Poem ~ Canadian Soldiers: Fyall And Sivertz - Thursday, 26 April 1917 - Monday, 30 April 1917

 Source: File: Still from Vimy Ridge Canadian Operations April 9 1917. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0twujK2ObA> [Accessed 21 April 2017]

Vimy Ridge = [Vimy Ridge : Canadian Operations April 9, 1917] (1917)

i

Men of A Company 9th Reserve, followed

Orders to withdraw

To supports - Among them Private A. Fyall.

The young Canadians

Watched offensive unfold to boldly stand

Atop, as the German line was

Swept from one end across to the other.

At some other point one fellow Canadian

Corporal Gus Sivertz was

In the process of synchronizing watches.

Far from his civilian days

As optometrist, the 22 year old looked

Forwards at shells effects;

Men flew as if imbued with super powers.

Like Private Fyall, Corporal Sivertz saw

Earthly elements thrown

Two hundred feet high in the air - blending

With a wall of fire - chalky

Earth and silhouettes of flying Fritzies.

In all directions - dugout

Timbers making some airborn mockery.

The sheer shrill, crackling, blasting air

Made men of 8th Brigade

2nd Canadian Mounted rifles cringe in

Unison, as a barrage came

Down - Corporal Sivertz curled his body

As an embryo - buttocks

Clenched hard in to avoid any bullet hits.

Instinct to cover the ears made little

Difference - it was as if

They were held inside a huge clanking

Machine - they did not

Dare to lift their heads, knowing how

An angled barrage

Would lie flat over them, at any moment.

After three slow minutes it lifted again,

Like a crane from hell -

The process was fascinating, with

Complete perfection

Like a ticking clock. Sivertz held back

Temptation to raise his

Finger to feel the solid ceiling of sound.

ii

A mad macabre dance filled what

Little thought Sivertz

Could entertain, when a sudden gap

Opened, a hundred yards

Ahead - the feeling of a queer empty

Stomach gone, along

With any fear and they were all away.

Dawn was ripped savagely apart  -

Almost immediately

Wire caught his feet and he splayed

Forwards, clumsily

To coincide with a shell, dumping its

Angled nose into mud

To burst - clumps of chalk exploded.

Barely a yard away, Sivertz's head

Was pushed down

Into shoulders as chalk clattered

On his helmet - I'm dead,

He thought - only to realise he lived,

With sore ears to find

That he was in isolation on battlefield.

Filth caked his front to give Sivertz

Appearance of a man

Of mud - then a sudden, weird gutting

Envelopment of loneliness.

He wanted to shout out, 'here I am!'

To feel human contact

From someone, anyone - he stumbled.

Fighting to keep his balance Sivertz

Took a step forward

Then another - he saw another man,

Lieutenant Christie

Whose toy shape tipped forward, flat,

Shot dead - alone again.

All Hun guns seemed to aim at him.

Others - instinct made him run to try

And catch up with them.

Stench of spent explosives fought

His senses - any kind

Of knowing gone as he reached

The German trenches.

From naked openness came relief.

iii

It was actually sleeting but the fall

Was being made heavy

From activity of shelling - Corporal

Sivertz dropped into

Cover, the counter barrage being

Lukewarm, compared

To the fierce allied bombardment.

Sivertz found very little to shoot

At - lifting from

Curved earth against a backlight

Of flames, 'Heinies'

Appeared - hands of surrender held

High - amid great din

A man beside him turned to speak.

Stranger’s lips were tight up against

His ear, so that he

Could almost feel the man's tongue.

With a smile he wanted

To say, 'it's going fine.' Any sentence

Was left incomplete without

A sound he pitched dead on his face.

Any distance was obscured, dimmed

By sleet to hide flanks.

Corporal Sivertz, by some instinct,

Detected trouble across

At Thelus trench, with 28th Battalion.

Their own trench

Objective situation loomed close.

The heavily defended Zwische

Stellung trench

Marked out the German second

Line - described

By an understated expression -

To prove 'warmer' -

The 8th brigade then swarmed.

