlist.

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Everybody thought
it would be a civilised war

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and wanted to be fit enough to go.

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Two of us decided to join up
together, and when we told

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the boss we were going to start
training on Monday,

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he was very annoyed.

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He didn't make any promise
at all that our jobs would be there

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when we got back.

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My mother, she said,
"You wait until you're 19."

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See, that was the age
in those days, 19 to 35.

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Well, it was supposed to be.

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We were all lads together, you know,

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full of excitement

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and all this kind of thing.

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I mean, I just wanted

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to have a go at Jerry.

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I just thought that I'd like
to go and fight for the country.

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This was the thing, you were proud
of your country

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and you'd do the best you could
for it.

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And this was what most of the
young people thought of doing

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in those days.

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My mother, she said to me,
"Look, we could stop you doing this

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"because of your age."

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I said, "Yes, I know you could,
Mother, but I'm sure you won't."

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Which they never did.

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I just felt that all the young
fellows of that age

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were volunteering

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and I thought it was
my job to do the same.

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I was desperately keen
and a whole heap of us were.

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I said, "Direct enlistment, please."

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They were highly delighted

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and pushed me in
as quick as lightning.

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Lots of the lads were
joining the local regiments,

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like the Bucks and the Middlesex.

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Lads that I knew
and had been to school with,

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played football and cricket with,

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we joined up, hoping for the best.

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We were good friends, comrades

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and it was a relief from rather
boring jobs at home, you see.

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I was walking down
the Camden Town high street,

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when two young ladies approached me,
"Why aren't you in the Army?"

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I said, "I'm only 17."

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"Oh, they all say that here."

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And to my amazement,
she put her hand in her bag

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and I put my hand up to sort of
safeguard myself,

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and this white feather
finished up my nose.

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As we marched to the station,
some of the chaps had bowler hats,

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some had straw hats, some had the
regulation peaked Army cap.

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Some would have tunics,
some would be dressed

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with their ordinary jackets
with a pair of Army trousers.

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Some had Army boots, some didn't.

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And we really were a motley throng.

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Some of them were obviously chaps
who had hoped to live

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in some comfort and brought
suitcases with clothes with them,

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which they never saw again.

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We had to all get our hair cut.

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"How would you like it, sir?"

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And you'd say,
"Short back and sides."

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But the answer was,
straight over the top

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with horse clippers, and we looked
more like convicts than soldiers.

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As soon as war broke out,
there was a call made

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for all ex-soldiers to rejoin,

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and they made them sergeants
straight away.

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So you got a lot of instructors
that way.

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The people who really carried us
through was the old sweats

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who'd had previous war experience
and gave us a lot of wise advice

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as to what to look for
and what to dodge.

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We were ordered down onto the parade
ground and then we were allotted

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to different platoons.

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When they came to us,
they were weedy, sallow,

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skinny, frightened children.

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The refuse of our industrial system
and they were in very poor condition

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and had to be made into soldiers.

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Many of us had given
our wrong ages to join the Army.

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The agent walked down
the lines and gave an order,

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"Every man under the age of 19
should take two paces forward."

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Nobody moved.

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I was a lad of 17 and
they'd probably say I wasn't 19,

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which you had to be to join up.

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But he says, "How long
do you want to sign on for?"

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Everyone else was joining up so
I called into the recruitment office

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and he said to me, "How old
are you?" I said, "17, sir."

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Well, he said, "Go outside and
come back and say you are 18."

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So of course, I went outside
and said we were 18.

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I was straight up there.

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The Sergeant said,
"How old are you?"

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I said, "I'm 18 and one month."

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He said,
"Do you mean 19 and one month?

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So I thought for a moment,
I said, "Yes, sir."

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He said, "Right, sign here, please."

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He asked me how old I was
and I said I was 16 in March.

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He said, "You're too young,

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"you better go outside
and have a birthday."

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I was 16 years old in 1917

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and I was six foot two tall
and my father allowed me to go.

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So I entered my age as 19 years old,

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three years older
than what I really was.

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I was 15 years,
just 2½ years short of 18,

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and I got before this
medical officer, who said,

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"All right, you pass."

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I had just turned 17 at the time
and I went up to Whitehall

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and enlisted in the 16th Lancers.

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I was 15 and I thought
I'd have a better chance

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than when I were 14.

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So I walked into the barracks
and just said, "I'm 18,"

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and that was it.

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My parents wrote to the
commanding officer and asked for me,

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as I was underage, to be released.

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And he said, "Your parents
want you back - do you want to go?"

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I said no.

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The chaplain asked me my age,
and I said I was 16.

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He said, "Much too young.
Would you like me to pray for you?"

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The clothing came piecemeal
into the quartermaster stores.

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One lad said,
"These boots don't fit me."

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00:11:47,789 --> 00:11:50,581
And the quartermaster said,
"There isn't such a thing as boots

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00:11:50,581 --> 00:11:52,872
"that don't fit in the Army,
it's your feet that don't

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"fit the boots."

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Some men would find a tunic
to fit them or perhaps

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a pair of trousers.

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And so it went on
for nearly a fortnight.

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Just one uniform.

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00:12:04,456 --> 00:12:08,665
I was in the Army nearly four years,
I only had one uniform.

236
00:12:08,665 --> 00:12:11,540
We were all issued
with these famous puttees,

237
00:12:11,540 --> 00:12:14,957
which were news to all of us,
and I personally could never quite

238
00:12:14,957 --> 00:12:17,499
master the putting on of puttees.

239
00:12:17,499 --> 00:12:21,707
The main reason for puttees were
to support the legs in marching.

240
00:12:21,707 --> 00:12:25,457
I was issued with a kilt
but nothing to wear underneath it,

241
00:12:25,457 --> 00:12:27,958
and I was given a slip of paper
to say,

242
00:12:27,958 --> 00:12:31,166
"This man has not
been issued with underpants."

243
00:12:31,166 --> 00:12:33,750
I was given strict instructions
that I couldn't ride on top

244
00:12:33,750 --> 00:12:36,833
of the tram car,
had to ride downstairs.

245
00:12:38,750 --> 00:12:42,417
Now, the pack was for
everything that you own.

246
00:12:42,417 --> 00:12:46,792
The overcoat had to be folded
very, very neatly and tightly.

247
00:12:46,792 --> 00:12:50,167
There was a needle, thread,
spare buttons, knife,

248
00:12:50,167 --> 00:12:57,543
fork, spoon, razor, shaving brush,
toothbrush and also a half-pint mug.

249
00:12:57,543 --> 00:13:02,959
One spare shirt and one spare pair
of socks, and that was your kit.

250
00:13:02,959 --> 00:13:06,501
The Army razor with which we were
issued was absolutely useless,

251
00:13:06,501 --> 00:13:09,752
but it came in handy
for cutting up meat and so forth.

252
00:13:09,752 --> 00:13:12,877
The toothbrush, that came in handy
for cleaning buttons.

253
00:13:12,877 --> 00:13:15,585
But one of the peculiarities
about the Army was that,

254
00:13:15,585 --> 00:13:18,335
though it was a crime
to have dirty buttons,

255
00:13:18,335 --> 00:13:20,585
you were never issued
with the materials to clean

256
00:13:20,585 --> 00:13:23,169
the buttons,
you had to buy them yourself.

257
00:13:23,169 --> 00:13:27,211
We were awakened by the bugle,
which sounded Reveille.

258
00:13:27,211 --> 00:13:30,128
Wash, shave, pack your bed up
and pack your kit.

259
00:13:30,128 --> 00:13:34,628
About half past six, and you would
have an hour, PT before breakfast.

260
00:13:34,628 --> 00:13:38,961
Press-ups and physical exercises,
arms upward stretch.

261
00:13:38,961 --> 00:13:42,628
They knew you were fresh
and they tried to take it by stages,

262
00:13:42,628 --> 00:13:45,545
there wasn't any bullying
or anything like that.

263
00:13:45,545 --> 00:13:49,462
Breakfast consisted
of bread, butter,

264
00:13:49,462 --> 00:13:52,587
one rasher of
Lance Corporal Bacon.

265
00:13:52,587 --> 00:13:55,421
It was streaky bacon,
it had one stripe in it.

266
00:13:55,421 --> 00:13:58,212
Well, there was jam and
they seemed to make nothing

267
00:13:58,212 --> 00:14:00,171
but plum and apple, you know?

268
00:14:00,171 --> 00:14:03,504
If you got any other kind,
it was a celebration event.

269
00:14:05,213 --> 00:14:08,338
There were the Bruce Bairnsfather
cartoons depicting that,

270
00:14:08,338 --> 00:14:10,588
handing him a tin of plum
and apple jam.

271
00:14:10,588 --> 00:14:12,630
"When the 'ell is it
going to be strawberry?"

272
00:14:12,630 --> 00:14:14,547
It was wonderful, that jam.

273
00:14:14,547 --> 00:14:18,130
Tickler's, the jam manufacturers,

274
00:14:18,130 --> 00:14:22,422
they must have made millions of tins
of P&A, plum and apple.

275
00:14:22,422 --> 00:14:26,214
# Oh, oh, oh, it's a lovely war

276
00:14:26,214 --> 00:14:28,964
# What do we want with eggs and ham

277
00:14:28,964 --> 00:14:32,548
# When we've got bags
of Tickler's Jam? #

278
00:14:32,548 --> 00:14:36,340
And then it would be parade time
and the Sergeant would take over

279
00:14:36,340 --> 00:14:39,506
and you'd have a whole morning
of marching

280
00:14:39,506 --> 00:14:41,923
and you would learn all commands,

281
00:14:41,923 --> 00:14:45,173
such as "about turn"
and all that sort of thing.

282
00:14:45,173 --> 00:14:48,840
Having been in the Boy Scouts,
it was dead easy to me.

283
00:14:48,840 --> 00:14:51,215
When you get the order
"right dress",

284
00:14:51,215 --> 00:14:54,049
you turn your head only,
to the right.

285
00:14:54,049 --> 00:14:56,257
Some of them managed to turn left,

286
00:14:56,257 --> 00:14:59,382
which didn't exactly please
the drill Sergeant.

287
00:14:59,382 --> 00:15:01,674
We were all youngsters,
we'd come from

288
00:15:01,674 --> 00:15:04,216
fairly sheltered lives and so forth.

289
00:15:04,216 --> 00:15:08,591
This Sergeant of ours
was the loudmouth shouting type.

290
00:15:08,591 --> 00:15:13,550
Coming up against
military discipline was a shock,

291
00:15:13,550 --> 00:15:17,925
being chased around from pillar
to post by disciplinarian NCOs.

292
00:15:17,925 --> 00:15:20,050
Some of the sergeants were shockers.

293
00:15:20,050 --> 00:15:23,425
They would cause a lot of trouble
if you were out of step

294
00:15:23,425 --> 00:15:26,384
or if you didn't keep time,
or if you didn't handle

295
00:15:26,384 --> 00:15:28,176
your rifle properly.

296
00:15:28,176 --> 00:15:30,551
They were always having a go at you.

297
00:15:30,551 --> 00:15:32,968
Most of them were all right,
the shouting meant nothing,

298
00:15:32,968 --> 00:15:34,884
but some of them never lost it.

299
00:15:34,884 --> 00:15:39,926
One night I'd gone to bed and
this pot was brought round to my bed

300
00:15:39,926 --> 00:15:43,052
and they said,
"Oh, you want to do a piss?"

301
00:15:43,052 --> 00:15:45,302
So I did the business in the pot.

302
00:15:45,302 --> 00:15:47,968
They'd rested this big, huge pot

303
00:15:47,968 --> 00:15:50,969
which contained gallons,
on the door.

304
00:15:50,969 --> 00:15:55,344
And when this Sergeant came along
to see that everybody

305
00:15:55,344 --> 00:15:57,761
was in bed, this thing turned up
and he was drenched

306
00:15:57,761 --> 00:15:59,969
from top to bottom in fluid!

307
00:15:59,969 --> 00:16:02,261
HE LAUGHS

308
00:16:02,261 --> 00:16:05,344
First of all,
I was full of enthusiasm.

309
00:16:05,344 --> 00:16:08,428
But after about the first week,
I wished I hadn't done it.

310
00:16:08,428 --> 00:16:12,053
Because the discipline was so strict
that I was beginning to get

311
00:16:12,053 --> 00:16:15,053
a little bit nervous
as to what was in store.

312
00:16:15,053 --> 00:16:17,553
We weren't out dancing,
anything like that.

313
00:16:17,553 --> 00:16:19,304
We were getting ready for a war.

314
00:16:19,304 --> 00:16:24,012
The thing was, you were in the Army,
you had to do as you were told.

315
00:16:24,012 --> 00:16:28,179
You had one master, or dozens,
but you just had to get on with it

316
00:16:28,179 --> 00:16:29,596
and that was it.

317
00:16:29,596 --> 00:16:31,763
I did find that right
through the Army,

318
00:16:31,763 --> 00:16:34,596
if you behaved yourself,
you'd nothing much to fear.

319
00:16:34,596 --> 00:16:36,596
This was quite a new world to us.

320
00:16:36,596 --> 00:16:39,055
I mean, you can imagine.
I came out of civilian life,

321
00:16:39,055 --> 00:16:41,346
like all the others did,
and we weren't in a position

322
00:16:41,346 --> 00:16:43,472
to argue or object.

323
00:16:43,472 --> 00:16:46,097
It was just a matter of doing
what we were told.

324
00:16:46,097 --> 00:16:47,472
I liked it.

325
00:16:47,472 --> 00:16:51,222
I liked to be told what I had to do
because there was a reason

326
00:16:51,222 --> 00:16:55,472
for doing it, and later on I
realised that was the best training

327
00:16:55,472 --> 00:16:57,097
you could have.

328
00:16:57,097 --> 00:17:00,472
The first week, our route march
would be ten miles,

329
00:17:00,472 --> 00:17:03,598
the second week it would be 12,
and so on and so on.

330
00:17:03,598 --> 00:17:08,015
It intensified, because
it's of the utmost importance

331
00:17:08,015 --> 00:17:11,848
that the infantry soldiers
could march with a full kit.

332
00:17:11,848 --> 00:17:14,765
What you had to carry was 109 lbs.

333
00:17:14,765 --> 00:17:18,390
The marching was easy for me,
but quite a lot of chaps

334
00:17:18,390 --> 00:17:22,015
who were in sedentary jobs
found it pretty hard.

335
00:17:22,015 --> 00:17:27,349
It numbed and cramped my muscles
on my thighs and calves

336
00:17:27,349 --> 00:17:30,349
until they hurt very much indeed.

337
00:17:30,349 --> 00:17:32,516
Oh, those Army boots.

338
00:17:32,516 --> 00:17:34,016
I could have cried.

339
00:17:34,016 --> 00:17:39,600
My feet and ankles with those heavy
Army boots after civilian shoes.

340
00:17:39,600 --> 00:17:43,475
So to get your boots made pliable,
you used to urinate in them

341
00:17:43,475 --> 00:17:45,600
and leave it overnight.

342
00:17:45,600 --> 00:17:50,350
Quite a lot of men were clerks
or they worked in shops,

343
00:17:50,350 --> 00:17:54,725
and the very nature of their calling
didn't make for fitness.

344
00:17:54,725 --> 00:17:58,142
Well, they sent me to hospital
and they gave me the cure

345
00:17:58,142 --> 00:18:03,309
for hookworm and I found that
I could stand the drill after that.

346
00:18:03,309 --> 00:18:06,101
They used to march us
all round the West End.

347
00:18:06,101 --> 00:18:10,351
Crowds used to foregather, and
some of the poor, deluded ones

348
00:18:10,351 --> 00:18:13,726
fell for the con trick and
lined up behind us

349
00:18:13,726 --> 00:18:16,352
and we used to march
them all down to Chelsea barracks,

350
00:18:16,352 --> 00:18:17,810
where they got signed up.

351
00:18:20,393 --> 00:18:23,602
Lunch would consist
of inevitable stew.

352
00:18:23,602 --> 00:18:27,769
Now, you must remember the chaps
in the cookhouse were by no means

353
00:18:27,769 --> 00:18:30,311
experienced cooks,
but anybody can make a stew,

354
00:18:30,311 --> 00:18:32,144
and that's what they did.

355
00:18:32,144 --> 00:18:37,186
Sometimes we got a bit of plum duff
and milk puddings and tapioca rice.

356
00:18:37,186 --> 00:18:39,936
It was the good old-fashioned,
plain stuff

357
00:18:39,936 --> 00:18:41,561
that I was brought up on.

358
00:18:41,561 --> 00:18:43,895
I had no complaint about it.

359
00:18:43,895 --> 00:18:49,103
In the afternoon, it could be
a lecture on Vickers machine guns.

360
00:18:49,103 --> 00:18:52,604
We used to strip the machinegun
right down

361
00:18:52,604 --> 00:18:54,520
and put it together again.

362
00:18:54,520 --> 00:18:58,229
And, luckily, I seemed to cotton on
to that quite quickly.

363
00:18:58,229 --> 00:19:01,271
We were always told
the man's best friend is his rifle,

364
00:19:01,271 --> 00:19:02,979
and it was.

365
00:19:02,979 --> 00:19:07,521
Our rifle was a short Lee-Enfield,
a very good rifle indeed.

366
00:19:07,521 --> 00:19:09,354
A real sturdy rifle.

367
00:19:09,354 --> 00:19:13,646
You had your ammunition pouches
on both sides of the chest,

368
00:19:13,646 --> 00:19:15,855
to counterbalance the weight
of the pack,

369
00:19:15,855 --> 00:19:20,813
and those pouches carried 150 rounds
of .303 ammunition.

370
00:19:20,813 --> 00:19:23,480
We were supposed to hold
the rifle up in one hand,

371
00:19:23,480 --> 00:19:26,064
but I could never hold
a rifle properly.

372
00:19:26,064 --> 00:19:28,814
My right wrist wouldn't hold it up.

373
00:19:28,814 --> 00:19:31,814
I'd never fired a rifle in my life,
but on the first day we went

374
00:19:31,814 --> 00:19:33,189
onto the rifle range,

375
00:19:33,189 --> 00:19:35,773
and it was amazing
the bull's-eyes I was getting.

376
00:19:35,773 --> 00:19:39,564
So, the next thing, I was made
a first-class rifleman.

377
00:19:39,564 --> 00:19:42,023
Above all, we learned rapid-fire.

378
00:19:42,023 --> 00:19:45,648
Ten rounds, get those ten rounds
onto the target in one minute.

379
00:19:45,648 --> 00:19:47,815
It was known as "the mad minute".

380
00:19:47,815 --> 00:19:51,273
I'd never seen a dead man
or anything of that kind,

381
00:19:51,273 --> 00:19:54,024
and I wondered, if it came
to my shooting a man,

382
00:19:54,024 --> 00:19:56,065
whether I would be able to do this.

383
00:19:56,065 --> 00:19:59,066
Plunge the bayonet into the sack,
shout like hell.

384
00:19:59,066 --> 00:20:01,399
And they would tell you
where to put your bayonet.

385
00:20:01,399 --> 00:20:03,899
Either into his left shoulder,
his right shoulder,

386
00:20:03,899 --> 00:20:06,024
in the chest or in the body.

387
00:20:06,024 --> 00:20:08,233
We was told to make
as much noise as we could.

388
00:20:08,233 --> 00:20:10,399
I think that was
to frighten the enemy.

389
00:20:10,399 --> 00:20:14,066
It didn't seem to me to be a likely
thing to do, but we used to shout.

390
00:20:14,066 --> 00:20:17,233
When you train as a division,
there's 12 battalions,

391
00:20:17,233 --> 00:20:20,358
there's roughly 12,000 men
who are on the move,

392
00:20:20,358 --> 00:20:24,275
and you're a very small cog
in a big wheel.

393
00:20:24,275 --> 00:20:27,359
Saturday mornings we were let off,
but we had to do

394
00:20:27,359 --> 00:20:29,026
sometimes barrack duties.

