Impression sketch
of a German sentry carved from a tree stump - by Jamie. From an original image
that can be seen at: <http://www.illustratedfirstworldwar.com/item/a-wooden-soldier-in-real-war-a-pollarded-german-guard-iln0-1916-0226-0007-001/
l> [Accessed: 27 February 2016]
As battles unfold,
By advance or
retreat,
Comes luck to
escape -
Or poor fortune
In capture.
In such events
Two such soldiers
Of France, found
Themselves
Prisoners.
Amid others
Transportation
took
Them to Germany,
For incarceration
Of a camp.
On route these two
Men managed to
get
Free - adapting
To events,
They hid.
By stealth, both
Then made their
way
To reach border
Of Holland and
Germany.
After time, to
feel
They would step
freely
Across to Dutch
soils,
Despair filled
Them both.
Just ahead they
Saw a sentry, steely
Guarding the passage
To their freedom -
What next?
They prepared
To fight and
readied
To die, rather
than
Give into that
Waiting sentry.
The German figure
Was on diligent
guard;
With a fixed gaze,
Stared unmoved
Into Germany.
The two French
Picked up a rock, along
With a stick, readied
To strike for
Freedom.
From hiding
They rushed the
guard,
Who made no move -
A striking rock
Bounced
Off him.
Heightened
By their attack, the two
Men fell, shocked
To their knees
Before the foe.
That alert German
They spied at
distance,
Was nothing more
Than wood - sticks
Grew at his feet.
A stump of a tree
Had been cut and
carved -
Pollarded into
Shape of a
German.
They had been
Fooled by the duplicity
Of clever
crafting -
To admire
The skill.
They stepped past
The inanimate
German,
To discover close
By, other such
Sentry trees.
Without any real
Soldier’s, only
numbers
Of stumps stood
To resemble a
Frontier guard.
In wonder, the two
French soldiers
walked
Into neutrality -
Days later back
In their regiment.
The two escapees,
The two escapees,
In telling their story caused
Great amusement,
Regarding stumps
Of wooden sentries.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1916. A
Wooden Soldier In Real War: A Pollarded German 'Guard'!. The Illustrated London
News, [online] 27 February
1916. 263. Available at: http://www.illustratedfirstworldwar.com/item/a-wooden-soldier-in-real-war-a-pollarded-german-guard-iln0-1916-0226-0007-001/
[Accessed: 27 February 2016].
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