Their sheer, determined numbers

Saw a sweeping action,

To gain scores of prisoners, to include

Regimental commander,

Who fumed - his Belgian relief funded

Breakfast had been

Halted by his being taken prisoner.

iV

Amusement rippled through caught

Hun privates, who

Observed how their commander's

Breakfast of bacon,

Eggs, cereal, toast, coffee, cream

And butter, was rapidly

Consumed by Canadian Al Swanby.

The taken Zwische Stellung trench

Became inverted into

Purpose for Canadian defences,

Until halted by a steel

Plated German pillbox, to harbour

A machine gun - on the

Right, Corporal Sivertz had idea.

The pillbox's slot gave a limited

Machine gun

Arc of firing - Corporal Sivertz

Set out to provide

The enemy gun crew, with a mill's

Bomb; with this

Intent he edged forward in cover.

With his finger on the pin Sivertz

Glanced up too

Soon, when a bullet cut him down.

He lay knocked

Out cold, unaware of the continued

Events - after some

Time Corporal Sivertz's eyes opened.

For how long he lay, he did not know

But rain had stopped 

And the pace of fight had moved

On - gunnery still

Hounded the old front line - getting

To his feet Sivertz

Stumbled his way back to the line.

Sivertz joined one line of wounded

Men, sat in a medical

Trench - likely weary from being

Knocked out and

The bullet wound - the absurdity

Of sitting there as

Though in a civvy Dr's waiting room.

V

Every so often a medical sergeant

Appeared to choose

Cases of any haemorrhages and led

Them into the dugout.

Though at the end of the line Sivertz

Was taken towards

The stairs, when sudden roar screamed.

A sound, like a freight train curving from

The sky; a  'bloody 5.9.'

They both ducked into cover, just in time

When they emerged

All that was left of the six wounded men

Were ripped body

Parts - the two of them were very lucky.

The medics all pale and exhausted,
Quickly looked to Sivertz.

They awarded Corporal Sivertz a ticket;

'On your way chum.'

Corporal Sivertz was then to head off

To Wimereux - when

That night Private Fyall had gone forth.

Canadian Fyall had been in action

Since 4 a.m. artillery

Like a immense single gun had been

Blasting over 18 mile

Front. with the lift, they pelted like wild

Cats after prey, who

Dropped all equipment to make escape.

Objectives of three lines were achieved

One after the other.

By ninety minutes Canadians gained third

Line, with multiple

Prisoners started to be captured - moral

Was boosted, despite

Grim conditions of slime blood and mud.

Private Fyall had luckily managed

To deflect a bullet,

Twice - then some chap bandaged

Him, while a tot

Of rum revived him; given a mission

By the Captain,

Fyall was to convey a report for HQ.

Vi

A great band of enemy ground had

Been gained,

Across which he made his way  

Over wrecked

Earth; his compass being a German

Barrage, which

Targeted the old allied front line.

A mile marked out the very distance

Taken - Fyall paused,

To come to a trench that had been hard

Fought over - there

Heaped mother's sons lay dead, eyes

Glazed - Finding

A Hun haversack Fyall openly cried.

The German soldier's wife had sent

Her love a small

Parcel of sugar and butter - but any

Brief sentiment

Suddenly passed as he kept the

Dead man's pipe

And cap - another Hun lay close by.

The large man made him a gesture

Requesting Fyall

To shoot him in the head; he refused.

British did not

Kill the wounded - instead Private Fyall

Carefully placed

A haversack under his head for comfort.

Fyall decided time was to move on

And leave that

Trench - out into the April landscape -

Countless, bitter

Carnage lay smouldering from shells

That had turned

A pockmarked earth into wasteland.

A pulverised French spring had been

Made turgid grey

And within movement of figures; shapes

Of humans that

Tried to pull up their broken selves limb

By limb - Fyall moved

Amid them - their hands reached out.

Vii

Canadians that called out to him

For stretcher bearers -

Other called out to him for water;

There were too many -

Fyall ran weaving among them, heading

Into the enemy

Barrage- he slipped through red craters.

Holes overflowed with bitter water,

Stained deep red

From blood - somehow Fyall dodged

Through the barrage

Curtain, desperate to find company

Headquarters

Unable to find any sign - all totally gone.

