All language subtitles for They.Shall.Not.Grow.Old.2018.1080p.BluRay.x264-[YTS.AM].eng
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1
00:00:19,516 --> 00:00:25,595
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2
00:00:40,785 --> 00:00:49,125
This film contains some scenes which
some viewers may find upsetting
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00:00:52,753 --> 00:00:57,091
I gave every part of my youth
to do a job
4
00:00:57,091 --> 00:01:00,594
and to go through a savage war.
5
00:01:00,594 --> 00:01:04,097
It was a different war from
year to year, and one's reactions
6
00:01:04,097 --> 00:01:05,932
were completely different.
7
00:01:05,932 --> 00:01:10,561
The intensity changed so much
that anybody who'd been out in 1914
8
00:01:10,561 --> 00:01:12,605
and went home and came back in 1917,
9
00:01:12,605 --> 00:01:15,940
wouldn't recognise it
as the same war.
10
00:01:15,940 --> 00:01:18,694
I can only say one thing,
I wouldn't have missed it.
11
00:01:18,694 --> 00:01:21,737
It was terrible at times,
but I wouldn't have missed it.
12
00:01:21,737 --> 00:01:25,532
Oh, yes, if I could have
my time again, I'd go through it
13
00:01:25,532 --> 00:01:28,202
all over again because
I enjoyed the service life.
14
00:01:28,202 --> 00:01:32,164
I could only say that I have never
been so excited in my life,
15
00:01:32,164 --> 00:01:35,750
this was like a boy going
to the play the first time.
16
00:01:35,750 --> 00:01:38,919
I never realised there was
anything unusual about it.
17
00:01:38,919 --> 00:01:42,422
There was a job to be done
and you just go on and did it.
18
00:01:42,422 --> 00:01:45,550
We were all instilled with the idea
that this was war
19
00:01:45,550 --> 00:01:49,387
and that we've got to kill the
Germans, and this is how we looked
20
00:01:49,387 --> 00:01:50,888
at the thing.
21
00:01:50,888 --> 00:01:53,515
I don't regret
having experienced it.
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00:01:53,515 --> 00:01:57,102
I wish I hadn't, but I don't
regret it because I'm safe.
23
00:01:57,102 --> 00:01:58,603
HE LAUGHS
24
00:01:58,603 --> 00:02:00,897
There were good times
and bad times in France.
25
00:02:00,897 --> 00:02:03,024
But you took the rough
with the smooth.
26
00:02:03,024 --> 00:02:07,069
I was twice wounded and gassed,
but it was just war and you made
27
00:02:07,069 --> 00:02:08,821
the best of it.
28
00:02:08,821 --> 00:02:11,281
Just took it in its stride,
like everybody else.
29
00:02:11,281 --> 00:02:14,158
We were glad to be in it
and we expected it to be rough,
30
00:02:14,158 --> 00:02:17,453
and it WAS rough,
but we didn't complain.
31
00:02:17,453 --> 00:02:19,830
There was no real excitement
about it.
32
00:02:19,830 --> 00:02:23,458
You'd seen death so many times,
you'd seen wounded so many times,
33
00:02:23,458 --> 00:02:25,085
blood didn't excite you.
34
00:02:25,085 --> 00:02:29,297
We were professionals
and to us it was just a job of work.
35
00:02:29,297 --> 00:02:33,884
It would be a fallacy to say
that one enjoyed it,
36
00:02:33,884 --> 00:02:37,054
but one got afterwards
a nice, warm inner feeling that
37
00:02:37,054 --> 00:02:38,596
one had been some use.
38
00:02:38,596 --> 00:02:41,057
It didn't affect me very much
because I wasn't
39
00:02:41,057 --> 00:02:43,852
sufficiently open in the ways
of the world, I was only a kid,
40
00:02:43,852 --> 00:02:45,769
like other blokes there.
41
00:02:45,769 --> 00:02:48,897
It was more like
a great big game to be enjoyed,
42
00:02:48,897 --> 00:02:52,609
apart from the actual killing
and all that sort of thing.
43
00:02:52,609 --> 00:02:54,152
It made me a man.
44
00:02:54,152 --> 00:02:55,570
Yes, it did.
45
00:02:55,570 --> 00:02:58,030
I don't think I should
have ever been the man I am if it
46
00:02:58,030 --> 00:02:59,990
hadn't been for having to serve.
47
00:02:59,990 --> 00:03:03,202
You'd learn to look after yourself.
48
00:03:03,202 --> 00:03:07,372
Whereas in your civilian life,
your mother did all the chores.
49
00:03:07,372 --> 00:03:09,749
You've got to learn
how to cook for yourself,
50
00:03:09,749 --> 00:03:12,418
darn your own socks,
sew on your own buttons
51
00:03:12,418 --> 00:03:14,212
and all the things like that.
52
00:03:14,212 --> 00:03:15,963
It was just a day's work.
53
00:03:15,963 --> 00:03:19,507
I knew that I was not alone,
I knew I wasn't fighting the war
54
00:03:19,507 --> 00:03:23,136
by myself and that what happened
to other people might happen to me.
55
00:03:23,136 --> 00:03:25,054
I had no regrets at all.
56
00:03:25,054 --> 00:03:27,807
But, you see, I had no wife,
no girl, no nothing.
57
00:03:27,807 --> 00:03:30,100
No regrets, no horrors...
58
00:03:31,893 --> 00:03:35,146
..because if you survive that,
you can survive anything.
59
00:03:46,073 --> 00:03:48,325
We was aware that there was
sort of a nasty feeling
60
00:03:48,325 --> 00:03:50,326
between England and Germany.
61
00:03:50,326 --> 00:03:53,204
We knew of the Kaiser's ambition
to expand his empire
62
00:03:53,204 --> 00:03:55,664
and all that sort of thing.
63
00:03:55,664 --> 00:03:59,584
During that summer, there was a lot
of talk about trouble
64
00:03:59,584 --> 00:04:02,003
going on in the Balkans,
but we were a long way
65
00:04:02,003 --> 00:04:05,590
from the Balkans
and it didn't worry us at all.
66
00:04:05,590 --> 00:04:07,925
It was that Serbia business,
wasn't it?
67
00:04:07,925 --> 00:04:10,302
Serbia, when that chap was shot.
68
00:04:10,302 --> 00:04:13,346
I was paying attention
to politics and I realised
69
00:04:13,346 --> 00:04:17,016
that there was going to be trouble
between England and Germany.
70
00:04:17,016 --> 00:04:20,352
It was a lovely
August the 4th morning.
71
00:04:20,352 --> 00:04:23,522
We were all seated around the table
and we were starting
72
00:04:23,522 --> 00:04:25,773
the Rugby football dinner
with the German team.
73
00:04:25,773 --> 00:04:28,402
There was a German here,
next to him was an Englishman,
74
00:04:28,402 --> 00:04:30,779
and next to him was a German,
and so on and so on.
75
00:04:30,779 --> 00:04:34,156
And a runner arrived into the middle
of this dinner
76
00:04:34,156 --> 00:04:37,659
with extraordinary news
of outbreak of war.
77
00:04:37,659 --> 00:04:40,704
There was a big placard -
"War declared on Germany."
78
00:04:40,704 --> 00:04:42,998
We didn't know what we ought to do.
79
00:04:42,998 --> 00:04:45,082
Whether we got to seize
a knife off the table
80
00:04:45,082 --> 00:04:47,919
and plunge it into the German
or what!
81
00:04:47,919 --> 00:04:51,129
But, after a little bit
of discussion, we decided
82
00:04:51,129 --> 00:04:55,092
that as far as we were concerned,
the war was going to start tomorrow,
83
00:04:55,092 --> 00:04:57,426
and the party proceeded.
84
00:05:00,513 --> 00:05:03,432
I'm proud of being a British hero.
I mean, I think we're as good
85
00:05:03,432 --> 00:05:04,850
a country as any in the world
86
00:05:04,850 --> 00:05:07,477
and you've got to be prepared
to fight for that.
87
00:05:07,477 --> 00:05:09,228
There's no doubt about it -
88
00:05:09,228 --> 00:05:13,148
in the First World War,
we prepared for war.
89
00:05:13,148 --> 00:05:16,902
The empire was strong,
we weren't afraid of anyone.
90
00:05:16,902 --> 00:05:20,155
Everybody bought little buttons
and white flags and sang songs,
91
00:05:20,155 --> 00:05:23,241
there was no feeling of despair
about it at all.
92
00:05:23,241 --> 00:05:26,869
England couldn't possibly lose,
no matter how many Germans pushed
93
00:05:26,869 --> 00:05:29,747
how many Englishmen into the
Channel, that they'd get no further.
94
00:05:29,747 --> 00:05:31,999
We couldn't possibly lose.
95
00:05:31,999 --> 00:05:36,252
We were brought up to think that one
Englishman was worth ten Germans.
96
00:05:36,252 --> 00:05:39,963
I thought that any enemy
of England was an enemy of mine
97
00:05:39,963 --> 00:05:41,674
and I wanted to be in it.
98
00:05:41,674 --> 00:05:44,218
Oh, 6 months or 12 months,
it would be all over
99
00:05:44,218 --> 00:05:46,303
and Bob's your uncle.
100
00:05:46,303 --> 00:05:48,805
I went with a friend of mine
to Shepherd's Bush Empire
101
00:05:48,805 --> 00:05:51,724
to see the picture show there
and they showed the fleet
102
00:05:51,724 --> 00:05:55,811
saving the high seas and played
"Britons never shall be slaves",
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00:05:55,811 --> 00:05:58,439
and one feels that little shiver run
up their back and you know
104
00:05:58,439 --> 00:06:00,190
you've got to do something.
105
00:06:00,190 --> 00:06:02,900
A friend of mine said to me,
"We're going to join up."
106
00:06:02,900 --> 00:06:05,403
It was from the
patriotic point of view,
107
00:06:05,403 --> 00:06:10,533
and from the general excitement of
the whole affair, I suppose.
108
00:06:10,533 --> 00:06:13,827
I didn't believe in war
to that extent, but I was prepared
109
00:06:13,827 --> 00:06:15,912
to do my part.
110
00:06:15,912 --> 00:06:19,290
You see, in those days, men weren't
to think for themselves,
111
00:06:19,290 --> 00:06:23,044
they just had to do what they were
told and that's all there was to it.
112
00:06:23,044 --> 00:06:26,297
Oh, my mother
was very aggrieved about it.
113
00:06:26,297 --> 00:06:29,716
But, you know, a young man,
you decide you're going to go.
114
00:06:29,716 --> 00:06:33,510
At lunchtime, I left the office,
went along to Armoury House
115
00:06:33,510 --> 00:06:36,889
and there was a queue of about
1,000 people trying to enlist.
116
00:06:36,889 --> 00:06:39,099
Everybody thought
it would be a civilised war
117
00:06:39,099 --> 00:06:41,476
and wanted to be fit enough to go.
118
00:06:41,476 --> 00:06:44,145
Two of us decided to join up
together, and when we told
119
00:06:44,145 --> 00:06:46,439
the boss we were going to start
training on Monday,
120
00:06:46,439 --> 00:06:47,815
he was very annoyed.
121
00:06:47,815 --> 00:06:50,484
He didn't make any promise
at all that our jobs would be there
122
00:06:50,484 --> 00:06:51,902
when we got back.
123
00:06:51,902 --> 00:06:55,363
My mother, she said,
"You wait until you're 19."
124
00:06:55,363 --> 00:06:58,908
See, that was the age
in those days, 19 to 35.
125
00:06:58,908 --> 00:07:01,243
Well, it was supposed to be.
126
00:07:01,243 --> 00:07:03,162
We were all lads together, you know,
127
00:07:03,162 --> 00:07:04,663
full of excitement
128
00:07:04,663 --> 00:07:06,248
and all this kind of thing.
129
00:07:06,248 --> 00:07:07,666
I mean, I just wanted
130
00:07:07,666 --> 00:07:09,126
to have a go at Jerry.
131
00:07:09,126 --> 00:07:11,836
I just thought that I'd like
to go and fight for the country.
132
00:07:11,836 --> 00:07:14,797
This was the thing, you were proud
of your country
133
00:07:14,797 --> 00:07:16,549
and you'd do the best you could
for it.
134
00:07:16,549 --> 00:07:19,384
And this was what most of the
young people thought of doing
135
00:07:19,384 --> 00:07:20,969
in those days.
136
00:07:20,969 --> 00:07:24,389
My mother, she said to me,
"Look, we could stop you doing this
137
00:07:24,389 --> 00:07:25,974
"because of your age."
138
00:07:25,974 --> 00:07:29,685
I said, "Yes, I know you could,
Mother, but I'm sure you won't."
139
00:07:29,685 --> 00:07:31,437
Which they never did.
140
00:07:31,437 --> 00:07:34,815
I just felt that all the young
fellows of that age
141
00:07:34,815 --> 00:07:36,191
were volunteering
142
00:07:36,191 --> 00:07:38,360
and I thought it was
my job to do the same.
143
00:07:38,360 --> 00:07:41,237
I was desperately keen
and a whole heap of us were.
144
00:07:41,237 --> 00:07:43,156
I said, "Direct enlistment, please."
145
00:07:43,156 --> 00:07:44,657
They were highly delighted
146
00:07:44,657 --> 00:07:47,034
and pushed me in
as quick as lightning.
147
00:07:47,034 --> 00:07:49,869
Lots of the lads were
joining the local regiments,
148
00:07:49,869 --> 00:07:51,830
like the Bucks and the Middlesex.
149
00:07:51,830 --> 00:07:54,040
Lads that I knew
and had been to school with,
150
00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:55,916
played football and cricket with,
151
00:07:55,916 --> 00:07:58,502
we joined up, hoping for the best.
152
00:07:58,502 --> 00:08:01,087
We were good friends, comrades
153
00:08:01,087 --> 00:08:05,258
and it was a relief from rather
boring jobs at home, you see.
154
00:08:05,258 --> 00:08:08,511
I was walking down
the Camden Town high street,
155
00:08:08,511 --> 00:08:12,723
when two young ladies approached me,
"Why aren't you in the Army?"
156
00:08:12,723 --> 00:08:14,600
I said, "I'm only 17."
157
00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:16,518
"Oh, they all say that here."
158
00:08:16,518 --> 00:08:20,104
And to my amazement,
she put her hand in her bag
159
00:08:20,104 --> 00:08:23,274
and I put my hand up to sort of
safeguard myself,
160
00:08:23,274 --> 00:08:27,069
and this white feather
finished up my nose.
161
00:08:27,069 --> 00:08:31,364
As we marched to the station,
some of the chaps had bowler hats,
162
00:08:31,364 --> 00:08:35,785
some had straw hats, some had the
regulation peaked Army cap.
163
00:08:35,785 --> 00:08:38,204
Some would have tunics,
some would be dressed
164
00:08:38,204 --> 00:08:41,748
with their ordinary jackets
with a pair of Army trousers.
165
00:08:41,748 --> 00:08:44,251
Some had Army boots, some didn't.
166
00:08:44,251 --> 00:08:46,919
And we really were a motley throng.
167
00:08:46,919 --> 00:08:49,380
Some of them were obviously chaps
who had hoped to live
168
00:08:49,380 --> 00:08:52,258
in some comfort and brought
suitcases with clothes with them,
169
00:08:52,258 --> 00:08:53,717
which they never saw again.
170
00:08:53,717 --> 00:08:55,635
We had to all get our hair cut.
171
00:08:55,635 --> 00:08:56,928
"How would you like it, sir?"
172
00:08:56,928 --> 00:08:59,222
And you'd say,
"Short back and sides."
173
00:08:59,222 --> 00:09:01,516
But the answer was,
straight over the top
174
00:09:01,516 --> 00:09:05,435
with horse clippers, and we looked
more like convicts than soldiers.
175
00:09:05,435 --> 00:09:07,688
As soon as war broke out,
there was a call made
176
00:09:07,688 --> 00:09:09,856
for all ex-soldiers to rejoin,
177
00:09:09,856 --> 00:09:12,608
and they made them sergeants
straight away.
178
00:09:12,608 --> 00:09:15,737
So you got a lot of instructors
that way.
179
00:09:15,737 --> 00:09:18,905
The people who really carried us
through was the old sweats
180
00:09:18,905 --> 00:09:23,243
who'd had previous war experience
and gave us a lot of wise advice
181
00:09:23,243 --> 00:09:26,621
as to what to look for
and what to dodge.
182
00:09:26,621 --> 00:09:31,041
We were ordered down onto the parade
ground and then we were allotted
183
00:09:31,041 --> 00:09:33,585
to different platoons.
184
00:09:33,585 --> 00:09:37,297
When they came to us,
they were weedy, sallow,
185
00:09:37,297 --> 00:09:40,633
skinny, frightened children.
186
00:09:40,633 --> 00:09:44,721
The refuse of our industrial system
and they were in very poor condition
187
00:09:44,721 --> 00:09:46,972
and had to be made into soldiers.
188
00:09:46,972 --> 00:09:50,976
Many of us had given
our wrong ages to join the Army.
189
00:09:50,976 --> 00:09:53,561
The agent walked down
the lines and gave an order,
190
00:09:53,561 --> 00:09:59,066
"Every man under the age of 19
should take two paces forward."
191
00:09:59,066 --> 00:10:01,568
Nobody moved.
192
00:10:01,568 --> 00:10:05,530
I was a lad of 17 and
they'd probably say I wasn't 19,
193
00:10:05,530 --> 00:10:08,074
which you had to be to join up.
194
00:10:08,074 --> 00:10:11,494
But he says, "How long
do you want to sign on for?"
195
00:10:11,494 --> 00:10:14,788
Everyone else was joining up so
I called into the recruitment office
196
00:10:14,788 --> 00:10:17,749
and he said to me, "How old
are you?" I said, "17, sir."
197
00:10:17,749 --> 00:10:21,086
Well, he said, "Go outside and
come back and say you are 18."
198
00:10:21,086 --> 00:10:24,171
So of course, I went outside
and said we were 18.
199
00:10:24,171 --> 00:10:26,048
I was straight up there.
200
00:10:26,048 --> 00:10:28,759
The Sergeant said,
"How old are you?"
201
00:10:28,759 --> 00:10:30,093
I said, "I'm 18 and one month."
202
00:10:30,093 --> 00:10:32,387
He said,
"Do you mean 19 and one month?
203
00:10:32,387 --> 00:10:34,388
So I thought for a moment,
I said, "Yes, sir."
204
00:10:34,388 --> 00:10:36,349
He said, "Right, sign here, please."
205
00:10:36,349 --> 00:10:39,977
He asked me how old I was
and I said I was 16 in March.
206
00:10:39,977 --> 00:10:41,686
He said, "You're too young,
207
00:10:41,686 --> 00:10:44,314
"you better go outside
and have a birthday."
208
00:10:44,314 --> 00:10:47,567
I was 16 years old in 1917
209
00:10:47,567 --> 00:10:52,529
and I was six foot two tall
and my father allowed me to go.
210
00:10:52,529 --> 00:10:55,741
So I entered my age as 19 years old,
211
00:10:55,741 --> 00:10:59,244
three years older
than what I really was.
212
00:10:59,244 --> 00:11:03,832
I was 15 years,
just 2½ years short of 18,
213
00:11:03,832 --> 00:11:07,460
and I got before this
medical officer, who said,
214
00:11:07,460 --> 00:11:10,045
"All right, you pass."
215
00:11:10,045 --> 00:11:14,007
I had just turned 17 at the time
and I went up to Whitehall
216
00:11:14,007 --> 00:11:16,884
and enlisted in the 16th Lancers.
217
00:11:16,884 --> 00:11:20,304
I was 15 and I thought
I'd have a better chance
218
00:11:20,304 --> 00:11:22,098
than when I were 14.
219
00:11:22,098 --> 00:11:26,017
So I walked into the barracks
and just said, "I'm 18,"
220
00:11:26,017 --> 00:11:27,518
and that was it.
221
00:11:27,518 --> 00:11:30,938
My parents wrote to the
commanding officer and asked for me,
222
00:11:30,938 --> 00:11:32,731
as I was underage, to be released.
223
00:11:32,731 --> 00:11:36,652
And he said, "Your parents
want you back - do you want to go?"
224
00:11:36,652 --> 00:11:38,153
I said no.
225
00:11:39,612 --> 00:11:42,741
The chaplain asked me my age,
and I said I was 16.
226
00:11:42,741 --> 00:11:47,620
He said, "Much too young.
Would you like me to pray for you?"
227
00:11:52,791 --> 00:11:56,669
The clothing came piecemeal
into the quartermaster stores.
228
00:11:58,713 --> 00:12:01,882
One lad said,
"These boots don't fit me."
229
00:12:01,882 --> 00:12:04,677
And the quartermaster said,
"There isn't such a thing as boots
230
00:12:04,677 --> 00:12:06,970
"that don't fit in the Army,
it's your feet that don't
231
00:12:06,970 --> 00:12:08,346
"fit the boots."
232
00:12:08,346 --> 00:12:12,308
Some men would find a tunic
to fit them or perhaps
233
00:12:12,308 --> 00:12:13,809
a pair of trousers.
234
00:12:13,809 --> 00:12:17,062
And so it went on
for nearly a fortnight.
235
00:12:17,062 --> 00:12:18,563
Just one uniform.
236
00:12:18,563 --> 00:12:22,776
I was in the Army nearly four years,
I only had one uniform.
237
00:12:22,776 --> 00:12:25,653
We were all issued
with these famous puttees,
238
00:12:25,653 --> 00:12:29,073
which were news to all of us,
and I personally could never quite
239
00:12:29,073 --> 00:12:31,617
master the putting on of puttees.
240
00:12:31,617 --> 00:12:35,828
The main reason for puttees were
to support the legs in marching.
241
00:12:35,828 --> 00:12:39,581
I was issued with a kilt
but nothing to wear underneath it,
242
00:12:39,581 --> 00:12:42,084
and I was given a slip of paper
to say,
243
00:12:42,084 --> 00:12:45,295
"This man has not
been issued with underpants."
