WEBVTT

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..:: ارائه شده توسط وب سايت بلبل جان ::..
‏.::  www.bolboljan.net ::.

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(WHISTLING)

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'I gave every part of my youth
to do a job

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and to go through a savage war.'

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'It was a different war
from year to year

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and one's reactions
were completely different.

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The intensity changed so much
that anybody who'd been out in 1914

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and went home, then came back in 1917,
wouldn't recognise it as the same war.'

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'I could only say one thing:
I wouldn't have missed it.

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It was terrible at times,
but I wouldn't have missed it.'

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'Oh, yes,
if I could have my time again,

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I'd go through it all over again
because I enjoyed the service life.'

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'I could only say that
I have never been so excited in my life.

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This was like a boy going to the play
for the first time.'

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'I never realised there was
anything unusual about it.

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There was a job to be done
and you just got on and did it.'

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'We were all instilled with that idea

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that this was war
and that we'd got to kill the Germans

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and this was
how we looked at the thing.'

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'I don't regret having experienced it.

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I wish I hadn't, but I don't regret it,
because I'm safe. (CHUCKLES)'

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'There were good times and bad times
in France,

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but you took the rough with the smooth.'

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'I was twice wounded and gassed,
but it just didn't worry me.

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I just made the best of it.'

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'Just took it in its stride,
like everybody else.

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We were glad to be in it
and we expected it to be rough,

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and it was rough,
but we didn't complain.'

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'There was no real excitement about it.

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You'd seen death so many times,
you'd seen wounded so many times,

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blood didn't excite you.

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We were professionals
and, to us, it was just a job of work.'

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'It would be a fallacy to say
that one enjoyed it,

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but one got afterwards
a nice, warm inner feeling

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that one had been of some use.'

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'It didn't affect me very much,

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because I wasn't sufficiently up
in the ways of the world.

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I was only a kid,
like other blokes there.

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It was more like
a great, big game to be enjoyed,

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apart from the actual shelling
and all that sort of thing.'

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'It made me a man, yes, it did.

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I don't think
I should have ever been the man I am

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if it hadn't been for having to serve.'

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'You'd learn to look after yourself

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whereas, in your civilian life,
your mother did all the chores.

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You've got to learn how to cook
for yourself, darn your own socks,

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sew on your own buttons
and all the things like that.'

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'It was just a day's work.

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I knew that I was not alone.

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I knew that
I wasn't fighting the war by myself

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and that what happened to other people
might happen to me.'

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'I had no regrets at all but, you see,
I had no wife, no girl, no nothing.

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No regrets and no horrors...

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...because, if you survive that,
you can survive anything.'

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(WHISTLING CEASES)

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'We were aware there was sort of a nasty
feeling between England and Germany,

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as we knew of the Kaiser's ambition
to expand his empire

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and all that sort of thing.'

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'During that summer,

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there was a lot of talk about
trouble going on in the Balkans,

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but we were a long way from the Balkans
and it didn't worry us at all.'

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'It was that Serbia business, wasn't it?
Serbia, when that chap was shot.'

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'I was paying attention to politics

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and I realised there was going to be
trouble between England and Germany.'

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'Well, it was
a lovely August 4th morning.'

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'We were all seated round the table

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and we were starting the rugby football
dinner with the German team.

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There was a German here
and next to him was an Englishman,

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and next to him was a German,
and so on and so on.

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And a runner arrived into
the middle of this dinner

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with extraordinary news of
outbreak of war.'

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'There was a big placard:
"War declared on Germany."'

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'We didn't know what we ought to do,

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whether we ought to seize
a knife off the table

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and plunge it into the German or what,
but after a little bit of discussion

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we decided that,
as far as we were concerned,

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the war was going to start tomorrow,
and the party proceeded.'

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'I'm proud of being a Britisher.

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I mean, I think we're as good
a country as any in the world

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and you've got to be prepared
to fight for that.'

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'There's no doubt about it,
in the First World War,

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we prepared for war.'

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The Empire was strong.
We weren't afraid of anyone.'

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'Everybody bought little buttons
and waved flags and sang songs.

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There was no feeling of despair
about it at all.'

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'England couldn't possibly lose,

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no matter how many Germans pushed
how many Englishmen into the Channel,

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they'd get no further.

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We couldn't possible lose.'

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'We were brought up to think that
one Englishman's worth ten Germans.'

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'I thought that any enemy of England

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was an enemy of mine
and I wanted to be in it.'

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'Oh, six months or 12 months and
it'd be all over and Bob's your uncle.'

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'I went with a friend of mine into
Shepherd's Bush Empire

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to see the picture show there and they
showed the fleet sailing the high seas

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and played,
"Britons never shall be slaves."

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One feels that little shiver
run up their back

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and you know
you've got to do something.'

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'A friend of mine said to me,
"We're going to join up."

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It was from the patriotic point of view

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and from the general excitement of
the whole affair, I suppose.'

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'I didn't believe in war to that extent,

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but I was prepared to do my part.'

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'You see, in those days,
men weren't to think for themselves.

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They just had to do what they were told
and that's all there was to it.'

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'Oh, my mother was
very aggrieved about it

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but, you know, a young man,
you decide you're going to go.'

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'At lunch time, I left the office,
went along to Armoury House

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and there was a queue of
about 1,000 people trying to enlist.'

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'Everybody thought
that it would be a civilised war

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and wanted to be fit enough to go.'

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'Two of us decided to join up together
and when we told the boss

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we were going to start training
on Monday, he was very annoyed.

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He didn't make any promise that our jobs
would be there when we got back.'

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'My mother, she said,
"You wait until you're 19."

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See, that was the age in those days,
19 to 35. Well, it was supposed to be.'

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'We were all lads together, you know,

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full of excitement
and all this kind of thing.

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I mean,
I just wanted to have a go at Jerry.'

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'I just thought that I'd like to go
and fight for the country.

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You were proud of your country
and you'd do the best you could for it

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and this was what most of the young
people thought of doing in those days.'

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'My mother, she said to me,

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"Look, we could stop you doing this
because of your age."

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I said, "Yes, I know you could, Mother,
but I'm sure you won't,"

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which they never did.'

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'l just felt that all the young fellas
of that age were volunteering

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and I thought it was my job
to do the same.'

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'I was desperately keen.

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A whole heap of us went.
I said, "Direct enlistment, please."

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They were highly delighted
and pushed me in as quick as lightning.'

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'Lots of the lads
were joining the local regiments,

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like the Bucks and the Middlesex.

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Lads that I knew
and been to school with,

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played football and cricket with,
we joined up, hoping for the best.'

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'We were good friends, comrades

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and it was a relief from
rather boring jobs at home, you see.'

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'I was walking down
the Camden town High Street

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when two young ladies approached me.

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"Why aren't you in the army?"
I said, "I'm only 17."

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"Oh, they all say that here."

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And to my amazement,
she put her hand in her bag

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and I put my hand up
to sort of safeguard myself

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when this white feather
finished up my nose.'

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'As we marched to the station,
some of the chaps had bowler hats,

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some had straw hats, some had
the regulation peaked army cap.

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Some would have tunics, some would
be dressed with their ordinaryjackets

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with a pair of army trousers.

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Some had army boots, some didn't,
and we really were a motley throng.'

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'Some of them were obviously chaps
who had hoped to live in some comfort

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and brought suitcases with clothes
with them which they never saw again.'

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'We had to all get our hair cut.
"How would you like it, sir?"

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And you'd say, "Short back and sides,"

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but the answer was straight over the top
with horse clippers

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and we looked more like
convicts than soldiers.'

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'As soon as war broke out, there was a
call made for all ex-soldiers to rejoin

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and they made 'em sergeants
straightaway,

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so you got a lot of instructors
that way.'

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'The people
who really carried us through

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was the old sweats
who'd had previous war experience

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and gave us a lot of wise advise as to
what to look for and what to dodge.'

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'We were ordered down
onto the parade ground

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and then we were allotted
to different platoons.'

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'When they came to us, they were weedy,
sallow, skinny, frightened children.

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The refuse of our industrial system

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and they were in very poor condition
and had to be made into soldiers.'

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'Many of us had given our wrong ages
to join the army.'

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'The adjutant walked down the lines
and gave an order,

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"Every man under the age of 19
to take two paces forward."

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Nobody moved.'

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'I was a lad of 17,
and they'd probably see I wasn't 19,

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which you had to be to join up,

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but they says,
"How long do you want to sign on for?"'

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'Everybody else was joining up,
so I went into the recruiting office.

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He said to me, "How old are you?"
I said, "17, sir."

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"Well," he says, "Go outside
and come back and say you're 18."

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So, of course,
I went outside and said I were 18.

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Then straight o'er the sea
for Flanders.'

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'The sergeant said, "How old are you?"
I said, "I'm 18 and one month."

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He said, "Do you mean 19 and one month?"
So I thought a moment.

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I said, "Yes, sir."
He said, "Right, sign here, please."'

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'He asked me how old I was
and I said I was 16 in March.

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"Oh." he said, "You're too young. You'd
better go outside and have a birthday.“

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'I was 16 years old in 1917,
and I was six-foot-two tall

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and my father allowed me to go.

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So I entered my age as 19 years old,

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three years older than
what I really was.'

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'I was 15 years,
just two-and-a-half years short of 18,

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and I got before this medical officer
who said, "All right, you pass."'

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'I was just turned 17 at the time

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and I went up to Whitehall and enlisted
in the 16th Lancers.'

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'I was 15 and I thought I'd have
a better chance than when I were 14,

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so I walked into the barracks and
just said, "I'm 18," and that was it.'

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'My parents wrote to
the commanding officer

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and asked for me, as I was underage,
to be released.

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He said, "Your parents want you back.
Do you want to go?"

00:11:36.863 --> 00:11:38.957
I said, "No."'

00:11:40.491 --> 00:11:43.665
'The chaplain asked me my age
and I said I was 16.

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He said, "Much too young.

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Would you like me to pray for you?"'

00:11:51.669 --> 00:11:55.845
'The clothing came piecemeal
into the quartermaster's stores.'

00:11:58.468 --> 00:12:00.937
'One lad said,
"These boots don't fit me."

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The quartermaster said, "There isn't
such a thing as boots that don't fit,

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it's your feet,
they don't fit the b0ots."'

00:12:08.269 --> 00:12:13.070
'Some men would find a tunic to fit them
or perhaps a pair of trousers.

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And so it went on for nearly
a fortnight. Just one uniform.

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I was in the army nearly four years.
I only had one uniform.'

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'We were all issued with
these famous puttees,

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which were news to all of us

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and I personally could never quite
master the putting on of puttees.'

00:12:32.001 --> 00:12:35.881
'The main reason for puttees were
to support the legs in marching.'

00:12:35.964 --> 00:12:39.844
'I was issued with a kilt,
but nothing to wear underneath it

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and I was given a slip of paper to say,

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"This man has not been issued
with underpants."

00:12:45.014 --> 00:12:49.269
I was given strict instructions that
I couldn't ride on top of a tram car.

00:12:49.352 --> 00:12:51.025
I had to ride downstairs.'

00:12:52.981 --> 00:12:56.611
'Now, the pack was for
everything that you owned.

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The overcoat had to be folded
very, very neatly and tightly.

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There was a needle, thread,
spare buttons, knife, fork, spoon,

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razor, shaving brush, toothbrush,
and also a half-pint mug,

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one spare shirt and one spare
pair of socks, and that was your kit.

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The army razor with which
we were issued was absolutely useless,

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but it came in handy for cutting up meat
and so forth.

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The toothbrush,
that came in handy for cleaning buttons.

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One of the peculiarities
about the army was,

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although it was a crime
to have dirty buttons,

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you were never issued with
the materials to clean the buttons with.

00:13:36.232 --> 00:13:37.984
You had to buy them yourself.

00:13:38.067 --> 00:13:41.492
We were awakened by the bugle
which sounded Reveille.

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Wash, shave, pack your bed up
and pack your kit about half-past six

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and you would have
an hour PT before breakfast.'

00:13:49.120 --> 00:13:53.375
'Press-ups and physical exercises,
arms upward stretch.'

00:13:53.458 --> 00:13:56.678
'They knew you were fresh
and they tried to take you by stages.

00:13:56.753 --> 00:13:59.222
There wasn't any bullying
or anything like that.'

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'Breakfast consisted of bread,

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butter,
one rasher of Lance Corporal bacon,

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cos it was streaky bacon,
it had one stripe in it.'

00:14:09.891 --> 00:14:14.397
'There was jam and they seemed to make
nothing but plum and apple, you know.

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If you got any other kind,
it was a celebration event. (CHUCKLES)'

00:14:19.484 --> 00:14:22.738
'Well, Bruce Bairnsfather's cartoons
depicted that.

00:14:22.820 --> 00:14:24.914
They'd hand him
a tin of plum and apple jam.

00:14:24.989 --> 00:14:27.162
"When the 'ell is it
goin' to be strawberry?"

00:14:27.241 --> 00:14:29.118
Ooh, he was wonderful, that chap.'

00:14:29.202 --> 00:14:32.251
'Ticklers, the jam manufacturers,

00:14:32.330 --> 00:14:36.005
they must have made millions of tins
of P&amp;A: plum and apple.

00:14:37.168 --> 00:14:40.763
♪ Oh, oh, oh, it's a lovely war

00:14:40.838 --> 00:14:45.844
♪ What do we want with eggs and ham
when we've got bags of Ticklers jam? ♪

00:14:46.969 --> 00:14:50.644
Then it would be parade time,
then the sergeant would take over

00:14:50.723 --> 00:14:53.727
and you would have
a whole morning of marching.

00:14:53.810 --> 00:14:55.938
And you would learn all commands,

00:14:56.020 --> 00:14:59.069
such as "About turn,"
and all that sort of thing.'

00:14:59.899 --> 00:15:03.153
'Having been in the Boy Scouts,
it was dead easy to me.'

00:15:03.236 --> 00:15:08.618
'When you get the order, "Right dress!"
you turn your head only to the right.'

00:15:08.699 --> 00:15:13.796
'Some of them managed to turn left,
which didn't please the drill sergeant.'

00:15:13.871 --> 00:15:18.502
'We were all youngsters. We'd come from
fairly sheltered lives and so forth.

00:15:18.584 --> 00:15:23.055
This sergeant of ours was
the loudmouth shouting-type.'

00:15:23.131 --> 00:15:27.807
'Corning up against military discipline
was a shock,

00:15:27.885 --> 00:15:32.356
being chased around from pillar to post
by disciplinarian NCOs.'

00:15:32.432 --> 00:15:34.651
'Some of the sergeants were shockers.

00:15:34.725 --> 00:15:38.195
They would cause a lot of trouble
if you were out of step,

00:15:38.271 --> 00:15:42.617
or if you didn't keep time, or if
you didn't handle your rifle properly.

00:15:42.692 --> 00:15:44.660
They were always having a go at you.'

00:15:44.735 --> 00:15:47.659
'Most of them were all right,
their shouting meant nothing,

00:15:47.738 --> 00:15:49.411
but some of them never lost it.'

00:15:49.490 --> 00:15:54.371
'One night I'd gone to bed and
this pot was brought round to my bed

00:15:54.454 --> 00:15:57.333
and they said,
"Oh, you want to do a piss,"

00:15:57.415 --> 00:15:59.793
so I did the business in the pot.

00:15:59.876 --> 00:16:05.383
They'd rested this big, huge pot
which contained gallons on the door

00:16:05.465 --> 00:16:10.221
and when this sergeant came along
to see that everybody was in bed,

00:16:10.303 --> 00:16:14.558
this thing turned up and he was drenched
from top to bottom in fluid.

00:16:14.640 --> 00:16:15.892
(LAUGHSY

00:16:16.809 --> 00:16:20.109
'First of all, I was full of enthusiasm

00:16:20.188 --> 00:16:23.158
but, after about the first week,
I wished I hadn't done it

00:16:23.232 --> 00:16:27.829
because the discipline was so strict and
I was beginning to get a bit nervous

00:16:27.904 --> 00:16:29.827
as to what was in store.'

00:16:29.906 --> 00:16:32.204
'We weren't out dancing,
anything like that.

00:16:32.283 --> 00:16:33.956
We were getting ready for a war.'

00:16:34.035 --> 00:16:38.040
'The thing was you were in the army,
you had to do as you were told,

00:16:38.122 --> 00:16:40.750
you had one master, or dozens,

00:16:40.833 --> 00:16:43.632
but you just had to get on with it
and that was it.'

00:16:43.711 --> 00:16:46.555
'I did find that right through the army.

00:16:46.631 --> 00:16:49.350
If you behaved yourself,
you'd nothing much to fear.'

