.. Rifle bullets in the open went hissing into the grass without much noise, but when we were in a trench, the bullets made a tremendous crack as they went over the hollow. Bullets often struck the barbed wire in front of the trenches, which sent them spinning with a head-over-heels motion - ping! rockety-ocketety-ockety-ockety into the woods behind.
'A bloke in the Munsters once wanted a cushy,** so he waves his hand above the parapet to catch Frirz's attention. - Nothing doing. He waves his arms about for a couple of minutes. - Nothing doing. He puts his elbows on the fire-step, hoists his body upside-down and waves his legs about until he gets blood to the head. - Not a shot did Fritz fire. 'Oh' says the Munster man, 'I don't believe there's a damned square-head there. Where's the bloody German army to?' He has a peek over the top - crack! He gets it in the head. FINEE.
This morning about breakfast time, just as I came out of my dug-out, a rifle grenade landed within six feet of me. For some reason, instead of landing on its head and exploding, it landed with its stick in the wet clay and stood there looking at me..
- Excerpts from 'GOODBYE TO ALL THAT' by Robert Graves.. truly an excellent read about how things were in the WWI era. - Available as an e-book.
- Public school traditions (private education for the wealthy) and British officers more concerned about 'a fellow officers seat on a polo horse' than they were about the expendable lives of the gun-fodder men under their command.
Only One Hundred years ago.
** "a cushy" was a non life threatening wound but serious enough to end your military service.
Martin K.
No comments:
Post a Comment