244
00:12:45,295 --> 00:12:47,881
I was given strict instructions
that I couldn't ride on top
245
00:12:47,881 --> 00:12:50,967
of the tram car,
had to ride downstairs.
246
00:12:52,885 --> 00:12:56,555
Now, the pack was for
everything that you own.
247
00:12:56,555 --> 00:13:00,934
The overcoat had to be folded
very, very neatly and tightly.
248
00:13:00,934 --> 00:13:04,312
There was a needle, thread,
spare buttons, knife,
249
00:13:04,312 --> 00:13:11,694
fork, spoon, razor, shaving brush,
toothbrush and also a half-pint mug.
250
00:13:11,694 --> 00:13:17,114
One spare shirt and one spare pair
of socks, and that was your kit.
251
00:13:17,114 --> 00:13:20,659
The Army razor with which we were
issued was absolutely useless,
252
00:13:20,659 --> 00:13:23,913
but it came in handy
for cutting up meat and so forth.
253
00:13:23,913 --> 00:13:27,040
The toothbrush, that came in handy
for cleaning buttons.
254
00:13:27,040 --> 00:13:29,751
But one of the peculiarities
about the Army was that,
255
00:13:29,751 --> 00:13:32,503
though it was a crime
to have dirty buttons,
256
00:13:32,503 --> 00:13:34,755
you were never issued
with the materials to clean
257
00:13:34,755 --> 00:13:37,341
the buttons,
you had to buy them yourself.
258
00:13:37,341 --> 00:13:41,386
We were awakened by the bugle,
which sounded Reveille.
259
00:13:41,386 --> 00:13:44,306
Wash, shave, pack your bed up
and pack your kit.
260
00:13:44,306 --> 00:13:48,809
About half past six, and you would
have an hour, PT before breakfast.
261
00:13:48,809 --> 00:13:53,146
Press-ups and physical exercises,
arms upward stretch.
262
00:13:53,146 --> 00:13:56,816
They knew you were fresh
and they tried to take it by stages,
263
00:13:56,816 --> 00:13:59,735
there wasn't any bullying
or anything like that.
264
00:13:59,735 --> 00:14:03,655
Breakfast consisted
of bread, butter,
265
00:14:03,655 --> 00:14:06,783
one rasher of
Lance Corporal Bacon.
266
00:14:06,783 --> 00:14:09,619
It was streaky bacon,
it had one stripe in it.
267
00:14:09,619 --> 00:14:12,413
Well, there was jam and
they seemed to make nothing
268
00:14:12,413 --> 00:14:14,373
but plum and apple, you know?
269
00:14:14,373 --> 00:14:17,709
If you got any other kind,
it was a celebration event.
270
00:14:19,419 --> 00:14:22,547
There were the Bruce Bairnsfather
cartoons depicting that,
271
00:14:22,547 --> 00:14:24,799
handing him a tin of plum
and apple jam.
272
00:14:24,799 --> 00:14:26,843
"When the 'ell is it
going to be strawberry?"
273
00:14:26,843 --> 00:14:28,761
It was wonderful, that jam.
274
00:14:28,761 --> 00:14:32,347
Tickler's, the jam manufacturers,
275
00:14:32,347 --> 00:14:36,643
they must have made millions of tins
of P&A, plum and apple.
276
00:14:36,643 --> 00:14:40,438
# Oh, oh, oh, it's a lovely war
277
00:14:40,438 --> 00:14:43,190
# What do we want with eggs and ham
278
00:14:43,190 --> 00:14:46,777
# When we've got bags
of Tickler's Jam? #
279
00:14:46,777 --> 00:14:50,572
And then it would be parade time
and the Sergeant would take over
280
00:14:50,572 --> 00:14:53,741
and you'd have a whole morning
of marching
281
00:14:53,741 --> 00:14:56,160
and you would learn all commands,
282
00:14:56,160 --> 00:14:59,412
such as "about turn"
and all that sort of thing.
283
00:14:59,412 --> 00:15:03,082
Having been in the Boy Scouts,
it was dead easy to me.
284
00:15:03,082 --> 00:15:05,459
When you get the order
"right dress",
285
00:15:05,459 --> 00:15:08,296
you turn your head only,
to the right.
286
00:15:08,296 --> 00:15:10,505
Some of them managed to turn left,
287
00:15:10,505 --> 00:15:13,633
which didn't exactly please
the drill Sergeant.
288
00:15:13,633 --> 00:15:15,927
We were all youngsters,
we'd come from
289
00:15:15,927 --> 00:15:18,471
fairly sheltered lives and so forth.
290
00:15:18,471 --> 00:15:22,850
This Sergeant of ours
was the loudmouth shouting type.
291
00:15:22,850 --> 00:15:27,813
Coming up against
military discipline was a shock,
292
00:15:27,813 --> 00:15:32,191
being chased around from pillar
to post by disciplinarian NCOs.
293
00:15:32,191 --> 00:15:34,318
Some of the sergeants were shockers.
294
00:15:34,318 --> 00:15:37,696
They would cause a lot of trouble
if you were out of step
295
00:15:37,696 --> 00:15:40,657
or if you didn't keep time,
or if you didn't handle
296
00:15:40,657 --> 00:15:42,451
your rifle properly.
297
00:15:42,451 --> 00:15:44,828
They were always having a go at you.
298
00:15:44,828 --> 00:15:47,247
Most of them were all right,
the shouting meant nothing,
299
00:15:47,247 --> 00:15:49,164
but some of them never lost it.
300
00:15:49,164 --> 00:15:54,210
One night I'd gone to bed and
this pot was brought round to my bed
301
00:15:54,210 --> 00:15:57,339
and they said,
"Oh, you want to do a piss?"
302
00:15:57,339 --> 00:15:59,591
So I did the business in the pot.
303
00:15:59,591 --> 00:16:02,259
They'd rested this big, huge pot
304
00:16:02,259 --> 00:16:05,262
which contained gallons,
on the door.
305
00:16:05,262 --> 00:16:09,641
And when this Sergeant came along
to see that everybody
306
00:16:09,641 --> 00:16:12,060
was in bed, this thing turned up
and he was drenched
307
00:16:12,060 --> 00:16:14,270
from top to bottom in fluid!
308
00:16:14,270 --> 00:16:16,564
HE LAUGHS
309
00:16:16,564 --> 00:16:19,649
First of all,
I was full of enthusiasm.
310
00:16:19,649 --> 00:16:22,736
But after about the first week,
I wished I hadn't done it.
311
00:16:22,736 --> 00:16:26,364
Because the discipline was so strict
that I was beginning to get
312
00:16:26,364 --> 00:16:29,366
a little bit nervous
as to what was in store.
313
00:16:29,366 --> 00:16:31,868
We weren't out dancing,
anything like that.
314
00:16:31,868 --> 00:16:33,621
We were getting ready for a war.
315
00:16:33,621 --> 00:16:38,333
The thing was, you were in the Army,
you had to do as you were told.
316
00:16:38,333 --> 00:16:42,503
You had one master, or dozens,
but you just had to get on with it
317
00:16:42,503 --> 00:16:43,921
and that was it.
318
00:16:43,921 --> 00:16:46,090
I did find that right
through the Army,
319
00:16:46,090 --> 00:16:48,925
if you behaved yourself,
you'd nothing much to fear.
320
00:16:48,925 --> 00:16:50,927
This was quite a new world to us.
321
00:16:50,927 --> 00:16:53,388
I mean, you can imagine.
I came out of civilian life,
322
00:16:53,388 --> 00:16:55,681
like all the others did,
and we weren't in a position
323
00:16:55,681 --> 00:16:57,809
to argue or object.
324
00:16:57,809 --> 00:17:00,436
It was just a matter of doing
what we were told.
325
00:17:00,436 --> 00:17:01,812
I liked it.
326
00:17:01,812 --> 00:17:05,565
I liked to be told what I had to do
because there was a reason
327
00:17:05,565 --> 00:17:09,819
for doing it, and later on I
realised that was the best training
328
00:17:09,819 --> 00:17:11,445
you could have.
329
00:17:11,445 --> 00:17:14,823
The first week, our route march
would be ten miles,
330
00:17:14,823 --> 00:17:17,951
the second week it would be 12,
and so on and so on.
331
00:17:17,951 --> 00:17:22,372
It intensified, because
it's of the utmost importance
332
00:17:22,372 --> 00:17:26,208
that the infantry soldiers
could march with a full kit.
333
00:17:26,208 --> 00:17:29,127
What you had to carry was 109 lbs.
334
00:17:29,127 --> 00:17:32,755
The marching was easy for me,
but quite a lot of chaps
335
00:17:32,755 --> 00:17:36,383
who were in sedentary jobs
found it pretty hard.
336
00:17:36,383 --> 00:17:41,722
It numbed and cramped my muscles
on my thighs and calves
337
00:17:41,722 --> 00:17:44,724
until they hurt very much indeed.
338
00:17:44,724 --> 00:17:46,893
Oh, those Army boots.
339
00:17:46,893 --> 00:17:48,394
I could have cried.
340
00:17:48,394 --> 00:17:53,983
My feet and ankles with those heavy
Army boots after civilian shoes.
341
00:17:53,983 --> 00:17:57,861
So to get your boots made pliable,
you used to urinate in them
342
00:17:57,861 --> 00:17:59,988
and leave it overnight.
343
00:17:59,988 --> 00:18:04,742
Quite a lot of men were clerks
or they worked in shops,
344
00:18:04,742 --> 00:18:09,120
and the very nature of their calling
didn't make for fitness.
345
00:18:09,120 --> 00:18:12,540
Well, they sent me to hospital
and they gave me the cure
346
00:18:12,540 --> 00:18:17,711
for hookworm and I found that
I could stand the drill after that.
347
00:18:17,711 --> 00:18:20,506
They used to march us
all round the West End.
348
00:18:20,506 --> 00:18:24,759
Crowds used to foregather, and
some of the poor, deluded ones
349
00:18:24,759 --> 00:18:28,137
fell for the con trick and
lined up behind us
350
00:18:28,137 --> 00:18:30,765
and we used to march
them all down to Chelsea barracks,
351
00:18:30,765 --> 00:18:32,224
where they got signed up.
352
00:18:34,809 --> 00:18:38,021
Lunch would consist
of inedible stew.
353
00:18:38,021 --> 00:18:42,191
Now, you must remember the chaps
in the cookhouse were by no means
354
00:18:42,191 --> 00:18:44,736
experienced cooks,
but anybody can make a stew,
355
00:18:44,736 --> 00:18:46,570
and that's what they did.
356
00:18:46,570 --> 00:18:51,616
Sometimes we got a bit of plum duff
and milk puddings and tapioca rice.
357
00:18:51,616 --> 00:18:54,368
It was the good old-fashioned,
plain stuff
358
00:18:54,368 --> 00:18:55,995
that I was brought up on.
359
00:18:55,995 --> 00:18:58,331
I had no complaint about it.
360
00:18:58,331 --> 00:19:03,543
In the afternoon, it could be
a lecture on Vickers machine guns.
361
00:19:03,543 --> 00:19:07,047
We used to strip the machinegun
right down
362
00:19:07,047 --> 00:19:08,964
and put it together again.
363
00:19:08,964 --> 00:19:12,676
And, luckily, I seemed to cotton on
to that quite quickly.
364
00:19:12,676 --> 00:19:15,721
We were always told
the man's best friend is his rifle,
365
00:19:15,721 --> 00:19:17,430
and it was.
366
00:19:17,430 --> 00:19:21,976
Our rifle was a short Lee-Enfield,
a very good rifle indeed.
367
00:19:21,976 --> 00:19:23,811
A real sturdy rifle.
368
00:19:23,811 --> 00:19:28,106
You had your ammunition pouches
on both sides of the chest,
369
00:19:28,106 --> 00:19:30,317
to counterbalance the weight
of the pack,
370
00:19:30,317 --> 00:19:35,279
and those pouches carried 150 rounds
of .303 ammunition.
371
00:19:35,279 --> 00:19:37,948
We were supposed to hold
the rifle up in one hand,
372
00:19:37,948 --> 00:19:40,534
but I could never hold
a rifle properly.
373
00:19:40,534 --> 00:19:43,287
My right wrist wouldn't hold it up.
374
00:19:43,287 --> 00:19:46,289
I'd never fired a rifle in my life,
but on the first day we went
375
00:19:46,289 --> 00:19:47,665
onto the rifle range,
376
00:19:47,665 --> 00:19:50,251
and it was amazing
the bull's-eyes I was getting.
377
00:19:50,251 --> 00:19:54,045
So, the next thing, I was made
a first-class rifleman.
378
00:19:54,045 --> 00:19:56,507
Above all, we learned rapid-fire.
379
00:19:56,507 --> 00:20:00,135
Ten rounds, get those ten rounds
onto the target in one minute.
380
00:20:00,135 --> 00:20:02,303
It was known as "the mad minute".
381
00:20:02,303 --> 00:20:05,764
I'd never seen a dead man
or anything of that kind,
382
00:20:05,764 --> 00:20:08,517
and I wondered, if it came
to my shooting a man,
383
00:20:08,517 --> 00:20:10,560
whether I would be able to do this.
384
00:20:10,560 --> 00:20:13,564
Plunge the bayonet into the sack,
shout like hell.
385
00:20:13,564 --> 00:20:15,898
And they would tell you
where to put your bayonet.
386
00:20:15,898 --> 00:20:18,401
Either into his left shoulder,
his right shoulder,
387
00:20:18,401 --> 00:20:20,527
in the chest or in the body.
388
00:20:20,527 --> 00:20:22,738
We was told to make
as much noise as we could.
389
00:20:22,738 --> 00:20:24,906
I think that was
to frighten the enemy.
390
00:20:24,906 --> 00:20:28,576
It didn't seem to me to be a likely
thing to do, but we used to shout.
391
00:20:28,576 --> 00:20:31,745
When you train as a division,
there's 12 battalions,
392
00:20:31,745 --> 00:20:34,873
there's roughly 12,000 men
who are on the move,
393
00:20:34,873 --> 00:20:38,793
and you're a very small cog
in a big wheel.
394
00:20:38,793 --> 00:20:41,880
Saturday mornings we were let off,
but we had to do
395
00:20:41,880 --> 00:20:43,548
sometimes barrack duties.
396
00:20:43,548 --> 00:20:47,009
And then, on Sundays, we were all
marched down to church.
397
00:20:47,009 --> 00:20:49,720
It didn't matter what religion
you were, you all had to go,
398
00:20:49,720 --> 00:20:51,263
and that was it.
399
00:20:51,263 --> 00:20:53,890
Hardly a day passed
without the shout
400
00:20:53,890 --> 00:20:55,183
around the barrack-room,
401
00:20:55,183 --> 00:20:57,560
"Has anybody here had
any experience with horses?
402
00:20:57,560 --> 00:21:00,146
"Can anybody here play
any musical instruments?
403
00:21:00,146 --> 00:21:02,773
"Anybody had an experience
at so and so?"
404
00:21:02,773 --> 00:21:06,401
So gradually, the thousand men
who were joined up
405
00:21:06,401 --> 00:21:10,989
as a motley throng, now became
a transport man, a bandsman,
406
00:21:10,989 --> 00:21:12,948
signalman and so on.
407
00:21:12,948 --> 00:21:15,075
You didn't want to mess
about on the parade ground
408
00:21:15,075 --> 00:21:17,452
with heavy packs
on the route marches.
409
00:21:17,452 --> 00:21:21,206
Most of us wanted to go across
and do some scrapping.
410
00:21:21,206 --> 00:21:24,834
After good food,
fresh air and physical exercise,
411
00:21:24,834 --> 00:21:27,669
they changed so that their mothers
wouldn't have recognised them.
412
00:21:27,669 --> 00:21:32,007
They put on an average of one stone
in weight and one inch in height.
413
00:21:32,007 --> 00:21:35,385
Although we hated the sight and
sound of our disciplinary sergeants,
414
00:21:35,385 --> 00:21:39,180
this reflects greatly to their
credit because they knocked us
415
00:21:39,180 --> 00:21:41,890
into shape as regards
to marching and foot drills.
416
00:21:41,890 --> 00:21:45,394
But far more than that,
they were handsome,
417
00:21:45,394 --> 00:21:48,813
ruddy, upstanding,
square-shouldered young men
418
00:21:48,813 --> 00:21:51,482
who were afraid of nobody,
not even the Sergeant Major.
419
00:21:51,482 --> 00:21:54,109
After the six weeks,
we were informed we were going
420
00:21:54,109 --> 00:21:56,612
to be posted overseas.
421
00:21:56,612 --> 00:22:00,699
They said, "You're leaving tomorrow
morning for an unknown destination."
422
00:22:00,699 --> 00:22:03,243
You were never told
where you were heading for.
423
00:22:03,243 --> 00:22:06,453
I just wanted to fight the Germans,
and as far as that was concerned,
424
00:22:06,453 --> 00:22:09,248
it didn't matter tuppence to me
where we went.
425
00:22:09,248 --> 00:22:12,292
And when we pushed them
through this crash programme
426
00:22:12,292 --> 00:22:14,086
of military training,
427
00:22:14,086 --> 00:22:16,170
they were pushed off to
France in batches.
428
00:22:16,170 --> 00:22:19,340
Before we left, the officer said,
"well, you haven't had time
429
00:22:19,340 --> 00:22:22,843
"to be made sergeants, so we'll give
you a couple of stripes."
430
00:22:22,843 --> 00:22:26,555
So they made us corporals,
and in less than no time
431
00:22:26,555 --> 00:22:29,515
we were marched down to the station.
432
00:22:29,515 --> 00:22:32,727
In my mind I wondered,
"Shall I ever come back?"
433
00:22:32,727 --> 00:22:34,812
I didn't think I would at the time.
434
00:22:34,812 --> 00:22:37,106
I didn't worry about it.
435
00:22:37,106 --> 00:22:40,818
Oh, they were all full of euphoria,
they were all glad they were going.
436
00:22:40,818 --> 00:22:42,652
Nobody was crying.
437
00:22:42,652 --> 00:22:44,862
I wrote a postcard
when I was in the train
438
00:22:44,862 --> 00:22:47,781
and chucked it out of the window,
hoping that it would be delivered
439
00:22:47,781 --> 00:22:49,199
to my family.
440
00:22:49,199 --> 00:22:52,036
We arrived at Folkestone
in the evening.
441
00:22:52,036 --> 00:22:55,705
We embarked on one of
the old Thames pleasure boats.
442
00:22:55,705 --> 00:22:59,875
Well, pretty crowded, but of course
there's only 21 mile
443
00:22:59,875 --> 00:23:02,502
from Dover to Calais on the boat.
444
00:23:02,502 --> 00:23:05,547
There were talks by officers to us
as to how to behave ourselves
445
00:23:05,547 --> 00:23:08,674
on foreign soil, and that we've
got to respect other people's
446
00:23:08,674 --> 00:23:10,885
modes of conduct.
447
00:23:10,885 --> 00:23:14,680
The biggest number of casualties
were NCOs,
448
00:23:14,680 --> 00:23:17,140
and we weren't all too keen
about this.
449
00:23:17,140 --> 00:23:20,727
So I went into the lavatory
and my stripes came off
450
00:23:20,727 --> 00:23:23,355
and they disappeared
through the porthole.
451
00:23:23,355 --> 00:23:26,440
And with that, I went back on deck
as a private.
452
00:23:30,360 --> 00:23:32,404
As our horses were brought
down the gangways,
453
00:23:32,404 --> 00:23:35,365
I noticed the expression
on the men's faces.
454
00:23:35,365 --> 00:23:38,201
There were no cheerful,
smiling faces coming down
455
00:23:38,201 --> 00:23:39,785
that gangway at all.
456
00:23:42,038 --> 00:23:44,415
It was beautiful weather,
very warm,
457
00:23:44,415 --> 00:23:48,168
and every village and town
we went through, people rushed out,
458
00:23:48,168 --> 00:23:51,421
bottles of wine,
yards of French bread, flowers.
459
00:23:51,421 --> 00:23:54,048
The land flowed
in every single aspect.
460
00:23:54,048 --> 00:23:56,217
There were farmers
going about their business,
461
00:23:56,217 --> 00:23:58,093
the most lovely country.
462
00:24:00,304 --> 00:24:03,056
If we passed a field of carrots,
we used to raid the field
463
00:24:03,056 --> 00:24:06,517
and walk along munching
the carrots and turnips.
464
00:24:10,687 --> 00:24:12,856
I was dead scared
that the war would be over
465
00:24:12,856 --> 00:24:14,274
before I got out to it.
466
00:24:14,274 --> 00:24:15,901
When I got out to France,
467
00:24:15,901 --> 00:24:18,486
I was terribly pleased,
really keen.
468
00:24:21,197 --> 00:24:24,158
You just marched and marched
until roughly 20 miles
469
00:24:24,158 --> 00:24:25,868
from the trenches.
470
00:24:25,868 --> 00:24:28,578
We knew we were getting close
to the line because the gunfire
471
00:24:28,578 --> 00:24:30,747
was becoming more noisy.
472
00:24:30,747 --> 00:24:33,416
I remember the first shell,
I was delighted.
473
00:24:36,168 --> 00:24:39,921
We went through towns, villages
that were absolutely derelict.
474
00:24:39,921 --> 00:24:43,424
So we never knew where we were,
except that we were in Belgium.
475
00:24:46,094 --> 00:24:49,388
The devastation was something
I never could have imagined.
476
00:24:49,388 --> 00:24:52,349
The whole place gave one
the most eerie sensation.
477
00:24:56,144 --> 00:24:59,856
There was stunted trees,
torn to shreds with shellfire
478
00:24:59,856 --> 00:25:03,776
and there was shell holes
all over the place.