395
00:20:29,026 --> 00:20:32,484
And then, on Sundays, we were all
marched down to church.

396
00:20:32,484 --> 00:20:35,193
It didn't matter what religion
you were, you all had to go,

397
00:20:35,193 --> 00:20:36,734
and that was it.

398
00:20:36,734 --> 00:20:39,359
Hardly a day passed
without the shout

399
00:20:39,359 --> 00:20:40,651
around the barrack-room,

400
00:20:40,651 --> 00:20:43,026
"Has anybody here had
any experience with horses?

401
00:20:43,026 --> 00:20:45,610
"Can anybody here play
any musical instruments?

402
00:20:45,610 --> 00:20:48,235
"Anybody had an experience
at so and so?"

403
00:20:48,235 --> 00:20:51,860
So gradually, the thousand men
who were joined up

404
00:20:51,860 --> 00:20:56,444
as a motley throng, now became
a transport man, a bandsman,

405
00:20:56,444 --> 00:20:58,402
signalman and so on.

406
00:20:58,402 --> 00:21:00,527
You didn't want to mess
about on the parade ground

407
00:21:00,527 --> 00:21:02,902
with heavy packs
on the route marches.

408
00:21:02,902 --> 00:21:06,653
Most of us wanted to go across
and do some scrapping.

409
00:21:06,653 --> 00:21:10,278
After good food,
fresh air and physical exercise,

410
00:21:10,278 --> 00:21:13,111
they changed so that their mothers
wouldn't have recognised them.

411
00:21:13,111 --> 00:21:17,445
They put on an average of one stone
in weight and one inch in height.

412
00:21:17,445 --> 00:21:20,820
Although we hated the sight and
sound of our disciplinary sergeants,

413
00:21:20,820 --> 00:21:24,612
this reflects greatly to their
credit because they knocked us

414
00:21:24,612 --> 00:21:27,320
into shape as regards
to marching and foot drills.

415
00:21:27,320 --> 00:21:30,821
But far more than that,
they were handsome,

416
00:21:30,821 --> 00:21:34,237
ruddy, upstanding,
square-shouldered young men

417
00:21:34,237 --> 00:21:36,904
who were afraid of nobody,
not even the Sergeant Major.

418
00:21:36,904 --> 00:21:39,529
After the six weeks,
we were informed we were going

419
00:21:39,529 --> 00:21:42,030
to be posted overseas.

420
00:21:42,030 --> 00:21:46,113
They said, "You're leaving tomorrow
morning for an unknown destination."

421
00:21:46,113 --> 00:21:48,655
You were never told
where you were heading for.

422
00:21:48,655 --> 00:21:51,863
I just wanted to fight the Germans,
and as far as that was concerned,

423
00:21:51,863 --> 00:21:54,655
it didn't matter tuppence to me
where we went.

424
00:21:54,655 --> 00:21:57,697
And when we pushed them
through this crash programme

425
00:21:57,697 --> 00:21:59,489
of military training,

426
00:21:59,489 --> 00:22:01,572
they were pushed off to
France in batches.

427
00:22:01,572 --> 00:22:04,739
Before we left, the officer said,
"well, you haven't had time

428
00:22:04,739 --> 00:22:08,239
"to be made sergeants, so we'll give
you a couple of stripes."

429
00:22:08,239 --> 00:22:11,948
So they made us corporals,
and in less than no time

430
00:22:11,948 --> 00:22:14,906
we were marched down to the station.

431
00:22:14,906 --> 00:22:18,115
In my mind I wondered,
"Shall I ever come back?"

432
00:22:18,115 --> 00:22:20,198
I didn't think I would at the time.

433
00:22:20,198 --> 00:22:22,490
I didn't worry about it.

434
00:22:22,490 --> 00:22:26,199
Oh, they were all full of euphoria,
they were all glad they were going.

435
00:22:26,199 --> 00:22:28,032
Nobody was crying.

436
00:22:28,032 --> 00:22:30,240
I wrote a postcard
when I was in the train

437
00:22:30,240 --> 00:22:33,157
and chucked it out of the window,
hoping that it would be delivered

438
00:22:33,157 --> 00:22:34,574
to my family.

439
00:22:34,574 --> 00:22:37,408
We arrived at Folkestone
in the evening.

440
00:22:37,408 --> 00:22:41,074
We embarked on one of
the old Thames pleasure boats.

441
00:22:41,074 --> 00:22:45,241
Well, pretty crowded, but of course
there's only 21 mile

442
00:22:45,241 --> 00:22:47,866
from Dover to Calais on the boat.

443
00:22:47,866 --> 00:22:50,908
There were talks by officers to us
as to how to behave ourselves

444
00:22:50,908 --> 00:22:54,033
on foreign soil, and that we've
got to respect other people's

445
00:22:54,033 --> 00:22:56,242
modes of conduct.

446
00:22:56,242 --> 00:23:00,034
The biggest number of casualties
were NCOs,

447
00:23:00,034 --> 00:23:02,492
and we weren't all too keen
about this.

448
00:23:02,492 --> 00:23:06,076
So I went into the lavatory
and my stripes came off

449
00:23:06,076 --> 00:23:08,701
and they disappeared
through the porthole.

450
00:23:08,701 --> 00:23:11,784
And with that, I went back on deck
as a private.

451
00:23:15,701 --> 00:23:17,743
As our horses were brought
down the gangways,

452
00:23:17,743 --> 00:23:20,702
I noticed the expression
on the men's faces.

453
00:23:20,702 --> 00:23:23,535
There were no cheerful,
smiling faces coming down

454
00:23:23,535 --> 00:23:25,118
that gangway at all.

455
00:23:27,369 --> 00:23:29,744
It was beautiful weather,
very warm,

456
00:23:29,744 --> 00:23:33,494
and every village and town
we went through, people rushed out,

457
00:23:33,494 --> 00:23:36,744
bottles of wine,
yards of French bread, flowers.

458
00:23:36,744 --> 00:23:39,369
The land flowed
in every single aspect.

459
00:23:39,369 --> 00:23:41,536
There were farmers
going about their business,

460
00:23:41,536 --> 00:23:43,411
the most lovely country.

461
00:23:45,620 --> 00:23:48,370
If we passed a field of carrots,
we used to raid the field

462
00:23:48,370 --> 00:23:51,828
and walk along munching
the carrots and turnips.

463
00:23:55,995 --> 00:23:58,162
I was dead scared
that the war would be over

464
00:23:58,162 --> 00:23:59,579
before I got out to it.

465
00:23:59,579 --> 00:24:01,204
When I got out to France,

466
00:24:01,204 --> 00:24:03,787
I was terribly pleased,
really keen.

467
00:24:06,496 --> 00:24:09,454
You just marched and marched
until roughly 20 miles

468
00:24:09,454 --> 00:24:11,163
from the trenches.

469
00:24:11,163 --> 00:24:13,871
We knew we were getting close
to the line because the gunfire

470
00:24:13,871 --> 00:24:16,038
was becoming more noisy.

471
00:24:16,038 --> 00:24:18,705
I remember the first shell,
I was delighted.

472
00:24:21,455 --> 00:24:25,205
We went through towns, villages
that were absolutely derelict.

473
00:24:25,205 --> 00:24:28,705
So we never knew where we were,
except that we were in Belgium.

474
00:24:31,372 --> 00:24:34,664
The devastation was something
I never could have imagined.

475
00:24:34,664 --> 00:24:37,622
The whole place gave one
the most eerie sensation.

476
00:24:41,414 --> 00:24:45,123
There was stunted trees,
torn to shreds with shellfire

477
00:24:45,123 --> 00:24:49,040
and there was shell holes
all over the place.

478
00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:51,957
We were relieving men of the
28th division,

479
00:24:51,957 --> 00:24:55,373
and as they passed us, we would say,
"What's it like up there?"

480
00:24:55,373 --> 00:24:58,749
The reply invariably came back,
"Bloody awful, mate."

481
00:24:58,749 --> 00:25:02,290
The old sweats coming back
got their tails up all right,

482
00:25:02,290 --> 00:25:06,082
but I didn't know what to expect,
just hadn't a clue.

483
00:25:06,082 --> 00:25:09,541
It was deadly warfare,
you were facing the Germans.

484
00:25:13,791 --> 00:25:15,249
Follow me.

485
00:25:17,916 --> 00:25:19,541
You got the order, "load".

486
00:25:19,541 --> 00:25:23,500
You put nine in your magazine
and one up the spout

487
00:25:23,500 --> 00:25:25,250
and you put the safety catch on,

488
00:25:25,250 --> 00:25:28,000
and you always went into the line
prepared to use

489
00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:29,625
your rifle immediately.

490
00:25:31,459 --> 00:25:34,209
That's when you got rigid orders,
no talking whatsoever,

491
00:25:34,209 --> 00:25:35,834
keep your head down.

492
00:25:35,834 --> 00:25:37,876
Single file, no smoking.

493
00:25:37,876 --> 00:25:41,168
The captain would then direct you
right to the front trenches.

494
00:25:44,668 --> 00:25:47,210
Before a man goes into the trenches,
he usually carries

495
00:25:47,210 --> 00:25:51,960
a roll of barbed wire or a bag of
bombs, besides his own equipment.

496
00:25:51,960 --> 00:25:54,668
That's the way to get the stuff
up to the front line.

497
00:25:54,668 --> 00:25:57,460
Now,
a guide would always be sent out.

498
00:25:57,460 --> 00:26:00,169
Extend this part of
the trench over there.

499
00:26:00,169 --> 00:26:01,669
What, that way? That's it.

500
00:26:01,669 --> 00:26:03,419
The trenches in France were a maze.

501
00:26:03,419 --> 00:26:06,127
If you didn't have a guide,
you could very soon get lost.

502
00:26:06,127 --> 00:26:08,836
Smile, so your mother thinks
I'm looking after you.

503
00:26:11,419 --> 00:26:13,211
Coming up, coming up!

504
00:26:17,670 --> 00:26:19,711
The trenches weren't
in one straight line.

505
00:26:19,711 --> 00:26:23,212
They were built on what they call
a Travis System.

506
00:26:23,212 --> 00:26:26,128
The Travis would break up
the shellfire

507
00:26:26,128 --> 00:26:29,462
and stop it spreading right along
the trench.

508
00:26:29,462 --> 00:26:31,212
There was a front line of trenches

509
00:26:31,212 --> 00:26:33,587
and then there was a second line
of trenches.

510
00:26:33,587 --> 00:26:37,921
The support line would be about 50
yards or more behind the front line.

511
00:26:37,921 --> 00:26:40,587
In between, there would be
communication trenches

512
00:26:40,587 --> 00:26:43,004
so that they could move through
if the front line

513
00:26:43,004 --> 00:26:44,754
was under jeopardy.

514
00:26:44,754 --> 00:26:48,130
First impression I got
of the trenches was they were

515
00:26:48,130 --> 00:26:50,171
very much lived in.

516
00:26:50,171 --> 00:26:52,171
We had to take them
as we found them.

517
00:26:52,171 --> 00:26:55,838
You would see an overcoat
hanging from a wooden peg.

518
00:26:55,838 --> 00:26:59,547
You would see a mess tin
with some tea in it.

519
00:26:59,547 --> 00:27:02,672
A dugout, which had a piece
of blanket in it,

520
00:27:02,672 --> 00:27:04,839
a bed made of sandbags.

521
00:27:04,839 --> 00:27:07,922
Our world was divided
by no-man's-land,

522
00:27:07,922 --> 00:27:09,714
a sort of Iron Curtain,

523
00:27:09,714 --> 00:27:13,631
beyond which were bogey men who
would kill you if they ever saw you.

524
00:27:13,631 --> 00:27:16,798
As you look through your periscope,
all you could see were hundreds

525
00:27:16,798 --> 00:27:21,756
of shell holes, your barbed wire
and the German barbed wire.

526
00:27:21,756 --> 00:27:24,673
You could see dead bodies
hanging on the barbed wire

527
00:27:24,673 --> 00:27:27,715
and they may have been there
for a long, long time.

528
00:27:27,715 --> 00:27:30,757
It was one of the most desolate
looking places in the world.

529
00:27:30,757 --> 00:27:35,174
You never saw a sign of life,
and yet you knew very well that,

530
00:27:35,174 --> 00:27:39,632
within shouting range, there were
hundreds and hundreds of men.

531
00:27:39,632 --> 00:27:42,341
A platoon of about 50 men
would have about 100 yards

532
00:27:42,341 --> 00:27:45,841
of front line trenches
as their responsibility.

533
00:27:45,841 --> 00:27:48,091
There were signs
all over the trenches,

534
00:27:48,091 --> 00:27:51,675
Piccadilly Circus and Regent Street
and all that sort of thing,

535
00:27:51,675 --> 00:27:53,425
telling you where water points were

536
00:27:53,425 --> 00:27:55,967
and which was the
most dangerous part of the land

537
00:27:55,967 --> 00:27:58,133
with regard to snipers.

538
00:27:58,133 --> 00:28:00,800
You had to be extremely careful
because a bullet could go

539
00:28:00,800 --> 00:28:03,592
through one layer of
sandbags quite easily.

540
00:28:03,592 --> 00:28:06,176
I was talking to a bloke one day
and, pop,

541
00:28:06,176 --> 00:28:08,426
his head was bashed in like an egg.

542
00:28:08,426 --> 00:28:11,717
He just happened to be in a place
where a sniper could get an aim.

543
00:28:13,134 --> 00:28:15,884
We used to do
a four-day stint in a line.

544
00:28:15,884 --> 00:28:20,385
We took with us sufficient food
to last the four days.

545
00:28:21,843 --> 00:28:23,718
Go on, lads, give our love to Jerry.

546
00:28:23,718 --> 00:28:25,177
Mind yourselves out there.

547
00:28:25,177 --> 00:28:29,302
Your day would start before dawn
when NCOs would go round

548
00:28:29,302 --> 00:28:32,344
this 100 yards and
make sure everybody was alive.

549
00:28:32,344 --> 00:28:35,969
Of a day in the trenches,
you had two hours on, four off.

550
00:28:35,969 --> 00:28:38,136
A third of the people
were on sentry duty,

551
00:28:38,136 --> 00:28:40,969
a third working
and a third sleeping.

552
00:28:40,969 --> 00:28:42,761
We just slept where we were.

553
00:28:42,761 --> 00:28:45,386
No beds, just flopped down
on the ground.

554
00:28:45,386 --> 00:28:47,969
Been to the pictures, mate!

555
00:28:47,969 --> 00:28:51,136
The trench was very wet
and, wherever possible, we would try

556
00:28:51,136 --> 00:28:52,720
and get above the water.

557
00:28:52,720 --> 00:28:55,387
We were able to dig out
the side of the trench

558
00:28:55,387 --> 00:28:57,928
and that was when we used
to steal our sleep

559
00:28:57,928 --> 00:29:00,428
on the two-on and four-off stretch.

560
00:29:00,428 --> 00:29:03,345
And then you'd have
your couple of hours on the parapet

561
00:29:03,345 --> 00:29:05,137
and then rest again.

562
00:29:05,137 --> 00:29:08,304
If nothing untoward happened,
there would be perhaps

563
00:29:08,304 --> 00:29:11,971
two or three sentry groups
in the whole company's front.

564
00:29:11,971 --> 00:29:14,138
EXPLOSIONS BOOM IN DISTANCE

565
00:29:23,638 --> 00:29:25,388
It was a job to keep awake.

566
00:29:25,388 --> 00:29:28,347
Woe betide you
if you were caught asleep.

567
00:29:28,347 --> 00:29:31,472
If you are so tired,
you can sleep standing up,

568
00:29:31,472 --> 00:29:33,264
which I've done many times.

569
00:29:34,680 --> 00:29:39,889
The first thing you did when you got
into the line was to have a brew-up.

570
00:29:39,889 --> 00:29:42,264
There was one thing
about the Vickers gun,

571
00:29:42,264 --> 00:29:44,056
it being a water-cooled weapon,

572
00:29:44,056 --> 00:29:46,514
if you were continuously firing,
you'd find that the water

573
00:29:46,514 --> 00:29:49,389
would be boiling.
You could disconnect the tube

574
00:29:49,389 --> 00:29:50,890
and make a cup of tea.

575
00:29:50,890 --> 00:29:53,806
The water came up
in two-gallon petrol cans.

576
00:29:53,806 --> 00:29:56,265
And we could taste the petrol in it
because they couldn't

577
00:29:56,265 --> 00:29:58,140
wash it completely out.

578
00:30:01,098 --> 00:30:03,349
In every bay was a little fireplace.

579
00:30:03,349 --> 00:30:07,807
You used tiny slivers of wood
because if you made smoke

580
00:30:07,807 --> 00:30:09,891
in the front line,
over would come a shell.

581
00:30:09,891 --> 00:30:11,141
I fancy a brew.

582
00:30:11,141 --> 00:30:13,599
But save a drop of that tea
to shave with.

583
00:30:13,599 --> 00:30:16,058
Because we had to shave
in the front line.

584
00:30:16,058 --> 00:30:18,849
We used to put a lot of tins
out on the parapet

585
00:30:18,849 --> 00:30:22,266
if it rained. You daren't touch
any of the other water.

586
00:30:22,266 --> 00:30:25,100
We were scooping water
out of shell holes,

587
00:30:25,100 --> 00:30:27,183
there might have been
dead bodies underneath.

588
00:30:27,183 --> 00:30:29,267
We thought as long as
we boiled it for a long time,

589
00:30:29,267 --> 00:30:31,392
all the green stuff
would come off the top.

590
00:30:31,392 --> 00:30:34,100
Nice and gentle.
Anyway, we'd made tea with it.

591
00:30:34,100 --> 00:30:36,475
That's how I got
my dose of dysentery.

592
00:30:36,475 --> 00:30:39,059
Of course,
there was no sanitary arrangements.

593
00:30:39,059 --> 00:30:41,309
They'd dig a trench
and stick a pole across,

594
00:30:41,309 --> 00:30:45,059
and you'd get about seven
or eight chaps on the pole.

595
00:30:45,059 --> 00:30:47,268
God, to have a clear-out
was terrible.

596
00:30:47,268 --> 00:30:48,893
FLIES BUZZ

597
00:30:48,893 --> 00:30:51,351
People used to go
to the toilet with no privacy.

598
00:30:51,351 --> 00:30:54,768
Being rather a shy nature,
if I had pissed with somebody,

599
00:30:54,768 --> 00:30:56,226
I felt a bit nervous.

600
00:30:56,226 --> 00:30:59,185
But when you were in the Army,
you got quite used to it.

601
00:30:59,185 --> 00:31:01,852
Of course, it didn't matter a damn
because there was no women

602
00:31:01,852 --> 00:31:03,269
or anything like that.

603
00:31:03,269 --> 00:31:05,894
The flies used to crawl
over your bottom.

604
00:31:05,894 --> 00:31:07,227
Most unpleasant.

605
00:31:07,227 --> 00:31:09,102
And no such thing as toilet rolls.

606
00:31:09,102 --> 00:31:11,269
You had to wipe your
behind with your hand.

607
00:31:11,269 --> 00:31:13,769
Your hands might have been
in all sorts of things,

608
00:31:13,769 --> 00:31:15,436
but you never washed.

609
00:31:15,436 --> 00:31:17,103
Well, you heard a terrific shout...

610
00:31:17,103 --> 00:31:18,769
MEN SHOUT AND YELL, LOUD THUD

611
00:31:18,769 --> 00:31:21,686
..and the pole had snapped
and the poor men

612
00:31:21,686 --> 00:31:24,103
who were sitting on the bar
fell down in the muck!

613
00:31:24,103 --> 00:31:25,936
MEN LAUGH

614
00:31:25,936 --> 00:31:28,937
There was always the humorous side
of the war.

615
00:31:28,937 --> 00:31:32,062
We had to put rifles down for them
to hang onto,

616
00:31:32,062 --> 00:31:36,937
and they came out like slimy rabbits
and nobody wanted to go near them.