00:16:49.425 --> 00:16:52.395
'This was quite a new world to us,
I mean, you can imagine,

00:16:52.470 --> 00:16:54.939
I came out of civilian life
like all the others did

00:16:55.014 --> 00:16:58.018
and we weren't in a position
to argue or object.

00:16:58.100 --> 00:17:00.899
It was just a matter of
doing what we were told.'

00:17:00.978 --> 00:17:04.323
'I liked it. I liked to be told
what I had to do,

00:17:04.398 --> 00:17:06.821
because there was a reason
for doing it.

00:17:06.901 --> 00:17:11.077
Later on, I realised that was
the best training you could have.'

00:17:11.155 --> 00:17:15.035
'The first week,
our route march would be ten miles.

00:17:15.117 --> 00:17:18.121
The second week, it would be 12,
and so on and so on.

00:17:18.204 --> 00:17:22.129
It intensified because
it's of the utmost importance

00:17:22.208 --> 00:17:25.929
that the infantry soldier
could march with the full kit.'

00:17:26.003 --> 00:17:28.882
'What you had to carry was 109 pounds.'

00:17:28.965 --> 00:17:31.593
'Marching was easy for me,

00:17:31.676 --> 00:17:36.227
but quite a lot of chaps who were
in sedentary jobs found it pretty hard.'

00:17:36.305 --> 00:17:41.812
'It numbed and cramped
the muscles on my thighs and calves

00:17:41.894 --> 00:17:44.192
until they hurt very much indeed.'

00:17:45.231 --> 00:17:48.201
'Oh, those army boots! I could've cried.

00:17:48.276 --> 00:17:53.328
My feet and ankles with those heavy
army boots, after civilian shoes...'

00:17:53.406 --> 00:17:56.250
'So, to get your boots made pliable,

00:17:56.325 --> 00:17:59.955
you used to urinate in them
and leave it overnight.'

00:18:00.037 --> 00:18:04.918
'Quite a lot of men were clerks
or they worked in shops

00:18:05.001 --> 00:18:08.722
and the very nature of their calling
didn't make for fitness.'

00:18:09.630 --> 00:18:13.931
'Well, they sent me to hospital and
they gave me the cure for hookworm

00:18:14.010 --> 00:18:17.514
and I found that
I could stand the drill after that.'

00:18:17.597 --> 00:18:20.521
'They used to march us
all round the West End.

00:18:20.600 --> 00:18:22.568
Crowds used to foregather.

00:18:22.643 --> 00:18:26.568
And some of the poor, deluded ones
fell for the con trick

00:18:26.647 --> 00:18:29.696
and lined up behind us
and we used to march 'em all

00:18:29.775 --> 00:18:32.278
down to Chelsea Barracks
where they got signed up.'

00:18:34.697 --> 00:18:37.871
'Lunch would consist of inevitable stew.

00:18:37.950 --> 00:18:40.044
Now, we must remember that

00:18:40.119 --> 00:18:43.999
the chaps in the cookhouse were
by no means experienced cooks,

00:18:44.081 --> 00:18:46.925
but anybody can make a stew
and that's what they did.'

00:18:47.001 --> 00:18:51.347
'Sometimes, we got a bit of plum duff
and milk puddings and tapioca rice.

00:18:51.422 --> 00:18:56.019
It was good, old-fashioned, plain stuff
that I was brought up on.

00:18:56.093 --> 00:18:58.812
I had no complaint about it.'

00:18:58.888 --> 00:19:03.894
'In the afternoon, it could be a lecture
on Vickers machine guns.'

00:19:03.976 --> 00:19:08.732
'You used to strip the machine gun
right down and put it together again

00:19:08.814 --> 00:19:12.409
and, luckily, I seemed
to cotton onto that quite quickly.'

00:19:12.485 --> 00:19:15.910
'We were always told
that man's best friend is his rifle

00:19:15.988 --> 00:19:17.661
and it was.'

00:19:17.740 --> 00:19:20.334
'Our rifle was a short Lee-Enfield.

00:19:20.409 --> 00:19:23.913
A very good rifle indeed.
A real sturdy rifle.

00:19:23.996 --> 00:19:28.001
You had your ammunition pouches
on both sides of the chest

00:19:28.084 --> 00:19:30.382
to counterbalance
the weight of the pack

00:19:30.461 --> 00:19:35.262
and those pouches carried
150 rounds of .303 ammunition.'

00:19:35.341 --> 00:19:38.265
'We were supposed to hold a rifle
with one hand,

00:19:38.344 --> 00:19:42.770
but I could never hold a rifle properly.
my right wrist wouldn't hold it up.'

00:19:42.848 --> 00:19:46.148
'I'd never fired a rifle in my life
but, on the first day,

00:19:46.227 --> 00:19:50.198
we went onto the rifle range and it was
amazing, the bull's-eyes I was getting.

00:19:50.272 --> 00:19:54.027
So, the next thing,
I was made a first-class rifleman.'

00:19:54.110 --> 00:19:56.454
'Above all, we learned rapid fire.

00:19:56.529 --> 00:20:00.204
Ten rounds, get those ten rounds
onto the target in one minute.

00:20:00.282 --> 00:20:02.376
It was known as "the mad minute".'

00:20:02.451 --> 00:20:05.830
'I'd never seen a dead man,
or anything of that kind

00:20:05.913 --> 00:20:08.587
and I wondered,
if it came to my shooting a man,

00:20:08.666 --> 00:20:10.760
whether I would be able to do this.'

00:20:10.835 --> 00:20:13.714
'You'd plunge the bayonet into the sack,
shout like hell.'

00:20:13.796 --> 00:20:16.049
'They would tell you
where to put your bayonet.

00:20:16.132 --> 00:20:18.601
Either into his left shoulder,
his right shoulder,

00:20:18.676 --> 00:20:21.020
in the chest, or in the body.'

00:20:21.095 --> 00:20:23.223
'We were told to make
as much noise as we could.

00:20:23.305 --> 00:20:25.433
I think that was to frighten the enemy.

00:20:25.516 --> 00:20:28.235
Didn't seem a likely thing to do,
but we used to shout.'

00:20:28.310 --> 00:20:31.860
'When you've trained as a division,
there's 12 battalions,

00:20:31.939 --> 00:20:34.783
that's roughly 12,000 men
who are on the move

00:20:34.859 --> 00:20:38.284
and you're a very small cog
in a big wheel.'

00:20:39.280 --> 00:20:41.374
'Saturday mornings we were let off,

00:20:41.449 --> 00:20:43.793
but we had to do sometimes
barrack duties.

00:20:43.868 --> 00:20:46.417
Then, on Sundays,
we were all marched down to church.

00:20:46.495 --> 00:20:51.296
It didn't matter what religion you were,
you all had to go and that was it.'

00:20:51.375 --> 00:20:55.050
'Hardly a day passed without
the shout around the barrack room,

00:20:55.129 --> 00:20:57.723
"Has anybody here had
any experiences with horses?"

00:20:57.798 --> 00:21:00.517
"Can anybody here play
any musical instruments?"

00:21:00.593 --> 00:21:03.016
"Anybody had any experience at
so-and-so...?"

00:21:03.095 --> 00:21:07.475
So, gradually, the 1,000 men
who joined up as a motley throng,

00:21:07.558 --> 00:21:13.190
now became a transport man, a bandsman,
signalman, and so on.'

00:21:13.272 --> 00:21:15.695
'You didn't wanna mess about
at the parade ground

00:21:15.775 --> 00:21:17.869
with heavy packs on the route marches.

00:21:17.943 --> 00:21:21.914
Most of us wanted to go across
and do some scrapping.'

00:21:21.989 --> 00:21:24.788
'After good food, fresh air
and physical exercise,

00:21:24.867 --> 00:21:28.337
they'd changed so that their mothers
wouldn't have recognised them.

00:21:28.412 --> 00:21:32.007
They'd put on an average of one stone
in weight and one inch in height.'

00:21:32.082 --> 00:21:35.632
'Although we hated the sight and sound
of our disciplinary sergeants,

00:21:35.711 --> 00:21:40.012
this reflects greatly to their credit
because they knocked us into shape

00:21:40.090 --> 00:21:42.218
as regards to marching and foot drills.'

00:21:42.301 --> 00:21:43.974
'But, far more than that,

00:21:44.053 --> 00:21:48.729
they were handsome, ruddy, upstanding,
square-shouldered young men

00:21:48.808 --> 00:21:52.278
who were afraid of nobody,
not even the sergeant major.'

00:21:52.353 --> 00:21:56.654
'After six weeks, we were informed
we were gonna be posted overseas.'

00:21:56.732 --> 00:22:00.578
'They said, "You're leaving tomorrow
morning for an unknown destination."'

00:22:00.653 --> 00:22:03.497
'You were never told
where you were heading for.'

00:22:03.572 --> 00:22:06.951
'I just wanted to fight the Germans
and, as far as that was concerned,

00:22:07.034 --> 00:22:09.628
it didn't matter tuppence to me
where we went.'

00:22:09.703 --> 00:22:11.376
'And when we pushed them through

00:22:11.455 --> 00:22:14.755
this crash programme of
military training,

00:22:14.834 --> 00:22:16.962
they were pushed off to France
in batches.'

00:22:17.044 --> 00:22:18.796
'Before we left, the officer said,

00:22:18.879 --> 00:22:21.348
"Well, you haven't had time
to be made sergeants,

00:22:21.423 --> 00:22:23.346
so we'll give you a couple of stripes."

00:22:23.425 --> 00:22:26.725
So they made us corporals and,
in less than no time,

00:22:26.804 --> 00:22:29.023
we were marched down to the station.'

00:22:29.098 --> 00:22:32.978
'In my mind, I wondered,
"Shall I ever come back?"

00:22:33.060 --> 00:22:35.154
I didn't think I would at the time.

00:22:35.229 --> 00:22:37.652
I didn't worry about it.'

00:22:37.731 --> 00:22:39.859
'Oh, they were all full of euphoria.

00:22:39.942 --> 00:22:42.741
They were all glad they were going.
Nobody was crying.'

00:22:42.820 --> 00:22:46.700
'I wrote a postcard when I was in
the train and chucked it out the window,

00:22:46.782 --> 00:22:49.251
hoping that it would be delivered
to my family.'

00:22:49.326 --> 00:22:51.954
'We arrived at Folkestone
in the evening.

00:22:52.037 --> 00:22:55.291
We embarked on one of
the old Thames pleasure boats.'

00:22:55.374 --> 00:22:57.047
'Well, pretty crowded.

00:22:57.126 --> 00:23:01.973
Well, of course, it's only 21 miles
from Dover to Calais on the boat.'

00:23:02.047 --> 00:23:04.425
'There were talks by officers to us

00:23:04.508 --> 00:23:06.727
as to how to behave ourselves
on foreign soil

00:23:06.802 --> 00:23:10.932
and that we'd got to respect
other people's modes of conduct.'

00:23:11.015 --> 00:23:14.736
'The biggest number of casualties
were NCOs

00:23:14.810 --> 00:23:17.233
and we weren't all too keen about this.

00:23:17.313 --> 00:23:21.068
So I went into the lavatory
and my stripes came off

00:23:21.150 --> 00:23:23.403
and they disappeared
through the porthole.

00:23:23.485 --> 00:23:26.989
And with that,
I went back on deck as a private.'

00:23:30.075 --> 00:23:33.329
'As our horses
were brought down the gangways,

00:23:33.412 --> 00:23:35.710
I noticed the expression
on the men's faces.

00:23:35.789 --> 00:23:39.839
There were no cheerful, smiling faces
coming down that gangway at all.'

00:23:42.421 --> 00:23:44.719
'It was beautiful weather. Very warm.

00:23:44.798 --> 00:23:48.268
Every village and town we went through,
people rushed out,

00:23:48.344 --> 00:23:51.188
bottles of wine,
yards of French bread, flowers...'

00:23:52.056 --> 00:23:54.479
'The land flowed in every single aspect.

00:23:54.558 --> 00:23:58.859
There were farmers going about their
business, the most lovely country.'

00:24:00.314 --> 00:24:03.443
'If we were passing a field of carrots,
we used to raid the field

00:24:03.525 --> 00:24:06.074
and walk along
munching the carrots and turnips.'

00:24:10.699 --> 00:24:14.545
'I was dead scared that the war
would be over before I got out to it.

00:24:14.620 --> 00:24:17.749
When I got out to France,
I was terribly pleased.

00:24:17.831 --> 00:24:19.925
Really keen.'

00:24:21.210 --> 00:24:25.340
'You just marched and marched until
roughly 20 miles from the trenches.'

00:24:25.422 --> 00:24:27.925
'We knew we were getting
close to the line,

00:24:28.008 --> 00:24:31.387
because the gunfire was becoming
more noisy.'

00:24:31.470 --> 00:24:33.814
'I remember the first shell,
I was delighted.'

00:24:36.517 --> 00:24:40.272
'We went through towns, villages,
that were absolutely derelict,

00:24:40.354 --> 00:24:44.029
so we never knew where we were,
except that we were in Belgium.'

00:24:46.193 --> 00:24:49.663
'The devastation was something
I never could have imagined.

00:24:49.738 --> 00:24:53.117
The whole place gave one
a most eerie sensation.'

00:24:56.578 --> 00:24:59.923
'There were stunted trees
torn to shreds with shellfire

00:24:59.999 --> 00:25:02.343
and there were shell holes
all over the place.'

00:25:04.169 --> 00:25:06.968
'We were relieving men of
the 28th Division

00:25:07.047 --> 00:25:10.551
and, as they passed us, we would say,
"What's it like up there?"

00:25:10.634 --> 00:25:13.979
The reply invariably came back,
"Bloody awful, mate."'

00:25:14.054 --> 00:25:17.228
'The old sweats coming back
had got their tails up all right,

00:25:17.307 --> 00:25:20.106
but I didn't know what to expect,
just hadn't a clue.'

00:25:21.270 --> 00:25:22.943
'It was deadly warfare.

00:25:23.022 --> 00:25:24.774
You were facing the Germans.'

00:25:26.567 --> 00:25:28.661
<i>(DISTANT GUNFIRE)</i>

00:25:28.736 --> 00:25:30.830
<i>Follow me!</i>

00:25:33.032 --> 00:25:34.705
'You got the order: load.

00:25:34.783 --> 00:25:38.378
You put nine in your magazine
and one up the spout

00:25:38.454 --> 00:25:40.127
and you put your safety catch on

00:25:40.205 --> 00:25:44.756
and you always went into the line
prepared to use your rifle immediately.'

00:25:44.835 --> 00:25:47.805
'That's when you got rigid orders.

00:25:47.880 --> 00:25:50.633
"No talking whatsoever!
Keep your head down!

00:25:50.716 --> 00:25:53.219
Single file! No smoking!"

00:25:53.302 --> 00:25:56.431
The captain would then direct you
right to the front trenches.'

00:25:57.723 --> 00:25:59.396
<i>(INDISTINCT CHATTER)</i>

00:25:59.475 --> 00:26:01.193
'When a man goes into the trenches,

00:26:01.268 --> 00:26:05.148
he usually carries a roll of barbed wire
or bag of bombs,

00:26:05.230 --> 00:26:06.903
beside his own equipment.

00:26:06.982 --> 00:26:09.826
That's the way they get the stuff
up to the front line.'

00:26:09.902 --> 00:26:12.246
'Now a guide would always be sent out.'

00:26:12.321 --> 00:26:14.619
<i>Extend this part of the trench
over there.</i>

00:26:14.698 --> 00:26:16.371
<i>- What, that way?
- That's it.</i>

00:26:16.450 --> 00:26:18.544
'The trenches in France were a maze.

00:26:18.619 --> 00:26:21.042
If you didn't have a guide,
you could soon get lost.'

00:26:21.121 --> 00:26:23.590
<i>Smile so your mother thinks
I'm looking after you.</i>

00:26:25.709 --> 00:26:28.258
<i>Now up you go. Double up! Double up!</i>

00:26:32.382 --> 00:26:35.056
'The trenches weren't in
one straight line.

00:26:35.135 --> 00:26:38.139
They were built on
what they call the traverse system.

00:26:38.222 --> 00:26:41.271
The traverse would break up
the shellfire

00:26:41.350 --> 00:26:44.149
and stop it spreading
right along the trench.'

00:26:44.228 --> 00:26:46.230
'There was a front line of trenches,

00:26:46.313 --> 00:26:48.611
and then there was
a second line of trenches.'

00:26:48.690 --> 00:26:52.570
'The support line would be about
50 yards or more behind the front line.