479
00:25:03,776 --> 00:25:06,695
We were relieving men of the
28th division,
480
00:25:06,695 --> 00:25:10,114
and as they passed us, we would say,
"What's it like up there?"
481
00:25:10,114 --> 00:25:13,493
The reply invariably came back,
"Bloody awful, mate."
482
00:25:13,493 --> 00:25:17,037
The old sweats coming back
got their tails up all right,
483
00:25:17,037 --> 00:25:20,832
but I didn't know what to expect,
just hadn't a clue.
484
00:25:20,832 --> 00:25:24,294
It was deadly warfare,
you were facing the Germans.
485
00:25:28,547 --> 00:25:30,007
Follow me.
486
00:25:32,676 --> 00:25:34,302
You got the order, "load".
487
00:25:34,302 --> 00:25:38,264
You put nine in your magazine
and one up the spout
488
00:25:38,264 --> 00:25:40,016
and you put the safety catch on,
489
00:25:40,016 --> 00:25:42,768
and you always went into the line
prepared to use
490
00:25:42,768 --> 00:25:44,394
your rifle immediately.
491
00:25:46,230 --> 00:25:48,982
That's when you got rigid orders,
no talking whatsoever,
492
00:25:48,982 --> 00:25:50,609
keep your head down.
493
00:25:50,609 --> 00:25:52,652
Single file, no smoking.
494
00:25:52,652 --> 00:25:55,947
The captain would then direct you
right to the front trenches.
495
00:25:59,450 --> 00:26:01,994
Before a man goes into the trenches,
he usually carries
496
00:26:01,994 --> 00:26:06,748
a roll of barbed wire or a bag of
bombs, besides his own equipment.
497
00:26:06,748 --> 00:26:09,458
That's the way to get the stuff
up to the front line.
498
00:26:09,458 --> 00:26:12,252
Now,
a guide would always be sent out.
499
00:26:12,252 --> 00:26:14,964
Extend this part of
the trench over there.
500
00:26:14,964 --> 00:26:16,465
What, that way? That's it.
501
00:26:16,465 --> 00:26:18,216
The trenches in France were a maze.
502
00:26:18,216 --> 00:26:20,927
If you didn't have a guide,
you could very soon get lost.
503
00:26:20,927 --> 00:26:23,638
Smile, so your mother thinks
I'm looking after you.
504
00:26:26,223 --> 00:26:28,016
Coming up, coming up!
505
00:26:32,479 --> 00:26:34,522
The trenches weren't
in one straight line.
506
00:26:34,522 --> 00:26:38,026
They were built on what they call
a Travis System.
507
00:26:38,026 --> 00:26:40,944
The Travis would break up
the shellfire
508
00:26:40,944 --> 00:26:44,281
and stop it spreading right along
the trench.
509
00:26:44,281 --> 00:26:46,032
There was a front line of trenches
510
00:26:46,032 --> 00:26:48,409
and then there was a second line
of trenches.
511
00:26:48,409 --> 00:26:52,747
The support line would be about 50
yards or more behind the front line.
512
00:26:52,747 --> 00:26:55,415
In between, there would be
communication trenches
513
00:26:55,415 --> 00:26:57,834
so that they could move through
if the front line
514
00:26:57,834 --> 00:26:59,585
was under jeopardy.
515
00:26:59,585 --> 00:27:02,964
First impression I got
of the trenches was they were
516
00:27:02,964 --> 00:27:05,007
very much lived in.
517
00:27:05,007 --> 00:27:07,008
We had to take them
as we found them.
518
00:27:07,008 --> 00:27:10,678
You would see an overcoat
hanging from a wooden peg.
519
00:27:10,678 --> 00:27:14,390
You would see a mess tin
with some tea in it.
520
00:27:14,390 --> 00:27:17,518
A dugout, which had a piece
of blanket in it,
521
00:27:17,518 --> 00:27:19,687
a bed made of sandbags.
522
00:27:19,687 --> 00:27:22,772
Our world was divided
by no-man's-land,
523
00:27:22,772 --> 00:27:24,566
a sort of Iron Curtain,
524
00:27:24,566 --> 00:27:28,486
beyond which were bogey men who
would kill you if they ever saw you.
525
00:27:28,486 --> 00:27:31,656
As you look through your periscope,
all you could see were hundreds
526
00:27:31,656 --> 00:27:36,618
of shell holes, your barbed wire
and the German barbed wire.
527
00:27:36,618 --> 00:27:39,537
You could see dead bodies
hanging on the barbed wire
528
00:27:39,537 --> 00:27:42,582
and they may have been there
for a long, long time.
529
00:27:42,582 --> 00:27:45,626
It was one of the most desolate
looking places in the world.
530
00:27:45,626 --> 00:27:50,047
You never saw a sign of life,
and yet you knew very well that,
531
00:27:50,047 --> 00:27:54,508
within shouting range, there were
hundreds and hundreds of men.
532
00:27:54,508 --> 00:27:57,220
A platoon of about 50 men
would have about 100 yards
533
00:27:57,220 --> 00:28:00,723
of front line trenches
as their responsibility.
534
00:28:00,723 --> 00:28:02,974
There were signs
all over the trenches,
535
00:28:02,974 --> 00:28:06,561
Piccadilly Circus and Regent Street
and all that sort of thing,
536
00:28:06,561 --> 00:28:08,313
telling you where water points were
537
00:28:08,313 --> 00:28:10,857
and which was the
most dangerous part of the land
538
00:28:10,857 --> 00:28:13,025
with regard to snipers.
539
00:28:13,025 --> 00:28:15,694
You had to be extremely careful
because a bullet could go
540
00:28:15,694 --> 00:28:18,488
through one layer of
sandbags quite easily.
541
00:28:18,488 --> 00:28:21,074
I was talking to a bloke one day
and, pop,
542
00:28:21,074 --> 00:28:23,326
his head was bashed in like an egg.
543
00:28:23,326 --> 00:28:26,620
He just happened to be in a place
where a sniper could get an aim.
544
00:28:28,038 --> 00:28:30,790
We used to do
a four-day stint in a line.
545
00:28:30,790 --> 00:28:35,295
We took with us sufficient food
to last the four days.
546
00:28:36,754 --> 00:28:38,631
Go on, lads, give our love to Jerry.
547
00:28:38,631 --> 00:28:40,091
Mind yourselves out there.
548
00:28:40,091 --> 00:28:44,219
Your day would start before dawn
when NCOs would go round
549
00:28:44,219 --> 00:28:47,264
this 100 yards and
make sure everybody was alive.
550
00:28:47,264 --> 00:28:50,892
Of a day in the trenches,
you had two hours on, four off.
551
00:28:50,892 --> 00:28:53,061
A third of the people
were on sentry duty,
552
00:28:53,061 --> 00:28:55,896
a third working
and a third sleeping.
553
00:28:55,896 --> 00:28:57,689
We just slept where we were.
554
00:28:57,689 --> 00:29:00,317
No beds, just flopped down
on the ground.
555
00:29:00,317 --> 00:29:02,902
Been to the pictures, mate!
556
00:29:02,902 --> 00:29:06,071
The trench was very wet
and, wherever possible, we would try
557
00:29:06,071 --> 00:29:07,657
and get above the water.
558
00:29:07,657 --> 00:29:10,326
We were able to dig out
the side of the trench
559
00:29:10,326 --> 00:29:12,869
and that was when we used
to steal our sleep
560
00:29:12,869 --> 00:29:15,371
on the two-on and four-off stretch.
561
00:29:15,371 --> 00:29:18,290
And then you'd have
your couple of hours on the parapet
562
00:29:18,290 --> 00:29:20,084
and then rest again.
563
00:29:20,084 --> 00:29:23,253
If nothing untoward happened,
there would be perhaps
564
00:29:23,253 --> 00:29:26,923
two or three sentry groups
in the whole company's front.
565
00:29:26,923 --> 00:29:29,092
EXPLOSIONS BOOM IN DISTANCE
566
00:29:38,600 --> 00:29:40,351
It was a job to keep awake.
567
00:29:40,351 --> 00:29:43,313
Woe betide you
if you were caught asleep.
568
00:29:43,313 --> 00:29:46,440
If you are so tired,
you can sleep standing up,
569
00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:48,234
which I've done many times.
570
00:29:49,651 --> 00:29:54,864
The first thing you did when you got
into the line was to have a brew-up.
571
00:29:54,864 --> 00:29:57,241
There was one thing
about the Vickers gun,
572
00:29:57,241 --> 00:29:59,035
it being a water-cooled weapon,
573
00:29:59,035 --> 00:30:01,495
if you were continuously firing,
you'd find that the water
574
00:30:01,495 --> 00:30:04,372
would be boiling.
You could disconnect the tube
575
00:30:04,372 --> 00:30:05,874
and make a cup of tea.
576
00:30:05,874 --> 00:30:08,793
The water came up
in two-gallon petrol cans.
577
00:30:08,793 --> 00:30:11,254
And we could taste the petrol in it
because they couldn't
578
00:30:11,254 --> 00:30:13,130
wash it completely out.
579
00:30:16,091 --> 00:30:18,344
In every bay was a little fireplace.
580
00:30:18,344 --> 00:30:22,805
You used tiny slivers of wood
because if you made smoke
581
00:30:22,805 --> 00:30:24,891
in the front line,
over would come a shell.
582
00:30:24,891 --> 00:30:26,142
I fancy a brew.
583
00:30:26,142 --> 00:30:28,602
But save a drop of that tea
to shave with.
584
00:30:28,602 --> 00:30:31,063
Because we had to shave
in the front line.
585
00:30:31,063 --> 00:30:33,856
We used to put a lot of tins
out on the parapet
586
00:30:33,856 --> 00:30:37,276
if it rained. You daren't touch
any of the other water.
587
00:30:37,276 --> 00:30:40,113
We were scooping water
out of shell holes,
588
00:30:40,113 --> 00:30:42,197
there might have been
dead bodies underneath.
589
00:30:42,197 --> 00:30:44,283
We thought as long as
we boiled it for a long time,
590
00:30:44,283 --> 00:30:46,410
all the green stuff
would come off the top.
591
00:30:46,410 --> 00:30:49,120
Nice and gentle.
Anyway, we'd made tea with it.
592
00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:51,497
That's how I got
my dose of dysentery.
593
00:30:51,497 --> 00:30:54,083
Of course,
there was no sanitary arrangements.
594
00:30:54,083 --> 00:30:56,335
They'd dig a trench
and stick a pole across,
595
00:30:56,335 --> 00:31:00,088
and you'd get about seven
or eight chaps on the pole.
596
00:31:00,088 --> 00:31:02,299
God, to have a clear-out
was terrible.
597
00:31:02,299 --> 00:31:03,925
FLIES BUZZ
598
00:31:03,925 --> 00:31:06,385
People used to go
to the toilet with no privacy.
599
00:31:06,385 --> 00:31:09,805
Being rather a shy nature,
if I had pissed with somebody,
600
00:31:09,805 --> 00:31:11,264
I felt a bit nervous.
601
00:31:11,264 --> 00:31:14,226
But when you were in the Army,
you got quite used to it.
602
00:31:14,226 --> 00:31:16,895
Of course, it didn't matter a damn
because there was no women
603
00:31:16,895 --> 00:31:18,313
or anything like that.
604
00:31:18,313 --> 00:31:20,940
The flies used to crawl
over your bottom.
605
00:31:20,940 --> 00:31:22,274
Most unpleasant.
606
00:31:22,274 --> 00:31:24,151
And no such thing as toilet rolls.
607
00:31:24,151 --> 00:31:26,320
You had to wipe your
behind with your hand.
608
00:31:26,320 --> 00:31:28,822
Your hands might have been
in all sorts of things,
609
00:31:28,822 --> 00:31:30,490
but you never washed.
610
00:31:30,490 --> 00:31:32,158
Well, you heard a terrific shout...
611
00:31:32,158 --> 00:31:33,826
MEN SHOUT AND YELL, LOUD THUD
612
00:31:33,826 --> 00:31:36,745
..and the pole had snapped
and the poor men
613
00:31:36,745 --> 00:31:39,164
who were sitting on the bar
fell down in the muck!
614
00:31:39,164 --> 00:31:40,999
MEN LAUGH
615
00:31:40,999 --> 00:31:44,002
There was always the humorous side
of the war.
616
00:31:44,002 --> 00:31:47,130
We had to put rifles down for them
to hang onto,
617
00:31:47,130 --> 00:31:52,009
and they came out like slimy rabbits
and nobody wanted to go near them.
618
00:31:54,469 --> 00:31:57,430
We had no spare clothes at all
and you were living for weeks
619
00:31:57,430 --> 00:32:00,391
without washing or getting a bath.
620
00:32:00,391 --> 00:32:04,436
I personally became really badly
infested and chatty,
621
00:32:04,436 --> 00:32:07,105
as we used to call it,
with these lice.
622
00:32:07,105 --> 00:32:09,566
Oh, lice was a dreadful problem.
623
00:32:09,566 --> 00:32:13,111
They were funny little things,
like little monster sort of things,
624
00:32:13,111 --> 00:32:16,197
with six legs, and they used
to feed ten times a day.
625
00:32:16,197 --> 00:32:17,865
You had to kill the bloody things.
626
00:32:17,865 --> 00:32:20,242
My favourite way was burning them.
627
00:32:20,242 --> 00:32:23,202
You would run the seams
over the lighted candle
628
00:32:23,202 --> 00:32:25,830
and you could hear the eggs going
pop, pop, pop, pop.
629
00:32:25,830 --> 00:32:27,540
POPPING
630
00:32:27,540 --> 00:32:30,167
The sooner you got the shirt back
again, the heat of the body
631
00:32:30,167 --> 00:32:32,086
hatched the eggs that you'd missed.
632
00:32:33,504 --> 00:32:36,131
And we was just as lousy
the next day.
633
00:32:38,883 --> 00:32:42,219
Each man prepared his own breakfast.
634
00:32:42,219 --> 00:32:46,056
Bread and jam was about
16 men to a loaf of bread.
635
00:32:47,765 --> 00:32:50,101
There'd be a little bit of bacon
which would suffice
636
00:32:50,101 --> 00:32:52,228
for half a dozen men.
637
00:32:52,228 --> 00:32:55,564
You'd put your rasher of bacon
in your mess tin lid,
638
00:32:55,564 --> 00:33:00,110
put a few more sticks on your fire
and you would fry your bacon.
639
00:33:00,110 --> 00:33:03,113
And then soak up the fat
with a piece of biscuit
640
00:33:03,113 --> 00:33:05,240
and then there you are
with the breakfast.
641
00:33:05,240 --> 00:33:07,950
Dinner time was mostly
bully beef cut up and stewed,
642
00:33:07,950 --> 00:33:10,995
along with all sorts
of vegetables from tins.
643
00:33:10,995 --> 00:33:14,289
Magonoghie's tinned stew was
mixed up with the bully beef.
644
00:33:14,289 --> 00:33:17,750
I've gone into French dugouts
and eaten biscuits
645
00:33:17,750 --> 00:33:20,419
which had been left by the troops
two years previously,
646
00:33:20,419 --> 00:33:24,757
and tasted the green mould in them,
but it didn't do me any harm.
647
00:33:24,757 --> 00:33:28,177
This was how it was. Anything's
good, you know, when you're hungry.
648
00:33:28,177 --> 00:33:30,595
And you were always hungry.
HE LAUGHS
649
00:33:31,888 --> 00:33:34,682
But any given moment,
we could expect to be shelled.
650
00:33:34,682 --> 00:33:36,809
SHELL WHIZZES AND BANGS
651
00:33:36,809 --> 00:33:39,186
You had very little protection
against that.
652
00:33:39,186 --> 00:33:43,023
One would hear a mild pop
as the gun fired five miles away.
653
00:33:45,275 --> 00:33:48,027
And in the five or six seconds
it took to come,
654
00:33:48,027 --> 00:33:51,322
you can pass through quite a number
of psychological changes.
655
00:33:57,286 --> 00:33:59,913
I can't remember anything more
nerve-racking
656
00:33:59,913 --> 00:34:03,874
than the continuous shelling,
without stop, went on day and night.
657
00:34:03,874 --> 00:34:07,294
But we were always told that you
never heard the shell that hit you
658
00:34:07,294 --> 00:34:10,255
because most of them
travelled faster than sound.
659
00:34:10,255 --> 00:34:14,509
But you could literally feel your
heart pounding against the ground.
660
00:34:14,509 --> 00:34:17,094
The emotional strain
was absolutely terrific.
661
00:34:17,094 --> 00:34:19,388
Although a shell might burst
50 yards away,
662
00:34:19,388 --> 00:34:22,182
you might find a fragment
of jagged iron,
663
00:34:22,182 --> 00:34:24,309
really red hot
and weighing half a pound,
664
00:34:24,309 --> 00:34:26,561
arriving in your trench.
665
00:34:26,561 --> 00:34:29,063
You see people blown to little bits.
666
00:34:29,063 --> 00:34:31,440
I've actually had to put a man
in a sandbag.
667
00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:33,651
Every now and again,
there would be a great roar
668
00:34:33,651 --> 00:34:35,735
like an aeroplane
coming in to land...
669
00:34:35,735 --> 00:34:36,986
LOUD BANG
670
00:34:36,986 --> 00:34:39,489
..and in a fifth of a second,
your resolution would break
671
00:34:39,489 --> 00:34:41,366
and you'd throw yourself down
into the mud
672
00:34:41,366 --> 00:34:43,659
and the other ones
would laugh at you.
673
00:34:43,659 --> 00:34:46,578
The shrapnel shell would burst
in the air and spray bullets
674
00:34:46,578 --> 00:34:48,163
on the troops below.
675
00:34:49,998 --> 00:34:51,416
As if they were from a shotgun.
676
00:34:53,335 --> 00:34:56,879
The bullets came down,
whistling like all the hobs of hell.
677
00:35:00,716 --> 00:35:03,593
Another one of the annoyances
we had was the Germans
678
00:35:03,593 --> 00:35:05,219
were very active with mining.
679
00:35:07,221 --> 00:35:09,307
We crouched down underneath
the front parapet
680
00:35:09,307 --> 00:35:10,808
to dodge the debris falling,
681
00:35:10,808 --> 00:35:14,561
and I got the men to open up
rapid fire to prevent the Germans
682
00:35:14,561 --> 00:35:18,148
from getting into that crater
where they could bomb us.
683
00:35:18,148 --> 00:35:21,067
If the front line gets damaged,
it's got to be repaired.
684
00:35:21,067 --> 00:35:22,777
Well,
the people who are in the line,
685
00:35:22,777 --> 00:35:24,528
they've got to get on with it.
686
00:35:24,528 --> 00:35:28,991
I had in my mind that we expected
big gunfire to light amongst
687
00:35:28,991 --> 00:35:32,327
all us cavalry and absolutely
swipe us off the face of the Earth.
688
00:35:36,205 --> 00:35:38,124
I shouted, "Gallop!" like that.
689
00:35:38,124 --> 00:35:40,417
They dropped 'em all at once,
the horses.
690
00:35:41,752 --> 00:35:44,003
Oh, a heck of a mess.
691
00:35:44,003 --> 00:35:47,007
The horses were laying down,
with their intestines hanging out,
692
00:35:47,007 --> 00:35:50,050
and men with matter hanging out
of theirs.
693
00:35:50,050 --> 00:35:52,552
"And that, boys," they said,
"the bloody Germans!"
694
00:35:52,552 --> 00:35:55,556
To lose a horse was
like losing a friend.
695
00:35:55,556 --> 00:35:58,349
The Brigadier turned
to our captain and he says,
696
00:35:58,349 --> 00:36:00,352
"See that the boy has
two or three days' rest.
697
00:36:00,352 --> 00:36:01,978
"When a boy likes an animal
like that,
698
00:36:01,978 --> 00:36:04,438
"there's not a lot wrong with him."
699
00:36:04,438 --> 00:36:07,065
Over the whole of the front line,
there was a smell.
700
00:36:07,065 --> 00:36:09,317
It wasn't a complicated smell,
701
00:36:09,317 --> 00:36:12,362
it was the smell
of decaying corpses.
702
00:36:12,362 --> 00:36:14,572
Nasty, sickly smell.
703
00:36:14,572 --> 00:36:16,157
You never forgot that smell.
704
00:36:16,157 --> 00:36:18,743
FLIES BUZZ
705
00:36:18,743 --> 00:36:20,369
It was the smell of death.
706
00:36:20,369 --> 00:36:24,623
If you've ever smelt a dead mouse,
it was like that, but hundreds
707
00:36:24,623 --> 00:36:26,582
and hundreds of times worse.
708
00:36:28,459 --> 00:36:29,919
It seemed to cling to everything.
709
00:36:29,919 --> 00:36:33,589
When you was having your food,
you could taste it.
710
00:36:33,589 --> 00:36:38,635
The awful stench and bits of
human bodies laying about,
711
00:36:38,635 --> 00:36:41,220
it became an everyday thing.
712
00:36:41,220 --> 00:36:44,432
We thought, well, it'll be you
too next, what does it matter?
713
00:36:46,559 --> 00:36:50,770
Wherever there was a grave
or a body, there were rats.
714
00:36:50,770 --> 00:36:51,980
They were all big fat ones
715
00:36:51,980 --> 00:36:54,649
and we knew where they got
the fat from.
716
00:36:54,649 --> 00:37:00,029
Unpleasant animals, because of
the filtration into the graves.
717
00:37:00,029 --> 00:37:03,407
They used to feed on the dead
and come in the dugouts,
718
00:37:03,407 --> 00:37:04,950
pick up scraps in there.
719
00:37:04,950 --> 00:37:06,952
I woke up in the bottom
of the trench
720
00:37:06,952 --> 00:37:09,412
and felt something warm on my face.
721
00:37:09,412 --> 00:37:12,415
And a little heart
going bang, bang, bang.
722
00:37:12,415 --> 00:37:15,083
The devil scratched my face
with the claws of his hind feet
723
00:37:15,083 --> 00:37:16,251
as he took off.
