All language subtitles for They Shall Not Grow Old (2018) 1080p WWI EN SUB_ENG_Subtitles01
Afrikaans
Albanian
Amharic
Arabic
Armenian
Azerbaijani
Basque
Belarusian
Bengali
Bosnian
Bulgarian
Catalan
Cebuano
Chichewa
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
Corsican
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
English
Esperanto
Estonian
Filipino
Finnish
French
Frisian
Galician
Georgian
German
Greek
Gujarati
Haitian Creole
Hausa
Hawaiian
Hebrew
Hindi
Hmong
Hungarian
Icelandic
Igbo
Indonesian
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Javanese
Kannada
Kazakh
Khmer
Korean
Kurdish (Kurmanji)
Kyrgyz
Lao
Latin
Latvian
Lithuanian
Luxembourgish
Macedonian
Malagasy
Malay
Malayalam
Maltese
Maori
Marathi
Mongolian
Myanmar (Burmese)
Nepali
Norwegian
Pashto
Persian
Polish
Portuguese
Punjabi
Romanian
Russian
Samoan
Scots Gaelic
Serbian
Sesotho
Shona
Sindhi
Sinhala
Slovak
Slovenian
Somali
Spanish
Sundanese
Swahili
Swedish
Tajik
Tamil
Telugu
Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian
Urdu
Uzbek
Vietnamese
Welsh
Xhosa
Yiddish
Yoruba
Zulu
Odia (Oriya)
Kinyarwanda
Turkmen
Tatar
Uyghur
Would you like to inspect the original subtitles? These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated:
1
00:00:40,732 --> 00:00:49,066
Warning: Some violent scenes.
Subs synched by Kato Boii Hump Hump
2
00:00:52,691 --> 00:00:57,025
I gave every part of my youth
to do a job
3
00:00:57,025 --> 00:01:00,525
and to go through a savage war.
4
00:01:00,525 --> 00:01:04,025
It was a different war from
year to year, and one's reactions
5
00:01:04,025 --> 00:01:05,859
were completely different.
6
00:01:05,859 --> 00:01:10,484
The intensity changed so much
that anybody who'd been out in 1914
7
00:01:10,484 --> 00:01:12,526
and went home and came back in 1917,
8
00:01:12,526 --> 00:01:15,859
wouldn't recognise it
as the same war.
9
00:01:15,859 --> 00:01:18,610
I can only say one thing,
I wouldn't have missed it.
10
00:01:18,610 --> 00:01:21,651
It was terrible at times,
but I wouldn't have missed it.
11
00:01:21,651 --> 00:01:25,443
Oh, yes, if I could have
my time again, I'd go through it
12
00:01:25,443 --> 00:01:28,110
all over again because
I enjoyed the service life.
13
00:01:28,110 --> 00:01:32,069
I could only say that I have never
been so excited in my life,
14
00:01:32,069 --> 00:01:35,652
this was like a boy going
to the play the first time.
15
00:01:35,652 --> 00:01:38,819
I never realised there was
anything unusual about it.
16
00:01:38,819 --> 00:01:42,319
There was a job to be done
and you just go on and did it.
17
00:01:42,319 --> 00:01:45,444
We were all instilled with the idea
that this was war
18
00:01:45,444 --> 00:01:49,278
and that we've got to kill the
Germans, and this is how we looked
19
00:01:49,278 --> 00:01:50,778
at the thing.
20
00:01:50,778 --> 00:01:53,403
I don't regret
having experienced it.
21
00:01:53,403 --> 00:01:56,987
I wish I hadn't, but I don't
regret it because I'm safe.
22
00:01:56,987 --> 00:01:58,487
HE LAUGHS
23
00:01:58,487 --> 00:02:00,779
There were good times
and bad times in France.
24
00:02:00,779 --> 00:02:02,904
But you took the rough
with the smooth.
25
00:02:02,904 --> 00:02:06,946
I was twice wounded and gassed,
but it was just war and you made
26
00:02:06,946 --> 00:02:08,696
the best of it.
27
00:02:08,696 --> 00:02:11,154
Just took it in its stride,
like everybody else.
28
00:02:11,154 --> 00:02:14,029
We were glad to be in it
and we expected it to be rough,
29
00:02:14,029 --> 00:02:17,321
and it WAS rough,
but we didn't complain.
30
00:02:17,321 --> 00:02:19,696
There was no real excitement
about it.
31
00:02:19,696 --> 00:02:23,321
You'd seen death so many times,
you'd seen wounded so many times,
32
00:02:23,321 --> 00:02:24,947
blood didn't excite you.
33
00:02:24,947 --> 00:02:29,155
We were professionals
and to us it was just a job of work.
34
00:02:29,155 --> 00:02:33,739
It would be a fallacy to say
that one enjoyed it,
35
00:02:33,739 --> 00:02:36,906
but one got afterwards
a nice, warm inner feeling that
36
00:02:36,906 --> 00:02:38,447
one had been some use.
37
00:02:38,447 --> 00:02:40,906
It didn't affect me very much
because I wasn't
38
00:02:40,906 --> 00:02:43,698
sufficiently open in the ways
of the world, I was only a kid,
39
00:02:43,698 --> 00:02:45,614
like other blokes there.
40
00:02:45,614 --> 00:02:48,739
It was more like
a great big game to be enjoyed,
41
00:02:48,739 --> 00:02:52,448
apart from the actual killing
and all that sort of thing.
42
00:02:52,448 --> 00:02:53,990
It made me a man.
43
00:02:53,990 --> 00:02:55,407
Yes, it did.
44
00:02:55,407 --> 00:02:57,865
I don't think I should
have ever been the man I am if it
45
00:02:57,865 --> 00:02:59,823
hadn't been for having to serve.
46
00:02:59,823 --> 00:03:03,032
You'd learn to look after yourself.
47
00:03:03,032 --> 00:03:07,199
Whereas in your civilian life,
your mother did all the chores.
48
00:03:07,199 --> 00:03:09,574
You've got to learn
how to cook for yourself,
49
00:03:09,574 --> 00:03:12,241
darn your own socks,
sew on your own buttons
50
00:03:12,241 --> 00:03:14,033
and all the things like that.
51
00:03:14,033 --> 00:03:15,783
It was just a day's work.
52
00:03:15,783 --> 00:03:19,324
I knew that I was not alone,
I knew I wasn't fighting the war
53
00:03:19,324 --> 00:03:22,950
by myself and that what happened
to other people might happen to me.
54
00:03:22,950 --> 00:03:24,866
I had no regrets at all.
55
00:03:24,866 --> 00:03:27,617
But, you see, I had no wife,
no girl, no nothing.
56
00:03:27,617 --> 00:03:29,908
No regrets, no horrors...
57
00:03:31,700 --> 00:03:34,950
..because if you survive that,
you can survive anything.
58
00:03:45,868 --> 00:03:48,118
We was aware that there was
sort of a nasty feeling
59
00:03:48,118 --> 00:03:50,118
between England and Germany.
60
00:03:50,118 --> 00:03:52,993
We knew of the Kaiser's ambition
to expand his empire
61
00:03:52,993 --> 00:03:55,451
and all that sort of thing.
62
00:03:55,451 --> 00:03:59,368
During that summer, there was a lot
of talk about trouble
63
00:03:59,368 --> 00:04:01,785
going on in the Balkans,
but we were a long way
64
00:04:01,785 --> 00:04:05,369
from the Balkans
and it didn't worry us at all.
65
00:04:05,369 --> 00:04:07,702
It was that Serbia business,
wasn't it?
66
00:04:07,702 --> 00:04:10,077
Serbia, when that chap was shot.
67
00:04:10,077 --> 00:04:13,119
I was paying attention
to politics and I realised
68
00:04:13,119 --> 00:04:16,786
that there was going to be trouble
between England and Germany.
69
00:04:16,786 --> 00:04:20,119
It was a lovely
August the 4th morning.
70
00:04:20,119 --> 00:04:23,286
We were all seated around the table
and we were starting
71
00:04:23,286 --> 00:04:25,536
the Rugby football dinner
with the German team.
72
00:04:25,536 --> 00:04:28,162
There was a German here,
next to him was an Englishman,
73
00:04:28,162 --> 00:04:30,537
and next to him was a German,
and so on and so on.
74
00:04:30,537 --> 00:04:33,912
And a runner arrived into the middle
of this dinner
75
00:04:33,912 --> 00:04:37,412
with extraordinary news
of outbreak of war.
76
00:04:37,412 --> 00:04:40,454
There was a big placard -
"War declared on Germany."
77
00:04:40,454 --> 00:04:42,746
We didn't know what we ought to do.
78
00:04:42,746 --> 00:04:44,829
Whether we got to seize
a knife off the table
79
00:04:44,829 --> 00:04:47,663
and plunge it into the German
or what!
80
00:04:47,663 --> 00:04:50,871
But, after a little bit
of discussion, we decided
81
00:04:50,871 --> 00:04:54,830
that as far as we were concerned,
the war was going to start tomorrow,
82
00:04:54,830 --> 00:04:57,163
and the party proceeded.
83
00:05:00,247 --> 00:05:03,164
I'm proud of being a British hero.
I mean, I think we're as good
84
00:05:03,164 --> 00:05:04,580
a country as any in the world
85
00:05:04,580 --> 00:05:07,205
and you've got to be prepared
to fight for that.
86
00:05:07,205 --> 00:05:08,955
There's no doubt about it -
87
00:05:08,955 --> 00:05:12,872
in the First World War,
we prepared for war.
88
00:05:12,872 --> 00:05:16,623
The empire was strong,
we weren't afraid of anyone.
89
00:05:16,623 --> 00:05:19,873
Everybody bought little buttons
and white flags and sang songs,
90
00:05:19,873 --> 00:05:22,956
there was no feeling of despair
about it at all.
91
00:05:22,956 --> 00:05:26,581
England couldn't possibly lose,
no matter how many Germans pushed
92
00:05:26,581 --> 00:05:29,457
how many Englishmen into the
Channel, that they'd get no further.
93
00:05:29,457 --> 00:05:31,707
We couldn't possibly lose.
94
00:05:31,707 --> 00:05:35,957
We were brought up to think that one
Englishman was worth ten Germans.
95
00:05:35,957 --> 00:05:39,665
I thought that any enemy
of England was an enemy of mine
96
00:05:39,665 --> 00:05:41,374
and I wanted to be in it.
97
00:05:41,374 --> 00:05:43,916
Oh, 6 months or 12 months,
it would be all over
98
00:05:43,916 --> 00:05:45,999
and Bob's your uncle.
99
00:05:45,999 --> 00:05:48,499
I went with a friend of mine
to Shepherd's Bush Empire
100
00:05:48,499 --> 00:05:51,416
to see the picture show there
and they showed the fleet
101
00:05:51,416 --> 00:05:55,500
saving the high seas and played
"Britons never shall be slaves",
102
00:05:55,500 --> 00:05:58,125
and one feels that little shiver run
up their back and you know
103
00:05:58,125 --> 00:05:59,875
you've got to do something.
104
00:05:59,875 --> 00:06:02,583
A friend of mine said to me,
"We're going to join up."
105
00:06:02,583 --> 00:06:05,084
It was from the
patriotic point of view,
106
00:06:05,084 --> 00:06:10,209
and from the general excitement of
the whole affair, I suppose.
107
00:06:10,209 --> 00:06:13,501
I didn't believe in war
to that extent, but I was prepared
108
00:06:13,501 --> 00:06:15,584
to do my part.
109
00:06:15,584 --> 00:06:18,959
You see, in those days, men weren't
to think for themselves,
110
00:06:18,959 --> 00:06:22,710
they just had to do what they were
told and that's all there was to it.
111
00:06:22,710 --> 00:06:25,960
Oh, my mother
was very aggrieved about it.
112
00:06:25,960 --> 00:06:29,377
But, you know, a young man,
you decide you're going to go.
113
00:06:29,377 --> 00:06:33,168
At lunchtime, I left the office,
went along to Armoury House
114
00:06:33,168 --> 00:06:36,544
and there was a queue of about
1,000 people trying to enlist.
115
00:06:36,544 --> 00:06:38,752
Everybody thought
it would be a civilised war
116
00:06:38,752 --> 00:06:41,127
and wanted to be fit enough to go.
117
00:06:41,127 --> 00:06:43,794
Two of us decided to join up
together, and when we told
118
00:06:43,794 --> 00:06:46,086
the boss we were going to start
training on Monday,
119
00:06:46,086 --> 00:06:47,461
he was very annoyed.
120
00:06:47,461 --> 00:06:50,128
He didn't make any promise
at all that our jobs would be there
121
00:06:50,128 --> 00:06:51,544
when we got back.
122
00:06:51,544 --> 00:06:55,003
My mother, she said,
"You wait until you're 19."
123
00:06:55,003 --> 00:06:58,545
See, that was the age
in those days, 19 to 35.
124
00:06:58,545 --> 00:07:00,878
Well, it was supposed to be.
125
00:07:00,878 --> 00:07:02,795
We were all lads together, you know,
126
00:07:02,795 --> 00:07:04,295
full of excitement
127
00:07:04,295 --> 00:07:05,879
and all this kind of thing.
128
00:07:05,879 --> 00:07:07,295
I mean, I just wanted
129
00:07:07,295 --> 00:07:08,754
to have a go at Jerry.
130
00:07:08,754 --> 00:07:11,462
I just thought that I'd like
to go and fight for the country.
131
00:07:11,462 --> 00:07:14,421
This was the thing, you were proud
of your country
132
00:07:14,421 --> 00:07:16,171
and you'd do the best you could
for it.
133
00:07:16,171 --> 00:07:19,004
And this was what most of the
young people thought of doing
134
00:07:19,004 --> 00:07:20,588
in those days.
135
00:07:20,588 --> 00:07:24,005
My mother, she said to me,
"Look, we could stop you doing this
136
00:07:24,005 --> 00:07:25,588
"because of your age."
137
00:07:25,588 --> 00:07:29,296
I said, "Yes, I know you could,
Mother, but I'm sure you won't."
138
00:07:29,296 --> 00:07:31,047
Which they never did.
139
00:07:31,047 --> 00:07:34,422
I just felt that all the young
fellows of that age
140
00:07:34,422 --> 00:07:35,797
were volunteering
141
00:07:35,797 --> 00:07:37,964
and I thought it was
my job to do the same.
142
00:07:37,964 --> 00:07:40,839
I was desperately keen
and a whole heap of us were.
143
00:07:40,839 --> 00:07:42,756
I said, "Direct enlistment, please."
144
00:07:42,756 --> 00:07:44,256
They were highly delighted
145
00:07:44,256 --> 00:07:46,631
and pushed me in
as quick as lightning.
146
00:07:46,631 --> 00:07:49,464
Lots of the lads were
joining the local regiments,
147
00:07:49,464 --> 00:07:51,423
like the Bucks and the Middlesex.
148
00:07:51,423 --> 00:07:53,631
Lads that I knew
and had been to school with,
149
00:07:53,631 --> 00:07:55,506
played football and cricket with,
150
00:07:55,506 --> 00:07:58,090
we joined up, hoping for the best.
151
00:07:58,090 --> 00:08:00,673
We were good friends, comrades
152
00:08:00,673 --> 00:08:04,840
and it was a relief from rather
boring jobs at home, you see.
153
00:08:04,840 --> 00:08:08,090
I was walking down
the Camden Town high street,
154
00:08:08,090 --> 00:08:12,299
when two young ladies approached me,
"Why aren't you in the Army?"
155
00:08:12,299 --> 00:08:14,174
I said, "I'm only 17."
156
00:08:14,174 --> 00:08:16,091
"Oh, they all say that here."
157
00:08:16,091 --> 00:08:19,674
And to my amazement,
she put her hand in her bag
158
00:08:19,674 --> 00:08:22,841
and I put my hand up to sort of
safeguard myself,
159
00:08:22,841 --> 00:08:26,633
and this white feather
finished up my nose.
160
00:08:26,633 --> 00:08:30,925
As we marched to the station,
some of the chaps had bowler hats,
161
00:08:30,925 --> 00:08:35,342
some had straw hats, some had the
regulation peaked Army cap.
162
00:08:35,342 --> 00:08:37,759
Some would have tunics,
some would be dressed
163
00:08:37,759 --> 00:08:41,300
with their ordinary jackets
with a pair of Army trousers.
164
00:08:41,300 --> 00:08:43,801
Some had Army boots, some didn't.
165
00:08:43,801 --> 00:08:46,467
And we really were a motley throng.
166
00:08:46,467 --> 00:08:48,926
Some of them were obviously chaps
who had hoped to live
167
00:08:48,926 --> 00:08:51,801
in some comfort and brought
suitcases with clothes with them,
168
00:08:51,801 --> 00:08:53,259
which they never saw again.
169
00:08:53,259 --> 00:08:55,176
We had to all get our hair cut.
170
00:08:55,176 --> 00:08:56,468
"How would you like it, sir?"
171
00:08:56,468 --> 00:08:58,760
And you'd say,
"Short back and sides."
172
00:08:58,760 --> 00:09:01,052
But the answer was,
straight over the top
173
00:09:01,052 --> 00:09:04,968
with horse clippers, and we looked
more like convicts than soldiers.
174
00:09:04,968 --> 00:09:07,219
As soon as war broke out,
there was a call made
175
00:09:07,219 --> 00:09:09,385
for all ex-soldiers to rejoin,
176
00:09:09,385 --> 00:09:12,135
and they made them sergeants
straight away.
177
00:09:12,135 --> 00:09:15,261
So you got a lot of instructors
that way.
178
00:09:15,261 --> 00:09:18,427
The people who really carried us
through was the old sweats
179
00:09:18,427 --> 00:09:22,761
who'd had previous war experience
and gave us a lot of wise advice
180
00:09:22,761 --> 00:09:26,136
as to what to look for
and what to dodge.
181
00:09:26,136 --> 00:09:30,553
We were ordered down onto the parade
ground and then we were allotted
182
00:09:30,553 --> 00:09:33,095
to different platoons.
183
00:09:33,095 --> 00:09:36,803
When they came to us,
they were weedy, sallow,
184
00:09:36,803 --> 00:09:40,137
skinny, frightened children.
185
00:09:40,137 --> 00:09:44,221
The refuse of our industrial system
and they were in very poor condition
186
00:09:44,221 --> 00:09:46,471
and had to be made into soldiers.
187
00:09:46,471 --> 00:09:50,471
Many of us had given
our wrong ages to join the Army.
188
00:09:50,471 --> 00:09:53,054
The agent walked down
the lines and gave an order,
189
00:09:53,054 --> 00:09:58,555
"Every man under the age of 19
should take two paces forward."
190
00:09:58,555 --> 00:10:01,055
Nobody moved.
191
00:10:01,055 --> 00:10:05,013
I was a lad of 17 and
they'd probably say I wasn't 19,
192
00:10:05,013 --> 00:10:07,555
which you had to be to join up.
193
00:10:07,555 --> 00:10:10,972
But he says, "How long
do you want to sign on for?"
194
00:10:10,972 --> 00:10:14,264
Everyone else was joining up so
I called into the recruitment office
195
00:10:14,264 --> 00:10:17,222
and he said to me, "How old
are you?" I said, "17, sir."
196
00:10:17,222 --> 00:10:20,556
Well, he said, "Go outside and
come back and say you are 18."
197
00:10:20,556 --> 00:10:23,639
So of course, I went outside
and said we were 18.
198
00:10:23,639 --> 00:10:25,514
I was straight up there.
199
00:10:25,514 --> 00:10:28,223
The Sergeant said,
"How old are you?"
200
00:10:28,223 --> 00:10:29,556
I said, "I'm 18 and one month."
201
00:10:29,556 --> 00:10:31,848
He said,
"Do you mean 19 and one month?
202
00:10:31,848 --> 00:10:33,848
So I thought for a moment,
I said, "Yes, sir."
203
00:10:33,848 --> 00:10:35,807
He said, "Right, sign here, please."
204
00:10:35,807 --> 00:10:39,432
He asked me how old I was
and I said I was 16 in March.
205
00:10:39,432 --> 00:10:41,140
He said, "You're too young,
206
00:10:41,140 --> 00:10:43,765
"you better go outside
and have a birthday."
207
00:10:43,765 --> 00:10:47,016
I was 16 years old in 1917
208
00:10:47,016 --> 00:10:51,974
and I was six foot two tall
and my father allowed me to go.
209
00:10:51,974 --> 00:10:55,183
So I entered my age as 19 years old,
210
00:10:55,183 --> 00:10:58,683
three years older
than what I really was.
211
00:10:58,683 --> 00:11:03,267
I was 15 years,
just 2½ years short of 18,
212
00:11:03,267 --> 00:11:06,892
and I got before this
medical officer, who said,
213
00:11:06,892 --> 00:11:09,475
"All right, you pass."
214
00:11:09,475 --> 00:11:13,434
I had just turned 17 at the time
and I went up to Whitehall
215
00:11:13,434 --> 00:11:16,309
and enlisted in the 16th Lancers.
216
00:11:16,309 --> 00:11:19,726
I was 15 and I thought
I'd have a better chance
217
00:11:19,726 --> 00:11:21,518
than when I were 14.
218
00:11:21,518 --> 00:11:25,434
So I walked into the barracks
and just said, "I'm 18,"
219
00:11:25,434 --> 00:11:26,934
and that was it.
220
00:11:26,934 --> 00:11:30,351
My parents wrote to the
commanding officer and asked for me,
221
00:11:30,351 --> 00:11:32,143
as I was underage, to be released.
222
00:11:32,143 --> 00:11:36,060
And he said, "Your parents
want you back - do you want to go?"
223
00:11:36,060 --> 00:11:37,560
I said no.
224
00:11:39,018 --> 00:11:42,144
The chaplain asked me my age,
and I said I was 16.
225
00:11:42,144 --> 00:11:47,019
He said, "Much too young.
Would you like me to pray for you?"
226
00:11:52,186 --> 00:11:56,061
The clothing came piecemeal
into the quartermaster stores.
227
00:11:58,103 --> 00:12:01,270
One lad said,
"These boots don't fit me."