00:26:52.653 --> 00:26:55.702
In between,
there would be communication trenches

00:26:55.781 --> 00:26:59.706
so that they could move through
if the front line was under jeopardy.'

00:27:00.744 --> 00:27:03.122
'The first impression
I got of the trenches was

00:27:03.205 --> 00:27:05.299
they were very much lived in.'

00:27:05.374 --> 00:27:07.468
'We had to take 'em as we found 'em.'

00:27:07.543 --> 00:27:10.888
'You would see an overcoat hanging
from a wooden peg.

00:27:10.963 --> 00:27:14.558
You would see a mess tin
with some tea in it.

00:27:14.633 --> 00:27:17.807
A dugout which had
a piece of blanket in it.

00:27:17.886 --> 00:27:19.980
A bed made of sandbags.'

00:27:20.055 --> 00:27:24.982
'Our world was divided by no-man's-land,
a sort of iron curtain

00:27:25.060 --> 00:27:28.564
beyond which were bogeymen who would
kill you if they ever saw you.'

00:27:28.647 --> 00:27:30.615
'As you looked through your periscope

00:27:30.691 --> 00:27:33.240
all you could see were
hundreds of shell holes,

00:27:33.318 --> 00:27:36.868
your barbed wire
and the German barbed wire.'

00:27:36.947 --> 00:27:39.826
'You could see dead bodies
hanging on the barbed wire

00:27:39.908 --> 00:27:42.457
and they may have been there
for a long, long time.'

00:27:42.536 --> 00:27:46.040
'It was one of the most
desolate-looking places in the world.

00:27:46.123 --> 00:27:48.217
You never saw a sign of life

00:27:48.292 --> 00:27:51.842
and yet you knew very well that,
within shouting range,

00:27:51.920 --> 00:27:54.218
there were hundreds
and hundreds of men.'

00:27:55.007 --> 00:27:58.887
'A platoon of about 50 men would have
about 100 yards of frontline trenches,

00:27:58.969 --> 00:28:01.267
their responsibility.

00:28:01.346 --> 00:28:05.772
There were signs all over the trenches:
Piccadilly Circus and Regent Street,

00:28:05.851 --> 00:28:09.230
and all that sort of thing,
telling you where the water points were,

00:28:09.313 --> 00:28:12.783
and which was the most dangerous part
of land with regard to snipers.'

00:28:12.858 --> 00:28:14.986
'You had to be extremely careful because

00:28:15.068 --> 00:28:18.493
a bullet would go through
one layer of sandbags quite easily.'

00:28:18.572 --> 00:28:21.325
'I was talking to a bloke one clay
and plop!

00:28:21.408 --> 00:28:23.502
His head was smashed in like an egg.

00:28:23.577 --> 00:28:27.673
He just happened to be in a place
where a sniper could get an aim on him.'

00:28:27.748 --> 00:28:30.672
'We used to do a four-day stint
in the line.

00:28:30.751 --> 00:28:35.052
We took with us sufficient food
to last the four days.'

00:28:35.130 --> 00:28:37.349
<i>- Got any grog?
- See you later on.</i>

00:28:37.424 --> 00:28:39.518
<i>My best to Jerry.</i>

00:28:39.593 --> 00:28:42.813
<i>- Mind yourselves. That's it.
-'Your</i> day <i>would start before</i> dawn,

00:28:42.888 --> 00:28:47.815
when NCOs would go round this 100 yards
to make sure everybody was alive.'

00:28:47.893 --> 00:28:51.147
'Of a day in the trenches,
you had two hours on, four off.'

00:28:51.230 --> 00:28:55.906
'A third of the people on sentry duty,
a third working and a third sleeping.'

00:28:55.984 --> 00:28:58.362
- Wake y-wake <i>y!</i>
-'We just slept where we were.

00:28:58.445 --> 00:29:00.618
No beds,
just flopped down on the ground.'

00:29:00.697 --> 00:29:02.791
<i>You're in the pictures, mate.</i>

00:29:02.866 --> 00:29:05.995
'The trench was very wet
and, wherever possible,

00:29:06.078 --> 00:29:08.251
we would try and get above the water.'

00:29:08.330 --> 00:29:10.753
'We were able to dig out
a side of the trench

00:29:10.832 --> 00:29:15.679
and that was when we used to steal our
sleep on the two-on four-off stretch.'

00:29:15.754 --> 00:29:20.260
'Then you'd have your couple of hours
on the parapet and then rest again.'

00:29:20.342 --> 00:29:23.596
'If nothing untoward happened,
there would be perhaps

00:29:23.679 --> 00:29:27.149
two or three sentry groups
in the whole company's front.'

00:29:32.187 --> 00:29:34.485
<i>(EXPLOSIONS, SHELLS FIZZING)</i>

00:29:39.027 --> 00:29:42.873
'It was a job to keep awake and woe
betide you if you were caught asleep.'

00:29:43.824 --> 00:29:46.703
'If you are so tired,
you can sleep standing up,

00:29:46.785 --> 00:29:48.458
which I've done many times.'

00:29:49.579 --> 00:29:54.836
'The first thing you did when you got
into the line was to have a brew up.'

00:29:54.918 --> 00:29:57.296
'There was one thing
about the Vickers gun,

00:29:57.379 --> 00:29:59.677
it being a water-cooled weapon,

00:29:59.756 --> 00:30:03.260
if you were continuously firing,
you'd find that the water'd be boiling.

00:30:03.343 --> 00:30:05.937
You could disconnect the tube
and make a cup of tea.'

00:30:06.013 --> 00:30:08.766
'The water came up in
two-gallon petrol cans.'

00:30:08.849 --> 00:30:10.897
'And we could taste the petrol in it,

00:30:10.976 --> 00:30:13.570
cos they couldn't wash it
completely out.'

00:30:13.645 --> 00:30:15.522
<i>(CHUCKLES NERVOUSLY)</i>

00:30:16.606 --> 00:30:19.655
-'In every bay was a little fireplace.'
- Let's get this lit.

00:30:19.735 --> 00:30:23.365
'You used tiny slivers of wood because,
if you made smoke in the front line,

00:30:23.447 --> 00:30:25.541
-over would come a shell.'
- I <i>fancy</i> a <i>brew.</i>

00:30:25.615 --> 00:30:28.459
'You'd save a drop of that tea
to shave with.'

00:30:28.535 --> 00:30:31.129
'Because we had to shave
in the front line.'

00:30:31.204 --> 00:30:34.879
'We used to put a lot of tins out
on the parapet if it rained.

00:30:34.958 --> 00:30:37.461
<i>You 68TH“ touch any of
the other water.'</i>

00:30:37.544 --> 00:30:40.013
'We were scooping water off shell holes.

00:30:40.088 --> 00:30:42.432
There might have been
dead bodies underneath.

00:30:42.507 --> 00:30:46.512
As long as we boiled it for a long time,
all the green stuff'd come off the top.'

00:30:46.595 --> 00:30:49.189
<i>- Nice</i> and gentle.
-'Anyway, we made tea with it.'

00:30:49.264 --> 00:30:51.562
'That's how I got my dose of dysentery.'

00:30:51.641 --> 00:30:55.066
'Of course,
there were no sanitary arrangements.

00:30:55.145 --> 00:30:57.318
They'd dig a trench
and stick a pole across.

00:30:57.397 --> 00:31:00.321
You'd get about seven or eight chaps
on the pole.'

00:31:00.400 --> 00:31:03.028
'God! To have a clear out was terrible.

00:31:03.111 --> 00:31:06.661
People used to go to the toilet
with no privacy.'

00:31:06.740 --> 00:31:11.416
'Being rather a shy nature, if I pissed
with somebody, I felt a bit nervous

00:31:11.495 --> 00:31:15.090
but, when you're in the army,
you got quite used to it.'

00:31:15.165 --> 00:31:18.715
'It didn't matter a damn, cos there's
no women or anything like that.'

00:31:18.794 --> 00:31:22.765
'The flies used to crawl all over
your bottom. Most unpleasant.'

00:31:22.839 --> 00:31:24.807
'We had no such thing as toilet rolls.'

00:31:24.883 --> 00:31:27.056
'You had to wipe your behind
with your hand.'

00:31:27.135 --> 00:31:30.435
'Your hands might have been in
all sorts, but you never washed.'

00:31:30.514 --> 00:31:33.142
-'Well, you heard a terrific shout...'
-(SNAPPING)

00:31:33.225 --> 00:31:35.944
-(GRUNTS) Christ!
-'..and the pole had snapped

00:31:36.019 --> 00:31:39.489
and the four men who were sitting
on the bar fell down in the muck.'

00:31:39.564 --> 00:31:42.738
'There was always
a humorous side of the war.

00:31:42.818 --> 00:31:44.491
(CHUCKLES)'

00:31:44.569 --> 00:31:47.493
'We had to put rifles down
for them to hang onto

00:31:47.572 --> 00:31:51.998
and they came out like slimy rabbits
and nobody wanted to go near 'em.'

00:31:52.077 --> 00:31:54.171
<i>(CHUCKLES)</i>

00:31:54.246 --> 00:31:56.374
'We had no spare clothes at all

00:31:56.456 --> 00:32:00.177
and you were living for weeks
without washing or getting a bath.'

00:32:00.252 --> 00:32:04.132
'And I personally became
really badly infested

00:32:04.214 --> 00:32:07.218
and "chatty" as we used to call it,
with these lice.'

00:32:07.300 --> 00:32:09.928
'Oh, lice was a dreadful problem.'

00:32:10.011 --> 00:32:13.515
'They were funny little things,
like little lobster sort of things

00:32:13.598 --> 00:32:16.602
with six legs
and they used to feed ten times a day.'

00:32:16.685 --> 00:32:20.440
'You had to kill the bloody things.
My favourite way was burning them.'

00:32:20.522 --> 00:32:23.571
'You would run the seams
over a lighted candle

00:32:23.650 --> 00:32:27.405
and you could hear the eggs going
pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop!'

00:32:27.487 --> 00:32:29.660
'The sooner you got
your shirt back again,

00:32:29.739 --> 00:32:32.538
the heat of the body hatched the eggs
that you'd missed.'

00:32:33.618 --> 00:32:35.837
'We were just as lousy next day.'

00:32:37.289 --> 00:32:39.007
<i>(LAUGHTER)</i>

00:32:39.082 --> 00:32:42.177
-'Each man prepared his own breakfast.'
- Cheerio.

00:32:42.252 --> 00:32:46.632
'Bread and jam. It was about
16 men to a loaf of bread.'

00:32:46.715 --> 00:32:47.967
<i>Eh?</i>

00:32:48.049 --> 00:32:52.680
'There'd be a little of bacon, which
would suffice for half a dozen men.'

00:32:52.762 --> 00:32:55.686
'You put your rasher of bacon
in your mess tin lid,

00:32:55.765 --> 00:32:59.486
put a few more sticks on your fire
and you would fry your bacon...

00:33:00.520 --> 00:33:03.399
...and then soak up the fat
with a piece of biscuit.

00:33:03.482 --> 00:33:05.359
Then there you are with a breakfast.'

00:33:05.442 --> 00:33:08.412
'Dinnertime was mostly
bully beef cut up and stewed

00:33:08.487 --> 00:33:11.366
along with
all sorts of vegetables from tins.'

00:33:11.448 --> 00:33:14.452
'Mag0n0ghie's tinned stew
was mixed up with the bully beef.'

00:33:14.534 --> 00:33:16.878
'I've got into French dugouts

00:33:16.912 --> 00:33:20.758
and eaten biscuits which have been left
by the troops two years' previously

00:33:20.874 --> 00:33:24.720
and tasted the green mould in them,
but they didn't do me any harm.'

00:33:24.794 --> 00:33:28.389
'This was how it was and anything's
good, you know, when you're hungry.'

00:33:28.423 --> 00:33:32.894
-'And people were always hungry.'
-(LAUGHS)

00:33:32.969 --> 00:33:35.722
'At any given moment,
you can expect to be shelled.

00:33:36.806 --> 00:33:39.229
You got very little protection
against that.'

00:33:39.309 --> 00:33:43.439
'One would hear a mild pop as
the gun fired five miles away...'

00:33:43.563 --> 00:33:45.611
<i>- Sir, here.
- Very good.</i>

00:33:45.732 --> 00:33:48.485
'..and in the five or six seconds
it took for them to come,

00:33:48.568 --> 00:33:51.663
you can pass through quite a number of
psychological changes.'

00:33:55.825 --> 00:33:57.498
<i>Steady!</i>

00:33:57.577 --> 00:34:00.456
'I can't remember
anything more nerve-wracking

00:34:00.580 --> 00:34:04.084
than the continuous shelling,
without stop, day and night.'

00:34:04.125 --> 00:34:07.595
'Well, we were always told that you
never heard the shell that hit you

00:34:07.629 --> 00:34:10.633
because most of them
travelled faster than sound.'

00:34:10.757 --> 00:34:14.352
'You could literally feel your heart
pounding against the ground.

00:34:14.427 --> 00:34:17.601
The emotional strain was
absolutely terrific.'

00:34:17.639 --> 00:34:19.937
'Although a shell might burst
50 yards away,

00:34:19.975 --> 00:34:24.481
you might find a fragment of jagged iron
really red hot and weighing half a pound

00:34:24.604 --> 00:34:26.652
arriving in your trench.'

00:34:26.773 --> 00:34:29.322
'I mean, you'd seen people
blown to little bits.

00:34:29.442 --> 00:34:31.615
I've actually had to put a man
in a sandbag.'

00:34:31.695 --> 00:34:33.948
'Every now and again,
there would be a great roar

00:34:33.989 --> 00:34:36.993
-like an aeroplane coming in to land.'
<i>-(BOOMING)</i>

00:34:37.117 --> 00:34:39.996
'And, in a fifth-of-a-second,
your resolution would break

00:34:40.120 --> 00:34:43.795
and you'd throw yourself into the mud
and the other ones laugh at you.'

00:34:43.873 --> 00:34:46.296
'The shrapnel shell
would burst in the air

00:34:46.334 --> 00:34:48.462
and spray bullets
on the troops below...

00:34:49.879 --> 00:34:51.631
...as if they're from a shotgun.'

00:34:54.050 --> 00:34:57.145
'The bullets came down,
whistling like all the hobs of hell.'

00:35:00.682 --> 00:35:02.559
'Another one of the annoyances we had

00:35:02.642 --> 00:35:05.486
was that the Germans were
very active with mining.

00:35:07.564 --> 00:35:11.319
We crouched down underneath the front
parapet to dodge the debris falling

00:35:11.401 --> 00:35:13.495
and I got the men to open up rapid fire

00:35:13.528 --> 00:35:17.408
to prevent the Germans from getting into
that crater where they could bomb us.'

00:35:18.575 --> 00:35:21.374
'As the front line gets damaged,
it's got to be repaired.

00:35:21.494 --> 00:35:25.874
Well, the people who were in the line,
they've got to get on with it.'

00:35:25.999 --> 00:35:30.846
'I had in my mind that we expected big
gunfire to light amongst all us cavalry

00:35:30.879 --> 00:35:33.849
and absolutely swipe us off
the face of the earth.'

00:35:36.551 --> 00:35:38.349
'I shouted, "Gallop!" like that!'

00:35:38.386 --> 00:35:40.730
'And they dropped 'em
all amongst the horses.

00:35:42.015 --> 00:35:43.733
Ooh, a heck of a mess.

00:35:43.850 --> 00:35:46.945
The horses were laying down with
their intestines hanging out

00:35:47.020 --> 00:35:49.273
and men with matter
hanging out their heads.'

00:35:49.356 --> 00:35:52.860
- Regroup!
-'The boys, they said, "Bloody Germans!"

00:35:52.901 --> 00:35:55.529
To lose a horse
was like losing a friend.'

00:35:55.612 --> 00:35:58.240
- Ready!
-'The brigadier turned to our captain.

00:35:58.365 --> 00:36:00.914
He said, "See that the boy has
two or three days' rest.

00:36:01.034 --> 00:36:04.789
When a boy likes an animal like that,
there's not a lot wrong with him."'

00:36:04.871 --> 00:36:07.545
'Over the whole of the front line,
there was a smell.

00:36:07.624 --> 00:36:09.718
It wasn't a complicated smell.

00:36:09.793 --> 00:36:12.467
It was the smell of decaying corpses.'

00:36:12.545 --> 00:36:16.425
'Nasty, sickly smell.
You never forgot that smell.'

00:36:19.302 --> 00:36:23.307
'It was the smell of death.
If you've ever smelt a dead mouse,

00:36:23.390 --> 00:36:26.940
it was like that, but hundreds
and hundreds of times worse.'