724
00:37:16,251 --> 00:37:18,670
We used to try and shoot them,
hit them, kill them,
725
00:37:18,670 --> 00:37:20,171
chase them, do anything.
726
00:37:20,171 --> 00:37:21,715
GUNSHOTS AND BANGING, RATS SQUEAK
727
00:37:21,715 --> 00:37:23,757
Then you've got gas.
728
00:37:23,757 --> 00:37:26,886
We saw this green cloud
coming towards us.
729
00:37:26,886 --> 00:37:28,929
Just rolling slowly
along the ground.
730
00:37:28,929 --> 00:37:30,514
They'd shout "gas"...
MEN SHOUT
731
00:37:30,514 --> 00:37:32,724
..and you had to take your mask out
and stick it on
732
00:37:32,724 --> 00:37:34,267
in two, three seconds.
733
00:37:34,267 --> 00:37:38,605
Yes, it was phosgene gas,
later on there was mustard gas.
734
00:37:38,605 --> 00:37:40,522
That was very effective.
735
00:37:40,522 --> 00:37:43,692
I never saw a slightly gassed man.
736
00:37:43,692 --> 00:37:46,819
If you couldn't get your gas mask,
you were to pee on your handkerchief
737
00:37:46,819 --> 00:37:49,072
and stuff this round
your nose and mouth.
738
00:37:49,072 --> 00:37:51,574
I don't mind admitting that
I didn't think much of the
739
00:37:51,574 --> 00:37:54,618
urinating on the handkerchief,
so I went into one of
740
00:37:54,618 --> 00:37:58,163
the trench's latrines
and I stuck my head in a bucket.
741
00:37:58,163 --> 00:38:00,414
But I'll tell you, I couldn't
hold my breath any more,
742
00:38:00,414 --> 00:38:03,418
came up, took a good breath of air,
down again.
743
00:38:03,418 --> 00:38:05,586
We were very soon
enveloped in this thick,
744
00:38:05,586 --> 00:38:07,379
yellow, filthy cloud.
745
00:38:07,379 --> 00:38:10,674
The more we tried to get rid
of the sting in our eyes,
746
00:38:10,674 --> 00:38:12,342
the worse it got.
747
00:38:14,427 --> 00:38:16,638
And I thought deeply
of what the effect of blindness
748
00:38:16,638 --> 00:38:18,305
was going to be.
749
00:38:18,305 --> 00:38:22,267
The extraction of clotted blood
and the injection of saline
750
00:38:22,267 --> 00:38:24,436
could alleviate a lot
of the trouble.
751
00:38:24,436 --> 00:38:27,481
And as I was gassed myself,
I can speak from experience.
752
00:38:29,774 --> 00:38:32,485
In the winter time,
as the weather deteriorated,
753
00:38:32,485 --> 00:38:35,695
so the trenches got
more and more sodden with water
754
00:38:35,695 --> 00:38:37,989
until they just became ditches.
755
00:38:37,989 --> 00:38:40,701
The water was swirling
about our feet and rising higher
756
00:38:40,701 --> 00:38:44,161
and higher
until it reached our chests.
757
00:38:44,161 --> 00:38:47,081
Our difficulty was frostbite.
758
00:38:47,081 --> 00:38:50,834
Our gumboots filled with water,
and in the mornings we could not
759
00:38:50,834 --> 00:38:54,629
split them off because
they were frozen to our feet.
760
00:38:54,629 --> 00:38:56,840
When you're talking
about trench feet,
761
00:38:56,840 --> 00:38:58,424
you're talking about gangrene.
762
00:38:58,424 --> 00:39:02,762
Send him straight down the line,
hack the legs off.
763
00:39:02,762 --> 00:39:04,638
Give us a hand with that, will you?
764
00:39:04,638 --> 00:39:08,809
When the water had soaked into the
earth, the floors of the trenches
765
00:39:08,809 --> 00:39:13,729
were just paved with liquid mud,
and that became like glue.
766
00:39:13,729 --> 00:39:17,858
It was a curious
sucking kind of mud.
767
00:39:17,858 --> 00:39:20,443
Very disgusting indeed,
very tenacious.
768
00:39:20,443 --> 00:39:22,112
It stuck to you.
769
00:39:22,112 --> 00:39:25,698
If one had to go
to the rear for rations,
770
00:39:25,698 --> 00:39:28,117
well, that was just
a nightmare journey.
771
00:39:28,117 --> 00:39:29,868
Slithering about.
772
00:39:29,868 --> 00:39:33,205
When it was pouring with rain
and on slippery duck boards,
773
00:39:33,205 --> 00:39:35,665
the language was really edifying.
774
00:39:35,665 --> 00:39:38,459
You heard words that
you never dream existed.
775
00:39:38,459 --> 00:39:41,671
And if you slipped off the duck
boards, you just sank into the mud
776
00:39:41,671 --> 00:39:44,881
of decomposed bodies
of humans and mules,
777
00:39:44,881 --> 00:39:47,217
and that was the end of you.
778
00:39:47,217 --> 00:39:50,595
The boy, he was in the middle
of this huge sea of mud, struggling,
779
00:39:50,595 --> 00:39:52,221
and we couldn't do a thing.
780
00:39:52,221 --> 00:39:53,723
There was no hope of getting to him.
781
00:39:53,723 --> 00:39:56,517
The look on the lad's face,
and he was a mere boy,
782
00:39:56,517 --> 00:39:58,561
was really pathetic.
COUGHING AND SPLUTTERING
783
00:39:58,561 --> 00:40:02,230
I've seen men sinking into the mud
and dying in the slime.
784
00:40:02,230 --> 00:40:04,899
I think it absolutely
finished me off.
785
00:40:06,442 --> 00:40:08,944
It was supposed to be quiet and
then you might get
786
00:40:08,944 --> 00:40:11,864
some drunken German saying, "I'm
going to give them hell today,"
787
00:40:11,864 --> 00:40:13,532
and opened up with all
his batteries
788
00:40:13,532 --> 00:40:15,534
and catch hundreds of people
in the line-up.
789
00:40:15,534 --> 00:40:19,078
And that was what they called
holding the line.
790
00:40:19,078 --> 00:40:22,874
We were in conditions that isolated
us completely from civilisation.
791
00:40:22,874 --> 00:40:27,252
We got so generate,
so isolated living in this mud.
792
00:40:27,252 --> 00:40:31,005
And you could sympathise
with how a rabbit must feel
793
00:40:31,005 --> 00:40:34,258
because we were hunted by mankind,
just the same as a rabbit.
794
00:40:34,258 --> 00:40:36,760
You knew your lives were in
one another's hands
795
00:40:36,760 --> 00:40:39,429
and it united you very closely
and you didn't let anything
796
00:40:39,429 --> 00:40:41,431
interfere with that.
797
00:40:41,431 --> 00:40:43,850
You knew what was going
on within your vision.
798
00:40:43,850 --> 00:40:46,769
Beyond that, you hadn't got a clue.
HARMONICA PLAYS
799
00:40:46,769 --> 00:40:50,480
You didn't care how the war
was going, whether we were winning.
800
00:40:50,480 --> 00:40:52,524
You weren't bothered
with that at all.
801
00:40:52,524 --> 00:40:55,526
You lived like tramps,
you didn't polish any buttons,
802
00:40:55,526 --> 00:40:59,238
you wore any uniformed bits
that you liked and nobody worried.
803
00:40:59,238 --> 00:41:02,366
All they were concerned
with was that you were fit to fight.
804
00:41:02,366 --> 00:41:04,535
If nothing's happening,
you chat about life,
805
00:41:04,535 --> 00:41:06,787
where he came from
and you came from.
806
00:41:06,787 --> 00:41:08,080
Everything was friendly.
807
00:41:08,080 --> 00:41:10,290
There was a terrific lot
of kindness in a way,
808
00:41:10,290 --> 00:41:11,750
to each person.
809
00:41:11,750 --> 00:41:14,752
When the war was not very active,
it was really rather fun
810
00:41:14,752 --> 00:41:16,337
to be in the front line.
811
00:41:16,337 --> 00:41:19,798
It was not very dangerous,
the sort of outdoor camping holiday
812
00:41:19,798 --> 00:41:24,594
with the boys, with a slight spice
of danger to make it interesting.
813
00:41:24,594 --> 00:41:28,305
We used to raid the trenches
and get a prisoner if possible.
814
00:41:28,305 --> 00:41:32,184
And a typical trench raid
would be perhaps eight in passing.
815
00:41:33,560 --> 00:41:35,813
If you was going to make a raid,
somebody would cut
816
00:41:35,813 --> 00:41:38,064
a passage through the wire
at night-time.
817
00:41:40,775 --> 00:41:43,026
The only way to do it
was silently...
818
00:41:45,195 --> 00:41:47,447
..to rush it,
and that was the arrangement.
819
00:41:47,447 --> 00:41:49,741
We would bomb and bayonet
the Germans coming out
820
00:41:49,741 --> 00:41:52,368
on their hands and knees
out the dugout, we'd smack them
821
00:41:52,368 --> 00:41:54,954
over the head and throw
in a couple of bombs.
822
00:41:59,500 --> 00:42:02,002
And there were three ways
of getting rid of him.
823
00:42:02,002 --> 00:42:05,130
One was to knife him,
garrotte him or to bayonet him.
824
00:42:05,130 --> 00:42:08,340
Quietest was the quick wrap
around the throat
825
00:42:08,340 --> 00:42:09,842
and knife into the back.
826
00:42:13,846 --> 00:42:16,139
I threw a revolver
at poor little Rudolph,
827
00:42:16,139 --> 00:42:17,474
he was only about 18.
828
00:42:17,474 --> 00:42:19,058
I hit him in the face with it.
829
00:42:19,058 --> 00:42:21,727
He screamed and came back at me,
and that's when I got him.
830
00:42:21,727 --> 00:42:24,146
Got him with a Very pistol.
831
00:42:24,146 --> 00:42:25,981
Well done, chaps! Good raid!
832
00:42:25,981 --> 00:42:28,608
I always had a full flask
and I gave him a drink.
833
00:42:28,608 --> 00:42:30,569
I felt very sorry for him.
834
00:42:30,569 --> 00:42:33,696
He said, "Danke schoen,
das ist gut," and died.
835
00:42:41,327 --> 00:42:44,706
And it was a very successful raid,
they got two prisoners, I think,
836
00:42:44,706 --> 00:42:46,958
which was all they all wanted.
837
00:42:46,958 --> 00:42:49,877
By the way, the men
who were captured on the trench raid
838
00:42:49,877 --> 00:42:54,924
were the first Germans I saw
on the Western Front.
839
00:42:54,924 --> 00:42:58,134
A lot of the German troops,
they were very good, very friendly.
840
00:42:58,134 --> 00:43:01,971
In fact, some of those Bavarians
were dammed good, decent people.
841
00:43:01,971 --> 00:43:04,264
The snipers would fire
but not hit anybody,
842
00:43:04,264 --> 00:43:05,474
know what I mean?
843
00:43:07,309 --> 00:43:09,686
They put up a sign - "Gott mit uns."
844
00:43:09,686 --> 00:43:11,437
God is with us.
845
00:43:11,437 --> 00:43:14,524
And we put a sign up in English -
"We've got mittens too!"
846
00:43:14,524 --> 00:43:17,151
We don't know if the Germans
enjoyed that joke or not.
847
00:43:17,151 --> 00:43:20,278
There was a wounded German,
he was a Wartenberger, I think.
848
00:43:20,278 --> 00:43:22,530
We did what we could for him,
we gave him a bit of food
849
00:43:22,530 --> 00:43:26,242
and that sort of thing, and
he was cursing the Prussians.
850
00:43:26,242 --> 00:43:30,496
The Saxons were in front of us
and they gave us the warning
851
00:43:30,496 --> 00:43:34,083
that there were going
to be relieved by the Prussians.
852
00:43:34,083 --> 00:43:37,127
And they said to us,
"Give them hell."
853
00:43:37,127 --> 00:43:39,337
They hated the Prussians.
854
00:43:39,337 --> 00:43:41,256
The Prussians were cruel bastards.
855
00:43:43,591 --> 00:43:45,551
Hurry up! This way.
Schnell, schnell!
856
00:43:45,551 --> 00:43:47,803
Watch yourself. Come along!
857
00:43:47,803 --> 00:43:49,847
The Bavarians or the Saxonians,
858
00:43:49,847 --> 00:43:52,224
they were the more civilised
of the Germans.
859
00:43:52,224 --> 00:43:54,016
Part English, if anything.
860
00:43:57,103 --> 00:44:00,188
After a four-day spell
in the front line,
861
00:44:00,188 --> 00:44:03,942
we were relieved and we had to
march back to the billets
862
00:44:03,942 --> 00:44:06,277
a few miles behind the lines.
863
00:44:06,277 --> 00:44:09,822
We were going for
a supposed one-week's rest.
864
00:44:09,822 --> 00:44:11,907
Everybody was dead whacked.
865
00:44:11,907 --> 00:44:13,742
We were all pretty knocked up.
866
00:44:13,742 --> 00:44:15,911
We extricated ourselves from the mud
867
00:44:15,911 --> 00:44:18,955
to what was, somewhat ironically,
called rest.
868
00:44:18,955 --> 00:44:22,625
In the front line itself,
you didn't criticise people
869
00:44:22,625 --> 00:44:25,252
and if you had a chap
who was a bit dicky,
870
00:44:25,252 --> 00:44:27,713
you would keep an eye on him,
just like in a family.
871
00:44:27,713 --> 00:44:30,340
But when you got out of the line,
you'd want nothing to do
872
00:44:30,340 --> 00:44:31,758
with those people at all.
873
00:44:31,758 --> 00:44:33,968
I mean, you can't call
it comradeship exactly,
874
00:44:33,968 --> 00:44:35,428
it was the way you did it.
875
00:44:35,428 --> 00:44:38,264
Come and get your mail!
Welcome back!
876
00:44:38,264 --> 00:44:42,142
The thing which always struck me
as being absolutely stupid
877
00:44:42,142 --> 00:44:46,604
was the next morning,
every man had to be spick and span,
878
00:44:46,604 --> 00:44:48,189
not a trace of mud on him.
879
00:44:50,107 --> 00:44:53,819
You'd brush off clothes or dry
them off the best way you could
880
00:44:53,819 --> 00:44:55,278
and clean your boots.
881
00:44:55,278 --> 00:44:57,906
In other words, smarten yourself up.
882
00:44:57,906 --> 00:45:00,992
THEY PLAY
It's A Long Way To Tipperary
883
00:45:10,709 --> 00:45:13,211
The men would always appear
the same -
884
00:45:13,211 --> 00:45:17,089
cheerful and, in the circumstances,
happy as they could be,
885
00:45:17,089 --> 00:45:19,049
making the best of everything.
886
00:45:19,049 --> 00:45:21,593
You know, in true British fashion.
887
00:45:22,803 --> 00:45:26,974
What? The Cockney wit was prevalent
and we were all lads together,
888
00:45:26,974 --> 00:45:30,101
you know, we didn't care about it.
889
00:45:30,101 --> 00:45:34,230
We'd make a fuss about nothing,
the little things that didn't matter
890
00:45:34,230 --> 00:45:37,482
really, because it was something
to fill the time in.
891
00:45:37,482 --> 00:45:40,234
We used to have to make
our own amusements.
892
00:45:40,234 --> 00:45:41,528
Bloody bastard!
893
00:45:41,528 --> 00:45:43,196
You laughed at the slightest things.
894
00:45:43,196 --> 00:45:46,449
I think probably it was the
general tension of the atmosphere
895
00:45:46,449 --> 00:45:48,617
that used to make us like that,
you know?
896
00:45:50,702 --> 00:45:54,289
My mother sent me a parcel
with a plum pudding, of all things,
897
00:45:54,289 --> 00:45:56,916
and had no thought of
not being able to cook it,
898
00:45:56,916 --> 00:45:58,543
so we used it as a rugby ball.
899
00:46:00,211 --> 00:46:03,130
We had this regimental sports day.
900
00:46:03,130 --> 00:46:05,715
And I won't say
I was the only sober one,
901
00:46:05,715 --> 00:46:08,926
but most of them were merry
about it.
902
00:46:13,472 --> 00:46:15,390
MEN LAUGH AND SHOUT
903
00:46:17,101 --> 00:46:19,728
I mean, you took part in everything
because you had to fill
904
00:46:19,728 --> 00:46:22,105
your time in, you know.
905
00:46:22,105 --> 00:46:24,149
Otherwise all you did
was sit about and smoke.
906
00:46:24,149 --> 00:46:26,150
CHILDREN LAUGH
907
00:46:28,277 --> 00:46:31,863
The only time we saw the artillery
was when we was out of rest.
908
00:46:31,863 --> 00:46:33,573
Fire!
909
00:46:36,158 --> 00:46:38,703
They would be, say,
two miles behind the line.
910
00:46:40,413 --> 00:46:42,665
Fire!
911
00:46:42,665 --> 00:46:45,500
We wanted to neutralise enemy
batteries, so we were registering
912
00:46:45,500 --> 00:46:47,336
our batteries on his.
Fire!
913
00:46:49,713 --> 00:46:51,714
We used to know the line
and elevation
914
00:46:51,714 --> 00:46:53,549
because it was done by aircraft.
915
00:46:55,843 --> 00:46:59,012
It was pretty ghastly, but the idea
was to kill as many German gunners
916
00:46:59,012 --> 00:47:00,305
as you could.
917
00:47:00,305 --> 00:47:01,556
Ready!
918
00:47:03,474 --> 00:47:05,142
Fire!
919
00:47:11,649 --> 00:47:14,692
There was no motorised transport
for guns.
920
00:47:14,692 --> 00:47:17,445
The guns used to be
brought up by horses.
921
00:47:17,445 --> 00:47:19,072
Eight horses to each gun team.
922
00:47:19,072 --> 00:47:20,781
Four horses to each wagon team.
923
00:47:20,781 --> 00:47:22,282
About 60 horses.
924
00:47:23,826 --> 00:47:26,703
The gunners made a filthy noise,
jingling and jingling
925
00:47:26,703 --> 00:47:28,705
and the horses making
noises both ends.
926
00:47:28,705 --> 00:47:30,873
And it was always
of great concern for those of us
927
00:47:30,873 --> 00:47:32,500
who were going into battle.
928
00:47:32,500 --> 00:47:35,211
Heave!
MEN GRUNT, HORSES BRAY
929
00:47:36,837 --> 00:47:38,254
Heave!
930
00:47:43,301 --> 00:47:45,552
Each company officer
paid his own company.
931
00:47:45,552 --> 00:47:49,181
Now, it was generally the
first morning after we were out
932
00:47:49,181 --> 00:47:51,934
of the line, you got five francs.
933
00:47:51,934 --> 00:47:54,769
A franc was worth 10p,
so 50p was your pay
934
00:47:54,769 --> 00:47:56,980
for a fortnight, 50p.
935
00:47:56,980 --> 00:47:59,982
Now, that's a week
of riotous living.
936
00:47:59,982 --> 00:48:03,402
Every town of any size at all
had a brothel
937
00:48:03,402 --> 00:48:07,030
and that was where most
of these boys learned a little bit
938
00:48:07,030 --> 00:48:10,533
more about life than they would ever
have done in normal civil life.
939
00:48:10,533 --> 00:48:13,452
So although they were young
in years, it wasn't long
940
00:48:13,452 --> 00:48:16,080
before they were quite worldly men.
941
00:48:16,080 --> 00:48:18,499
One of the lads said,
"Let's go and have a look
942
00:48:18,499 --> 00:48:21,168
"in the White Star.
It's like a pub."
943
00:48:21,168 --> 00:48:23,837
I'd led a very sheltered life.
944
00:48:23,837 --> 00:48:27,673
And they were beautiful girls
with just a piece of lace on,
945
00:48:27,673 --> 00:48:31,969
and, oh, my word, I'd never seen
anything like it before!
946
00:48:31,969 --> 00:48:35,221
There was I, a young lad, knowing
nothing about this, and off we go,
947
00:48:35,221 --> 00:48:38,433
and these men were
going up to see the girls.
948
00:48:38,433 --> 00:48:40,810
I was very keen. I said
to one of these fellas,
949
00:48:40,810 --> 00:48:42,478
"I've only got a sixpence."
950
00:48:42,478 --> 00:48:45,105
He said, "That's no good,
it's a shilling."
951
00:48:45,105 --> 00:48:47,941
That was my first experience
of a brothel.
952
00:48:47,941 --> 00:48:51,027
Anyway, we looked in there
for a couple of minutes,
953
00:48:51,027 --> 00:48:54,030
when four or five naked girls
came running down the corridor.
954
00:48:54,030 --> 00:48:56,282
We turned tail and ran!
955
00:48:56,282 --> 00:48:58,408
It was an eye-opener to me.
956
00:48:58,408 --> 00:49:00,785
There she stood, great, big woman,
957
00:49:00,785 --> 00:49:03,329
with this little cane in her hand
and she belted my backside
958
00:49:03,329 --> 00:49:04,831
as if I was a little schoolboy.
959
00:49:04,831 --> 00:49:07,167
Pelted Sergeant this
and pelted Sergeant the other,
960
00:49:07,167 --> 00:49:08,834
thump, thump, thump, thump, thump!
961
00:49:08,834 --> 00:49:11,253
HE LAUGHS
962
00:49:11,253 --> 00:49:12,796
Oh, gambling?
963
00:49:12,796 --> 00:49:14,423
People were gambling all day long.
964
00:49:14,423 --> 00:49:17,050
The Canadians and the Australians
used a gamble terrific
965
00:49:17,050 --> 00:49:18,468
amounts of money.
966
00:49:18,468 --> 00:49:20,094
More money than any of us seen.
967
00:49:23,639 --> 00:49:25,724
The beer was very thin indeed.
968
00:49:25,724 --> 00:49:30,228
It was one and nine stuff -
one pint, nine piddles.
