Source: File: 1st line trench in
Champagne.jpg, [online] Available at:
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tranch%C3%A9e_de_1%C3%A8re_ligne_en_Champagne_1915.jpg>
Accessed: 29 September 2015].
Five days into
battle, that began
Saturday 25 September noon,
Saw wounded weary
soldiers
Reach Paris - their uniforms
And faces turned pallid,
from
The chalky mud of
Champagne.
Incongruous amid
the capital,
They arrived -
appearing like
Country millers
in the Parisian
City - to tell how until
zero hour,
French cannons with fiercest
Noise, never once
stopped.
These miller
soldiers spoke
About their
regiment, among
The first support
- impatience
Held them in the
trenches, till
Saturday routine
of sipping
Soup ended with a
shout.
Hardly finished
in their task
Of cleaning arms, the bark
Of an order was
'forward!'
As possessed men, shouted
A cry to fight, as
they raised
Themselves from
their holes.
The line ahead of these Poilu,
Had already
progressed -
Far beyond German
lines -
With little resistance these
men ran to follow comrades,
Passing many German
dead.
As an abattoir, the dead piled
Up to their front
and to sides -
Craters that had collapsed
Already filled with fallen earth -
Already filled with fallen earth -
Like leather
rocks, boots
Jutted in fresh turned ground.
As in a morbid
game, they
Stopped and pulled
a boot
For signs of
reaction that
Any might be
alive - none
Of them were, so
onwards
They rushed amid shots.
A fierce
contingent to right -
From edge of a
pit, machine
Guns raked battered ground -
But the Poliu
dashed forward
To silence enemy's attempts
By the thrust of
their bayonets.
Another fierce fight
ensued -
Resistance became
divided
Between the surrendered.
Whilst others
continued
To fight; those
that survived
Shouted out
'Kamerads!'
Others called Pas
Kapout!'
To throw up feeble arms -
Other prisoners
still fired
With a revolver one artillery
Captain shot a
bullet into
One Poilu's left
hand.
The Frenchman
knocked
Him to the ground
and sat
On the German's
chest, who
Begged for mercy - to say
He had a wife and
children;
The French man
took pity.
The German stood
again,
To thank the Poilu wildly
Making offers of
money
Which made him
laugh
loudly - so were the tales
These soldiers millers told.
These soldiers millers told.
Another other French
man,
In receipt of a
bullet
Glancing his head, said
How in infantry
attack
They came to
huddles
Of Germans, hands raised.
An impression was
how
These Germans, affected
By the French cannonade
Turned to idiots - men old
And young possessed,
Called out 'Pas kapout!'
'Pas kapout! Pas
kapout!'
'Don’t shoot! Don’t kill me!'
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1915. Bayonet
Fighting - German Line Rushed. [online] 29 September. P.10. Col.3.
Available at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11896789/Daily-Telegraph-September-29-1915.html
[Accessed: 29 September 2015].
Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 29 September 2015).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Champagne
No comments:
Post a Comment