Thursday, 19 March 2015

Poem ~ Prisoners of Neuve Chapelle - Friday, 19 March 1915


Source: File: Wounded from Neuve Chapelle.jpg, 2015. British,Germans and Indians The Daily Telegraph, [online] 19 Mar. P.12. Col.3-5. [online] Available at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11480912/Daily-Telegraph-March-19-1915.html > [Accessed: 1 March 2015].

Accounts came
Through, of the fight for the ruins of Neuve Chapelle.
11th March and how battered German troops were to out
To make regains.

On the following morning,
Came renewal of counter attacks about Neuve Chapelle -
Only to suffer losses, but with gains of many prisoners
Into the British hands.

Effects of exhaustion,
Led many Germans under fire to raise their hands.
At Port Arthur - south of the village Neuve Chapelle,
Lay a communication trench

From which seventy
Enemy were captured as one  - while north East, an
Enemy in British Trenches about Neuve Chapelle
Were driven out.

Germans believed weary,
The infantry stormed houses into Neuve Chapelle -
About Moulin Dupietre - to rush at them with bombs,
Catching eighty prisoners.

Then entire companies
Threw up their arms about the village Neuve Chapelle  -
Exhausted, by lack of food and in trenches full of water
Without rations on their line.

Bombardment effects
Saw German survivors crawl out in dazed conditions -
As on the 10th, in approach to lines of Neuve Chapelle -
Taken by surprise.

The village had by then
Become a ruined shambles - about all the ruined houses
Bodies were strewn, as dead occupants of Neuve Chapelle;
Became prisoners of death.

Within one night,
A patrol moved under darkness, about Neuve Chapelle,
To come across a figure before a trench - a dummy trap
To explode on contact.

Then on the 13 March,
German Counter attacks reserves behind Neuve Chapelle -
At Bois du Beiz - but guns retaliated to melt them away
From the woods.

Still more prisoners -
So by the 4th day, totaled 1,700 - during the 12th and 13th,
Pilots carried out their mission above Neuve Chapelle,
To hit railways of Douai and Don.

A quite lapse fell
By the 14 March, with enemy efforts turning to other parts
About St Eloi - leaving the village of Neuve Chapelle
Devoid of fighting.

Bombardments continued,
To turn on settlements affected away from Neuve Chapelle -
A station at Quesnoy and Aubers - where a tower hit, shot
Into the air and crumbled in dust.

An event to rankle
British troops occurred, when in a break at Neuve Chapelle,
Settled down to eat and drink rum - a hit caused evacuation.
Once regained all food was gone.

Now prisoners told,
Who had been in fight from start, that at Neuve Chapelle
A terrific attack never before witnessed - angered captured,
Stating this was total murder.

They had forgotten
Their own methods of intense concentration in field warfare,
Which the allies gave back, to cause at Neuve Chappelle
Resentment and effrontery.

Despite enemy conditions
Of exhausted troops and reports of undernourished men,
German discipline kept them clean, about Neuve Chapelle's
Filthy living conditions.

A German promise made,
Was to first finish off the Russian front within a short time  -
To turn on the British - perhaps not now at Neuve Chapelle;
Still their optimism remained.

A Spirit to match
The weary troops of the British - whose own companies
Marched back with trophies of their time in Neuve Chapelle,
With captured 'picklehauben.'

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1915. Battle of Neuve Chapelle - Splended Story of British Heroism - Trenches Rushed - Enemy Taken by Surprise. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 19 Mar. P.9. Col.2-3. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11480912/Daily-Telegraph-March-19-1915.html [Accessed: 19 March 2015].

Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 19 March 2015). 



#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #ww1centenary #worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1NeuveChapelle

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