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1
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This film contains some scenes which
some viewers may find upsetting
2
00:00:39,210 --> 00:00:43,544
I gave every part of my youth
to do a job
3
00:00:43,544 --> 00:00:47,044
and to go through a savage war.
4
00:00:47,044 --> 00:00:50,544
It was a different war from
year to year, and one's reactions
5
00:00:50,544 --> 00:00:52,378
were completely different.
6
00:00:52,378 --> 00:00:57,003
The intensity changed so much
that anybody who'd been out in 1914
7
00:00:57,003 --> 00:00:59,045
and went home and came back in 1917,
8
00:00:59,045 --> 00:01:02,378
wouldn't recognise it
as the same war.
9
00:01:02,378 --> 00:01:05,129
I can only say one thing,
I wouldn't have missed it.
10
00:01:05,129 --> 00:01:08,170
It was terrible at times,
but I wouldn't have missed it.
11
00:01:08,170 --> 00:01:11,962
Oh, yes, if I could have
my time again, I'd go through it
12
00:01:11,962 --> 00:01:14,629
all over again because
I enjoyed the service life.
13
00:01:14,629 --> 00:01:18,588
I could only say that I have never
been so excited in my life,
14
00:01:18,588 --> 00:01:22,171
this was like a boy going
to the play the first time.
15
00:01:22,171 --> 00:01:25,338
I never realised there was
anything unusual about it.
16
00:01:25,338 --> 00:01:28,838
There was a job to be done
and you just go on and did it.
17
00:01:28,838 --> 00:01:31,963
We were all instilled with the idea
that this was war
18
00:01:31,963 --> 00:01:35,797
and that we've got to kill the
Germans, and this is how we looked
19
00:01:35,797 --> 00:01:37,297
at the thing.
20
00:01:37,297 --> 00:01:39,922
I don't regret
having experienced it.
21
00:01:39,922 --> 00:01:43,506
I wish I hadn't, but I don't
regret it because I'm safe.
22
00:01:43,506 --> 00:01:45,006
HE LAUGHS
23
00:01:45,006 --> 00:01:47,298
There were good times
and bad times in France.
24
00:01:47,298 --> 00:01:49,423
But you took the rough
with the smooth.
25
00:01:49,423 --> 00:01:53,465
I was twice wounded and gassed,
but it was just war and you made
26
00:01:53,465 --> 00:01:55,215
the best of it.
27
00:01:55,215 --> 00:01:57,673
Just took it in its stride,
like everybody else.
28
00:01:57,673 --> 00:02:00,548
We were glad to be in it
and we expected it to be rough,
29
00:02:00,548 --> 00:02:03,840
and it WAS rough,
but we didn't complain.
30
00:02:03,840 --> 00:02:06,215
There was no real excitement
about it.
31
00:02:06,215 --> 00:02:09,840
You'd seen death so many times,
you'd seen wounded so many times,
32
00:02:09,840 --> 00:02:11,466
blood didn't excite you.
33
00:02:11,466 --> 00:02:15,674
We were professionals
and to us it was just a job of work.
34
00:02:15,674 --> 00:02:20,258
It would be a fallacy to say
that one enjoyed it,
35
00:02:20,258 --> 00:02:23,425
but one got afterwards
a nice, warm inner feeling that
36
00:02:23,425 --> 00:02:24,966
one had been some use.
37
00:02:24,966 --> 00:02:27,425
It didn't affect me very much
because I wasn't
38
00:02:27,425 --> 00:02:30,217
sufficiently open in the ways
of the world, I was only a kid,
39
00:02:30,217 --> 00:02:32,133
like other blokes there.
40
00:02:32,133 --> 00:02:35,258
It was more like
a great big game to be enjoyed,
41
00:02:35,258 --> 00:02:38,967
apart from the actual killing
and all that sort of thing.
42
00:02:38,967 --> 00:02:40,509
It made me a man.
43
00:02:40,509 --> 00:02:41,926
Yes, it did.
44
00:02:41,926 --> 00:02:44,384
I don't think I should
have ever been the man I am if it
45
00:02:44,384 --> 00:02:46,342
hadn't been for having to serve.
46
00:02:46,342 --> 00:02:49,551
You'd learn to look after yourself.
47
00:02:49,551 --> 00:02:53,718
Whereas in your civilian life,
your mother did all the chores.