617
00:31:39,395 --> 00:31:42,354
We had no spare clothes at all
and you were living for weeks

618
00:31:42,354 --> 00:31:45,312
without washing or getting a bath.

619
00:31:45,312 --> 00:31:49,354
I personally became really badly
infested and chatty,

620
00:31:49,354 --> 00:31:52,021
as we used to call it,
with these lice.

621
00:31:52,021 --> 00:31:54,480
Oh, lice was a dreadful problem.

622
00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:58,022
They were funny little things,
like little monster sort of things,

623
00:31:58,022 --> 00:32:01,105
with six legs, and they used
to feed ten times a day.

624
00:32:01,105 --> 00:32:02,772
You had to kill the bloody things.

625
00:32:02,772 --> 00:32:05,147
My favourite way was burning them.

626
00:32:05,147 --> 00:32:08,105
You would run the seams
over the lighted candle

627
00:32:08,105 --> 00:32:10,731
and you could hear the eggs going
pop, pop, pop, pop.

628
00:32:10,731 --> 00:32:12,439
POPPING

629
00:32:12,439 --> 00:32:15,064
The sooner you got the shirt back
again, the heat of the body

630
00:32:15,064 --> 00:32:16,981
hatched the eggs that you'd missed.

631
00:32:18,398 --> 00:32:21,023
And we was just as lousy
the next day.

632
00:32:23,773 --> 00:32:27,106
Each man prepared his own breakfast.

633
00:32:27,106 --> 00:32:30,940
Bread and jam was about
16 men to a loaf of bread.

634
00:32:32,648 --> 00:32:34,982
There'd be a little bit of bacon
which would suffice

635
00:32:34,982 --> 00:32:37,107
for half a dozen men.

636
00:32:37,107 --> 00:32:40,440
You'd put your rasher of bacon
in your mess tin lid,

637
00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:44,982
put a few more sticks on your fire
and you would fry your bacon.

638
00:32:44,982 --> 00:32:47,983
And then soak up the fat
with a piece of biscuit

639
00:32:47,983 --> 00:32:50,108
and then there you are
with the breakfast.

640
00:32:50,108 --> 00:32:52,816
Dinner time was mostly
bully beef cut up and stewed,

641
00:32:52,816 --> 00:32:55,858
along with all sorts
of vegetables from tins.

642
00:32:55,858 --> 00:32:59,150
Magonoghie's tinned stew was
mixed up with the bully beef.

643
00:32:59,150 --> 00:33:02,608
I've gone into French dugouts
and eaten biscuits

644
00:33:02,608 --> 00:33:05,275
which had been left by the troops
two years previously,

645
00:33:05,275 --> 00:33:09,609
and tasted the green mould in them,
but it didn't do me any harm.

646
00:33:09,609 --> 00:33:13,026
This was how it was. Anything's
good, you know, when you're hungry.

647
00:33:13,026 --> 00:33:15,442
And you were always hungry.
HE LAUGHS

648
00:33:16,734 --> 00:33:19,526
But any given moment,
we could expect to be shelled.

649
00:33:19,526 --> 00:33:21,651
SHELL WHIZZES AND BANGS

650
00:33:21,651 --> 00:33:24,026
You had very little protection
against that.

651
00:33:24,026 --> 00:33:27,860
One would hear a mild pop
as the gun fired five miles away.

652
00:33:30,110 --> 00:33:32,860
And in the five or six seconds
it took to come,

653
00:33:32,860 --> 00:33:36,152
you can pass through quite a number
of psychological changes.

654
00:33:42,111 --> 00:33:44,736
I can't remember anything more
nerve-racking

655
00:33:44,736 --> 00:33:48,694
than the continuous shelling,
without stop, went on day and night.

656
00:33:48,694 --> 00:33:52,111
But we were always told that you
never heard the shell that hit you

657
00:33:52,111 --> 00:33:55,070
because most of them
travelled faster than sound.

658
00:33:55,070 --> 00:33:59,320
But you could literally feel your
heart pounding against the ground.

659
00:33:59,320 --> 00:34:01,903
The emotional strain
was absolutely terrific.

660
00:34:01,903 --> 00:34:04,195
Although a shell might burst
50 yards away,

661
00:34:04,195 --> 00:34:06,987
you might find a fragment
of jagged iron,

662
00:34:06,987 --> 00:34:09,112
really red hot
and weighing half a pound,

663
00:34:09,112 --> 00:34:11,362
arriving in your trench.

664
00:34:11,362 --> 00:34:13,862
You see people blown to little bits.

665
00:34:13,862 --> 00:34:16,237
I've actually had to put a man
in a sandbag.

666
00:34:16,237 --> 00:34:18,446
Every now and again,
there would be a great roar

667
00:34:18,446 --> 00:34:20,529
like an aeroplane
coming in to land...

668
00:34:20,529 --> 00:34:21,779
LOUD BANG

669
00:34:21,779 --> 00:34:24,280
..and in a fifth of a second,
your resolution would break

670
00:34:24,280 --> 00:34:26,155
and you'd throw yourself down
into the mud

671
00:34:26,155 --> 00:34:28,446
and the other ones
would laugh at you.

672
00:34:28,446 --> 00:34:31,363
The shrapnel shell would burst
in the air and spray bullets

673
00:34:31,363 --> 00:34:32,947
on the troops below.

674
00:34:34,780 --> 00:34:36,197
As if they were from a shotgun.

675
00:34:38,114 --> 00:34:41,655
The bullets came down,
whistling like all the hobs of hell.

676
00:34:45,489 --> 00:34:48,364
Another one of the annoyances
we had was the Germans

677
00:34:48,364 --> 00:34:49,989
were very active with mining.

678
00:34:51,989 --> 00:34:54,073
We crouched down underneath
the front parapet

679
00:34:54,073 --> 00:34:55,573
to dodge the debris falling,

680
00:34:55,573 --> 00:34:59,323
and I got the men to open up
rapid fire to prevent the Germans

681
00:34:59,323 --> 00:35:02,907
from getting into that crater
where they could bomb us.

682
00:35:02,907 --> 00:35:05,823
If the front line gets damaged,
it's got to be repaired.

683
00:35:05,823 --> 00:35:07,532
Well,
the people who are in the line,

684
00:35:07,532 --> 00:35:09,282
they've got to get on with it.

685
00:35:09,282 --> 00:35:13,741
I had in my mind that we expected
big gunfire to light amongst

686
00:35:13,741 --> 00:35:17,074
all us cavalry and absolutely
swipe us off the face of the Earth.

687
00:35:20,949 --> 00:35:22,866
I shouted, "Gallop!" like that.

688
00:35:22,866 --> 00:35:25,158
They dropped 'em all at once,
the horses.

689
00:35:26,491 --> 00:35:28,741
Oh, a heck of a mess.

690
00:35:28,741 --> 00:35:31,742
The horses were laying down,
with their intestines hanging out,

691
00:35:31,742 --> 00:35:34,783
and men with matter hanging out
of theirs.

692
00:35:34,783 --> 00:35:37,283
"And that, boys," they said,
"the bloody Germans!"

693
00:35:37,283 --> 00:35:40,284
To lose a horse was
like losing a friend.

694
00:35:40,284 --> 00:35:43,075
The Brigadier turned
to our captain and he says,

695
00:35:43,075 --> 00:35:45,076
"See that the boy has
two or three days' rest.

696
00:35:45,076 --> 00:35:46,701
"When a boy likes an animal
like that,

697
00:35:46,701 --> 00:35:49,159
"there's not a lot wrong with him."

698
00:35:49,159 --> 00:35:51,784
Over the whole of the front line,
there was a smell.

699
00:35:51,784 --> 00:35:54,034
It wasn't a complicated smell,

700
00:35:54,034 --> 00:35:57,076
it was the smell
of decaying corpses.

701
00:35:57,076 --> 00:35:59,285
Nasty, sickly smell.

702
00:35:59,285 --> 00:36:00,868
You never forgot that smell.

703
00:36:00,868 --> 00:36:03,452
FLIES BUZZ

704
00:36:03,452 --> 00:36:05,077
It was the smell of death.

705
00:36:05,077 --> 00:36:09,327
If you've ever smelt a dead mouse,
it was like that, but hundreds

706
00:36:09,327 --> 00:36:11,285
and hundreds of times worse.

707
00:36:13,160 --> 00:36:14,619
It seemed to cling to everything.

708
00:36:14,619 --> 00:36:18,286
When you was having your food,
you could taste it.

709
00:36:18,286 --> 00:36:23,328
The awful stench and bits of
human bodies laying about,

710
00:36:23,328 --> 00:36:25,911
it became an everyday thing.

711
00:36:25,911 --> 00:36:29,120
We thought, well, it'll be you
too next, what does it matter?

712
00:36:31,245 --> 00:36:35,453
Wherever there was a grave
or a body, there were rats.

713
00:36:35,453 --> 00:36:36,662
They were all big fat ones

714
00:36:36,662 --> 00:36:39,329
and we knew where they got
the fat from.

715
00:36:39,329 --> 00:36:44,704
Unpleasant animals, because of
the filtration into the graves.

716
00:36:44,704 --> 00:36:48,079
They used to feed on the dead
and come in the dugouts,

717
00:36:48,079 --> 00:36:49,621
pick up scraps in there.

718
00:36:49,621 --> 00:36:51,621
I woke up in the bottom
of the trench

719
00:36:51,621 --> 00:36:54,079
and felt something warm on my face.

720
00:36:54,079 --> 00:36:57,080
And a little heart
going bang, bang, bang.

721
00:36:57,080 --> 00:36:59,746
The devil scratched my face
with the claws of his hind feet

722
00:36:59,746 --> 00:37:00,913
as he took off.

723
00:37:00,913 --> 00:37:03,330
We used to try and shoot them,
hit them, kill them,

724
00:37:03,330 --> 00:37:04,830
chase them, do anything.

725
00:37:04,830 --> 00:37:06,372
GUNSHOTS AND BANGING, RATS SQUEAK

726
00:37:06,372 --> 00:37:08,413
Then you've got gas.

727
00:37:08,413 --> 00:37:11,539
We saw this green cloud
coming towards us.

728
00:37:11,539 --> 00:37:13,580
Just rolling slowly
along the ground.

729
00:37:13,580 --> 00:37:15,164
They'd shout "gas"...
MEN SHOUT

730
00:37:15,164 --> 00:37:17,372
..and you had to take your mask out
and stick it on

731
00:37:17,372 --> 00:37:18,914
in two, three seconds.

732
00:37:18,914 --> 00:37:23,248
Yes, it was phosgene gas,
later on there was mustard gas.

733
00:37:23,248 --> 00:37:25,164
That was very effective.

734
00:37:25,164 --> 00:37:28,331
I never saw a slightly gassed man.

735
00:37:28,331 --> 00:37:31,456
If you couldn't get your gas mask,
you were to pee on your handkerchief

736
00:37:31,456 --> 00:37:33,707
and stuff this round
your nose and mouth.

737
00:37:33,707 --> 00:37:36,207
I don't mind admitting that
I didn't think much of the

738
00:37:36,207 --> 00:37:39,248
urinating on the handkerchief,
so I went into one of

739
00:37:39,248 --> 00:37:42,790
the trench's latrines
and I stuck my head in a bucket.

740
00:37:42,790 --> 00:37:45,040
But I'll tell you, I couldn't
hold my breath any more,

741
00:37:45,040 --> 00:37:48,041
came up, took a good breath of air,
down again.

742
00:37:48,041 --> 00:37:50,207
We were very soon
enveloped in this thick,

743
00:37:50,207 --> 00:37:51,999
yellow, filthy cloud.

744
00:37:51,999 --> 00:37:55,291
The more we tried to get rid
of the sting in our eyes,

745
00:37:55,291 --> 00:37:56,958
the worse it got.

746
00:37:59,041 --> 00:38:01,250
And I thought deeply
of what the effect of blindness

747
00:38:01,250 --> 00:38:02,916
was going to be.

748
00:38:02,916 --> 00:38:06,875
The extraction of clotted blood
and the injection of saline

749
00:38:06,875 --> 00:38:09,042
could alleviate a lot
of the trouble.

750
00:38:09,042 --> 00:38:12,084
And as I was gassed myself,
I can speak from experience.

751
00:38:14,375 --> 00:38:17,084
In the winter time,
as the weather deteriorated,

752
00:38:17,084 --> 00:38:20,292
so the trenches got
more and more sodden with water

753
00:38:20,292 --> 00:38:22,584
until they just became ditches.

754
00:38:22,584 --> 00:38:25,293
The water was swirling
about our feet and rising higher

755
00:38:25,293 --> 00:38:28,751
and higher
until it reached our chests.

756
00:38:28,751 --> 00:38:31,668
Our difficulty was frostbite.

757
00:38:31,668 --> 00:38:35,418
Our gumboots filled with water,
and in the mornings we could not

758
00:38:35,418 --> 00:38:39,210
split them off because
they were frozen to our feet.

759
00:38:39,210 --> 00:38:41,419
When you're talking
about trench feet,

760
00:38:41,419 --> 00:38:43,002
you're talking about gangrene.

761
00:38:43,002 --> 00:38:47,336
Send him straight down the line,
hack the legs off.

762
00:38:47,336 --> 00:38:49,211
Give us a hand with that, will you?

763
00:38:49,211 --> 00:38:53,378
When the water had soaked into the
earth, the floors of the trenches

764
00:38:53,378 --> 00:38:58,294
were just paved with liquid mud,
and that became like glue.

765
00:38:58,294 --> 00:39:02,420
It was a curious
sucking kind of mud.

766
00:39:02,420 --> 00:39:05,003
Very disgusting indeed,
very tenacious.

767
00:39:05,003 --> 00:39:06,670
It stuck to you.

768
00:39:06,670 --> 00:39:10,253
If one had to go
to the rear for rations,

769
00:39:10,253 --> 00:39:12,670
well, that was just
a nightmare journey.

770
00:39:12,670 --> 00:39:14,420
Slithering about.

771
00:39:14,420 --> 00:39:17,754
When it was pouring with rain
and on slippery duck boards,

772
00:39:17,754 --> 00:39:20,212
the language was really edifying.

773
00:39:20,212 --> 00:39:23,004
You heard words that
you never dream existed.

774
00:39:23,004 --> 00:39:26,213
And if you slipped off the duck
boards, you just sank into the mud

775
00:39:26,213 --> 00:39:29,421
of decomposed bodies
of humans and mules,

776
00:39:29,421 --> 00:39:31,755
and that was the end of you.

777
00:39:31,755 --> 00:39:35,130
The boy, he was in the middle
of this huge sea of mud, struggling,

778
00:39:35,130 --> 00:39:36,755
and we couldn't do a thing.

779
00:39:36,755 --> 00:39:38,255
There was no hope of getting to him.

780
00:39:38,255 --> 00:39:41,047
The look on the lad's face,
and he was a mere boy,

781
00:39:41,047 --> 00:39:43,089
was really pathetic.
COUGHING AND SPLUTTERING

782
00:39:43,089 --> 00:39:46,755
I've seen men sinking into the mud
and dying in the slime.

783
00:39:46,755 --> 00:39:49,422
I think it absolutely
finished me off.

784
00:39:50,964 --> 00:39:53,464
It was supposed to be quiet and
then you might get

785
00:39:53,464 --> 00:39:56,381
some drunken German saying, "I'm
going to give them hell today,"

786
00:39:56,381 --> 00:39:58,048
and opened up with all
his batteries

787
00:39:58,048 --> 00:40:00,048
and catch hundreds of people
in the line-up.

788
00:40:00,048 --> 00:40:03,590
And that was what they called
holding the line.

789
00:40:03,590 --> 00:40:07,382
We were in conditions that isolated
us completely from civilisation.

790
00:40:07,382 --> 00:40:11,757
We got so generate,
so isolated living in this mud.

791
00:40:11,757 --> 00:40:15,507
And you could sympathise
with how a rabbit must feel

792
00:40:15,507 --> 00:40:18,757
because we were hunted by mankind,
just the same as a rabbit.

793
00:40:18,757 --> 00:40:21,257
You knew your lives were in
one another's hands

794
00:40:21,257 --> 00:40:23,924
and it united you very closely
and you didn't let anything

795
00:40:23,924 --> 00:40:25,924
interfere with that.

796
00:40:25,924 --> 00:40:28,341
You knew what was going
on within your vision.

797
00:40:28,341 --> 00:40:31,258
Beyond that, you hadn't got a clue.
HARMONICA PLAYS

798
00:40:31,258 --> 00:40:34,966
You didn't care how the war
was going, whether we were winning.

799
00:40:34,966 --> 00:40:37,008
You weren't bothered
with that at all.

800
00:40:37,008 --> 00:40:40,008
You lived like tramps,
you didn't polish any buttons,

801
00:40:40,008 --> 00:40:43,717
you wore any uniformed bits
that you liked and nobody worried.

802
00:40:43,717 --> 00:40:46,842
All they were concerned
with was that you were fit to fight.

803
00:40:46,842 --> 00:40:49,009
If nothing's happening,
you chat about life,

804
00:40:49,009 --> 00:40:51,259
where he came from
and you came from.

805
00:40:51,259 --> 00:40:52,551
Everything was friendly.

806
00:40:52,551 --> 00:40:54,759
There was a terrific lot
of kindness in a way,

807
00:40:54,759 --> 00:40:56,218
to each person.

808
00:40:56,218 --> 00:40:59,218
When the war was not very active,
it was really rather fun

809
00:40:59,218 --> 00:41:00,801
to be in the front line.

810
00:41:00,801 --> 00:41:04,260
It was not very dangerous,
the sort of outdoor camping holiday

811
00:41:04,260 --> 00:41:09,052
with the boys, with a slight spice
of danger to make it interesting.

812
00:41:09,052 --> 00:41:12,760
We used to raid the trenches
and get a prisoner if possible.

813
00:41:12,760 --> 00:41:16,635
And a typical trench raid
would be perhaps eight in passing.

814
00:41:18,010 --> 00:41:20,261
If you was going to make a raid,
somebody would cut

815
00:41:20,261 --> 00:41:22,511
a passage through the wire
at night-time.

816
00:41:25,219 --> 00:41:27,469
The only way to do it
was silently...

817
00:41:29,636 --> 00:41:31,886
..to rush it,
and that was the arrangement.

818
00:41:31,886 --> 00:41:34,178
We would bomb and bayonet
the Germans coming out

819
00:41:34,178 --> 00:41:36,803
on their hands and knees
out the dugout, we'd smack them

820
00:41:36,803 --> 00:41:39,387
over the head and throw
in a couple of bombs.

821
00:41:43,929 --> 00:41:46,429
And there were three ways
of getting rid of him.

822
00:41:46,429 --> 00:41:49,554
One was to knife him,
garrotte him or to bayonet him.

823
00:41:49,554 --> 00:41:52,762
Quietest was the quick wrap
around the throat

824
00:41:52,762 --> 00:41:54,262
and knife into the back.

825
00:41:58,263 --> 00:42:00,554
I threw a revolver
at poor little Rudolph,

826
00:42:00,554 --> 00:42:01,888
he was only about 18.

827
00:42:01,888 --> 00:42:03,471
I hit him in the face with it.

828
00:42:03,471 --> 00:42:06,138
He screamed and came back at me,
and that's when I got him.

829
00:42:06,138 --> 00:42:08,555
Got him with a Very pistol.

830
00:42:08,555 --> 00:42:10,388
Well done, chaps! Good raid!

831
00:42:10,388 --> 00:42:13,013
I always had a full flask
and I gave him a drink.

832
00:42:13,013 --> 00:42:14,972
I felt very sorry for him.

833
00:42:14,972 --> 00:42:18,097
He said, "Danke schoen,
das ist gut," and died.

834
00:42:25,722 --> 00:42:29,098
And it was a very successful raid,
they got two prisoners, I think,

835
00:42:29,098 --> 00:42:31,348
which was all they all wanted.