228
00:12:01,270 --> 00:12:04,062
And the quartermaster said,
"There isn't such a thing as boots
229
00:12:04,062 --> 00:12:06,353
"that don't fit in the Army,
it's your feet that don't
230
00:12:06,353 --> 00:12:07,728
"fit the boots."
231
00:12:07,728 --> 00:12:11,687
Some men would find a tunic
to fit them or perhaps
232
00:12:11,687 --> 00:12:13,187
a pair of trousers.
233
00:12:13,187 --> 00:12:16,437
And so it went on
for nearly a fortnight.
234
00:12:16,437 --> 00:12:17,937
Just one uniform.
235
00:12:17,937 --> 00:12:22,146
I was in the Army nearly four years,
I only had one uniform.
236
00:12:22,146 --> 00:12:25,021
We were all issued
with these famous puttees,
237
00:12:25,021 --> 00:12:28,438
which were news to all of us,
and I personally could never quite
238
00:12:28,438 --> 00:12:30,980
master the putting on of puttees.
239
00:12:30,980 --> 00:12:35,188
The main reason for puttees were
to support the legs in marching.
240
00:12:35,188 --> 00:12:38,938
I was issued with a kilt
but nothing to wear underneath it,
241
00:12:38,938 --> 00:12:41,439
and I was given a slip of paper
to say,
242
00:12:41,439 --> 00:12:44,647
"This man has not
been issued with underpants."
243
00:12:44,647 --> 00:12:47,231
I was given strict instructions
that I couldn't ride on top
244
00:12:47,231 --> 00:12:50,314
of the tram car,
had to ride downstairs.
245
00:12:52,231 --> 00:12:55,898
Now, the pack was for
everything that you own.
246
00:12:55,898 --> 00:13:00,273
The overcoat had to be folded
very, very neatly and tightly.
247
00:13:00,273 --> 00:13:03,648
There was a needle, thread,
spare buttons, knife,
248
00:13:03,648 --> 00:13:11,024
fork, spoon, razor, shaving brush,
toothbrush and also a half-pint mug.
249
00:13:11,024 --> 00:13:16,440
One spare shirt and one spare pair
of socks, and that was your kit.
250
00:13:16,440 --> 00:13:19,982
The Army razor with which we were
issued was absolutely useless,
251
00:13:19,982 --> 00:13:23,233
but it came in handy
for cutting up meat and so forth.
252
00:13:23,233 --> 00:13:26,358
The toothbrush, that came in handy
for cleaning buttons.
253
00:13:26,358 --> 00:13:29,066
But one of the peculiarities
about the Army was that,
254
00:13:29,066 --> 00:13:31,816
though it was a crime
to have dirty buttons,
255
00:13:31,816 --> 00:13:34,066
you were never issued
with the materials to clean
256
00:13:34,066 --> 00:13:36,650
the buttons,
you had to buy them yourself.
257
00:13:36,650 --> 00:13:40,692
We were awakened by the bugle,
which sounded Reveille.
258
00:13:40,692 --> 00:13:43,609
Wash, shave, pack your bed up
and pack your kit.
259
00:13:43,609 --> 00:13:48,109
About half past six, and you would
have an hour, PT before breakfast.
260
00:13:48,109 --> 00:13:52,442
Press-ups and physical exercises,
arms upward stretch.
261
00:13:52,442 --> 00:13:56,109
They knew you were fresh
and they tried to take it by stages,
262
00:13:56,109 --> 00:13:59,026
there wasn't any bullying
or anything like that.
263
00:13:59,026 --> 00:14:02,943
Breakfast consisted
of bread, butter,
264
00:14:02,943 --> 00:14:06,068
one rasher of
Lance Corporal Bacon.
265
00:14:06,068 --> 00:14:08,902
It was streaky bacon,
it had one stripe in it.
266
00:14:08,902 --> 00:14:11,693
Well, there was jam and
they seemed to make nothing
267
00:14:11,693 --> 00:14:13,652
but plum and apple, you know?
268
00:14:13,652 --> 00:14:16,985
If you got any other kind,
it was a celebration event.
269
00:14:18,694 --> 00:14:21,819
There were the Bruce Bairnsfather
cartoons depicting that,
270
00:14:21,819 --> 00:14:24,069
handing him a tin of plum
and apple jam.
271
00:14:24,069 --> 00:14:26,111
"When the 'ell is it
going to be strawberry?"
272
00:14:26,111 --> 00:14:28,028
It was wonderful, that jam.
273
00:14:28,028 --> 00:14:31,611
Tickler's, the jam manufacturers,
274
00:14:31,611 --> 00:14:35,903
they must have made millions of tins
of P&A, plum and apple.
275
00:14:35,903 --> 00:14:39,695
# Oh, oh, oh, it's a lovely war
276
00:14:39,695 --> 00:14:42,445
# What do we want with eggs and ham
277
00:14:42,445 --> 00:14:46,029
# When we've got bags
of Tickler's Jam? #
278
00:14:46,029 --> 00:14:49,821
And then it would be parade time
and the Sergeant would take over
279
00:14:49,821 --> 00:14:52,987
and you'd have a whole morning
of marching
280
00:14:52,987 --> 00:14:55,404
and you would learn all commands,
281
00:14:55,404 --> 00:14:58,654
such as "about turn"
and all that sort of thing.
282
00:14:58,654 --> 00:15:02,321
Having been in the Boy Scouts,
it was dead easy to me.
283
00:15:02,321 --> 00:15:04,696
When you get the order
"right dress",
284
00:15:04,696 --> 00:15:07,530
you turn your head only,
to the right.
285
00:15:07,530 --> 00:15:09,738
Some of them managed to turn left,
286
00:15:09,738 --> 00:15:12,863
which didn't exactly please
the drill Sergeant.
287
00:15:12,863 --> 00:15:15,155
We were all youngsters,
we'd come from
288
00:15:15,155 --> 00:15:17,697
fairly sheltered lives and so forth.
289
00:15:17,697 --> 00:15:22,072
This Sergeant of ours
was the loudmouth shouting type.
290
00:15:22,072 --> 00:15:27,031
Coming up against
military discipline was a shock,
291
00:15:27,031 --> 00:15:31,406
being chased around from pillar
to post by disciplinarian NCOs.
292
00:15:31,406 --> 00:15:33,531
Some of the sergeants were shockers.
293
00:15:33,531 --> 00:15:36,906
They would cause a lot of trouble
if you were out of step
294
00:15:36,906 --> 00:15:39,865
or if you didn't keep time,
or if you didn't handle
295
00:15:39,865 --> 00:15:41,657
your rifle properly.
296
00:15:41,657 --> 00:15:44,032
They were always having a go at you.
297
00:15:44,032 --> 00:15:46,449
Most of them were all right,
the shouting meant nothing,
298
00:15:46,449 --> 00:15:48,365
but some of them never lost it.
299
00:15:48,365 --> 00:15:53,407
One night I'd gone to bed and
this pot was brought round to my bed
300
00:15:53,407 --> 00:15:56,533
and they said,
"Oh, you want to do a piss?"
301
00:15:56,533 --> 00:15:58,783
So I did the business in the pot.
302
00:15:58,783 --> 00:16:01,449
They'd rested this big, huge pot
303
00:16:01,449 --> 00:16:04,450
which contained gallons,
on the door.
304
00:16:04,450 --> 00:16:08,825
And when this Sergeant came along
to see that everybody
305
00:16:08,825 --> 00:16:11,242
was in bed, this thing turned up
and he was drenched
306
00:16:11,242 --> 00:16:13,450
from top to bottom in fluid!
307
00:16:13,450 --> 00:16:15,742
HE LAUGHS
308
00:16:15,742 --> 00:16:18,825
First of all,
I was full of enthusiasm.
309
00:16:18,825 --> 00:16:21,909
But after about the first week,
I wished I hadn't done it.
310
00:16:21,909 --> 00:16:25,534
Because the discipline was so strict
that I was beginning to get
311
00:16:25,534 --> 00:16:28,534
a little bit nervous
as to what was in store.
312
00:16:28,534 --> 00:16:31,034
We weren't out dancing,
anything like that.
313
00:16:31,034 --> 00:16:32,785
We were getting ready for a war.
314
00:16:32,785 --> 00:16:37,493
The thing was, you were in the Army,
you had to do as you were told.
315
00:16:37,493 --> 00:16:41,660
You had one master, or dozens,
but you just had to get on with it
316
00:16:41,660 --> 00:16:43,077
and that was it.
317
00:16:43,077 --> 00:16:45,244
I did find that right
through the Army,
318
00:16:45,244 --> 00:16:48,077
if you behaved yourself,
you'd nothing much to fear.
319
00:16:48,077 --> 00:16:50,077
This was quite a new world to us.
320
00:16:50,077 --> 00:16:52,536
I mean, you can imagine.
I came out of civilian life,
321
00:16:52,536 --> 00:16:54,827
like all the others did,
and we weren't in a position
322
00:16:54,827 --> 00:16:56,953
to argue or object.
323
00:16:56,953 --> 00:16:59,578
It was just a matter of doing
what we were told.
324
00:16:59,578 --> 00:17:00,953
I liked it.
325
00:17:00,953 --> 00:17:04,703
I liked to be told what I had to do
because there was a reason
326
00:17:04,703 --> 00:17:08,953
for doing it, and later on I
realised that was the best training
327
00:17:08,953 --> 00:17:10,578
you could have.
328
00:17:10,578 --> 00:17:13,953
The first week, our route march
would be ten miles,
329
00:17:13,953 --> 00:17:17,079
the second week it would be 12,
and so on and so on.
330
00:17:17,079 --> 00:17:21,496
It intensified, because
it's of the utmost importance
331
00:17:21,496 --> 00:17:25,329
that the infantry soldiers
could march with a full kit.
332
00:17:25,329 --> 00:17:28,246
What you had to carry was 109 lbs.
333
00:17:28,246 --> 00:17:31,871
The marching was easy for me,
but quite a lot of chaps
334
00:17:31,871 --> 00:17:35,496
who were in sedentary jobs
found it pretty hard.
335
00:17:35,496 --> 00:17:40,830
It numbed and cramped my muscles
on my thighs and calves
336
00:17:40,830 --> 00:17:43,830
until they hurt very much indeed.
337
00:17:43,830 --> 00:17:45,997
Oh, those Army boots.
338
00:17:45,997 --> 00:17:47,497
I could have cried.
339
00:17:47,497 --> 00:17:53,081
My feet and ankles with those heavy
Army boots after civilian shoes.
340
00:17:53,081 --> 00:17:56,956
So to get your boots made pliable,
you used to urinate in them
341
00:17:56,956 --> 00:17:59,081
and leave it overnight.
342
00:17:59,081 --> 00:18:03,831
Quite a lot of men were clerks
or they worked in shops,
343
00:18:03,831 --> 00:18:08,206
and the very nature of their calling
didn't make for fitness.
344
00:18:08,206 --> 00:18:11,623
Well, they sent me to hospital
and they gave me the cure
345
00:18:11,623 --> 00:18:16,790
for hookworm and I found that
I could stand the drill after that.
346
00:18:16,790 --> 00:18:19,582
They used to march us
all round the West End.
347
00:18:19,582 --> 00:18:23,832
Crowds used to foregather, and
some of the poor, deluded ones
348
00:18:23,832 --> 00:18:27,207
fell for the con trick and
lined up behind us
349
00:18:27,207 --> 00:18:29,833
and we used to march
them all down to Chelsea barracks,
350
00:18:29,833 --> 00:18:31,291
where they got signed up.
351
00:18:33,874 --> 00:18:37,083
Lunch would consist
of inedible stew.
352
00:18:37,083 --> 00:18:41,250
Now, you must remember the chaps
in the cookhouse were by no means
353
00:18:41,250 --> 00:18:43,792
experienced cooks,
but anybody can make a stew,
354
00:18:43,792 --> 00:18:45,625
and that's what they did.
355
00:18:45,625 --> 00:18:50,667
Sometimes we got a bit of plum duff
and milk puddings and tapioca rice.
356
00:18:50,667 --> 00:18:53,417
It was the good old-fashioned,
plain stuff
357
00:18:53,417 --> 00:18:55,042
that I was brought up on.
358
00:18:55,042 --> 00:18:57,376
I had no complaint about it.
359
00:18:57,376 --> 00:19:02,584
In the afternoon, it could be
a lecture on Vickers machine guns.
360
00:19:02,584 --> 00:19:06,085
We used to strip the machinegun
right down
361
00:19:06,085 --> 00:19:08,001
and put it together again.
362
00:19:08,001 --> 00:19:11,710
And, luckily, I seemed to cotton on
to that quite quickly.
363
00:19:11,710 --> 00:19:14,752
We were always told
the man's best friend is his rifle,
364
00:19:14,752 --> 00:19:16,460
and it was.
365
00:19:16,460 --> 00:19:21,002
Our rifle was a short Lee-Enfield,
a very good rifle indeed.
366
00:19:21,002 --> 00:19:22,835
A real sturdy rifle.
367
00:19:22,835 --> 00:19:27,127
You had your ammunition pouches
on both sides of the chest,
368
00:19:27,127 --> 00:19:29,336
to counterbalance the weight
of the pack,
369
00:19:29,336 --> 00:19:34,294
and those pouches carried 150 rounds
of .303 ammunition.
370
00:19:34,294 --> 00:19:36,961
We were supposed to hold
the rifle up in one hand,
371
00:19:36,961 --> 00:19:39,545
but I could never hold
a rifle properly.
372
00:19:39,545 --> 00:19:42,295
My right wrist wouldn't hold it up.
373
00:19:42,295 --> 00:19:45,295
I'd never fired a rifle in my life,
but on the first day we went
374
00:19:45,295 --> 00:19:46,670
onto the rifle range,
375
00:19:46,670 --> 00:19:49,254
and it was amazing
the bull's-eyes I was getting.
376
00:19:49,254 --> 00:19:53,045
So, the next thing, I was made
a first-class rifleman.
377
00:19:53,045 --> 00:19:55,504
Above all, we learned rapid-fire.
378
00:19:55,504 --> 00:19:59,129
Ten rounds, get those ten rounds
onto the target in one minute.
379
00:19:59,129 --> 00:20:01,296
It was known as "the mad minute".
380
00:20:01,296 --> 00:20:04,754
I'd never seen a dead man
or anything of that kind,
381
00:20:04,754 --> 00:20:07,505
and I wondered, if it came
to my shooting a man,
382
00:20:07,505 --> 00:20:09,546
whether I would be able to do this.
383
00:20:09,546 --> 00:20:12,547
Plunge the bayonet into the sack,
shout like hell.
384
00:20:12,547 --> 00:20:14,880
And they would tell you
where to put your bayonet.
385
00:20:14,880 --> 00:20:17,380
Either into his left shoulder,
his right shoulder,
386
00:20:17,380 --> 00:20:19,505
in the chest or in the body.
387
00:20:19,505 --> 00:20:21,714
We was told to make
as much noise as we could.
388
00:20:21,714 --> 00:20:23,880
I think that was
to frighten the enemy.
389
00:20:23,880 --> 00:20:27,547
It didn't seem to me to be a likely
thing to do, but we used to shout.
390
00:20:27,547 --> 00:20:30,714
When you train as a division,
there's 12 battalions,
391
00:20:30,714 --> 00:20:33,839
there's roughly 12,000 men
who are on the move,
392
00:20:33,839 --> 00:20:37,756
and you're a very small cog
in a big wheel.
393
00:20:37,756 --> 00:20:40,840
Saturday mornings we were let off,
but we had to do
394
00:20:40,840 --> 00:20:42,507
sometimes barrack duties.
395
00:20:42,507 --> 00:20:45,965
And then, on Sundays, we were all
marched down to church.
396
00:20:45,965 --> 00:20:48,674
It didn't matter what religion
you were, you all had to go,
397
00:20:48,674 --> 00:20:50,215
and that was it.
398
00:20:50,215 --> 00:20:52,840
Hardly a day passed
without the shout
399
00:20:52,840 --> 00:20:54,132
around the barrack-room,
400
00:20:54,132 --> 00:20:56,507
"Has anybody here had
any experience with horses?
401
00:20:56,507 --> 00:20:59,091
"Can anybody here play
any musical instruments?
402
00:20:59,091 --> 00:21:01,716
"Anybody had an experience
at so and so?"
403
00:21:01,716 --> 00:21:05,341
So gradually, the thousand men
who were joined up
404
00:21:05,341 --> 00:21:09,925
as a motley throng, now became
a transport man, a bandsman,
405
00:21:09,925 --> 00:21:11,883
signalman and so on.
406
00:21:11,883 --> 00:21:14,008
You didn't want to mess
about on the parade ground
407
00:21:14,008 --> 00:21:16,383
with heavy packs
on the route marches.
408
00:21:16,383 --> 00:21:20,134
Most of us wanted to go across
and do some scrapping.
409
00:21:20,134 --> 00:21:23,759
After good food,
fresh air and physical exercise,
410
00:21:23,759 --> 00:21:26,592
they changed so that their mothers
wouldn't have recognised them.
411
00:21:26,592 --> 00:21:30,926
They put on an average of one stone
in weight and one inch in height.
412
00:21:30,926 --> 00:21:34,301
Although we hated the sight and
sound of our disciplinary sergeants,
413
00:21:34,301 --> 00:21:38,093
this reflects greatly to their
credit because they knocked us
414
00:21:38,093 --> 00:21:40,801
into shape as regards
to marching and foot drills.
415
00:21:40,801 --> 00:21:44,302
But far more than that,
they were handsome,
416
00:21:44,302 --> 00:21:47,718
ruddy, upstanding,
square-shouldered young men
417
00:21:47,718 --> 00:21:50,385
who were afraid of nobody,
not even the Sergeant Major.
418
00:21:50,385 --> 00:21:53,010
After the six weeks,
we were informed we were going
419
00:21:53,010 --> 00:21:55,511
to be posted overseas.
420
00:21:55,511 --> 00:21:59,594
They said, "You're leaving tomorrow
morning for an unknown destination."
421
00:21:59,594 --> 00:22:02,136
You were never told
where you were heading for.
422
00:22:02,136 --> 00:22:05,344
I just wanted to fight the Germans,
and as far as that was concerned,
423
00:22:05,344 --> 00:22:08,136
it didn't matter tuppence to me
where we went.
424
00:22:08,136 --> 00:22:11,178
And when we pushed them
through this crash programme
425
00:22:11,178 --> 00:22:12,970
of military training,
426
00:22:12,970 --> 00:22:15,053
they were pushed off to
France in batches.
427
00:22:15,053 --> 00:22:18,220
Before we left, the officer said,
"well, you haven't had time
428
00:22:18,220 --> 00:22:21,720
"to be made sergeants, so we'll give
you a couple of stripes."
429
00:22:21,720 --> 00:22:25,429
So they made us corporals,
and in less than no time
430
00:22:25,429 --> 00:22:28,387
we were marched down to the station.
431
00:22:28,387 --> 00:22:31,596
In my mind I wondered,
"Shall I ever come back?"
432
00:22:31,596 --> 00:22:33,679
I didn't think I would at the time.
433
00:22:33,679 --> 00:22:35,971
I didn't worry about it.
434
00:22:35,971 --> 00:22:39,680
Oh, they were all full of euphoria,
they were all glad they were going.
435
00:22:39,680 --> 00:22:41,513
Nobody was crying.
436
00:22:41,513 --> 00:22:43,721
I wrote a postcard
when I was in the train
437
00:22:43,721 --> 00:22:46,638
and chucked it out of the window,
hoping that it would be delivered
438
00:22:46,638 --> 00:22:48,055
to my family.
439
00:22:48,055 --> 00:22:50,889
We arrived at Folkestone
in the evening.
440
00:22:50,889 --> 00:22:54,555
We embarked on one of
the old Thames pleasure boats.
441
00:22:54,555 --> 00:22:58,722
Well, pretty crowded, but of course
there's only 21 mile
442
00:22:58,722 --> 00:23:01,347
from Dover to Calais on the boat.
443
00:23:01,347 --> 00:23:04,389
There were talks by officers to us
as to how to behave ourselves
444
00:23:04,389 --> 00:23:07,514
on foreign soil, and that we've
got to respect other people's
445
00:23:07,514 --> 00:23:09,723
modes of conduct.
446
00:23:09,723 --> 00:23:13,515
The biggest number of casualties
were NCOs,
447
00:23:13,515 --> 00:23:15,973
and we weren't all too keen
about this.
448
00:23:15,973 --> 00:23:19,557
So I went into the lavatory
and my stripes came off
449
00:23:19,557 --> 00:23:22,182
and they disappeared
through the porthole.
450
00:23:22,182 --> 00:23:25,265
And with that, I went back on deck
as a private.
451
00:23:29,182 --> 00:23:31,224
As our horses were brought
down the gangways,
452
00:23:31,224 --> 00:23:34,183
I noticed the expression
on the men's faces.
453
00:23:34,183 --> 00:23:37,016
There were no cheerful,
smiling faces coming down
454
00:23:37,016 --> 00:23:38,599
that gangway at all.
455
00:23:40,850 --> 00:23:43,225
It was beautiful weather,
very warm,
456
00:23:43,225 --> 00:23:46,975
and every village and town
we went through, people rushed out,
457
00:23:46,975 --> 00:23:50,225
bottles of wine,
yards of French bread, flowers.
458
00:23:50,225 --> 00:23:52,850
The land flowed
in every single aspect.
459
00:23:52,850 --> 00:23:55,017
There were farmers
going about their business,
460
00:23:55,017 --> 00:23:56,892
the most lovely country.
461
00:23:59,101 --> 00:24:01,851
If we passed a field of carrots,
we used to raid the field
462
00:24:01,851 --> 00:24:05,309
and walk along munching
the carrots and turnips.
463
00:24:09,476 --> 00:24:11,643
I was dead scared
that the war would be over
464
00:24:11,643 --> 00:24:13,060
before I got out to it.
465
00:24:13,060 --> 00:24:14,685
When I got out to France,
466
00:24:14,685 --> 00:24:17,268
I was terribly pleased,
really keen.
