Source: File: A
British Soldier At The Battle Of The Somme: Private Cyril Jose. Available at: <http://www.clg-molieres-essarts.ac-versailles.fr/IMG/pdf/The_Battle_of_the_Somme.pdf> [Accessed 03 July 2016]
i
There was no time
to
Give up - each
slow minute
Had left day 1 to
creep
Into day 2 - not
to be
Forgotten, as hardened
Fights carried on.
Pathetic roll
calls
Saw many unanswered
Names - though
men
Lay dead many others
Had survived with
Treatable wounds.
The dark hours were
Short - a new day
had lifted.
At 3.30 a.m. one
private
Of 2nd Devons, Cyril
Jose had been
Prompted by
shouts.
'Remember Belgium
And the Lusitania!'
- yet this
Was at odds; in
lack
Of Belgium hospitality
And rich
Americans -
Then the Lieutenant
fell.
Private Jose suddenly
Felt the thud of
a bullet, to hit
His chest and
shoulder.
Despite orders not
To stop, two men
Saw to his wounds.
They drenched
iodine
Onto his injury -
Jose laid
Behind the dead
Officer and
batman,
Where he spent
Hours, in and out
Of consciousness.
Using water
bottles
Nearby, Jose
stayed very still -
He played dead when
German patrol passed.
The pin of a
mills bomb
In his teeth,
ready
To take them with
him.
His presence
ignored,
Private Jose remained
prone,
As hours slipped
into
Darkness -
finally
In the still early hours,
He crawled away.
Through long grass
That hid his slow
progress,
He came across
men
Settled into
death -
Until he met a
regular
Soldier,
Lamacraft.
They crawled as
one -
Private Lamacraft
wounded
In legs and back
- until
Weakness and
their
Movement
attracted
Attempts of pot shots.
Jose pulled the
other
Man into a dip of
a shell crater.
'Lammy' could not
go
Without being carried.
Jose left him
ringed
With water
bottles.
With slow eternal
Progress, Jose
spotted
A gap in the wire
Ahead - a
periscope
Indicated a
sentry -
He crawled closer.
He lifted himself
up
And toppled into the
trench -
Officers encouraged
Rum down him - they
Said it was
impossible
To send out
bearers.
Lamacraft would
have
To stay there, while
private
Jose was moved
Down to Le
Treport -
Months later he
learnt
Of Lamacraft's
survival.
Two years in the
army
Private Cyril
Jose was aged 17,
As he survived
day 1
Of the Somme - a
keen
Soldier, writing
home for
Comics and pocket
money.
ii
Behind survivors
Departures, day 2
grinded
On in weary irony
for
A day of rest - Sunday
2 July, would see
Hand to hand
fights.
Renewal of a major
assault
Focused on the German
second
Lines - amid battered
Areas of Mametz
And Trones woods, came
Hand to hand
encounters.
The fourth army's
job
Was to secure the
devastated
Villages - Lieutenant
Colonel Ronald Fife
Suggested withdrawal
And new artillery
attack.
With agreement,
Fife then later
took steps,
After cease fire, for
Patrols into Fricourt.
Following
advances
Amid the laying
dead.
He sent a messenger
To ask an escort into Forecourt
Without quick response,
Fife decided to enter
Alone - as he walked
Fife called, 'Come out!'
There were no sign
Of souls as messenger
returned.
The Lincolns were
To attack - he
waited,
As their line passed
Away into the village.
No resistance
came
From German trenches,
as they
Moved up to the
lines
Beyond - Fife
watched
Progress, then enemies
Emerged in
surrender.
by Jamie Mann.
Brown, M., 1997. The Imperial War
Museum Book Of The Somme. Pan Books.
Ch. 6 The Second Day - And After.
Source: File: The
Battle of the Somme - Albert. Available at: <http://www.cwgc.org/somme/content.asp?menuid=2&id=2&menuname=Albert&menu=main>
[Accessed 03 July 2016]
Source: File: A
British Soldier At The Battle Of The Somme. Available at: <http://www.clg-molieres-essarts.ac-versailles.fr/IMG/pdf/The_Battle_of_the_Somme.pdf> [Accessed 03 July 2016]
Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 3 July 2016).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Somme
No comments:
Post a Comment