Source: File: Impression Sketch of Mud: Gilbert Rogers. See an original image at: <https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/mud-6619/search/actor:rogers-gilbert-18811956/page/1/view_as/grid>
[Accessed 03 August 2017]
[Accessed 03 August 2017]
Rain, not just any old rain
but heavy rain -
Wednesday 1 August 1917 -
deceitfully
Mirrored an English Summer's day across
Flanders plains. Whilst
hurried umbrellas
Populated English streets, the
Tommy
And Poilu faced storm clouds;
a job was
Underway for the third
battle for Ypres.
A telegram penned by Sir
Douglas Haig,
Written midday of the first
August day,
Told of endless rainfall for
24 hours.
Through the darkness of
sodden night,
An English line lay south of
the Canal
Between Ypres-Comines - northwards
The enemy counter attacks
opened up.
The heavy German counter
attacks
Were actively repulsed, but
by what
Cost? Ground held by allied
artillery
In darkness, held onto the railway
Line between Ypres-Roulers -
against
All odds night raids proved
a success.
Raids include Bois Grenier -
another
Telegram followed ten hours
later -
Haig told of further fierce
counter
Attacks formed in strength northeast
Of Ypres, between the ground
St Julien and Westhoek - the
allies
Held on against the enemy
forces.
They clung to higher grounds
taken
Tuesday - despite stubborn
exchanges
Those advanced troops were
forced
From St Julien - while
Westhoek
Village experienced
determined
Enemy; western outskirts
were held.
Another operation had
success.
A battle front line was
redrawn,
Over Zillebeke- Zandvoorde
road.
Fighting, as Haig wrote, continued
From afternoon at Reulers-Ypres
Railways lines, while Yser
canal
Ground was gained on east
side -
But do not envision a clean
picture.
Rain, rain, rain over 24
hours - such
A consistent downpour like a
grey
Steel blur - a salient in
360 degrees
Found the air awash. July
had been
Fine, but delays for French
readiness
Coincided with unrepentant
rain -
Soaking, filthy and endlessly pouring.
In contrast rain elsewhere
funnelled
By solid homes, where civil
people
Emerged from doors to hurry
along.
Young children might leap to
slam
Feet hard into puddles, their
mothers
Reprimand such childish
behaviour;
A boot slides in Passchendaele
mud.
Weighed down soldiers; a
barrage of
Speeding shells slicing
through rain
Slam into soft ground - a dank
earth
Skewered by rain pellets and
machine
Shells - both collide to
explode forth
Spews of liquid mud clouds -
amid
All this frail, determined men
fought.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1917.
Allied Advance In Flanders - Fierce Counter-Attacks - Over 5,000 Prisoners. The
Daily Telegraph, [online] 01 August 1917. P.5. Col.4.
Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12214749/Daily-Telegraph-August-2-1917.html
[Accessed: 01 August 2017].
Mann, J., 2016. 100
years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 01 August
2017).
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