48
00:02:53,718 --> 00:02:56,093
You've got to learn
how to cook for yourself,
49
00:02:56,093 --> 00:02:58,760
darn your own socks,
sew on your own buttons
50
00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:00,552
and all the things like that.
51
00:03:00,552 --> 00:03:02,302
It was just a day's work.
52
00:03:02,302 --> 00:03:05,843
I knew that I was not alone,
I knew I wasn't fighting the war
53
00:03:05,843 --> 00:03:09,469
by myself and that what happened
to other people might happen to me.
54
00:03:09,469 --> 00:03:11,385
I had no regrets at all.
55
00:03:11,385 --> 00:03:14,136
But, you see, I had no wife,
no girl, no nothing.
56
00:03:14,136 --> 00:03:16,427
No regrets, no horrors...
57
00:03:18,219 --> 00:03:21,469
..because if you survive that,
you can survive anything.
58
00:03:32,387 --> 00:03:34,637
We was aware that there was
sort of a nasty feeling
59
00:03:34,637 --> 00:03:36,637
between England and Germany.
60
00:03:36,637 --> 00:03:39,512
We knew of the Kaiser's ambition
to expand his empire
61
00:03:39,512 --> 00:03:41,970
and all that sort of thing.
62
00:03:41,970 --> 00:03:45,887
During that summer, there was a lot
of talk about trouble
63
00:03:45,887 --> 00:03:48,304
going on in the Balkans,
but we were a long way
64
00:03:48,304 --> 00:03:51,888
from the Balkans
and it didn't worry us at all.
65
00:03:51,888 --> 00:03:54,221
It was that Serbia business,
wasn't it?
66
00:03:54,221 --> 00:03:56,596
Serbia, when that chap was shot.
67
00:03:56,596 --> 00:03:59,638
I was paying attention
to politics and I realised
68
00:03:59,638 --> 00:04:03,305
that there was going to be trouble
between England and Germany.
69
00:04:03,305 --> 00:04:06,638
It was a lovely
August the 4th morning.
70
00:04:06,638 --> 00:04:09,805
We were all seated around the table
and we were starting
71
00:04:09,805 --> 00:04:12,055
the Rugby football dinner
with the German team.
72
00:04:12,055 --> 00:04:14,681
There was a German here,
next to him was an Englishman,
73
00:04:14,681 --> 00:04:17,056
and next to him was a German,
and so on and so on.
74
00:04:17,056 --> 00:04:20,431
And a runner arrived into the middle
of this dinner
75
00:04:20,431 --> 00:04:23,931
with extraordinary news
of outbreak of war.
76
00:04:23,931 --> 00:04:26,973
There was a big placard -
"War declared on Germany."
77
00:04:26,973 --> 00:04:29,265
We didn't know what we ought to do.
78
00:04:29,265 --> 00:04:31,348
Whether we got to seize
a knife off the table
79
00:04:31,348 --> 00:04:34,182
and plunge it into the German
or what!
80
00:04:34,182 --> 00:04:37,390
But, after a little bit
of discussion, we decided
81
00:04:37,390 --> 00:04:41,349
that as far as we were concerned,
the war was going to start tomorrow,
82
00:04:41,349 --> 00:04:43,682
and the party proceeded.
83
00:04:46,766 --> 00:04:49,683
I'm proud of being a British hero.
I mean, I think we're as good
84
00:04:49,683 --> 00:04:51,099
a country as any in the world
85
00:04:51,099 --> 00:04:53,724
and you've got to be prepared
to fight for that.
86
00:04:53,724 --> 00:04:55,474
There's no doubt about it -
87
00:04:55,474 --> 00:04:59,391
in the First World War,
we prepared for war.
88
00:04:59,391 --> 00:05:03,142
The empire was strong,
we weren't afraid of anyone.
89
00:05:03,142 --> 00:05:06,392
Everybody bought little buttons
and white flags and sang songs,
90
00:05:06,392 --> 00:05:09,475
there was no feeling of despair
about it at all.
91
00:05:09,475 --> 00:05:13,100
England couldn't possibly lose,
no matter how many Germans pushed
92
00:05:13,100 --> 00:05:15,976
how many Englishmen into the
Channel, that they'd get no further.
93
00:05:15,976 --> 00:05:18,226
We couldn't possibly lose.
94
00:05:18,226 --> 00:05:22,476
We were brought up to think that one
Englishman was worth ten Germans.