836
00:42:31,348 --> 00:42:34,265
By the way, the men
who were captured on the trench raid

837
00:42:34,265 --> 00:42:39,307
were the first Germans I saw
on the Western Front.

838
00:42:39,307 --> 00:42:42,515
A lot of the German troops,
they were very good, very friendly.

839
00:42:42,515 --> 00:42:46,349
In fact, some of those Bavarians
were dammed good, decent people.

840
00:42:46,349 --> 00:42:48,640
The snipers would fire
but not hit anybody,

841
00:42:48,640 --> 00:42:49,849
know what I mean?

842
00:42:51,682 --> 00:42:54,057
They put up a sign - "Gott mit uns."

843
00:42:54,057 --> 00:42:55,807
God is with us.

844
00:42:55,807 --> 00:42:58,891
And we put a sign up in English -
"We've got mittens too!"

845
00:42:58,891 --> 00:43:01,516
We don't know if the Germans
enjoyed that joke or not.

846
00:43:01,516 --> 00:43:04,641
There was a wounded German,
he was a Wartenberger, I think.

847
00:43:04,641 --> 00:43:06,891
We did what we could for him,
we gave him a bit of food

848
00:43:06,891 --> 00:43:10,600
and that sort of thing, and
he was cursing the Prussians.

849
00:43:10,600 --> 00:43:14,850
The Saxons were in front of us
and they gave us the warning

850
00:43:14,850 --> 00:43:18,434
that there were going
to be relieved by the Prussians.

851
00:43:18,434 --> 00:43:21,476
And they said to us,
"Give them hell."

852
00:43:21,476 --> 00:43:23,684
They hated the Prussians.

853
00:43:23,684 --> 00:43:25,601
The Prussians were cruel bastards.

854
00:43:27,934 --> 00:43:29,893
Hurry up! This way.
Schnell, schnell!

855
00:43:29,893 --> 00:43:32,143
Watch yourself. Come along!

856
00:43:32,143 --> 00:43:34,185
The Bavarians or the Saxonians,

857
00:43:34,185 --> 00:43:36,560
they were the more civilised
of the Germans.

858
00:43:36,560 --> 00:43:38,351
Part English, if anything.

859
00:43:41,435 --> 00:43:44,518
After a four-day spell
in the front line,

860
00:43:44,518 --> 00:43:48,269
we were relieved and we had to
march back to the billets

861
00:43:48,269 --> 00:43:50,602
a few miles behind the lines.

862
00:43:50,602 --> 00:43:54,144
We were going for
a supposed one-week's rest.

863
00:43:54,144 --> 00:43:56,227
Everybody was dead whacked.

864
00:43:56,227 --> 00:43:58,061
We were all pretty knocked up.

865
00:43:58,061 --> 00:44:00,228
We extricated ourselves from the mud

866
00:44:00,228 --> 00:44:03,269
to what was, somewhat ironically,
called rest.

867
00:44:03,269 --> 00:44:06,936
In the front line itself,
you didn't criticise people

868
00:44:06,936 --> 00:44:09,561
and if you had a chap
who was a bit dicky,

869
00:44:09,561 --> 00:44:12,020
you would keep an eye on him,
just like in a family.

870
00:44:12,020 --> 00:44:14,645
But when you got out of the line,
you'd want nothing to do

871
00:44:14,645 --> 00:44:16,062
with those people at all.

872
00:44:16,062 --> 00:44:18,270
I mean, you can't call
it comradeship exactly,

873
00:44:18,270 --> 00:44:19,729
it was the way you did it.

874
00:44:19,729 --> 00:44:22,562
Come and get your mail!
Welcome back!

875
00:44:22,562 --> 00:44:26,437
The thing which always struck me
as being absolutely stupid

876
00:44:26,437 --> 00:44:30,896
was the next morning,
every man had to be spick and span,

877
00:44:30,896 --> 00:44:32,479
not a trace of mud on him.

878
00:44:34,396 --> 00:44:38,105
You'd brush off clothes or dry
them off the best way you could

879
00:44:38,105 --> 00:44:39,563
and clean your boots.

880
00:44:39,563 --> 00:44:42,188
In other words, smarten yourself up.

881
00:44:42,188 --> 00:44:45,272
THEY PLAY
It's A Long Way To Tipperary

882
00:44:54,981 --> 00:44:57,481
The men would always appear
the same -

883
00:44:57,481 --> 00:45:01,356
cheerful and, in the circumstances,
happy as they could be,

884
00:45:01,356 --> 00:45:03,314
making the best of everything.

885
00:45:03,314 --> 00:45:05,856
You know, in true British fashion.

886
00:45:07,065 --> 00:45:11,232
What? The Cockney wit was prevalent
and we were all lads together,

887
00:45:11,232 --> 00:45:14,357
you know, we didn't care about it.

888
00:45:14,357 --> 00:45:18,482
We'd make a fuss about nothing,
the little things that didn't matter

889
00:45:18,482 --> 00:45:21,732
really, because it was something
to fill the time in.

890
00:45:21,732 --> 00:45:24,482
We used to have to make
our own amusements.

891
00:45:24,482 --> 00:45:25,774
Bloody bastard!

892
00:45:25,774 --> 00:45:27,441
You laughed at the slightest things.

893
00:45:27,441 --> 00:45:30,691
I think probably it was the
general tension of the atmosphere

894
00:45:30,691 --> 00:45:32,858
that used to make us like that,
you know?

895
00:45:34,941 --> 00:45:38,525
My mother sent me a parcel
with a plum pudding, of all things,

896
00:45:38,525 --> 00:45:41,150
and had no thought of
not being able to cook it,

897
00:45:41,150 --> 00:45:42,775
so we used it as a rugby ball.

898
00:45:44,442 --> 00:45:47,359
We had this regimental sports day.

899
00:45:47,359 --> 00:45:49,942
And I won't say
I was the only sober one,

900
00:45:49,942 --> 00:45:53,150
but most of them were merry
about it.

901
00:45:57,692 --> 00:45:59,609
MEN LAUGH AND SHOUT

902
00:46:01,318 --> 00:46:03,943
I mean, you took part in everything
because you had to fill

903
00:46:03,943 --> 00:46:06,318
your time in, you know.

904
00:46:06,318 --> 00:46:08,360
Otherwise all you did
was sit about and smoke.

905
00:46:08,360 --> 00:46:10,360
CHILDREN LAUGH

906
00:46:12,485 --> 00:46:16,068
The only time we saw the artillery
was when we was out of rest.

907
00:46:16,068 --> 00:46:17,777
Fire!

908
00:46:20,360 --> 00:46:22,902
They would be, say,
two miles behind the line.

909
00:46:24,611 --> 00:46:26,861
Fire!

910
00:46:26,861 --> 00:46:29,694
We wanted to neutralise enemy
batteries, so we were registering

911
00:46:29,694 --> 00:46:31,528
our batteries on his.
Fire!

912
00:46:33,903 --> 00:46:35,903
We used to know the line
and elevation

913
00:46:35,903 --> 00:46:37,736
because it was done by aircraft.

914
00:46:40,028 --> 00:46:43,195
It was pretty ghastly, but the idea
was to kill as many German gunners

915
00:46:43,195 --> 00:46:44,487
as you could.

916
00:46:44,487 --> 00:46:45,737
Ready!

917
00:46:47,653 --> 00:46:49,320
Fire!

918
00:46:55,821 --> 00:46:58,862
There was no motorised transport
for guns.

919
00:46:58,862 --> 00:47:01,613
The guns used to be
brought up by horses.

920
00:47:01,613 --> 00:47:03,238
Eight horses to each gun team.

921
00:47:03,238 --> 00:47:04,946
Four horses to each wagon team.

922
00:47:04,946 --> 00:47:06,446
About 60 horses.

923
00:47:07,988 --> 00:47:10,863
The gunners made a filthy noise,
jingling and jingling

924
00:47:10,863 --> 00:47:12,863
and the horses making
noises both ends.

925
00:47:12,863 --> 00:47:15,030
And it was always
of great concern for those of us

926
00:47:15,030 --> 00:47:16,655
who were going into battle.

927
00:47:16,655 --> 00:47:19,364
Heave!
MEN GRUNT, HORSES BRAY

928
00:47:20,989 --> 00:47:22,405
Heave!

929
00:47:27,447 --> 00:47:29,697
Each company officer
paid his own company.

930
00:47:29,697 --> 00:47:33,323
Now, it was generally the
first morning after we were out

931
00:47:33,323 --> 00:47:36,073
of the line, you got five francs.

932
00:47:36,073 --> 00:47:38,906
A franc was worth 10p,
so 50p was your pay

933
00:47:38,906 --> 00:47:41,115
for a fortnight, 50p.

934
00:47:41,115 --> 00:47:44,115
Now, that's a week
of riotous living.

935
00:47:44,115 --> 00:47:47,532
Every town of any size at all
had a brothel

936
00:47:47,532 --> 00:47:51,157
and that was where most
of these boys learned a little bit

937
00:47:51,157 --> 00:47:54,657
more about life than they would ever
have done in normal civil life.

938
00:47:54,657 --> 00:47:57,574
So although they were young
in years, it wasn't long

939
00:47:57,574 --> 00:48:00,199
before they were quite worldly men.

940
00:48:00,199 --> 00:48:02,616
One of the lads said,
"Let's go and have a look

941
00:48:02,616 --> 00:48:05,283
"in the White Star.
It's like a pub."

942
00:48:05,283 --> 00:48:07,950
I'd led a very sheltered life.

943
00:48:07,950 --> 00:48:11,783
And they were beautiful girls
with just a piece of lace on,

944
00:48:11,783 --> 00:48:16,075
and, oh, my word, I'd never seen
anything like it before!

945
00:48:16,075 --> 00:48:19,325
There was I, a young lad, knowing
nothing about this, and off we go,

946
00:48:19,325 --> 00:48:22,534
and these men were
going up to see the girls.

947
00:48:22,534 --> 00:48:24,909
I was very keen. I said
to one of these fellas,

948
00:48:24,909 --> 00:48:26,576
"I've only got a sixpence."

949
00:48:26,576 --> 00:48:29,201
He said, "That's no good,
it's a shilling."

950
00:48:29,201 --> 00:48:32,034
That was my first experience
of a brothel.

951
00:48:32,034 --> 00:48:35,118
Anyway, we looked in there
for a couple of minutes,

952
00:48:35,118 --> 00:48:38,118
when four or five naked girls
came running down the corridor.

953
00:48:38,118 --> 00:48:40,368
We turned tail and ran!

954
00:48:40,368 --> 00:48:42,493
It was an eye-opener to me.

955
00:48:42,493 --> 00:48:44,868
There she stood, great, big woman,

956
00:48:44,868 --> 00:48:47,410
with this little cane in her hand
and she belted my backside

957
00:48:47,410 --> 00:48:48,910
as if I was a little schoolboy.

958
00:48:48,910 --> 00:48:51,244
Pelted Sergeant this
and pelted Sergeant the other,

959
00:48:51,244 --> 00:48:52,910
thump, thump, thump, thump, thump!

960
00:48:52,910 --> 00:48:55,327
HE LAUGHS

961
00:48:55,327 --> 00:48:56,869
Oh, gambling?

962
00:48:56,869 --> 00:48:58,494
People were gambling all day long.

963
00:48:58,494 --> 00:49:01,119
The Canadians and the Australians
used a gamble terrific

964
00:49:01,119 --> 00:49:02,536
amounts of money.

965
00:49:02,536 --> 00:49:04,161
More money than any of us seen.

966
00:49:07,703 --> 00:49:09,786
The beer was very thin indeed.

967
00:49:09,786 --> 00:49:14,286
It was one and nine stuff -
one pint, nine piddles.

968
00:49:14,286 --> 00:49:17,495
Friday was always the issue day
for cigarettes

969
00:49:17,495 --> 00:49:20,370
and the cigarettes were
Three Witches,

970
00:49:20,370 --> 00:49:23,995
which soon became
Three Bitches or Red Hue Tsars.

971
00:49:23,995 --> 00:49:28,204
I think they were made
from stable returns.

972
00:49:28,204 --> 00:49:32,162
But generally, in good-sized
villages, you could get Woodbines

973
00:49:32,162 --> 00:49:38,413
and Player's, and they were far
preferable to the issue cigarettes.

974
00:49:38,413 --> 00:49:41,205
Of course, we were always
bartering with the Frenchmen.

975
00:49:41,205 --> 00:49:43,205
We used to barter some of our
under-clothing

976
00:49:43,205 --> 00:49:45,288
and get a loaf of bread with it.

977
00:49:45,288 --> 00:49:48,913
We used to swap our British
cigarettes for their French wine.

978
00:49:48,913 --> 00:49:52,455
It could be just as tiring out
of the line as in the line

979
00:49:52,455 --> 00:49:54,205
and it was sometimes worse.

980
00:49:54,205 --> 00:49:56,164
If you were chosen for fatigue,

981
00:49:56,164 --> 00:49:59,164
you'd have to go
on the working party.

982
00:49:59,164 --> 00:50:03,373
You collected stores from a big dump
three or four miles back.

983
00:50:03,373 --> 00:50:05,998
Enormous bundles of sandbags,

984
00:50:05,998 --> 00:50:09,581
many made-up duck boards
and, worst of all, barbed wire.

985
00:50:10,956 --> 00:50:12,581
It was always hard work.

986
00:50:12,581 --> 00:50:16,123
You were a bonny labouring boy
more than you were a fighter.

987
00:50:16,123 --> 00:50:19,207
All the chaps were very tired,
but it made no difference.

988
00:50:19,207 --> 00:50:21,123
And they were mentally tired out.

989
00:50:21,123 --> 00:50:23,249
They'd just come out of a
trench tour for a rest

990
00:50:23,249 --> 00:50:25,707
and this was
the kind of rest they were getting.

991
00:50:27,165 --> 00:50:31,416
You would be carrying stuff
up on a light railway.

992
00:50:31,416 --> 00:50:35,374
Yes, they laid a narrow gauge,
light railway track.

993
00:50:35,374 --> 00:50:39,208
It was the simplest of things,
just platforms on wheels,

994
00:50:39,208 --> 00:50:41,416
driven by light locomotives.

995
00:50:49,542 --> 00:50:51,667
Light railways were always
a blooming nuisance

996
00:50:51,667 --> 00:50:54,667
because they were always
coming off the track.

997
00:50:54,667 --> 00:50:58,542
And they lost control of this truck
going down a slight incline

998
00:50:58,542 --> 00:51:00,792
and it would barge
into the one in front,

999
00:51:00,792 --> 00:51:05,126
which scattered the duck boards
all over the place.

1000
00:51:05,126 --> 00:51:08,543
We used to take our mess tins
up to the engine driver

1001
00:51:08,543 --> 00:51:11,876
and get some boiling water
for our brew-up of tea.

1002
00:51:14,960 --> 00:51:16,418
And another.

1003
00:51:18,752 --> 00:51:23,252
The Germans could see the steam
and smoke from the steam engine.

1004
00:51:23,252 --> 00:51:25,919
So then it was mostly petrol engines

1005
00:51:25,919 --> 00:51:28,419
which used to run up
to the trenches.

1006
00:51:31,294 --> 00:51:34,252
The light railway only went
as far as the communication trench,

1007
00:51:34,252 --> 00:51:36,961
and then we had to push the thing
along by hand.

1008
00:51:40,878 --> 00:51:43,211
Somebody came along and said,
"This is it, we're going

1009
00:51:43,211 --> 00:51:44,795
"to be home by Christmas!

1010
00:51:44,795 --> 00:51:46,461
"We'll just go down the road

1011
00:51:46,461 --> 00:51:48,837
"and look in a field there,
you'll see."

1012
00:51:48,837 --> 00:51:51,128
Wouldn't tell us why.
Anyway, we went down.

1013
00:51:51,128 --> 00:51:54,462
They were on the roadside covered
with tarpaulin sheets.

1014
00:51:54,462 --> 00:51:58,337
You could see nothing
except a square outline.

1015
00:51:58,337 --> 00:52:01,212
And then the officer said, "These
are supposed to be hush-hush."

1016
00:52:01,212 --> 00:52:04,254
When we asked what it was,
the simple reply was "tanks".

1017
00:52:04,254 --> 00:52:08,213
Knowing the shortage of water,
we naturally assumed water tanks

1018
00:52:08,213 --> 00:52:10,546
and thought that we were
getting reserve supplies.

1019
00:52:10,546 --> 00:52:12,963
It was one of the best-kept secrets.

1020
00:52:12,963 --> 00:52:15,338
We were delighted because
these wonderful machines

1021
00:52:15,338 --> 00:52:16,671
were going to win the war.

1022
00:52:18,172 --> 00:52:20,172
Soon everybody would be home again.

1023
00:52:20,172 --> 00:52:22,213
Of course, it didn't
happen like that.

1024
00:52:25,005 --> 00:52:29,255
We were taken out of the line
and had intensive training.

1025
00:52:29,255 --> 00:52:33,547
Plunge the bayonet into the sack,
shout like hell.

1026
00:52:33,547 --> 00:52:37,131
It was to get used to plunging
them into somebody's body.

1027
00:52:37,131 --> 00:52:39,881
Then we fired our rifles
on the rifle range.

1028
00:52:47,173 --> 00:52:49,715
Firing rifle grenades
is a specialist job.

1029
00:52:51,840 --> 00:52:53,423
But they were clumsy.

1030
00:52:54,632 --> 00:52:56,424
I didn't like them much.

1031
00:52:58,007 --> 00:53:02,132
Forced marching, marching without
a rest and also a frontal attack,

1032
00:53:02,132 --> 00:53:04,549
right flank attack,
left flank attack,

1033
00:53:04,549 --> 00:53:06,883
both flanks attack,
night attack,

1034
00:53:06,883 --> 00:53:09,424
and we wondered what the devil
all this training was for.

1035
00:53:09,424 --> 00:53:12,341
BAGPIPES PLAY

1036
00:53:12,341 --> 00:53:15,550
The corps commander said that
he had just received instructions

1037
00:53:15,550 --> 00:53:19,675
to go ahead with an operation
to break through the German lines.

1038
00:53:21,758 --> 00:53:24,508
Suddenly we were called to parade
with full marching order,

1039
00:53:24,508 --> 00:53:27,342
and we had to go back up the front,
and we'd only been out of the line

1040
00:53:27,342 --> 00:53:28,759
a couple of days.

1041
00:53:28,759 --> 00:53:32,592
We could see streams of supplies,
mostly ammunition columns,

1042
00:53:32,592 --> 00:53:34,926
going up toward the front.

1043
00:53:34,926 --> 00:53:37,301
We didn't have a lot of notice,
but we knew it was going

1044
00:53:37,301 --> 00:53:38,759
to be a big advance.

1045
00:53:53,135 --> 00:53:54,635
So batteries pushed forward,

1046
00:53:54,635 --> 00:53:56,927
forward positions filled up
with ammunition.

1047
00:53:56,927 --> 00:53:59,469
Let's get these ladders up.

1048
00:53:59,469 --> 00:54:03,469
As the great push drew nearer,
the line livened up. It began to get

1049
00:54:03,469 --> 00:54:06,136
much more dangerous
and not nearly so much fun.

1050
00:54:06,136 --> 00:54:09,011
And we learnt that
a bayonet charge was to be made

1051
00:54:09,011 --> 00:54:12,136
on German machine gunners.

1052
00:54:12,136 --> 00:54:15,095
"I wish it to be impressed
on all ranks, the importance

1053
00:54:15,095 --> 00:54:17,803
"of the operations
about to commence.

1054
00:54:17,803 --> 00:54:20,553
"The Germans are now outnumbered
and outgunned

1055
00:54:20,553 --> 00:54:22,803
"and will soon go
to pieces if every man goes

1056
00:54:22,803 --> 00:54:24,928
"into the fight
determined to get through

1057
00:54:24,928 --> 00:54:27,012
"whatever the local difficulties
may be.

