Impression sketch
of A German observation post near La Bassée Canal, 1915 - by Jamie. Taken from original at: http://www.nam.ac.uk/online-collection/detail.php?acc=1993-02-375-114
Within their advances
about Loos,
British held
positions had seen
Their strength
reinforced since
September, which
Germans knew.
Within the presence
of the Royal
Army Medical
corps, a Corporal
Williamson
recorded in a letter,
A disastrous
attack of the enemy.
The suggestion
was desperation
By the German
side, then faced
With increased
numbers, with days
Or hours delays
would give difficulty.
They had a plan
which the allies
Knew - to aim and
take a chalk pit.
With prior
information gathered
By airmen, saw
men in thousands.
Not too far away
the enemy had
Gathered in woods,
sheltered
And confident
they believed how
At half a mile,
they could succeed.
Positioned south
of La Bassee
Canal they
emerged - an enemy
Swarm, a solid
formation of 900 -
Another block
followed behind.
In German grey
they moved out
Towards the chalk
pit - from
The wood they would reach little
More than a
hundred yards.
British rifle and
machine gun
Fire started to
cut them to bits -
It was said they
howled and
Yelled, to fall dead on each other.
Others still came, their path forced
In clambering over the
lying dead
Or wounded - only for them to hit
a solid wall of
leaden gunnery.
More and more
they shouldered
Against a biting
wind - the more
Killed, the more
that walked
Out to take their
death it seemed.
Not one could get
to the trenches
As the artillery
shook the woods.
Still they piled
into thousands
To form a human
hill of death.
Demented or
determined depended
On a view point
of opposition -
Then elsewhere
success, as German
Soldiers broke into a
British trench.
Defence by
bombers halted
The attempt -
under this some
Could still crawl, all to surrender,
With prisoners
easily taken.
Techniques of
those men captured
Included ones who
pretended
To be glad to
fall into hands -
in thought of
improved treatments.
A German Corporal
Williamson
Encountered,
spoke English well -
Despite caution
to hear his 'yarns'
What he said was held in belief.
Advised of their objective, orders
They had been
given were to take
The chalk pit at
any sacrifice -
This they tried,
to fail in heavy cost.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1915. German
Defeat At Loos - a Soldier's letter. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 19 October. P.4.
Col.3. Available at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11928883/Daily-Telegraph-October-19-1915.html
[Accessed: 19 October 2015].
Source: File: John
Kipling From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/John_Kipling> [Accessed: 19 October 2015]
Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 19 October 2015).
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