Impression sketch
of crater at St Eloi - by Jamie. From an original image that can be seen at: <http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/forums/ViewPost.aspx?ForumID=56&ID=30517>
[Accessed: 5 April 2016]
i
From days of
early Flanders
The persona of Saint
Eligius,
Had set on his task
to convert
Pagans to
Christianity religion,
With his twenty
year mission -
His name
dedicated to St Eloi
a village in a Flemish province.
Within a
twentieth century
Mission, that same
ground
Of St Eloi saw
transformation
To total war,
with sustained
Battles -1915 saw
burrowed
Exchanges
underground,
With tunneller's drafted
in.
By subterranean
methods,
A renewed
struggle began
With six large mines, created
Beneath the
German lines -
The decided plan
for British
Intensions to
move forward,
To capture destroyed lines.
Canadians
afterwards would
Follow forwards,
to secure
Captured systems
- prior
To zero hour
Germans had
control of ground; the land
Already battered, had mines
Prepared by
sapper teams.
Into 87th leap
year day
The 27th March at
4.15 a.m.
Awoke with
tremendous
Gunfire - one
followed by
Another of six
mines, whose
Sound carried
through air;
Heard on English
shores.
Every man felt
the earth
Shuddering, as volcanoe
Plumes of yellow
smoke
Lifted skywards -
debris
Rained upon
pockmarked
Earth - six huge
craters had
Formed in no mans
land.
Amid the British
forces
Lifting from
sodden soil -
Khaki against
blighted
Earth - Brodie
clad heads
Over hunched
shoulders
Came Northumberland
London's Royal Fusiliers.
With one
Northumberland
Officer ready to
provide
His regiment's
story to
The Scotsman - the fight
the best organised to date,
Became known
by name
Of Battle of St Eloi
Craters.
The tunnelling
companies
Had carried out
operations
So secretly, the German
Presence had not
guessed
What was about to
happen -
A lull had till then, lasted
Across area for two days.
A quagmire of
peace could
Be seen for anyone,
who
By chance could
have stood
on ground, would have never
Been aware of two armies
in opposition, concealed;
Odd sniper fire interrupted.
ii
A dull drizzling
morning
With possibility
of heavy
Showers was
observed,
Just before the ground
rent
Heavenwards - the
young
Officer relayed
the problem
Of Northumberland’s
role.
manoeuvres were acted out
Oddly, like a game - to enter
The maze of wire
covering
The slope before German
Positions - slowly working
To a pocket sized
parapet,
That escaped the
explosion.
A German machine
gunner
Propped up on a
parapet,
As they set foot
among
The wire, to
offer selves
Up as targets -
but calmly
They worked through
By an amusing
method.
A game spread amid
men;
They adopted 'pick
a back,'
As soldiers started to
carry
Their comrades, who gave
Short reply to
enemy fire -
Their aim to pick
off any
Visible machine
guns.
Within the gritty
task,
The men took to
amuse
Selves in transformation
To cavalry status
- riders to
'Gee up' and
chaffing each
Of their 'horse,'
to criticise
Points of others
mounts.
With the game of
horse and
Rider making it
through
The wire maze,
dismount
Orders brought normality -
Back in role of foot
soldiers,
They leapt down into
enemy
Trenches, in
warning shouts.
Their listeners
though were
Just an audience
of dead
And dying men - some
Lives lost within their
sleep -
They came to a
dug out,
Where a sentry stood
Upright, as on
alert guard.
They yelled at
the figure
To surrender -
but he
Gave no answer - a man
With bayonet
raised,
Rushed towards
him -
Only to recoil in
horror;
The sentry was
dead.
Still on guard in
death,
Looked on by
those who
Would see him
dead again.
With eyes described
in
A look of 'the
other world' -
With life severed in duty,
He was left at
his post.
Moving further
inwards,
Others were dazed
from
An earthquake broken sleep,
Crouched or
seated in pain
Of ignorance of
the event -
Shocked to see
strangers,
As a man in a
dugout spoke.
'My God the
English!' he
Found no escape,
to be
Taken away with
others
As prisoners -
between
Them, arguing as
to how
The invaders came
- to
Land in massed
airships?
iii
Some others
suggested
They had burrowed
Up as moles -
they could
Not fathom they
had
Made their way
across
Land of no man,
that
Had been under
guard.
A battle of St Eloi
craters
Had begun with
success -
The shattering
sounds
Heard back in
England,
With swarms of
British
King's prisoners
en mass;
Canadians made a start.
While spring had retained
Winter's wet
conditions
Within the Belgium
soil,
The rapid
divisions arrival of
2nd Canadians in
their first
Major engagement,
brought
There without
preparation.
Out of bitter,
muddy earth
The British found
success,
In hand-to-hand combat
-
To win third German
line -
While confusion lay
amid
Enemy; mines irreparably
Altering their landscape.
Those great craters
had
Been exploded, to
create
A vast space over
180
Feet across and
depth
Of 49 feet - with
sleet
And wind, water began
To create glutinous mud.
For seven terrible days
Conditions took
their toll,
With hundreds
killed amid
Fighting chaos -
exhausted
British gained
relief from
Eager Canadian's
4 March
Arrival, in Belgium’s
St Eloi.
Without
blindfolds Canadians
Still had only a blinkered
Idea of their
situation and
German presence -
by dates
Of 4 and 5 March,
constant
Bombardment hampered
Efforts to improve
defences.
With more deaths
every
Minute, the 2nd
Canadian
Pioneer Battalion
tried
To drain their
trenches -
The sight was a
challenge
To the stomach of
any man,
Upon the sight of
that land.
'We were walking
on
Dead soldiers,' Frank
Mahout later wrote to
his
Wife at home in Canada.
All about men
attempted
To bandage wounds
As shells still
fell around.
Soldier Private Fraser,
A Calgary
bank clerk, gave
The scene at daybreak;
To see body parts
protruded
Everywhere in the
mud,
Marking out the
yards - while
30 dead floated in crater.
Odd sights were captured
By moments of
shock;
The German
sentry corpse
Still on guard,
or a tall, slim
English lieutenant
who lay
Quite dead - his
boyish face
Wearing a
peaceful look.
Under nightshift
fighters,
6 April at hour
3.30 a.m.
The ruins of St Eloi
saw
German battalions
attack,
Along the Canadian
held
Main road -
communication
Losses led to
their retreat.
Another dawn lifted, renewed
German efforts
had started
To recapture all
grounds
Lost to them from battles
Start - confusion
was relayed
By heavy rain,
while the fight
For craters was still to end.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1916. The
Dead Sentry - The Story of St Eloi. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 5 April 1916. P.12. Col.3. Available at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12206739/Daily-Telegraph-April-5-1916.html> [Accessed: 5 April 2016].
Source: File: Sint-Elooi.
Online. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sint-Elooi> Accessed 5 April 2016
Source: File: Battle of St. Eloi Craters. Online. Available at:
<http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/battle-of-st-eloi-craters/>
Accessed 5 April 2016
Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 5 April 2016).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary #worldwarone
#worldwaroneremembered #WW1StEloi