00:36:29.104 --> 00:36:30.777
'It seemed to cling to everything.

00:36:30.897 --> 00:36:33.650
When you were having your food,
you could taste it.'

00:36:33.733 --> 00:36:38.739
'The awful stench
and bits of human bodies lying about,

00:36:38.780 --> 00:36:41.283
it became an everyday thing.

00:36:41.408 --> 00:36:45.083
You thought, "Well, it'll be
your turn next. What does it matter?"'

00:36:45.912 --> 00:36:46.913
<i>(FLIES BUZZING)</i>

00:36:46.996 --> 00:36:50.045
'Wherever there was a grave or a body,
there were rats.'

00:36:50.083 --> 00:36:52.757
-(SQUEAKING)
-'They were all big, fat ones

00:36:52.794 --> 00:36:54.967
and we knew
where they got their fat from.'

00:36:55.088 --> 00:37:00.470
'Unpleasant animals, because of
the filtration into the graves.'

00:37:00.593 --> 00:37:03.597
'They used to feed on the dead
and come in the dugouts,

00:37:03.638 --> 00:37:05.515
pick up scraps in there.'

00:37:05.598 --> 00:37:09.694
'I woke up at the bottom of the trench
and felt something warm on my face

00:37:09.769 --> 00:37:12.648
and a little heart
went bang-bang-bang-bang-bang.

00:37:12.772 --> 00:37:16.276
The devil scratched my face with the
claws of his hind feet as he took off.'

00:37:16.317 --> 00:37:20.618
'We'd try and shoot them, hit them,
kill them, chase them, do anything.'

00:37:20.655 --> 00:37:23.204
-(GUNSHOTS)
-'Then you've got gas.'

00:37:24.200 --> 00:37:26.498
'We saw this green cloud
coming toward us,

00:37:26.619 --> 00:37:30.044
-just rolling slowly along the ground.'
-'They'd shout, "Gas!"

00:37:30.123 --> 00:37:34.799
and we had to take our mask out and
stick it on in two or three seconds.'

00:37:34.836 --> 00:37:39.012
'Yes, it was phosgene gas.
Later on, there was mustard gas.

00:37:39.132 --> 00:37:41.180
That was very effective.

00:37:41.301 --> 00:37:43.349
I never saw a "slightly gassed" man.'

00:37:43.470 --> 00:37:46.974
If you couldn't get your gas mask,
you were to pee on your handkerchief

00:37:47.056 --> 00:37:49.184
and stuff this round
your nose and mouth.'

00:37:49.309 --> 00:37:53.655
'I don't mind admitting I didn't think
much of urinating on handkerchiefs,

00:37:53.730 --> 00:37:56.358
so I went into
one of the trench latrines

00:37:56.483 --> 00:37:58.326
and I stuck my head in the bucket.

00:37:58.401 --> 00:38:01.405
I'll tell you, I couldn't hold my breath
any more, came up,

00:38:01.488 --> 00:38:03.866
took a good breath of air, down again.'

00:38:03.990 --> 00:38:07.745
'We were very soon enveloped in
this thick, yellow, filthy cloud.'

00:38:07.827 --> 00:38:12.003
'The more we tried to get rid of the
stinging in our eyes, the worse it got.'

00:38:12.081 --> 00:38:14.504
<i>(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)</i>

00:38:14.584 --> 00:38:18.509
'I thought deeply of what the effect
of blindness was going to be.'

00:38:18.546 --> 00:38:22.517
'But the extraction of clotted blood
and the injection of saline

00:38:22.550 --> 00:38:24.678
could alleviate a lot of the trouble

00:38:24.719 --> 00:38:28.064
and, as I was gassed myself,
I can speak from experience.'

00:38:29.933 --> 00:38:32.732
'In the wintertime,
as the weather deteriorated,

00:38:32.852 --> 00:38:36.527
so the trenches got
more and more sodden with water

00:38:36.564 --> 00:38:38.407
until they just became ditches.'

00:38:38.525 --> 00:38:42.450
'The water was swirling about our feet
and rising higher and higher

00:38:42.529 --> 00:38:44.406
until it reached our chests.

00:38:44.531 --> 00:38:47.080
Our difficulty was frostbite.

00:38:47.200 --> 00:38:49.453
Our gumboots filled with water

00:38:49.536 --> 00:38:52.210
and, in the mornings,
we could not strip them off,

00:38:52.247 --> 00:38:54.375
because they were frozen to our feet.'

00:38:54.415 --> 00:38:58.545
'When you're talking about trench feet,
you're talking about gangrene.

00:38:58.586 --> 00:39:01.965
Send him straight down the line.
Hack the legs off.'

00:39:03.216 --> 00:39:04.934
<i>Give us a hand with that.</i>

00:39:05.051 --> 00:39:07.554
'When the water
had soaked into the earth,

00:39:07.595 --> 00:39:11.896
the floors of the trenches
were just paved with liquid mud

00:39:11.933 --> 00:39:14.061
and that became like glue.'

00:39:14.102 --> 00:39:17.402
'It was a curious, sucking kind of mud.

00:39:17.438 --> 00:39:19.566
Very viscous indeed.

00:39:19.607 --> 00:39:22.406
Very tenacious. It stuck to you.'

00:39:22.443 --> 00:39:25.993
'If one had to go
to the rear for rations,

00:39:26.072 --> 00:39:29.918
well, that was just a nightmare journey,
slithering about.'

00:39:29.993 --> 00:39:33.463
'When it was pouring with rain,
and on slippery duckboards,

00:39:33.580 --> 00:39:35.924
the language was really edifying.

00:39:35.957 --> 00:39:38.676
You heard words
that you never dreamed existed.'

00:39:38.751 --> 00:39:41.504
'And, if you slipped off the duckboards,
you sank into

00:39:41.588 --> 00:39:47.015
the mud of decomposed bodies of humans
and mules, and that was the end of you.'

00:39:47.093 --> 00:39:50.848
'The boy was in the middle of
this huge sea of mud, struggling,

00:39:50.930 --> 00:39:52.603
and we couldn't do a thing.

00:39:52.682 --> 00:39:54.434
There was no hope of getting to him.

00:39:54.517 --> 00:39:58.647
The look on the lad's face, and he was
only a mere boy, was really pathetic.'

00:39:58.771 --> 00:40:02.366
'I've seen men sinking into the mud
and dying in the slime.

00:40:02.442 --> 00:40:05.446
I think it absolutely finished me off.'

00:40:06.529 --> 00:40:10.784
'It was supposed to be quiet, then you
might get some drunken German say,

00:40:10.825 --> 00:40:13.704
"I'm gonna give 'em hell,"
open up with all his batteries

00:40:13.786 --> 00:40:15.538
and catch hundreds on the wire.

00:40:15.622 --> 00:40:17.795
That was what they called
"holding a line".'

00:40:19.167 --> 00:40:23.172
'We were in conditions that isolated us
completely from civilisation.

00:40:23.296 --> 00:40:27.017
We got so degenerate, so isolated,
living in this mud.'

00:40:27.133 --> 00:40:31.183
'And you could sympathise with
how a rabbit must feel,

00:40:31.304 --> 00:40:34.683
because we were hunted by mankind
just the same as a rabbit.'

00:40:34.807 --> 00:40:37.401
'You knew your lives were in
one an0ther's hands

00:40:37.477 --> 00:40:41.983
and it united you closely and you didn't
let anything interfere with that.'

00:40:42.023 --> 00:40:44.492
'You knew what was going on
within your vision.

00:40:44.525 --> 00:40:47.199
- Beyond that, you hadn't got a clue.'
-(MOUTH ORGANS <i>PLAY)</i>

00:40:47.320 --> 00:40:50.699
'You didn't care how the war was going,
whether you were winning.

00:40:50.823 --> 00:40:52.700
You weren't bothered with that at all.'

00:40:52.825 --> 00:40:56.045
'You lived like tramps.
You didn't polish any buttons.

00:40:56.162 --> 00:40:59.166
You wore any uniform bits that you liked
and nobody worried.

00:40:59.207 --> 00:41:02.677
All they were concerned with was
that you were fit to fight.'

00:41:02.710 --> 00:41:05.088
'If nothing's happened,
you'd chat about life,

00:41:05.171 --> 00:41:07.265
where he came from,
where you came from.

00:41:07.340 --> 00:41:08.842
Everything was friendly.

00:41:08.883 --> 00:41:11.932
There was a terrific lot of kindness
in a way to each person.'

00:41:12.011 --> 00:41:13.854
'When the war was not very active,

00:41:13.930 --> 00:41:16.433
it was really rather fun
to be in the front line.

00:41:16.516 --> 00:41:18.189
It was not very dangerous.

00:41:18.267 --> 00:41:21.362
A sort of out-of-door camping holiday
with the boys

00:41:21.396 --> 00:41:24.366
with a slight spice of danger
to make it interesting.'

00:41:25.233 --> 00:41:29.204
'We used to raid the trenches
and get a prisoner if possible.'

00:41:29.278 --> 00:41:32.703
'On a typical trench raid,
there'd be perhaps eight in the party.'

00:41:34.033 --> 00:41:35.706
'If you were going to make a raid,

00:41:35.785 --> 00:41:38.880
somebody would cut a passage
through the wire at night.'

00:41:40.540 --> 00:41:42.918
'The only way to do it was silently...

00:41:45.253 --> 00:41:47.722
...to rush it,
and that was the arrangement.'

00:41:47.755 --> 00:41:51.760
'We would bayonet the Germans coming out
on their hands and knees out the dugout,

00:41:51.884 --> 00:41:55.104
we'd smack them over the head,
and throw in a couple of bombs.

00:41:59.976 --> 00:42:02.149
There were three ways of
getting rid of him.

00:42:02.228 --> 00:42:05.607
One was to knife him, garrotte him,
or to bayonet him.

00:42:05.732 --> 00:42:10.078
The quietest was a quick wrap around
the throat and a knife into the back.'

00:42:14.240 --> 00:42:16.493
'I threw the revolver at
poor little Rudolph.

00:42:16.576 --> 00:42:19.329
He was only about 18.
I hit him in the face with it.

00:42:19.412 --> 00:42:22.131
He screamed and came back at me
and that's when I got him.

00:42:22.248 --> 00:42:23.921
Got him with a Very pistol.'

00:42:23.958 --> 00:42:27.679
<i>- Well</i> done, <i>chaps!</i> Good raid!
-'l always had a full flask.

00:42:27.754 --> 00:42:30.098
I gave him a drink.
I felt very sorry for him.

00:42:30.173 --> 00:42:32.426
He said, "Danke sch6n. Das ist gut,"

00:42:32.467 --> 00:42:34.595
and died.'

00:42:34.635 --> 00:42:36.763
<i>Pick up prisoners, lads!</i>

00:42:36.804 --> 00:42:38.932
<i>(PROJECTILE WHISTLES)</i>

00:42:41.350 --> 00:42:43.944
'And it was
a very successful little raid.

00:42:44.020 --> 00:42:47.320
They got two prisoners,
I think, which was all they all wanted.'

00:42:47.440 --> 00:42:50.614
'By the way, the men who were captured
on the trench raids

00:42:50.651 --> 00:42:53.495
were the first Germans I saw
on the Western Front.'

00:42:53.613 --> 00:42:55.286
<i>Right. What else is there?</i>

00:42:55.323 --> 00:42:58.543
'A lot of the German troops
were very good, very friendly.

00:42:58.618 --> 00:43:02.213
In fact, some of those Bavarians
were damn good, decent people.

00:43:02.288 --> 00:43:05.838
The snipers would fire, but not
hit anybody, know what I mean?'

00:43:07.627 --> 00:43:12.053
'They put up a sign: "Gott mit uns,"
in German, "God is with us."

00:43:12.131 --> 00:43:14.884
We put up a sign up in English,
"We've got mittens too."

00:43:14.967 --> 00:43:18.141
We don't know if the Germans
enjoyed that joke or not.'

00:43:18.179 --> 00:43:20.648
'There was a wounded German,
a Wartenberger, I think.

00:43:20.681 --> 00:43:24.185
We did what we could for him, we gave
him a bit of food, that sort of thing.

00:43:24.310 --> 00:43:26.984
He was cursing
the Prussians like anything.'

00:43:27.063 --> 00:43:30.317
'The Saxons were in front of us
and they gave us the warning

00:43:30.358 --> 00:43:32.907
that they were going to be
relieved by the Prussians.

00:43:34.737 --> 00:43:37.490
And they said to us, "Give 'em hell!"

00:43:37.532 --> 00:43:39.534
They hated the Prussians.'

00:43:39.659 --> 00:43:42.879
'Cos the Prussians were cruel bastards.'

00:43:42.995 --> 00:43:45.373
<i>- This way.
- Schnell! Schnell!</i>

00:43:45.498 --> 00:43:48.001
<i>- Here! Watch yourself!
- Come along!</i>

00:43:48.042 --> 00:43:52.513
'The Bavarians or the Saxonians
were the more civilised of the Germans.

00:43:52.547 --> 00:43:54.345
Part-English, if anything.'

00:43:57.510 --> 00:44:02.732
'After a four-day spell
in the front line, we were relieved

00:44:02.849 --> 00:44:06.945
and we had to march back to billet
somewhere a few miles behind the lines.'

00:44:07.019 --> 00:44:09.772
'We were going for
a supposed one-week's rest.'

00:44:09.856 --> 00:44:11.950
'Everybody was dead whacked.

00:44:12.024 --> 00:44:14.026
We were all pretty knocked up.'

00:44:14.110 --> 00:44:16.204
'We extricated ourselves from the mud

00:44:16.279 --> 00:44:18.782
to what was somewhat ironically
called "rest".'

00:44:18.865 --> 00:44:20.538
'In the front line itself,

00:44:20.616 --> 00:44:22.914
-you didn't criticise people.'
-(CHEERING)

00:44:23.035 --> 00:44:27.040
'And if you had a chap who was a bit
dicky, you would keep an eye on him.

00:44:27.081 --> 00:44:29.925
It was like being a family but,
when you were out of the line,

00:44:30.042 --> 00:44:32.386
you'd want nothing to do with
those people at all.

00:44:32.461 --> 00:44:35.761
You can't call it "comradeship,"
exactly, it was the way you did it.'

00:44:35.882 --> 00:44:37.930
<i>- Get your mail!
- Welcome back.</i>

00:44:38.050 --> 00:44:42.146
'The thing which always took me
as being absolutely stupid

00:44:42.221 --> 00:44:44.315
was that the next morning,

00:44:44.390 --> 00:44:48.941
every man had to be spick and span,
not a trace of mud on him.'

00:44:50.146 --> 00:44:54.242
'You'd brush your clothes
or dry them off the best way you could

00:44:54.317 --> 00:44:56.240
and clean your boots.

00:44:56.277 --> 00:44:58.496
In other words, smarten yourself up.'

00:44:59.071 --> 00:45:01.119
(I IT'S A LONG WAY TO TIPPERARY)

00:45:10.917 --> 00:45:15.639
'The men would always appear the same:
cheerful under the circumstances,

00:45:15.755 --> 00:45:19.805
happy as they could be, and making
the best of everything, you know,

00:45:19.926 --> 00:45:21.769
in true British fashion.'

00:45:22.929 --> 00:45:25.773
- What?
-'The Cockney wit was prevalent.

00:45:25.848 --> 00:45:29.443
And we were all lads together, you know.
We didn't care a bugger.'

00:45:29.518 --> 00:45:33.113
-(LAUGHTER)
-'We'd make a fuss about nothing.

00:45:33.147 --> 00:45:37.618
Little things that didn't matter really,
it was something to fill the time in.'

00:45:37.693 --> 00:45:40.196
'We used to have to make
our own amusements.'

00:45:40.279 --> 00:45:41.826
<i>Bloody bastard.</i>

00:45:41.948 --> 00:45:44.292
'You laughed at the slightest things.

00:45:44.367 --> 00:45:47.496
I think probably it was the general
tension of the atmosphere

00:45:47.620 --> 00:45:50.339
that used to make us like that,
you know.'

00:45:51.290 --> 00:45:54.715
'My mother sent me a parcel
with a plum pudding of all things

00:45:54.794 --> 00:45:58.674
and I had no thought of being able to
cook it, so we used it as a rugby ball.'

00:45:58.798 --> 00:46:00.550
<i>(CHEERING)</i>

00:46:00.633 --> 00:46:02.977
'We had this regimental sports day

00:46:03.052 --> 00:46:06.522
and I won't say
I was the only sober one,

00:46:06.639 --> 00:46:09.142
but most of 'em were,
well, merry about it.'