Fyall's mission neared completion,

On reaching brigade

HQ - he was shown down to General

Lomas who read

The Company captains report, to

Praise what could

Only be victory - was Fyall hungry?

Shown to the kitchen, Fyall was given

Soup and bread,

But he was sick - having constantly

Been at front over

Two days - before managing to pull

On his mask, he had

Gasped, to inhale a lungful of gas.

Directed to a dressing station Fyall

Watched German

Prisoners carry wounded Canadians.

From somewhere

A shell burst over his head - Fyall's

Felt himself slipping

And 'going' to wake with bleary view.

Some vague orderly told another,

This one was dead -

Fyall could not speak - fingers lifted

His eyelids. A Doctor

Spoke; 'the fellow is fine. Shell shocked

And gassed. take the blanket

Off his face…snow will bring him round.'

by Jamie Mann.

Source: File: A first hand account of Vimy Ridge by Craig Baird, High River Times. Available at: <http://www.highrivertimes.com/2012/04/10/a-first-hand-account-of-vimy-ridge> [Accessed xx April 2017]

Source: File: A Candian at Vimy. Page 2076 History Of The First World War Volum 5. Published by Purnell for BPC publishing Ltc London. [Accessed 21 April 2017]

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 21 April 2017). 

http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary #worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Arras

Poem ~ Arras: Targets Defined And Taken - Saturday, 21 April 1917 - Wednesday, 25 April 1917

Source: File: Patrol of Canadian Light Infantry moving toward Willerval. The Great Canadian Exploit: The Taking of Vimy Ridge. Available at: <https://www.illustratedfirstworldwar.com/item/the-great-canadian-exploit-the-taking-of-vimy-ridge-iln0-1917-0421-0004-001/#> [Accessed 21 April 2017]

i

1916 had been a costly stalemate

Across the western front, with many lives

Lost in what became known as the 'Somme.'

1917 still wore a darkened cloak, where

No progress had broken the allies' enemy.

Shadows of Somme, Gallipoli or Verdun

Gave no victory - while political situations

Saw seismic shifts - to see British politician

Herbert Asquith resign in favour of Lloyd

George, as Russia wavered in revolution.

Across an ocean, American declaration

Took first steps to join the war - the Nivelle

Offence divided French Defence Minister

And the Prime minister - yet allied plans

Drove a new need for a 1917 offensive.

Russian preoccupations of February 1917

Raised problems - while painful lessons

Were taken from previous years flawed

Battles plans - the allies drew a new line

From Neuville, Vitasse to Vimy Ridge.

An eleven-mile front formed. A Chantilly

Tactic conference met November 1916,

Making formation for a 1917 spring offensive.

Tighter training manuals devised revised

Methods with adapted, toned platoons.

Platoons made up sections of armed

Men - Lewis gunners, grenade throwers,

Grenade launchers and snipers all to advance

In patterns, with fresh platoons behind, able

To leap frog each other for the next objective.

Assaults would be carried out by variety

Of directions; tanks would again be used. As

Aircraft made renewed reconnaissance flights,

While tunnels were prepared - the Artillery

Again would creep with crawling barrages.

The German side had by the springtime

Undertaken an intended withdrawl, to form

A more solid Hiddenburg line - Operation

Alberich - to abandon redundant salients.

Allied morale boosted by apparent retreat.

Zero hour was planned for Easter Sunday -

8 April 1917 - allied artillery commenced

With Bombardment 20 March, across Vimy

Ridge - German trenches and barbed wire

Were broken, while casualties were low.

All sign of trenches had been crushed

Into fields of craters - then gas shells

Sent over final hours started to fill holes -

Only zero hour was moved by request

Of French by one day for 9 April 1917.

ii

Result; a window of fair weather gave

Way to heavy snowfall, as the finale

Of hurricane artillery faded - at 5.30 a.m.

Soldiers with wind at their backs, that

Hit the faces of Germans, advanced.

First light was dulled by poor weather,

But the Canadians were ready, being

Well prepared - their artillery would not

Be underestimated, as every 25 yards

Allied gunnery belted out their shells.