467
00:24:19,977 --> 00:24:22,935
You just marched and marched
until roughly 20 miles
468
00:24:22,935 --> 00:24:24,644
from the trenches.
469
00:24:24,644 --> 00:24:27,352
We knew we were getting close
to the line because the gunfire
470
00:24:27,352 --> 00:24:29,519
was becoming more noisy.
471
00:24:29,519 --> 00:24:32,186
I remember the first shell,
I was delighted.
472
00:24:34,936 --> 00:24:38,686
We went through towns, villages
that were absolutely derelict.
473
00:24:38,686 --> 00:24:42,186
So we never knew where we were,
except that we were in Belgium.
474
00:24:44,853 --> 00:24:48,145
The devastation was something
I never could have imagined.
475
00:24:48,145 --> 00:24:51,103
The whole place gave one
the most eerie sensation.
476
00:24:54,895 --> 00:24:58,604
There was stunted trees,
torn to shreds with shellfire
477
00:24:58,604 --> 00:25:02,521
and there was shell holes
all over the place.
478
00:25:02,521 --> 00:25:05,438
We were relieving men of the
28th division,
479
00:25:05,438 --> 00:25:08,854
and as they passed us, we would say,
"What's it like up there?"
480
00:25:08,854 --> 00:25:12,230
The reply invariably came back,
"Bloody awful, mate."
481
00:25:12,230 --> 00:25:15,771
The old sweats coming back
got their tails up all right,
482
00:25:15,771 --> 00:25:19,563
but I didn't know what to expect,
just hadn't a clue.
483
00:25:19,563 --> 00:25:23,022
It was deadly warfare,
you were facing the Germans.
484
00:25:27,272 --> 00:25:28,730
Follow me.
485
00:25:31,397 --> 00:25:33,022
You got the order, "load".
486
00:25:33,022 --> 00:25:36,981
You put nine in your magazine
and one up the spout
487
00:25:36,981 --> 00:25:38,731
and you put the safety catch on,
488
00:25:38,731 --> 00:25:41,481
and you always went into the line
prepared to use
489
00:25:41,481 --> 00:25:43,106
your rifle immediately.
490
00:25:44,940 --> 00:25:47,690
That's when you got rigid orders,
no talking whatsoever,
491
00:25:47,690 --> 00:25:49,315
keep your head down.
492
00:25:49,315 --> 00:25:51,357
Single file, no smoking.
493
00:25:51,357 --> 00:25:54,649
The captain would then direct you
right to the front trenches.
494
00:25:58,149 --> 00:26:00,691
Before a man goes into the trenches,
he usually carries
495
00:26:00,691 --> 00:26:05,441
a roll of barbed wire or a bag of
bombs, besides his own equipment.
496
00:26:05,441 --> 00:26:08,149
That's the way to get the stuff
up to the front line.
497
00:26:08,149 --> 00:26:10,941
Now,
a guide would always be sent out.
498
00:26:10,941 --> 00:26:13,650
Extend this part of
the trench over there.
499
00:26:13,650 --> 00:26:15,150
What, that way? That's it.
500
00:26:15,150 --> 00:26:16,900
The trenches in France were a maze.
501
00:26:16,900 --> 00:26:19,608
If you didn't have a guide,
you could very soon get lost.
502
00:26:19,608 --> 00:26:22,317
Smile, so your mother thinks
I'm looking after you.
503
00:26:24,900 --> 00:26:26,692
Coming up, coming up!
504
00:26:31,151 --> 00:26:33,192
The trenches weren't
in one straight line.
505
00:26:33,192 --> 00:26:36,693
They were built on what they call
a Travis System.
506
00:26:36,693 --> 00:26:39,609
The Travis would break up
the shellfire
507
00:26:39,609 --> 00:26:42,943
and stop it spreading right along
the trench.
508
00:26:42,943 --> 00:26:44,693
There was a front line of trenches
509
00:26:44,693 --> 00:26:47,068
and then there was a second line
of trenches.
510
00:26:47,068 --> 00:26:51,402
The support line would be about 50
yards or more behind the front line.
511
00:26:51,402 --> 00:26:54,068
In between, there would be
communication trenches
512
00:26:54,068 --> 00:26:56,485
so that they could move through
if the front line
513
00:26:56,485 --> 00:26:58,235
was under jeopardy.
514
00:26:58,235 --> 00:27:01,611
First impression I got
of the trenches was they were
515
00:27:01,611 --> 00:27:03,652
very much lived in.
516
00:27:03,652 --> 00:27:05,652
We had to take them
as we found them.
517
00:27:05,652 --> 00:27:09,319
You would see an overcoat
hanging from a wooden peg.
518
00:27:09,319 --> 00:27:13,028
You would see a mess tin
with some tea in it.
519
00:27:13,028 --> 00:27:16,153
A dugout, which had a piece
of blanket in it,
520
00:27:16,153 --> 00:27:18,320
a bed made of sandbags.
521
00:27:18,320 --> 00:27:21,403
Our world was divided
by no-man's-land,
522
00:27:21,403 --> 00:27:23,195
a sort of Iron Curtain,
523
00:27:23,195 --> 00:27:27,112
beyond which were bogey men who
would kill you if they ever saw you.
524
00:27:27,112 --> 00:27:30,279
As you look through your periscope,
all you could see were hundreds
525
00:27:30,279 --> 00:27:35,237
of shell holes, your barbed wire
and the German barbed wire.
526
00:27:35,237 --> 00:27:38,154
You could see dead bodies
hanging on the barbed wire
527
00:27:38,154 --> 00:27:41,196
and they may have been there
for a long, long time.
528
00:27:41,196 --> 00:27:44,238
It was one of the most desolate
looking places in the world.
529
00:27:44,238 --> 00:27:48,655
You never saw a sign of life,
and yet you knew very well that,
530
00:27:48,655 --> 00:27:53,113
within shouting range, there were
hundreds and hundreds of men.
531
00:27:53,113 --> 00:27:55,822
A platoon of about 50 men
would have about 100 yards
532
00:27:55,822 --> 00:27:59,322
of front line trenches
as their responsibility.
533
00:27:59,322 --> 00:28:01,572
There were signs
all over the trenches,
534
00:28:01,572 --> 00:28:05,156
Piccadilly Circus and Regent Street
and all that sort of thing,
535
00:28:05,156 --> 00:28:06,906
telling you where water points were
536
00:28:06,906 --> 00:28:09,448
and which was the
most dangerous part of the land
537
00:28:09,448 --> 00:28:11,614
with regard to snipers.
538
00:28:11,614 --> 00:28:14,281
You had to be extremely careful
because a bullet could go
539
00:28:14,281 --> 00:28:17,073
through one layer of
sandbags quite easily.
540
00:28:17,073 --> 00:28:19,657
I was talking to a bloke one day
and, pop,
541
00:28:19,657 --> 00:28:21,907
his head was bashed in like an egg.
542
00:28:21,907 --> 00:28:25,198
He just happened to be in a place
where a sniper could get an aim.
543
00:28:26,615 --> 00:28:29,365
We used to do
a four-day stint in a line.
544
00:28:29,365 --> 00:28:33,866
We took with us sufficient food
to last the four days.
545
00:28:35,324 --> 00:28:37,199
Go on, lads, give our love to Jerry.
546
00:28:37,199 --> 00:28:38,658
Mind yourselves out there.
547
00:28:38,658 --> 00:28:42,783
Your day would start before dawn
when NCOs would go round
548
00:28:42,783 --> 00:28:45,825
this 100 yards and
make sure everybody was alive.
549
00:28:45,825 --> 00:28:49,450
Of a day in the trenches,
you had two hours on, four off.
550
00:28:49,450 --> 00:28:51,617
A third of the people
were on sentry duty,
551
00:28:51,617 --> 00:28:54,450
a third working
and a third sleeping.
552
00:28:54,450 --> 00:28:56,242
We just slept where we were.
553
00:28:56,242 --> 00:28:58,867
No beds, just flopped down
on the ground.
554
00:28:58,867 --> 00:29:01,450
Been to the pictures, mate!
555
00:29:01,450 --> 00:29:04,617
The trench was very wet
and, wherever possible, we would try
556
00:29:04,617 --> 00:29:06,201
and get above the water.
557
00:29:06,201 --> 00:29:08,868
We were able to dig out
the side of the trench
558
00:29:08,868 --> 00:29:11,409
and that was when we used
to steal our sleep
559
00:29:11,409 --> 00:29:13,909
on the two-on and four-off stretch.
560
00:29:13,909 --> 00:29:16,826
And then you'd have
your couple of hours on the parapet
561
00:29:16,826 --> 00:29:18,618
and then rest again.
562
00:29:18,618 --> 00:29:21,785
If nothing untoward happened,
there would be perhaps
563
00:29:21,785 --> 00:29:25,452
two or three sentry groups
in the whole company's front.
564
00:29:25,452 --> 00:29:27,619
EXPLOSIONS BOOM IN DISTANCE
565
00:29:37,119 --> 00:29:38,869
It was a job to keep awake.
566
00:29:38,869 --> 00:29:41,828
Woe betide you
if you were caught asleep.
567
00:29:41,828 --> 00:29:44,953
If you are so tired,
you can sleep standing up,
568
00:29:44,953 --> 00:29:46,745
which I've done many times.
569
00:29:48,161 --> 00:29:53,370
The first thing you did when you got
into the line was to have a brew-up.
570
00:29:53,370 --> 00:29:55,745
There was one thing
about the Vickers gun,
571
00:29:55,745 --> 00:29:57,537
it being a water-cooled weapon,
572
00:29:57,537 --> 00:29:59,995
if you were continuously firing,
you'd find that the water
573
00:29:59,995 --> 00:30:02,870
would be boiling.
You could disconnect the tube
574
00:30:02,870 --> 00:30:04,371
and make a cup of tea.
575
00:30:04,371 --> 00:30:07,287
The water came up
in two-gallon petrol cans.
576
00:30:07,287 --> 00:30:09,746
And we could taste the petrol in it
because they couldn't
577
00:30:09,746 --> 00:30:11,621
wash it completely out.
578
00:30:14,579 --> 00:30:16,830
In every bay was a little fireplace.
579
00:30:16,830 --> 00:30:21,288
You used tiny slivers of wood
because if you made smoke
580
00:30:21,288 --> 00:30:23,372
in the front line,
over would come a shell.
581
00:30:23,372 --> 00:30:24,622
I fancy a brew.
582
00:30:24,622 --> 00:30:27,080
But save a drop of that tea
to shave with.
583
00:30:27,080 --> 00:30:29,539
Because we had to shave
in the front line.
584
00:30:29,539 --> 00:30:32,330
We used to put a lot of tins
out on the parapet
585
00:30:32,330 --> 00:30:35,747
if it rained. You daren't touch
any of the other water.
586
00:30:35,747 --> 00:30:38,581
We were scooping water
out of shell holes,
587
00:30:38,581 --> 00:30:40,664
there might have been
dead bodies underneath.
588
00:30:40,664 --> 00:30:42,748
We thought as long as
we boiled it for a long time,
589
00:30:42,748 --> 00:30:44,873
all the green stuff
would come off the top.
590
00:30:44,873 --> 00:30:47,581
Nice and gentle.
Anyway, we'd made tea with it.
591
00:30:47,581 --> 00:30:49,956
That's how I got
my dose of dysentery.
592
00:30:49,956 --> 00:30:52,540
Of course,
there was no sanitary arrangements.
593
00:30:52,540 --> 00:30:54,790
They'd dig a trench
and stick a pole across,
594
00:30:54,790 --> 00:30:58,540
and you'd get about seven
or eight chaps on the pole.
595
00:30:58,540 --> 00:31:00,749
God, to have a clear-out
was terrible.
596
00:31:00,749 --> 00:31:02,374
FLIES BUZZ
597
00:31:02,374 --> 00:31:04,832
People used to go
to the toilet with no privacy.
598
00:31:04,832 --> 00:31:08,249
Being rather a shy nature,
if I had pissed with somebody,
599
00:31:08,249 --> 00:31:09,707
I felt a bit nervous.
600
00:31:09,707 --> 00:31:12,666
But when you were in the Army,
you got quite used to it.
601
00:31:12,666 --> 00:31:15,333
Of course, it didn't matter a damn
because there was no women
602
00:31:15,333 --> 00:31:16,750
or anything like that.
603
00:31:16,750 --> 00:31:19,375
The flies used to crawl
over your bottom.
604
00:31:19,375 --> 00:31:20,708
Most unpleasant.
605
00:31:20,708 --> 00:31:22,583
And no such thing as toilet rolls.
606
00:31:22,583 --> 00:31:24,750
You had to wipe your
behind with your hand.
607
00:31:24,750 --> 00:31:27,250
Your hands might have been
in all sorts of things,
608
00:31:27,250 --> 00:31:28,917
but you never washed.
609
00:31:28,917 --> 00:31:30,584
Well, you heard a terrific shout...
610
00:31:30,584 --> 00:31:32,250
MEN SHOUT AND YELL, LOUD THUD
611
00:31:32,250 --> 00:31:35,167
..and the pole had snapped
and the poor men
612
00:31:35,167 --> 00:31:37,584
who were sitting on the bar
fell down in the muck!
613
00:31:37,584 --> 00:31:39,417
MEN LAUGH
614
00:31:39,417 --> 00:31:42,418
There was always the humorous side
of the war.
615
00:31:42,418 --> 00:31:45,543
We had to put rifles down for them
to hang onto,
616
00:31:45,543 --> 00:31:50,418
and they came out like slimy rabbits
and nobody wanted to go near them.
617
00:31:52,876 --> 00:31:55,835
We had no spare clothes at all
and you were living for weeks
618
00:31:55,835 --> 00:31:58,793
without washing or getting a bath.
619
00:31:58,793 --> 00:32:02,835
I personally became really badly
infested and chatty,
620
00:32:02,835 --> 00:32:05,502
as we used to call it,
with these lice.
621
00:32:05,502 --> 00:32:07,961
Oh, lice was a dreadful problem.
622
00:32:07,961 --> 00:32:11,503
They were funny little things,
like little monster sort of things,
623
00:32:11,503 --> 00:32:14,586
with six legs, and they used
to feed ten times a day.
624
00:32:14,586 --> 00:32:16,253
You had to kill the bloody things.
625
00:32:16,253 --> 00:32:18,628
My favourite way was burning them.
626
00:32:18,628 --> 00:32:21,586
You would run the seams
over the lighted candle
627
00:32:21,586 --> 00:32:24,212
and you could hear the eggs going
pop, pop, pop, pop.
628
00:32:24,212 --> 00:32:25,920
POPPING
629
00:32:25,920 --> 00:32:28,545
The sooner you got the shirt back
again, the heat of the body
630
00:32:28,545 --> 00:32:30,462
hatched the eggs that you'd missed.
631
00:32:31,879 --> 00:32:34,504
And we was just as lousy
the next day.
632
00:32:37,254 --> 00:32:40,587
Each man prepared his own breakfast.
633
00:32:40,587 --> 00:32:44,421
Bread and jam was about
16 men to a loaf of bread.
634
00:32:46,129 --> 00:32:48,463
There'd be a little bit of bacon
which would suffice
635
00:32:48,463 --> 00:32:50,588
for half a dozen men.
636
00:32:50,588 --> 00:32:53,921
You'd put your rasher of bacon
in your mess tin lid,
637
00:32:53,921 --> 00:32:58,463
put a few more sticks on your fire
and you would fry your bacon.
638
00:32:58,463 --> 00:33:01,464
And then soak up the fat
with a piece of biscuit
639
00:33:01,464 --> 00:33:03,589
and then there you are
with the breakfast.
640
00:33:03,589 --> 00:33:06,297
Dinner time was mostly
bully beef cut up and stewed,
641
00:33:06,297 --> 00:33:09,339
along with all sorts
of vegetables from tins.
642
00:33:09,339 --> 00:33:12,631
Magonoghie's tinned stew was
mixed up with the bully beef.
643
00:33:12,631 --> 00:33:16,089
I've gone into French dugouts
and eaten biscuits
644
00:33:16,089 --> 00:33:18,756
which had been left by the troops
two years previously,
645
00:33:18,756 --> 00:33:23,090
and tasted the green mould in them,
but it didn't do me any harm.
646
00:33:23,090 --> 00:33:26,507
This was how it was. Anything's
good, you know, when you're hungry.
647
00:33:26,507 --> 00:33:28,923
And you were always hungry.
HE LAUGHS
648
00:33:30,215 --> 00:33:33,007
But any given moment,
we could expect to be shelled.
649
00:33:33,007 --> 00:33:35,132
SHELL WHIZZES AND BANGS
650
00:33:35,132 --> 00:33:37,507
You had very little protection
against that.
651
00:33:37,507 --> 00:33:41,341
One would hear a mild pop
as the gun fired five miles away.
652
00:33:43,591 --> 00:33:46,341
And in the five or six seconds
it took to come,
653
00:33:46,341 --> 00:33:49,633
you can pass through quite a number
of psychological changes.
654
00:33:55,592 --> 00:33:58,217
I can't remember anything more
nerve-racking
655
00:33:58,217 --> 00:34:02,175
than the continuous shelling,
without stop, went on day and night.
656
00:34:02,175 --> 00:34:05,592
But we were always told that you
never heard the shell that hit you
657
00:34:05,592 --> 00:34:08,551
because most of them
travelled faster than sound.
658
00:34:08,551 --> 00:34:12,801
But you could literally feel your
heart pounding against the ground.
659
00:34:12,801 --> 00:34:15,384
The emotional strain
was absolutely terrific.
660
00:34:15,384 --> 00:34:17,676
Although a shell might burst
50 yards away,
661
00:34:17,676 --> 00:34:20,468
you might find a fragment
of jagged iron,
662
00:34:20,468 --> 00:34:22,593
really red hot
and weighing half a pound,
663
00:34:22,593 --> 00:34:24,843
arriving in your trench.
664
00:34:24,843 --> 00:34:27,343
You see people blown to little bits.
665
00:34:27,343 --> 00:34:29,718
I've actually had to put a man
in a sandbag.
666
00:34:29,718 --> 00:34:31,927
Every now and again,
there would be a great roar
667
00:34:31,927 --> 00:34:34,010
like an aeroplane
coming in to land...
668
00:34:34,010 --> 00:34:35,260
LOUD BANG
669
00:34:35,260 --> 00:34:37,761
..and in a fifth of a second,
your resolution would break
670
00:34:37,761 --> 00:34:39,636
and you'd throw yourself down
into the mud
671
00:34:39,636 --> 00:34:41,927
and the other ones
would laugh at you.
672
00:34:41,927 --> 00:34:44,844
The shrapnel shell would burst
in the air and spray bullets
673
00:34:44,844 --> 00:34:46,428
on the troops below.
674
00:34:48,261 --> 00:34:49,678
As if they were from a shotgun.
675
00:34:51,595 --> 00:34:55,136
The bullets came down,
whistling like all the hobs of hell.
676
00:34:58,970 --> 00:35:01,845
Another one of the annoyances
we had was the Germans
677
00:35:01,845 --> 00:35:03,470
were very active with mining.
678
00:35:05,470 --> 00:35:07,554
We crouched down underneath
the front parapet
679
00:35:07,554 --> 00:35:09,054
to dodge the debris falling,
680
00:35:09,054 --> 00:35:12,804
and I got the men to open up
rapid fire to prevent the Germans
681
00:35:12,804 --> 00:35:16,388
from getting into that crater
where they could bomb us.
682
00:35:16,388 --> 00:35:19,304
If the front line gets damaged,
it's got to be repaired.
683
00:35:19,304 --> 00:35:21,013
Well,
the people who are in the line,
684
00:35:21,013 --> 00:35:22,763
they've got to get on with it.
685
00:35:22,763 --> 00:35:27,222
I had in my mind that we expected
big gunfire to light amongst
686
00:35:27,222 --> 00:35:30,555
all us cavalry and absolutely
swipe us off the face of the Earth.
687
00:35:34,430 --> 00:35:36,347
I shouted, "Gallop!" like that.
688
00:35:36,347 --> 00:35:38,639
They dropped 'em all at once,
the horses.
689
00:35:39,972 --> 00:35:42,222
Oh, a heck of a mess.
690
00:35:42,222 --> 00:35:45,223
The horses were laying down,
with their intestines hanging out,
691
00:35:45,223 --> 00:35:48,264
and men with matter hanging out
of theirs.
692
00:35:48,264 --> 00:35:50,764
"And that, boys," they said,
"the bloody Germans!"
693
00:35:50,764 --> 00:35:53,765
To lose a horse was
like losing a friend.
694
00:35:53,765 --> 00:35:56,556
The Brigadier turned
to our captain and he says,
695
00:35:56,556 --> 00:35:58,557
"See that the boy has
two or three days' rest.
696
00:35:58,557 --> 00:36:00,182
"When a boy likes an animal
like that,
697
00:36:00,182 --> 00:36:02,640
"there's not a lot wrong with him."
698
00:36:02,640 --> 00:36:05,265
Over the whole of the front line,
there was a smell.
699
00:36:05,265 --> 00:36:07,515
It wasn't a complicated smell,
700
00:36:07,515 --> 00:36:10,557
it was the smell
of decaying corpses.
701
00:36:10,557 --> 00:36:12,766
Nasty, sickly smell.
702
00:36:12,766 --> 00:36:14,349
You never forgot that smell.
703
00:36:14,349 --> 00:36:16,933
FLIES BUZZ
704
00:36:16,933 --> 00:36:18,558
It was the smell of death.
705
00:36:18,558 --> 00:36:22,808
If you've ever smelt a dead mouse,
it was like that, but hundreds
706
00:36:22,808 --> 00:36:24,766
and hundreds of times worse.
707
00:36:26,641 --> 00:36:28,100
It seemed to cling to everything.
708
00:36:28,100 --> 00:36:31,767
When you was having your food,
you could taste it.
709
00:36:31,767 --> 00:36:36,809
The awful stench and bits of
human bodies laying about,
710
00:36:36,809 --> 00:36:39,392
it became an everyday thing.
711
00:36:39,392 --> 00:36:42,601
We thought, well, it'll be you
too next, what does it matter?