00:46:09.225 --> 00:46:10.477
<i>(LAUGHTER)</i>

00:46:10.518 --> 00:46:12.316
<i>(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)</i>

00:46:12.395 --> 00:46:15.740
<i>- Come on. Sock him one!
-(LAUGHTER)</i>

00:46:16.482 --> 00:46:18.985
- Come on, mate.
-'You took part in everything,

00:46:19.026 --> 00:46:24.499
because you had to fill your time in,
you know, otherwise all you did was

00:46:24.532 --> 00:46:27.001
<i>-sit</i> about <i>and smoke.'
{CHILDREN'S LA LIGHTER)</i>

00:46:27.034 --> 00:46:29.162
<i>- Go on, lad!
- Get off!</i>

00:46:29.245 --> 00:46:31.498
'The only time
we saw the artillerymen

00:46:31.539 --> 00:46:34.258
-was when we were out at rest.'
<i>- Fire!</i>

00:46:34.333 --> 00:46:36.006
<i>(ORDERS ARE SHOUTED)</i>

00:46:36.085 --> 00:46:39.385
'They would be, say,
two miles behind the line.'

00:46:39.505 --> 00:46:41.553
-...eight, two...
<i>- Fire!</i>

00:46:41.674 --> 00:46:44.177
'We wanted to neutralise
enemy batteries,

00:46:44.260 --> 00:46:46.934
so we were registering
our batteries on his.'

00:46:47.013 --> 00:46:50.187
<i>- Fire!
- Come on!</i>

00:46:50.224 --> 00:46:54.525
'We used to know the line and elevation
because it was done by aircraft.'

00:46:54.603 --> 00:46:58.278
<i>- Once</i> they're through, <i>go</i> again!
-'lt's pretty ghastly, but the idea was

00:46:58.357 --> 00:46:59.859
to kill as many German gunners

00:46:59.900 --> 00:47:02.198
-as you could.'
- Ready!

00:47:03.029 --> 00:47:05.077
<i>Fire!</i>

00:47:09.785 --> 00:47:11.458
<i>Sir.</i>

00:47:11.537 --> 00:47:15.713
'There was no motorised transport then
for guns.

00:47:15.791 --> 00:47:18.044
The guns used to be
brought up by horses.'

00:47:18.085 --> 00:47:21.305
'Eight horses to each gun team.
Four horses to each wagon team.

00:47:21.380 --> 00:47:23.883
<i>- About 60 horses.'
-(WHINNYING)</i>

00:47:23.966 --> 00:47:26.060
'The gunners made a filthy noise,

00:47:26.135 --> 00:47:29.139
jingling and jingling and
the horses making noises both ends

00:47:29.221 --> 00:47:32.725
and it was always a great concern for
those of us who were going to battle.'

00:47:32.808 --> 00:47:35.982
<i>- Heave!
-(WHINNYING)</i>

00:47:36.062 --> 00:47:39.236
- Come <i>on! That's it! Come on!
- Heave!</i>

00:47:43.235 --> 00:47:45.909
'Each company officer paid
his own company.

00:47:45.946 --> 00:47:50.417
Now, it was generally the first morning
after we were out of the line,

00:47:50.451 --> 00:47:52.124
you got five francs.

00:47:52.244 --> 00:47:56.920
A franc was worth ten pence, so 5O pence
was your pay for a fortnight. 50 pence.

00:47:56.957 --> 00:47:59.085
Now, that's a week of riotous living.'

00:48:00.419 --> 00:48:03.798
'Every town of any size at all
had a brothel

00:48:03.923 --> 00:48:08.349
and that was where most of these boys
learnt a little more about life

00:48:08.427 --> 00:48:11.146
than they would ever have done
in normal, civil life.

00:48:11.263 --> 00:48:13.311
So, although they were young in years,

00:48:13.432 --> 00:48:16.777
it wasn't long before
they were quite worldly men.'

00:48:16.811 --> 00:48:20.156
'One of the lads said, "Let's go
and have a look in the White Star!

00:48:20.272 --> 00:48:21.774
It's like a pub."

00:48:21.857 --> 00:48:24.701
I'd led a very sheltered life

00:48:24.777 --> 00:48:27.951
and there were beautiful girls
with just a piece of lace on.

00:48:28.030 --> 00:48:32.206
And, ooh, my word! (LAUGHS)
I'd never seen anything like it before.'

00:48:32.284 --> 00:48:35.128
'There was I, a young lad,
knowing nothing about this.

00:48:35.204 --> 00:48:39.459
Off we go and these men were going up
regularly to see the girls.

00:48:39.542 --> 00:48:43.172
I was very keen. I said to one of these
fellas, "I've only got a sixpence."

00:48:43.295 --> 00:48:45.844
"Well, that's no good," he said,
"It's a shilling."

00:48:45.965 --> 00:48:48.514
That was
my first experience of a brothel.'

00:48:48.634 --> 00:48:51.308
'Anyway, we looked in there
for a couple of minutes,

00:48:51.387 --> 00:48:54.561
when four or five naked girls
came running down the corridor.

00:48:54.640 --> 00:48:56.813
We turned tail and ran! (LAUGHS)'

00:48:56.892 --> 00:48:58.644
'It was an eye-opener to me.

00:48:58.727 --> 00:49:02.072
There she stood, a great big woman
with this little cane in her hand

00:49:02.148 --> 00:49:05.493
and she belted my backside
as if I was a little schoolboy.

00:49:05.568 --> 00:49:08.321
"Petty sergeant this"
and "Petty sergeant the other!"

00:49:08.362 --> 00:49:11.206
Thump-thump-thump-thump! (LAUGHS)'

00:49:11.323 --> 00:49:14.918
'Ooh, gambling! Good Lord!
People were gambling all day long.

00:49:14.994 --> 00:49:18.840
The Canadians and Australians used
to gamble terrific amounts of money,

00:49:18.873 --> 00:49:20.546
more money than I'd ever seen.'

00:49:20.666 --> 00:49:22.509
<i>Beer up!</i>

00:49:23.669 --> 00:49:25.717
'The beer was very thin indeed.

00:49:25.838 --> 00:49:29.342
It was one-and-nine stuff.
One pint, nine piddles.'

00:49:30.509 --> 00:49:33.683
'Friday was always the issue day
for cigarettes.

00:49:33.721 --> 00:49:36.520
And the cigarettes were Three Witches,

00:49:36.557 --> 00:49:39.686
which soon became "Three Bitches",
or Red Hussars.

00:49:39.768 --> 00:49:42.692
I think they were made
from stable returns.

00:49:44.690 --> 00:49:49.867
But, generally, in good-sized villages,
you could get Woodbines and Player's

00:49:49.904 --> 00:49:54.205
and they were far preferable
to the issue cigarettes.'

00:49:54.283 --> 00:49:57.708
'Of course, we were always bartering
with the Frenchmen.

00:49:57.786 --> 00:50:01.381
We used to barter some of our
under-clothing and get a loaf of bread.'

00:50:01.415 --> 00:50:05.386
'We used to swap our British cigarettes
for their French wine.'

00:50:05.419 --> 00:50:07.547
'It could be just as tiring
out of the line

00:50:07.630 --> 00:50:10.053
as in the line
and it was sometimes worse.'

00:50:10.090 --> 00:50:15.392
'If you were chosen for a fatigue,
you'd have to go on the working party.'

00:50:15.429 --> 00:50:19.229
'You collected stores from a big dump
three or four miles back.

00:50:20.267 --> 00:50:24.067
Enormous bundles of sandbags,
ready made-up duckboards

00:50:24.146 --> 00:50:26.240
and, worst of all, barbed wire.'

00:50:26.315 --> 00:50:29.410
- That's <i>that.</i>
-'It was always hard work.

00:50:29.443 --> 00:50:32.447
You were a bonny, labouring boy
more than you were a fighter.'

00:50:32.571 --> 00:50:36.075
'All the chaps were very tired,
but it made no difference.'

00:50:36.116 --> 00:50:38.244
'And they were mentally tired out.

00:50:38.285 --> 00:50:40.287
They'd come out of a trench tour
for a rest

00:50:40.412 --> 00:50:42.414
and this was the rest
they were getting.'

00:50:42.456 --> 00:50:44.083
<i>Tuck it down now.</i>

00:50:44.166 --> 00:50:46.840
'You would be carrying stuff up
on a light railway.'

00:50:47.920 --> 00:50:51.094
'Yes, they laid
a narrow-gauge light railway track.'

00:50:52.091 --> 00:50:55.595
'It was the simplest of things,
just platforms on wheels,

00:50:55.636 --> 00:50:57.513
driven by light locomotives.'

00:51:05.688 --> 00:51:08.692
'Light railways, well, they were
always a blooming nuisance,

00:51:08.774 --> 00:51:11.448
because they were always
coming off the track.'

00:51:11.485 --> 00:51:15.786
'They lost control of this truck
going down a slight incline

00:51:15.823 --> 00:51:17.496
and it barged into the one in front,

00:51:17.616 --> 00:51:19.710
scattered duckboards
all over the place.'

00:51:21.954 --> 00:51:25.003
'We used to take our mess tins
up to the engine driver

00:51:25.124 --> 00:51:28.003
and get some boiling water
for our brew up of tea.'

00:51:28.127 --> 00:51:29.800
<i>(GRUNTING)</i>

00:51:29.837 --> 00:51:32.340
<i>- Stop messing around.
- And another.</i>

00:51:33.882 --> 00:51:35.555
<i>Second line there.</i>

00:51:35.634 --> 00:51:39.480
'The Germans could see the steam
and smoke from the steam engine,

00:51:39.555 --> 00:51:45.233
so then it was mostly petrol engines
which used to run up to the trenches.'

00:51:45.311 --> 00:51:47.405
<i>(CHATTER AND LAUGHTER)</i>

00:51:47.479 --> 00:51:50.653
'The light railway only went
as far as the communication trench

00:51:50.691 --> 00:51:53.194
and then we had to push the thing
along by hand.'

00:51:53.319 --> 00:51:55.367
<i>Now, then...</i>

00:51:57.156 --> 00:51:59.409
'Somebody came along and said,
"Oh, this is it!

00:51:59.491 --> 00:52:01.493
We're gonna be home by Christmas."
"Oh?"

00:52:01.577 --> 00:52:04.922
"Well, just go down the road and look
in a field there, you'll see."

00:52:04.997 --> 00:52:07.546
Wouldn't tell us why.
Anyway, we went down.'

00:52:07.666 --> 00:52:11.091
'They were on the roadside
covered with tarpaulin sheets.

00:52:11.170 --> 00:52:14.174
You could see nothing
except a square outline.'

00:52:14.214 --> 00:52:17.844
'And then the officer said,
"These are supposed to be hush-hush."'

00:52:17.926 --> 00:52:21.055
'When we asked what it was,
the simple reply was, "Tanks."

00:52:21.180 --> 00:52:24.684
Knowing the shortage of water,
we naturally assumed water tanks

00:52:24.725 --> 00:52:27.228
and thought we were getting
reserve supplies.

00:52:27.353 --> 00:52:29.230
It was one of the best-kept secrets.'

00:52:29.355 --> 00:52:33.110
'We were delighted as these wonderful
machines were going to win the war...

00:52:34.526 --> 00:52:36.574
...and soon everybody'd be home again.

00:52:36.695 --> 00:52:39.073
Of course, it didn't happen like that.'

00:52:39.198 --> 00:52:41.246
<i>Wahey!</i>

00:52:41.367 --> 00:52:45.122
'We were taken out of the line
and had intensive training.'

00:52:46.205 --> 00:52:49.755
'Plunge the bayonet into the sack,
shout like hell.'

00:52:49.875 --> 00:52:53.300
'It was to get used to plunging them
into s0meb0dy's body.'

00:52:53.379 --> 00:52:56.223
'Then we fired our rifles
on the rifle range.'

00:53:03.972 --> 00:53:07.067
'Firing rifle grenades was
a specialist job.'

00:53:08.227 --> 00:53:10.275
'But they were clumsy.

00:53:10.396 --> 00:53:12.569
I didn't like them much.'

00:53:15.109 --> 00:53:17.487
'Forced marching,
marching without a rest

00:53:17.569 --> 00:53:21.574
and also frontal attack,
right flank attack, left flank attack,

00:53:21.657 --> 00:53:23.500
both flanks attack, night attack

00:53:23.575 --> 00:53:26.419
and we wondered what the devil
all this training was for.'

00:53:26.495 --> 00:53:28.589
<i>(BAGPIPES PLAY)</i>

00:53:28.664 --> 00:53:32.510
'The corps commander said
that he had just received instructions

00:53:32.584 --> 00:53:34.461
to go ahead with an operation

00:53:34.586 --> 00:53:38.807
-to break through the German lines.'
- Come on, Wellington!

00:53:38.924 --> 00:53:42.599
'We were told to parade, full marching
order. We had to go back up the front.

00:53:42.636 --> 00:53:44.934
We'd only been out of the line
a couple of days.'

00:53:45.013 --> 00:53:47.516
'We could see streams of supplies,

00:53:47.599 --> 00:53:50.443
mostly ammunition columns
going up towards the front.'

00:53:50.477 --> 00:53:52.946
-(WHISTLING)
-'We didn't have a lot of notice,

00:53:53.021 --> 00:53:55.649
but we knew
there was gonna be a big advance.'

00:54:04.283 --> 00:54:05.785
<i>(WHINNYING)</i>

00:54:09.872 --> 00:54:11.795
'So, batteries pushed forward,

00:54:11.832 --> 00:54:14.210
forward positions filled up
with ammunition.'

00:54:14.293 --> 00:54:16.637
<i>- Let's get these ladders up!
- Righto.</i>

00:54:16.670 --> 00:54:19.890
'As our great push drew nearer,
the line livened up,

00:54:19.965 --> 00:54:23.185
it began to get much more dangerous
and not nearly so much fun.'

00:54:23.302 --> 00:54:27.808
'We learnt that a bayonet charge was
to be made on German machine guns.'

00:54:28.974 --> 00:54:30.851
<i>"I wish it to be impressed on all ranks,</i>

00:54:30.976 --> 00:54:34.150
<i>the importance of the operations
about to commence.</i>

00:54:34.188 --> 00:54:37.192
<i>The Germans are now outnumbered
and outgunned</i>

00:54:37.316 --> 00:54:40.035
<i>and will soon go to pieces
if every man goes into the fight</i>

00:54:40.152 --> 00:54:43.702
<i>determined to get through whatever
the local difficulties may be.</i>

00:54:43.822 --> 00:54:46.826
<i>I am confident that
the brigade will distinguish itself</i>

00:54:46.867 --> 00:54:48.414
<i>in this, its first battle.</i>

00:54:48.494 --> 00:54:51.873
<i>Let every man remember
that all England is watching him."</i>

00:54:51.997 --> 00:54:55.501
'We marched all through the night
and it got so bad

00:54:55.584 --> 00:54:58.554
that officers at the side
were pushing men back into line

00:54:58.670 --> 00:55:02.516
who were straggling out and your legs
seemed to go automatically forward.

00:55:02.549 --> 00:55:05.519
I had a feeling that
we were walking in our sleep.'

00:55:05.552 --> 00:55:10.023
'More men were brought into the line and
regiments were crowded closer together.'

00:55:10.057 --> 00:55:13.186
'We were filling up the trenches,
packed in like sardines.'

00:55:14.353 --> 00:55:18.358
'Our captain was a splendid man.
He would never bark an order at you.

00:55:18.440 --> 00:55:20.863
He would give an order in
a conversational way.

00:55:20.901 --> 00:55:25.577
"We don't know how far this trench is,
but it's between 200 and 300 yards.

00:55:25.697 --> 00:55:29.042
I will go over in the first wave
and you'll be in the second wave

00:55:29.076 --> 00:55:32.250
and as soon as the curtain fire starts,
we move.

00:55:32.371 --> 00:55:34.920
Now, go along
and tell your men to be ready."

00:55:35.040 --> 00:55:36.792
And this is the sort of order we got.'

00:55:37.918 --> 00:55:40.262
'Our two assaulting companies
were ignorant of

00:55:40.379 --> 00:55:42.973
what their conduct would be
when they got into action.

00:55:43.048 --> 00:55:46.723
Captain Neville thought it might be
helpful if he could furnish each platoon

00:55:46.802 --> 00:55:49.897
with a football and allow them
to kick it forward and follow it.

00:55:49.930 --> 00:55:53.605
I think myself that it did help them
enormously. Took their minds off it.'

00:55:53.725 --> 00:55:57.571
'We had an extra bandolier of ammunition
around our necks

00:55:57.646 --> 00:56:00.069
and if you didn't have a shovel,
you had a pick.'