Then, every 3 minutes they lifted to aim

Higher - just 2 rounds every minute -

The enemy was battered with telephone

Wires cut, forcing runners to the open

Ground - under foot was hazardous.

Earth had been beaten, pulverised

Into pools of foulest mud - the 21

Battalions edged their way around

Obstacles. Overhead the aircraft

That had been delayed, 'chuttered.'

Sky diving in the heavy snowfall, pilots

Sounded klaxons to direct and assess

Progress - the sodden, cratered ground

Soon caused a redundant tank force -

All fighting was left to the foot troops.

Any progress came down to personal

Action carried out by groups of soldiers,

Along with determined individuals - some

Found little opposition - a dulled enemy

Stayed in dugouts or ran without boots.

Canadians found selves in hand-to-hand

Combat with pockets of desperate enemy

Picking them off. Lance Sergeant Sifton

Spotted one such machine gun crew; he

Leapt to bayonet all, cutting down the gun.

Germans appeared from the trench.

Sifton hit and stabbed each one until

Others joined him - but a wounded man

Shot Sifton down. Another machine gun

Aimed at 16th Battalion, stalling them.

Targets were traced out in lines. First

Black objective was reached by divisions

6.15 a.m. - 6.25 a.m. confirmation made

How Brigades had achieved the capture.

Yet the southern end was taking losses.

Private Milne saw danger ahead, to take

Action. He crawled forwards until within

A short distance, he threw a bomb; the crew

Cut down allowed Milne to take the gun,

Giving the Canadian Scottish safety.

iii

Their line was reformed when William

Milne spotted yet another gun in enemies

Support line - once more the brave Private

Edged forward and took the enemy gun

Out; only a short time after to be killed.

The red line marked halfway to ridge -

8 a.m. this was reached by 1st and 2nd

Divisions and 9.30 a.m. had seen reserves

At this point - next object was the blue line,

Taken by 1st Division at hour 11 a.m.

The village of Thelus where Private

Milne met his end, along with woods

Of Vimy village, were merged into area,

From blue into the brown line; planned

Targets of a methodical approach.

Final objective of the northern flank

Had been red line - the highest fortified

Ridge affectionately called the 'pimple' -

Made up from the Zwischen-Stellung

Trench, Folie farm and Les Tilleuls.

While flanks of the south made aim

For further gains; beyond the blue line

Of Thelus a brown line indicated Zwolfer

Graben - Germans second line - when

A break in the sky opened to sun.

From a storm cloud's eye gave way

To views of Canadian troops around

Thelu, dividing, as some were assigned

To hold their positions, while their equals

Continued to battle over the ridge.

By academic leapfrog tactics the plan

Was to maintain a momentum; capture

And consolidate, capture and consolidate.

The barrage briefly paused for reserves

To move through the gap and secure.

The pace was to prevent German

Soldiers evacuating any dugouts and

Defend their ground, above and below

Earth - each sector was given vital parts

To play - with foot troops dominating.

Brief relief of spring again shrank back

Under clouds, as sleet shivered over

Those on the ground - flurries of snow

Were carried about by a gusty westerly

Breeze, adding to soldiers difficulties.

In such conditions the allied plan

Carried on, as machine guns after

90 minutes set to cover the two divisions,

Making for the final objective - which

Canadians went headfirst towards.

iV

The northerly woods were then being

Covered by British, from a south east

Direction with rear artillery - although too

Far behind, were sheltered by advanced

Batteries, sending over waves of shells.

Added time was provided by artillery
Tactics - right to left shelling allowed 
Brigades to reach German wire; prisoners

Backs were given designation - green

Painted onto captured enemy backs.

Beyond barrage reach was prepared

For, by providing wire breakers on rifles -

While others used wire cutters to make

It through two bands of enemy wire -

Breaking out to a picturesque view.

The Douai plain stretched out below

Them - yet the troops were not yet safe.

They rushed forward, down opposite slope,

Towards the enemies batteries, whose

Crews abandoned guns, to be overrun.

With the certainty of the brown line

Captured by 2.40 p.m. General Byng

Considered utilizing the cavalry,- gaining

An opportunity to ride onto the Douai

Plain, to take rail and canal crossings.