1058
00:54:27,012 --> 00:54:30,095
"I am confident that the brigade
will distinguish itself in this,

1059
00:54:30,095 --> 00:54:31,512
"its first battle.

1060
00:54:31,512 --> 00:54:35,137
"Let every man remember
that all England is watching him."

1061
00:54:35,137 --> 00:54:38,846
We marched all through the night,
and it got so bad that officers

1062
00:54:38,846 --> 00:54:42,596
at the side were pushing men back
into line who were straggling out,

1063
00:54:42,596 --> 00:54:46,180
and your legs just seemed
to go automatically forward.

1064
00:54:46,180 --> 00:54:48,680
I had a feeling that we were
walking in our sleep.

1065
00:54:48,680 --> 00:54:50,472
More men were brought into the line,

1066
00:54:50,472 --> 00:54:53,472
regiments were crowded up
closer together.

1067
00:54:53,472 --> 00:54:57,597
We were filling up the trenches,
packed in like sardines.

1068
00:54:57,597 --> 00:55:01,514
Our captain was a splendid man.
He would never bark an order at you,

1069
00:55:01,514 --> 00:55:04,139
he would give an order
in a conversational way.

1070
00:55:04,139 --> 00:55:06,264
"We don't know exactly
how far this trench is,

1071
00:55:06,264 --> 00:55:09,139
"but between 200 and 300 yards.

1072
00:55:09,139 --> 00:55:12,306
"I will go over with the first wave
and you will be in the second wave.

1073
00:55:12,306 --> 00:55:15,765
"And as soon as the curtain fire
starts, we'll move.

1074
00:55:15,765 --> 00:55:18,265
"Now, go along and tell
your men to be ready."

1075
00:55:18,265 --> 00:55:21,098
And this is the
sort of order we got.

1076
00:55:21,098 --> 00:55:24,182
I had two assorted companies,
both ignorant of what their conduct

1077
00:55:24,182 --> 00:55:25,890
would be when they got into action.

1078
00:55:25,890 --> 00:55:28,765
So Captain Neville thought it
might be helpful if he could furnish

1079
00:55:28,765 --> 00:55:31,515
each platoon with a football
and allow them to kick it forward

1080
00:55:31,515 --> 00:55:32,891
and follow it.

1081
00:55:32,891 --> 00:55:35,307
I think myself that it did help
them enormously,

1082
00:55:35,307 --> 00:55:37,182
it took their minds off it.

1083
00:55:37,182 --> 00:55:40,474
We had an extra bandolier
of ammunition around our necks,

1084
00:55:40,474 --> 00:55:43,058
and if you didn't have a shovel,
you had a pick.

1085
00:55:43,058 --> 00:55:46,183
We got in the trenches
and we waited for zero hour.

1086
00:55:46,183 --> 00:55:48,933
All the watches were synchronised.

1087
00:55:48,933 --> 00:55:51,308
I was what's called
a first bayonet man,

1088
00:55:51,308 --> 00:55:53,642
which meant that I carried
the rifle with the bayonet

1089
00:55:53,642 --> 00:55:55,142
in the attacking position,

1090
00:55:55,142 --> 00:55:57,475
and the rest of the men
carried bags of bombs.

1091
00:55:59,934 --> 00:56:02,642
And we were warned to be ready
to advance at any moment.

1092
00:56:02,642 --> 00:56:05,851
"Any moment" was quite a long time
coming and, of course, that added

1093
00:56:05,851 --> 00:56:07,851
to the tension that we were feeling.

1094
00:56:09,976 --> 00:56:13,393
My platoon had been told
to go out and test the fire.

1095
00:56:13,393 --> 00:56:16,268
We had to get out
and walk towards the enemy.

1096
00:56:16,268 --> 00:56:20,893
We went about 200 yards
and then they called us back again.

1097
00:56:20,893 --> 00:56:24,852
There was to be no preliminary
bombardment the days beforehand,

1098
00:56:24,852 --> 00:56:28,810
there was only one short, sharp
barrage just before the battle.

1099
00:56:30,852 --> 00:56:33,602
You've got to have
the artillery preparation

1100
00:56:33,602 --> 00:56:35,352
to smash their wire down.

1101
00:56:35,352 --> 00:56:36,644
Fire!

1102
00:56:36,644 --> 00:56:40,769
I ordered fire on possible enemy
assembly and forming-up positions.

1103
00:56:40,769 --> 00:56:45,228
The bombardment started
and the ground shook.

1104
00:56:47,061 --> 00:56:51,645
And we could see the hundreds
and hundreds of gun flashes.

1105
00:56:52,770 --> 00:56:54,395
Ready, fire!

1106
00:57:03,645 --> 00:57:07,646
As soon as the bombardment started,
the German retaliation came.

1107
00:57:11,438 --> 00:57:13,813
For four hours, we had to sit
there and take everything

1108
00:57:13,813 --> 00:57:15,479
they slung at us.

1109
00:57:16,896 --> 00:57:19,771
And first of all,
a large number of tanks went in.

1110
00:57:19,771 --> 00:57:22,980
We could hear them
rumbling and rattling.

1111
00:57:22,980 --> 00:57:25,647
320 tanks crawling along.

1112
00:57:25,647 --> 00:57:28,605
We waited for the signal
to move off.

1113
00:57:28,605 --> 00:57:33,439
Already, everybody was anxious
to go, but we waited and waited.

1114
00:57:35,481 --> 00:57:37,689
We got no sleep at all that night,
owing to the noise

1115
00:57:37,689 --> 00:57:42,439
of our artillery barrage, which was
continuous, the whole time.

1116
00:57:42,439 --> 00:57:45,023
We was asked to hand over
any personal belongings

1117
00:57:45,023 --> 00:57:48,356
to our company officer,
such as photographs and letters

1118
00:57:48,356 --> 00:57:51,023
that we valued.

1119
00:57:51,023 --> 00:57:54,232
I heard soft voices talking to one
another quietly,

1120
00:57:54,232 --> 00:57:57,232
and I wondered - how many are going
to live to see the sun rise?

1121
00:57:57,232 --> 00:58:00,107
In a man's pay book, there was
provision for making a valid will

1122
00:58:00,107 --> 00:58:02,649
if they were going into action
for the first time.

1123
00:58:02,649 --> 00:58:05,024
I didn't bother with it,
I had nothing to leave anybody.

1124
00:58:05,024 --> 00:58:06,816
HE LAUGHS

1125
00:58:06,816 --> 00:58:09,649
The fellow next to you,
he was your best friend.

1126
00:58:09,649 --> 00:58:12,191
You perhaps didn't know him
the day before.

1127
00:58:12,191 --> 00:58:14,441
And then an hour to go,
they were the longest

1128
00:58:14,441 --> 00:58:17,149
and the shortest hours in life.

1129
00:58:17,149 --> 00:58:19,525
We had unlimited time for thinking,

1130
00:58:19,525 --> 00:58:22,691
and I know I found myself thinking
much more deeply

1131
00:58:22,691 --> 00:58:25,400
than I had ever thought before.

1132
00:58:25,400 --> 00:58:27,400
Some people might be incapable
of thinking,

1133
00:58:27,400 --> 00:58:29,817
they might have regarded
the situation as being such

1134
00:58:29,817 --> 00:58:31,525
that they were incapable of thought.

1135
00:58:31,525 --> 00:58:33,525
I don't think
there was any feeling of fear,

1136
00:58:33,525 --> 00:58:35,901
it was just
that we were doing a job

1137
00:58:35,901 --> 00:58:38,026
and if it came, it came.

1138
00:58:38,026 --> 00:58:42,609
We realised that, sooner or later,
we were going to get the chop.

1139
00:58:42,609 --> 00:58:44,984
You were either going to be killed
or wounded.

1140
00:58:44,984 --> 00:58:48,193
I was not in the least frightened
being killed,

1141
00:58:48,193 --> 00:58:52,026
but I was terrified
lest I should lose an arm or a leg.

1142
00:58:52,026 --> 00:58:55,193
Waiting for an hour for an attack
is not a very pleasant thing.

1143
00:58:55,193 --> 00:58:59,443
We sort of chatted away, trying
to keep the spirits up, you see.

1144
00:58:59,443 --> 00:59:03,152
We told dirty stories
and made crude remarks.

1145
00:59:03,152 --> 00:59:06,027
We had 1,000 guns massed
on a mile front behind us.

1146
00:59:06,027 --> 00:59:08,361
Well, you can imagine all
this stuff coming over you,

1147
00:59:08,361 --> 00:59:10,402
we had the German stuff
coming the other way.

1148
00:59:10,402 --> 00:59:14,361
The noise rose to a crescendo
such as I'd never heard before.

1149
00:59:14,361 --> 00:59:16,403
You wouldn't hear a word.

1150
00:59:16,403 --> 00:59:20,528
The shells were passing over you
probably three foot, four foot.

1151
00:59:20,528 --> 00:59:24,403
And the air, it was an inferno,
and your line was another inferno.

1152
00:59:24,403 --> 00:59:26,695
Reason was completely blasted
out of it.

1153
00:59:26,695 --> 00:59:30,070
The bombardment created a sort
of hysterical feeling.

1154
00:59:30,070 --> 00:59:32,487
All of a sudden,
one of our fellas started crying,

1155
00:59:32,487 --> 00:59:35,404
really screaming and crying.
The officer in charge telling

1156
00:59:35,404 --> 00:59:39,154
the Sergeant, "Find that man
and shoot him, shoot him!"

1157
00:59:39,154 --> 00:59:41,654
It's difficult to explain
the reaction of a man

1158
00:59:41,654 --> 00:59:44,196
when he is in a big bombardment.

1159
00:59:44,196 --> 00:59:47,946
He thought that this man's screaming
and crying would be a danger

1160
00:59:47,946 --> 00:59:49,738
to the rest of the men.

1161
00:59:49,738 --> 00:59:52,155
As soon as it was light,
we were given a ration of rum,

1162
00:59:52,155 --> 00:59:54,530
any amount of it,
as much as you can drink.

1163
00:59:54,530 --> 00:59:56,863
And we got the order
to fix bayonets.

1164
00:59:56,863 --> 00:59:58,822
Fix bayonets! Fix bayonets!

1165
00:59:58,822 --> 01:00:00,447
Bayonets fixed!

1166
01:00:00,447 --> 01:00:04,655
It was a beautiful day, the way
it dawned after a rainy night.

1167
01:00:04,655 --> 01:00:06,030
A beautiful day.

1168
01:00:06,030 --> 01:00:10,197
Five minutes to go, I remember those
lads standing there, dead silent,

1169
01:00:10,197 --> 01:00:11,739
couldn't make a noise.

1170
01:00:11,739 --> 01:00:14,448
I was more frightened sitting,
waiting to start.

1171
01:00:14,448 --> 01:00:17,239
I was very frightened then,
very frightened indeed.

1172
01:00:17,239 --> 01:00:20,823
And an officer shouted along the
line, "Is everybody ready?"

1173
01:00:20,823 --> 01:00:23,823
And I called out, "I can't get my
bayonet on my rifle, sir."

1174
01:00:23,823 --> 01:00:26,240
And he said,
"Damn you, mate, hurry up."

1175
01:00:26,240 --> 01:00:28,490
I sent back a message
to brigade headquarters

1176
01:00:28,490 --> 01:00:29,990
to say we were all ready.

1177
01:00:29,990 --> 01:00:32,324
But unfortunately
a slight mistake occurred.

1178
01:00:32,324 --> 01:00:35,365
The first thing they knew
was a terrific tremor on the ground.

1179
01:00:35,365 --> 01:00:38,407
We blew a mine, which should
have been under the German trenches

1180
01:00:38,407 --> 01:00:40,032
but it wasn't.

1181
01:00:43,449 --> 01:00:46,158
It was in no-man's-land, and
that gave the Germans five minutes

1182
01:00:46,158 --> 01:00:48,324
to occupy the crater,
which they did.

1183
01:00:51,158 --> 01:00:54,783
Sergeant Moore, he was standing
behind the trench with a revolver

1184
01:00:54,783 --> 01:00:57,908
in his hand and he said, "Any boy
goes back, I shoot them."

1185
01:00:57,908 --> 01:01:01,283
So that if we didn't go one way,
we wouldn't go the other.

1186
01:01:01,283 --> 01:01:03,784
There wasn't a reluctance
to go over the top,

1187
01:01:03,784 --> 01:01:05,450
not with people I were with.

1188
01:01:05,450 --> 01:01:07,075
Fire!

1189
01:01:08,826 --> 01:01:10,201
Fire!

1190
01:01:10,201 --> 01:01:13,409
They put a curtain of shells
over you and you advanced.

1191
01:01:14,701 --> 01:01:16,534
That was the theory, I think.

1192
01:01:16,534 --> 01:01:18,326
Fire! Fire!

1193
01:01:18,326 --> 01:01:21,243
I realised this was
the moment of the assault.

1194
01:01:21,243 --> 01:01:22,951
And then zero hour.

1195
01:01:22,951 --> 01:01:25,993
Somebody shouted, "There they go!"
BAGPIPES PLAY

1196
01:01:25,993 --> 01:01:28,660
To the left were the
London Scottish, running forward.

1197
01:01:28,660 --> 01:01:31,243
I gave the order of "up the ladders,
over the top".

1198
01:01:31,243 --> 01:01:33,452
WHISTLE BLOWS

1199
01:01:34,577 --> 01:01:37,577
And after this, you lived
in a world of noise,

1200
01:01:37,577 --> 01:01:39,536
simply noise for hours.

1201
01:01:43,036 --> 01:01:45,744
As soon as you get over the top,
fear has left you.

1202
01:01:45,744 --> 01:01:48,703
You didn't run, there was
no shouting nor cheering,

1203
01:01:48,703 --> 01:01:50,745
everybody was deadly quiet.

1204
01:01:50,745 --> 01:01:53,870
Just as I stepped into
no-man's-land, somebody was shot

1205
01:01:53,870 --> 01:01:57,078
through the head
and his skull was splintered.

1206
01:01:57,078 --> 01:01:59,828
It wasn't a good send-off,
I can assure you.

1207
01:01:59,828 --> 01:02:05,745
The barrage proceeded into the
enemy lines in steps of 100 yards

1208
01:02:05,745 --> 01:02:07,162
at a time.

1209
01:02:07,162 --> 01:02:09,662
Fire!

1210
01:02:09,662 --> 01:02:12,621
The line of British troops, fixed
bayonets, walking quite steadily

1211
01:02:12,621 --> 01:02:14,412
behind the barrage.

1212
01:02:14,412 --> 01:02:16,204
It is a sight I shall never forget.

1213
01:02:16,204 --> 01:02:19,288
To start with, we'd had
the odd machinegun firing,

1214
01:02:19,288 --> 01:02:22,955
but remarkably little, and it seemed
almost too good to be true.

1215
01:02:22,955 --> 01:02:27,080
We then realised the Germans
had been containing their fire

1216
01:02:27,080 --> 01:02:30,038
until they saw
how far the attack was developing.

1217
01:02:30,038 --> 01:02:33,789
Unknown to us, there was
10 to 20 German machine guns.

1218
01:02:33,789 --> 01:02:36,080
Then all hell broke loose.

1219
01:02:36,080 --> 01:02:39,372
And, my God, he really
opened up and he let us have it.

1220
01:02:39,372 --> 01:02:40,997
It just swept us.

1221
01:02:40,997 --> 01:02:42,997
MACHINE-GUNFIRE

1222
01:02:42,997 --> 01:02:45,039
MEN SHOUT

1223
01:02:46,956 --> 01:02:48,748
Keep moving, laddie!

1224
01:02:53,706 --> 01:02:56,581
MEN SCREAM AND SHOUT

1225
01:02:58,415 --> 01:03:01,748
Machinegun bullets came
at us like hailstones.

1226
01:03:01,748 --> 01:03:04,915
I didn't realise that it was
swish, swish with bullets.

1227
01:03:04,915 --> 01:03:07,707
I looked round and people were
dropping all round you.

1228
01:03:07,707 --> 01:03:11,041
I mean, they just faded away
on either side of you.

1229
01:03:11,041 --> 01:03:14,707
And I thought, what are
they shooting at me for?

1230
01:03:14,707 --> 01:03:18,416
I hadn't gone more than a few yards
before I was shot in the thigh.

1231
01:03:18,416 --> 01:03:20,999
There was a captain alongside me
with his revolver out

1232
01:03:20,999 --> 01:03:22,750
and, all of a sudden, he dropped.

1233
01:03:22,750 --> 01:03:24,958
And then another chap,
he was hit in the leg,

1234
01:03:24,958 --> 01:03:29,792
but he continued with great bounds,
hopping on one leg.

1235
01:03:29,792 --> 01:03:33,042
When the bullets hit the tank,
the metal flakes were whirling

1236
01:03:33,042 --> 01:03:35,375
around like razor blades
inside the tank.

1237
01:03:35,375 --> 01:03:38,000
You could see men dropping,
but you didn't take any notice.

1238
01:03:38,000 --> 01:03:40,209
If you didn't get hit,
you just carried on.

1239
01:03:40,209 --> 01:03:42,834
I suddenly found myself with
a terrible pain in my left hand

1240
01:03:42,834 --> 01:03:45,917
as if someone had caned me,
and I found a big hole in it.

1241
01:03:45,917 --> 01:03:49,459
A man was running across the front
of me and he was shot to the body

1242
01:03:49,459 --> 01:03:54,085
because the contents of his wallet
were flung out forward of me.

1243
01:03:54,085 --> 01:03:56,501
I felt a terrific bang
on my right arm

1244
01:03:56,501 --> 01:03:59,543
and the blood started running
off the end of my hand.

1245
01:03:59,543 --> 01:04:01,960
I just didn't think that this
German machinegun would

1246
01:04:01,960 --> 01:04:04,293
trouble to even fire at me,
but the next thing I felt

1247
01:04:04,293 --> 01:04:08,127
a shock of quite a number of bullets
hitting the right side of my body.

1248
01:04:08,127 --> 01:04:12,044
A hare crossed my path
with eyes bulging in fear,

1249
01:04:12,044 --> 01:04:15,419
but I felt that it couldn't have
been half as frightened as I was.

1250
01:04:15,419 --> 01:04:18,003
You could see your mates
going down right and left,

1251
01:04:18,003 --> 01:04:20,794
and you were face-to-face
with the stark realisation

1252
01:04:20,794 --> 01:04:22,294
that this was the end of it.

1253
01:04:22,294 --> 01:04:25,545
The two in front of me went down
wounded in the head and chest.

1254
01:04:25,545 --> 01:04:28,295
Those bloody bullets got me
in the leg and blew a great big hole

1255
01:04:28,295 --> 01:04:31,378
in the back. It didn't hurt.

1256
01:04:31,378 --> 01:04:33,628
Life was very, very hazardous indeed

1257
01:04:33,628 --> 01:04:35,879
and we proceeded in this fashion,
some getting hit

1258
01:04:35,879 --> 01:04:37,379
and others carrying along.

1259
01:04:37,379 --> 01:04:39,545
You hadn't got time
to deliberate upon things.

1260
01:04:39,545 --> 01:04:42,212
Machinegun bullets might be
coming over, but they weren't

1261
01:04:42,212 --> 01:04:45,046
hitting you and you just go on.

1262
01:04:45,046 --> 01:04:48,171
They say your past comes up when you
think you're going to die,

1263
01:04:48,171 --> 01:04:50,921
but I hadn't got very much
past at 19.

1264
01:04:50,921 --> 01:04:53,296
And when I saw these bullets
coming along,

1265
01:04:53,296 --> 01:04:55,671
all I thought was -
am I going to live?

1266
01:04:55,671 --> 01:04:57,880
Of course, if the thing hits
you fair and square

1267
01:04:57,880 --> 01:05:00,547
and you die immediately,
you don't feel anything at all,

1268
01:05:00,547 --> 01:05:02,463
nothing to it.

