Lieutenant H. Shields of the Royal Medical
Corps - mentioned in despatches and who
Back in 1910 was of the Light Blue ‘eight,’
Writes to his father, describing an incident
In the battle of the Aisne - when he looked
For a man on the battlefield hit by a sniper.
Not knowing quite where the soldier was,
Lieutenant Shields had to dash all around
The field – taking a short run, then lying
Down – found himself in the view of that
Same sniper - He was subjected to over
Ten shots - the bullets often struck close.
As he dropped, one threw bits of earth
Over him - on finding the man too late -
He was dead. In describing sensations
Of being under fire, the Lieutenant set
To explain that he had never felt fear,
Even though he had been under types
Of rifle and shellfire, missed by inches.
Instead of scare he found the situations
Like an exciting stimulant. Admitting
That he would rather stay in safe shelter,
Than emerge to face a hail of bullets,
From a crack marksman at 400 yards,
The Lieutenant finds fear outweighed,
By a surging thrill of total excitement.
He makes it a habit to ignore gunfire
When he is seeing to a wounded man,
In taking precautions - he takes none,
Other than the instinctive method,
Of not exposing himself unnecessarily.
Lieutenant Shield admits he is a fatalist –
He feels it cannot be helped if one's self
Is killed doing one’s duty which, he sees,
Is the best way reaching an end to life.
This tract he mentally repeats over and
Over to himself, when he is ‘plugged at.’
The belief for Lieutenant Shield, is that
God does not yet mean to get him killed –
Yet before he arrived, he had the common
Conviction, that he would not return alive;
Perhaps expressed by the fact in attending
To the wounded. The
Lieutenant did get
Captured, yet escaped in a German retreat.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1914. Battle Stories – ‘Old Blue’ A Fatalist – Officers feelings
Under Fire. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 23 Oct. p.4. Col.6. Available
at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11180918/Daily-Telegraph-October-23-1914.html
[Accessed: 23 October 2014].
Mann, J., 2014. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication,
23 October 2014).
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