95
00:05:22,476 --> 00:05:26,184
I thought that any enemy
of England was an enemy of mine
96
00:05:26,184 --> 00:05:27,893
and I wanted to be in it.
97
00:05:27,893 --> 00:05:30,435
Oh, 6 months or 12 months,
it would be all over
98
00:05:30,435 --> 00:05:32,518
and Bob's your uncle.
99
00:05:32,518 --> 00:05:35,018
I went with a friend of mine
to Shepherd's Bush Empire
100
00:05:35,018 --> 00:05:37,935
to see the picture show there
and they showed the fleet
101
00:05:37,935 --> 00:05:42,019
saving the high seas and played
"Britons never shall be slaves",
102
00:05:42,019 --> 00:05:44,644
and one feels that little shiver run
up their back and you know
103
00:05:44,644 --> 00:05:46,394
you've got to do something.
104
00:05:46,394 --> 00:05:49,102
A friend of mine said to me,
"We're going to join up."
105
00:05:49,102 --> 00:05:51,603
It was from the
patriotic point of view,
106
00:05:51,603 --> 00:05:56,728
and from the general excitement of
the whole affair, I suppose.
107
00:05:56,728 --> 00:06:00,020
I didn't believe in war
to that extent, but I was prepared
108
00:06:00,020 --> 00:06:02,103
to do my part.
109
00:06:02,103 --> 00:06:05,478
You see, in those days, men weren't
to think for themselves,
110
00:06:05,478 --> 00:06:09,229
they just had to do what they were
told and that's all there was to it.
111
00:06:09,229 --> 00:06:12,479
Oh, my mother
was very aggrieved about it.
112
00:06:12,479 --> 00:06:15,896
But, you know, a young man,
you decide you're going to go.
113
00:06:15,896 --> 00:06:19,687
At lunchtime, I left the office,
went along to Armoury House
114
00:06:19,687 --> 00:06:23,063
and there was a queue of about
1,000 people trying to enlist.
115
00:06:23,063 --> 00:06:25,271
Everybody thought
it would be a civilised war
116
00:06:25,271 --> 00:06:27,646
and wanted to be fit enough to go.
117
00:06:27,646 --> 00:06:30,313
Two of us decided to join up
together, and when we told
118
00:06:30,313 --> 00:06:32,605
the boss we were going to start
training on Monday,
119
00:06:32,605 --> 00:06:33,980
he was very annoyed.
120
00:06:33,980 --> 00:06:36,647
He didn't make any promise
at all that our jobs would be there
121
00:06:36,647 --> 00:06:38,063
when we got back.
122
00:06:38,063 --> 00:06:41,522
My mother, she said,
"You wait until you're 19."
123
00:06:41,522 --> 00:06:45,064
See, that was the age
in those days, 19 to 35.
124
00:06:45,064 --> 00:06:47,397
Well, it was supposed to be.
125
00:06:47,397 --> 00:06:49,314
We were all lads together, you know,
126
00:06:49,314 --> 00:06:50,814
full of excitement
127
00:06:50,814 --> 00:06:52,398
and all this kind of thing.
128
00:06:52,398 --> 00:06:53,814
I mean, I just wanted
129
00:06:53,814 --> 00:06:55,273
to have a go at Jerry.
130
00:06:55,273 --> 00:06:57,981
I just thought that I'd like
to go and fight for the country.
131
00:06:57,981 --> 00:07:00,940
This was the thing, you were proud
of your country
132
00:07:00,940 --> 00:07:02,690
and you'd do the best you could
for it.
133
00:07:02,690 --> 00:07:05,523
And this was what most of the
young people thought of doing
134
00:07:05,523 --> 00:07:07,107
in those days.
135
00:07:07,107 --> 00:07:10,524
My mother, she said to me,
"Look, we could stop you doing this
136
00:07:10,524 --> 00:07:12,107
"because of your age."
137
00:07:12,107 --> 00:07:15,815
I said, "Yes, I know you could,
Mother, but I'm sure you won't."
138
00:07:15,815 --> 00:07:17,566
Which they never did.
139
00:07:17,566 --> 00:07:20,941
I just felt that all the young
fellows of that age
140
00:07:20,941 --> 00:07:22,316
were volunteering
141
00:07:22,316 --> 00:07:24,483
and I thought it was
my job to do the same.