00:56:00.148 --> 00:56:02.742
'We got in the trenches
and we waited for zero hour.

00:56:02.818 --> 00:56:04.570
All the watches are synchronised.'

00:56:05.612 --> 00:56:07.990
'I was what is called
a first bayonet man,

00:56:08.073 --> 00:56:11.748
which meant I carried the rifle with
the bayonet in the attacking position

00:56:11.827 --> 00:56:14.250
and the rest of the men
carried bags of bombs.'

00:56:16.415 --> 00:56:19.339
'And we warned to be ready
to advance at any moment.

00:56:19.418 --> 00:56:21.762
"Any moment" was
quite a long time coming.

00:56:21.795 --> 00:56:24.765
Of course, that added to
the tension that we were feeling.'

00:56:24.798 --> 00:56:26.641
<i>Mind the wire!</i>

00:56:26.758 --> 00:56:30.262
'My platoon had been told
to go out and test the fire.

00:56:30.345 --> 00:56:33.269
We had to get out and walk
towards the enemy.

00:56:33.348 --> 00:56:36.818
We went about 200 yards
and then they called us back again.'

00:56:37.811 --> 00:56:41.691
'There was to be no preliminary
bombardment the days beforehand.

00:56:41.773 --> 00:56:45.653
There was only one short, sharp barrage
just before the battle.'

00:56:45.777 --> 00:56:47.620
<i>Fire!</i>

00:56:47.696 --> 00:56:51.291
'You've got to have the artillery
preparation to smash their wire down.'

00:56:51.325 --> 00:56:53.043
<i>Fire!</i>

00:56:53.118 --> 00:56:57.464
'I ordered fire on possible enemy
assembly and forming-up positions.'

00:56:57.497 --> 00:57:00.626
-'The bombardment started...'
- Ready! <i>Fire!</i>

00:57:00.709 --> 00:57:03.804
-'..and the ground shook...'
<i>- Fire!</i>

00:57:03.837 --> 00:57:08.809
'..and we could see the hundreds
and hundreds of gun flashes.'

00:57:08.884 --> 00:57:11.307
<i>Ready! Fire!</i>

00:57:11.386 --> 00:57:13.309
<i>Fire one!</i>

00:57:13.347 --> 00:57:15.725
<i>Fire two! Fire three!</i>

00:57:15.807 --> 00:57:17.309
<i>Fire four!</i>

00:57:20.145 --> 00:57:24.070
'As soon as the bombardment started,
the Germans' retaliation came.

00:57:27.653 --> 00:57:31.203
For four hours, we had to sit there
and take everything he slung at us.'

00:57:33.492 --> 00:57:36.712
'And, first of all,
a large number of tanks went in.

00:57:36.828 --> 00:57:39.377
We could hear them
rumbling and rattling.'

00:57:39.498 --> 00:57:42.342
'320 tanks crawling along.'

00:57:42.376 --> 00:57:45.095
'We waited for the signal to move off.

00:57:45.170 --> 00:57:50.176
Already, everybody was anxious to go,
but we waited and waited.'

00:57:52.177 --> 00:57:55.932
'We got no sleep that night, owing to
the noise of our artillery barrage,

00:57:56.014 --> 00:57:58.233
which was continuous the whole time.'

00:57:59.393 --> 00:58:03.364
'We were asked to hand over any personal
belongings to our company officer,

00:58:03.438 --> 00:58:07.284
such as photographs
and letters that we valued.'

00:58:07.359 --> 00:58:10.909
'I heard soft voices
talking to one another quietly

00:58:11.029 --> 00:58:14.124
and I wondered how many
were going to live to see the sun rise.'

00:58:14.199 --> 00:58:17.544
'In a man's pay book, there was
provision for making a valid will,

00:58:17.577 --> 00:58:21.047
if they were going into action for
the first time, but I didn't bother.

00:58:21.123 --> 00:58:23.217
I had nothing to leave anybody.
(LAUGHS)'

00:58:23.291 --> 00:58:26.716
'The fellow next to you, he was
your best friend. You loved him.

00:58:26.753 --> 00:58:29.051
You perhaps didn't know him
the day before

00:58:29.089 --> 00:58:30.716
and then an hour to go...

00:58:30.757 --> 00:58:33.886
They were the longest
and the shortest hours in life.'

00:58:33.927 --> 00:58:36.055
'We had unlimited time for thinking

00:58:36.096 --> 00:58:39.600
and I know I found myself
thinking much more deeply

00:58:39.725 --> 00:58:41.819
than I had ever thought before.'

00:58:41.893 --> 00:58:44.237
'Some people might
be incapable of thinking.

00:58:44.271 --> 00:58:47.241
They might have regarded
the situation as being such that

00:58:47.274 --> 00:58:50.778
-they were incapable of thought.'
-'l don't think there was any fear.

00:58:50.902 --> 00:58:54.327
It was just that we were doing a job
and if it came, it came.'

00:58:55.157 --> 00:58:59.082
'We realised that, sooner or later,
we were going to get the chop.

00:58:59.119 --> 00:59:01.838
You were either going to be killed
or wounded.'

00:59:01.913 --> 00:59:04.837
'l was not in the least frightened
of being killed,

00:59:04.916 --> 00:59:08.420
but I was terrified
lest I should lose an arm or a leg.'

00:59:08.503 --> 00:59:12.258
'Waiting for an hour for an attack
is not a very pleasant thing.

00:59:12.340 --> 00:59:16.095
We sort of chatted away,
trying to keep the spirits up, you see.

00:59:16.178 --> 00:59:19.273
We told dirty stories
and made crude remarks.'

00:59:20.140 --> 00:59:23.110
'We had 1,000 guns massed
on a mile front behind us.

00:59:23.143 --> 00:59:25.612
Well, you imagine
all this stuff coming over you

00:59:25.687 --> 00:59:27.860
with the German stuff
coming the other way.'

00:59:27.939 --> 00:59:31.364
'The noise rose to a crescendo
such as I'd never heard before.'

00:59:31.443 --> 00:59:33.116
'You wouldn't hear a word.'

00:59:33.195 --> 00:59:37.120
'The shells were passing over you
probably three foot, four foot,

00:59:37.199 --> 00:59:41.295
and the air, it was an inferno
and your mind was another inferno.

00:59:41.369 --> 00:59:43.667
Reason was completely blast out of it.'

00:59:43.789 --> 00:59:47.134
'The bombardment created
a sort of hysterical feeling.'

00:59:47.209 --> 00:59:51.214
'All of a sudden, one of our fellas
started crying, screaming and crying.

00:59:51.296 --> 00:59:53.640
The officer in charge,
telling the sergeant,

00:59:53.715 --> 00:59:56.138
"Find that man and shoot him!
Shoot him!"'

00:59:56.218 --> 01:00:01.190
'It's difficult to explain the reaction
of a man when he's in a bombardment.'

01:00:01.306 --> 01:00:04.480
'He thought that
this man's screaming and crying

01:00:04.518 --> 01:00:06.896
would be a danger
to the rest of the men.'

01:00:06.978 --> 01:00:11.233
'As soon as it was light, we were given
rum, as much as you could drink.'

01:00:12.400 --> 01:00:14.243
'And we got the order to fix bayonets.'

01:00:14.319 --> 01:00:17.198
<i>- Fix bayonets!
- Bayonets fixed!</i>

01:00:17.322 --> 01:00:21.498
'It was a beautiful day the way
it dawned after a rainy night.

01:00:21.535 --> 01:00:23.208
A beautiful day.'

01:00:23.328 --> 01:00:26.502
'Then, five minutes to go,
I remember those lads standing there.

01:00:26.581 --> 01:00:28.504
Dead silent, couldn't make a noise.'

01:00:28.542 --> 01:00:31.421
'I was more frightened
sitting waiting to start.

01:00:31.503 --> 01:00:34.222
I was very frightened then.
Very frightened indeed.'

01:00:34.339 --> 01:00:38.014
'And an officer shouted along the line,
"ls everybody ready?"

01:00:38.051 --> 01:00:41.021
And I called out, "I can't get
my bayonet on my rifle, sir!"

01:00:41.096 --> 01:00:43.349
He said, "Damn you, mate!
Well, hurry up!"'

01:00:43.431 --> 01:00:46.935
'I sent back a message to brigade
headquarters to say we were all ready

01:00:47.018 --> 01:00:49.567
but, unfortunately,
a slight mistake occurred.

01:00:49.688 --> 01:00:52.862
The first thing they knew was
this terrific tremor in the ground.

01:00:52.899 --> 01:00:56.529
We blew a mine which should've been
under the German trenches, but wasn't.

01:00:59.906 --> 01:01:03.536
It was in no-man's-land and that gave
the Germans five minutes

01:01:03.577 --> 01:01:06.080
to occupy the crater, which they did.'

01:01:08.415 --> 01:01:11.134
'Sergeant Moore,
he was standing behind the trench.

01:01:11.209 --> 01:01:13.211
He'd got a revolver in his hand,
he said,

01:01:13.253 --> 01:01:15.472
"Anybody going back, I'll shoot 'em!"

01:01:15.547 --> 01:01:18.551
So that, if we didn't go one way,
we wouldn't go the other.'

01:01:18.633 --> 01:01:21.056
'There wasn't a reluctance
to go over the top,

01:01:21.136 --> 01:01:22.809
not with people I was with.'

01:01:22.888 --> 01:01:24.731
<i>Fire!</i>

01:01:26.057 --> 01:01:28.936
<i>- Fire!</i>
-'They put a curtain of shells over you

01:01:29.060 --> 01:01:30.733
and you advance.

01:01:30.812 --> 01:01:34.658
- That was the theory of the thing.'
<i>- Fire!</i>

01:01:34.733 --> 01:01:37.156
- Fire!
-'l realised that this was the moment

01:01:37.235 --> 01:01:38.737
of the assault.'

01:01:38.820 --> 01:01:41.824
-'And then zero hour.'
'Somebody shouted, "There they go!"

01:01:41.907 --> 01:01:45.912
To the left were the London Scottish
running forward.'

01:01:45.994 --> 01:01:48.747
'I gave the order of,
"Up the ladders! Over the top!"'

01:01:48.830 --> 01:01:50.924
<i>(WHISTLE BLOWING)</i>

01:01:52.083 --> 01:01:57.089
'And after this, we lived in a world of
noise. Simply noise for hours.'

01:01:57.130 --> 01:01:59.258
<i>(sums BOOMING)</i>

01:02:00.342 --> 01:02:02.936
'As soon as you get over the top,
fear has left you.'

01:02:02.969 --> 01:02:05.939
'We didn't run.
There was no shouting, nor cheering.

01:02:06.014 --> 01:02:07.937
Everybody was deadly quiet.'

01:02:07.974 --> 01:02:10.272
'Just as I stepped into no-man's-land,

01:02:10.352 --> 01:02:14.277
somebody was shot through the head
and his skull was splintered.

01:02:14.314 --> 01:02:17.193
It wasn't a good send-off,
I can assure you.'

01:02:17.275 --> 01:02:20.620
'The barrage proceeded
into the enemy lines

01:02:20.695 --> 01:02:25.496
-in steps of 100 yards at a time.'
<i>- Fire!</i>

01:02:26.826 --> 01:02:30.296
'The line of British troops, fixed
bayonets, walking quite steadily

01:02:30.330 --> 01:02:31.798
behind the barrage.

01:02:31.873 --> 01:02:33.625
It was a sight I shall never forget.'

01:02:33.708 --> 01:02:36.461
'To start with, we'd had
the odd machine-gun firing,

01:02:36.503 --> 01:02:39.973
but remarkably little, and it seemed
almost too good to be true.

01:02:40.048 --> 01:02:44.224
'And we then realised the
Germans had been retaining their fire

01:02:44.302 --> 01:02:47.306
until they saw how far
the attack was developing.'

01:02:47.389 --> 01:02:50.518
'Unknown to us, there was
ten to 20 German machine guns.'

01:02:50.642 --> 01:02:53.145
'Then all hell broke loose.'

01:02:53.186 --> 01:02:56.531
'And, my God, he really opened up
and he let us have it.

01:02:56.648 --> 01:02:59.026
<i>- It just swept us.'
-(MACHINE-GUN FIRE)</i>

01:03:00.860 --> 01:03:03.158
<i>Keep back! Keep back!</i>

01:03:03.238 --> 01:03:05.332
<i>Keep moving, laddie!</i>

01:03:07.659 --> 01:03:10.333
<i>(GUNFIRE CONTINUES)</i>

01:03:10.370 --> 01:03:12.168
<i>(ARTILLERY BOOMING)</i>

01:03:15.417 --> 01:03:18.762
'Machine-gun bullets came at us
like hailstones.'

01:03:18.837 --> 01:03:22.057
'I didn't realise that
the swish-swish were bullets.'

01:03:22.173 --> 01:03:25.552
'l looked round
and people were dropping all round you.

01:03:25.677 --> 01:03:28.681
I mean, they just faded away, you know,
on either side of you.'

01:03:28.763 --> 01:03:32.108
'And I thought, "What are they
shooting at me for?" (CHUCKLES)'

01:03:32.183 --> 01:03:35.357
'I hadn't gone more than a few yards
before I was shot in the thigh.'

01:03:35.395 --> 01:03:38.114
'There was a captain alongside me
with his revolver out

01:03:38.189 --> 01:03:39.862
and, all of a sudden, he dropped.

01:03:39.941 --> 01:03:42.535
And then another chap,
he was hit in the leg,

01:03:42.610 --> 01:03:45.454
but he continued with great bounds,
hopping on one leg.'

01:03:45.530 --> 01:03:48.409
-(CLANKING)
-'When the bullets hit the tank,

01:03:48.533 --> 01:03:52.788
the metal flakes were whirring around
like razor blades inside the tank.'

01:03:52.871 --> 01:03:55.715
'You could see men dropping,
but you didn't take any notice.

01:03:55.790 --> 01:03:57.713
If you didn't get hit,
you carried on.'

01:03:57.751 --> 01:04:00.220
'l found myself with a terrible pain
in my left hand

01:04:00.253 --> 01:04:02.881
as if somebody had caned me
and I found a big hole in it.'

01:04:02.964 --> 01:04:06.719
'A man was running across the front of
me and he was shot through the body

01:04:06.760 --> 01:04:09.889
because the contents of his wallet
were flung out forward of me.'

01:04:10.805 --> 01:04:13.274
'I felt a terrific pain in my right arm

01:04:13.391 --> 01:04:16.565
and the blood started running off
the end of my hand.'

01:04:16.603 --> 01:04:20.403
'I just didn't think that this German
machine-gunner would fire at me

01:04:20.440 --> 01:04:23.614
but, the next thing, I felt
a shock of quite a number of bullets

01:04:23.735 --> 01:04:25.612
hitting the right side of my body.'

01:04:25.737 --> 01:04:29.412
'A hare crossed my path
with eyes bulging, in fear,

01:04:29.491 --> 01:04:32.916
but I felt that it couldn't have been
half as frightened as I was.'

01:04:32.952 --> 01:04:35.455
'You could see your mates
going down right and left.

01:04:35.580 --> 01:04:39.301
You were face-to-face with the stark
realisation that this is the end of it.'

01:04:39.417 --> 01:04:43.172
'The two in front of me went down,
wounded in the head and chest.'

01:04:43.254 --> 01:04:46.508
'These bloody bullets got me in the leg
and blew a great big hole at the back.

01:04:46.591 --> 01:04:47.808
It didn't hurt.'

01:04:47.926 --> 01:04:50.520
'Well, life was
very, very hazardous indeed

01:04:50.595 --> 01:04:54.691
and we proceeded in this fashion, some
getting hit and others carrying along.'

01:04:54.766 --> 01:04:57.269
'You hadn't got time to deliberate
upon things.

01:04:57.352 --> 01:05:01.448
Machine-gun bullets might be coming
over, but they weren't hitting you.'

01:05:01.523 --> 01:05:04.322
<i>-(BA GPIPE PLA YS)
-'They say your past comes up</i>

01:05:04.442 --> 01:05:08.447
when you think you were gonna die,
but I hadn't got very much past at 19.

01:05:08.530 --> 01:05:12.956
When I saw these bullets coming along,
all I thought was, "Am I gonna live?"'

01:05:12.992 --> 01:05:16.792
'Of course, if the thing hits you fair
and square and you die immediately,

01:05:16.830 --> 01:05:19.629
you don't feel anything at all,
nothing to it.'

01:05:19.707 --> 01:05:22.335
'The first wave were all
absolutely wiped out.