969
00:49:30,228 --> 00:49:33,439
Friday was always the issue day
for cigarettes
970
00:49:33,439 --> 00:49:36,317
and the cigarettes were
Three Witches,
971
00:49:36,317 --> 00:49:39,944
which soon became
Three Bitches or Red Hue Tsars.
972
00:49:39,944 --> 00:49:44,157
I think they were made
from stable returns.
973
00:49:44,157 --> 00:49:48,118
But generally, in good-sized
villages, you could get Woodbines
974
00:49:48,118 --> 00:49:54,374
and Player's, and they were far
preferable to the issue cigarettes.
975
00:49:54,374 --> 00:49:57,169
Of course, we were always
bartering with the Frenchmen.
976
00:49:57,169 --> 00:49:59,170
We used to barter some of our
under-clothing
977
00:49:59,170 --> 00:50:01,255
and get a loaf of bread with it.
978
00:50:01,255 --> 00:50:04,883
We used to swap our British
cigarettes for their French wine.
979
00:50:04,883 --> 00:50:08,428
It could be just as tiring out
of the line as in the line
980
00:50:08,428 --> 00:50:10,179
and it was sometimes worse.
981
00:50:10,179 --> 00:50:12,140
If you were chosen for fatigue,
982
00:50:12,140 --> 00:50:15,142
you'd have to go
on the working party.
983
00:50:15,142 --> 00:50:19,355
You collected stores from a big dump
three or four miles back.
984
00:50:19,355 --> 00:50:21,982
Enormous bundles of sandbags,
985
00:50:21,982 --> 00:50:25,568
many made-up duck boards
and, worst of all, barbed wire.
986
00:50:26,944 --> 00:50:28,570
It was always hard work.
987
00:50:28,570 --> 00:50:32,115
You were a bonny labouring boy
more than you were a fighter.
988
00:50:32,115 --> 00:50:35,202
All the chaps were very tired,
but it made no difference.
989
00:50:35,202 --> 00:50:37,119
And they were mentally tired out.
990
00:50:37,119 --> 00:50:39,247
They'd just come out of a
trench tour for a rest
991
00:50:39,247 --> 00:50:41,707
and this was
the kind of rest they were getting.
992
00:50:43,166 --> 00:50:47,421
You would be carrying stuff
up on a light railway.
993
00:50:47,421 --> 00:50:51,382
Yes, they laid a narrow gauge,
light railway track.
994
00:50:51,382 --> 00:50:55,219
It was the simplest of things,
just platforms on wheels,
995
00:50:55,219 --> 00:50:57,429
driven by light locomotives.
996
00:51:05,562 --> 00:51:07,689
Light railways were always
a blooming nuisance
997
00:51:07,689 --> 00:51:10,691
because they were always
coming off the track.
998
00:51:10,691 --> 00:51:14,569
And they lost control of this truck
going down a slight incline
999
00:51:14,569 --> 00:51:16,821
and it would barge
into the one in front,
1000
00:51:16,821 --> 00:51:21,159
which scattered the duck boards
all over the place.
1001
00:51:21,159 --> 00:51:24,579
We used to take our mess tins
up to the engine driver
1002
00:51:24,579 --> 00:51:27,914
and get some boiling water
for our brew-up of tea.
1003
00:51:31,001 --> 00:51:32,460
And another.
1004
00:51:34,796 --> 00:51:39,300
The Germans could see the steam
and smoke from the steam engine.
1005
00:51:39,300 --> 00:51:41,969
So then it was mostly petrol engines
1006
00:51:41,969 --> 00:51:44,471
which used to run up
to the trenches.
1007
00:51:47,348 --> 00:51:50,309
The light railway only went
as far as the communication trench,
1008
00:51:50,309 --> 00:51:53,020
and then we had to push the thing
along by hand.
1009
00:51:56,940 --> 00:51:59,275
Somebody came along and said,
"This is it, we're going
1010
00:51:59,275 --> 00:52:00,860
"to be home by Christmas!
1011
00:52:00,860 --> 00:52:02,528
"We'll just go down the road
1012
00:52:02,528 --> 00:52:04,906
"and look in a field there,
you'll see."
1013
00:52:04,906 --> 00:52:07,199
Wouldn't tell us why.
Anyway, we went down.
1014
00:52:07,199 --> 00:52:10,535
They were on the roadside covered
with tarpaulin sheets.
1015
00:52:10,535 --> 00:52:14,413
You could see nothing
except a square outline.
1016
00:52:14,413 --> 00:52:17,291
And then the officer said, "These
are supposed to be hush-hush."
1017
00:52:17,291 --> 00:52:20,335
When we asked what it was,
the simple reply was "tanks".
1018
00:52:20,335 --> 00:52:24,298
Knowing the shortage of water,
we naturally assumed water tanks
1019
00:52:24,298 --> 00:52:26,633
and thought that we were
getting reserve supplies.
1020
00:52:26,633 --> 00:52:29,051
It was one of the best-kept secrets.
1021
00:52:29,051 --> 00:52:31,428
We were delighted because
these wonderful machines
1022
00:52:31,428 --> 00:52:32,763
were going to win the war.
1023
00:52:34,265 --> 00:52:36,266
Soon everybody would be home again.
1024
00:52:36,266 --> 00:52:38,309
Of course, it didn't
happen like that.
1025
00:52:41,103 --> 00:52:45,357
We were taken out of the line
and had intensive training.
1026
00:52:45,357 --> 00:52:49,652
Plunge the bayonet into the sack,
shout like hell.
1027
00:52:49,652 --> 00:52:53,239
It was to get used to plunging
them into somebody's body.
1028
00:52:53,239 --> 00:52:55,992
Then we fired our rifles
on the rifle range.
1029
00:53:03,290 --> 00:53:05,834
Firing rifle grenades
is a specialist job.
1030
00:53:07,960 --> 00:53:09,545
But they were clumsy.
1031
00:53:10,755 --> 00:53:12,548
I didn't like them much.
1032
00:53:14,133 --> 00:53:18,261
Forced marching, marching without
a rest and also a frontal attack,
1033
00:53:18,261 --> 00:53:20,680
right flank attack,
left flank attack,
1034
00:53:20,680 --> 00:53:23,016
both flanks attack,
night attack,
1035
00:53:23,016 --> 00:53:25,559
and we wondered what the devil
all this training was for.
1036
00:53:25,559 --> 00:53:28,478
BAGPIPES PLAY
1037
00:53:28,478 --> 00:53:31,690
The corps commander said that
he had just received instructions
1038
00:53:31,690 --> 00:53:35,818
to go ahead with an operation
to break through the German lines.
1039
00:53:37,903 --> 00:53:40,655
Suddenly we were called to parade
with full marching order,
1040
00:53:40,655 --> 00:53:43,492
and we had to go back up the front,
and we'd only been out of the line
1041
00:53:43,492 --> 00:53:44,910
a couple of days.
1042
00:53:44,910 --> 00:53:48,746
We could see streams of supplies,
mostly ammunition columns,
1043
00:53:48,746 --> 00:53:51,082
going up toward the front.
1044
00:53:51,082 --> 00:53:53,459
We didn't have a lot of notice,
but we knew it was going
1045
00:53:53,459 --> 00:53:54,918
to be a big advance.
1046
00:54:09,306 --> 00:54:10,807
So batteries pushed forward,
1047
00:54:10,807 --> 00:54:13,101
forward positions filled up
with ammunition.
1048
00:54:13,101 --> 00:54:15,645
Let's get these ladders up.
1049
00:54:15,645 --> 00:54:19,648
As the great push drew nearer,
the line livened up. It began to get
1050
00:54:19,648 --> 00:54:22,318
much more dangerous
and not nearly so much fun.
1051
00:54:22,318 --> 00:54:25,195
And we learnt that
a bayonet charge was to be made
1052
00:54:25,195 --> 00:54:28,323
on German machine gunners.
1053
00:54:28,323 --> 00:54:31,284
"I wish it to be impressed
on all ranks, the importance
1054
00:54:31,284 --> 00:54:33,994
"of the operations
about to commence.
1055
00:54:33,994 --> 00:54:36,746
"The Germans are now outnumbered
and outgunned
1056
00:54:36,746 --> 00:54:38,998
"and will soon go
to pieces if every man goes
1057
00:54:38,998 --> 00:54:41,125
"into the fight
determined to get through
1058
00:54:41,125 --> 00:54:43,211
"whatever the local difficulties
may be.
1059
00:54:43,211 --> 00:54:46,296
"I am confident that the brigade
will distinguish itself in this,
1060
00:54:46,296 --> 00:54:47,714
"its first battle.
1061
00:54:47,714 --> 00:54:51,342
"Let every man remember
that all England is watching him."
1062
00:54:51,342 --> 00:54:55,055
We marched all through the night,
and it got so bad that officers
1063
00:54:55,055 --> 00:54:58,808
at the side were pushing men back
into line who were straggling out,
1064
00:54:58,808 --> 00:55:02,395
and your legs just seemed
to go automatically forward.
1065
00:55:02,395 --> 00:55:04,897
I had a feeling that we were
walking in our sleep.
1066
00:55:04,897 --> 00:55:06,690
More men were brought into the line,
1067
00:55:06,690 --> 00:55:09,693
regiments were crowded up
closer together.
1068
00:55:09,693 --> 00:55:13,821
We were filling up the trenches,
packed in like sardines.
1069
00:55:13,821 --> 00:55:17,741
Our captain was a splendid man.
He would never bark an order at you,
1070
00:55:17,741 --> 00:55:20,368
he would give an order
in a conversational way.
1071
00:55:20,368 --> 00:55:22,495
"We don't know exactly
how far this trench is,
1072
00:55:22,495 --> 00:55:25,372
"but between 200 and 300 yards.
1073
00:55:25,372 --> 00:55:28,542
"I will go over with the first wave
and you will be in the second wave.
1074
00:55:28,542 --> 00:55:32,004
"And as soon as the curtain fire
starts, we'll move.
1075
00:55:32,004 --> 00:55:34,506
"Now, go along and tell
your men to be ready."
1076
00:55:34,506 --> 00:55:37,341
And this is the
sort of order we got.
1077
00:55:37,341 --> 00:55:40,428
I had two assorted companies,
both ignorant of what their conduct
1078
00:55:40,428 --> 00:55:42,137
would be when they got into action.
1079
00:55:42,137 --> 00:55:45,015
So Captain Neville thought it
might be helpful if he could furnish
1080
00:55:45,015 --> 00:55:47,767
each platoon with a football
and allow them to kick it forward
1081
00:55:47,767 --> 00:55:49,144
and follow it.
1082
00:55:49,144 --> 00:55:51,562
I think myself that it did help
them enormously,
1083
00:55:51,562 --> 00:55:53,439
it took their minds off it.
1084
00:55:53,439 --> 00:55:56,733
We had an extra bandolier
of ammunition around our necks,
1085
00:55:56,733 --> 00:55:59,319
and if you didn't have a shovel,
you had a pick.
1086
00:55:59,319 --> 00:56:02,447
We got in the trenches
and we waited for zero hour.
1087
00:56:02,447 --> 00:56:05,199
All the watches were synchronised.
1088
00:56:05,199 --> 00:56:07,576
I was what's called
a first bayonet man,
1089
00:56:07,576 --> 00:56:09,912
which meant that I carried
the rifle with the bayonet
1090
00:56:09,912 --> 00:56:11,413
in the attacking position,
1091
00:56:11,413 --> 00:56:13,748
and the rest of the men
carried bags of bombs.
1092
00:56:16,209 --> 00:56:18,919
And we were warned to be ready
to advance at any moment.
1093
00:56:18,919 --> 00:56:22,131
"Any moment" was quite a long time
coming and, of course, that added
1094
00:56:22,131 --> 00:56:24,133
to the tension that we were feeling.
1095
00:56:26,259 --> 00:56:29,679
My platoon had been told
to go out and test the fire.
1096
00:56:29,679 --> 00:56:32,557
We had to get out
and walk towards the enemy.
1097
00:56:32,557 --> 00:56:37,185
We went about 200 yards
and then they called us back again.
1098
00:56:37,185 --> 00:56:41,148
There was to be no preliminary
bombardment the days beforehand,
1099
00:56:41,148 --> 00:56:45,109
there was only one short, sharp
barrage just before the battle.
1100
00:56:47,153 --> 00:56:49,905
You've got to have
the artillery preparation
1101
00:56:49,905 --> 00:56:51,656
to smash their wire down.
1102
00:56:51,656 --> 00:56:52,949
Fire!
1103
00:56:52,949 --> 00:56:57,078
I ordered fire on possible enemy
assembly and forming-up positions.
1104
00:56:57,078 --> 00:57:01,540
The bombardment started
and the ground shook.
1105
00:57:03,375 --> 00:57:07,963
And we could see the hundreds
and hundreds of gun flashes.
1106
00:57:09,089 --> 00:57:10,715
Ready, fire!
1107
00:57:19,973 --> 00:57:23,977
As soon as the bombardment started,
the German retaliation came.
1108
00:57:27,772 --> 00:57:30,149
For four hours, we had to sit
there and take everything
1109
00:57:30,149 --> 00:57:31,816
they slung at us.
1110
00:57:33,235 --> 00:57:36,112
And first of all,
a large number of tanks went in.
1111
00:57:36,112 --> 00:57:39,324
We could hear them
rumbling and rattling.
1112
00:57:39,324 --> 00:57:41,993
320 tanks crawling along.
1113
00:57:41,993 --> 00:57:44,953
We waited for the signal
to move off.
1114
00:57:44,953 --> 00:57:49,791
Already, everybody was anxious
to go, but we waited and waited.
1115
00:57:51,835 --> 00:57:54,045
We got no sleep at all that night,
owing to the noise
1116
00:57:54,045 --> 00:57:58,799
of our artillery barrage, which was
continuous, the whole time.
1117
00:57:58,799 --> 00:58:01,385
We was asked to hand over
any personal belongings
1118
00:58:01,385 --> 00:58:04,720
to our company officer,
such as photographs and letters
1119
00:58:04,720 --> 00:58:07,390
that we valued.
1120
00:58:07,390 --> 00:58:10,601
I heard soft voices talking to one
another quietly,
1121
00:58:10,601 --> 00:58:13,604
and I wondered - how many are going
to live to see the sun rise?
1122
00:58:13,604 --> 00:58:16,481
In a man's pay book, there was
provision for making a valid will
1123
00:58:16,481 --> 00:58:19,025
if they were going into action
for the first time.
1124
00:58:19,025 --> 00:58:21,402
I didn't bother with it,
I had nothing to leave anybody.
1125
00:58:21,402 --> 00:58:23,196
HE LAUGHS
1126
00:58:23,196 --> 00:58:26,031
The fellow next to you,
he was your best friend.
1127
00:58:26,031 --> 00:58:28,575
You perhaps didn't know him
the day before.
1128
00:58:28,575 --> 00:58:30,827
And then an hour to go,
they were the longest
1129
00:58:30,827 --> 00:58:33,537
and the shortest hours in life.
1130
00:58:33,537 --> 00:58:35,915
We had unlimited time for thinking,
1131
00:58:35,915 --> 00:58:39,084
and I know I found myself thinking
much more deeply
1132
00:58:39,084 --> 00:58:41,795
than I had ever thought before.
1133
00:58:41,795 --> 00:58:43,797
Some people might be incapable
of thinking,
1134
00:58:43,797 --> 00:58:46,216
they might have regarded
the situation as being such
1135
00:58:46,216 --> 00:58:47,925
that they were incapable of thought.
1136
00:58:47,925 --> 00:58:49,927
I don't think
there was any feeling of fear,
1137
00:58:49,927 --> 00:58:52,305
it was just
that we were doing a job
1138
00:58:52,305 --> 00:58:54,431
and if it came, it came.
1139
00:58:54,431 --> 00:58:59,018
We realised that, sooner or later,
we were going to get the chop.
1140
00:58:59,018 --> 00:59:01,395
You were either going to be killed
or wounded.
1141
00:59:01,395 --> 00:59:04,607
I was not in the least frightened
being killed,
1142
00:59:04,607 --> 00:59:08,443
but I was terrified
lest I should lose an arm or a leg.
1143
00:59:08,443 --> 00:59:11,612
Waiting for an hour for an attack
is not a very pleasant thing.
1144
00:59:11,612 --> 00:59:15,866
We sort of chatted away, trying
to keep the spirits up, you see.
1145
00:59:15,866 --> 00:59:19,578
We told dirty stories
and made crude remarks.
1146
00:59:19,578 --> 00:59:22,455
We had 1,000 guns massed
on a mile front behind us.
1147
00:59:22,455 --> 00:59:24,791
Well, you can imagine all
this stuff coming over you,
1148
00:59:24,791 --> 00:59:26,834
we had the German stuff
coming the other way.
1149
00:59:26,834 --> 00:59:30,796
The noise rose to a crescendo
such as I'd never heard before.
1150
00:59:30,796 --> 00:59:32,840
You wouldn't hear a word.
1151
00:59:32,840 --> 00:59:36,968
The shells were passing over you
probably three foot, four foot.
1152
00:59:36,968 --> 00:59:40,846
And the air, it was an inferno,
and your line was another inferno.
1153
00:59:40,846 --> 00:59:43,140
Reason was completely blasted
out of it.
1154
00:59:43,140 --> 00:59:46,518
The bombardment created a sort
of hysterical feeling.
1155
00:59:46,518 --> 00:59:48,937
All of a sudden,
one of our fellas started crying,
1156
00:59:48,937 --> 00:59:51,856
really screaming and crying.
The officer in charge telling
1157
00:59:51,856 --> 00:59:55,610
the Sergeant, "Find that man
and shoot him, shoot him!"
1158
00:59:55,610 --> 00:59:58,112
It's difficult to explain
the reaction of a man
1159
00:59:58,112 --> 01:00:00,656
when he is in a big bombardment.
1160
01:00:00,656 --> 01:00:04,409
He thought that this man's screaming
and crying would be a danger
1161
01:00:04,409 --> 01:00:06,202
to the rest of the men.
1162
01:00:06,202 --> 01:00:08,621
As soon as it was light,
we were given a ration of rum,
1163
01:00:08,621 --> 01:00:10,998
any amount of it,
as much as you can drink.
1164
01:00:10,998 --> 01:00:13,333
And we got the order
to fix bayonets.
1165
01:00:13,333 --> 01:00:15,294
Fix bayonets! Fix bayonets!
1166
01:00:15,294 --> 01:00:16,920
Bayonets fixed!
1167
01:00:16,920 --> 01:00:21,132
It was a beautiful day, the way
it dawned after a rainy night.
1168
01:00:21,132 --> 01:00:22,508
A beautiful day.
1169
01:00:22,508 --> 01:00:26,678
Five minutes to go, I remember those
lads standing there, dead silent,
1170
01:00:26,678 --> 01:00:28,221
couldn't make a noise.
1171
01:00:28,221 --> 01:00:30,933
I was more frightened sitting,
waiting to start.
1172
01:00:30,933 --> 01:00:33,726
I was very frightened then,
very frightened indeed.
1173
01:00:33,726 --> 01:00:37,313
And an officer shouted along the
line, "Is everybody ready?"
1174
01:00:37,313 --> 01:00:40,315
And I called out, "I can't get my
bayonet on my rifle, sir."
1175
01:00:40,315 --> 01:00:42,734
And he said,
"Damn you, mate, hurry up."
1176
01:00:42,734 --> 01:00:44,986
I sent back a message
to brigade headquarters
1177
01:00:44,986 --> 01:00:46,487
to say we were all ready.
1178
01:00:46,487 --> 01:00:48,823
But unfortunately
a slight mistake occurred.
1179
01:00:48,823 --> 01:00:51,867
The first thing they knew
was a terrific tremor on the ground.
1180
01:00:51,867 --> 01:00:54,911
We blew a mine, which should
have been under the German trenches
1181
01:00:54,911 --> 01:00:56,538
but it wasn't.
1182
01:00:59,957 --> 01:01:02,669
It was in no-man's-land, and
that gave the Germans five minutes
1183
01:01:02,669 --> 01:01:04,836
to occupy the crater,
which they did.
1184
01:01:07,673 --> 01:01:11,301
Sergeant Moore, he was standing
behind the trench with a revolver
1185
01:01:11,301 --> 01:01:14,428
in his hand and he said, "Any boy
goes back, I shoot them."
1186
01:01:14,428 --> 01:01:17,806
So that if we didn't go one way,
we wouldn't go the other.
1187
01:01:17,806 --> 01:01:20,309
There wasn't a reluctance
to go over the top,
1188
01:01:20,309 --> 01:01:21,977
not with people I were with.
1189
01:01:21,977 --> 01:01:23,603
Fire!
1190
01:01:25,355 --> 01:01:26,731
Fire!
1191
01:01:26,731 --> 01:01:29,942
They put a curtain of shells
over you and you advanced.
1192
01:01:31,235 --> 01:01:33,070
That was the theory, I think.
1193
01:01:33,070 --> 01:01:34,863
Fire! Fire!
1194
01:01:34,863 --> 01:01:37,783
I realised this was
the moment of the assault.
1195
01:01:37,783 --> 01:01:39,492
And then zero hour.
1196
01:01:39,492 --> 01:01:42,536
Somebody shouted, "There they go!"
BAGPIPES PLAY
1197
01:01:42,536 --> 01:01:45,206
To the left were the
London Scottish, running forward.
1198
01:01:45,206 --> 01:01:47,791
I gave the order of "up the ladders,
over the top".
1199
01:01:47,791 --> 01:01:50,002
WHISTLE BLOWS
1200
01:01:51,128 --> 01:01:54,130
And after this, you lived
in a world of noise,
1201
01:01:54,130 --> 01:01:56,091
simply noise for hours.
1202
01:01:59,593 --> 01:02:02,304
As soon as you get over the top,
fear has left you.