1269
01:05:02,463 --> 01:05:05,213
First wave were all
absolutely wiped out.

1270
01:05:05,213 --> 01:05:07,214
Everybody was either
killed or wounded.

1271
01:05:07,214 --> 01:05:09,797
There were so many dead laying
about, it was hard to avoid

1272
01:05:09,797 --> 01:05:11,172
treading on them.

1273
01:05:11,172 --> 01:05:13,881
I was trying to step over them
and the sergeant behind me said,

1274
01:05:13,881 --> 01:05:15,881
"Go on, you mustn't take
any notice of that,

1275
01:05:15,881 --> 01:05:17,589
"you keep going."

1276
01:05:17,589 --> 01:05:20,298
And we were literally
walking over the dead bodies

1277
01:05:20,298 --> 01:05:21,756
of our comrades.

1278
01:05:21,756 --> 01:05:25,090
The carnage is just indescribable.

1279
01:05:25,090 --> 01:05:28,215
I had in my path about 2,000 dead,
British and German.

1280
01:05:28,215 --> 01:05:31,882
An attempt to clear any dead man
from our path was impossible

1281
01:05:31,882 --> 01:05:35,798
because of the shelling
and we ploughed over the lot.

1282
01:05:35,798 --> 01:05:39,007
Any shell bursting within a few
yards of the tank

1283
01:05:39,007 --> 01:05:41,382
seemed to lift it up in the air

1284
01:05:41,382 --> 01:05:45,174
and you felt a tremendous
back pressure.

1285
01:05:45,174 --> 01:05:47,841
The noise of battle when you're out
in the middle of it

1286
01:05:47,841 --> 01:05:51,424
is so terrific that you don't
hear any individual shots even.

1287
01:05:51,424 --> 01:05:54,383
And we had to stop in front
of the German wire.

1288
01:05:54,383 --> 01:05:57,216
It was quite impossible to advance
any further because of the

1289
01:05:57,216 --> 01:05:59,883
barbed wire and the machinegun
posts, which were about

1290
01:05:59,883 --> 01:06:01,342
50 yards further on.

1291
01:06:01,342 --> 01:06:03,633
The wire in front of us
was quite uncut,

1292
01:06:03,633 --> 01:06:05,592
despite the intense bombardment.

1293
01:06:05,592 --> 01:06:07,592
You couldn't see anything
but this wire,

1294
01:06:07,592 --> 01:06:09,925
it seemed to be acres
and acres of it.

1295
01:06:09,925 --> 01:06:12,509
It was just black with rust.

1296
01:06:12,509 --> 01:06:15,134
I don't think a rabbit
could have got through it.

1297
01:06:15,134 --> 01:06:18,301
Then our own artillery started
dropping shells amongst us.

1298
01:06:21,718 --> 01:06:23,509
SCREAMING

1299
01:06:24,551 --> 01:06:27,051
Obviously they hadn't got
their range or they didn't know

1300
01:06:27,051 --> 01:06:29,135
where we were.

1301
01:06:29,135 --> 01:06:32,552
I heard the first
shrapnel shell burst above my head.

1302
01:06:32,552 --> 01:06:35,135
There was a terrific whiz,
that was the disappearance

1303
01:06:35,135 --> 01:06:37,093
of my steel helmet.

1304
01:06:37,093 --> 01:06:38,969
I never found it again.

1305
01:06:38,969 --> 01:06:42,302
I got a bit off the cheek of
my backside, a piece in my hip,

1306
01:06:42,302 --> 01:06:45,636
a piece in my leg,
then a piece right through my leg.

1307
01:06:45,636 --> 01:06:48,261
The fellow to my left took
the full blast of the shell

1308
01:06:48,261 --> 01:06:50,678
and had half his head blown away.

1309
01:06:50,678 --> 01:06:53,886
Bullets were catching us and
shrapnel was coming down overhead

1310
01:06:53,886 --> 01:06:57,095
and we had all the
German artillery banging away at us

1311
01:06:57,095 --> 01:06:59,011
and our own artillery going over.

1312
01:06:59,011 --> 01:07:00,886
The shells were exploding
all round you

1313
01:07:00,886 --> 01:07:03,637
and it was a real good old battle
and it got hold of you, sort of.

1314
01:07:03,637 --> 01:07:06,220
BAGPIPES PLAY

1315
01:07:06,220 --> 01:07:10,470
One had no sanity at all
because the inferno was so blasting

1316
01:07:10,470 --> 01:07:12,720
that you had no time to think.

1317
01:07:12,720 --> 01:07:17,887
That din, that numbing din seemed
to stop one doing the things

1318
01:07:17,887 --> 01:07:21,471
that one would normally do, no
matter how well-intentioned one was.

1319
01:07:23,054 --> 01:07:24,638
You don't look, you see.

1320
01:07:24,638 --> 01:07:26,305
You don't hear, you listen.

1321
01:07:26,305 --> 01:07:28,638
You taste the top of your mouth,
your nose is filled

1322
01:07:28,638 --> 01:07:30,388
with fumes and death.

1323
01:07:30,388 --> 01:07:33,722
The veneer of civilisation
has dropped away.

1324
01:07:33,722 --> 01:07:37,305
I was literally blown about 12 or 14
yards and all that I could hear

1325
01:07:37,305 --> 01:07:40,014
was the cries and screams
from the survivors,

1326
01:07:40,014 --> 01:07:42,639
sometimes in two,
sometimes in three parts.

1327
01:07:42,639 --> 01:07:45,347
Legs, arms all strewn
all over the place

1328
01:07:45,347 --> 01:07:47,972
and that arid smell of explosion.

1329
01:07:47,972 --> 01:07:52,806
Well, all my romantic ideas
of war completely vanished.

1330
01:07:52,806 --> 01:07:56,056
A shell had hit this man,
it knocked off his left arm,

1331
01:07:56,056 --> 01:07:57,765
knocked off his left leg,

1332
01:07:57,765 --> 01:08:00,181
his left eye was hanging
on his cheek

1333
01:08:00,181 --> 01:08:02,598
and he's calling out for Nanny.

1334
01:08:02,598 --> 01:08:04,807
His bleeding eye was
hanging on, pulsing.

1335
01:08:06,348 --> 01:08:08,182
So I shot him.

1336
01:08:08,182 --> 01:08:10,849
I had to, I had to shoot him.

1337
01:08:10,849 --> 01:08:15,057
He'd have died in any case
and it put him out of his misery.

1338
01:08:15,057 --> 01:08:16,724
HE SOBS: It hurt me.

1339
01:08:19,016 --> 01:08:20,974
I knew there was no hope
of getting any orders

1340
01:08:20,974 --> 01:08:23,183
because there was
nobody to give any.

1341
01:08:23,183 --> 01:08:26,808
All officers was killed
and wounded, and most of the NCOs.

1342
01:08:26,808 --> 01:08:28,516
I jumped into this big shell hole.

1343
01:08:28,516 --> 01:08:31,391
You dropped down anywhere,
shell holes, anywhere at all

1344
01:08:31,391 --> 01:08:34,683
just to take cover
until the barrage lifted.

1345
01:08:34,683 --> 01:08:37,725
I'm not one of those heroes who want
to take the German army on my own,

1346
01:08:37,725 --> 01:08:40,309
so I went to work
and I got down behind the lip

1347
01:08:40,309 --> 01:08:42,392
of a big shell hole.

1348
01:08:42,392 --> 01:08:45,434
Fortunately, I was able
to drop into a shell hole.

1349
01:08:45,434 --> 01:08:48,184
Used to call them shell hole
droppers, they would drop down

1350
01:08:48,184 --> 01:08:49,767
into a shell hole

1351
01:08:49,767 --> 01:08:52,851
because of the barrage
and seeing a few men killed.

1352
01:08:52,851 --> 01:08:55,018
It's a pity they didn't all drop
into shell holes.

1353
01:08:55,018 --> 01:08:57,434
Before the barrage lifted,
they were dead.

1354
01:08:57,434 --> 01:08:58,935
SCREAMING

1355
01:08:58,935 --> 01:09:02,101
And the bullets were hitting the
back of the shell hole where I was.

1356
01:09:02,101 --> 01:09:03,560
It was raining bullets.

1357
01:09:03,560 --> 01:09:05,310
I don't know how I got missed.

1358
01:09:05,310 --> 01:09:08,852
From behind the lip of this shell
hole, the dirt was spraying down

1359
01:09:08,852 --> 01:09:10,519
the back of my neck.

1360
01:09:10,519 --> 01:09:13,185
There were three chaps in the
shell hole and one of them said,

1361
01:09:13,185 --> 01:09:15,185
"They're firing
into a bloody shell hole."

1362
01:09:15,185 --> 01:09:18,144
We looked round to see the bullets
go right through his head.

1363
01:09:18,144 --> 01:09:19,602
So that was the end of that.

1364
01:09:19,602 --> 01:09:23,144
A sergeant came down into the
shell hole on top of us

1365
01:09:23,144 --> 01:09:25,061
and he was dead, he got it
through the neck.

1366
01:09:25,061 --> 01:09:27,978
Anyway, he had a lovely pair of
field glasses round his neck

1367
01:09:27,978 --> 01:09:30,645
and I nabbed them. Because things
were so scarce,

1368
01:09:30,645 --> 01:09:33,520
if there was anything like that,
you'd collar it.

1369
01:09:33,520 --> 01:09:37,853
Jerry slapped shell after shell
into us until one shell penetrated

1370
01:09:37,853 --> 01:09:39,728
the forward part of the tank.

1371
01:09:39,728 --> 01:09:42,187
What happened then,
I cannot tell you but I believe

1372
01:09:42,187 --> 01:09:43,979
there was an explosion.

1373
01:09:43,979 --> 01:09:47,062
These were fully trained soldiers,
we always had the rifles loaded,

1374
01:09:47,062 --> 01:09:49,604
but we stuck in the
extra five rounds to make it

1375
01:09:49,604 --> 01:09:51,396
a ten for rapid-fire.

1376
01:09:51,396 --> 01:09:54,646
The Germans got up in their
own trenches and fired at us.

1377
01:09:54,646 --> 01:09:58,479
In my opinion, they were very brave,
very brave men indeed.

1378
01:09:58,479 --> 01:10:02,146
There was a German standing up
on his parapet and flinging bombs.

1379
01:10:02,146 --> 01:10:04,063
So I shot him.

1380
01:10:04,063 --> 01:10:07,147
They officer gave us orders,
"Open immediate rapid-fire."

1381
01:10:07,147 --> 01:10:11,105
We all opened up as fast as we could
go and continually fired.

1382
01:10:11,105 --> 01:10:13,439
It was a real mad minute,
I'll tell you.

1383
01:10:13,439 --> 01:10:15,730
They stood up and I was picking
the Germans off

1384
01:10:15,730 --> 01:10:17,939
because I was a sniper.

1385
01:10:17,939 --> 01:10:20,814
I was trying to pick a shot
and something hit me

1386
01:10:20,814 --> 01:10:23,439
between the eyes
like a sledgehammer.

1387
01:10:23,439 --> 01:10:25,106
I dissolved into unconsciousness

1388
01:10:25,106 --> 01:10:28,064
with no pain, but with
millions of golden stars

1389
01:10:28,064 --> 01:10:30,106
in a dark blue heaven.

1390
01:10:30,106 --> 01:10:32,231
After I'd used up a whole lot
of bullets,

1391
01:10:32,231 --> 01:10:34,773
I got down,
I says, "You have a go, Bill."

1392
01:10:34,773 --> 01:10:38,357
He didn't even fire a shot,
he was killed immediately.

1393
01:10:38,357 --> 01:10:39,982
That's how things were.

1394
01:10:39,982 --> 01:10:42,649
You felt aggrieved,
it was a pal of yours.

1395
01:10:42,649 --> 01:10:47,399
But you took it casually because I
suppose you become battle hardened.

1396
01:10:47,399 --> 01:10:50,607
We kept up rapid-fire there
as long as our rifles would work.

1397
01:10:50,607 --> 01:10:52,357
They got too hot to fire any more.

1398
01:10:52,357 --> 01:10:54,774
Fat was pouring out
the woodwork of the rifles,

1399
01:10:54,774 --> 01:10:57,066
the muzzles were
beginning to extend.

1400
01:10:57,066 --> 01:10:59,650
Then we got an order
from the captain, we must make

1401
01:10:59,650 --> 01:11:04,066
a barricade of the dead,
the German dead and our own dead.

1402
01:11:04,066 --> 01:11:07,483
My captain, at that time, was
anxious to go on and keep it up,

1403
01:11:07,483 --> 01:11:09,775
but I'm afraid he died.

1404
01:11:09,775 --> 01:11:12,025
I had three men loading up
these rifles with me

1405
01:11:12,025 --> 01:11:13,609
and I peppered the whole line.

1406
01:11:13,609 --> 01:11:17,734
And judging by the shouts and
screams, I took a very good toll.

1407
01:11:17,734 --> 01:11:21,192
There was machinegun spraying
on the lip of our shell hole.

1408
01:11:21,192 --> 01:11:23,526
I waited until
the belt of that gun had fired

1409
01:11:23,526 --> 01:11:25,901
and immediately carried on
the advance.

1410
01:11:25,901 --> 01:11:29,359
The sergeant said, "Follow me."

1411
01:11:29,359 --> 01:11:31,235
I managed to crawl under the wire -

1412
01:11:31,235 --> 01:11:34,110
a lot of us got through in
that way - and gathered together

1413
01:11:34,110 --> 01:11:36,402
on the German side of the wire.

1414
01:11:36,402 --> 01:11:39,277
All the shells screamed
over our heads onto the German posts

1415
01:11:39,277 --> 01:11:40,735
and then suddenly stopped.

1416
01:11:40,735 --> 01:11:43,152
"Come on, lads, give them hell,"
and we just got up

1417
01:11:43,152 --> 01:11:44,985
and rushed forward.

1418
01:11:44,985 --> 01:11:47,777
In the bayonet charge,
the majority of us always

1419
01:11:47,777 --> 01:11:50,944
had a round up the spout,
besides the magazine.

1420
01:11:50,944 --> 01:11:53,611
There was a feeling of exultation
that with a rifle, bayonet

1421
01:11:53,611 --> 01:11:56,403
and a couple of Mills bombs in your
pocket, we were going to be able

1422
01:11:56,403 --> 01:11:59,153
to get stuck into the bastards
that had been killing our mates.

1423
01:11:59,153 --> 01:12:01,736
And we went like hell,
straight into the Germans.

1424
01:12:02,820 --> 01:12:05,695
SCREAMING AND RAPID GUNFIRE

1425
01:12:10,278 --> 01:12:12,987
And we fired at anything that moved.

1426
01:12:12,987 --> 01:12:15,195
I dropped down on my knees
and the sergeant fired

1427
01:12:15,195 --> 01:12:18,070
over my shoulder and hit the German.

1428
01:12:18,070 --> 01:12:20,279
He was on the ground but
still firing, so he went up

1429
01:12:20,279 --> 01:12:21,487
and killed him.

1430
01:12:21,487 --> 01:12:23,946
There was only one method
of bayonet fighting, that is to

1431
01:12:23,946 --> 01:12:26,196
shove your bayonet
in as hard as you could.

1432
01:12:26,196 --> 01:12:28,779
There was this German
on the floor of the trench,

1433
01:12:28,779 --> 01:12:30,321
and the poor bugger was dead scared.

1434
01:12:30,321 --> 01:12:32,780
So one of them wondered
whether to stick him or shoot him,

1435
01:12:32,780 --> 01:12:35,238
the German jumped out away
to my left, another one

1436
01:12:35,238 --> 01:12:37,822
on the right, so I pinned
this German down, then shot

1437
01:12:37,822 --> 01:12:41,197
the German on the left,
worked my bolt, put another one

1438
01:12:41,197 --> 01:12:44,280
up the spout, and shot the German
who was running away on the right.

1439
01:12:44,280 --> 01:12:47,072
Quite a number of Germans
came in a rush and we shot them,

1440
01:12:47,072 --> 01:12:48,614
one by one.

1441
01:12:48,614 --> 01:12:50,197
We probably killed the lot.

1442
01:12:50,197 --> 01:12:54,614
Some chap said, "Poor old Dick got
it," and I looked around and saw him

1443
01:12:54,614 --> 01:12:56,864
lying with the top of his head off.

1444
01:12:56,864 --> 01:13:00,198
On their right flank came a German
with a canister on his back,

1445
01:13:00,198 --> 01:13:02,781
squirting this
liquid fire out of the hose.

1446
01:13:02,781 --> 01:13:05,781
I looked towards jets of flame
coming across the trench.

1447
01:13:05,781 --> 01:13:07,531
We'd never heard of flame-throwers.

1448
01:13:07,531 --> 01:13:09,323
Burnt 23 of our chaps to death.

1449
01:13:09,323 --> 01:13:11,823
I plonked one into his chest,
but it didn't stop him,

1450
01:13:11,823 --> 01:13:14,532
he must have had an
armour-plated waistcoat on.

1451
01:13:14,532 --> 01:13:17,532
I got a bang in the arm
and found I was bleeding.

1452
01:13:17,532 --> 01:13:19,740
But I could bomb
pretty well with my left arm

1453
01:13:19,740 --> 01:13:21,616
as I could with my right.

1454
01:13:21,616 --> 01:13:24,241
Somebody threw a Mills bomb,
and it burst behind him,

1455
01:13:24,241 --> 01:13:26,616
and he wasn't armour-plated
behind him, he went down.

1456
01:13:26,616 --> 01:13:28,991
One German came
running out of this trench,

1457
01:13:28,991 --> 01:13:31,950
screaming his head off,
he nearly knocked me over.

1458
01:13:31,950 --> 01:13:34,533
Three Germans came out
with their hands up,

1459
01:13:34,533 --> 01:13:36,866
and they were young chaps
about our own age,

1460
01:13:36,866 --> 01:13:38,825
about 19 or 20.

1461
01:13:38,825 --> 01:13:42,200
If Jerries came up with their
hands up, we just waved them on,

1462
01:13:42,200 --> 01:13:44,950
we didn't fire at them, obviously.

1463
01:13:44,950 --> 01:13:47,450
Prisoners were a nuisance!

1464
01:13:47,450 --> 01:13:49,742
We were shooing them back,
you know, get rid of them.

1465
01:13:49,742 --> 01:13:53,742
The only Germans we were really
fighting were the machine gunners.

1466
01:13:53,742 --> 01:13:55,909
They were firing belt
after belt after us,

1467
01:13:55,909 --> 01:13:57,493
and they never stopped firing.

1468
01:13:57,493 --> 01:14:00,451
The bloody cartridge cases
were piled up in a heap.

1469
01:14:00,451 --> 01:14:02,910
They'd got all their
best men on machine guns,

1470
01:14:02,910 --> 01:14:04,451
and they fought to the death.

1471
01:14:04,451 --> 01:14:07,326
The cog opened, and there
was three Jerries there in front

1472
01:14:07,326 --> 01:14:09,535
of the machinegun,
and of course the bloody gun

1473
01:14:09,535 --> 01:14:13,910
was pointing at me, and I just swung
the Lewis gun, I opened fire first.

1474
01:14:15,077 --> 01:14:16,785
It was split-second stuff.

1475
01:14:16,785 --> 01:14:19,202
Thankfully, I moved on.

1476
01:14:19,202 --> 01:14:22,077
As the war progressed,
it was inevitable that we developed

1477
01:14:22,077 --> 01:14:24,911
the animal characteristic
of killing.

1478
01:14:24,911 --> 01:14:27,078
Well, we've got some
young Lincolnshire lads,

1479
01:14:27,078 --> 01:14:28,494
you know, the 18-year-olds.

1480
01:14:28,494 --> 01:14:30,744
The machine gunners
were putting their hands up -

1481
01:14:30,744 --> 01:14:32,619
it didn't make any difference.

