There was often admiration at the way the enemy fought. When Norman Gladden’s comrades moved past a dead German, large and fully accoutered, who had been killed making a single-handed stand in an advance post, ‘a murmur of approbation went down the file, not, for once, for the death of an enemy but in admiration of a brave man’.
In August 1918 William Carr, at thirty-one rather old for a gunner subaltern, was observing for his battery of 18-pounders. [artillery]
All along the trenches coal scuttle helmets appeared. I spotted a machine gunner at the near end as he got his gun into position.
Keeping my eyes on him I sent another message to our guns.
’Ready any minute now.’
The machine gunner was absolutely still. Did he guess that over a mile away six guns were pointing in his direction? Did he banish thoughts of wife and children as he concentrated on the target appearing up the spar? A red spurt of flame flashed from his gun.
’Fire!’ I shouted.
’Fire!’ the signalers repeated the order.
Within seconds we could hear shells going over and immediately the trench disappeared from sight as duck boards shot into the air. We were dead on target.
’Repeat,’ I shouted before the last round had arrived. Now for the other half of the trench.
’Switch two minutes right, five rounds gun-fire.’ Some shells were falling short.
’Add twenty – three rounds, gun-fire.’
As the trench became visible again I saw the machine gunner. He was covered in blood, terribly wounded, yet he was struggling to get his gun back into position. I’d have to silence him.
’Left section only, return to target one, five rounds gun-fire.’
A minute or two passed as the guns were re-aligned. Through my glasses I could see Jerries [Germans] running along the trench but the brave machine gunner stayed at his post…
Every Remembrance Day during the two minutes silence I can see him and recall the moment when he disappeared in a shower of rubble.
Source:
Holmes, Richard. "Heart and Soul." Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front, 1914-1918. London: HarperCollins, 2004. 539-40. Print.
Original Source(s) Listed:
Gladden Ypres 1917 p. 66.
William Carr A Time to Leave the Ploughshares (London 1985).
Further Reading:
No comments, yet...