01:05:22.460 --> 01:05:24.508
Everybody was either killed or wounded.'

01:05:24.629 --> 01:05:28.475
'There were so many dead laying about,
it was hard to avoid treading on them.'

01:05:28.508 --> 01:05:31.637
'I was trying to step over them.
The sergeant behind me said,

01:05:31.678 --> 01:05:34.978
"Go on! You mustn't take
any notice of that. Keep going!"'

01:05:35.056 --> 01:05:38.731
'And we were literally walking over
the dead bodies of our cobbers.

01:05:38.810 --> 01:05:40.904
The carnage is just indescribable.'

01:05:42.647 --> 01:05:45.901
'I had in my path about 2,000 dead,
British and German.

01:05:45.984 --> 01:05:49.238
An attempt to clear any dead man
from our path was impossible

01:05:49.320 --> 01:05:52.039
because of the shelling
and we ploughed over the lot.'

01:05:53.241 --> 01:05:56.245
'Any shell bursting
within a few yards of the tank

01:05:56.327 --> 01:05:58.580
seemed to lift it up in the air

01:05:58.663 --> 01:06:01.007
and you felt a tremendous
back pressure.'

01:06:02.375 --> 01:06:05.049
'The noise of the battle
when you're out in the middle of it

01:06:05.170 --> 01:06:08.674
is so terrific that you don't hear
any individual shots even.'

01:06:08.715 --> 01:06:11.218
'And we had to stop in front
of the German wire.'

01:06:11.342 --> 01:06:13.720
'It was quite impossible to advance
any further

01:06:13.845 --> 01:06:16.564
because of the barbed wire
and the machine-gun posts,

01:06:16.681 --> 01:06:18.433
which were about 50 yards further on.'

01:06:18.516 --> 01:06:21.235
'The wire in front of us
was quite uncut,

01:06:21.352 --> 01:06:23.275
despite the intense bombardments.'

01:06:23.354 --> 01:06:25.448
'You couldn't see anything
but this wire,

01:06:25.523 --> 01:06:27.400
it seemed to be acres and acres of it.'

01:06:27.525 --> 01:06:29.869
'It was just black with rust

01:06:29.944 --> 01:06:32.697
and I don't think a rabbit
could have got through it.'

01:06:32.739 --> 01:06:35.868
'Then, our own artillery started
dropping shells amongst us.'

01:06:42.290 --> 01:06:45.885
'Obviously, they hadn't got the range,
or they didn't know where we were.'

01:06:46.711 --> 01:06:49.430
'l heard the first shrapnel shell
burst above my head.'

01:06:49.547 --> 01:06:51.891
-'There was a terrific whiz.'
-(CLANGING)

01:06:51.966 --> 01:06:56.062
'That was the disappearance of my steel
helmet. I never found it again.'

01:06:56.137 --> 01:06:59.892
'I got a bit off the cheek of
my backside, a piece in my hip,

01:06:59.933 --> 01:07:03.107
a piece in my leg,
and a piece right through my leg.'

01:07:03.228 --> 01:07:05.902
'The fellow to my left took
the full blast of the shell

01:07:05.939 --> 01:07:07.612
and had half his head blown away.'

01:07:07.732 --> 01:07:11.578
'Bullets were catching us and
shrapnel was coming down overhead

01:07:11.653 --> 01:07:14.406
and we had all
the German artillery banging away at us

01:07:14.489 --> 01:07:16.583
and our own artillery going over.'

01:07:16.658 --> 01:07:19.252
'The shells were exploding
all round you

01:07:19.285 --> 01:07:23.165
and it was a real, good, old battle
and it got hold of you, sort of.'

01:07:23.248 --> 01:07:25.671
'One had no sanity at all

01:07:25.750 --> 01:07:29.471
because the inferno was so blasting
that you had no time to think.'

01:07:30.296 --> 01:07:32.640
'That din, that numbing din

01:07:32.757 --> 01:07:36.102
seemed to stop one doing the things
that one would normally do,

01:07:36.177 --> 01:07:38.475
no matter how well-intentioned one was.'

01:07:40.473 --> 01:07:43.352
'You don't look, you see.
You don't hear, you listen.

01:07:43.434 --> 01:07:47.610
You taste the top of your mouth. Your
nose is filled with fumes and death.

01:07:47.689 --> 01:07:50.192
The veneer of civilisation
has dropped away.'

01:07:51.526 --> 01:07:53.995
'I was literally blown about
12 or 14 yards

01:07:54.112 --> 01:07:57.537
and all that I could hear was the cries
and screams from the survivors,

01:07:57.615 --> 01:08:00.118
sometimes in two,
sometimes in three parts.

01:08:00.159 --> 01:08:05.381
Legs, arms, all strewn over the place
and that arid smell of explosion.'

01:08:05.456 --> 01:08:09.802
'Well, all my romantic ideas of war
completely vanished.'

01:08:10.670 --> 01:08:13.640
'A shell had hit this man,
it knocked off his left arm,

01:08:13.715 --> 01:08:17.470
knocked off his left leg,
his left eye was hanging on his cheek

01:08:17.552 --> 01:08:19.350
and he's calling out for Nanny.

01:08:19.470 --> 01:08:22.144
His bleeding eye was hanging on,
pulsing.

01:08:24.058 --> 01:08:25.981
So I shot him.

01:08:26.060 --> 01:08:28.062
I had to. I had to shoot him.

01:08:28.146 --> 01:08:31.650
He'd have died in any case
and it put him out of his misery.

01:08:32.734 --> 01:08:34.657
(SOBBING) And that hurt me.'

01:08:36.070 --> 01:08:38.493
'I knew there was no hope
of getting any orders

01:08:38.531 --> 01:08:40.329
cos there was nobody to give any.'

01:08:40.408 --> 01:08:44.379
'All officers were killed and wounded
and most of the NCOs.'

01:08:44.495 --> 01:08:46.338
'I jumped into this big shell hole.'

01:08:46.372 --> 01:08:49.501
'You dropped down anywhere,
shell holes, anywhere at all

01:08:49.584 --> 01:08:52.337
just to take cover
until the barrage lifted.'

01:08:52.378 --> 01:08:55.723
'I'm not one of those heroes who want
to take the German Army on my own,

01:08:55.840 --> 01:08:59.720
so I went to earth and I got down
behind the lip of a big shell hole.'

01:08:59.844 --> 01:09:02.848
'Fortunately, I was able
to drop into a shell hole.'

01:09:02.889 --> 01:09:06.063
'We used to call them shell-hole
droppers, they would drop down

01:09:06.184 --> 01:09:09.905
into a shell hole because of the barrage
and seeing a few of the men killed.'

01:09:10.021 --> 01:09:12.615
'It's a pity they didn't all drop
into shell holes.

01:09:12.690 --> 01:09:15.364
Before the barrage lifted,
they were dead.'

01:09:15.401 --> 01:09:19.531
'And the bullets were hitting
the back of the shell hole where I was.

01:09:19.572 --> 01:09:22.792
It was raining bullets.
I don't know how I got missed.'

01:09:22.867 --> 01:09:25.120
'From behind the lip
of this shell hole,

01:09:25.203 --> 01:09:27.922
the dirt was spraying down
the back of my neck.'

01:09:28.039 --> 01:09:30.963
'There were three chaps in
the shell hole and one of them said,

01:09:31.042 --> 01:09:33.136
"They're firing
at your bloody shovel!"

01:09:33.211 --> 01:09:36.055
We looked round to see a bullet
go right through his head.

01:09:36.130 --> 01:09:38.633
- So that was the end of that.'
-'A sergeant came down

01:09:38.716 --> 01:09:42.220
into the shell hole on top of us, he was
dead, he'd got it through the neck.

01:09:42.261 --> 01:09:45.310
Anyway, he had a lovely pair of
field glasses round his neck

01:09:45.390 --> 01:09:48.109
and I nabbed them,
because things were so scarce,

01:09:48.226 --> 01:09:50.775
if there was anything like that,
you'd collar it.'

01:09:50.895 --> 01:09:53.739
'Jerry slapped shell after shell into us

01:09:53.773 --> 01:09:57.118
until one shell penetrated
the forward part of the tank.

01:09:57.235 --> 01:09:59.112
What happened then,
I cannot tell you,

01:09:59.237 --> 01:10:01.490
but I believe there was an explosion.'

01:10:01.572 --> 01:10:04.746
'We were fully-trained soldiers,
we always had the rifles loaded,

01:10:04.784 --> 01:10:09.085
but we stuck in the extra five rounds
to make it a ten for rapid-fire.'

01:10:09.122 --> 01:10:12.092
'The Germans got up in
their own trenches and fired at us.

01:10:12.166 --> 01:10:15.420
In my opinion, they were very brave,
very brave men indeed.'

01:10:15.503 --> 01:10:19.599
'There was a German standing up
on his parapet and flinging bombs,

01:10:19.674 --> 01:10:21.267
so I shot him.'

01:10:21.300 --> 01:10:25.146
'The officer gave us orders,
"Open immediate rapid-fire!"

01:10:25.263 --> 01:10:28.642
We all opened up as fast as we could go,
continually firing.

01:10:28.766 --> 01:10:30.768
It was a real mad minute,
I'll tell you.'

01:10:30.810 --> 01:10:35.031
'They stood up and I was picking
the Germans off because I was a sniper.'

01:10:35.106 --> 01:10:38.656
'I was trying to pick the shot
and something hit me

01:10:38.776 --> 01:10:41.279
between the eyes
like a Sledgehammer.

01:10:41.362 --> 01:10:43.865
I dissolved into unconsciousness
with no pain,

01:10:43.948 --> 01:10:47.623
but with millions of golden stars
in a dark-blue heaven.'

01:10:47.702 --> 01:10:50.125
'After I'd used up
a whole lot of bullets,

01:10:50.163 --> 01:10:52.541
I got down, I says,
"You have a go, Bill."

01:10:52.623 --> 01:10:55.342
He didn't even fire a shot,
he was killed immediately.

01:10:55.460 --> 01:10:57.508
That's how things were.

01:10:57.628 --> 01:11:00.131
You felt grief, it was a pal of yours,

01:11:00.214 --> 01:11:04.469
but you took it casually because
I suppose you become battle-hardened.'

01:11:04.552 --> 01:11:07.897
'We kept up rapid-fire there
as long as our rifles would work.

01:11:07.972 --> 01:11:10.725
- They got too hot to fire any more.'
-'Fat was pouring out

01:11:10.808 --> 01:11:12.651
the woodwork of the rifles.

01:11:12.685 --> 01:11:14.687
The muzzles were beginning to extend.'

01:11:14.812 --> 01:11:16.814
'Then we got an order from the captain:

01:11:16.856 --> 01:11:20.827
We must make a barricade of the dead -
the German dead and our own dead.'

01:11:21.819 --> 01:11:24.914
'My captain, at that time,
was anxious to go on and keep it up,

01:11:24.989 --> 01:11:26.866
but I'm afraid he died.'

01:11:27.867 --> 01:11:31.497
'I had three men loading up rifle
grenades and I peppered the whole line.

01:11:31.537 --> 01:11:34.666
Judging by the shouts and the screams,
I'd taken a very good toll.'

01:11:34.749 --> 01:11:38.720
'There was a machine gun spraying
on the lip of our shell hole.

01:11:38.836 --> 01:11:41.385
I waited until
the belt of that gun had fired

01:11:41.506 --> 01:11:43.929
and immediately carried on the advance.'

01:11:44.008 --> 01:11:46.727
'The sergeant, he says, "Follow me."'

01:11:46.844 --> 01:11:50.565
'I had managed to crawl under the wire,
a lot of us got through in that way,

01:11:50.681 --> 01:11:54.060
and gathered together
on the German side of the wire.'

01:11:54.185 --> 01:11:58.031
'All the shells screamed over our heads
onto the German posts and stopped.

01:11:58.105 --> 01:12:03.032
"Come on, lads, give them hell!"
And we just got up and rushed forward.'

01:12:03.069 --> 01:12:05.913
'In the bayonet charge,
the majority of us always had

01:12:06.030 --> 01:12:08.954
a round up the spout,
besides the magazine.'

01:12:09.033 --> 01:12:12.537
'There was an exultation that with
a rifle, bayonet and Mills bombs,

01:12:12.578 --> 01:12:15.206
we were going to be able
to get stuck into the bastards

01:12:15.289 --> 01:12:18.634
-that had been killing our mates.'
-'And we went like hell,

01:12:18.709 --> 01:12:21.713
<i>-straight into the Germans.'
-(SCREAMING AND GUNFIRE)</i>

01:12:25.800 --> 01:12:27.723
<i>(GUNFIRE AND SHOUTING)</i>

01:12:27.760 --> 01:12:30.229
'And we fired at anything that moved.'

01:12:30.263 --> 01:12:32.265
'I dropped down to my knees

01:12:32.390 --> 01:12:35.234
and the sergeant fired over my shoulder
and hit the German.

01:12:35.309 --> 01:12:39.155
He was on the ground but still firing,
so he went up and killed him.'

01:12:39.230 --> 01:12:41.574
'There was only one method
of bayonet fighting:

01:12:41.649 --> 01:12:43.902
to shove your bayonet in
as hard as you could.'

01:12:43.943 --> 01:12:46.162
'There was this German
on the floor of the trench,

01:12:46.237 --> 01:12:47.784
the poor bugger was dead scared.

01:12:47.905 --> 01:12:50.579
While I'm wondering
whether to stick him or shoot him,

01:12:50.616 --> 01:12:54.337
a German jumped out away to my left,
another one on the right,

01:12:54.412 --> 01:12:57.962
so I pinned this German down,
then shot the German on the left.

01:12:58.082 --> 01:13:01.427
I put another one up the spout and
shot the German running on the right.'

01:13:02.253 --> 01:13:05.928
'Quite a number of Germans came in
a rush and we shot them, one by one.

01:13:06.007 --> 01:13:07.805
We probably killed the lot.'

01:13:07.925 --> 01:13:10.269
'Some chap said, "Poor old Dick got it,"

01:13:10.303 --> 01:13:13.933
and I looked around and saw him lying
with the top of his head off.'

01:13:14.015 --> 01:13:17.815
'On our right flank came
a German with a canister on his back,

01:13:17.935 --> 01:13:20.438
squirting this liquid fire
out of the hose.'

01:13:20.521 --> 01:13:23.365
'I looked towards jets of flame
coming across the trench.

01:13:23.441 --> 01:13:25.284
We'd never heard of flame-throwers.'

01:13:25.359 --> 01:13:28.533
'Burnt 23 of our chaps to death.
I plonked one into his chest,

01:13:28.613 --> 01:13:32.163
but we didn't stop him, he must have had
an armour-plated waistcoat on.'

01:13:32.283 --> 01:13:35.162
'I got a bang in the arm
and found I was bleeding.

01:13:35.286 --> 01:13:38.460
I could bomb pretty well with
my left arm as I could with my right.'

01:13:39.290 --> 01:13:41.884
'Somebody threw a Mills bomb
and it burst behind him.

01:13:41.959 --> 01:13:44.303
He wasn't armour-plated behind,
he went down.'

01:13:44.378 --> 01:13:46.722
'One German came
running out of this trench,

01:13:46.797 --> 01:13:49.300
screaming his head off,
he nearly knocked me over.'

01:13:49.383 --> 01:13:52.557
'Three Germans came out
with their hands up

01:13:52.637 --> 01:13:56.642
and they were young chaps
about our own age, about 19 or 20.'

01:13:56.724 --> 01:14:00.149
'If Jerries came up with their hands up,
we just waved them on,

01:14:00.186 --> 01:14:02.063
we didn't fire at them, obviously.'

01:14:03.189 --> 01:14:04.862
'Prisoners were a nuisance!

01:14:04.982 --> 01:14:07.485
We were shooing them back,
you know, get rid of them.'

01:14:07.568 --> 01:14:11.493
'The only Germans we were really
fighting were the machine-gunners.'

01:14:11.572 --> 01:14:15.202
'They were firing belt after belt at us
and they never stopped firing.

01:14:15.326 --> 01:14:18.170
The bloody cartridge cases
were piled up in a heap.'

01:14:18.245 --> 01:14:20.668
'They'd got all their best men
on machine guns

01:14:20.706 --> 01:14:22.583
and they fought to their deaths.'

01:14:22.667 --> 01:14:24.920
It popped open,
there was three Jerries there

01:14:25.002 --> 01:14:28.723
in front of the machine gun
and the bloody gun was pointing at me,

01:14:28.839 --> 01:14:32.218
and I just swung the Lewis gun
and I opened fire first.

01:14:32.343 --> 01:14:34.516
It was split-second stuff.