1482
01:14:32,619 --> 01:14:33,828
They were killed.

1483
01:14:35,620 --> 01:14:38,161
And I'm afraid there was
a little bit of slaughter going on,

1484
01:14:38,161 --> 01:14:40,537
until we got in some sort of order.

1485
01:14:40,537 --> 01:14:44,745
Everybody was screaming,
laying down, moaning and groaning,

1486
01:14:44,745 --> 01:14:47,870
and eventually there was silence.

1487
01:14:47,870 --> 01:14:50,412
I found a German officer
with his lung hanging out.

1488
01:14:50,412 --> 01:14:52,662
He was still alive,
but he wasn't conscious.

1489
01:14:52,662 --> 01:14:56,829
You could see his lung was expanding
and contracting as he was breathing.

1490
01:14:56,829 --> 01:14:59,871
It was the nearest I ever came
to shooting a man point-blank,

1491
01:14:59,871 --> 01:15:02,288
but we had to go on.

1492
01:15:02,288 --> 01:15:04,788
One dead German leaning
against a shell wall,

1493
01:15:04,788 --> 01:15:07,705
he was a handsome bloke,
he reminded me of my father.

1494
01:15:07,705 --> 01:15:12,455
A shell had dissected him nicely,
it had taken the whole of the front

1495
01:15:12,455 --> 01:15:16,414
of his chest down to his stomach,
neatly cut aside.

1496
01:15:16,414 --> 01:15:19,497
What a fantastic exhibition
of anatomy.

1497
01:15:21,622 --> 01:15:24,664
The real shooting was over
in about ten minutes.

1498
01:15:24,664 --> 01:15:28,664
There was about 100 of us coming
out, instead of 600 who'd gone over,

1499
01:15:28,664 --> 01:15:30,706
and a band came to meet us.

1500
01:15:30,706 --> 01:15:32,581
It was a wonderful feeling.

1501
01:15:32,581 --> 01:15:34,040
"I've been in a battle!

1502
01:15:34,040 --> 01:15:37,290
"And I'm so very proud about it."

1503
01:15:37,290 --> 01:15:38,748
Hang on.

1504
01:15:41,082 --> 01:15:42,665
You got it? Yeah.

1505
01:15:42,665 --> 01:15:45,040
And if you'd anybody
wounded or killed...

1506
01:15:45,040 --> 01:15:46,749
FLIES BUZZ

1507
01:15:46,749 --> 01:15:50,540
..if you didn't get them out
straight away, they went down

1508
01:15:50,540 --> 01:15:53,916
in the soil and disappeared,
it was so bad.

1509
01:15:53,916 --> 01:15:55,416
That's it.

1510
01:15:56,874 --> 01:16:01,541
Well, you had to ascertain
whether a man was alive or not.

1511
01:16:01,541 --> 01:16:06,875
If he was dead, then he
was no trouble - medically.

1512
01:16:06,875 --> 01:16:08,833
I can't put that any clearer!

1513
01:16:09,916 --> 01:16:11,583
Keep him level.

1514
01:16:12,958 --> 01:16:14,583
Give me some room!

1515
01:16:14,583 --> 01:16:17,625
I felt some pain, I suppose
about an hour later.

1516
01:16:17,625 --> 01:16:21,417
I'd got these thigh boots on,
and the bullet had gone in sideways,

1517
01:16:21,417 --> 01:16:25,126
all the way down the leg, in, out,
in, out, and hit the ankle bone

1518
01:16:25,126 --> 01:16:26,626
and turned upside down.

1519
01:16:28,542 --> 01:16:31,043
Oh, God!

1520
01:16:31,043 --> 01:16:32,376
Jesus!

1521
01:16:34,084 --> 01:16:37,418
The Sergeant Major brought me
a dixie of hot tea,

1522
01:16:37,418 --> 01:16:41,168
which was just what I needed,
it went down beautifully.

1523
01:16:41,168 --> 01:16:44,252
And casualties started coming back,
walking casualties,

1524
01:16:44,252 --> 01:16:47,835
men with their arms smashed up,
legs trawling, and they got back

1525
01:16:47,835 --> 01:16:50,460
to different dressing stations
the best way they could.

1526
01:16:50,460 --> 01:16:53,127
The walking wounded, they were
coming down in droves.

1527
01:16:53,127 --> 01:16:56,169
Some were holding one another,
and some were walking on their own,

1528
01:16:56,169 --> 01:16:58,794
a light wound in the hand or arm,
but some were hobbling along,

1529
01:16:58,794 --> 01:17:00,794
and some were looking
quite cheerful as

1530
01:17:00,794 --> 01:17:02,836
they'd been free of something.

1531
01:17:02,836 --> 01:17:04,211
Hello, Mum!

1532
01:17:05,628 --> 01:17:08,003
My officer had said,
"Are you all right, Kane?"

1533
01:17:08,003 --> 01:17:10,336
And I said, "Oh, yes,
sir, I can still walk."

1534
01:17:10,336 --> 01:17:13,795
And he said, "But you've been hit
in the back of the head."

1535
01:17:13,795 --> 01:17:16,753
And he handed me
quite a dose of rum.

1536
01:17:18,920 --> 01:17:24,004
The worst cases were those
who were shot through the chest.

1537
01:17:24,004 --> 01:17:27,296
Well, the difficulty of breathing,
you see, you only had

1538
01:17:27,296 --> 01:17:30,754
field dressings,
which every man carried.

1539
01:17:30,754 --> 01:17:32,754
Yeah, we'll have a better look
at it.

1540
01:17:32,754 --> 01:17:34,213
Who's waiting, boys?

1541
01:17:34,213 --> 01:17:36,963
You got a bottle of iodine
and they'd tip it in the hole.

1542
01:17:36,963 --> 01:17:39,713
Oh, the pain was terrific.

1543
01:17:39,713 --> 01:17:41,088
Well done.

1544
01:17:43,922 --> 01:17:46,838
How about that for luck, chum?
Shot right through it.

1545
01:17:50,047 --> 01:17:54,256
I was not in very good shape at all,
and I was getting somewhere near

1546
01:17:54,256 --> 01:17:57,547
the end of my tether, I don't think
I could go on much longer.

1547
01:17:57,547 --> 01:18:02,006
Every soldier, I suppose,
had this breaking strain.

1548
01:18:05,298 --> 01:18:07,631
The medics will be waiting for you.

1549
01:18:07,631 --> 01:18:10,131
Well done, lads, well done.

1550
01:18:10,131 --> 01:18:11,923
That's it.

1551
01:18:11,923 --> 01:18:16,715
We had some remarkable doctors
who worked day and night

1552
01:18:16,715 --> 01:18:21,590
in various stations on the British
front, looking after the wounded.

1553
01:18:23,132 --> 01:18:24,549
Nice cup of Rosie Lee.

1554
01:18:24,549 --> 01:18:26,174
You all right, Jack?

1555
01:18:26,174 --> 01:18:30,132
They seemed never to need any sleep,
so what they hadn't got in numbers

1556
01:18:30,132 --> 01:18:32,091
they made up in effort.

1557
01:18:32,091 --> 01:18:33,966
We need a shell dressing.

1558
01:18:36,049 --> 01:18:40,008
Both my officers, all my sergeants
and three quarters of my men

1559
01:18:40,008 --> 01:18:42,341
were killed or wounded.

1560
01:18:42,341 --> 01:18:46,217
Their ranks were made up with lads
of 18 from England

1561
01:18:46,217 --> 01:18:48,467
who'd been pushed out of factories.

1562
01:18:48,467 --> 01:18:50,175
Easy, that's it.

1563
01:18:51,342 --> 01:18:52,842
BIRDS SQUAWK

1564
01:18:52,842 --> 01:18:54,967
Bloody birds! Get out of it!

1565
01:18:54,967 --> 01:18:56,384
Go on!

1566
01:18:57,592 --> 01:19:01,634
My mob were helping
the battalion to bury these...

1567
01:19:01,634 --> 01:19:05,468
..only little kids, they were,
17 or 18 years of age.

1568
01:19:05,468 --> 01:19:08,593
In sure and certain hope
of the resurrection to eternal life

1569
01:19:08,593 --> 01:19:10,385
through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1570
01:19:15,343 --> 01:19:18,010
A lot of those kids,
it was their first action,

1571
01:19:18,010 --> 01:19:20,260
and they never knew any more.

1572
01:19:20,260 --> 01:19:23,302
So we'd wrapped them up in blankets,
dug a little shallow grave

1573
01:19:23,302 --> 01:19:24,677
and put them in there.

1574
01:19:27,802 --> 01:19:30,886
I was putting a dressing on
a German, and he was very shaky

1575
01:19:30,886 --> 01:19:33,719
and fearful of what we were
going to do to him.

1576
01:19:33,719 --> 01:19:35,886
But they were more
frightened than we were.

1577
01:19:35,886 --> 01:19:38,178
And we were frightened,
I don't mind telling you!

1578
01:19:38,178 --> 01:19:41,261
Mostly, they were just boys,
as we were.

1579
01:19:41,261 --> 01:19:44,303
They seemed glad to be captured,
they were out of it.

1580
01:19:44,303 --> 01:19:45,470
Is this yours?

1581
01:19:45,470 --> 01:19:47,678
Mein.
This is his. Ah, it's yours.

1582
01:19:47,678 --> 01:19:49,762
Put it in your pocket.

1583
01:19:49,762 --> 01:19:52,262
There was a little German fella,
I gave him a cigarette,

1584
01:19:52,262 --> 01:19:55,512
and he was terrified,
and I was very, very sorry for him,

1585
01:19:55,512 --> 01:19:57,887
really, you know.
He was only about 16.

1586
01:19:57,887 --> 01:20:00,596
And we had a chinwag,
and I just took his pocket watch,

1587
01:20:00,596 --> 01:20:02,221
you know, it was a normal thing.

1588
01:20:02,221 --> 01:20:03,846
We used to rob them, you see?

1589
01:20:03,846 --> 01:20:05,221
Right, let's go.

1590
01:20:06,263 --> 01:20:10,180
Yes, they were underfed,
and they were in very poor shape.

1591
01:20:10,180 --> 01:20:11,555
Come on, come on now, lads.

1592
01:20:11,555 --> 01:20:12,930
Pick him up. Come on!

1593
01:20:12,930 --> 01:20:15,722
And funnily enough, five or six
German prisoners came along,

1594
01:20:15,722 --> 01:20:19,013
and they helped carry me,
and I got another six watches,

1595
01:20:19,013 --> 01:20:22,014
because I robbed these fellas
who helped me down.

1596
01:20:22,014 --> 01:20:26,222
Every time we captured prisoners,
a number of German prisoners

1597
01:20:26,222 --> 01:20:28,806
would immediately
take up stretcher duty.

1598
01:20:28,806 --> 01:20:31,972
Now, I'm sure the Geneva Convention
never required them to do that.

1599
01:20:31,972 --> 01:20:33,348
There you go, lads.

1600
01:20:33,348 --> 01:20:35,139
I've got him. Steady.

1601
01:20:36,514 --> 01:20:37,848
You're all right, chum.

1602
01:20:37,848 --> 01:20:39,431
That's it. Keep going.

1603
01:20:39,431 --> 01:20:42,431
I took about
a dozen prisoners back with me,

1604
01:20:42,431 --> 01:20:45,015
they were all unarmed
and I just had my old gun.

1605
01:20:45,015 --> 01:20:48,348
In some cases, there were
a whole lot of Germans without even

1606
01:20:48,348 --> 01:20:50,598
a Tommy with them.

1607
01:20:50,598 --> 01:20:56,432
Oh, they were really cowed,
they were, yes, very subdued.

1608
01:20:58,474 --> 01:21:03,474
I slept next to a German man
who'd been wounded in the arm,

1609
01:21:03,474 --> 01:21:08,224
and to my amazement he started
talking to me in English.

1610
01:21:08,224 --> 01:21:10,600
And he said he'd been
a waiter at the Savoy.

1611
01:21:14,308 --> 01:21:18,100
I mean, I don't think the average
British soldier ever had

1612
01:21:18,100 --> 01:21:21,433
any deep feelings regarding revenge
against the German.

1613
01:21:21,433 --> 01:21:23,225
He admired him and respected him.

1614
01:21:24,392 --> 01:21:25,809
Go on, show him.

1615
01:21:25,809 --> 01:21:28,517
As the war went on,
I felt as much sympathy for them

1616
01:21:28,517 --> 01:21:30,434
as I did for myself.

1617
01:21:30,434 --> 01:21:32,976
The German I always thought
was a good fighter.

1618
01:21:32,976 --> 01:21:36,059
I'd sooner have him on my side
than on the opposite side.

1619
01:21:36,059 --> 01:21:39,018
I think some of the Germans thought
we ought to have been fighting

1620
01:21:39,018 --> 01:21:42,768
with them against the French
and the Russians, but none of them

1621
01:21:42,768 --> 01:21:44,643
thought we ought to be
fighting each other.

1622
01:21:44,643 --> 01:21:46,060
Keep on moving forward!

1623
01:21:46,060 --> 01:21:50,435
You see, the German
had been an unknown horde

1624
01:21:50,435 --> 01:21:53,060
with their coal-scuttle helmets,
and then we met them.

1625
01:21:53,060 --> 01:21:55,852
Well, the German soldier,
he was a very nice fellow as a rule.

1626
01:21:55,852 --> 01:21:58,227
You know, I think he was
really a barber or a shopkeeper

1627
01:21:58,227 --> 01:22:01,561
or something, and, the same as us,
he was stuck in uniform.

1628
01:22:01,561 --> 01:22:04,769
You're too tall.
Get you next time, Jerry!

1629
01:22:04,769 --> 01:22:07,478
We got on very well together,
actually, and they used to

1630
01:22:07,478 --> 01:22:08,811
mix in with us.

1631
01:22:08,811 --> 01:22:10,770
Want your hat back?

1632
01:22:10,770 --> 01:22:12,520
Here, give it him back!

1633
01:22:12,520 --> 01:22:15,478
They were decent,
sort of family people

1634
01:22:15,478 --> 01:22:18,562
and thought a great deal
of their children.

1635
01:22:20,270 --> 01:22:23,645
They didn't seem to bear
any malice against us.

1636
01:22:23,645 --> 01:22:26,187
They'd had to do what
they were told, like us.

1637
01:22:27,979 --> 01:22:30,062
Go on, go on tracking...

1638
01:22:30,062 --> 01:22:33,062
I couldn't speak German,
but some could, and the Germans,

1639
01:22:33,062 --> 01:22:34,771
some of them could speak English.

1640
01:22:34,771 --> 01:22:36,771
Anyhow, we could
understand each other.

1641
01:22:36,771 --> 01:22:39,688
The general agreement
when we were talking to Germans

1642
01:22:39,688 --> 01:22:44,230
was how useless war was
and why did it have to happen.

1643
01:22:47,022 --> 01:22:49,480
When you're passing bodies
all day long,

1644
01:22:49,480 --> 01:22:52,897
it's bound to have an effect
on whoever it is, isn't it?

1645
01:22:52,897 --> 01:22:54,980
This big fat German
was lying in a street...

1646
01:22:54,980 --> 01:22:56,189
FLIES BUZZ

1647
01:22:56,189 --> 01:22:58,647
..you know, his stomach
was all gassed up,

1648
01:22:58,647 --> 01:23:01,439
his intestines
lying out on his belly.

1649
01:23:01,439 --> 01:23:04,356
And somebody had stuck
a pipe in his mouth!

1650
01:23:04,356 --> 01:23:07,523
Yeah, we all told him to get up!
HE CHUCKLES

1651
01:23:08,939 --> 01:23:12,898
German troops were very brave
and very stubborn.

1652
01:23:12,898 --> 01:23:16,356
The Germans fought rearguard actions
almost back to the Rhine,

1653
01:23:16,356 --> 01:23:20,232
and regiment after regiment
was smashed up and cut about.

1654
01:23:20,232 --> 01:23:23,940
We had an idea that they were
beginning to crack.

1655
01:23:25,940 --> 01:23:28,732
I would say that they were,
if anything, rather despondent.

1656
01:23:28,732 --> 01:23:30,607
They knew they had lost the war.

1657
01:23:30,607 --> 01:23:34,482
We, as front-line soldiers,
knew they were giving up.

1658
01:23:34,482 --> 01:23:39,024
Quite frankly, the Germans
were fed up with the whole thing.

1659
01:23:39,024 --> 01:23:42,941
And, gradually, that is how
the war itself came to an end.

1660
01:23:42,941 --> 01:23:46,108
I got the impression that most
of the German soldiers

1661
01:23:46,108 --> 01:23:50,275
couldn't care less who won
as long as the war finished.

1662
01:23:50,275 --> 01:23:52,775
Of course, that's what everybody
was thinking about then -

1663
01:23:52,775 --> 01:23:54,650
we'd had enough.

1664
01:23:54,650 --> 01:23:58,275
And after a time,
perhaps nobody cared.

1665
01:23:58,275 --> 01:24:00,109
All right, boys, here it comes.

1666
01:24:00,109 --> 01:24:01,692
We're in the pictures!

1667
01:24:02,817 --> 01:24:05,442
There was a fella in
the war called Rumour,

1668
01:24:05,442 --> 01:24:08,526
he knows everything, you see,
and Mr Rumour told us

1669
01:24:08,526 --> 01:24:12,026
that the Germans were also
negotiating for an Armistice.

1670
01:24:12,026 --> 01:24:14,068
There was a huge poster,

1671
01:24:14,068 --> 01:24:18,985
"All hostilities will cease
on the Western Front at 11 o'clock

1672
01:24:18,985 --> 01:24:22,110
"on the 11th of November 1918."

1673
01:24:22,110 --> 01:24:24,485
So we said to each other,
"What day is it?"

1674
01:24:24,485 --> 01:24:28,944
And somebody discovered
it was November the 11th!

1675
01:24:28,944 --> 01:24:32,236
And then we had to shine our boots,
clean our buttons,

1676
01:24:32,236 --> 01:24:34,902
we knew the war was over then,
and we were quite confident

1677
01:24:34,902 --> 01:24:37,319
that we would be
there when it ended.

1678
01:24:37,319 --> 01:24:41,736
This proclamation was read out,
stating that the hostilities

1679
01:24:41,736 --> 01:24:45,403
would cease from 11 that morning,
and actually there wasn't

1680
01:24:45,403 --> 01:24:48,695
a cheer of any kind
raised when that was read out.

1681
01:24:48,695 --> 01:24:53,070
At 11 o'clock, the noise
of the gunfire just rolled away,

1682
01:24:53,070 --> 01:24:55,362
like a peal of thunder,
in the distance.

1683
01:24:55,362 --> 01:24:58,737
SHELLFIRE AND GUNFIRE FADES OUT

1684
01:25:03,446 --> 01:25:06,529
BIRDSONG, SOLDIERS CHATTER

1685
01:25:07,613 --> 01:25:09,321
Never heard it being quiet.

1686
01:25:09,321 --> 01:25:12,238
Now it was dead silent.

1687
01:25:12,238 --> 01:25:15,363
You were so dazed that you could
stand up straight and not be shot.

1688
01:25:15,363 --> 01:25:16,863
It was eerie.

1689
01:25:18,780 --> 01:25:21,488
There was a feeling
of relief and gladness,

1690
01:25:21,488 --> 01:25:24,113
I suppose, but no celebration.

1691
01:25:24,113 --> 01:25:27,030
The staff officer
shut his watch up and said,

1692
01:25:27,030 --> 01:25:29,780
"I wonder what we're
all going to do next."

1693
01:25:29,780 --> 01:25:33,406
There was no demonstration
of any kind, nobody said a word,

1694
01:25:33,406 --> 01:25:36,072
everybody just slumped away.

1695
01:25:36,072 --> 01:25:38,614
The only way we could
have celebrated as regards

1696
01:25:38,614 --> 01:25:42,114
to a liquid
would have been tea, that's all.