Byng's telephoned request went

Against allied plans, as Vimy Ridge 
Was a limited target, which had called for

Strict timetable - so that any cavalry

Involvement had been cancelled.

Any reply to carry out plans for cavalry

Came too slow, so any quick advantage

Passed - only by late afternoon were any

Cavalry given, and Canadian Light horse

Arrived to provide first army advantage.

Willerval lay some 5 miles distant, north

Of Arras - orders had arrived by 2 p.m.

For a Canadian section to push towards

The commune by 4.20 p.m. - two patrols

On horses headed a mile to Willerval.

First patrol easily gained 10 prisoners

But success was shortlived  - enemy

Machine gun like a disturbed beehive,

Turned on them, to wipe out half

The patrol, along with their horses.

Rifle fire picked over the second

Patrol, with men and horses lamed.

The rest returned, but with effect that

The Germans believed British Cavalry

Had broken through into Willerval.

Reports were shortly distributed

By the ridge observers, that three

Waves of Germans headed towards

Farbus - yet enemy retaliation failed,

The brown line was taken on time.

by Jamie Mann.

Source: File: Battle of Arras (1917). Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Arras_(1917> [Accessed 21 April 2017]

Source: File: Battle of Vimy Ridge. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vimy_Ridge> [Accessed 21 April 2017]

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 21 April 2017). 

http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary #worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Arras

Poem ~ The Front Under Frost - Monday, 29 January 1917 - Wednesday, 31 January 1917

Source: File: Working party, with stove pipes, passing a big gun. See an original image at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12214158/Daily-Telegraph-January-29-1917.html> [Accessed 29 January 2017]

While winter's of war might wither

The sturdiest soldier, the wild bite

Of January 1917, was able to drop

The thermometer to new bitterness.

P. Gibbs was able to recall the fall

Of temperature from '14, '15 and '16

Across Flanders and France lines,

Where cold had ebbed into soldiers.

Though with '17 an icy frost took

A bite deeper - daylight provided

No warmth as night was a locker

In a butcher's store, to freeze all.

Stillness covered all with ice, that

Had turned all into a steely cover;

Sloshing mud of quagmires, whose

Depths men had floundered over.

Yet an unsaid strange beauty lay

Across a transformed landscape.

Snow capped trenches glinted

With fine crystalised snowdrifts.

The sweeping landscape of shell

Craters as a frozen sea, peeked

With ice caps, while polished duck

Walks transformed into ice rinks.

Men, cold with duty, found selves

Stumbling against other shoulders,

Or tumbling in layers of snowfall

To leave their crystallised imprints.

'Ice bound ditches' - fields where

Reels of barbed wire softly glinted

Silver, in cold light - they provided

A decorative, deceiving danger.

Any stillness was turned upside

Down by the bitterest winds, that

Lifted settled snows into drifts all

To prove 'British warms' ineffective.

Despite their promise to protect

The core, cold wind cuts through

Clothing - to dance about all noses

And every soldier's exposed ears.

The bitterest winds offered little

Escape, even in the dugouts - the

Trenches, where men huddled 
About oil stoves, channeled cold.

Outside any waiting sentry had

To struggle to grip his rifle -

Hardly aware of what he held;

With gunman and gun as one.

A reporter's eyes saw a sentry

Who wore a goatskin layer -

Frozen hairs as porcupine's

Quills - cold became like fire.

In the stillness of deep winter's

Day, any equivalent sentry over

The German side could be heard

Pacing the fire trench, to curse.

They are not so far away to give

Him sympathy of cold equality -

'Poor beggar probably lacking

Warm clothes,' said the Tommy.

Under goat skins tied with string,

Tommy doggedly carried out duty.

Tommy having stuck the wet, now

Stuck out the cold that held them.

The stalwart Tommy, described

To hold that stiff upper lip, makes

No moan - yet the harsh weather

Took its toll on health of many.

Trench foot had become blight -

Better managed when ordered

To massage all feet with oil and

Change socks on dry ground.

An almost impossible task - yet

Trench foot found more sufferers

In the ice, to slide down as they

Could not stand on frozen mud.

