The man I’ve been looking for. [WWI]

>Nor was it good for mortarmen to be captured by soldiers they had recently bombarded. Opposite Fricourt on the Somme, 2/Royal Welch Fusiliers were repeatedly shelled by a mortar firing a two-gallon drum of explosive, which sounded ‘like the Day of Judgement’ when it landed, blowing in all but the very deepest dugouts. When they took the village they found ‘a wooden cannon buried in the earth and discharged with a time-fuse. ‘The crew offered to surrender,’ wrote Robert Graves, ‘but our men had sworn for months to get them.’ >Nearby a German frantically sought to have his surrender accepted by shrieking ‘*Minenwerfer* [**German: Mortar**] man, *Minenwerfer* man’ in the hope that this might make him seem less hostile, but his opponent quietly remarked: ‘Then you’re just the man I’ve been looking for,’ and ran him through with his bayonet. ___________________________________ **Source:** Holmes, Richard. "Steel and Fire." *Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front, 1914-1918*. London: HarperCollins, 2004. 370-71. Print. **Original Source Listed:** Graves *Goodbye* p. 161. ___________________________________ **Further Reading:** [Fricourt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fricourt) [Bataille de la Somme / Schlacht an der Somme (Battle of the Somme) / Somme Offensive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme) [Royal Welch Fusiliers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Welch_Fusiliers)