1203
01:02:02,304 --> 01:02:05,265
You didn't run, there was
no shouting nor cheering,
1204
01:02:05,265 --> 01:02:07,309
everybody was deadly quiet.
1205
01:02:07,309 --> 01:02:10,436
Just as I stepped into
no-man's-land, somebody was shot
1206
01:02:10,436 --> 01:02:13,647
through the head
and his skull was splintered.
1207
01:02:13,647 --> 01:02:16,399
It wasn't a good send-off,
I can assure you.
1208
01:02:16,399 --> 01:02:22,321
The barrage proceeded into the
enemy lines in steps of 100 yards
1209
01:02:22,321 --> 01:02:23,739
at a time.
1210
01:02:23,739 --> 01:02:26,241
Fire!
1211
01:02:26,241 --> 01:02:29,203
The line of British troops, fixed
bayonets, walking quite steadily
1212
01:02:29,203 --> 01:02:30,995
behind the barrage.
1213
01:02:30,995 --> 01:02:32,789
It is a sight I shall never forget.
1214
01:02:32,789 --> 01:02:35,875
To start with, we'd had
the odd machinegun firing,
1215
01:02:35,875 --> 01:02:39,545
but remarkably little, and it seemed
almost too good to be true.
1216
01:02:39,545 --> 01:02:43,674
We then realised the Germans
had been containing their fire
1217
01:02:43,674 --> 01:02:46,634
until they saw
how far the attack was developing.
1218
01:02:46,634 --> 01:02:50,388
Unknown to us, there was
10 to 20 German machine guns.
1219
01:02:50,388 --> 01:02:52,681
Then all hell broke loose.
1220
01:02:52,681 --> 01:02:55,976
And, my God, he really
opened up and he let us have it.
1221
01:02:55,976 --> 01:02:57,602
It just swept us.
1222
01:02:57,602 --> 01:02:59,604
MACHINE-GUNFIRE
1223
01:02:59,604 --> 01:03:01,647
MEN SHOUT
1224
01:03:03,566 --> 01:03:05,360
Keep moving, laddie!
1225
01:03:10,322 --> 01:03:13,199
MEN SCREAM AND SHOUT
1226
01:03:15,034 --> 01:03:18,370
Machinegun bullets came
at us like hailstones.
1227
01:03:18,370 --> 01:03:21,540
I didn't realise that it was
swish, swish with bullets.
1228
01:03:21,540 --> 01:03:24,334
I looked round and people were
dropping all round you.
1229
01:03:24,334 --> 01:03:27,671
I mean, they just faded away
on either side of you.
1230
01:03:27,671 --> 01:03:31,340
And I thought, what are
they shooting at me for?
1231
01:03:31,340 --> 01:03:35,052
I hadn't gone more than a few yards
before I was shot in the thigh.
1232
01:03:35,052 --> 01:03:37,637
There was a captain alongside me
with his revolver out
1233
01:03:37,637 --> 01:03:39,390
and, all of a sudden, he dropped.
1234
01:03:39,390 --> 01:03:41,599
And then another chap,
he was hit in the leg,
1235
01:03:41,599 --> 01:03:46,437
but he continued with great bounds,
hopping on one leg.
1236
01:03:46,437 --> 01:03:49,690
When the bullets hit the tank,
the metal flakes were whirling
1237
01:03:49,690 --> 01:03:52,025
around like razor blades
inside the tank.
1238
01:03:52,025 --> 01:03:54,652
You could see men dropping,
but you didn't take any notice.
1239
01:03:54,652 --> 01:03:56,863
If you didn't get hit,
you just carried on.
1240
01:03:56,863 --> 01:03:59,490
I suddenly found myself with
a terrible pain in my left hand
1241
01:03:59,490 --> 01:04:02,576
as if someone had caned me,
and I found a big hole in it.
1242
01:04:02,576 --> 01:04:06,120
A man was running across the front
of me and he was shot to the body
1243
01:04:06,120 --> 01:04:10,750
because the contents of his wallet
were flung out forward of me.
1244
01:04:10,750 --> 01:04:13,168
I felt a terrific bang
on my right arm
1245
01:04:13,168 --> 01:04:16,213
and the blood started running
off the end of my hand.
1246
01:04:16,213 --> 01:04:18,632
I just didn't think that this
German machinegun would
1247
01:04:18,632 --> 01:04:20,967
trouble to even fire at me,
but the next thing I felt
1248
01:04:20,967 --> 01:04:24,804
a shock of quite a number of bullets
hitting the right side of my body.
1249
01:04:24,804 --> 01:04:28,724
A hare crossed my path
with eyes bulging in fear,
1250
01:04:28,724 --> 01:04:32,102
but I felt that it couldn't have
been half as frightened as I was.
1251
01:04:32,102 --> 01:04:34,688
You could see your mates
going down right and left,
1252
01:04:34,688 --> 01:04:37,481
and you were face-to-face
with the stark realisation
1253
01:04:37,481 --> 01:04:38,982
that this was the end of it.
1254
01:04:38,982 --> 01:04:42,236
The two in front of me went down
wounded in the head and chest.
1255
01:04:42,236 --> 01:04:44,988
Those bloody bullets got me
in the leg and blew a great big hole
1256
01:04:44,988 --> 01:04:48,074
in the back. It didn't hurt.
1257
01:04:48,074 --> 01:04:50,326
Life was very, very hazardous indeed
1258
01:04:50,326 --> 01:04:52,579
and we proceeded in this fashion,
some getting hit
1259
01:04:52,579 --> 01:04:54,080
and others carrying along.
1260
01:04:54,080 --> 01:04:56,248
You hadn't got time
to deliberate upon things.
1261
01:04:56,248 --> 01:04:58,917
Machinegun bullets might be
coming over, but they weren't
1262
01:04:58,917 --> 01:05:01,753
hitting you and you just go on.
1263
01:05:01,753 --> 01:05:04,881
They say your past comes up when you
think you're going to die,
1264
01:05:04,881 --> 01:05:07,633
but I hadn't got very much
past at 19.
1265
01:05:07,633 --> 01:05:10,010
And when I saw these bullets
coming along,
1266
01:05:10,010 --> 01:05:12,387
all I thought was -
am I going to live?
1267
01:05:12,387 --> 01:05:14,598
Of course, if the thing hits
you fair and square
1268
01:05:14,598 --> 01:05:17,267
and you die immediately,
you don't feel anything at all,
1269
01:05:17,267 --> 01:05:19,185
nothing to it.
1270
01:05:19,185 --> 01:05:21,937
First wave were all
absolutely wiped out.
1271
01:05:21,937 --> 01:05:23,939
Everybody was either
killed or wounded.
1272
01:05:23,939 --> 01:05:26,525
There were so many dead laying
about, it was hard to avoid
1273
01:05:26,525 --> 01:05:27,901
treading on them.
1274
01:05:27,901 --> 01:05:30,612
I was trying to step over them
and the sergeant behind me said,
1275
01:05:30,612 --> 01:05:32,614
"Go on, you mustn't take
any notice of that,
1276
01:05:32,614 --> 01:05:34,323
"you keep going."
1277
01:05:34,323 --> 01:05:37,034
And we were literally
walking over the dead bodies
1278
01:05:37,034 --> 01:05:38,493
of our comrades.
1279
01:05:38,493 --> 01:05:41,830
The carnage is just indescribable.
1280
01:05:41,830 --> 01:05:44,958
I had in my path about 2,000 dead,
British and German.
1281
01:05:44,958 --> 01:05:48,628
An attempt to clear any dead man
from our path was impossible
1282
01:05:48,628 --> 01:05:52,547
because of the shelling
and we ploughed over the lot.
1283
01:05:52,547 --> 01:05:55,759
Any shell bursting within a few
yards of the tank
1284
01:05:55,759 --> 01:05:58,136
seemed to lift it up in the air
1285
01:05:58,136 --> 01:06:01,931
and you felt a tremendous
back pressure.
1286
01:06:01,931 --> 01:06:04,600
The noise of battle when you're out
in the middle of it
1287
01:06:04,600 --> 01:06:08,186
is so terrific that you don't
hear any individual shots even.
1288
01:06:08,186 --> 01:06:11,147
And we had to stop in front
of the German wire.
1289
01:06:11,147 --> 01:06:13,983
It was quite impossible to advance
any further because of the
1290
01:06:13,983 --> 01:06:16,652
barbed wire and the machinegun
posts, which were about
1291
01:06:16,652 --> 01:06:18,112
50 yards further on.
1292
01:06:18,112 --> 01:06:20,405
The wire in front of us
was quite uncut,
1293
01:06:20,405 --> 01:06:22,365
despite the intense bombardment.
1294
01:06:22,365 --> 01:06:24,367
You couldn't see anything
but this wire,
1295
01:06:24,367 --> 01:06:26,702
it seemed to be acres
and acres of it.
1296
01:06:26,702 --> 01:06:29,288
It was just black with rust.
1297
01:06:29,288 --> 01:06:31,915
I don't think a rabbit
could have got through it.
1298
01:06:31,915 --> 01:06:35,085
Then our own artillery started
dropping shells amongst us.
1299
01:06:38,505 --> 01:06:40,297
SCREAMING
1300
01:06:41,340 --> 01:06:43,842
Obviously they hadn't got
their range or they didn't know
1301
01:06:43,842 --> 01:06:45,928
where we were.
1302
01:06:45,928 --> 01:06:49,348
I heard the first
shrapnel shell burst above my head.
1303
01:06:49,348 --> 01:06:51,933
There was a terrific whiz,
that was the disappearance
1304
01:06:51,933 --> 01:06:53,892
of my steel helmet.
1305
01:06:53,892 --> 01:06:55,770
I never found it again.
1306
01:06:55,770 --> 01:06:59,106
I got a bit off the cheek of
my backside, a piece in my hip,
1307
01:06:59,106 --> 01:07:02,442
a piece in my leg,
then a piece right through my leg.
1308
01:07:02,442 --> 01:07:05,070
The fellow to my left took
the full blast of the shell
1309
01:07:05,070 --> 01:07:07,489
and had half his head blown away.
1310
01:07:07,489 --> 01:07:10,699
Bullets were catching us and
shrapnel was coming down overhead
1311
01:07:10,699 --> 01:07:13,911
and we had all the
German artillery banging away at us
1312
01:07:13,911 --> 01:07:15,828
and our own artillery going over.
1313
01:07:15,828 --> 01:07:17,705
The shells were exploding
all round you
1314
01:07:17,705 --> 01:07:20,458
and it was a real good old battle
and it got hold of you, sort of.
1315
01:07:20,458 --> 01:07:23,043
BAGPIPES PLAY
1316
01:07:23,043 --> 01:07:27,297
One had no sanity at all
because the inferno was so blasting
1317
01:07:27,297 --> 01:07:29,549
that you had no time to think.
1318
01:07:29,549 --> 01:07:34,720
That din, that numbing din seemed
to stop one doing the things
1319
01:07:34,720 --> 01:07:38,307
that one would normally do, no
matter how well-intentioned one was.
1320
01:07:39,891 --> 01:07:41,477
You don't look, you see.
1321
01:07:41,477 --> 01:07:43,145
You don't hear, you listen.
1322
01:07:43,145 --> 01:07:45,480
You taste the top of your mouth,
your nose is filled
1323
01:07:45,480 --> 01:07:47,231
with fumes and death.
1324
01:07:47,231 --> 01:07:50,568
The veneer of civilisation
has dropped away.
1325
01:07:50,568 --> 01:07:54,154
I was literally blown about 12 or 14
yards and all that I could hear
1326
01:07:54,154 --> 01:07:56,865
was the cries and screams
from the survivors,
1327
01:07:56,865 --> 01:07:59,492
sometimes in two,
sometimes in three parts.
1328
01:07:59,492 --> 01:08:02,203
Legs, arms all strewn
all over the place
1329
01:08:02,203 --> 01:08:04,830
and that arid smell of explosion.
1330
01:08:04,830 --> 01:08:09,668
Well, all my romantic ideas
of war completely vanished.
1331
01:08:09,668 --> 01:08:12,920
A shell had hit this man,
it knocked off his left arm,
1332
01:08:12,920 --> 01:08:14,631
knocked off his left leg,
1333
01:08:14,631 --> 01:08:17,049
his left eye was hanging
on his cheek
1334
01:08:17,049 --> 01:08:19,468
and he's calling out for Nanny.
1335
01:08:19,468 --> 01:08:21,679
His bleeding eye was
hanging on, pulsing.
1336
01:08:23,221 --> 01:08:25,056
So I shot him.
1337
01:08:25,056 --> 01:08:27,726
I had to, I had to shoot him.
1338
01:08:27,726 --> 01:08:31,937
He'd have died in any case
and it put him out of his misery.
1339
01:08:31,937 --> 01:08:33,605
HE SOBS: It hurt me.
1340
01:08:35,899 --> 01:08:37,859
I knew there was no hope
of getting any orders
1341
01:08:37,859 --> 01:08:40,070
because there was
nobody to give any.
1342
01:08:40,070 --> 01:08:43,698
All officers was killed
and wounded, and most of the NCOs.
1343
01:08:43,698 --> 01:08:45,407
I jumped into this big shell hole.
1344
01:08:45,407 --> 01:08:48,284
You dropped down anywhere,
shell holes, anywhere at all
1345
01:08:48,284 --> 01:08:51,579
just to take cover
until the barrage lifted.
1346
01:08:51,579 --> 01:08:54,624
I'm not one of those heroes who want
to take the German army on my own,
1347
01:08:54,624 --> 01:08:57,210
so I went to work
and I got down behind the lip
1348
01:08:57,210 --> 01:08:59,294
of a big shell hole.
1349
01:08:59,294 --> 01:09:02,339
Fortunately, I was able
to drop into a shell hole.
1350
01:09:02,339 --> 01:09:05,091
Used to call them shell hole
droppers, they would drop down
1351
01:09:05,091 --> 01:09:06,676
into a shell hole
1352
01:09:06,676 --> 01:09:09,762
because of the barrage
and seeing a few men killed.
1353
01:09:09,762 --> 01:09:11,931
It's a pity they didn't all drop
into shell holes.
1354
01:09:11,931 --> 01:09:14,349
Before the barrage lifted,
they were dead.
1355
01:09:14,349 --> 01:09:15,851
SCREAMING
1356
01:09:15,851 --> 01:09:19,020
And the bullets were hitting the
back of the shell hole where I was.
1357
01:09:19,020 --> 01:09:20,480
It was raining bullets.
1358
01:09:20,480 --> 01:09:22,231
I don't know how I got missed.
1359
01:09:22,231 --> 01:09:25,776
From behind the lip of this shell
hole, the dirt was spraying down
1360
01:09:25,776 --> 01:09:27,445
the back of my neck.
1361
01:09:27,445 --> 01:09:30,113
There were three chaps in the
shell hole and one of them said,
1362
01:09:30,113 --> 01:09:32,114
"They're firing
into a bloody shell hole."
1363
01:09:32,114 --> 01:09:35,076
We looked round to see the bullets
go right through his head.
1364
01:09:35,076 --> 01:09:36,535
So that was the end of that.
1365
01:09:36,535 --> 01:09:40,080
A sergeant came down into the
shell hole on top of us
1366
01:09:40,080 --> 01:09:41,999
and he was dead, he got it
through the neck.
1367
01:09:41,999 --> 01:09:44,918
Anyway, he had a lovely pair of
field glasses round his neck
1368
01:09:44,918 --> 01:09:47,587
and I nabbed them. Because things
were so scarce,
1369
01:09:47,587 --> 01:09:50,465
if there was anything like that,
you'd collar it.
1370
01:09:50,465 --> 01:09:54,801
Jerry slapped shell after shell
into us until one shell penetrated
1371
01:09:54,801 --> 01:09:56,678
the forward part of the tank.
1372
01:09:56,678 --> 01:09:59,139
What happened then,
I cannot tell you but I believe
1373
01:09:59,139 --> 01:10:00,932
there was an explosion.
1374
01:10:00,932 --> 01:10:04,018
These were fully trained soldiers,
we always had the rifles loaded,
1375
01:10:04,018 --> 01:10:06,562
but we stuck in the
extra five rounds to make it
1376
01:10:06,562 --> 01:10:08,355
a ten for rapid-fire.
1377
01:10:08,355 --> 01:10:11,608
The Germans got up in their
own trenches and fired at us.
1378
01:10:11,608 --> 01:10:15,444
In my opinion, they were very brave,
very brave men indeed.
1379
01:10:15,444 --> 01:10:19,114
There was a German standing up
on his parapet and flinging bombs.
1380
01:10:19,114 --> 01:10:21,033
So I shot him.
1381
01:10:21,033 --> 01:10:24,119
They officer gave us orders,
"Open immediate rapid-fire."
1382
01:10:24,119 --> 01:10:28,080
We all opened up as fast as we could
go and continually fired.
1383
01:10:28,080 --> 01:10:30,416
It was a real mad minute,
I'll tell you.
1384
01:10:30,416 --> 01:10:32,709
They stood up and I was picking
the Germans off
1385
01:10:32,709 --> 01:10:34,920
because I was a sniper.
1386
01:10:34,920 --> 01:10:37,797
I was trying to pick a shot
and something hit me
1387
01:10:37,797 --> 01:10:40,425
between the eyes
like a sledgehammer.
1388
01:10:40,425 --> 01:10:42,093
I dissolved into unconsciousness
1389
01:10:42,093 --> 01:10:45,053
with no pain, but with
millions of golden stars
1390
01:10:45,053 --> 01:10:47,097
in a dark blue heaven.
1391
01:10:47,097 --> 01:10:49,224
After I'd used up a whole lot
of bullets,
1392
01:10:49,224 --> 01:10:51,768
I got down,
I says, "You have a go, Bill."
1393
01:10:51,768 --> 01:10:55,355
He didn't even fire a shot,
he was killed immediately.
1394
01:10:55,355 --> 01:10:56,981
That's how things were.
1395
01:10:56,981 --> 01:10:59,650
You felt aggrieved,
it was a pal of yours.
1396
01:10:59,650 --> 01:11:04,404
But you took it casually because I
suppose you become battle hardened.
1397
01:11:04,404 --> 01:11:07,615
We kept up rapid-fire there
as long as our rifles would work.
1398
01:11:07,615 --> 01:11:09,366
They got too hot to fire any more.
1399
01:11:09,366 --> 01:11:11,785
Fat was pouring out
the woodwork of the rifles,
1400
01:11:11,785 --> 01:11:14,079
the muzzles were
beginning to extend.
1401
01:11:14,079 --> 01:11:16,665
Then we got an order
from the captain, we must make
1402
01:11:16,665 --> 01:11:21,085
a barricade of the dead,
the German dead and our own dead.
1403
01:11:21,085 --> 01:11:24,505
My captain, at that time, was
anxious to go on and keep it up,
1404
01:11:24,505 --> 01:11:26,799
but I'm afraid he died.
1405
01:11:26,799 --> 01:11:29,051
I had three men loading up
these rifles with me
1406
01:11:29,051 --> 01:11:30,636
and I peppered the whole line.
1407
01:11:30,636 --> 01:11:34,764
And judging by the shouts and
screams, I took a very good toll.
1408
01:11:34,764 --> 01:11:38,225
There was machinegun spraying
on the lip of our shell hole.
1409
01:11:38,225 --> 01:11:40,561
I waited until
the belt of that gun had fired
1410
01:11:40,561 --> 01:11:42,938
and immediately carried on
the advance.
1411
01:11:42,938 --> 01:11:46,399
The sergeant said, "Follow me."
1412
01:11:46,399 --> 01:11:48,276
I managed to crawl under the wire -
1413
01:11:48,276 --> 01:11:51,154
a lot of us got through in
that way - and gathered together
1414
01:11:51,154 --> 01:11:53,448
on the German side of the wire.
1415
01:11:53,448 --> 01:11:56,325
All the shells screamed
over our heads onto the German posts
1416
01:11:56,325 --> 01:11:57,784
and then suddenly stopped.
1417
01:11:57,784 --> 01:12:00,203
"Come on, lads, give them hell,"
and we just got up
1418
01:12:00,203 --> 01:12:02,038
and rushed forward.
1419
01:12:02,038 --> 01:12:04,832
In the bayonet charge,
the majority of us always
1420
01:12:04,832 --> 01:12:08,002
had a round up the spout,
besides the magazine.
1421
01:12:08,002 --> 01:12:10,671
There was a feeling of exultation
that with a rifle, bayonet
1422
01:12:10,671 --> 01:12:13,465
and a couple of Mills bombs in your
pocket, we were going to be able
1423
01:12:13,465 --> 01:12:16,217
to get stuck into the bastards
that had been killing our mates.
1424
01:12:16,217 --> 01:12:18,802
And we went like hell,
straight into the Germans.
1425
01:12:19,887 --> 01:12:22,765
SCREAMING AND RAPID GUNFIRE
1426
01:12:27,351 --> 01:12:30,063
And we fired at anything that moved.
1427
01:12:30,063 --> 01:12:32,273
I dropped down on my knees
and the sergeant fired
1428
01:12:32,273 --> 01:12:35,150
over my shoulder and hit the German.
1429
01:12:35,150 --> 01:12:37,361
He was on the ground but
still firing, so he went up
1430
01:12:37,361 --> 01:12:38,570
and killed him.
1431
01:12:38,570 --> 01:12:41,031
There was only one method
of bayonet fighting, that is to
1432
01:12:41,031 --> 01:12:43,283
shove your bayonet
in as hard as you could.
1433
01:12:43,283 --> 01:12:45,868
There was this German
on the floor of the trench,
1434
01:12:45,868 --> 01:12:47,411
and the poor bugger was dead scared.
1435
01:12:47,411 --> 01:12:49,872
So one of them wondered
whether to stick him or shoot him,
1436
01:12:49,872 --> 01:12:52,332
the German jumped out away
to my left, another one
1437
01:12:52,332 --> 01:12:54,918
on the right, so I pinned
this German down, then shot
1438
01:12:54,918 --> 01:12:58,296
the German on the left,
worked my bolt, put another one
1439
01:12:58,296 --> 01:13:01,381
up the spout, and shot the German
who was running away on the right.