712
00:36:44,726 --> 00:36:48,934
Wherever there was a grave
or a body, there were rats.
713
00:36:48,934 --> 00:36:50,143
They were all big fat ones
714
00:36:50,143 --> 00:36:52,810
and we knew where they got
the fat from.
715
00:36:52,810 --> 00:36:58,185
Unpleasant animals, because of
the filtration into the graves.
716
00:36:58,185 --> 00:37:01,560
They used to feed on the dead
and come in the dugouts,
717
00:37:01,560 --> 00:37:03,102
pick up scraps in there.
718
00:37:03,102 --> 00:37:05,102
I woke up in the bottom
of the trench
719
00:37:05,102 --> 00:37:07,560
and felt something warm on my face.
720
00:37:07,560 --> 00:37:10,561
And a little heart
going bang, bang, bang.
721
00:37:10,561 --> 00:37:13,227
The devil scratched my face
with the claws of his hind feet
722
00:37:13,227 --> 00:37:14,394
as he took off.
723
00:37:14,394 --> 00:37:16,811
We used to try and shoot them,
hit them, kill them,
724
00:37:16,811 --> 00:37:18,311
chase them, do anything.
725
00:37:18,311 --> 00:37:19,853
GUNSHOTS AND BANGING, RATS SQUEAK
726
00:37:19,853 --> 00:37:21,894
Then you've got gas.
727
00:37:21,894 --> 00:37:25,020
We saw this green cloud
coming towards us.
728
00:37:25,020 --> 00:37:27,061
Just rolling slowly
along the ground.
729
00:37:27,061 --> 00:37:28,645
They'd shout "gas"...
MEN SHOUT
730
00:37:28,645 --> 00:37:30,853
..and you had to take your mask out
and stick it on
731
00:37:30,853 --> 00:37:32,395
in two, three seconds.
732
00:37:32,395 --> 00:37:36,729
Yes, it was phosgene gas,
later on there was mustard gas.
733
00:37:36,729 --> 00:37:38,645
That was very effective.
734
00:37:38,645 --> 00:37:41,812
I never saw a slightly gassed man.
735
00:37:41,812 --> 00:37:44,937
If you couldn't get your gas mask,
you were to pee on your handkerchief
736
00:37:44,937 --> 00:37:47,188
and stuff this round
your nose and mouth.
737
00:37:47,188 --> 00:37:49,688
I don't mind admitting that
I didn't think much of the
738
00:37:49,688 --> 00:37:52,729
urinating on the handkerchief,
so I went into one of
739
00:37:52,729 --> 00:37:56,271
the trench's latrines
and I stuck my head in a bucket.
740
00:37:56,271 --> 00:37:58,521
But I'll tell you, I couldn't
hold my breath any more,
741
00:37:58,521 --> 00:38:01,522
came up, took a good breath of air,
down again.
742
00:38:01,522 --> 00:38:03,688
We were very soon
enveloped in this thick,
743
00:38:03,688 --> 00:38:05,480
yellow, filthy cloud.
744
00:38:05,480 --> 00:38:08,772
The more we tried to get rid
of the sting in our eyes,
745
00:38:08,772 --> 00:38:10,439
the worse it got.
746
00:38:12,522 --> 00:38:14,731
And I thought deeply
of what the effect of blindness
747
00:38:14,731 --> 00:38:16,397
was going to be.
748
00:38:16,397 --> 00:38:20,356
The extraction of clotted blood
and the injection of saline
749
00:38:20,356 --> 00:38:22,523
could alleviate a lot
of the trouble.
750
00:38:22,523 --> 00:38:25,565
And as I was gassed myself,
I can speak from experience.
751
00:38:27,856 --> 00:38:30,565
In the winter time,
as the weather deteriorated,
752
00:38:30,565 --> 00:38:33,773
so the trenches got
more and more sodden with water
753
00:38:33,773 --> 00:38:36,065
until they just became ditches.
754
00:38:36,065 --> 00:38:38,774
The water was swirling
about our feet and rising higher
755
00:38:38,774 --> 00:38:42,232
and higher
until it reached our chests.
756
00:38:42,232 --> 00:38:45,149
Our difficulty was frostbite.
757
00:38:45,149 --> 00:38:48,899
Our gumboots filled with water,
and in the mornings we could not
758
00:38:48,899 --> 00:38:52,691
split them off because
they were frozen to our feet.
759
00:38:52,691 --> 00:38:54,900
When you're talking
about trench feet,
760
00:38:54,900 --> 00:38:56,483
you're talking about gangrene.
761
00:38:56,483 --> 00:39:00,817
Send him straight down the line,
hack the legs off.
762
00:39:00,817 --> 00:39:02,692
Give us a hand with that, will you?
763
00:39:02,692 --> 00:39:06,859
When the water had soaked into the
earth, the floors of the trenches
764
00:39:06,859 --> 00:39:11,775
were just paved with liquid mud,
and that became like glue.
765
00:39:11,775 --> 00:39:15,901
It was a curious
sucking kind of mud.
766
00:39:15,901 --> 00:39:18,484
Very disgusting indeed,
very tenacious.
767
00:39:18,484 --> 00:39:20,151
It stuck to you.
768
00:39:20,151 --> 00:39:23,734
If one had to go
to the rear for rations,
769
00:39:23,734 --> 00:39:26,151
well, that was just
a nightmare journey.
770
00:39:26,151 --> 00:39:27,901
Slithering about.
771
00:39:27,901 --> 00:39:31,235
When it was pouring with rain
and on slippery duck boards,
772
00:39:31,235 --> 00:39:33,693
the language was really edifying.
773
00:39:33,693 --> 00:39:36,485
You heard words that
you never dream existed.
774
00:39:36,485 --> 00:39:39,694
And if you slipped off the duck
boards, you just sank into the mud
775
00:39:39,694 --> 00:39:42,902
of decomposed bodies
of humans and mules,
776
00:39:42,902 --> 00:39:45,236
and that was the end of you.
777
00:39:45,236 --> 00:39:48,611
The boy, he was in the middle
of this huge sea of mud, struggling,
778
00:39:48,611 --> 00:39:50,236
and we couldn't do a thing.
779
00:39:50,236 --> 00:39:51,736
There was no hope of getting to him.
780
00:39:51,736 --> 00:39:54,528
The look on the lad's face,
and he was a mere boy,
781
00:39:54,528 --> 00:39:56,570
was really pathetic.
COUGHING AND SPLUTTERING
782
00:39:56,570 --> 00:40:00,236
I've seen men sinking into the mud
and dying in the slime.
783
00:40:00,236 --> 00:40:02,903
I think it absolutely
finished me off.
784
00:40:04,445 --> 00:40:06,945
It was supposed to be quiet and
then you might get
785
00:40:06,945 --> 00:40:09,862
some drunken German saying, "I'm
going to give them hell today,"
786
00:40:09,862 --> 00:40:11,529
and opened up with all
his batteries
787
00:40:11,529 --> 00:40:13,529
and catch hundreds of people
in the line-up.
788
00:40:13,529 --> 00:40:17,071
And that was what they called
holding the line.
789
00:40:17,071 --> 00:40:20,863
We were in conditions that isolated
us completely from civilisation.
790
00:40:20,863 --> 00:40:25,238
We got so generate,
so isolated living in this mud.
791
00:40:25,238 --> 00:40:28,988
And you could sympathise
with how a rabbit must feel
792
00:40:28,988 --> 00:40:32,238
because we were hunted by mankind,
just the same as a rabbit.
793
00:40:32,238 --> 00:40:34,738
You knew your lives were in
one another's hands
794
00:40:34,738 --> 00:40:37,405
and it united you very closely
and you didn't let anything
795
00:40:37,405 --> 00:40:39,405
interfere with that.
796
00:40:39,405 --> 00:40:41,822
You knew what was going
on within your vision.
797
00:40:41,822 --> 00:40:44,739
Beyond that, you hadn't got a clue.
HARMONICA PLAYS
798
00:40:44,739 --> 00:40:48,447
You didn't care how the war
was going, whether we were winning.
799
00:40:48,447 --> 00:40:50,489
You weren't bothered
with that at all.
800
00:40:50,489 --> 00:40:53,489
You lived like tramps,
you didn't polish any buttons,
801
00:40:53,489 --> 00:40:57,198
you wore any uniformed bits
that you liked and nobody worried.
802
00:40:57,198 --> 00:41:00,323
All they were concerned
with was that you were fit to fight.
803
00:41:00,323 --> 00:41:02,490
If nothing's happening,
you chat about life,
804
00:41:02,490 --> 00:41:04,740
where he came from
and you came from.
805
00:41:04,740 --> 00:41:06,032
Everything was friendly.
806
00:41:06,032 --> 00:41:08,240
There was a terrific lot
of kindness in a way,
807
00:41:08,240 --> 00:41:09,699
to each person.
808
00:41:09,699 --> 00:41:12,699
When the war was not very active,
it was really rather fun
809
00:41:12,699 --> 00:41:14,282
to be in the front line.
810
00:41:14,282 --> 00:41:17,741
It was not very dangerous,
the sort of outdoor camping holiday
811
00:41:17,741 --> 00:41:22,533
with the boys, with a slight spice
of danger to make it interesting.
812
00:41:22,533 --> 00:41:26,241
We used to raid the trenches
and get a prisoner if possible.
813
00:41:26,241 --> 00:41:30,116
And a typical trench raid
would be perhaps eight in passing.
814
00:41:31,491 --> 00:41:33,742
If you was going to make a raid,
somebody would cut
815
00:41:33,742 --> 00:41:35,992
a passage through the wire
at night-time.
816
00:41:38,700 --> 00:41:40,950
The only way to do it
was silently...
817
00:41:43,117 --> 00:41:45,367
..to rush it,
and that was the arrangement.
818
00:41:45,367 --> 00:41:47,659
We would bomb and bayonet
the Germans coming out
819
00:41:47,659 --> 00:41:50,284
on their hands and knees
out the dugout, we'd smack them
820
00:41:50,284 --> 00:41:52,868
over the head and throw
in a couple of bombs.
821
00:41:57,410 --> 00:41:59,910
And there were three ways
of getting rid of him.
822
00:41:59,910 --> 00:42:03,035
One was to knife him,
garrotte him or to bayonet him.
823
00:42:03,035 --> 00:42:06,243
Quietest was the quick wrap
around the throat
824
00:42:06,243 --> 00:42:07,743
and knife into the back.
825
00:42:11,744 --> 00:42:14,035
I threw a revolver
at poor little Rudolph,
826
00:42:14,035 --> 00:42:15,369
he was only about 18.
827
00:42:15,369 --> 00:42:16,952
I hit him in the face with it.
828
00:42:16,952 --> 00:42:19,619
He screamed and came back at me,
and that's when I got him.
829
00:42:19,619 --> 00:42:22,036
Got him with a Very pistol.
830
00:42:22,036 --> 00:42:23,869
Well done, chaps! Good raid!
831
00:42:23,869 --> 00:42:26,494
I always had a full flask
and I gave him a drink.
832
00:42:26,494 --> 00:42:28,453
I felt very sorry for him.
833
00:42:28,453 --> 00:42:31,578
He said, "Danke schoen,
das ist gut," and died.
834
00:42:39,203 --> 00:42:42,579
And it was a very successful raid,
they got two prisoners, I think,
835
00:42:42,579 --> 00:42:44,829
which was all they all wanted.
836
00:42:44,829 --> 00:42:47,746
By the way, the men
who were captured on the trench raid
837
00:42:47,746 --> 00:42:52,788
were the first Germans I saw
on the Western Front.
838
00:42:52,788 --> 00:42:55,996
A lot of the German troops,
they were very good, very friendly.
839
00:42:55,996 --> 00:42:59,830
In fact, some of those Bavarians
were dammed good, decent people.
840
00:42:59,830 --> 00:43:02,121
The snipers would fire
but not hit anybody,
841
00:43:02,121 --> 00:43:03,330
know what I mean?
842
00:43:05,163 --> 00:43:07,538
They put up a sign - "Gott mit uns."
843
00:43:07,538 --> 00:43:09,288
God is with us.
844
00:43:09,288 --> 00:43:12,372
And we put a sign up in English -
"We've got mittens too!"
845
00:43:12,372 --> 00:43:14,997
We don't know if the Germans
enjoyed that joke or not.
846
00:43:14,997 --> 00:43:18,122
There was a wounded German,
he was a Wartenberger, I think.
847
00:43:18,122 --> 00:43:20,372
We did what we could for him,
we gave him a bit of food
848
00:43:20,372 --> 00:43:24,081
and that sort of thing, and
he was cursing the Prussians.
849
00:43:24,081 --> 00:43:28,331
The Saxons were in front of us
and they gave us the warning
850
00:43:28,331 --> 00:43:31,915
that there were going
to be relieved by the Prussians.
851
00:43:31,915 --> 00:43:34,957
And they said to us,
"Give them hell."
852
00:43:34,957 --> 00:43:37,165
They hated the Prussians.
853
00:43:37,165 --> 00:43:39,082
The Prussians were cruel bastards.
854
00:43:41,415 --> 00:43:43,374
Hurry up! This way.
Schnell, schnell!
855
00:43:43,374 --> 00:43:45,624
Watch yourself. Come along!
856
00:43:45,624 --> 00:43:47,666
The Bavarians or the Saxonians,
857
00:43:47,666 --> 00:43:50,041
they were the more civilised
of the Germans.
858
00:43:50,041 --> 00:43:51,832
Part English, if anything.
859
00:43:54,916 --> 00:43:57,999
After a four-day spell
in the front line,
860
00:43:57,999 --> 00:44:01,750
we were relieved and we had to
march back to the billets
861
00:44:01,750 --> 00:44:04,083
a few miles behind the lines.
862
00:44:04,083 --> 00:44:07,625
We were going for
a supposed one-week's rest.
863
00:44:07,625 --> 00:44:09,708
Everybody was dead whacked.
864
00:44:09,708 --> 00:44:11,542
We were all pretty knocked up.
865
00:44:11,542 --> 00:44:13,709
We extricated ourselves from the mud
866
00:44:13,709 --> 00:44:16,750
to what was, somewhat ironically,
called rest.
867
00:44:16,750 --> 00:44:20,417
In the front line itself,
you didn't criticise people
868
00:44:20,417 --> 00:44:23,042
and if you had a chap
who was a bit dicky,
869
00:44:23,042 --> 00:44:25,501
you would keep an eye on him,
just like in a family.
870
00:44:25,501 --> 00:44:28,126
But when you got out of the line,
you'd want nothing to do
871
00:44:28,126 --> 00:44:29,543
with those people at all.
872
00:44:29,543 --> 00:44:31,751
I mean, you can't call
it comradeship exactly,
873
00:44:31,751 --> 00:44:33,210
it was the way you did it.
874
00:44:33,210 --> 00:44:36,043
Come and get your mail!
Welcome back!
875
00:44:36,043 --> 00:44:39,918
The thing which always struck me
as being absolutely stupid
876
00:44:39,918 --> 00:44:44,377
was the next morning,
every man had to be spick and span,
877
00:44:44,377 --> 00:44:45,960
not a trace of mud on him.
878
00:44:47,877 --> 00:44:51,586
You'd brush off clothes or dry
them off the best way you could
879
00:44:51,586 --> 00:44:53,044
and clean your boots.
880
00:44:53,044 --> 00:44:55,669
In other words, smarten yourself up.
881
00:44:55,669 --> 00:44:58,753
THEY PLAY
It's A Long Way To Tipperary
882
00:45:08,462 --> 00:45:10,962
The men would always appear
the same -
883
00:45:10,962 --> 00:45:14,837
cheerful and, in the circumstances,
happy as they could be,
884
00:45:14,837 --> 00:45:16,795
making the best of everything.
885
00:45:16,795 --> 00:45:19,337
You know, in true British fashion.
886
00:45:20,546 --> 00:45:24,713
What? The Cockney wit was prevalent
and we were all lads together,
887
00:45:24,713 --> 00:45:27,838
you know, we didn't care about it.
888
00:45:27,838 --> 00:45:31,963
We'd make a fuss about nothing,
the little things that didn't matter
889
00:45:31,963 --> 00:45:35,213
really, because it was something
to fill the time in.
890
00:45:35,213 --> 00:45:37,963
We used to have to make
our own amusements.
891
00:45:37,963 --> 00:45:39,255
Bloody bastard!
892
00:45:39,255 --> 00:45:40,922
You laughed at the slightest things.
893
00:45:40,922 --> 00:45:44,172
I think probably it was the
general tension of the atmosphere
894
00:45:44,172 --> 00:45:46,339
that used to make us like that,
you know?
895
00:45:48,422 --> 00:45:52,006
My mother sent me a parcel
with a plum pudding, of all things,
896
00:45:52,006 --> 00:45:54,631
and had no thought of
not being able to cook it,
897
00:45:54,631 --> 00:45:56,256
so we used it as a rugby ball.
898
00:45:57,923 --> 00:46:00,840
We had this regimental sports day.
899
00:46:00,840 --> 00:46:03,423
And I won't say
I was the only sober one,
900
00:46:03,423 --> 00:46:06,631
but most of them were merry
about it.
901
00:46:11,173 --> 00:46:13,090
MEN LAUGH AND SHOUT
902
00:46:14,799 --> 00:46:17,424
I mean, you took part in everything
because you had to fill
903
00:46:17,424 --> 00:46:19,799
your time in, you know.
904
00:46:19,799 --> 00:46:21,841
Otherwise all you did
was sit about and smoke.
905
00:46:21,841 --> 00:46:23,841
CHILDREN LAUGH
906
00:46:25,966 --> 00:46:29,549
The only time we saw the artillery
was when we was out of rest.
907
00:46:29,549 --> 00:46:31,258
Fire!
908
00:46:33,841 --> 00:46:36,383
They would be, say,
two miles behind the line.
909
00:46:38,092 --> 00:46:40,342
Fire!
910
00:46:40,342 --> 00:46:43,175
We wanted to neutralise enemy
batteries, so we were registering
911
00:46:43,175 --> 00:46:45,009
our batteries on his.
Fire!
912
00:46:47,384 --> 00:46:49,384
We used to know the line
and elevation
913
00:46:49,384 --> 00:46:51,217
because it was done by aircraft.
914
00:46:53,509 --> 00:46:56,676
It was pretty ghastly, but the idea
was to kill as many German gunners
915
00:46:56,676 --> 00:46:57,968
as you could.
916
00:46:57,968 --> 00:46:59,218
Ready!
917
00:47:01,134 --> 00:47:02,801
Fire!
918
00:47:09,302 --> 00:47:12,343
There was no motorised transport
for guns.
919
00:47:12,343 --> 00:47:15,094
The guns used to be
brought up by horses.
920
00:47:15,094 --> 00:47:16,719
Eight horses to each gun team.
921
00:47:16,719 --> 00:47:18,427
Four horses to each wagon team.
922
00:47:18,427 --> 00:47:19,927
About 60 horses.
923
00:47:21,469 --> 00:47:24,344
The gunners made a filthy noise,
jingling and jingling
924
00:47:24,344 --> 00:47:26,344
and the horses making
noises both ends.
925
00:47:26,344 --> 00:47:28,511
And it was always
of great concern for those of us
926
00:47:28,511 --> 00:47:30,136
who were going into battle.
927
00:47:30,136 --> 00:47:32,845
Heave!
MEN GRUNT, HORSES BRAY
928
00:47:34,470 --> 00:47:35,886
Heave!
929
00:47:40,928 --> 00:47:43,178
Each company officer
paid his own company.
930
00:47:43,178 --> 00:47:46,804
Now, it was generally the
first morning after we were out
931
00:47:46,804 --> 00:47:49,554
of the line, you got five francs.
932
00:47:49,554 --> 00:47:52,387
A franc was worth 10p,
so 50p was your pay
933
00:47:52,387 --> 00:47:54,596
for a fortnight, 50p.
934
00:47:54,596 --> 00:47:57,596
Now, that's a week
of riotous living.
935
00:47:57,596 --> 00:48:01,013
Every town of any size at all
had a brothel
936
00:48:01,013 --> 00:48:04,638
and that was where most
of these boys learned a little bit
937
00:48:04,638 --> 00:48:08,138
more about life than they would ever
have done in normal civil life.
938
00:48:08,138 --> 00:48:11,055
So although they were young
in years, it wasn't long
939
00:48:11,055 --> 00:48:13,680
before they were quite worldly men.
940
00:48:13,680 --> 00:48:16,097
One of the lads said,
"Let's go and have a look
941
00:48:16,097 --> 00:48:18,764
"in the White Star.
It's like a pub."
942
00:48:18,764 --> 00:48:21,431
I'd led a very sheltered life.
943
00:48:21,431 --> 00:48:25,264
And they were beautiful girls
with just a piece of lace on,
944
00:48:25,264 --> 00:48:29,556
and, oh, my word, I'd never seen
anything like it before!
945
00:48:29,556 --> 00:48:32,806
There was I, a young lad, knowing
nothing about this, and off we go,
946
00:48:32,806 --> 00:48:36,015
and these men were
going up to see the girls.
947
00:48:36,015 --> 00:48:38,390
I was very keen. I said
to one of these fellas,
948
00:48:38,390 --> 00:48:40,057
"I've only got a sixpence."
949
00:48:40,057 --> 00:48:42,682
He said, "That's no good,
it's a shilling."
950
00:48:42,682 --> 00:48:45,515
That was my first experience
of a brothel.
951
00:48:45,515 --> 00:48:48,599
Anyway, we looked in there
for a couple of minutes,
952
00:48:48,599 --> 00:48:51,599
when four or five naked girls
came running down the corridor.
953
00:48:51,599 --> 00:48:53,849
We turned tail and ran!
954
00:48:53,849 --> 00:48:55,974
It was an eye-opener to me.
955
00:48:55,974 --> 00:48:58,349
There she stood, great, big woman,
956
00:48:58,349 --> 00:49:00,891
with this little cane in her hand
and she belted my backside
957
00:49:00,891 --> 00:49:02,391
as if I was a little schoolboy.
958
00:49:02,391 --> 00:49:04,725
Pelted Sergeant this
and pelted Sergeant the other,
959
00:49:04,725 --> 00:49:06,391
thump, thump, thump, thump, thump!