Majority of the stoutest soldiers

Had ability to stick to their posts -

In resistance to maladies from

Cold, to hold on until relief arrived.

Back in the billets such men may

Go to the Doctor; 'I feel abit queer.'

Diagnosed as suffering trench fever

As others about also held back.

Reporting to the MO to tell them

Of same old trouble - rheumatism -

Yet doctors told of few malingerers,

Amid these steel hardened men.

Extreme of cold was in existence

Back at home, where folk had took

To ice skating; but were no such joy

On the France and Flanders roads.

Men were observed, marching

Daily, their combined breathing

Exhaling, forming clouds over

Their thousand formed heads.

Hard heels beating out a tattoo

Over iced roads - many red noses

And ears beneath steel helmets -

Wrapped in shaggy 'stink' coats.

Their shapes were amusement

Of some staff officers driving past

In their cars, although their fun

Was altogether cut short by ice.

A month from Christmas day,

Business took officer on duty

On long journeys, down lonely

Places, by barren fields of snow.

Nothing about and far from

Telephones, to find the freeze

Affected their car, as radiators

And carburettors broke down.

Stretches of roads shone with

Black ice patches, which caused

Skids into snowdrifts; abandoned

So lights fade by failed batteries.

Flanders and France floundered

Under the bitter grip of icy January

Temperature ready to beat records,

As Tommy repeats; 'eh but its cold.'

by Jamie Mann.

Gibbs. P.,1917. Ice-Clad Trenches - Ordeal For Our Men - Hardest Frost Of The War. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 29 January 1917. P.7. Col.3. Available at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12214158/Daily-Telegraph-January-29-1917.html> [Accessed: 29 January 2017].

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 29 January 2017). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12214158/Daily-Telegraph-January-29-1917.html

http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary #worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Westernfront

Poem ~ Owen: A Letter Home - Tuesday, 16 January 1917 - Sunday, 21 January 1917

Impression sketch of Wilfred Owen crawling towards advanced post  by Jamie

i

From Billet to canvas to cattle wagon,

Came stages of transportation -

Within twelve days of arrival Wilfred

Owen no longer had protection.

The rocking, sliding ride amid others,

Took them towards inevitability -

A mistletoe code home broke all rules

To spell S e r r e; a ghostly place.

West of there British trenches marked

An edge; reserve, support and front

Lines - foul conditions still being used -

A communication trench led him.

First sign of the front met Owen's eyes;

They likely waded in knee deep

Waters - poisoned rainwaters that glints

By sunlight, tarnished in decay.

Early January and deep winter held

Its promise of snow - snow that

Briefly alleviated the churned ground -

Its brief purity sucked down.

Lieutenant Wilfred Owen would later

Find time to describe the state

Of the front in a six paged letter home,

Sent to, 'My own sweet Mother.'

ii

Penned five days into his first arrival there

By subjective analysis the pressure

Of each stroke suggests Owen's tiredness,

Sensitivity and likely empathy.

Words set out with deep indents, whose

Characters stand upright - added

To here and there with thoughts or small

Words, struck in favour of others.

Wishes for freedom spaces words, along

With logical and practical character

By lack of slants, as each connected letter

Shows careful systematic decisions.

With i's whose dots often fly away

To the right, confirm this male

Writer’s imagination - ability topped

Of capital T suggested optimism.

Emotions of the man are portrayed

By choice of expressions -

Openly he is 'bitterly' disappointed

In not receiving her letters.

In honesty the officer informs his

Mother, no reason to deceive

How he had suffered 'seventh hell,'

Over the previous four days.

iii

Dante’s vision takes Wilfred Owen

Whose poet’s circles transport

Him to the seventh circle; made from

Three rings, first is the outermost.

On banks of boiling blood and fire are

Violent beings and murderers -

In the middle ring harpies feed on the

Vegetation formed by suicides.

There wild dogs tear to shred wasters -

The innermost ring are irreverents

Who stand on scolding sands beneath

Torrential, burning, hellish rains.

Such describes the state of the front

Where before Owen has been,

Beyond the very core of No Mans Land.

'I held an advanced post.'