1440
01:13:01,381 --> 01:13:04,176
Quite a number of Germans
came in a rush and we shot them,
1441
01:13:04,176 --> 01:13:05,719
one by one.
1442
01:13:05,719 --> 01:13:07,303
We probably killed the lot.
1443
01:13:07,303 --> 01:13:11,724
Some chap said, "Poor old Dick got
it," and I looked around and saw him
1444
01:13:11,724 --> 01:13:13,976
lying with the top of his head off.
1445
01:13:13,976 --> 01:13:17,313
On their right flank came a German
with a canister on his back,
1446
01:13:17,313 --> 01:13:19,898
squirting this
liquid fire out of the hose.
1447
01:13:19,898 --> 01:13:22,900
I looked towards jets of flame
coming across the trench.
1448
01:13:22,900 --> 01:13:24,652
We'd never heard of flame-throwers.
1449
01:13:24,652 --> 01:13:26,445
Burnt 23 of our chaps to death.
1450
01:13:26,445 --> 01:13:28,947
I plonked one into his chest,
but it didn't stop him,
1451
01:13:28,947 --> 01:13:31,658
he must have had an
armour-plated waistcoat on.
1452
01:13:31,658 --> 01:13:34,661
I got a bang in the arm
and found I was bleeding.
1453
01:13:34,661 --> 01:13:36,871
But I could bomb
pretty well with my left arm
1454
01:13:36,871 --> 01:13:38,748
as I could with my right.
1455
01:13:38,748 --> 01:13:41,375
Somebody threw a Mills bomb,
and it burst behind him,
1456
01:13:41,375 --> 01:13:43,752
and he wasn't armour-plated
behind him, he went down.
1457
01:13:43,752 --> 01:13:46,129
One German came
running out of this trench,
1458
01:13:46,129 --> 01:13:49,091
screaming his head off,
he nearly knocked me over.
1459
01:13:49,091 --> 01:13:51,676
Three Germans came out
with their hands up,
1460
01:13:51,676 --> 01:13:54,011
and they were young chaps
about our own age,
1461
01:13:54,011 --> 01:13:55,971
about 19 or 20.
1462
01:13:55,971 --> 01:13:59,349
If Jerries came up with their
hands up, we just waved them on,
1463
01:13:59,349 --> 01:14:02,101
we didn't fire at them, obviously.
1464
01:14:02,101 --> 01:14:04,603
Prisoners were a nuisance!
1465
01:14:04,603 --> 01:14:06,897
We were shooing them back,
you know, get rid of them.
1466
01:14:06,897 --> 01:14:10,901
The only Germans we were really
fighting were the machine gunners.
1467
01:14:10,901 --> 01:14:13,069
They were firing belt
after belt after us,
1468
01:14:13,069 --> 01:14:14,655
and they never stopped firing.
1469
01:14:14,655 --> 01:14:17,615
The bloody cartridge cases
were piled up in a heap.
1470
01:14:17,615 --> 01:14:20,076
They'd got all their
best men on machine guns,
1471
01:14:20,076 --> 01:14:21,618
and they fought to the death.
1472
01:14:21,618 --> 01:14:24,496
The cog opened, and there
was three Jerries there in front
1473
01:14:24,496 --> 01:14:26,707
of the machinegun,
and of course the bloody gun
1474
01:14:26,707 --> 01:14:31,085
was pointing at me, and I just swung
the Lewis gun, I opened fire first.
1475
01:14:32,253 --> 01:14:33,963
It was split-second stuff.
1476
01:14:33,963 --> 01:14:36,382
Thankfully, I moved on.
1477
01:14:36,382 --> 01:14:39,259
As the war progressed,
it was inevitable that we developed
1478
01:14:39,259 --> 01:14:42,095
the animal characteristic
of killing.
1479
01:14:42,095 --> 01:14:44,264
Well, we've got some
young Lincolnshire lads,
1480
01:14:44,264 --> 01:14:45,681
you know, the 18-year-olds.
1481
01:14:45,681 --> 01:14:47,933
The machine gunners
were putting their hands up -
1482
01:14:47,933 --> 01:14:49,810
it didn't make any difference.
1483
01:14:49,810 --> 01:14:51,020
They were killed.
1484
01:14:52,813 --> 01:14:55,356
And I'm afraid there was
a little bit of slaughter going on,
1485
01:14:55,356 --> 01:14:57,734
until we got in some sort of order.
1486
01:14:57,734 --> 01:15:01,946
Everybody was screaming,
laying down, moaning and groaning,
1487
01:15:01,946 --> 01:15:05,073
and eventually there was silence.
1488
01:15:05,073 --> 01:15:07,617
I found a German officer
with his lung hanging out.
1489
01:15:07,617 --> 01:15:09,869
He was still alive,
but he wasn't conscious.
1490
01:15:09,869 --> 01:15:14,040
You could see his lung was expanding
and contracting as he was breathing.
1491
01:15:14,040 --> 01:15:17,084
It was the nearest I ever came
to shooting a man point-blank,
1492
01:15:17,084 --> 01:15:19,503
but we had to go on.
1493
01:15:19,503 --> 01:15:22,005
One dead German leaning
against a shell wall,
1494
01:15:22,005 --> 01:15:24,924
he was a handsome bloke,
he reminded me of my father.
1495
01:15:24,924 --> 01:15:29,678
A shell had dissected him nicely,
it had taken the whole of the front
1496
01:15:29,678 --> 01:15:33,641
of his chest down to his stomach,
neatly cut aside.
1497
01:15:33,641 --> 01:15:36,726
What a fantastic exhibition
of anatomy.
1498
01:15:38,853 --> 01:15:41,897
The real shooting was over
in about ten minutes.
1499
01:15:41,897 --> 01:15:45,901
There was about 100 of us coming
out, instead of 600 who'd gone over,
1500
01:15:45,901 --> 01:15:47,944
and a band came to meet us.
1501
01:15:47,944 --> 01:15:49,821
It was a wonderful feeling.
1502
01:15:49,821 --> 01:15:51,281
"I've been in a battle!
1503
01:15:51,281 --> 01:15:54,534
"And I'm so very proud about it."
1504
01:15:54,534 --> 01:15:55,993
Hang on.
1505
01:15:58,329 --> 01:15:59,913
You got it? Yeah.
1506
01:15:59,913 --> 01:16:02,290
And if you'd anybody
wounded or killed...
1507
01:16:02,290 --> 01:16:04,001
FLIES BUZZ
1508
01:16:04,001 --> 01:16:07,795
..if you didn't get them out
straight away, they went down
1509
01:16:07,795 --> 01:16:11,173
in the soil and disappeared,
it was so bad.
1510
01:16:11,173 --> 01:16:12,675
That's it.
1511
01:16:14,134 --> 01:16:18,805
Well, you had to ascertain
whether a man was alive or not.
1512
01:16:18,805 --> 01:16:24,143
If he was dead, then he
was no trouble - medically.
1513
01:16:24,143 --> 01:16:26,103
I can't put that any clearer!
1514
01:16:27,187 --> 01:16:28,855
Keep him level.
1515
01:16:30,231 --> 01:16:31,857
Give me some room!
1516
01:16:31,857 --> 01:16:34,902
I felt some pain, I suppose
about an hour later.
1517
01:16:34,902 --> 01:16:38,697
I'd got these thigh boots on,
and the bullet had gone in sideways,
1518
01:16:38,697 --> 01:16:42,409
all the way down the leg, in, out,
in, out, and hit the ankle bone
1519
01:16:42,409 --> 01:16:43,910
and turned upside down.
1520
01:16:45,828 --> 01:16:48,331
Oh, God!
1521
01:16:48,331 --> 01:16:49,665
Jesus!
1522
01:16:51,375 --> 01:16:54,711
The Sergeant Major brought me
a dixie of hot tea,
1523
01:16:54,711 --> 01:16:58,464
which was just what I needed,
it went down beautifully.
1524
01:16:58,464 --> 01:17:01,551
And casualties started coming back,
walking casualties,
1525
01:17:01,551 --> 01:17:05,137
men with their arms smashed up,
legs trawling, and they got back
1526
01:17:05,137 --> 01:17:07,764
to different dressing stations
the best way they could.
1527
01:17:07,764 --> 01:17:10,433
The walking wounded, they were
coming down in droves.
1528
01:17:10,433 --> 01:17:13,478
Some were holding one another,
and some were walking on their own,
1529
01:17:13,478 --> 01:17:16,105
a light wound in the hand or arm,
but some were hobbling along,
1530
01:17:16,105 --> 01:17:18,106
and some were looking
quite cheerful as
1531
01:17:18,106 --> 01:17:20,150
they'd been free of something.
1532
01:17:20,150 --> 01:17:21,526
Hello, Mum!
1533
01:17:22,944 --> 01:17:25,321
My officer had said,
"Are you all right, Kane?"
1534
01:17:25,321 --> 01:17:27,656
And I said, "Oh, yes,
sir, I can still walk."
1535
01:17:27,656 --> 01:17:31,118
And he said, "But you've been hit
in the back of the head."
1536
01:17:31,118 --> 01:17:34,079
And he handed me
quite a dose of rum.
1537
01:17:36,247 --> 01:17:41,336
The worst cases were those
who were shot through the chest.
1538
01:17:41,336 --> 01:17:44,630
Well, the difficulty of breathing,
you see, you only had
1539
01:17:44,630 --> 01:17:48,091
field dressings,
which every man carried.
1540
01:17:48,091 --> 01:17:50,093
Yeah, we'll have a better look
at it.
1541
01:17:50,093 --> 01:17:51,553
Who's waiting, boys?
1542
01:17:51,553 --> 01:17:54,305
You got a bottle of iodine
and they'd tip it in the hole.
1543
01:17:54,305 --> 01:17:57,058
Oh, the pain was terrific.
1544
01:17:57,058 --> 01:17:58,434
Well done.
1545
01:18:01,270 --> 01:18:04,188
How about that for luck, chum?
Shot right through it.
1546
01:18:07,400 --> 01:18:11,612
I was not in very good shape at all,
and I was getting somewhere near
1547
01:18:11,612 --> 01:18:14,906
the end of my tether, I don't think
I could go on much longer.
1548
01:18:14,906 --> 01:18:19,369
Every soldier, I suppose,
had this breaking strain.
1549
01:18:22,664 --> 01:18:24,998
The medics will be waiting for you.
1550
01:18:24,998 --> 01:18:27,501
Well done, lads, well done.
1551
01:18:27,501 --> 01:18:29,294
That's it.
1552
01:18:29,294 --> 01:18:34,090
We had some remarkable doctors
who worked day and night
1553
01:18:34,090 --> 01:18:38,969
in various stations on the British
front, looking after the wounded.
1554
01:18:40,512 --> 01:18:41,930
Nice cup of Rosie Lee.
1555
01:18:41,930 --> 01:18:43,557
You all right, Jack?
1556
01:18:43,557 --> 01:18:47,518
They seemed never to need any sleep,
so what they hadn't got in numbers
1557
01:18:47,518 --> 01:18:49,479
they made up in effort.
1558
01:18:49,479 --> 01:18:51,355
We need a shell dressing.
1559
01:18:53,440 --> 01:18:57,402
Both my officers, all my sergeants
and three quarters of my men
1560
01:18:57,402 --> 01:18:59,737
were killed or wounded.
1561
01:18:59,737 --> 01:19:03,616
Their ranks were made up with lads
of 18 from England
1562
01:19:03,616 --> 01:19:05,868
who'd been pushed out of factories.
1563
01:19:05,868 --> 01:19:07,577
Easy, that's it.
1564
01:19:08,745 --> 01:19:10,247
BIRDS SQUAWK
1565
01:19:10,247 --> 01:19:12,373
Bloody birds! Get out of it!
1566
01:19:12,373 --> 01:19:13,792
Go on!
1567
01:19:15,001 --> 01:19:19,046
My mob were helping
the battalion to bury these...
1568
01:19:19,046 --> 01:19:22,883
..only little kids, they were,
17 or 18 years of age.
1569
01:19:22,883 --> 01:19:26,011
In sure and certain hope
of the resurrection to eternal life
1570
01:19:26,011 --> 01:19:27,804
through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1571
01:19:32,766 --> 01:19:35,435
A lot of those kids,
it was their first action,
1572
01:19:35,435 --> 01:19:37,687
and they never knew any more.
1573
01:19:37,687 --> 01:19:40,732
So we'd wrapped them up in blankets,
dug a little shallow grave
1574
01:19:40,732 --> 01:19:42,108
and put them in there.
1575
01:19:45,235 --> 01:19:48,322
I was putting a dressing on
a German, and he was very shaky
1576
01:19:48,322 --> 01:19:51,157
and fearful of what we were
going to do to him.
1577
01:19:51,157 --> 01:19:53,326
But they were more
frightened than we were.
1578
01:19:53,326 --> 01:19:55,620
And we were frightened,
I don't mind telling you!
1579
01:19:55,620 --> 01:19:58,706
Mostly, they were just boys,
as we were.
1580
01:19:58,706 --> 01:20:01,750
They seemed glad to be captured,
they were out of it.
1581
01:20:01,750 --> 01:20:02,918
Is this yours?
1582
01:20:02,918 --> 01:20:05,128
Mein.
This is his. Ah, it's yours.
1583
01:20:05,128 --> 01:20:07,213
Put it in your pocket.
1584
01:20:07,213 --> 01:20:09,716
There was a little German fella,
I gave him a cigarette,
1585
01:20:09,716 --> 01:20:12,968
and he was terrified,
and I was very, very sorry for him,
1586
01:20:12,968 --> 01:20:15,345
really, you know.
He was only about 16.
1587
01:20:15,345 --> 01:20:18,056
And we had a chinwag,
and I just took his pocket watch,
1588
01:20:18,056 --> 01:20:19,683
you know, it was a normal thing.
1589
01:20:19,683 --> 01:20:21,309
We used to rob them, you see?
1590
01:20:21,309 --> 01:20:22,685
Right, let's go.
1591
01:20:23,728 --> 01:20:27,648
Yes, they were underfed,
and they were in very poor shape.
1592
01:20:27,648 --> 01:20:29,024
Come on, come on now, lads.
1593
01:20:29,024 --> 01:20:30,401
Pick him up. Come on!
1594
01:20:30,401 --> 01:20:33,195
And funnily enough, five or six
German prisoners came along,
1595
01:20:33,195 --> 01:20:36,489
and they helped carry me,
and I got another six watches,
1596
01:20:36,489 --> 01:20:39,492
because I robbed these fellas
who helped me down.
1597
01:20:39,492 --> 01:20:43,703
Every time we captured prisoners,
a number of German prisoners
1598
01:20:43,703 --> 01:20:46,290
would immediately
take up stretcher duty.
1599
01:20:46,290 --> 01:20:49,458
Now, I'm sure the Geneva Convention
never required them to do that.
1600
01:20:49,458 --> 01:20:50,835
There you go, lads.
1601
01:20:50,835 --> 01:20:52,628
I've got him. Steady.
1602
01:20:54,004 --> 01:20:55,339
You're all right, chum.
1603
01:20:55,339 --> 01:20:56,923
That's it. Keep going.
1604
01:20:56,923 --> 01:20:59,926
I took about
a dozen prisoners back with me,
1605
01:20:59,926 --> 01:21:02,512
they were all unarmed
and I just had my old gun.
1606
01:21:02,512 --> 01:21:05,848
In some cases, there were
a whole lot of Germans without even
1607
01:21:05,848 --> 01:21:08,100
a Tommy with them.
1608
01:21:08,100 --> 01:21:13,938
Oh, they were really cowed,
they were, yes, very subdued.
1609
01:21:15,982 --> 01:21:20,986
I slept next to a German man
who'd been wounded in the arm,
1610
01:21:20,986 --> 01:21:25,740
and to my amazement he started
talking to me in English.
1611
01:21:25,740 --> 01:21:28,118
And he said he'd been
a waiter at the Savoy.
1612
01:21:31,829 --> 01:21:35,624
I mean, I don't think the average
British soldier ever had
1613
01:21:35,624 --> 01:21:38,960
any deep feelings regarding revenge
against the German.
1614
01:21:38,960 --> 01:21:40,753
He admired him and respected him.
1615
01:21:41,921 --> 01:21:43,340
Go on, show him.
1616
01:21:43,340 --> 01:21:46,050
As the war went on,
I felt as much sympathy for them
1617
01:21:46,050 --> 01:21:47,968
as I did for myself.
1618
01:21:47,968 --> 01:21:50,512
The German I always thought
was a good fighter.
1619
01:21:50,512 --> 01:21:53,598
I'd sooner have him on my side
than on the opposite side.
1620
01:21:53,598 --> 01:21:56,559
I think some of the Germans thought
we ought to have been fighting
1621
01:21:56,559 --> 01:22:00,312
with them against the French
and the Russians, but none of them
1622
01:22:00,312 --> 01:22:02,189
thought we ought to be
fighting each other.
1623
01:22:02,189 --> 01:22:03,607
Keep on moving forward!
1624
01:22:03,607 --> 01:22:07,986
You see, the German
had been an unknown horde
1625
01:22:07,986 --> 01:22:10,613
with their coal-scuttle helmets,
and then we met them.
1626
01:22:10,613 --> 01:22:13,407
Well, the German soldier,
he was a very nice fellow as a rule.
1627
01:22:13,407 --> 01:22:15,784
You know, I think he was
really a barber or a shopkeeper
1628
01:22:15,784 --> 01:22:19,121
or something, and, the same as us,
he was stuck in uniform.
1629
01:22:19,121 --> 01:22:22,332
You're too tall.
Get you next time, Jerry!
1630
01:22:22,332 --> 01:22:25,043
We got on very well together,
actually, and they used to
1631
01:22:25,043 --> 01:22:26,377
mix in with us.
1632
01:22:26,377 --> 01:22:28,337
Want your hat back?
1633
01:22:28,337 --> 01:22:30,089
Here, give it him back!
1634
01:22:30,089 --> 01:22:33,049
They were decent,
sort of family people
1635
01:22:33,049 --> 01:22:36,136
and thought a great deal
of their children.
1636
01:22:37,845 --> 01:22:41,223
They didn't seem to bear
any malice against us.
1637
01:22:41,223 --> 01:22:43,767
They'd had to do what
they were told, like us.
1638
01:22:45,561 --> 01:22:47,645
Go on, go on tracking...
1639
01:22:47,645 --> 01:22:50,648
I couldn't speak German,
but some could, and the Germans,
1640
01:22:50,648 --> 01:22:52,358
some of them could speak English.
1641
01:22:52,358 --> 01:22:54,360
Anyhow, we could
understand each other.
1642
01:22:54,360 --> 01:22:57,279
The general agreement
when we were talking to Germans
1643
01:22:57,279 --> 01:23:01,825
was how useless war was
and why did it have to happen.
1644
01:23:04,619 --> 01:23:07,079
When you're passing bodies
all day long,
1645
01:23:07,079 --> 01:23:10,499
it's bound to have an effect
on whoever it is, isn't it?
1646
01:23:10,499 --> 01:23:12,584
This big fat German
was lying in a street...
1647
01:23:12,584 --> 01:23:13,794
FLIES BUZZ
1648
01:23:13,794 --> 01:23:16,254
..you know, his stomach
was all gassed up,
1649
01:23:16,254 --> 01:23:19,048
his intestines
lying out on his belly.
1650
01:23:19,048 --> 01:23:21,968
And somebody had stuck
a pipe in his mouth!
1651
01:23:21,968 --> 01:23:25,137
Yeah, we all told him to get up!
HE CHUCKLES
1652
01:23:26,554 --> 01:23:30,517
German troops were very brave
and very stubborn.
1653
01:23:30,517 --> 01:23:33,977
The Germans fought rearguard actions
almost back to the Rhine,
1654
01:23:33,977 --> 01:23:37,857
and regiment after regiment
was smashed up and cut about.
1655
01:23:37,857 --> 01:23:41,568
We had an idea that they were
beginning to crack.
1656
01:23:43,569 --> 01:23:46,364
I would say that they were,
if anything, rather despondent.
1657
01:23:46,364 --> 01:23:48,240
They knew they had lost the war.
1658
01:23:48,240 --> 01:23:52,118
We, as front-line soldiers,
knew they were giving up.
1659
01:23:52,118 --> 01:23:56,664
Quite frankly, the Germans
were fed up with the whole thing.
1660
01:23:56,664 --> 01:24:00,584
And, gradually, that is how
the war itself came to an end.
1661
01:24:00,584 --> 01:24:03,754
I got the impression that most
of the German soldiers
1662
01:24:03,754 --> 01:24:07,924
couldn't care less who won
as long as the war finished.
1663
01:24:07,924 --> 01:24:10,426
Of course, that's what everybody
was thinking about then -
1664
01:24:10,426 --> 01:24:12,303
we'd had enough.
1665
01:24:12,303 --> 01:24:15,931
And after a time,
perhaps nobody cared.
1666
01:24:15,931 --> 01:24:17,766
All right, boys, here it comes.
1667
01:24:17,766 --> 01:24:19,351
We're in the pictures!
1668
01:24:20,477 --> 01:24:23,104
There was a fella in
the war called Rumour,
1669
01:24:23,104 --> 01:24:26,190
he knows everything, you see,
and Mr Rumour told us
1670
01:24:26,190 --> 01:24:29,693
that the Germans were also
negotiating for an Armistice.
1671
01:24:29,693 --> 01:24:31,737
There was a huge poster,
1672
01:24:31,737 --> 01:24:36,658
"All hostilities will cease
on the Western Front at 11 o'clock
1673
01:24:36,658 --> 01:24:39,786
"on the 11th of November 1918."
1674
01:24:39,786 --> 01:24:42,163
So we said to each other,
"What day is it?"
