Source: File:Pozieres Windmill, at start of 1915. See an original image at: <http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?/topic/154554-pozieres-windmill/>
[Accessed 19 August 2016]
Source: File:Pozieres Windmill, September 1915. See an original image at: <http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?/topic/154554-pozieres-windmill/>
[Accessed 19 August 2016]
Source: File:Pozieres Windmill, May 1916. See an original
image at: <http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?/topic/154554-pozieres-windmill/>
[Accessed 19 August 2016]
i
Reaching the 17th day of Somme events,
Came newly familiar names of Guillemont
And Pozieres - here subjugation crossed
Grounds - central to some allied progress.
South of Guillemont attacks took place
At Angle wood - some gains in summers
Heat being lost in night counter attacks.
Given over to the French advancements
To the wood from Hardecourt, in capture
Of a ravine made some reinforcements
Of the allied line about Guillemont village.
From the shadows of Trones the capture
Of Malzhorn farm from the 9th day, saw
Allied forces link at southern trenches.
British and French armies yet to achieve
Final outcome, across chewed up ground
Around Guillemot - close and beyond,
Lay enemy concentrations of batteries.
ii
In reports Journalist P.Gibbs set attention
On another point, looking to Pozieres in
A clear view by artillery observation post.
In concentration to the left of the village
That then made a battle line with gains,
Made by Australians and British unity,
Situated on the skyline stood a windmill.
Rather, by what then remained of an aged
Structure that had stood for centuries,
Whose sails captured winds to grind corn.
A stumpy solid, round stone structure held
Claim to high ground on a ploughed field's
Edge, forming a local landmark to people
Of Pozieres by distinct conical, arched roof.
Then the wide-open views of Somme farm
Lands, invaded by opposing forces began
Their erosion - Pozieres became deserted.
The French commune turned into defensive
German position, whose old windmill could
Provide views of a panorama, where allies
Could be observed; the mill became a target.
Trees picked off one by one about abandoned
Stone mill - frozen wooden sails splintered -
By 1915 the tiled conical roof took initial hits.
A quiet sector of the Somme spent months
In tit-for-tat exchanges - Pozieres and mill
Stayed relatively sound, under light shell hits
Through months of spring into summer days.
Slow damage ruptured one side, to reveal
The stone walls density of the ancient mill -
Opening up the two floors in spilled stone.
A neglected ground earth began to shoot
Its wild weeds into 1916 - new warm days
Saw further demise of a smashed tiled roof
Collapsed in on itself destroying workings.
Then gone beyond repair a slumped edifice,
Little more than a base, observed by Gibbs
In August 1916, as just a broken silhouette.
A landmark made infamous, compared
To other battle ripped structures, such as
Vermelles or Thiepval chateaus - Loos
Tower bridge or Yser's Ferrymans house.
Described as just a timber and stone built
Windmill - whose sails, snatching winds of
Centuries had never witnessed flying craft.
Nor had ancient owners ever conceived
Howitzer shells that had abilities to smash
Down its solid walls - proudly defended
By Germans until the last stones leveled.
Reduced to little more than a stone pyramid,
as a memorial to spilt blood; 'the windmill
Is ours now,' made for a pathetic declaration.
By Jamie Mann.
Gibbs.P.,1916. Guillemont Fighting - The Advance On Thiepval. The Daily
Telegraph, [online] 19 August 1916.
P.8. Col.3. Available at:
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12212787/Daily-Telegraph-August-19-1916.html>
[Accessed: 19 August 2016].
Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 19 August 2016).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Somme