960
00:49:06,391 --> 00:49:08,808
HE LAUGHS
961
00:49:08,808 --> 00:49:10,350
Oh, gambling?
962
00:49:10,350 --> 00:49:11,975
People were gambling all day long.
963
00:49:11,975 --> 00:49:14,600
The Canadians and the Australians
used a gamble terrific
964
00:49:14,600 --> 00:49:16,017
amounts of money.
965
00:49:16,017 --> 00:49:17,642
More money than any of us seen.
966
00:49:21,184 --> 00:49:23,267
The beer was very thin indeed.
967
00:49:23,267 --> 00:49:27,767
It was one and nine stuff -
one pint, nine piddles.
968
00:49:27,767 --> 00:49:30,976
Friday was always the issue day
for cigarettes
969
00:49:30,976 --> 00:49:33,851
and the cigarettes were
Three Witches,
970
00:49:33,851 --> 00:49:37,476
which soon became
Three Bitches or Red Hue Tsars.
971
00:49:37,476 --> 00:49:41,685
I think they were made
from stable returns.
972
00:49:41,685 --> 00:49:45,643
But generally, in good-sized
villages, you could get Woodbines
973
00:49:45,643 --> 00:49:51,894
and Player's, and they were far
preferable to the issue cigarettes.
974
00:49:51,894 --> 00:49:54,686
Of course, we were always
bartering with the Frenchmen.
975
00:49:54,686 --> 00:49:56,686
We used to barter some of our
under-clothing
976
00:49:56,686 --> 00:49:58,769
and get a loaf of bread with it.
977
00:49:58,769 --> 00:50:02,394
We used to swap our British
cigarettes for their French wine.
978
00:50:02,394 --> 00:50:05,936
It could be just as tiring out
of the line as in the line
979
00:50:05,936 --> 00:50:07,686
and it was sometimes worse.
980
00:50:07,686 --> 00:50:09,645
If you were chosen for fatigue,
981
00:50:09,645 --> 00:50:12,645
you'd have to go
on the working party.
982
00:50:12,645 --> 00:50:16,854
You collected stores from a big dump
three or four miles back.
983
00:50:16,854 --> 00:50:19,479
Enormous bundles of sandbags,
984
00:50:19,479 --> 00:50:23,062
many made-up duck boards
and, worst of all, barbed wire.
985
00:50:24,437 --> 00:50:26,062
It was always hard work.
986
00:50:26,062 --> 00:50:29,604
You were a bonny labouring boy
more than you were a fighter.
987
00:50:29,604 --> 00:50:32,688
All the chaps were very tired,
but it made no difference.
988
00:50:32,688 --> 00:50:34,604
And they were mentally tired out.
989
00:50:34,604 --> 00:50:36,730
They'd just come out of a
trench tour for a rest
990
00:50:36,730 --> 00:50:39,188
and this was
the kind of rest they were getting.
991
00:50:40,646 --> 00:50:44,897
You would be carrying stuff
up on a light railway.
992
00:50:44,897 --> 00:50:48,855
Yes, they laid a narrow gauge,
light railway track.
993
00:50:48,855 --> 00:50:52,689
It was the simplest of things,
just platforms on wheels,
994
00:50:52,689 --> 00:50:54,897
driven by light locomotives.
995
00:51:03,023 --> 00:51:05,148
Light railways were always
a blooming nuisance
996
00:51:05,148 --> 00:51:08,148
because they were always
coming off the track.
997
00:51:08,148 --> 00:51:12,023
And they lost control of this truck
going down a slight incline
998
00:51:12,023 --> 00:51:14,273
and it would barge
into the one in front,
999
00:51:14,273 --> 00:51:18,607
which scattered the duck boards
all over the place.
1000
00:51:18,607 --> 00:51:22,024
We used to take our mess tins
up to the engine driver
1001
00:51:22,024 --> 00:51:25,357
and get some boiling water
for our brew-up of tea.
1002
00:51:28,441 --> 00:51:29,899
And another.
1003
00:51:32,233 --> 00:51:36,733
The Germans could see the steam
and smoke from the steam engine.
1004
00:51:36,733 --> 00:51:39,400
So then it was mostly petrol engines
1005
00:51:39,400 --> 00:51:41,900
which used to run up
to the trenches.
1006
00:51:44,775 --> 00:51:47,733
The light railway only went
as far as the communication trench,
1007
00:51:47,733 --> 00:51:50,442
and then we had to push the thing
along by hand.
1008
00:51:54,359 --> 00:51:56,692
Somebody came along and said,
"This is it, we're going
1009
00:51:56,692 --> 00:51:58,276
"to be home by Christmas!
1010
00:51:58,276 --> 00:51:59,942
"We'll just go down the road
1011
00:51:59,942 --> 00:52:02,318
"and look in a field there,
you'll see."
1012
00:52:02,318 --> 00:52:04,609
Wouldn't tell us why.
Anyway, we went down.
1013
00:52:04,609 --> 00:52:07,943
They were on the roadside covered
with tarpaulin sheets.
1014
00:52:07,943 --> 00:52:11,818
You could see nothing
except a square outline.
1015
00:52:11,818 --> 00:52:14,693
And then the officer said, "These
are supposed to be hush-hush."
1016
00:52:14,693 --> 00:52:17,735
When we asked what it was,
the simple reply was "tanks".
1017
00:52:17,735 --> 00:52:21,694
Knowing the shortage of water,
we naturally assumed water tanks
1018
00:52:21,694 --> 00:52:24,027
and thought that we were
getting reserve supplies.
1019
00:52:24,027 --> 00:52:26,444
It was one of the best-kept secrets.
1020
00:52:26,444 --> 00:52:28,819
We were delighted because
these wonderful machines
1021
00:52:28,819 --> 00:52:30,152
were going to win the war.
1022
00:52:31,653 --> 00:52:33,653
Soon everybody would be home again.
1023
00:52:33,653 --> 00:52:35,694
Of course, it didn't
happen like that.
1024
00:52:38,486 --> 00:52:42,736
We were taken out of the line
and had intensive training.
1025
00:52:42,736 --> 00:52:47,028
Plunge the bayonet into the sack,
shout like hell.
1026
00:52:47,028 --> 00:52:50,612
It was to get used to plunging
them into somebody's body.
1027
00:52:50,612 --> 00:52:53,362
Then we fired our rifles
on the rifle range.
1028
00:53:00,654 --> 00:53:03,196
Firing rifle grenades
is a specialist job.
1029
00:53:05,321 --> 00:53:06,904
But they were clumsy.
1030
00:53:08,113 --> 00:53:09,905
I didn't like them much.
1031
00:53:11,488 --> 00:53:15,613
Forced marching, marching without
a rest and also a frontal attack,
1032
00:53:15,613 --> 00:53:18,030
right flank attack,
left flank attack,
1033
00:53:18,030 --> 00:53:20,364
both flanks attack,
night attack,
1034
00:53:20,364 --> 00:53:22,905
and we wondered what the devil
all this training was for.
1035
00:53:22,905 --> 00:53:25,822
BAGPIPES PLAY
1036
00:53:25,822 --> 00:53:29,031
The corps commander said that
he had just received instructions
1037
00:53:29,031 --> 00:53:33,156
to go ahead with an operation
to break through the German lines.
1038
00:53:35,239 --> 00:53:37,989
Suddenly we were called to parade
with full marching order,
1039
00:53:37,989 --> 00:53:40,823
and we had to go back up the front,
and we'd only been out of the line
1040
00:53:40,823 --> 00:53:42,240
a couple of days.
1041
00:53:42,240 --> 00:53:46,073
We could see streams of supplies,
mostly ammunition columns,
1042
00:53:46,073 --> 00:53:48,407
going up toward the front.
1043
00:53:48,407 --> 00:53:50,782
We didn't have a lot of notice,
but we knew it was going
1044
00:53:50,782 --> 00:53:52,240
to be a big advance.
1045
00:54:06,616 --> 00:54:08,116
So batteries pushed forward,
1046
00:54:08,116 --> 00:54:10,408
forward positions filled up
with ammunition.
1047
00:54:10,408 --> 00:54:12,950
Let's get these ladders up.
1048
00:54:12,950 --> 00:54:16,950
As the great push drew nearer,
the line livened up. It began to get
1049
00:54:16,950 --> 00:54:19,617
much more dangerous
and not nearly so much fun.
1050
00:54:19,617 --> 00:54:22,492
And we learnt that
a bayonet charge was to be made
1051
00:54:22,492 --> 00:54:25,617
on German machine gunners.
1052
00:54:25,617 --> 00:54:28,576
"I wish it to be impressed
on all ranks, the importance
1053
00:54:28,576 --> 00:54:31,284
"of the operations
about to commence.
1054
00:54:31,284 --> 00:54:34,034
"The Germans are now outnumbered
and outgunned
1055
00:54:34,034 --> 00:54:36,284
"and will soon go
to pieces if every man goes
1056
00:54:36,284 --> 00:54:38,409
"into the fight
determined to get through
1057
00:54:38,409 --> 00:54:40,493
"whatever the local difficulties
may be.
1058
00:54:40,493 --> 00:54:43,576
"I am confident that the brigade
will distinguish itself in this,
1059
00:54:43,576 --> 00:54:44,993
"its first battle.
1060
00:54:44,993 --> 00:54:48,618
"Let every man remember
that all England is watching him."
1061
00:54:48,618 --> 00:54:52,327
We marched all through the night,
and it got so bad that officers
1062
00:54:52,327 --> 00:54:56,077
at the side were pushing men back
into line who were straggling out,
1063
00:54:56,077 --> 00:54:59,661
and your legs just seemed
to go automatically forward.
1064
00:54:59,661 --> 00:55:02,161
I had a feeling that we were
walking in our sleep.
1065
00:55:02,161 --> 00:55:03,953
More men were brought into the line,
1066
00:55:03,953 --> 00:55:06,953
regiments were crowded up
closer together.
1067
00:55:06,953 --> 00:55:11,078
We were filling up the trenches,
packed in like sardines.
1068
00:55:11,078 --> 00:55:14,995
Our captain was a splendid man.
He would never bark an order at you,
1069
00:55:14,995 --> 00:55:17,620
he would give an order
in a conversational way.
1070
00:55:17,620 --> 00:55:19,745
"We don't know exactly
how far this trench is,
1071
00:55:19,745 --> 00:55:22,620
"but between 200 and 300 yards.
1072
00:55:22,620 --> 00:55:25,787
"I will go over with the first wave
and you will be in the second wave.
1073
00:55:25,787 --> 00:55:29,246
"And as soon as the curtain fire
starts, we'll move.
1074
00:55:29,246 --> 00:55:31,746
"Now, go along and tell
your men to be ready."
1075
00:55:31,746 --> 00:55:34,579
And this is the
sort of order we got.
1076
00:55:34,579 --> 00:55:37,663
I had two assorted companies,
both ignorant of what their conduct
1077
00:55:37,663 --> 00:55:39,371
would be when they got into action.
1078
00:55:39,371 --> 00:55:42,246
So Captain Neville thought it
might be helpful if he could furnish
1079
00:55:42,246 --> 00:55:44,996
each platoon with a football
and allow them to kick it forward
1080
00:55:44,996 --> 00:55:46,372
and follow it.
1081
00:55:46,372 --> 00:55:48,788
I think myself that it did help
them enormously,
1082
00:55:48,788 --> 00:55:50,663
it took their minds off it.
1083
00:55:50,663 --> 00:55:53,955
We had an extra bandolier
of ammunition around our necks,
1084
00:55:53,955 --> 00:55:56,539
and if you didn't have a shovel,
you had a pick.
1085
00:55:56,539 --> 00:55:59,664
We got in the trenches
and we waited for zero hour.
1086
00:55:59,664 --> 00:56:02,414
All the watches were synchronised.
1087
00:56:02,414 --> 00:56:04,789
I was what's called
a first bayonet man,
1088
00:56:04,789 --> 00:56:07,123
which meant that I carried
the rifle with the bayonet
1089
00:56:07,123 --> 00:56:08,623
in the attacking position,
1090
00:56:08,623 --> 00:56:10,956
and the rest of the men
carried bags of bombs.
1091
00:56:13,415 --> 00:56:16,123
And we were warned to be ready
to advance at any moment.
1092
00:56:16,123 --> 00:56:19,332
"Any moment" was quite a long time
coming and, of course, that added
1093
00:56:19,332 --> 00:56:21,332
to the tension that we were feeling.
1094
00:56:23,457 --> 00:56:26,874
My platoon had been told
to go out and test the fire.
1095
00:56:26,874 --> 00:56:29,749
We had to get out
and walk towards the enemy.
1096
00:56:29,749 --> 00:56:34,374
We went about 200 yards
and then they called us back again.
1097
00:56:34,374 --> 00:56:38,333
There was to be no preliminary
bombardment the days beforehand,
1098
00:56:38,333 --> 00:56:42,291
there was only one short, sharp
barrage just before the battle.
1099
00:56:44,333 --> 00:56:47,083
You've got to have
the artillery preparation
1100
00:56:47,083 --> 00:56:48,833
to smash their wire down.
1101
00:56:48,833 --> 00:56:50,125
Fire!
1102
00:56:50,125 --> 00:56:54,250
I ordered fire on possible enemy
assembly and forming-up positions.
1103
00:56:54,250 --> 00:56:58,709
The bombardment started
and the ground shook.
1104
00:57:00,542 --> 00:57:05,126
And we could see the hundreds
and hundreds of gun flashes.
1105
00:57:06,251 --> 00:57:07,876
Ready, fire!
1106
00:57:17,126 --> 00:57:21,127
As soon as the bombardment started,
the German retaliation came.
1107
00:57:24,919 --> 00:57:27,294
For four hours, we had to sit
there and take everything
1108
00:57:27,294 --> 00:57:28,960
they slung at us.
1109
00:57:30,377 --> 00:57:33,252
And first of all,
a large number of tanks went in.
1110
00:57:33,252 --> 00:57:36,461
We could hear them
rumbling and rattling.
1111
00:57:36,461 --> 00:57:39,128
320 tanks crawling along.
1112
00:57:39,128 --> 00:57:42,086
We waited for the signal
to move off.
1113
00:57:42,086 --> 00:57:46,920
Already, everybody was anxious
to go, but we waited and waited.
1114
00:57:48,962 --> 00:57:51,170
We got no sleep at all that night,
owing to the noise
1115
00:57:51,170 --> 00:57:55,920
of our artillery barrage, which was
continuous, the whole time.
1116
00:57:55,920 --> 00:57:58,504
We was asked to hand over
any personal belongings
1117
00:57:58,504 --> 00:58:01,837
to our company officer,
such as photographs and letters
1118
00:58:01,837 --> 00:58:04,504
that we valued.
1119
00:58:04,504 --> 00:58:07,713
I heard soft voices talking to one
another quietly,
1120
00:58:07,713 --> 00:58:10,713
and I wondered - how many are going
to live to see the sun rise?
1121
00:58:10,713 --> 00:58:13,588
In a man's pay book, there was
provision for making a valid will
1122
00:58:13,588 --> 00:58:16,130
if they were going into action
for the first time.
1123
00:58:16,130 --> 00:58:18,505
I didn't bother with it,
I had nothing to leave anybody.
1124
00:58:18,505 --> 00:58:20,297
HE LAUGHS
1125
00:58:20,297 --> 00:58:23,130
The fellow next to you,
he was your best friend.
1126
00:58:23,130 --> 00:58:25,672
You perhaps didn't know him
the day before.
1127
00:58:25,672 --> 00:58:27,922
And then an hour to go,
they were the longest
1128
00:58:27,922 --> 00:58:30,630
and the shortest hours in life.
1129
00:58:30,630 --> 00:58:33,006
We had unlimited time for thinking,
1130
00:58:33,006 --> 00:58:36,172
and I know I found myself thinking
much more deeply
1131
00:58:36,172 --> 00:58:38,881
than I had ever thought before.
1132
00:58:38,881 --> 00:58:40,881
Some people might be incapable
of thinking,
1133
00:58:40,881 --> 00:58:43,298
they might have regarded
the situation as being such
1134
00:58:43,298 --> 00:58:45,006
that they were incapable of thought.
1135
00:58:45,006 --> 00:58:47,006
I don't think
there was any feeling of fear,
1136
00:58:47,006 --> 00:58:49,382
it was just
that we were doing a job
1137
00:58:49,382 --> 00:58:51,507
and if it came, it came.
1138
00:58:51,507 --> 00:58:56,090
We realised that, sooner or later,
we were going to get the chop.
1139
00:58:56,090 --> 00:58:58,465
You were either going to be killed
or wounded.
1140
00:58:58,465 --> 00:59:01,674
I was not in the least frightened
being killed,
1141
00:59:01,674 --> 00:59:05,507
but I was terrified
lest I should lose an arm or a leg.
1142
00:59:05,507 --> 00:59:08,674
Waiting for an hour for an attack
is not a very pleasant thing.
1143
00:59:08,674 --> 00:59:12,924
We sort of chatted away, trying
to keep the spirits up, you see.
1144
00:59:12,924 --> 00:59:16,633
We told dirty stories
and made crude remarks.
1145
00:59:16,633 --> 00:59:19,508
We had 1,000 guns massed
on a mile front behind us.
1146
00:59:19,508 --> 00:59:21,842
Well, you can imagine all
this stuff coming over you,
1147
00:59:21,842 --> 00:59:23,883
we had the German stuff
coming the other way.
1148
00:59:23,883 --> 00:59:27,842
The noise rose to a crescendo
such as I'd never heard before.
1149
00:59:27,842 --> 00:59:29,884
You wouldn't hear a word.
1150
00:59:29,884 --> 00:59:34,009
The shells were passing over you
probably three foot, four foot.
1151
00:59:34,009 --> 00:59:37,884
And the air, it was an inferno,
and your line was another inferno.
1152
00:59:37,884 --> 00:59:40,176
Reason was completely blasted
out of it.
1153
00:59:40,176 --> 00:59:43,551
The bombardment created a sort
of hysterical feeling.
1154
00:59:43,551 --> 00:59:45,968
All of a sudden,
one of our fellas started crying,
1155
00:59:45,968 --> 00:59:48,885
really screaming and crying.
The officer in charge telling
1156
00:59:48,885 --> 00:59:52,635
the Sergeant, "Find that man
and shoot him, shoot him!"
1157
00:59:52,635 --> 00:59:55,135
It's difficult to explain
the reaction of a man
1158
00:59:55,135 --> 00:59:57,677
when he is in a big bombardment.
1159
00:59:57,677 --> 01:00:01,427
He thought that this man's screaming
and crying would be a danger
1160
01:00:01,427 --> 01:00:03,219
to the rest of the men.
1161
01:00:03,219 --> 01:00:05,636
As soon as it was light,
we were given a ration of rum,
1162
01:00:05,636 --> 01:00:08,011
any amount of it,
as much as you can drink.
1163
01:00:08,011 --> 01:00:10,344
And we got the order
to fix bayonets.
1164
01:00:10,344 --> 01:00:12,303
Fix bayonets! Fix bayonets!
1165
01:00:12,303 --> 01:00:13,928
Bayonets fixed!
1166
01:00:13,928 --> 01:00:18,136
It was a beautiful day, the way
it dawned after a rainy night.
1167
01:00:18,136 --> 01:00:19,511
A beautiful day.
1168
01:00:19,511 --> 01:00:23,678
Five minutes to go, I remember those
lads standing there, dead silent,
1169
01:00:23,678 --> 01:00:25,220
couldn't make a noise.
1170
01:00:25,220 --> 01:00:27,929
I was more frightened sitting,
waiting to start.
1171
01:00:27,929 --> 01:00:30,720
I was very frightened then,
very frightened indeed.
1172
01:00:30,720 --> 01:00:34,304
And an officer shouted along the
line, "Is everybody ready?"
1173
01:00:34,304 --> 01:00:37,304
And I called out, "I can't get my
bayonet on my rifle, sir."
1174
01:00:37,304 --> 01:00:39,721
And he said,
"Damn you, mate, hurry up."
1175
01:00:39,721 --> 01:00:41,971
I sent back a message
to brigade headquarters
1176
01:00:41,971 --> 01:00:43,471
to say we were all ready.
1177
01:00:43,471 --> 01:00:45,805
But unfortunately
a slight mistake occurred.
1178
01:00:45,805 --> 01:00:48,846
The first thing they knew
was a terrific tremor on the ground.
1179
01:00:48,846 --> 01:00:51,888
We blew a mine, which should
have been under the German trenches
1180
01:00:51,888 --> 01:00:53,513
but it wasn't.
1181
01:00:56,930 --> 01:00:59,639
It was in no-man's-land, and
that gave the Germans five minutes
1182
01:00:59,639 --> 01:01:01,805
to occupy the crater,
which they did.
1183
01:01:04,639 --> 01:01:08,264
Sergeant Moore, he was standing
behind the trench with a revolver
1184
01:01:08,264 --> 01:01:11,389
in his hand and he said, "Any boy
goes back, I shoot them."
1185
01:01:11,389 --> 01:01:14,764
So that if we didn't go one way,
we wouldn't go the other.
1186
01:01:14,764 --> 01:01:17,265
There wasn't a reluctance
to go over the top,
1187
01:01:17,265 --> 01:01:18,931
not with people I were with.
1188
01:01:18,931 --> 01:01:20,556
Fire!
1189
01:01:22,307 --> 01:01:23,682
Fire!
1190
01:01:23,682 --> 01:01:26,890
They put a curtain of shells
over you and you advanced.
1191
01:01:28,182 --> 01:01:30,015
That was the theory, I think.
1192
01:01:30,015 --> 01:01:31,807
Fire! Fire!
1193
01:01:31,807 --> 01:01:34,724
I realised this was
the moment of the assault.
1194
01:01:34,724 --> 01:01:36,432
And then zero hour.
1195
01:01:36,432 --> 01:01:39,474
Somebody shouted, "There they go!"
BAGPIPES PLAY
1196
01:01:39,474 --> 01:01:42,141
To the left were the
London Scottish, running forward.