142
00:07:24,483 --> 00:07:27,358
I was desperately keen
and a whole heap of us were.
143
00:07:27,358 --> 00:07:29,275
I said, "Direct enlistment, please."
144
00:07:29,275 --> 00:07:30,775
They were highly delighted
145
00:07:30,775 --> 00:07:33,150
and pushed me in
as quick as lightning.
146
00:07:33,150 --> 00:07:35,983
Lots of the lads were
joining the local regiments,
147
00:07:35,983 --> 00:07:37,942
like the Bucks and the Middlesex.
148
00:07:37,942 --> 00:07:40,150
Lads that I knew
and had been to school with,
149
00:07:40,150 --> 00:07:42,025
played football and cricket with,
150
00:07:42,025 --> 00:07:44,609
we joined up, hoping for the best.
151
00:07:44,609 --> 00:07:47,192
We were good friends, comrades
152
00:07:47,192 --> 00:07:51,359
and it was a relief from rather
boring jobs at home, you see.
153
00:07:51,359 --> 00:07:54,609
I was walking down
the Camden Town high street,
154
00:07:54,609 --> 00:07:58,818
when two young ladies approached me,
"Why aren't you in the Army?"
155
00:07:58,818 --> 00:08:00,693
I said, "I'm only 17."
156
00:08:00,693 --> 00:08:02,610
"Oh, they all say that here."
157
00:08:02,610 --> 00:08:06,193
And to my amazement,
she put her hand in her bag
158
00:08:06,193 --> 00:08:09,360
and I put my hand up to sort of
safeguard myself,
159
00:08:09,360 --> 00:08:13,152
and this white feather
finished up my nose.
160
00:08:13,152 --> 00:08:17,444
As we marched to the station,
some of the chaps had bowler hats,
161
00:08:17,444 --> 00:08:21,861
some had straw hats, some had the
regulation peaked Army cap.
162
00:08:21,861 --> 00:08:24,278
Some would have tunics,
some would be dressed
163
00:08:24,278 --> 00:08:27,819
with their ordinary jackets
with a pair of Army trousers.
164
00:08:27,819 --> 00:08:30,320
Some had Army boots, some didn't.
165
00:08:30,320 --> 00:08:32,986
And we really were a motley throng.
166
00:08:32,986 --> 00:08:35,445
Some of them were obviously chaps
who had hoped to live
167
00:08:35,445 --> 00:08:38,320
in some comfort and brought
suitcases with clothes with them,
168
00:08:38,320 --> 00:08:39,778
which they never saw again.
169
00:08:39,778 --> 00:08:41,695
We had to all get our hair cut.
170
00:08:41,695 --> 00:08:42,987
"How would you like it, sir?"
171
00:08:42,987 --> 00:08:45,279
And you'd say,
"Short back and sides."
172
00:08:45,279 --> 00:08:47,571
But the answer was,
straight over the top
173
00:08:47,571 --> 00:08:51,487
with horse clippers, and we looked
more like convicts than soldiers.
174
00:08:51,487 --> 00:08:53,738
As soon as war broke out,
there was a call made
175
00:08:53,738 --> 00:08:55,904
for all ex-soldiers to rejoin,
176
00:08:55,904 --> 00:08:58,654
and they made them sergeants
straight away.
177
00:08:58,654 --> 00:09:01,780
So you got a lot of instructors
that way.
178
00:09:01,780 --> 00:09:04,946
The people who really carried us
through was the old sweats
179
00:09:04,946 --> 00:09:09,280
who'd had previous war experience
and gave us a lot of wise advice
180
00:09:09,280 --> 00:09:12,655
as to what to look for
and what to dodge.
181
00:09:12,655 --> 00:09:17,072
We were ordered down onto the parade
ground and then we were allotted
182
00:09:17,072 --> 00:09:19,614
to different platoons.
183
00:09:19,614 --> 00:09:23,322
When they came to us,
they were weedy, sallow,
184
00:09:23,322 --> 00:09:26,656
skinny, frightened children.
185
00:09:26,656 --> 00:09:30,740
The refuse of our industrial system
and they were in very poor condition
186
00:09:30,740 --> 00:09:32,990
and had to be made into soldiers.
187
00:09:32,990 --> 00:09:36,990
Many of us had given
our wrong ages to join the Army.
188
00:09:36,990 --> 00:09:39,573
The agent walked down
the lines and gave an order,
189
00:09:39,573 --> 00:09:45,074
"Every man under the age of 19
should take two paces forward."
