Source: File: ruins of
Pozieres after the battle. The grave is that of Captain Ivor Margetts. AUSTRALIAN
WAR MEMORIAL. See an original
image at: <http://www.news.com.au/national/anzac-day/world-war-i-battlefield-relic-from-pozieres-to-be-presented-at-launceston-ceremony/news-story/68cf35eb0effa0746d39a4c9abaa630a>
[Accessed 23 August 2016]
[Accessed 23 August 2016]
By fighting
stretched over further days,
Each second as a
heavy pace - almost
Unbearable - but
still endured by those
That lived - 1
July seemed long gone,
But from that
hours beginning no end
Was yet in sight.
Paused breathing
spaces, then another
Stride of
individuals made whole
Over familiar, now
unfamiliar grounds,
Pulverized and
smashed again into
Disorder of
primeval soup, where one
Day life may
revive.
One day too far ahead
to conceive,
As the present
heaved day after
Day - yet July
becomes August still
Summer - told by
warmth of air
Even if any other
evidence might
Be absent.
Unseen by a soldier’s eyes normality
Is another affair
- artillery or other
Gunnery, systems
of trenches occupy
These workers minds
as they push on,
Against redoubts
where a single gun
May remain.
Still to cause
havoc - then suddenly,
Somehow, if not
quite sure, the high
Ground of
Pozieres is gained by some
Pathetic
achievement - Thipeval
And Pozieres - Pozieres
and Thiepval,
Over repeated
ground.
A rolling frozen muddied
sea where
Rewards come as
holes in the ground -
Water falls from
blue skies down into
Burrowed earth,
where waiting
Germans hold out
with supplies
Of bombs.
All types of weapons
to hand yet
Many gave no
resistance - to kick
Aside their arms
and lift high their
Hands in
surrender - though some
Choose by order
to die by gun
Of an unknown man.
The need to clear
them out is swift
And urgent, to
prevent any pockets
Of Germans that
could emerge once
Passed - attacks
from the rear make
A hard lesson to
learn - how events
Occurred too many
times.
A witness account
to give impression
Of those taken
from enemy dugouts -
All tall, healthy,
fresh looking without
A stain on
uniforms - out of galleries
Of luxuries of sprung
beds, armchairs
And false
curtained windows.
To watch them
marching, led by one
That laughed and
joked before his
Brother
officers - a great giant man
Made taller by
his German casque -
Such a strong beefed
up force could
Easily halt
progress.
Each day the
artillery set to grind
Down on the enemy
- but each
Shell equates
destruction of
Earth, to counter
swift progress
As troops stumble
over uneven
Ground.
In all directions
dank land lay
Pitted by crater
holes - enough
To confuse any
man in the dark.
One Australian
advance tumbles
Into holes,
deeper than a man,
To sink into
filth.
Lights might
flash from enemy
Flares, to give
some warning -
Equally to light
their figures,
Which reappear,
blacked stained
Mockery of men,
to be picked
On by Germans.
Hazards are
varied in such vile
Swamps - one
Australian told
Of his burial
alive over six times,
To be rescued
with luck - saved
By a bubble of
air; though others
Might succumb to
nerves.
Still more
hazards lay, even after
A trench might be
deserted
As Hun were apt
to leave small
Gifts to the
unwary - by parapets
A mantrap might
be laid, to bite
The leg of a
soldier and bring
Him down.
Then there were
the tortoise shell
Type traps -
unlikely to be seen
In the dark they
waddled on 4 legs -
And once touched could easily kill
A man - then
there are the lucky
Mishaps.
On the road between
Delville
And High Wood,
where trenches
Were defended -
the Germans
Swarmed either
side the allies,
Who ducked for
the enemy then
Mistook each
other.
Over the heads
bombs were
Thrown - German
at German
As their real
targets slipped
Easily away - defiant
of all bags
Of tricks, they
conveyed fresh
Prisoners to
their lines.
By Jamie Mann.
Gibbs,P., 1916. British Advance - New Enemy Weapons - Astounding Incident. The Daily
Telegraph, [online] 23 August 1916.
P.10. Col.1. Available at:
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12212857/Daily-Telegraph-August-23-1916.html>
[Accessed: 23 August 2016].
Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 23 August 2016).
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