Forgotten Voices of the Somme Read Online Free PDF Page B

hell. On another raid, I had an officer called Morris in charge of me. Mr Morris was ever such a nice chap, but he spoke with a lisp. Instead of Morris, his name was 'Morrith'. He had a way of inspecting your rifles, and he'd say, 'There'th a thpeck of dutht down your barrel!' He was a regular figure of fun, and he was beside me, and a shot came, and went through the front of his cap, hit his cap badge and flew up. It didn't hurt him. He said, 'I'll never be killed now, Murray! Look at that!' And there was a hole from his cap badge, right through the top of his hat.
    Private Harry Hall
    13th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment
    If we could go out and pinch a couple of Germans, and bring them back, they were thrashed in the orderly room. I don't mean mentally thrashed, I mean physically thrashed. They would torture them, and they would tell them all they wanted, depending on the nature of the fellow, of course. Because some fellas spit it all out, and others try to hold it in. That was the object, getting to know who was in the line opposite us at that time, where they came from, and all that sort of thing.
    Sergeant Charles Quinnell
    9th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers
    We had a very, very keen officer by the name of Van Sommer . It was a Dutch name but he was English all right, a very, very brave man he was, and I used to hate going out on patrol with him, because he would walk straight across noman's- land, straight up to the barbed wire, standing up all the time, and he would take a pair of snips with him and he'd take a sample, the Germans popping away at him, and bring back the sample, and he would walk away, and he expected you to do the same. I used to hate him.

    A narrow escape.
    Second Lieutenant W. J. Brockman
    15th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers
    We had a very gallant fellow with us, a Jew of German extraction, name of Mandelberg . He was the sort of bloke who would go out into no-man's-land and explore. He went out one night, and as he came back through the wire, he was challenged by the sentry, who said, 'Who goes there?' 'Captain Mandelberg!' he replied. He'd gone too far along, over to another regiment – and the sentry shot him. Fortunately, he was only wounded, and the sentry was arrested. He was asked, 'What did you do that for? Shoot a British officer?' 'I thought he said Hindenberg ,' he said, 'so I shot him.'
    Corporal George Ashurst
    1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers
    I went out one night with three men, on a patrol to find out if Jerry was doing anything. We went over the top, and under our wire – we were sliding along on our bellies, with bombs ready to throw, and I had a revolver. If there had been any Germans out there, it would have been a case of who got their bomb in first. Then, Jerry opened up with a machine gun. It was a fixed gun, so you had a chance. He used to skim his bullets along the top of the trench – a foot above the top. If you could lie below that foot, you were safe – even if it was only just missing you. The three men with me had never been out before at night, and, in between these machine-gun spurts, I said: 'Lie flat! Let the bullets go over you! Keep flat down!'
    Private Harold Startin
    1st Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment
    Trench raids is why ' trench clubs ' came into being. When I came home on leave, my dad was a bit on the religious side, and he said it weren't right that human beings should use cudgels on other human beings. I am sorry to say the one that is on display in the Imperial War Museum has actually been used. That was my one.
    Corporal Henry Mabbott
    2nd Battalion, Cameron Highlanders
    I joined a party that was going out at night, staying out all the next day and not coming back until the next night. That was a ghastly experience. We
    were not able to move during the day. We were in a shell-hole, where we partly covered ourselves with camouflage, and we were listening – trying to find out exactly what was happening. When we were coming back in, they