1675
01:24:42,163 --> 01:24:46,625
And somebody discovered
it was November the 11th!
1676
01:24:46,625 --> 01:24:49,920
And then we had to shine our boots,
clean our buttons,
1677
01:24:49,920 --> 01:24:52,588
we knew the war was over then,
and we were quite confident
1678
01:24:52,588 --> 01:24:55,007
that we would be
there when it ended.
1679
01:24:55,007 --> 01:24:59,428
This proclamation was read out,
stating that the hostilities
1680
01:24:59,428 --> 01:25:03,098
would cease from 11 that morning,
and actually there wasn't
1681
01:25:03,098 --> 01:25:06,392
a cheer of any kind
raised when that was read out.
1682
01:25:06,392 --> 01:25:10,771
At 11 o'clock, the noise
of the gunfire just rolled away,
1683
01:25:10,771 --> 01:25:13,065
like a peal of thunder,
in the distance.
1684
01:25:13,065 --> 01:25:16,443
SHELLFIRE AND GUNFIRE FADES OUT
1685
01:25:21,156 --> 01:25:24,241
BIRDSONG, SOLDIERS CHATTER
1686
01:25:25,326 --> 01:25:27,035
Never heard it being quiet.
1687
01:25:27,035 --> 01:25:29,955
Now it was dead silent.
1688
01:25:29,955 --> 01:25:33,082
You were so dazed that you could
stand up straight and not be shot.
1689
01:25:33,082 --> 01:25:34,584
It was eerie.
1690
01:25:36,502 --> 01:25:39,212
There was a feeling
of relief and gladness,
1691
01:25:39,212 --> 01:25:41,840
I suppose, but no celebration.
1692
01:25:41,840 --> 01:25:44,759
The staff officer
shut his watch up and said,
1693
01:25:44,759 --> 01:25:47,511
"I wonder what we're
all going to do next."
1694
01:25:47,511 --> 01:25:51,140
There was no demonstration
of any kind, nobody said a word,
1695
01:25:51,140 --> 01:25:53,808
everybody just slumped away.
1696
01:25:53,808 --> 01:25:56,352
The only way we could
have celebrated as regards
1697
01:25:56,352 --> 01:25:59,855
to a liquid
would have been tea, that's all.
1698
01:25:59,855 --> 01:26:02,525
It was one of
the flattest moments of our lives.
1699
01:26:02,525 --> 01:26:04,860
We just couldn't comprehend it.
1700
01:26:06,570 --> 01:26:08,864
We had that sort of feeling
as though we'd been kicked
1701
01:26:08,864 --> 01:26:10,157
out of a job.
1702
01:26:10,157 --> 01:26:13,743
For some of us, it was practically
the only life we'd known.
1703
01:26:13,743 --> 01:26:15,912
What was one going to do next?
1704
01:26:15,912 --> 01:26:18,163
It was just like
being made redundant.
1705
01:26:18,163 --> 01:26:21,125
That was very much
the feeling of everyone.
1706
01:26:21,125 --> 01:26:24,419
We were thoroughly upset,
we'd all got no work to go to.
1707
01:26:24,419 --> 01:26:26,462
"I don't want to go back."
1708
01:26:26,462 --> 01:26:31,676
There was no cheering, no singing -
we were drained of all emotion.
1709
01:26:31,676 --> 01:26:36,346
We were too far gone,
too exhausted to enjoy it.
1710
01:26:36,346 --> 01:26:40,600
All things come to an end,
and even a drama can go on too long.
1711
01:26:40,600 --> 01:26:43,895
It didn't end with a whimper,
but something very much like one.
1712
01:27:00,242 --> 01:27:03,745
I was very happy to leave.
I'd had enough, you know?
1713
01:27:03,745 --> 01:27:07,373
After a time, it begins
to wear on one, you know?
1714
01:27:07,373 --> 01:27:10,251
"Thank goodness the bloody thing
is over," that was all.
1715
01:27:10,251 --> 01:27:12,544
But so far as I was concerned,
I was out of it,
1716
01:27:12,544 --> 01:27:14,630
and now the next step in life.
1717
01:27:14,630 --> 01:27:17,674
The first thing we did was
write home, say we were all right,
1718
01:27:17,674 --> 01:27:20,092
making sure we got the date
on the envelope right.
1719
01:27:20,092 --> 01:27:22,929
To someone like myself,
who was interested in nature,
1720
01:27:22,929 --> 01:27:25,681
after the horrors that man had
made of the battlefront,
1721
01:27:25,681 --> 01:27:29,726
I was immensely delighted to find
shell holes in which I picked
1722
01:27:29,726 --> 01:27:33,772
lilies of the valley and larkspur,
and I pursued Camberwell Beauties
1723
01:27:33,772 --> 01:27:37,608
and swallowtail butterflies
along the banks of the Aisne river.
1724
01:27:37,608 --> 01:27:39,485
We went to Boulogne.
1725
01:27:39,485 --> 01:27:41,612
By the way, we came
home with full pack,
1726
01:27:41,612 --> 01:27:44,322
the only thing we left
behind was the bullets,
1727
01:27:44,322 --> 01:27:46,199
we had to discard those.
1728
01:27:46,199 --> 01:27:47,992
But we still kept our rifle.
1729
01:27:47,992 --> 01:27:53,038
We went over to Folkestone,
and there were long trestle tables
1730
01:27:53,038 --> 01:27:56,499
with very kind ladies,
and they gave you a sausage roll
1731
01:27:56,499 --> 01:28:01,170
or a bun and a cup of tea,
and that was very welcome.
1732
01:28:01,170 --> 01:28:05,341
We entrained to Victoria,
and there we broke up.
1733
01:28:05,341 --> 01:28:08,385
We went to the barracks,
and we just dumped rifles,
1734
01:28:08,385 --> 01:28:11,137
bayonets and everything,
and there were a lot of suits
1735
01:28:11,137 --> 01:28:13,556
on display, hats, shoes.
1736
01:28:13,556 --> 01:28:16,183
You could tell her which one
you wanted, style and colour,
1737
01:28:16,183 --> 01:28:17,685
and they measured you.
1738
01:28:19,145 --> 01:28:22,523
I was horrified by what I saw
when I came back here
1739
01:28:22,523 --> 01:28:24,441
and when one tried to get a job.
1740
01:28:24,441 --> 01:28:26,734
There was mass unemployment,
and I thought,
1741
01:28:26,734 --> 01:28:28,361
"This isn't much of a life."
1742
01:28:28,361 --> 01:28:30,571
It was a most difficult thing
to realise you're of
1743
01:28:30,571 --> 01:28:31,989
no commercial value.
1744
01:28:31,989 --> 01:28:34,449
It was a shame, the way
ex-servicemen were treated.
1745
01:28:34,449 --> 01:28:35,826
You weren't wanted.
1746
01:28:35,826 --> 01:28:39,245
Some places said,
"No ex-servicemen need apply,"
1747
01:28:39,245 --> 01:28:41,957
and that was the sort of attitude
you were up against.
1748
01:28:41,957 --> 01:28:46,335
One of my pals was killed, and when
I went home, the very first thing
1749
01:28:46,335 --> 01:28:48,754
that I did was
go to his mother, who,
1750
01:28:48,754 --> 01:28:51,131
if she'd had a frying pan,
she'd have hit me.
1751
01:28:51,131 --> 01:28:53,633
Her son had been killed
and I'd come back alive.
1752
01:28:53,633 --> 01:28:55,468
She was very bitter.
1753
01:28:55,468 --> 01:28:58,596
The first night I came home,
I got into my old bed,
1754
01:28:58,596 --> 01:29:01,974
the first bed I'd laid
in since I joined the Army.
1755
01:29:01,974 --> 01:29:04,309
When mother brought my cup
of tea up in the morning,
1756
01:29:04,309 --> 01:29:06,478
she found me fast asleep
on the floor.
1757
01:29:06,478 --> 01:29:08,396
People never talked about the war.
1758
01:29:08,396 --> 01:29:11,441
It was a thing that had
no conversational value at all.
1759
01:29:11,441 --> 01:29:14,318
Most people were
absolutely disinterested.
1760
01:29:14,318 --> 01:29:16,611
When I got home,
my father and my mother
1761
01:29:16,611 --> 01:29:19,197
didn't seem in the least
interested in what had happened,
1762
01:29:19,197 --> 01:29:21,282
they hadn't any conception
of what it was like.
1763
01:29:21,282 --> 01:29:22,450
SOLDIER WHISTLES TUNE
1764
01:29:22,450 --> 01:29:24,744
And there was no reason
why any one of us millions
1765
01:29:24,744 --> 01:29:27,038
should have been favoured
with a thank you very much
1766
01:29:27,038 --> 01:29:31,208
for having got a little bit muddy
and out of touch with good manners.
1767
01:29:31,208 --> 01:29:33,626
And on occasions when
I did talk about it,
1768
01:29:33,626 --> 01:29:37,380
my father would argue points of fact
that he couldn't possibly have known
1769
01:29:37,380 --> 01:29:39,298
about because he wasn't there.
1770
01:29:39,298 --> 01:29:42,134
Every soldier I've spoken
to experienced the same thing.
1771
01:29:42,134 --> 01:29:45,095
We were a race apart
from the civilians,
1772
01:29:45,095 --> 01:29:47,180
and you could speak
to your comrades,
1773
01:29:47,180 --> 01:29:50,016
and they understood,
but the civilians,
1774
01:29:50,016 --> 01:29:51,934
it was just a waste of time.
1775
01:29:51,934 --> 01:29:55,812
However nice and sympathetic
they were, attempts of
1776
01:29:55,812 --> 01:30:00,192
well-meaning people to sympathise
reflected the fact that they
1777
01:30:00,192 --> 01:30:02,360
didn't really understand at all.
1778
01:30:02,360 --> 01:30:06,280
I think the magnitude
was just beyond their comprehension,
1779
01:30:06,280 --> 01:30:10,492
they didn't understand that people
that you'd known and played football
1780
01:30:10,492 --> 01:30:13,036
with were just killed beside you.
1781
01:30:13,036 --> 01:30:16,790
My friend who enlisted with me,
and he just lay there like a sack
1782
01:30:16,790 --> 01:30:21,376
of rags until he went black,
before anybody troubled to bury him.
1783
01:30:21,376 --> 01:30:24,255
They knew that people came back
covered with mud and lice,
1784
01:30:24,255 --> 01:30:27,507
but they'd no idea of the strain
of sitting in a trench
1785
01:30:27,507 --> 01:30:30,968
and waiting for something
to drop on one's head.
1786
01:30:30,968 --> 01:30:33,554
You couldn't convey
the awful state of things,
1787
01:30:33,554 --> 01:30:37,015
the way you lived like animals
and behaved like animals.
1788
01:30:37,015 --> 01:30:42,228
People didn't seem to realise
what a terrible thing war was.
1789
01:30:42,228 --> 01:30:46,732
I think they felt that the war
was one continual cavalry charge.
1790
01:30:46,732 --> 01:30:49,652
They hadn't any conception -
how could they?
1791
01:30:49,652 --> 01:30:51,861
Well, it started off
in a reasonable manner,
1792
01:30:51,861 --> 01:30:54,615
it was people fighting
on horseback with swords,
1793
01:30:54,615 --> 01:30:56,908
but it developed
into something ghastly.
1794
01:30:56,908 --> 01:31:00,327
People don't realise the
potential of military equipment.
1795
01:31:00,327 --> 01:31:03,080
A man's life wasn't worth
anything at the end of the war.
1796
01:31:03,080 --> 01:31:05,416
We were none of us heroes,
you know - we didn't
1797
01:31:05,416 --> 01:31:08,501
like this business of
being killed at all.
1798
01:31:08,501 --> 01:31:10,420
When we were talking
amongst ourselves,
1799
01:31:10,420 --> 01:31:13,714
we used to say, "Christ, they won't
have any more wars like this."
1800
01:31:13,714 --> 01:31:15,341
How did we endure it?
1801
01:31:15,341 --> 01:31:18,301
The answer must be partly
the fear of fear,
1802
01:31:18,301 --> 01:31:20,554
the fear of being found afraid.
1803
01:31:20,554 --> 01:31:23,389
Another is belief in human beings,
your colleague,
1804
01:31:23,389 --> 01:31:26,016
and there's no letting people down.
1805
01:31:26,016 --> 01:31:30,145
There may be right on both sides,
but I think war is horrible.
1806
01:31:30,145 --> 01:31:33,189
Everything should be done
to avoid war.
1807
01:31:33,189 --> 01:31:36,192
I still can't see
the justification for it.
1808
01:31:36,192 --> 01:31:38,570
It was all really rather horrible.
1809
01:31:38,570 --> 01:31:41,197
I think history will decide,
in the end,
1810
01:31:41,197 --> 01:31:43,324
that it was not worthwhile.
1811
01:31:45,826 --> 01:31:49,621
The only thing that really did annoy
me was when I went back to work,
1812
01:31:49,621 --> 01:31:52,874
after I'd got demobilised,
I went down the stores,
1813
01:31:52,874 --> 01:31:56,085
and the bloke behind the counter
was a bloke who I knew.
1814
01:31:56,085 --> 01:31:58,170
He said, "Where have you been?
1815
01:31:58,170 --> 01:31:59,838
"On nights?"
1816
01:32:59,891 --> 01:33:03,894
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Parlez vous
1817
01:33:03,894 --> 01:33:08,189
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Parlez vous?
1818
01:33:08,189 --> 01:33:12,068
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
She hasn't been kissed in 40 years
1819
01:33:12,068 --> 01:33:16,322
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1820
01:33:16,322 --> 01:33:20,784
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Parlez vous
1821
01:33:20,784 --> 01:33:24,746
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Parlez vous
1822
01:33:24,746 --> 01:33:28,791
# Our top kick in Armentieres
broke the spell of 40 years
1823
01:33:28,791 --> 01:33:31,752
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1824
01:33:33,295 --> 01:33:37,048
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Parlez vous
1825
01:33:37,048 --> 01:33:41,386
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Parlez vous
1826
01:33:41,386 --> 01:33:45,681
# You didn't have to know her long
to know the reason men go wrong
1827
01:33:45,681 --> 01:33:48,559
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1828
01:33:50,143 --> 01:33:53,563
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Parlez vous
1829
01:33:53,563 --> 01:33:57,816
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Parlez vous
1830
01:33:57,816 --> 01:33:59,985
# She's the hardest working girl
in town
1831
01:33:59,985 --> 01:34:02,195
# She makes her living upside down
1832
01:34:02,195 --> 01:34:04,364
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1833
01:34:10,620 --> 01:34:12,621
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1834
01:34:12,621 --> 01:34:14,414
# Parlez vous
1835
01:34:14,414 --> 01:34:16,917
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1836
01:34:16,917 --> 01:34:18,543
# Parlez vous
1837
01:34:18,543 --> 01:34:19,752
# She sold her kisses
1838
01:34:19,752 --> 01:34:20,961
# For ten francs each
1839
01:34:20,961 --> 01:34:22,046
# Soft and juicy
1840
01:34:22,046 --> 01:34:23,255
# As sweet as a peach
1841
01:34:23,255 --> 01:34:25,674
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1842
01:34:27,175 --> 01:34:29,511
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1843
01:34:29,511 --> 01:34:31,096
# Parlez vous
1844
01:34:31,096 --> 01:34:33,473
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1845
01:34:33,473 --> 01:34:35,058
# Parlez vous
1846
01:34:35,058 --> 01:34:37,143
# Madame, you've got a daughter fair
1847
01:34:37,143 --> 01:34:39,061
# To wash the soldiers' underwear
1848
01:34:39,061 --> 01:34:42,064
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1849
01:34:43,982 --> 01:34:46,317
# I didn't care what came of me
1850
01:34:46,317 --> 01:34:47,485
# Parlez vous
1851
01:34:47,485 --> 01:34:49,945
# I didn't care what came of me
1852
01:34:49,945 --> 01:34:51,446
# Parlez vous
1853
01:34:51,446 --> 01:34:53,532
# I didn't care what came of me
1854
01:34:53,532 --> 01:34:55,909
# So I went and joined the infantry
1855
01:34:55,909 --> 01:34:58,536
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1856
01:35:33,234 --> 01:35:35,443
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1857
01:35:35,443 --> 01:35:36,904
# Parlez vous
1858
01:35:36,904 --> 01:35:39,364
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1859
01:35:39,364 --> 01:35:41,073
# Parlez vous
1860
01:35:41,073 --> 01:35:42,867
# Went in her bed, she sure was fun
1861
01:35:42,867 --> 01:35:44,160
# Working her arse
1862
01:35:44,160 --> 01:35:45,453
# Like a Maxim gun
1863
01:35:45,453 --> 01:35:48,705
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1864
01:35:49,748 --> 01:35:51,916
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1865
01:35:51,916 --> 01:35:53,501
# Parlez vous
1866
01:35:53,501 --> 01:35:56,003
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1867
01:35:56,003 --> 01:35:57,422
# Parlez vous
1868
01:35:57,422 --> 01:35:59,173
# I had more fun than I could tell
1869
01:35:59,173 --> 01:36:01,383
# Beneath the sheets with
Mademoiselle
1870
01:36:01,383 --> 01:36:04,260
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1871
01:36:06,221 --> 01:36:10,016
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres,
parlez vous
1872
01:36:10,016 --> 01:36:14,061
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres,
parlez vous
1873
01:36:14,061 --> 01:36:16,063
# She did a wink and cried,
"Oui, oui!
1874
01:36:16,063 --> 01:36:18,398
# "Let's see what you can do
with me"
1875
01:36:18,398 --> 01:36:21,275
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1876
01:36:22,485 --> 01:36:24,862
# They say they mechanised the war
1877
01:36:24,862 --> 01:36:26,405
# Parlez vous
1878
01:36:26,405 --> 01:36:28,782
# They say they mechanised the war
1879
01:36:28,782 --> 01:36:30,409
# Parlez vous
1880
01:36:30,409 --> 01:36:32,618
# They say they mechanised the war
1881
01:36:32,618 --> 01:36:34,870
# So what the hell
are we marching for?
1882
01:36:34,870 --> 01:36:37,832
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1883
01:36:55,430 --> 01:36:58,475
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1884
01:36:58,475 --> 01:36:59,601
# Parlez vous
1885
01:36:59,601 --> 01:37:02,312
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1886
01:37:02,312 --> 01:37:03,813
# Parlez vous
1887
01:37:03,813 --> 01:37:05,773
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1888
01:37:05,773 --> 01:37:07,816
# She hasn't been kissed for 40
years
1889
01:37:07,816 --> 01:37:10,402
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1890
01:37:11,862 --> 01:37:14,656
# The officers get all the steak
1891
01:37:14,656 --> 01:37:15,782
# Parlez vous
1892
01:37:15,782 --> 01:37:18,825
# The officers get all the steak
1893
01:37:18,825 --> 01:37:20,078
# Parlez vous
1894
01:37:20,078 --> 01:37:22,204
# The officers get all the steak
1895
01:37:22,204 --> 01:37:24,164
# And all we get is a belly ache
1896
01:37:24,164 --> 01:37:27,166
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1897
01:37:28,376 --> 01:37:29,710
# You might forget
1898
01:37:29,710 --> 01:37:32,004
# The gas and shells, parlez vous
1899
01:37:32,004 --> 01:37:33,589
# You might forget
1900
01:37:33,589 --> 01:37:36,216
# The gas and shells, parlez vous
1901
01:37:36,216 --> 01:37:37,343
# You might forget
1902
01:37:37,343 --> 01:37:38,552
# The groans and yells
1903
01:37:38,552 --> 01:37:39,636
# But you never forget
1904
01:37:39,636 --> 01:37:40,971
# The mademoiselles
1905
01:37:40,971 --> 01:37:43,515
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1906
01:38:01,697 --> 01:38:04,324
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1907
01:38:04,324 --> 01:38:05,450
# Parlez vous
1908
01:38:05,450 --> 01:38:08,203
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1909
01:38:08,203 --> 01:38:09,287
# Parlez vous
1910
01:38:09,287 --> 01:38:11,206
# Many and many a married man
1911
01:38:11,206 --> 01:38:13,415
# Wants to go back to France again
1912
01:38:13,415 --> 01:38:16,543
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1913
01:38:17,919 --> 01:38:20,838
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1914
01:38:20,838 --> 01:38:21,923
# Parlez vous
1915
01:38:21,923 --> 01:38:24,759
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1916
01:38:24,759 --> 01:38:25,843
# Parlez vous
1917
01:38:25,843 --> 01:38:28,178
# Just blow your nose
and dry your tears
1918
01:38:28,178 --> 01:38:30,305
# We'll all be back
in a few short years
1919
01:38:30,305 --> 01:38:33,100
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1920
01:38:34,601 --> 01:38:37,228
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1921
01:38:37,228 --> 01:38:38,313
# Parlez vous
1922
01:38:38,313 --> 01:38:40,898
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1923
01:38:40,898 --> 01:38:42,024
# Parlez vous
1924
01:38:42,024 --> 01:38:44,485
# I fell in love with her at sight
1925
01:38:44,485 --> 01:38:46,612
# Wet myself for half the night
1926
01:38:46,612 --> 01:38:49,197
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1927
01:38:50,865 --> 01:38:54,618
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres,
parlez vous
1928
01:38:54,618 --> 01:38:58,747
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres,
parlez vous
1929
01:38:58,747 --> 01:39:00,957
# You might forget
the gas and shell
1930
01:39:00,957 --> 01:39:02,917
# You never forget the mademoiselles
1931
01:39:02,917 --> 01:39:05,753
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1932
01:39:07,171 --> 01:39:08,923
# You might forget the gas and shell
1933
01:39:08,923 --> 01:39:11,258
# But you'll never forget
the mademoiselles
1934
01:39:11,258 --> 01:39:12,926
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous. #
1935
01:39:13,699 --> 01:39:20,317
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