190
00:09:45,074 --> 00:09:47,574
Nobody moved.
191
00:09:47,574 --> 00:09:51,532
I was a lad of 17 and
they'd probably say I wasn't 19,
192
00:09:51,532 --> 00:09:54,074
which you had to be to join up.
193
00:09:54,074 --> 00:09:57,491
But he says, "How long
do you want to sign on for?"
194
00:09:57,491 --> 00:10:00,783
Everyone else was joining up so
I called into the recruitment office
195
00:10:00,783 --> 00:10:03,741
and he said to me, "How old
are you?" I said, "17, sir."
196
00:10:03,741 --> 00:10:07,075
Well, he said, "Go outside and
come back and say you are 18."
197
00:10:07,075 --> 00:10:10,158
So of course, I went outside
and said we were 18.
198
00:10:10,158 --> 00:10:12,033
I was straight up there.
199
00:10:12,033 --> 00:10:14,742
The Sergeant said,
"How old are you?"
200
00:10:14,742 --> 00:10:16,075
I said, "I'm 18 and one month."
201
00:10:16,075 --> 00:10:18,367
He said,
"Do you mean 19 and one month?
202
00:10:18,367 --> 00:10:20,367
So I thought for a moment,
I said, "Yes, sir."
203
00:10:20,367 --> 00:10:22,326
He said, "Right, sign here, please."
204
00:10:22,326 --> 00:10:25,951
He asked me how old I was
and I said I was 16 in March.
205
00:10:25,951 --> 00:10:27,659
He said, "You're too young,
206
00:10:27,659 --> 00:10:30,284
"you better go outside
and have a birthday."
207
00:10:30,284 --> 00:10:33,535
I was 16 years old in 1917
208
00:10:33,535 --> 00:10:38,493
and I was six foot two tall
and my father allowed me to go.
209
00:10:38,493 --> 00:10:41,702
So I entered my age as 19 years old,
210
00:10:41,702 --> 00:10:45,202
three years older
than what I really was.
211
00:10:45,202 --> 00:10:49,786
I was 15 years,
just 2½ years short of 18,
212
00:10:49,786 --> 00:10:53,411
and I got before this
medical officer, who said,
213
00:10:53,411 --> 00:10:55,994
"All right, you pass."
214
00:10:55,994 --> 00:10:59,953
I had just turned 17 at the time
and I went up to Whitehall
215
00:10:59,953 --> 00:11:02,828
and enlisted in the 16th Lancers.
216
00:11:02,828 --> 00:11:06,245
I was 15 and I thought
I'd have a better chance
217
00:11:06,245 --> 00:11:08,037
than when I were 14.
218
00:11:08,037 --> 00:11:11,953
So I walked into the barracks
and just said, "I'm 18,"
219
00:11:11,953 --> 00:11:13,453
and that was it.
220
00:11:13,453 --> 00:11:16,870
My parents wrote to the
commanding officer and asked for me,
221
00:11:16,870 --> 00:11:18,662
as I was underage, to be released.
222
00:11:18,662 --> 00:11:22,579
And he said, "Your parents
want you back - do you want to go?"
223
00:11:22,579 --> 00:11:24,079
I said no.
224
00:11:25,537 --> 00:11:28,663
The chaplain asked me my age,
and I said I was 16.
225
00:11:28,663 --> 00:11:33,538
He said, "Much too young.
Would you like me to pray for you?"
226
00:11:38,705 --> 00:11:42,580
The clothing came piecemeal
into the quartermaster stores.
227
00:11:44,622 --> 00:11:47,789
One lad said,
"These boots don't fit me."
228
00:11:47,789 --> 00:11:50,581
And the quartermaster said,
"There isn't such a thing as boots
229
00:11:50,581 --> 00:11:52,872
"that don't fit in the Army,
it's your feet that don't
230
00:11:52,872 --> 00:11:54,247
"fit the boots."
231
00:11:54,247 --> 00:11:58,206
Some men would find a tunic
to fit them or perhaps
232
00:11:58,206 --> 00:11:59,706
a pair of trousers.
233
00:11:59,706 --> 00:12:02,956
And so it went on
for nearly a fortnight.
234
00:12:02,956 --> 00:12:04,456
Just one uniform.
235
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 inedible 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. #
254545
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