Re: We Were Soldiers

From: "Tomb" <tomb@dreammechanics.com>

> "Shhh, quiet Johnny, the German Patrol will hear you."
> "They're close. Real close, you've got to try to be quiet."
> "I know. I know. But we're out here all alone, and if they hear us,
> we're for it."
> "Try to be quiet.... yes, I know it hurts.... I know you can't feel
your
> arm.... that's because it isn't there anymore...."
>
> And this for a young man of 17 (he tried to go overseas at 16 but the
CO
> caught him and stopped him).

I can remember my Grandfather telling me of some of the things he went
through in WW1. I was only 3 to 10 at the time. When I was 4 I was
particularly fascinated by his right arm, or rather, the fact that
much of it was missing.
I can remember him telling me the thing that scared him most was air
attack.
He was a sniper, and spent much of his military career in no-man's-land,
and during a considerable period of 1916 was used as a practice target
by red-painted Albatross or possibly Pfalz scouts ( they had
cigar-shaped
fuselages and round noses anyway - I'd just made an Aifix model of one).
I can remember him getting really upset only once. He'd been detached
from his platoon before being able to train the new replacements
properly, and when he came back they'd all been killed by an aircraft
strafing along the trench.

He told me of his experiences riding Camels in 1915, before the landings
at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli. He spent much of the campaign shooting out
insulators of the telegraph line than ran over the topmost ridge, at a
range of over 600 yards.

Later on, he was at the battle of the Somme. Of the 600 or so in his
batallion, 182 were killed or wounded.
(Source http://www.multeen.freeserve.co.uk/Full%20casualty%20lists.htm)

I still have a watch that was given to him by a German sniper. This
guy had taken a heavy toll of officers in the sector, so several
snipers were detailed to take him out. My Grandfather hid in
no-man's-land
for 3 days before the enemy returned to a previous hide. The German
shot,
my Grandfather shot at the flash, then went in with a bayonet - orders
were to "make sure". When he got there, he found his bullet had
travelled
up the line of the rifle, and wrecked the German's shooting arm. He was
bleeding to death. My Grandfather disobeyed strict orders to keep field
dressings for personal use, bandaged him up, and stuck his helmet on his
rifle. (It was no-man's land - full of craters - and this guy couldn't
be seen). A German stretcher team arrived and took the wounded opponent
back.
My Grandfather said he identified too much with him, they were in the
same
line of work - and he'd never fire a rifle again with such a wound, so
was
permanently KO'd.

The German gave my Grandfather a Ladies' Pocket watch he'd been given by
his fiance. Later he got it inscribed with a bayonet - "Theipval, 23rd
September, 1916".

Later, at Passchendaele, my Grandfather was gassed and severely wounded
by shrapnel, But after a few days he made it back to the lines, and
was evacuated, too badly wounded this time to be sent back. The watch
still works, despite having a sizeable ding in it from shrapnel.

I'll tell my baby son this story when he's a bit older.

And if anyone in Germany who's reading this knows of any way of tracing
the regiments opposing the 9th batallion SF in September 1916, I'd be
most grateful. The Bundesarchive said that the records had been lost
in 1945. But maybe someone, somewhere knows the other end of the story,
and the watch can be returned.