In a singular parameter he is joined;

'We marched 3 miles a shelled

Road dissolved into a flooded trench,

Finally flattened into nothing.'

It was night as they aimed for the dug

Out in the midst of No Mans Land

Up and over the top into utter darkness,

That held no chance of light.

iV

In varieties of depth of up to five feet

Of mud, Owen at pains, describes

How this is no ordinary mud not even

Sloppy but a deep sucking clay.

By properties of an octopoda creature

Of mythology; an ability to suck

Anything down into doom - here men

Have been known to drown.

Some can only escape by discarding

Equipment, waders and even

Their clothes, in order to crawl from the

Slippery claws - many have fallen.

Relentlessly machine guns stuttered

With high explosives all around -

Yet the darkness seemed able to absorb

Any light, so no flare revealed them.

Blind men in a brail of a path, the party

Reached the dug out - each three

Quarters dead, there relieved observers.

Owens responsibility was not over.

In charge of other posts even further

Into hells depth, he found another

Advanced post - here he left bombers

To number 18; nearby were others.

V

Slight relief came as one junior officer

Took charge of those - the dug out

Where they stood was six feet, water

Though held the first two feet.

Air of a kind was contained in the four

Feet left - here forms of 25 men

Were squeezed together; short sentences

Conveyed Owen's abject misery.

Though only afternoon this was January.

Ten minutes dragged into an hour -

To say '50 hours that were the agony of my

Happy life'; bled despondency.

Water was still rising, as the Germans

Knew they were there and did

Not want them - German shells wailed

Through the dark as hells hounds.

Owen admitted to being on very edge

Of breaking point - he stared down

Into the water, almost to let himself drown.

Shelling faded as 6 p.m. struck hour.

At 150 yards lay yet another British post

That should take only sixty seconds

To walk; Owen waded, climbed, crawled

To take 30 minutes to reach.

Vi

The most danger came from friendly fire

Of machine guns behind - holding

To humor he compared them to Mary’s

Canary, who he could support more.

In plain horror the sentries, one of whom

He had not taken as his servant, were

Blown away - if taken the fellow would be

Alive; servants don't do sentry duty.

In safety Owen ordered the other sentries

Half way down the dug out stairs,

Under the intense bombardment - yet one

Lad blown down stairs was blinded.

To close with short sentences in effect

Of disjointed thoughts; 'I suppose

I am well, though the left platoon officer

In hospital completely exhausted.'

Perhaps like the officer that he relieved

Owen suffered a deeper shock;

The man left after 24 hours to abandon

3 Lewis guns for a court martial.

For honesty allowed Wilfred to declare

All this to Susan, as that place

Was the worst Manchester’s ever held -

He would never go back there.

Vii

By hurried last lines to complete sixth

Page, squeezed together by open

Half coded criticism, against a fellow

Distinguished countryman.

The shared Welsh ancestry of Lloyd

George, the Prime minister

Of the British war time government,

Whom this soldier cursed.

Though any leader might be par for

The course - he gave his mother

Allowance to pass on his experiences

To others, such as cousin Leslie.

Under the curious reference, 'Owen

Owen' to hint at the Medieval

Ruler, who led welsh revolt against

The English, in vain self-status.

Self consciously perhaps his intent

Always for a wider audience -

A letter, not just for his mother's gaze,

But to show others the truth.

His own eyes opened by the harsh

Reality and to contain a source

That would remain in Owen's mind
Of a sentry tumbling blind.

By Jamie Mann.

Source: File: Letter from Wilfred Owen to his mother on January 16 1917. Available at: <http://battlefieldtrip.wikispaces.com/Wilfred+Owen> [Accessed 16 January 2017]

Source: File: What does your handwriting say about you?. Available at: <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2380858/What-does-handwriting-say-Study-finds-5-000-personality-traits-linked-write.html> [Accessed 16 January 2017]

Source: File: 9 Circles of Hell (Dante's Inferno). Available at: <http://historylists.org/art/9-circles-of-hell-dantes-inferno.html> [Accessed 16 January 2017]

Source: File: Owain Glyndŵr. Wikipedia. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owain_Glyndŵr> [Accessed 16 January 2017]

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 16 January 2017). 

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