When Ernest Shephard’s company was hit by heavy howitzers in July 1915 the effects were appalling.
We found two machine gunners belonging to our company who had been blown from the trench over the railway bank into a deep pool of water, a distance of 70 yards. One man, Pte Woods, was found in 8 pieces, while others were ghastly sights, stomachs blown open, some headless, limbs off, etc. Up to the present we have found 17 and buried them.
A subaltern of 7/Royal Innisikilling Fusiliers, attacking Ginchy in August 1916, saw how a shell:
landed in the midst of a bunch of men about seventy yards away on my right. I have a most vivid recollection of seeing a most tremendous burst of clay and earth go shooting up in the air – yes, even parts of human bodies – and then when the smoke cleared there was nothing left. I shall never forget that horrifying spectacle as long as I live, but I remember it as a sight only, for I can associate no sound with it.
Source:
Holmes, Richard. "Steel and Fire." Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front, 1914-1918. London: HarperCollins, 2004. 402. Print.
Original Source(s) Listed:
Shephard Sergeant major’s War p. 52.
[Second excerpt] Quoted in Terence Denman Ireland’s Unknown Soldiers (Blackrock, Co. Dublin, 1992) p. 98.
Further Reading:
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