At Hospital in Newcastle,
A Black Watch Private tells his tale.
How battling at the Aisne,
He lay wounded for hours as heavy,
Fire went on all about.
Emerging from the confusion a German
Soldier came along.
Seeing him lying helpless, he stopped,
And bound his wound.
Making sure the private was 'shipshape,'
The German stood,
As if he was going on, when a stray bullet
Hit him fatally,
That he fell dead, aside the wounded man.
Corporal Houston of the Seaforth Highlanders,
Explained, how at Soissons,
He was lying wounded in the battlefield.
He turned to see
At a short distance, a German standing over
A fellow, wounded soldier.
A young man of the Northamptonshire Regiment.
The enemy infantryman,
Knelt and held a water bottle to the young man's
Lips, attempting to soothe his pain.
Delirious, the wounded soldier kept calling out,
'Mother, are you there?'
The German appeared to understand, stroking
Gently the lad's fevered brow,
His action of caressing him in such a tender way,
Equal of any woman.
Finally the lad died and Corporal Houston
Watched the German,
Holding the soldier, unable to hide his tears.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1914. Humane Germans. The Daily Telegraph,
[online] 17 Oct. p.3. Col.5. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11165466/Daily-Telegraph-October-17-1914.html
[Accessed: 17 October 2014].
Mann, J., 2014. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 17 October 2014).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #ww1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered
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