1697
01:25:42,114 --> 01:25:44,781
It was one of
the flattest moments of our lives.

1698
01:25:44,781 --> 01:25:47,115
We just couldn't comprehend it.

1699
01:25:48,823 --> 01:25:51,115
We had that sort of feeling
as though we'd been kicked

1700
01:25:51,115 --> 01:25:52,407
out of a job.

1701
01:25:52,407 --> 01:25:55,990
For some of us, it was practically
the only life we'd known.

1702
01:25:55,990 --> 01:25:58,157
What was one going to do next?

1703
01:25:58,157 --> 01:26:00,407
It was just like
being made redundant.

1704
01:26:00,407 --> 01:26:03,366
That was very much
the feeling of everyone.

1705
01:26:03,366 --> 01:26:06,657
We were thoroughly upset,
we'd all got no work to go to.

1706
01:26:06,657 --> 01:26:08,699
"I don't want to go back."

1707
01:26:08,699 --> 01:26:13,908
There was no cheering, no singing -
we were drained of all emotion.

1708
01:26:13,908 --> 01:26:18,575
We were too far gone,
too exhausted to enjoy it.

1709
01:26:18,575 --> 01:26:22,825
All things come to an end,
and even a drama can go on too long.

1710
01:26:22,825 --> 01:26:26,117
It didn't end with a whimper,
but something very much like one.

1711
01:26:42,451 --> 01:26:45,951
I was very happy to leave.
I'd had enough, you know?

1712
01:26:45,951 --> 01:26:49,576
After a time, it begins
to wear on one, you know?

1713
01:26:49,576 --> 01:26:52,452
"Thank goodness the bloody thing
is over," that was all.

1714
01:26:52,452 --> 01:26:54,743
But so far as I was concerned,
I was out of it,

1715
01:26:54,743 --> 01:26:56,827
and now the next step in life.

1716
01:26:56,827 --> 01:26:59,869
The first thing we did was
write home, say we were all right,

1717
01:26:59,869 --> 01:27:02,285
making sure we got the date
on the envelope right.

1718
01:27:02,285 --> 01:27:05,119
To someone like myself,
who was interested in nature,

1719
01:27:05,119 --> 01:27:07,869
after the horrors that man had
made of the battlefront,

1720
01:27:07,869 --> 01:27:11,911
I was immensely delighted to find
shell holes in which I picked

1721
01:27:11,911 --> 01:27:15,953
lilies of the valley and larkspur,
and I pursued Camberwell Beauties

1722
01:27:15,953 --> 01:27:19,786
and swallowtail butterflies
along the banks of the Aisne river.

1723
01:27:19,786 --> 01:27:21,662
We went to Boulogne.

1724
01:27:21,662 --> 01:27:23,787
By the way, we came
home with full pack,

1725
01:27:23,787 --> 01:27:26,495
the only thing we left
behind was the bullets,

1726
01:27:26,495 --> 01:27:28,370
we had to discard those.

1727
01:27:28,370 --> 01:27:30,162
But we still kept our rifle.

1728
01:27:30,162 --> 01:27:35,204
We went over to Folkestone,
and there were long trestle tables

1729
01:27:35,204 --> 01:27:38,662
with very kind ladies,
and they gave you a sausage roll

1730
01:27:38,662 --> 01:27:43,329
or a bun and a cup of tea,
and that was very welcome.

1731
01:27:43,329 --> 01:27:47,496
We entrained to Victoria,
and there we broke up.

1732
01:27:47,496 --> 01:27:50,538
We went to the barracks,
and we just dumped rifles,

1733
01:27:50,538 --> 01:27:53,288
bayonets and everything,
and there were a lot of suits

1734
01:27:53,288 --> 01:27:55,705
on display, hats, shoes.

1735
01:27:55,705 --> 01:27:58,330
You could tell her which one
you wanted, style and colour,

1736
01:27:58,330 --> 01:27:59,830
and they measured you.

1737
01:28:01,289 --> 01:28:04,664
I was horrified by what I saw
when I came back here

1738
01:28:04,664 --> 01:28:06,581
and when one tried to get a job.

1739
01:28:06,581 --> 01:28:08,872
There was mass unemployment,
and I thought,

1740
01:28:08,872 --> 01:28:10,498
"This isn't much of a life."

1741
01:28:10,498 --> 01:28:12,706
It was a most difficult thing
to realise you're of

1742
01:28:12,706 --> 01:28:14,123
no commercial value.

1743
01:28:14,123 --> 01:28:16,581
It was a shame, the way
ex-servicemen were treated.

1744
01:28:16,581 --> 01:28:17,956
You weren't wanted.

1745
01:28:17,956 --> 01:28:21,373
Some places said,
"No ex-servicemen need apply,"

1746
01:28:21,373 --> 01:28:24,082
and that was the sort of attitude
you were up against.

1747
01:28:24,082 --> 01:28:28,457
One of my pals was killed, and when
I went home, the very first thing

1748
01:28:28,457 --> 01:28:30,874
that I did was
go to his mother, who,

1749
01:28:30,874 --> 01:28:33,249
if she'd had a frying pan,
she'd have hit me.

1750
01:28:33,249 --> 01:28:35,749
Her son had been killed
and I'd come back alive.

1751
01:28:35,749 --> 01:28:37,582
She was very bitter.

1752
01:28:37,582 --> 01:28:40,708
The first night I came home,
I got into my old bed,

1753
01:28:40,708 --> 01:28:44,083
the first bed I'd laid
in since I joined the Army.

1754
01:28:44,083 --> 01:28:46,416
When mother brought my cup
of tea up in the morning,

1755
01:28:46,416 --> 01:28:48,583
she found me fast asleep
on the floor.

1756
01:28:48,583 --> 01:28:50,500
People never talked about the war.

1757
01:28:50,500 --> 01:28:53,542
It was a thing that had
no conversational value at all.

1758
01:28:53,542 --> 01:28:56,417
Most people were
absolutely disinterested.

1759
01:28:56,417 --> 01:28:58,708
When I got home,
my father and my mother

1760
01:28:58,708 --> 01:29:01,292
didn't seem in the least
interested in what had happened,

1761
01:29:01,292 --> 01:29:03,375
they hadn't any conception
of what it was like.

1762
01:29:03,375 --> 01:29:04,542
SOLDIER WHISTLES TUNE

1763
01:29:04,542 --> 01:29:06,834
And there was no reason
why any one of us millions

1764
01:29:06,834 --> 01:29:09,126
should have been favoured
with a thank you very much

1765
01:29:09,126 --> 01:29:13,293
for having got a little bit muddy
and out of touch with good manners.

1766
01:29:13,293 --> 01:29:15,709
And on occasions when
I did talk about it,

1767
01:29:15,709 --> 01:29:19,460
my father would argue points of fact
that he couldn't possibly have known

1768
01:29:19,460 --> 01:29:21,376
about because he wasn't there.

1769
01:29:21,376 --> 01:29:24,210
Every soldier I've spoken
to experienced the same thing.

1770
01:29:24,210 --> 01:29:27,168
We were a race apart
from the civilians,

1771
01:29:27,168 --> 01:29:29,252
and you could speak
to your comrades,

1772
01:29:29,252 --> 01:29:32,085
and they understood,
but the civilians,

1773
01:29:32,085 --> 01:29:34,002
it was just a waste of time.

1774
01:29:34,002 --> 01:29:37,877
However nice and sympathetic
they were, attempts of

1775
01:29:37,877 --> 01:29:42,253
well-meaning people to sympathise
reflected the fact that they

1776
01:29:42,253 --> 01:29:44,419
didn't really understand at all.

1777
01:29:44,419 --> 01:29:48,336
I think the magnitude
was just beyond their comprehension,

1778
01:29:48,336 --> 01:29:52,545
they didn't understand that people
that you'd known and played football

1779
01:29:52,545 --> 01:29:55,087
with were just killed beside you.

1780
01:29:55,087 --> 01:29:58,837
My friend who enlisted with me,
and he just lay there like a sack

1781
01:29:58,837 --> 01:30:03,420
of rags until he went black,
before anybody troubled to bury him.

1782
01:30:03,420 --> 01:30:06,296
They knew that people came back
covered with mud and lice,

1783
01:30:06,296 --> 01:30:09,546
but they'd no idea of the strain
of sitting in a trench

1784
01:30:09,546 --> 01:30:13,004
and waiting for something
to drop on one's head.

1785
01:30:13,004 --> 01:30:15,588
You couldn't convey
the awful state of things,

1786
01:30:15,588 --> 01:30:19,046
the way you lived like animals
and behaved like animals.

1787
01:30:19,046 --> 01:30:24,255
People didn't seem to realise
what a terrible thing war was.

1788
01:30:24,255 --> 01:30:28,755
I think they felt that the war
was one continual cavalry charge.

1789
01:30:28,755 --> 01:30:31,672
They hadn't any conception -
how could they?

1790
01:30:31,672 --> 01:30:33,880
Well, it started off
in a reasonable manner,

1791
01:30:33,880 --> 01:30:36,631
it was people fighting
on horseback with swords,

1792
01:30:36,631 --> 01:30:38,922
but it developed
into something ghastly.

1793
01:30:38,922 --> 01:30:42,339
People don't realise the
potential of military equipment.

1794
01:30:42,339 --> 01:30:45,089
A man's life wasn't worth
anything at the end of the war.

1795
01:30:45,089 --> 01:30:47,423
We were none of us heroes,
you know - we didn't

1796
01:30:47,423 --> 01:30:50,506
like this business of
being killed at all.

1797
01:30:50,506 --> 01:30:52,423
When we were talking
amongst ourselves,

1798
01:30:52,423 --> 01:30:55,715
we used to say, "Christ, they won't
have any more wars like this."

1799
01:30:55,715 --> 01:30:57,340
How did we endure it?

1800
01:30:57,340 --> 01:31:00,298
The answer must be partly
the fear of fear,

1801
01:31:00,298 --> 01:31:02,549
the fear of being found afraid.

1802
01:31:02,549 --> 01:31:05,382
Another is belief in human beings,
your colleague,

1803
01:31:05,382 --> 01:31:08,007
and there's no letting people down.

1804
01:31:08,007 --> 01:31:12,132
There may be right on both sides,
but I think war is horrible.

1805
01:31:12,132 --> 01:31:15,174
Everything should be done
to avoid war.

1806
01:31:15,174 --> 01:31:18,174
I still can't see
the justification for it.

1807
01:31:18,174 --> 01:31:20,550
It was all really rather horrible.

1808
01:31:20,550 --> 01:31:23,175
I think history will decide,
in the end,

1809
01:31:23,175 --> 01:31:25,300
that it was not worthwhile.

1810
01:31:27,800 --> 01:31:31,592
The only thing that really did annoy
me was when I went back to work,

1811
01:31:31,592 --> 01:31:34,842
after I'd got demobilised,
I went down the stores,

1812
01:31:34,842 --> 01:31:38,051
and the bloke behind the counter
was a bloke who I knew.

1813
01:31:38,051 --> 01:31:40,134
He said, "Where have you been?

1814
01:31:40,134 --> 01:31:41,801
"On nights?"

1815
01:32:41,804 --> 01:32:45,804
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Parlez vous

1816
01:32:45,804 --> 01:32:50,096
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Parlez vous?

1817
01:32:50,096 --> 01:32:53,971
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
She hasn't been kissed in 40 years

1818
01:32:53,971 --> 01:32:58,222
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous

1819
01:32:58,222 --> 01:33:02,680
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Parlez vous

1820
01:33:02,680 --> 01:33:06,639
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Parlez vous

1821
01:33:06,639 --> 01:33:10,681
# Our top kick in Armentieres
broke the spell of 40 years

1822
01:33:10,681 --> 01:33:13,639
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous

1823
01:33:15,181 --> 01:33:18,931
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Parlez vous

1824
01:33:18,931 --> 01:33:23,265
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Parlez vous

1825
01:33:23,265 --> 01:33:27,557
# You didn't have to know her long
to know the reason men go wrong

1826
01:33:27,557 --> 01:33:30,432
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous

1827
01:33:32,015 --> 01:33:35,432
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Parlez vous

1828
01:33:35,432 --> 01:33:39,682
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Parlez vous

1829
01:33:39,682 --> 01:33:41,849
# She's the hardest working girl
in town

1830
01:33:41,849 --> 01:33:44,057
# She makes her living upside down

1831
01:33:44,057 --> 01:33:46,224
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous

1832
01:33:52,475 --> 01:33:54,475
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres

1833
01:33:54,475 --> 01:33:56,266
# Parlez vous

1834
01:33:56,266 --> 01:33:58,767
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres

1835
01:33:58,767 --> 01:34:00,392
# Parlez vous

1836
01:34:00,392 --> 01:34:01,600
# She sold her kisses

1837
01:34:01,600 --> 01:34:02,808
# For ten francs each

1838
01:34:02,808 --> 01:34:03,892
# Soft and juicy

1839
01:34:03,892 --> 01:34:05,100
# As sweet as a peach

1840
01:34:05,100 --> 01:34:07,517
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous

1841
01:34:09,017 --> 01:34:11,351
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres

1842
01:34:11,351 --> 01:34:12,934
# Parlez vous

1843
01:34:12,934 --> 01:34:15,309
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres

1844
01:34:15,309 --> 01:34:16,893
# Parlez vous

1845
01:34:16,893 --> 01:34:18,976
# Madame, you've got a daughter fair

1846
01:34:18,976 --> 01:34:20,893
# To wash the soldiers' underwear

1847
01:34:20,893 --> 01:34:23,893
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous

1848
01:34:25,810 --> 01:34:28,143
# I didn't care what came of me

1849
01:34:28,143 --> 01:34:29,310
# Parlez vous

1850
01:34:29,310 --> 01:34:31,768
# I didn't care what came of me

1851
01:34:31,768 --> 01:34:33,268
# Parlez vous

1852
01:34:33,268 --> 01:34:35,352
# I didn't care what came of me

1853
01:34:35,352 --> 01:34:37,727
# So I went and joined the infantry

1854
01:34:37,727 --> 01:34:40,352
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous

1855
01:35:15,021 --> 01:35:17,229
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres

1856
01:35:17,229 --> 01:35:18,688
# Parlez vous

1857
01:35:18,688 --> 01:35:21,146
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres

1858
01:35:21,146 --> 01:35:22,854
# Parlez vous

1859
01:35:22,854 --> 01:35:24,646
# Went in her bed, she sure was fun

1860
01:35:24,646 --> 01:35:25,938
# Working her arse

1861
01:35:25,938 --> 01:35:27,230
# Like a Maxim gun

1862
01:35:27,230 --> 01:35:30,480
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous

1863
01:35:31,522 --> 01:35:33,688
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres

1864
01:35:33,688 --> 01:35:35,272
# Parlez vous

1865
01:35:35,272 --> 01:35:37,772
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres

1866
01:35:37,772 --> 01:35:39,189
# Parlez vous

1867
01:35:39,189 --> 01:35:40,939
# I had more fun than I could tell

1868
01:35:40,939 --> 01:35:43,147
# Beneath the sheets with
Mademoiselle

1869
01:35:43,147 --> 01:35:46,022
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous

1870
01:35:47,981 --> 01:35:51,773
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres,
parlez vous

1871
01:35:51,773 --> 01:35:55,815
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres,
parlez vous

1872
01:35:55,815 --> 01:35:57,815
# She did a wink and cried,
"Oui, oui!

1873
01:35:57,815 --> 01:36:00,148
# "Let's see what you can do
with me"

1874
01:36:00,148 --> 01:36:03,023
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous

1875
01:36:04,232 --> 01:36:06,607
# They say they mechanised the war

1876
01:36:06,607 --> 01:36:08,149
# Parlez vous

1877
01:36:08,149 --> 01:36:10,524
# They say they mechanised the war

1878
01:36:10,524 --> 01:36:12,149
# Parlez vous

1879
01:36:12,149 --> 01:36:14,357
# They say they mechanised the war

1880
01:36:14,357 --> 01:36:16,607
# So what the hell
are we marching for?

1881
01:36:16,607 --> 01:36:19,566
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous

1882
01:36:37,150 --> 01:36:40,192
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres

1883
01:36:40,192 --> 01:36:41,317
# Parlez vous

1884
01:36:41,317 --> 01:36:44,026
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres

1885
01:36:44,026 --> 01:36:45,526
# Parlez vous

1886
01:36:45,526 --> 01:36:47,484
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres

1887
01:36:47,484 --> 01:36:49,526
# She hasn't been kissed for 40
years

1888
01:36:49,526 --> 01:36:52,109
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous

1889
01:36:53,568 --> 01:36:56,360
# The officers get all the steak

1890
01:36:56,360 --> 01:36:57,485
# Parlez vous

1891
01:36:57,485 --> 01:37:00,526
# The officers get all the steak

1892
01:37:00,526 --> 01:37:01,777
# Parlez vous

1893
01:37:01,777 --> 01:37:03,902
# The officers get all the steak

1894
01:37:03,902 --> 01:37:05,860
# And all we get is a belly ache

1895
01:37:05,860 --> 01:37:08,860
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous

1896
01:37:10,069 --> 01:37:11,402
# You might forget

1897
01:37:11,402 --> 01:37:13,694
# The gas and shells, parlez vous

1898
01:37:13,694 --> 01:37:15,277
# You might forget

1899
01:37:15,277 --> 01:37:17,902
# The gas and shells, parlez vous

1900
01:37:17,902 --> 01:37:19,028
# You might forget

1901
01:37:19,028 --> 01:37:20,236
# The groans and yells

1902
01:37:20,236 --> 01:37:21,319
# But you never forget

1903
01:37:21,319 --> 01:37:22,653
# The mademoiselles

1904
01:37:22,653 --> 01:37:25,195
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous

1905
01:37:43,362 --> 01:37:45,987
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres

1906
01:37:45,987 --> 01:37:47,112
# Parlez vous

1907
01:37:47,112 --> 01:37:49,863
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres

1908
01:37:49,863 --> 01:37:50,946
# Parlez vous

1909
01:37:50,946 --> 01:37:52,863
# Many and many a married man

1910
01:37:52,863 --> 01:37:55,071
# Wants to go back to France again

1911
01:37:55,071 --> 01:37:58,196
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous

1912
01:37:59,571 --> 01:38:02,488
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres

1913
01:38:02,488 --> 01:38:03,572
# Parlez vous

1914
01:38:03,572 --> 01:38:06,405
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres

1915
01:38:06,405 --> 01:38:07,488
# Parlez vous

1916
01:38:07,488 --> 01:38:09,822
# Just blow your nose
and dry your tears

1917
01:38:09,822 --> 01:38:11,947
# We'll all be back
in a few short years

1918
01:38:11,947 --> 01:38:14,739
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous

1919
01:38:16,239 --> 01:38:18,864
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres

1920
01:38:18,864 --> 01:38:19,948
# Parlez vous

1921
01:38:19,948 --> 01:38:22,531
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres

1922
01:38:22,531 --> 01:38:23,656
# Parlez vous

1923
01:38:23,656 --> 01:38:26,115
# I fell in love with her at sight

1924
01:38:26,115 --> 01:38:28,240
# Wet myself for half the night

1925
01:38:28,240 --> 01:38:30,823
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous

1926
01:38:32,490 --> 01:38:36,240
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres,
parlez vous

1927
01:38:36,240 --> 01:38:40,365
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres,
parlez vous

1928
01:38:40,365 --> 01:38:42,574
# You might forget
the gas and shell

1929
01:38:42,574 --> 01:38:44,532
# You never forget the mademoiselles

1930
01:38:44,532 --> 01:38:47,366
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous

1931
01:38:48,782 --> 01:38:50,533
# You might forget the gas and shell

1932
01:38:50,533 --> 01:38:52,866
# But you'll never forget
the mademoiselles

1933
01:38:52,866 --> 01:38:54,533
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous. #