1197
01:01:42,141 --> 01:01:44,724
I gave the order of "up the ladders,
over the top".
1198
01:01:44,724 --> 01:01:46,933
WHISTLE BLOWS
1199
01:01:48,058 --> 01:01:51,058
And after this, you lived
in a world of noise,
1200
01:01:51,058 --> 01:01:53,017
simply noise for hours.
1201
01:01:56,517 --> 01:01:59,225
As soon as you get over the top,
fear has left you.
1202
01:01:59,225 --> 01:02:02,184
You didn't run, there was
no shouting nor cheering,
1203
01:02:02,184 --> 01:02:04,226
everybody was deadly quiet.
1204
01:02:04,226 --> 01:02:07,351
Just as I stepped into
no-man's-land, somebody was shot
1205
01:02:07,351 --> 01:02:10,559
through the head
and his skull was splintered.
1206
01:02:10,559 --> 01:02:13,309
It wasn't a good send-off,
I can assure you.
1207
01:02:13,309 --> 01:02:19,226
The barrage proceeded into the
enemy lines in steps of 100 yards
1208
01:02:19,226 --> 01:02:20,643
at a time.
1209
01:02:20,643 --> 01:02:23,143
Fire!
1210
01:02:23,143 --> 01:02:26,102
The line of British troops, fixed
bayonets, walking quite steadily
1211
01:02:26,102 --> 01:02:27,893
behind the barrage.
1212
01:02:27,893 --> 01:02:29,685
It is a sight I shall never forget.
1213
01:02:29,685 --> 01:02:32,769
To start with, we'd had
the odd machinegun firing,
1214
01:02:32,769 --> 01:02:36,436
but remarkably little, and it seemed
almost too good to be true.
1215
01:02:36,436 --> 01:02:40,561
We then realised the Germans
had been containing their fire
1216
01:02:40,561 --> 01:02:43,519
until they saw
how far the attack was developing.
1217
01:02:43,519 --> 01:02:47,270
Unknown to us, there was
10 to 20 German machine guns.
1218
01:02:47,270 --> 01:02:49,561
Then all hell broke loose.
1219
01:02:49,561 --> 01:02:52,853
And, my God, he really
opened up and he let us have it.
1220
01:02:52,853 --> 01:02:54,478
It just swept us.
1221
01:02:54,478 --> 01:02:56,478
MACHINE-GUNFIRE
1222
01:02:56,478 --> 01:02:58,520
MEN SHOUT
1223
01:03:00,437 --> 01:03:02,229
Keep moving, laddie!
1224
01:03:07,187 --> 01:03:10,062
MEN SCREAM AND SHOUT
1225
01:03:11,896 --> 01:03:15,229
Machinegun bullets came
at us like hailstones.
1226
01:03:15,229 --> 01:03:18,396
I didn't realise that it was
swish, swish with bullets.
1227
01:03:18,396 --> 01:03:21,188
I looked round and people were
dropping all round you.
1228
01:03:21,188 --> 01:03:24,522
I mean, they just faded away
on either side of you.
1229
01:03:24,522 --> 01:03:28,188
And I thought, what are
they shooting at me for?
1230
01:03:28,188 --> 01:03:31,897
I hadn't gone more than a few yards
before I was shot in the thigh.
1231
01:03:31,897 --> 01:03:34,480
There was a captain alongside me
with his revolver out
1232
01:03:34,480 --> 01:03:36,231
and, all of a sudden, he dropped.
1233
01:03:36,231 --> 01:03:38,439
And then another chap,
he was hit in the leg,
1234
01:03:38,439 --> 01:03:43,273
but he continued with great bounds,
hopping on one leg.
1235
01:03:43,273 --> 01:03:46,523
When the bullets hit the tank,
the metal flakes were whirling
1236
01:03:46,523 --> 01:03:48,856
around like razor blades
inside the tank.
1237
01:03:48,856 --> 01:03:51,481
You could see men dropping,
but you didn't take any notice.
1238
01:03:51,481 --> 01:03:53,690
If you didn't get hit,
you just carried on.
1239
01:03:53,690 --> 01:03:56,315
I suddenly found myself with
a terrible pain in my left hand
1240
01:03:56,315 --> 01:03:59,398
as if someone had caned me,
and I found a big hole in it.
1241
01:03:59,398 --> 01:04:02,940
A man was running across the front
of me and he was shot to the body
1242
01:04:02,940 --> 01:04:07,566
because the contents of his wallet
were flung out forward of me.
1243
01:04:07,566 --> 01:04:09,982
I felt a terrific bang
on my right arm
1244
01:04:09,982 --> 01:04:13,024
and the blood started running
off the end of my hand.
1245
01:04:13,024 --> 01:04:15,441
I just didn't think that this
German machinegun would
1246
01:04:15,441 --> 01:04:17,774
trouble to even fire at me,
but the next thing I felt
1247
01:04:17,774 --> 01:04:21,608
a shock of quite a number of bullets
hitting the right side of my body.
1248
01:04:21,608 --> 01:04:25,525
A hare crossed my path
with eyes bulging in fear,
1249
01:04:25,525 --> 01:04:28,900
but I felt that it couldn't have
been half as frightened as I was.
1250
01:04:28,900 --> 01:04:31,484
You could see your mates
going down right and left,
1251
01:04:31,484 --> 01:04:34,275
and you were face-to-face
with the stark realisation
1252
01:04:34,275 --> 01:04:35,775
that this was the end of it.
1253
01:04:35,775 --> 01:04:39,026
The two in front of me went down
wounded in the head and chest.
1254
01:04:39,026 --> 01:04:41,776
Those bloody bullets got me
in the leg and blew a great big hole
1255
01:04:41,776 --> 01:04:44,859
in the back. It didn't hurt.
1256
01:04:44,859 --> 01:04:47,109
Life was very, very hazardous indeed
1257
01:04:47,109 --> 01:04:49,360
and we proceeded in this fashion,
some getting hit
1258
01:04:49,360 --> 01:04:50,860
and others carrying along.
1259
01:04:50,860 --> 01:04:53,026
You hadn't got time
to deliberate upon things.
1260
01:04:53,026 --> 01:04:55,693
Machinegun bullets might be
coming over, but they weren't
1261
01:04:55,693 --> 01:04:58,527
hitting you and you just go on.
1262
01:04:58,527 --> 01:05:01,652
They say your past comes up when you
think you're going to die,
1263
01:05:01,652 --> 01:05:04,402
but I hadn't got very much
past at 19.
1264
01:05:04,402 --> 01:05:06,777
And when I saw these bullets
coming along,
1265
01:05:06,777 --> 01:05:09,152
all I thought was -
am I going to live?
1266
01:05:09,152 --> 01:05:11,361
Of course, if the thing hits
you fair and square
1267
01:05:11,361 --> 01:05:14,028
and you die immediately,
you don't feel anything at all,
1268
01:05:14,028 --> 01:05:15,944
nothing to it.
1269
01:05:15,944 --> 01:05:18,694
First wave were all
absolutely wiped out.
1270
01:05:18,694 --> 01:05:20,695
Everybody was either
killed or wounded.
1271
01:05:20,695 --> 01:05:23,278
There were so many dead laying
about, it was hard to avoid
1272
01:05:23,278 --> 01:05:24,653
treading on them.
1273
01:05:24,653 --> 01:05:27,362
I was trying to step over them
and the sergeant behind me said,
1274
01:05:27,362 --> 01:05:29,362
"Go on, you mustn't take
any notice of that,
1275
01:05:29,362 --> 01:05:31,070
"you keep going."
1276
01:05:31,070 --> 01:05:33,779
And we were literally
walking over the dead bodies
1277
01:05:33,779 --> 01:05:35,237
of our comrades.
1278
01:05:35,237 --> 01:05:38,571
The carnage is just indescribable.
1279
01:05:38,571 --> 01:05:41,696
I had in my path about 2,000 dead,
British and German.
1280
01:05:41,696 --> 01:05:45,363
An attempt to clear any dead man
from our path was impossible
1281
01:05:45,363 --> 01:05:49,279
because of the shelling
and we ploughed over the lot.
1282
01:05:49,279 --> 01:05:52,488
Any shell bursting within a few
yards of the tank
1283
01:05:52,488 --> 01:05:54,863
seemed to lift it up in the air
1284
01:05:54,863 --> 01:05:58,655
and you felt a tremendous
back pressure.
1285
01:05:58,655 --> 01:06:01,322
The noise of battle when you're out
in the middle of it
1286
01:06:01,322 --> 01:06:04,905
is so terrific that you don't
hear any individual shots even.
1287
01:06:04,905 --> 01:06:07,864
And we had to stop in front
of the German wire.
1288
01:06:07,864 --> 01:06:10,697
It was quite impossible to advance
any further because of the
1289
01:06:10,697 --> 01:06:13,364
barbed wire and the machinegun
posts, which were about
1290
01:06:13,364 --> 01:06:14,823
50 yards further on.
1291
01:06:14,823 --> 01:06:17,114
The wire in front of us
was quite uncut,
1292
01:06:17,114 --> 01:06:19,073
despite the intense bombardment.
1293
01:06:19,073 --> 01:06:21,073
You couldn't see anything
but this wire,
1294
01:06:21,073 --> 01:06:23,406
it seemed to be acres
and acres of it.
1295
01:06:23,406 --> 01:06:25,990
It was just black with rust.
1296
01:06:25,990 --> 01:06:28,615
I don't think a rabbit
could have got through it.
1297
01:06:28,615 --> 01:06:31,782
Then our own artillery started
dropping shells amongst us.
1298
01:06:35,199 --> 01:06:36,990
SCREAMING
1299
01:06:38,032 --> 01:06:40,532
Obviously they hadn't got
their range or they didn't know
1300
01:06:40,532 --> 01:06:42,616
where we were.
1301
01:06:42,616 --> 01:06:46,033
I heard the first
shrapnel shell burst above my head.
1302
01:06:46,033 --> 01:06:48,616
There was a terrific whiz,
that was the disappearance
1303
01:06:48,616 --> 01:06:50,574
of my steel helmet.
1304
01:06:50,574 --> 01:06:52,450
I never found it again.
1305
01:06:52,450 --> 01:06:55,783
I got a bit off the cheek of
my backside, a piece in my hip,
1306
01:06:55,783 --> 01:06:59,117
a piece in my leg,
then a piece right through my leg.
1307
01:06:59,117 --> 01:07:01,742
The fellow to my left took
the full blast of the shell
1308
01:07:01,742 --> 01:07:04,159
and had half his head blown away.
1309
01:07:04,159 --> 01:07:07,367
Bullets were catching us and
shrapnel was coming down overhead
1310
01:07:07,367 --> 01:07:10,576
and we had all the
German artillery banging away at us
1311
01:07:10,576 --> 01:07:12,492
and our own artillery going over.
1312
01:07:12,492 --> 01:07:14,367
The shells were exploding
all round you
1313
01:07:14,367 --> 01:07:17,118
and it was a real good old battle
and it got hold of you, sort of.
1314
01:07:17,118 --> 01:07:19,701
BAGPIPES PLAY
1315
01:07:19,701 --> 01:07:23,951
One had no sanity at all
because the inferno was so blasting
1316
01:07:23,951 --> 01:07:26,201
that you had no time to think.
1317
01:07:26,201 --> 01:07:31,368
That din, that numbing din seemed
to stop one doing the things
1318
01:07:31,368 --> 01:07:34,952
that one would normally do, no
matter how well-intentioned one was.
1319
01:07:36,535 --> 01:07:38,119
You don't look, you see.
1320
01:07:38,119 --> 01:07:39,786
You don't hear, you listen.
1321
01:07:39,786 --> 01:07:42,119
You taste the top of your mouth,
your nose is filled
1322
01:07:42,119 --> 01:07:43,869
with fumes and death.
1323
01:07:43,869 --> 01:07:47,203
The veneer of civilisation
has dropped away.
1324
01:07:47,203 --> 01:07:50,786
I was literally blown about 12 or 14
yards and all that I could hear
1325
01:07:50,786 --> 01:07:53,495
was the cries and screams
from the survivors,
1326
01:07:53,495 --> 01:07:56,120
sometimes in two,
sometimes in three parts.
1327
01:07:56,120 --> 01:07:58,828
Legs, arms all strewn
all over the place
1328
01:07:58,828 --> 01:08:01,453
and that arid smell of explosion.
1329
01:08:01,453 --> 01:08:06,287
Well, all my romantic ideas
of war completely vanished.
1330
01:08:06,287 --> 01:08:09,537
A shell had hit this man,
it knocked off his left arm,
1331
01:08:09,537 --> 01:08:11,246
knocked off his left leg,
1332
01:08:11,246 --> 01:08:13,662
his left eye was hanging
on his cheek
1333
01:08:13,662 --> 01:08:16,079
and he's calling out for Nanny.
1334
01:08:16,079 --> 01:08:18,288
His bleeding eye was
hanging on, pulsing.
1335
01:08:19,829 --> 01:08:21,663
So I shot him.
1336
01:08:21,663 --> 01:08:24,330
I had to, I had to shoot him.
1337
01:08:24,330 --> 01:08:28,538
He'd have died in any case
and it put him out of his misery.
1338
01:08:28,538 --> 01:08:30,205
HE SOBS: It hurt me.
1339
01:08:32,497 --> 01:08:34,455
I knew there was no hope
of getting any orders
1340
01:08:34,455 --> 01:08:36,664
because there was
nobody to give any.
1341
01:08:36,664 --> 01:08:40,289
All officers was killed
and wounded, and most of the NCOs.
1342
01:08:40,289 --> 01:08:41,997
I jumped into this big shell hole.
1343
01:08:41,997 --> 01:08:44,872
You dropped down anywhere,
shell holes, anywhere at all
1344
01:08:44,872 --> 01:08:48,164
just to take cover
until the barrage lifted.
1345
01:08:48,164 --> 01:08:51,206
I'm not one of those heroes who want
to take the German army on my own,
1346
01:08:51,206 --> 01:08:53,790
so I went to work
and I got down behind the lip
1347
01:08:53,790 --> 01:08:55,873
of a big shell hole.
1348
01:08:55,873 --> 01:08:58,915
Fortunately, I was able
to drop into a shell hole.
1349
01:08:58,915 --> 01:09:01,665
Used to call them shell hole
droppers, they would drop down
1350
01:09:01,665 --> 01:09:03,248
into a shell hole
1351
01:09:03,248 --> 01:09:06,332
because of the barrage
and seeing a few men killed.
1352
01:09:06,332 --> 01:09:08,499
It's a pity they didn't all drop
into shell holes.
1353
01:09:08,499 --> 01:09:10,915
Before the barrage lifted,
they were dead.
1354
01:09:10,915 --> 01:09:12,416
SCREAMING
1355
01:09:12,416 --> 01:09:15,582
And the bullets were hitting the
back of the shell hole where I was.
1356
01:09:15,582 --> 01:09:17,041
It was raining bullets.
1357
01:09:17,041 --> 01:09:18,791
I don't know how I got missed.
1358
01:09:18,791 --> 01:09:22,333
From behind the lip of this shell
hole, the dirt was spraying down
1359
01:09:22,333 --> 01:09:24,000
the back of my neck.
1360
01:09:24,000 --> 01:09:26,666
There were three chaps in the
shell hole and one of them said,
1361
01:09:26,666 --> 01:09:28,666
"They're firing
into a bloody shell hole."
1362
01:09:28,666 --> 01:09:31,625
We looked round to see the bullets
go right through his head.
1363
01:09:31,625 --> 01:09:33,083
So that was the end of that.
1364
01:09:33,083 --> 01:09:36,625
A sergeant came down into the
shell hole on top of us
1365
01:09:36,625 --> 01:09:38,542
and he was dead, he got it
through the neck.
1366
01:09:38,542 --> 01:09:41,459
Anyway, he had a lovely pair of
field glasses round his neck
1367
01:09:41,459 --> 01:09:44,126
and I nabbed them. Because things
were so scarce,
1368
01:09:44,126 --> 01:09:47,001
if there was anything like that,
you'd collar it.
1369
01:09:47,001 --> 01:09:51,334
Jerry slapped shell after shell
into us until one shell penetrated
1370
01:09:51,334 --> 01:09:53,209
the forward part of the tank.
1371
01:09:53,209 --> 01:09:55,668
What happened then,
I cannot tell you but I believe
1372
01:09:55,668 --> 01:09:57,460
there was an explosion.
1373
01:09:57,460 --> 01:10:00,543
These were fully trained soldiers,
we always had the rifles loaded,
1374
01:10:00,543 --> 01:10:03,085
but we stuck in the
extra five rounds to make it
1375
01:10:03,085 --> 01:10:04,877
a ten for rapid-fire.
1376
01:10:04,877 --> 01:10:08,127
The Germans got up in their
own trenches and fired at us.
1377
01:10:08,127 --> 01:10:11,960
In my opinion, they were very brave,
very brave men indeed.
1378
01:10:11,960 --> 01:10:15,627
There was a German standing up
on his parapet and flinging bombs.
1379
01:10:15,627 --> 01:10:17,544
So I shot him.
1380
01:10:17,544 --> 01:10:20,628
They officer gave us orders,
"Open immediate rapid-fire."
1381
01:10:20,628 --> 01:10:24,586
We all opened up as fast as we could
go and continually fired.
1382
01:10:24,586 --> 01:10:26,920
It was a real mad minute,
I'll tell you.
1383
01:10:26,920 --> 01:10:29,211
They stood up and I was picking
the Germans off
1384
01:10:29,211 --> 01:10:31,420
because I was a sniper.
1385
01:10:31,420 --> 01:10:34,295
I was trying to pick a shot
and something hit me
1386
01:10:34,295 --> 01:10:36,920
between the eyes
like a sledgehammer.
1387
01:10:36,920 --> 01:10:38,587
I dissolved into unconsciousness
1388
01:10:38,587 --> 01:10:41,545
with no pain, but with
millions of golden stars
1389
01:10:41,545 --> 01:10:43,587
in a dark blue heaven.
1390
01:10:43,587 --> 01:10:45,712
After I'd used up a whole lot
of bullets,
1391
01:10:45,712 --> 01:10:48,254
I got down,
I says, "You have a go, Bill."
1392
01:10:48,254 --> 01:10:51,838
He didn't even fire a shot,
he was killed immediately.
1393
01:10:51,838 --> 01:10:53,463
That's how things were.
1394
01:10:53,463 --> 01:10:56,130
You felt aggrieved,
it was a pal of yours.
1395
01:10:56,130 --> 01:11:00,880
But you took it casually because I
suppose you become battle hardened.
1396
01:11:00,880 --> 01:11:04,088
We kept up rapid-fire there
as long as our rifles would work.
1397
01:11:04,088 --> 01:11:05,838
They got too hot to fire any more.
1398
01:11:05,838 --> 01:11:08,255
Fat was pouring out
the woodwork of the rifles,
1399
01:11:08,255 --> 01:11:10,547
the muzzles were
beginning to extend.
1400
01:11:10,547 --> 01:11:13,131
Then we got an order
from the captain, we must make
1401
01:11:13,131 --> 01:11:17,547
a barricade of the dead,
the German dead and our own dead.
1402
01:11:17,547 --> 01:11:20,964
My captain, at that time, was
anxious to go on and keep it up,
1403
01:11:20,964 --> 01:11:23,256
but I'm afraid he died.
1404
01:11:23,256 --> 01:11:25,506
I had three men loading up
these rifles with me
1405
01:11:25,506 --> 01:11:27,090
and I peppered the whole line.
1406
01:11:27,090 --> 01:11:31,215
And judging by the shouts and
screams, I took a very good toll.
1407
01:11:31,215 --> 01:11:34,673
There was machinegun spraying
on the lip of our shell hole.
1408
01:11:34,673 --> 01:11:37,007
I waited until
the belt of that gun had fired
1409
01:11:37,007 --> 01:11:39,382
and immediately carried on
the advance.
1410
01:11:39,382 --> 01:11:42,840
The sergeant said, "Follow me."
1411
01:11:42,840 --> 01:11:44,716
I managed to crawl under the wire -
1412
01:11:44,716 --> 01:11:47,591
a lot of us got through in
that way - and gathered together
1413
01:11:47,591 --> 01:11:49,883
on the German side of the wire.
1414
01:11:49,883 --> 01:11:52,758
All the shells screamed
over our heads onto the German posts
1415
01:11:52,758 --> 01:11:54,216
and then suddenly stopped.
1416
01:11:54,216 --> 01:11:56,633
"Come on, lads, give them hell,"
and we just got up
1417
01:11:56,633 --> 01:11:58,466
and rushed forward.
1418
01:11:58,466 --> 01:12:01,258
In the bayonet charge,
the majority of us always
1419
01:12:01,258 --> 01:12:04,425
had a round up the spout,
besides the magazine.
1420
01:12:04,425 --> 01:12:07,092
There was a feeling of exultation
that with a rifle, bayonet
1421
01:12:07,092 --> 01:12:09,884
and a couple of Mills bombs in your
pocket, we were going to be able
1422
01:12:09,884 --> 01:12:12,634
to get stuck into the bastards
that had been killing our mates.
1423
01:12:12,634 --> 01:12:15,217
And we went like hell,
straight into the Germans.
1424
01:12:16,301 --> 01:12:19,176
SCREAMING AND RAPID GUNFIRE
1425
01:12:23,759 --> 01:12:26,468
And we fired at anything that moved.
1426
01:12:26,468 --> 01:12:28,676
I dropped down on my knees
and the sergeant fired
1427
01:12:28,676 --> 01:12:31,551
over my shoulder and hit the German.
1428
01:12:31,551 --> 01:12:33,760
He was on the ground but
still firing, so he went up
1429
01:12:33,760 --> 01:12:34,968
and killed him.
1430
01:12:34,968 --> 01:12:37,427
There was only one method
of bayonet fighting, that is to
1431
01:12:37,427 --> 01:12:39,677
shove your bayonet
in as hard as you could.
1432
01:12:39,677 --> 01:12:42,260
There was this German
on the floor of the trench,
1433
01:12:42,260 --> 01:12:43,802
and the poor bugger was dead scared.
