大象传媒

My grandfather was a sergeant with the Royal Engineers. He was very fond of the men and boys he looked after in his platoon and when one died he felt a great responsibility, which I think is apparent in the stories here.

...........................................

I found this bloke wounded and I put him on my back and we walked along and we came across an Italian minefield. I said, "Oh my god! This is a minefield!" All mined - and every mined was triggered together. We used to carry inch nails for the different mines - push a nail in it and it's no use, it wouldn't go off. Anyway, I didn't have any bloody nails. I couldn't go back because the jerries were after us and I was knackered. So I said, "We've got to chance it." I must have been mad - I had this bloke on my back and I stepped over. All the mines were about a foot high, a spike and from each mine was netting so you couldn't tread anywhere. Well, as you can see I made it. I must have been absolutely bonkers. How we got away with it, I do not know. The field was about sixty feet by fifty - not very big, but big enough to die in though.

............................................

It wasn't a very happy war. We had some fun, but some bad times. Life's not all honey. I used to get upset when one got killed. It hit me hard. I went to see somebody I liked very much. He was my DR. I said, "Where is he? Where's his body?" Just two or three of us went down there to give him a bit of a military funeral, shooting and all that. I went down there and there was a big pit and he was laid out. You could see he'd been bled to death, he was white, not a drop of blood in him. He was just laid out in this pit. They used to undress them, take all their clothes off. What a way to treat dead soldiers. How I held back the tears I don't know. It didn't half shake me. If I'd have been on my own I would have cried. No fun in war.

............................................

There was this time I was looking after a bloke who'd been wounded and I didn't want to leave him. Anyway, we were sat in the ruins of this old building and as the bombs went off the vibrations were shaking the bricks off this high building. The shelling shook a lump of masonry off the top and hit this kid in the stomach. We got him away to hospital somehow. I don't know how badly injured he was - he must have been pretty bad in the stomach. What happened to him I don't know. That's war. The 1914 war was a war to end all wars, didn't end anything. Only did all right for the armaments factories. They do all right.

............................................

I carried another of my men on a stretcher to the field dressing tent. We ran with him on the stretcher, Tom and I. When we got there we thought he was alive, but he was dead. A piece of shrapnel had gone up under his armpit where we couldn't see it. The M.O. said, "It's too late boys, he's dead." We had run with his body. The M.O. asked for his name and number. I couldn't speak, I was choked, because this corporal was a nice bloke. I never forgot it. What they do to poor heroes, and they were heroes. What got me most was having to bury these blokes. We buried so many it was getting to me, because I loved our lads.

............................................

We were bridging engineers and we were pulling up alongside this road to unload our bridging gear. We began unloading all our timbers. All of a sudden - bang! Someone had taken the timber off the truck, just dropped it straight onto a flipping mine. There was quite a few injured and one or two killed. Just one mine under a plank.

............................................

There was another one. Somebody I liked very much. He had a lump of shrapnel in the groin. I put this field dressing, a big thick pad, on the wound. My hand and the pad went straight in. The orderly came along and said, "Sergeant, we can't do anything for him. He'll be dead in minutes." He was. I never forgot. All these blokes, they were wonderful boys. War is terrible. You walk about and see dead Germans, dead British. I was even sorry for the Germans. I don't want to go to another one. Walking along and finding your mate's body. I'll never forget it.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.