1434
01:12:43,802 --> 01:12:46,261
So one of them wondered
whether to stick him or shoot him,
1435
01:12:46,261 --> 01:12:48,719
the German jumped out away
to my left, another one
1436
01:12:48,719 --> 01:12:51,303
on the right, so I pinned
this German down, then shot
1437
01:12:51,303 --> 01:12:54,678
the German on the left,
worked my bolt, put another one
1438
01:12:54,678 --> 01:12:57,761
up the spout, and shot the German
who was running away on the right.
1439
01:12:57,761 --> 01:13:00,553
Quite a number of Germans
came in a rush and we shot them,
1440
01:13:00,553 --> 01:13:02,095
one by one.
1441
01:13:02,095 --> 01:13:03,678
We probably killed the lot.
1442
01:13:03,678 --> 01:13:08,095
Some chap said, "Poor old Dick got
it," and I looked around and saw him
1443
01:13:08,095 --> 01:13:10,345
lying with the top of his head off.
1444
01:13:10,345 --> 01:13:13,679
On their right flank came a German
with a canister on his back,
1445
01:13:13,679 --> 01:13:16,262
squirting this
liquid fire out of the hose.
1446
01:13:16,262 --> 01:13:19,262
I looked towards jets of flame
coming across the trench.
1447
01:13:19,262 --> 01:13:21,012
We'd never heard of flame-throwers.
1448
01:13:21,012 --> 01:13:22,804
Burnt 23 of our chaps to death.
1449
01:13:22,804 --> 01:13:25,304
I plonked one into his chest,
but it didn't stop him,
1450
01:13:25,304 --> 01:13:28,013
he must have had an
armour-plated waistcoat on.
1451
01:13:28,013 --> 01:13:31,013
I got a bang in the arm
and found I was bleeding.
1452
01:13:31,013 --> 01:13:33,221
But I could bomb
pretty well with my left arm
1453
01:13:33,221 --> 01:13:35,097
as I could with my right.
1454
01:13:35,097 --> 01:13:37,722
Somebody threw a Mills bomb,
and it burst behind him,
1455
01:13:37,722 --> 01:13:40,097
and he wasn't armour-plated
behind him, he went down.
1456
01:13:40,097 --> 01:13:42,472
One German came
running out of this trench,
1457
01:13:42,472 --> 01:13:45,431
screaming his head off,
he nearly knocked me over.
1458
01:13:45,431 --> 01:13:48,014
Three Germans came out
with their hands up,
1459
01:13:48,014 --> 01:13:50,347
and they were young chaps
about our own age,
1460
01:13:50,347 --> 01:13:52,306
about 19 or 20.
1461
01:13:52,306 --> 01:13:55,681
If Jerries came up with their
hands up, we just waved them on,
1462
01:13:55,681 --> 01:13:58,431
we didn't fire at them, obviously.
1463
01:13:58,431 --> 01:14:00,931
Prisoners were a nuisance!
1464
01:14:00,931 --> 01:14:03,223
We were shooing them back,
you know, get rid of them.
1465
01:14:03,223 --> 01:14:07,223
The only Germans we were really
fighting were the machine gunners.
1466
01:14:07,223 --> 01:14:09,390
They were firing belt
after belt after us,
1467
01:14:09,390 --> 01:14:10,974
and they never stopped firing.
1468
01:14:10,974 --> 01:14:13,932
The bloody cartridge cases
were piled up in a heap.
1469
01:14:13,932 --> 01:14:16,391
They'd got all their
best men on machine guns,
1470
01:14:16,391 --> 01:14:17,932
and they fought to the death.
1471
01:14:17,932 --> 01:14:20,807
The cog opened, and there
was three Jerries there in front
1472
01:14:20,807 --> 01:14:23,016
of the machinegun,
and of course the bloody gun
1473
01:14:23,016 --> 01:14:27,391
was pointing at me, and I just swung
the Lewis gun, I opened fire first.
1474
01:14:28,558 --> 01:14:30,266
It was split-second stuff.
1475
01:14:30,266 --> 01:14:32,683
Thankfully, I moved on.
1476
01:14:32,683 --> 01:14:35,558
As the war progressed,
it was inevitable that we developed
1477
01:14:35,558 --> 01:14:38,392
the animal characteristic
of killing.
1478
01:14:38,392 --> 01:14:40,559
Well, we've got some
young Lincolnshire lads,
1479
01:14:40,559 --> 01:14:41,975
you know, the 18-year-olds.
1480
01:14:41,975 --> 01:14:44,225
The machine gunners
were putting their hands up -
1481
01:14:44,225 --> 01:14:46,100
it didn't make any difference.
1482
01:14:46,100 --> 01:14:47,309
They were killed.
1483
01:14:49,101 --> 01:14:51,642
And I'm afraid there was
a little bit of slaughter going on,
1484
01:14:51,642 --> 01:14:54,018
until we got in some sort of order.
1485
01:14:54,018 --> 01:14:58,226
Everybody was screaming,
laying down, moaning and groaning,
1486
01:14:58,226 --> 01:15:01,351
and eventually there was silence.
1487
01:15:01,351 --> 01:15:03,893
I found a German officer
with his lung hanging out.
1488
01:15:03,893 --> 01:15:06,143
He was still alive,
but he wasn't conscious.
1489
01:15:06,143 --> 01:15:10,310
You could see his lung was expanding
and contracting as he was breathing.
1490
01:15:10,310 --> 01:15:13,352
It was the nearest I ever came
to shooting a man point-blank,
1491
01:15:13,352 --> 01:15:15,769
but we had to go on.
1492
01:15:15,769 --> 01:15:18,269
One dead German leaning
against a shell wall,
1493
01:15:18,269 --> 01:15:21,186
he was a handsome bloke,
he reminded me of my father.
1494
01:15:21,186 --> 01:15:25,936
A shell had dissected him nicely,
it had taken the whole of the front
1495
01:15:25,936 --> 01:15:29,895
of his chest down to his stomach,
neatly cut aside.
1496
01:15:29,895 --> 01:15:32,978
What a fantastic exhibition
of anatomy.
1497
01:15:35,103 --> 01:15:38,145
The real shooting was over
in about ten minutes.
1498
01:15:38,145 --> 01:15:42,145
There was about 100 of us coming
out, instead of 600 who'd gone over,
1499
01:15:42,145 --> 01:15:44,187
and a band came to meet us.
1500
01:15:44,187 --> 01:15:46,062
It was a wonderful feeling.
1501
01:15:46,062 --> 01:15:47,521
"I've been in a battle!
1502
01:15:47,521 --> 01:15:50,771
"And I'm so very proud about it."
1503
01:15:50,771 --> 01:15:52,229
Hang on.
1504
01:15:54,563 --> 01:15:56,146
You got it? Yeah.
1505
01:15:56,146 --> 01:15:58,521
And if you'd anybody
wounded or killed...
1506
01:15:58,521 --> 01:16:00,230
FLIES BUZZ
1507
01:16:00,230 --> 01:16:04,021
..if you didn't get them out
straight away, they went down
1508
01:16:04,021 --> 01:16:07,397
in the soil and disappeared,
it was so bad.
1509
01:16:07,397 --> 01:16:08,897
That's it.
1510
01:16:10,355 --> 01:16:15,022
Well, you had to ascertain
whether a man was alive or not.
1511
01:16:15,022 --> 01:16:20,356
If he was dead, then he
was no trouble - medically.
1512
01:16:20,356 --> 01:16:22,314
I can't put that any clearer!
1513
01:16:23,397 --> 01:16:25,064
Keep him level.
1514
01:16:26,439 --> 01:16:28,064
Give me some room!
1515
01:16:28,064 --> 01:16:31,106
I felt some pain, I suppose
about an hour later.
1516
01:16:31,106 --> 01:16:34,898
I'd got these thigh boots on,
and the bullet had gone in sideways,
1517
01:16:34,898 --> 01:16:38,607
all the way down the leg, in, out,
in, out, and hit the ankle bone
1518
01:16:38,607 --> 01:16:40,107
and turned upside down.
1519
01:16:42,023 --> 01:16:44,524
Oh, God!
1520
01:16:44,524 --> 01:16:45,857
Jesus!
1521
01:16:47,565 --> 01:16:50,899
The Sergeant Major brought me
a dixie of hot tea,
1522
01:16:50,899 --> 01:16:54,649
which was just what I needed,
it went down beautifully.
1523
01:16:54,649 --> 01:16:57,733
And casualties started coming back,
walking casualties,
1524
01:16:57,733 --> 01:17:01,316
men with their arms smashed up,
legs trawling, and they got back
1525
01:17:01,316 --> 01:17:03,941
to different dressing stations
the best way they could.
1526
01:17:03,941 --> 01:17:06,608
The walking wounded, they were
coming down in droves.
1527
01:17:06,608 --> 01:17:09,650
Some were holding one another,
and some were walking on their own,
1528
01:17:09,650 --> 01:17:12,275
a light wound in the hand or arm,
but some were hobbling along,
1529
01:17:12,275 --> 01:17:14,275
and some were looking
quite cheerful as
1530
01:17:14,275 --> 01:17:16,317
they'd been free of something.
1531
01:17:16,317 --> 01:17:17,692
Hello, Mum!
1532
01:17:19,109 --> 01:17:21,484
My officer had said,
"Are you all right, Kane?"
1533
01:17:21,484 --> 01:17:23,817
And I said, "Oh, yes,
sir, I can still walk."
1534
01:17:23,817 --> 01:17:27,276
And he said, "But you've been hit
in the back of the head."
1535
01:17:27,276 --> 01:17:30,234
And he handed me
quite a dose of rum.
1536
01:17:32,401 --> 01:17:37,485
The worst cases were those
who were shot through the chest.
1537
01:17:37,485 --> 01:17:40,777
Well, the difficulty of breathing,
you see, you only had
1538
01:17:40,777 --> 01:17:44,235
field dressings,
which every man carried.
1539
01:17:44,235 --> 01:17:46,235
Yeah, we'll have a better look
at it.
1540
01:17:46,235 --> 01:17:47,694
Who's waiting, boys?
1541
01:17:47,694 --> 01:17:50,444
You got a bottle of iodine
and they'd tip it in the hole.
1542
01:17:50,444 --> 01:17:53,194
Oh, the pain was terrific.
1543
01:17:53,194 --> 01:17:54,569
Well done.
1544
01:17:57,403 --> 01:18:00,319
How about that for luck, chum?
Shot right through it.
1545
01:18:03,528 --> 01:18:07,737
I was not in very good shape at all,
and I was getting somewhere near
1546
01:18:07,737 --> 01:18:11,028
the end of my tether, I don't think
I could go on much longer.
1547
01:18:11,028 --> 01:18:15,487
Every soldier, I suppose,
had this breaking strain.
1548
01:18:18,779 --> 01:18:21,112
The medics will be waiting for you.
1549
01:18:21,112 --> 01:18:23,612
Well done, lads, well done.
1550
01:18:23,612 --> 01:18:25,404
That's it.
1551
01:18:25,404 --> 01:18:30,196
We had some remarkable doctors
who worked day and night
1552
01:18:30,196 --> 01:18:35,071
in various stations on the British
front, looking after the wounded.
1553
01:18:36,613 --> 01:18:38,030
Nice cup of Rosie Lee.
1554
01:18:38,030 --> 01:18:39,655
You all right, Jack?
1555
01:18:39,655 --> 01:18:43,613
They seemed never to need any sleep,
so what they hadn't got in numbers
1556
01:18:43,613 --> 01:18:45,572
they made up in effort.
1557
01:18:45,572 --> 01:18:47,447
We need a shell dressing.
1558
01:18:49,530 --> 01:18:53,489
Both my officers, all my sergeants
and three quarters of my men
1559
01:18:53,489 --> 01:18:55,822
were killed or wounded.
1560
01:18:55,822 --> 01:18:59,698
Their ranks were made up with lads
of 18 from England
1561
01:18:59,698 --> 01:19:01,948
who'd been pushed out of factories.
1562
01:19:01,948 --> 01:19:03,656
Easy, that's it.
1563
01:19:04,823 --> 01:19:06,323
BIRDS SQUAWK
1564
01:19:06,323 --> 01:19:08,448
Bloody birds! Get out of it!
1565
01:19:08,448 --> 01:19:09,865
Go on!
1566
01:19:11,073 --> 01:19:15,115
My mob were helping
the battalion to bury these...
1567
01:19:15,115 --> 01:19:18,949
..only little kids, they were,
17 or 18 years of age.
1568
01:19:18,949 --> 01:19:22,074
In sure and certain hope
of the resurrection to eternal life
1569
01:19:22,074 --> 01:19:23,866
through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1570
01:19:28,824 --> 01:19:31,491
A lot of those kids,
it was their first action,
1571
01:19:31,491 --> 01:19:33,741
and they never knew any more.
1572
01:19:33,741 --> 01:19:36,783
So we'd wrapped them up in blankets,
dug a little shallow grave
1573
01:19:36,783 --> 01:19:38,158
and put them in there.
1574
01:19:41,283 --> 01:19:44,367
I was putting a dressing on
a German, and he was very shaky
1575
01:19:44,367 --> 01:19:47,200
and fearful of what we were
going to do to him.
1576
01:19:47,200 --> 01:19:49,367
But they were more
frightened than we were.
1577
01:19:49,367 --> 01:19:51,659
And we were frightened,
I don't mind telling you!
1578
01:19:51,659 --> 01:19:54,742
Mostly, they were just boys,
as we were.
1579
01:19:54,742 --> 01:19:57,784
They seemed glad to be captured,
they were out of it.
1580
01:19:57,784 --> 01:19:58,951
Is this yours?
1581
01:19:58,951 --> 01:20:01,159
Mein.
This is his. Ah, it's yours.
1582
01:20:01,159 --> 01:20:03,243
Put it in your pocket.
1583
01:20:03,243 --> 01:20:05,743
There was a little German fella,
I gave him a cigarette,
1584
01:20:05,743 --> 01:20:08,993
and he was terrified,
and I was very, very sorry for him,
1585
01:20:08,993 --> 01:20:11,368
really, you know.
He was only about 16.
1586
01:20:11,368 --> 01:20:14,077
And we had a chinwag,
and I just took his pocket watch,
1587
01:20:14,077 --> 01:20:15,702
you know, it was a normal thing.
1588
01:20:15,702 --> 01:20:17,327
We used to rob them, you see?
1589
01:20:17,327 --> 01:20:18,702
Right, let's go.
1590
01:20:19,744 --> 01:20:23,661
Yes, they were underfed,
and they were in very poor shape.
1591
01:20:23,661 --> 01:20:25,036
Come on, come on now, lads.
1592
01:20:25,036 --> 01:20:26,411
Pick him up. Come on!
1593
01:20:26,411 --> 01:20:29,203
And funnily enough, five or six
German prisoners came along,
1594
01:20:29,203 --> 01:20:32,494
and they helped carry me,
and I got another six watches,
1595
01:20:32,494 --> 01:20:35,495
because I robbed these fellas
who helped me down.
1596
01:20:35,495 --> 01:20:39,703
Every time we captured prisoners,
a number of German prisoners
1597
01:20:39,703 --> 01:20:42,287
would immediately
take up stretcher duty.
1598
01:20:42,287 --> 01:20:45,453
Now, I'm sure the Geneva Convention
never required them to do that.
1599
01:20:45,453 --> 01:20:46,829
There you go, lads.
1600
01:20:46,829 --> 01:20:48,620
I've got him. Steady.
1601
01:20:49,995 --> 01:20:51,329
You're all right, chum.
1602
01:20:51,329 --> 01:20:52,912
That's it. Keep going.
1603
01:20:52,912 --> 01:20:55,912
I took about
a dozen prisoners back with me,
1604
01:20:55,912 --> 01:20:58,496
they were all unarmed
and I just had my old gun.
1605
01:20:58,496 --> 01:21:01,829
In some cases, there were
a whole lot of Germans without even
1606
01:21:01,829 --> 01:21:04,079
a Tommy with them.
1607
01:21:04,079 --> 01:21:09,913
Oh, they were really cowed,
they were, yes, very subdued.
1608
01:21:11,955 --> 01:21:16,955
I slept next to a German man
who'd been wounded in the arm,
1609
01:21:16,955 --> 01:21:21,705
and to my amazement he started
talking to me in English.
1610
01:21:21,705 --> 01:21:24,081
And he said he'd been
a waiter at the Savoy.
1611
01:21:27,789 --> 01:21:31,581
I mean, I don't think the average
British soldier ever had
1612
01:21:31,581 --> 01:21:34,914
any deep feelings regarding revenge
against the German.
1613
01:21:34,914 --> 01:21:36,706
He admired him and respected him.
1614
01:21:37,873 --> 01:21:39,290
Go on, show him.
1615
01:21:39,290 --> 01:21:41,998
As the war went on,
I felt as much sympathy for them
1616
01:21:41,998 --> 01:21:43,915
as I did for myself.
1617
01:21:43,915 --> 01:21:46,457
The German I always thought
was a good fighter.
1618
01:21:46,457 --> 01:21:49,540
I'd sooner have him on my side
than on the opposite side.
1619
01:21:49,540 --> 01:21:52,499
I think some of the Germans thought
we ought to have been fighting
1620
01:21:52,499 --> 01:21:56,249
with them against the French
and the Russians, but none of them
1621
01:21:56,249 --> 01:21:58,124
thought we ought to be
fighting each other.
1622
01:21:58,124 --> 01:21:59,541
Keep on moving forward!
1623
01:21:59,541 --> 01:22:03,916
You see, the German
had been an unknown horde
1624
01:22:03,916 --> 01:22:06,541
with their coal-scuttle helmets,
and then we met them.
1625
01:22:06,541 --> 01:22:09,333
Well, the German soldier,
he was a very nice fellow as a rule.
1626
01:22:09,333 --> 01:22:11,708
You know, I think he was
really a barber or a shopkeeper
1627
01:22:11,708 --> 01:22:15,042
or something, and, the same as us,
he was stuck in uniform.
1628
01:22:15,042 --> 01:22:18,250
You're too tall.
Get you next time, Jerry!
1629
01:22:18,250 --> 01:22:20,959
We got on very well together,
actually, and they used to
1630
01:22:20,959 --> 01:22:22,292
mix in with us.
1631
01:22:22,292 --> 01:22:24,251
Want your hat back?
1632
01:22:24,251 --> 01:22:26,001
Here, give it him back!
1633
01:22:26,001 --> 01:22:28,959
They were decent,
sort of family people
1634
01:22:28,959 --> 01:22:32,043
and thought a great deal
of their children.
1635
01:22:33,751 --> 01:22:37,126
They didn't seem to bear
any malice against us.
1636
01:22:37,126 --> 01:22:39,668
They'd had to do what
they were told, like us.
1637
01:22:41,460 --> 01:22:43,543
Go on, go on tracking...
1638
01:22:43,543 --> 01:22:46,543
I couldn't speak German,
but some could, and the Germans,
1639
01:22:46,543 --> 01:22:48,252
some of them could speak English.
1640
01:22:48,252 --> 01:22:50,252
Anyhow, we could
understand each other.
1641
01:22:50,252 --> 01:22:53,169
The general agreement
when we were talking to Germans
1642
01:22:53,169 --> 01:22:57,711
was how useless war was
and why did it have to happen.
1643
01:23:00,503 --> 01:23:02,961
When you're passing bodies
all day long,
1644
01:23:02,961 --> 01:23:06,378
it's bound to have an effect
on whoever it is, isn't it?
1645
01:23:06,378 --> 01:23:08,461
This big fat German
was lying in a street...
1646
01:23:08,461 --> 01:23:09,670
FLIES BUZZ
1647
01:23:09,670 --> 01:23:12,128
..you know, his stomach
was all gassed up,
1648
01:23:12,128 --> 01:23:14,920
his intestines
lying out on his belly.
1649
01:23:14,920 --> 01:23:17,837
And somebody had stuck
a pipe in his mouth!
1650
01:23:17,837 --> 01:23:21,004
Yeah, we all told him to get up!
HE CHUCKLES
1651
01:23:22,420 --> 01:23:26,379
German troops were very brave
and very stubborn.
1652
01:23:26,379 --> 01:23:29,837
The Germans fought rearguard actions
almost back to the Rhine,
1653
01:23:29,837 --> 01:23:33,713
and regiment after regiment
was smashed up and cut about.
1654
01:23:33,713 --> 01:23:37,421
We had an idea that they were
beginning to crack.
1655
01:23:39,421 --> 01:23:42,213
I would say that they were,
if anything, rather despondent.
1656
01:23:42,213 --> 01:23:44,088
They knew they had lost the war.
1657
01:23:44,088 --> 01:23:47,963
We, as front-line soldiers,
knew they were giving up.
1658
01:23:47,963 --> 01:23:52,505
Quite frankly, the Germans
were fed up with the whole thing.
1659
01:23:52,505 --> 01:23:56,422
And, gradually, that is how
the war itself came to an end.
1660
01:23:56,422 --> 01:23:59,589
I got the impression that most
of the German soldiers
1661
01:23:59,589 --> 01:24:03,756
couldn't care less who won
as long as the war finished.
1662
01:24:03,756 --> 01:24:06,256
Of course, that's what everybody
was thinking about then -
1663
01:24:06,256 --> 01:24:08,131
we'd had enough.
1664
01:24:08,131 --> 01:24:11,756
And after a time,
perhaps nobody cared.
1665
01:24:11,756 --> 01:24:13,590
All right, boys, here it comes.
1666
01:24:13,590 --> 01:24:15,173
We're in the pictures!
1667
01:24:16,298 --> 01:24:18,923
There was a fella in
the war called Rumour,
1668
01:24:18,923 --> 01:24:22,007
he knows everything, you see,
and Mr Rumour told us
1669
01:24:22,007 --> 01:24:25,507
that the Germans were also
negotiating for an Armistice.
1670
01:24:25,507 --> 01:24:27,549
There was a huge poster,
1671
01:24:27,549 --> 01:24:32,466
"All hostilities will cease
on the Western Front at 11 o'clock
1672
01:24:32,466 --> 01:24:35,591
"on the 11th of November 1918."
1673
01:24:35,591 --> 01:24:37,966
So we said to each other,
"What day is it?"
1674
01:24:37,966 --> 01:24:42,425
And somebody discovered
it was November the 11th!
1675
01:24:42,425 --> 01:24:45,717
And then we had to shine our boots,
clean our buttons,
1676
01:24:45,717 --> 01:24:48,383
we knew the war was over then,
and we were quite confident
1677
01:24:48,383 --> 01:24:50,800
that we would be
there when it ended.
1678
01:24:50,800 --> 01:24:55,217
This proclamation was read out,
stating that the hostilities
1679
01:24:55,217 --> 01:24:58,884
would cease from 11 that morning,
and actually there wasn't
1680
01:24:58,884 --> 01:25:02,176
a cheer of any kind
raised when that was read out.
1681
01:25:02,176 --> 01:25:06,551
At 11 o'clock, the noise
of the gunfire just rolled away,
1682
01:25:06,551 --> 01:25:08,843
like a peal of thunder,
in the distance.
1683
01:25:08,843 --> 01:25:12,218
SHELLFIRE AND GUNFIRE FADES OUT
1684
01:25:16,927 --> 01:25:20,010
BIRDSONG, SOLDIERS CHATTER
1685
01:25:21,094 --> 01:25:22,802
Never heard it being quiet.
1686
01:25:22,802 --> 01:25:25,719
Now it was dead silent.
1687
01:25:25,719 --> 01:25:28,844
You were so dazed that you could
stand up straight and not be shot.
1688
01:25:28,844 --> 01:25:30,344
It was eerie.
1689
01:25:32,261 --> 01:25:34,969
There was a feeling
of relief and gladness,
1690
01:25:34,969 --> 01:25:37,594
I suppose, but no celebration.
1691
01:25:37,594 --> 01:25:40,511
The staff officer
shut his watch up and said,
1692
01:25:40,511 --> 01:25:43,261
"I wonder what we're
all going to do next."
1693
01:25:43,261 --> 01:25:46,887
There was no demonstration
of any kind, nobody said a word,
1694
01:25:46,887 --> 01:25:49,553
everybody just slumped away.
1695
01:25:49,553 --> 01:25:52,095
The only way we could
have celebrated as regards
1696
01:25:52,095 --> 01:25:55,595
to a liquid
would have been tea, that's all.
1697
01:25:55,595 --> 01:25:58,262
It was one of
the flattest moments of our lives.
1698
01:25:58,262 --> 01:26:00,596
We just couldn't comprehend it.
1699
01:26:02,304 --> 01:26:04,596
We had that sort of feeling
as though we'd been kicked
1700
01:26:04,596 --> 01:26:05,888
out of a job.
1701
01:26:05,888 --> 01:26:09,471
For some of us, it was practically
the only life we'd known.
1702
01:26:09,471 --> 01:26:11,638
What was one going to do next?
1703
01:26:11,638 --> 01:26:13,888
It was just like
being made redundant.
1704
01:26:13,888 --> 01:26:16,847
That was very much
the feeling of everyone.
1705
01:26:16,847 --> 01:26:20,138
We were thoroughly upset,
we'd all got no work to go to.
1706
01:26:20,138 --> 01:26:22,180
"I don't want to go back."
1707
01:26:22,180 --> 01:26:27,389
There was no cheering, no singing -
we were drained of all emotion.
1708
01:26:27,389 --> 01:26:32,056
We were too far gone,
too exhausted to enjoy it.
1709
01:26:32,056 --> 01:26:36,306
All things come to an end,
and even a drama can go on too long.
1710
01:26:36,306 --> 01:26:39,598
It didn't end with a whimper,
but something very much like one.
1711
01:26:55,932 --> 01:26:59,432
I was very happy to leave.
I'd had enough, you know?
1712
01:26:59,432 --> 01:27:03,057
After a time, it begins
to wear on one, you know?
1713
01:27:03,057 --> 01:27:05,933
"Thank goodness the bloody thing
is over," that was all.
1714
01:27:05,933 --> 01:27:08,224
But so far as I was concerned,
I was out of it,
1715
01:27:08,224 --> 01:27:10,308
and now the next step in life.
1716
01:27:10,308 --> 01:27:13,350
The first thing we did was
write home, say we were all right,
1717
01:27:13,350 --> 01:27:15,766
making sure we got the date
on the envelope right.
1718
01:27:15,766 --> 01:27:18,600
To someone like myself,
who was interested in nature,
1719
01:27:18,600 --> 01:27:21,350
after the horrors that man had
made of the battlefront,
1720
01:27:21,350 --> 01:27:25,392
I was immensely delighted to find
shell holes in which I picked
1721
01:27:25,392 --> 01:27:29,434
lilies of the valley and larkspur,
and I pursued Camberwell Beauties
1722
01:27:29,434 --> 01:27:33,267
and swallowtail butterflies
along the banks of the Aisne river.
1723
01:27:33,267 --> 01:27:35,143
We went to Boulogne.
1724
01:27:35,143 --> 01:27:37,268
By the way, we came
home with full pack,
1725
01:27:37,268 --> 01:27:39,976
the only thing we left
behind was the bullets,
1726
01:27:39,976 --> 01:27:41,851
we had to discard those.
1727
01:27:41,851 --> 01:27:43,643
But we still kept our rifle.
1728
01:27:43,643 --> 01:27:48,685
We went over to Folkestone,
and there were long trestle tables
1729
01:27:48,685 --> 01:27:52,143
with very kind ladies,
and they gave you a sausage roll
1730
01:27:52,143 --> 01:27:56,810
or a bun and a cup of tea,
and that was very welcome.
1731
01:27:56,810 --> 01:28:00,977
We entrained to Victoria,
and there we broke up.
1732
01:28:00,977 --> 01:28:04,019
We went to the barracks,
and we just dumped rifles,
1733
01:28:04,019 --> 01:28:06,769
bayonets and everything,
and there were a lot of suits
1734
01:28:06,769 --> 01:28:09,186
on display, hats, shoes.
1735
01:28:09,186 --> 01:28:11,811
You could tell her which one
you wanted, style and colour,
1736
01:28:11,811 --> 01:28:13,311
and they measured you.
1737
01:28:14,770 --> 01:28:18,145
I was horrified by what I saw
when I came back here
1738
01:28:18,145 --> 01:28:20,062
and when one tried to get a job.
1739
01:28:20,062 --> 01:28:22,353
There was mass unemployment,
and I thought,
1740
01:28:22,353 --> 01:28:23,979
"This isn't much of a life."
1741
01:28:23,979 --> 01:28:26,187
It was a most difficult thing
to realise you're of
1742
01:28:26,187 --> 01:28:27,604
no commercial value.
1743
01:28:27,604 --> 01:28:30,062
It was a shame, the way
ex-servicemen were treated.
1744
01:28:30,062 --> 01:28:31,437
You weren't wanted.
1745
01:28:31,437 --> 01:28:34,854
Some places said,
"No ex-servicemen need apply,"
1746
01:28:34,854 --> 01:28:37,563
and that was the sort of attitude
you were up against.
1747
01:28:37,563 --> 01:28:41,938
One of my pals was killed, and when
I went home, the very first thing
1748
01:28:41,938 --> 01:28:44,355
that I did was
go to his mother, who,
1749
01:28:44,355 --> 01:28:46,730
if she'd had a frying pan,
she'd have hit me.
1750
01:28:46,730 --> 01:28:49,230
Her son had been killed
and I'd come back alive.
1751
01:28:49,230 --> 01:28:51,063
She was very bitter.
1752
01:28:51,063 --> 01:28:54,189
The first night I came home,
I got into my old bed,
1753
01:28:54,189 --> 01:28:57,564
the first bed I'd laid
in since I joined the Army.
1754
01:28:57,564 --> 01:28:59,897
When mother brought my cup
of tea up in the morning,
1755
01:28:59,897 --> 01:29:02,064
she found me fast asleep
on the floor.
1756
01:29:02,064 --> 01:29:03,981
People never talked about the war.
1757
01:29:03,981 --> 01:29:07,023
It was a thing that had
no conversational value at all.
1758
01:29:07,023 --> 01:29:09,898
Most people were
absolutely disinterested.
1759
01:29:09,898 --> 01:29:12,189
When I got home,
my father and my mother
1760
01:29:12,189 --> 01:29:14,773
didn't seem in the least
interested in what had happened,
1761
01:29:14,773 --> 01:29:16,856
they hadn't any conception
of what it was like.
1762
01:29:16,856 --> 01:29:18,023
SOLDIER WHISTLES TUNE
1763
01:29:18,023 --> 01:29:20,315
And there was no reason
why any one of us millions
1764
01:29:20,315 --> 01:29:22,607
should have been favoured
with a thank you very much
1765
01:29:22,607 --> 01:29:26,774
for having got a little bit muddy
and out of touch with good manners.
1766
01:29:26,774 --> 01:29:29,190
And on occasions when
I did talk about it,
1767
01:29:29,190 --> 01:29:32,941
my father would argue points of fact
that he couldn't possibly have known
1768
01:29:32,941 --> 01:29:34,857
about because he wasn't there.
1769
01:29:34,857 --> 01:29:37,691
Every soldier I've spoken
to experienced the same thing.
1770
01:29:37,691 --> 01:29:40,649
We were a race apart
from the civilians,
1771
01:29:40,649 --> 01:29:42,733
and you could speak
to your comrades,
1772
01:29:42,733 --> 01:29:45,566
and they understood,
but the civilians,
1773
01:29:45,566 --> 01:29:47,483
it was just a waste of time.
1774
01:29:47,483 --> 01:29:51,358
However nice and sympathetic
they were, attempts of
1775
01:29:51,358 --> 01:29:55,734
well-meaning people to sympathise
reflected the fact that they
1776
01:29:55,734 --> 01:29:57,900
didn't really understand at all.
1777
01:29:57,900 --> 01:30:01,817
I think the magnitude
was just beyond their comprehension,
1778
01:30:01,817 --> 01:30:06,026
they didn't understand that people
that you'd known and played football
1779
01:30:06,026 --> 01:30:08,568
with were just killed beside you.
1780
01:30:08,568 --> 01:30:12,318
My friend who enlisted with me,
and he just lay there like a sack
1781
01:30:12,318 --> 01:30:16,901
of rags until he went black,
before anybody troubled to bury him.
1782
01:30:16,901 --> 01:30:19,777
They knew that people came back
covered with mud and lice,
1783
01:30:19,777 --> 01:30:23,027
but they'd no idea of the strain
of sitting in a trench
1784
01:30:23,027 --> 01:30:26,485
and waiting for something
to drop on one's head.
1785
01:30:26,485 --> 01:30:29,069
You couldn't convey
the awful state of things,
1786
01:30:29,069 --> 01:30:32,527
the way you lived like animals
and behaved like animals.
1787
01:30:32,527 --> 01:30:37,736
People didn't seem to realise
what a terrible thing war was.
1788
01:30:37,736 --> 01:30:42,236
I think they felt that the war
was one continual cavalry charge.
1789
01:30:42,236 --> 01:30:45,153
They hadn't any conception -
how could they?
1790
01:30:45,153 --> 01:30:47,361
Well, it started off
in a reasonable manner,
1791
01:30:47,361 --> 01:30:50,112
it was people fighting
on horseback with swords,
1792
01:30:50,112 --> 01:30:52,403
but it developed
into something ghastly.
1793
01:30:52,403 --> 01:30:55,820
People don't realise the
potential of military equipment.
1794
01:30:55,820 --> 01:30:58,570
A man's life wasn't worth
anything at the end of the war.
1795
01:30:58,570 --> 01:31:00,904
We were none of us heroes,
you know - we didn't
1796
01:31:00,904 --> 01:31:03,987
like this business of
being killed at all.
1797
01:31:03,987 --> 01:31:05,904
When we were talking
amongst ourselves,
1798
01:31:05,904 --> 01:31:09,196
we used to say, "Christ, they won't
have any more wars like this."
1799
01:31:09,196 --> 01:31:10,821
How did we endure it?
1800
01:31:10,821 --> 01:31:13,779
The answer must be partly
the fear of fear,
1801
01:31:13,779 --> 01:31:16,030
the fear of being found afraid.
1802
01:31:16,030 --> 01:31:18,863
Another is belief in human beings,
your colleague,
1803
01:31:18,863 --> 01:31:21,488
and there's no letting people down.
1804
01:31:21,488 --> 01:31:25,613
There may be right on both sides,
but I think war is horrible.
1805
01:31:25,613 --> 01:31:28,655
Everything should be done
to avoid war.
1806
01:31:28,655 --> 01:31:31,655
I still can't see
the justification for it.
1807
01:31:31,655 --> 01:31:34,031
It was all really rather horrible.
1808
01:31:34,031 --> 01:31:36,656
I think history will decide,
in the end,
1809
01:31:36,656 --> 01:31:38,781
that it was not worthwhile.
1810
01:31:41,281 --> 01:31:45,073
The only thing that really did annoy
me was when I went back to work,
1811
01:31:45,073 --> 01:31:48,323
after I'd got demobilised,
I went down the stores,
1812
01:31:48,323 --> 01:31:51,532
and the bloke behind the counter
was a bloke who I knew.
1813
01:31:51,532 --> 01:31:53,615
He said, "Where have you been?
1814
01:31:53,615 --> 01:31:55,282
"On nights?"
1815
01:32:55,285 --> 01:32:59,285
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Parlez vous
1816
01:32:59,285 --> 01:33:03,577
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Parlez vous?
1817
01:33:03,577 --> 01:33:07,452
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
She hasn't been kissed in 40 years
1818
01:33:07,452 --> 01:33:11,703
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1819
01:33:11,703 --> 01:33:16,161
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Parlez vous
1820
01:33:16,161 --> 01:33:20,120
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Parlez vous
1821
01:33:20,120 --> 01:33:24,162
# Our top kick in Armentieres
broke the spell of 40 years
1822
01:33:24,162 --> 01:33:27,120
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1823
01:33:28,662 --> 01:33:32,412
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Parlez vous
1824
01:33:32,412 --> 01:33:36,746
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Parlez vous
1825
01:33:36,746 --> 01:33:41,038
# You didn't have to know her long
to know the reason men go wrong
1826
01:33:41,038 --> 01:33:43,913
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1827
01:33:45,496 --> 01:33:48,913
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Parlez vous
1828
01:33:48,913 --> 01:33:53,163
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
Parlez vous
1829
01:33:53,163 --> 01:33:55,330
# She's the hardest working girl
in town
1830
01:33:55,330 --> 01:33:57,538
# She makes her living upside down
1831
01:33:57,538 --> 01:33:59,705
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1832
01:34:05,956 --> 01:34:07,956
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1833
01:34:07,956 --> 01:34:09,747
# Parlez vous
1834
01:34:09,747 --> 01:34:12,248
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1835
01:34:12,248 --> 01:34:13,873
# Parlez vous
1836
01:34:13,873 --> 01:34:15,081
# She sold her kisses
1837
01:34:15,081 --> 01:34:16,289
# For ten francs each
1838
01:34:16,289 --> 01:34:17,373
# Soft and juicy
1839
01:34:17,373 --> 01:34:18,581
# As sweet as a peach
1840
01:34:18,581 --> 01:34:20,998
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1841
01:34:22,498 --> 01:34:24,832
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1842
01:34:24,832 --> 01:34:26,415
# Parlez vous
1843
01:34:26,415 --> 01:34:28,790
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1844
01:34:28,790 --> 01:34:30,374
# Parlez vous
1845
01:34:30,374 --> 01:34:32,457
# Madame, you've got a daughter fair
1846
01:34:32,457 --> 01:34:34,374
# To wash the soldiers' underwear
1847
01:34:34,374 --> 01:34:37,374
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1848
01:34:39,291 --> 01:34:41,624
# I didn't care what came of me
1849
01:34:41,624 --> 01:34:42,791
# Parlez vous
1850
01:34:42,791 --> 01:34:45,249
# I didn't care what came of me
1851
01:34:45,249 --> 01:34:46,749
# Parlez vous
1852
01:34:46,749 --> 01:34:48,833
# I didn't care what came of me
1853
01:34:48,833 --> 01:34:51,208
# So I went and joined the infantry
1854
01:34:51,208 --> 01:34:53,833
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1855
01:35:28,502 --> 01:35:30,710
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1856
01:35:30,710 --> 01:35:32,169
# Parlez vous
1857
01:35:32,169 --> 01:35:34,627
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1858
01:35:34,627 --> 01:35:36,335
# Parlez vous
1859
01:35:36,335 --> 01:35:38,127
# Went in her bed, she sure was fun
1860
01:35:38,127 --> 01:35:39,419
# Working her arse
1861
01:35:39,419 --> 01:35:40,711
# Like a Maxim gun
1862
01:35:40,711 --> 01:35:43,961
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1863
01:35:45,003 --> 01:35:47,169
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1864
01:35:47,169 --> 01:35:48,753
# Parlez vous
1865
01:35:48,753 --> 01:35:51,253
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1866
01:35:51,253 --> 01:35:52,670
# Parlez vous
1867
01:35:52,670 --> 01:35:54,420
# I had more fun than I could tell
1868
01:35:54,420 --> 01:35:56,628
# Beneath the sheets with
Mademoiselle
1869
01:35:56,628 --> 01:35:59,503
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1870
01:36:01,462 --> 01:36:05,254
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres,
parlez vous
1871
01:36:05,254 --> 01:36:09,296
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres,
parlez vous
1872
01:36:09,296 --> 01:36:11,296
# She did a wink and cried,
"Oui, oui!
1873
01:36:11,296 --> 01:36:13,629
# "Let's see what you can do
with me"
1874
01:36:13,629 --> 01:36:16,504
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1875
01:36:17,713 --> 01:36:20,088
# They say they mechanised the war
1876
01:36:20,088 --> 01:36:21,630
# Parlez vous
1877
01:36:21,630 --> 01:36:24,005
# They say they mechanised the war
1878
01:36:24,005 --> 01:36:25,630
# Parlez vous
1879
01:36:25,630 --> 01:36:27,838
# They say they mechanised the war
1880
01:36:27,838 --> 01:36:30,088
# So what the hell
are we marching for?
1881
01:36:30,088 --> 01:36:33,047
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1882
01:36:50,631 --> 01:36:53,673
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1883
01:36:53,673 --> 01:36:54,798
# Parlez vous
1884
01:36:54,798 --> 01:36:57,507
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1885
01:36:57,507 --> 01:36:59,007
# Parlez vous
1886
01:36:59,007 --> 01:37:00,965
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1887
01:37:00,965 --> 01:37:03,007
# She hasn't been kissed for 40
years
1888
01:37:03,007 --> 01:37:05,590
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1889
01:37:07,049 --> 01:37:09,841
# The officers get all the steak
1890
01:37:09,841 --> 01:37:10,966
# Parlez vous
1891
01:37:10,966 --> 01:37:14,007
# The officers get all the steak
1892
01:37:14,007 --> 01:37:15,258
# Parlez vous
1893
01:37:15,258 --> 01:37:17,383
# The officers get all the steak
1894
01:37:17,383 --> 01:37:19,341
# And all we get is a belly ache
1895
01:37:19,341 --> 01:37:22,341
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1896
01:37:23,550 --> 01:37:24,883
# You might forget
1897
01:37:24,883 --> 01:37:27,175
# The gas and shells, parlez vous
1898
01:37:27,175 --> 01:37:28,758
# You might forget
1899
01:37:28,758 --> 01:37:31,383
# The gas and shells, parlez vous
1900
01:37:31,383 --> 01:37:32,509
# You might forget
1901
01:37:32,509 --> 01:37:33,717
# The groans and yells
1902
01:37:33,717 --> 01:37:34,800
# But you never forget
1903
01:37:34,800 --> 01:37:36,134
# The mademoiselles
1904
01:37:36,134 --> 01:37:38,676
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1905
01:37:56,843 --> 01:37:59,468
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1906
01:37:59,468 --> 01:38:00,593
# Parlez vous
1907
01:38:00,593 --> 01:38:03,344
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1908
01:38:03,344 --> 01:38:04,427
# Parlez vous
1909
01:38:04,427 --> 01:38:06,344
# Many and many a married man
1910
01:38:06,344 --> 01:38:08,552
# Wants to go back to France again
1911
01:38:08,552 --> 01:38:11,677
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1912
01:38:13,052 --> 01:38:15,969
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1913
01:38:15,969 --> 01:38:17,053
# Parlez vous
1914
01:38:17,053 --> 01:38:19,886
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1915
01:38:19,886 --> 01:38:20,969
# Parlez vous
1916
01:38:20,969 --> 01:38:23,303
# Just blow your nose
and dry your tears
1917
01:38:23,303 --> 01:38:25,428
# We'll all be back
in a few short years
1918
01:38:25,428 --> 01:38:28,220
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1919
01:38:29,720 --> 01:38:32,345
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1920
01:38:32,345 --> 01:38:33,429
# Parlez vous
1921
01:38:33,429 --> 01:38:36,012
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres
1922
01:38:36,012 --> 01:38:37,137
# Parlez vous
1923
01:38:37,137 --> 01:38:39,596
# I fell in love with her at sight
1924
01:38:39,596 --> 01:38:41,721
# Wet myself for half the night
1925
01:38:41,721 --> 01:38:44,304
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1926
01:38:45,971 --> 01:38:49,721
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres,
parlez vous
1927
01:38:49,721 --> 01:38:53,846
# Mademoiselle from Armentieres,
parlez vous
1928
01:38:53,846 --> 01:38:56,055
# You might forget
the gas and shell
1929
01:38:56,055 --> 01:38:58,013
# You never forget the mademoiselles
1930
01:38:58,013 --> 01:39:00,847
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous
1931
01:39:02,263 --> 01:39:04,014
# You might forget the gas and shell
1932
01:39:04,014 --> 01:39:06,347
# But you'll never forget
the mademoiselles
1933
01:39:06,347 --> 01:39:08,014
# Hinky dinky, parlez vous. #
1934
01:39:10,011 --> 01:39:55,014
# Subs synched by Kato Boii Hump Hump #
256584
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get subtitles in any language from opensubtitles.com, and translate them here.