01:14:34.553 --> 01:14:36.681
Thankfully, I moved on.'

01:14:36.722 --> 01:14:39.350
'As the war progressed,
it was inevitable that

01:14:39.433 --> 01:14:42.858
we developed
the animal characteristic of killing.'

01:14:42.895 --> 01:14:46.399
'Well, we'd got some young
Lincolnshire lads, the 18-year-olds.

01:14:46.524 --> 01:14:48.777
Machine-gunners
were putting their hands up.

01:14:48.859 --> 01:14:51.203
It didn't make a difference.
They were killed.'

01:14:53.364 --> 01:14:56.083
'I'm afraid there was
a little bit of slaughter going on,

01:14:56.200 --> 01:14:57.873
until we got in some sort of order.'

01:14:57.910 --> 01:15:02.461
'Everybody was screaming,
laying down, moaning and groaning

01:15:02.540 --> 01:15:05.384
and eventually there was silence.'

01:15:05.459 --> 01:15:08.383
'I found a German officer
with his lung hanging out.

01:15:08.421 --> 01:15:10.719
He was still alive,
but he wasn't conscious.

01:15:10.798 --> 01:15:14.644
You could see his lung was expanding
and contracting as he was breathing.

01:15:14.719 --> 01:15:17.768
It was the nearest I came to ever
shooting a man point-blank,

01:15:17.888 --> 01:15:19.936
but we had to go on.'

01:15:20.057 --> 01:15:22.810
'One dead German leaning
against a shell wall.

01:15:22.893 --> 01:15:25.772
He was a handsome bloke,
he reminded me of my father.

01:15:25.896 --> 01:15:27.944
A shell had dissected him nicely

01:15:28.065 --> 01:15:32.787
and it had taken the whole of the front
of his chest down to his stomach,

01:15:32.903 --> 01:15:34.576
neatly cut aside.

01:15:34.655 --> 01:15:37.454
What a fantastic exhibition of anatomy.'

01:15:39.618 --> 01:15:42.246
'The real shooting was over
in about ten minutes.'

01:15:42.288 --> 01:15:46.043
'There was about 100 of us coming
out, instead of 600 who'd gone over,

01:15:46.083 --> 01:15:48.461
and a band came to meet us.

01:15:48.586 --> 01:15:50.259
It was a wonderful feeling.

01:15:50.296 --> 01:15:53.891
I've been in a battle!
And I'm so very proud about it.'

01:15:54.967 --> 01:15:56.640
<i>Hang on!</i>

01:15:56.761 --> 01:15:58.388
<i>(GRUNTING)</i>

01:15:58.429 --> 01:16:00.602
<i>- You got it?
- Yeah.</i>

01:16:00.639 --> 01:16:04.269
'And if you'd anybody
wounded or killed,

01:16:04.310 --> 01:16:07.780
if you didn't get 'em out straightaway,

01:16:07.813 --> 01:16:11.488
they went down in the soil
and disappeared, it was so bad.'

01:16:11.609 --> 01:16:13.327
<i>That's it.</i>

01:16:14.445 --> 01:16:18.916
'Well, you had to ascertain
whether a man was alive or not.

01:16:18.949 --> 01:16:24.251
If he was dead,
then he was no trouble, medically.'

01:16:24.288 --> 01:16:27.462
<i>-(FLIES</i> BUZZING)
-'l can't put that any clearer.'

01:16:27.500 --> 01:16:29.423
<i>Keep him level!</i>

01:16:30.753 --> 01:16:32.426
<i>Give us some room!</i>

01:16:32.463 --> 01:16:35.933
'I felt some pain, I suppose,
about an hour later.

01:16:35.966 --> 01:16:39.641
I'd got these thigh boots on
and the bullet had gone in sideways,

01:16:39.678 --> 01:16:41.976
all the way down the leg,
in, out, in, out,

01:16:42.098 --> 01:16:44.977
and hit the ankle bone
and turned upside-down.'

01:16:45.101 --> 01:16:47.980
<i>- All right, sir?
- Oh, God!</i>

01:16:49.021 --> 01:16:51.991
<i>Jesus! (GRUNTS)</i>

01:16:52.024 --> 01:16:55.198
'The sergeant major brought me
a dixie of hot tea,

01:16:55.319 --> 01:16:58.198
which was just what I needed,
it went down beautifully.'

01:16:59.323 --> 01:17:02.327
'And casualties started coming back,
walking casualties,

01:17:02.451 --> 01:17:05.170
men with their arms smashed up,
legs trawling,

01:17:05.204 --> 01:17:08.834
and they got back to different dressing
stations the best way they could.'

01:17:08.874 --> 01:17:11.673
'The walking wounded,
they were coming down in droves.

01:17:11.794 --> 01:17:14.843
Some were holding one another,
some were walking on their own,

01:17:14.880 --> 01:17:17.383
a light wound in the hand or arm,
some were hobbling along,

01:17:17.508 --> 01:17:20.853
some were looking quite cheerful
as they'd been free of something.'

01:17:20.970 --> 01:17:23.018
<i>- Hello, Mum!
-(CHUCKLES)</i>

01:17:23.139 --> 01:17:26.234
'My officer had said,
"Are you all right, Kane?"

01:17:26.350 --> 01:17:28.819
And I said,
"Oh, yes, sir, I can still walk."

01:17:28.853 --> 01:17:31.527
He said, "But you've been hit
in the back of the head,"

01:17:31.564 --> 01:17:35.068
and he handed me quite a dose of rum.'

01:17:35.192 --> 01:17:37.866
I got a whack on the tin pot.
I thought my head were coming off.

01:17:37.903 --> 01:17:41.703
'The worst cases were those
who were shot through the chest.

01:17:41.824 --> 01:17:44.828
Well, the difficulty of breathing,
you see,

01:17:44.869 --> 01:17:48.874
you only had field dressings,
which every man carried.'

01:17:48.998 --> 01:17:51.877
<i>- Yeah, we'll have a better look at it.
- Who's waiting, boys?</i>

01:17:51.917 --> 01:17:55.217
'You got a bottle of iodine
and they'd tip it in the hole.

01:17:55.337 --> 01:17:58.056
Oh, the pain was terrific.'

01:17:58.090 --> 01:18:00.434
<i>Well done.</i>

01:18:00.551 --> 01:18:02.929
<i>How about that for luck, chum?</i>

01:18:03.053 --> 01:18:04.726
<i>They shot right through it.</i>

01:18:08.017 --> 01:18:10.236
'I was not in very good shape at all,

01:18:10.352 --> 01:18:13.526
and I was getting somewhere near
the end of my tether.

01:18:13.564 --> 01:18:15.737
I don't think
I could go on much longer.

01:18:15.858 --> 01:18:19.738
Every soldier, I suppose,
had this breaking strain.'

01:18:22.948 --> 01:18:25.076
<i>The medics will be waiting for you.</i>

01:18:25.117 --> 01:18:27.245
<i>Well clone, lads. Well clone.</i>

01:18:27.286 --> 01:18:29.584
<i>That's it.</i>

01:18:29.705 --> 01:18:34.757
'We had some remarkable doctors
who worked day and night

01:18:34.793 --> 01:18:39.924
in various stations on the British front
looking after the wounded.'

01:18:41.091 --> 01:18:43.560
- Nice cup of Rosie Lee.
- You all right, Jack?

01:18:43.594 --> 01:18:46.598
'They seemed never to need any sleep

01:18:46.722 --> 01:18:50.317
so, what they hadn't got in numbers,
they made up in effort.'

01:18:50.434 --> 01:18:52.812
<i>We need a shell dressing.</i>

01:18:54.104 --> 01:18:56.448
'Both my officers, all my sergeants

01:18:56.482 --> 01:18:59.406
and three-quarters of my men
were killed or wounded.'

01:18:59.443 --> 01:19:02.287
- Blighty wound.
-'Their ranks were made up

01:19:02.404 --> 01:19:06.284
with lads of 18 from England
who'd been pushed out of factories.'

01:19:06.325 --> 01:19:08.453
<i>- Easy. That's it.
-(COUGHS)</i>

01:19:08.494 --> 01:19:10.997
<i>(SQUAWKING)</i>

01:19:11.121 --> 01:19:14.170
<i>Bloody birds! Get off! Go on!</i>

01:19:14.291 --> 01:19:15.964
<i>Go on, then.</i>

01:19:16.001 --> 01:19:19.426
'My mob were helping
the battalion to bury these,

01:19:19.463 --> 01:19:22.683
only little kids, they were,
17 or 18 years of age.'

01:19:22.800 --> 01:19:27.101
<i>"In sure and certain hope
of the resurrection to eternal life</i>

01:19:27.137 --> 01:19:29.356
<i>through our Lord Jesus Christ."</i>

01:19:33.269 --> 01:19:35.863
'A lot of those kids,
that was their first action

01:19:35.980 --> 01:19:38.699
-and they never knew any more.'
- Bring 'em over there!

01:19:38.816 --> 01:19:40.659
'So we'd wrapped 'em up in blankets,

01:19:40.693 --> 01:19:44.448
dug a little shallow grave
and put them in there.'

01:19:45.656 --> 01:19:49.377
'I was putting a dressing on a German,
and he was very, very shaky

01:19:49.493 --> 01:19:51.837
and fearful of what
we were going to do to him.'

01:19:51.870 --> 01:19:54.123
'But they were more frightened
than we were

01:19:54.164 --> 01:19:56.667
and we were frightened,
I don't mind telling you.'

01:19:56.709 --> 01:19:59.337
'Mostly, they were just boys,
as we were.

01:19:59.378 --> 01:20:02.552
They seemed glad to be captured,
they were out of it.'

01:20:02.673 --> 01:20:04.175
<i>- Is this yours?
- Mine.</i>

01:20:04.300 --> 01:20:05.973
<i>- This is his.
- Ah, it's yours.</i>

01:20:06.010 --> 01:20:07.728
<i>Put it in your pocket.</i>

01:20:07.845 --> 01:20:09.563
'There was a little German fella.

01:20:09.680 --> 01:20:11.978
I gave him a cigarette
and he was terrified,

01:20:12.016 --> 01:20:14.360
and I was very sorry for him,
really, you know.

01:20:14.393 --> 01:20:16.066
He was only about 16.

01:20:16.186 --> 01:20:18.905
And we had a chinwag
and I just took his pocket watch.

01:20:19.023 --> 01:20:22.027
You know, it was a normal thing.
We used to rob them, you see.'

01:20:22.151 --> 01:20:24.404
<i>Right, let's go. Pick him up!</i>

01:20:24.528 --> 01:20:28.499
'Yes, they were underfed
and they were in very poor shape.'

01:20:28.532 --> 01:20:30.660
<i>Come on now, lads. Pick him up.
Come on!</i>

01:20:30.701 --> 01:20:33.705
'And, funnily enough, five or six
German prisoners came along

01:20:33.829 --> 01:20:37.208
and they helped carry me
and I got another six watches

01:20:37.249 --> 01:20:40.002
because I robbed these fellas
who helped me down.'

01:20:40.044 --> 01:20:42.888
'Every time we captured prisoners,

01:20:42.921 --> 01:20:47.017
a number of German prisoners would
immediately take up stretcher duty.

01:20:47.051 --> 01:20:50.396
Now, I'm sure the Geneva Convention
never required them to do that.'

01:20:50.429 --> 01:20:52.773
<i>- There you go, lads.
- I've got him. Steady.</i>

01:20:52.890 --> 01:20:55.359
<i>- Feet up.
- You're all right, chum. That's it.</i>

01:20:55.392 --> 01:20:58.191
<i>- Come.
- Keep going.</i>

01:20:58.228 --> 01:21:00.697
'I took about a dozen prisoners
back with me,

01:21:00.731 --> 01:21:03.450
who were all unarmed
and I just had my old gun.'

01:21:03.567 --> 01:21:06.195
'In some cases, there were
a whole lot of Germans

01:21:06.236 --> 01:21:08.364
without even a Tommy with them.'

01:21:08.405 --> 01:21:14.538
'Oh, they were really cowed they were,
yes, they were very subdued.'

01:21:14.578 --> 01:21:16.251
<i>Come along now!</i>

01:21:16.372 --> 01:21:20.593
'I slept next to a German man
who'd been wounded in the arm...

01:21:22.378 --> 01:21:25.882
...and, to my amazement,
he started talking to me in English.

01:21:25.923 --> 01:21:29.598
And he said he'd been
a waiter at the Savoy.'

01:21:32.888 --> 01:21:36.313
'I mean, I don't think
the average British soldier ever had

01:21:36.433 --> 01:21:39.733
any deep feelings
regarding revenge against a German.

01:21:39.770 --> 01:21:41.772
He admired him and respected him.'

01:21:41.814 --> 01:21:43.942
<i>Go on, show him.</i>

01:21:43.982 --> 01:21:48.829
'As the war went on, I felt as much
sympathy for them as I did for myself.'

01:21:48.946 --> 01:21:51.574
'The German, I always thought,
was a good fighter.

01:21:51.615 --> 01:21:55.119
I'd sooner have him on my side
than on the opposite side.'

01:21:55.160 --> 01:21:57.754
'Some of the Germans thought
we ought to be fighting

01:21:57.788 --> 01:21:59.836
with them against
the French and Russians,

01:21:59.957 --> 01:22:02.801
but none of them thought
we ought to be fighting each other.'

01:22:02.835 --> 01:22:05.930
<i>- Keep</i> on moving forward!
-'You see, the German had been

01:22:05.963 --> 01:22:07.840
an unknown horde

01:22:07.965 --> 01:22:11.811
with their coal-scuttle helmets,
and then we met them.'

01:22:11.927 --> 01:22:14.851
'Well, the German soldier,
he was a very nice fella as a rule.

01:22:14.972 --> 01:22:17.771
I think he was really a barber
or a shopkeeper or something

01:22:17.808 --> 01:22:19.981
and, the same as us,
he was stuck in uniform.'

01:22:20.102 --> 01:22:22.355
<i>- You're too tall.
- Get you next time, Jerry!</i>

01:22:22.479 --> 01:22:24.982
'We got on very well together, actually,

01:22:25.107 --> 01:22:27.485
and they used to mix in with us.'

01:22:27.609 --> 01:22:30.203
<i>- Want your hat back?
- Give it him back!</i>

01:22:30.320 --> 01:22:33.665
<i>- What do you reckon?
-'They were decent sort of family people</i>

01:22:33.782 --> 01:22:36.331
and thought
a great deal of their children.'

01:22:36.452 --> 01:22:38.625
<i>- Let's try yours.
-(RIPPLES OF LAUGHTER)</i>

01:22:38.662 --> 01:22:41.506
'They didn't seem to bear
any malice against us.

01:22:41.623 --> 01:22:44.502
They'd had to do what they were told,
like us.'

01:22:45.836 --> 01:22:48.180
<i>Go on, go on tracking.</i>

01:22:48.213 --> 01:22:50.682
'I couldn't speak German, but some could

01:22:50.799 --> 01:22:53.348
and the Germans,
some of them could speak English.

01:22:53.469 --> 01:22:55.517
Anyhow, we could understand each other.'

01:22:55.554 --> 01:22:58.478
'The general agreement
when we were talking to Germans

01:22:58.515 --> 01:23:02.861
was how useless war was
and why did it have to happen?'

01:23:02.895 --> 01:23:05.068
<i>- Taking our photos.
- Hey! Here!</i>

01:23:05.189 --> 01:23:07.817
'When you're passing bodies
all day long,

01:23:07.858 --> 01:23:10.862
it's bound to have an effect
on whoever it is, isn't it?'

01:23:10.903 --> 01:23:14.157
'This big, fat German
was lying in a street, you know,

01:23:14.198 --> 01:23:16.872
-his stomach was all gassed up.'
<i>-(FLIES</i> BUZZING)

01:23:16.992 --> 01:23:19.586
'His intestines were lying out
on his belly

01:23:19.703 --> 01:23:22.206
and somebody had stuck
a pipe in his mouth!

01:23:22.247 --> 01:23:24.875
Yeah, we all told him t0 get up!
(CHUCKLES)'

01:23:25.417 --> 01:23:27.340
<i>Jerries come through this way.</i>

01:23:27.377 --> 01:23:30.881
'German troops were very brave
and very stubborn.'

01:23:30.923 --> 01:23:34.598
'The Germans fought rearguard actions
almost back to the Rhine

01:23:34.718 --> 01:23:38.848
and regiment after regiment
was smashed up and cut about.'

01:23:38.889 --> 01:23:41.859
'We had an idea that
they were beginning to crack.'

01:23:41.892 --> 01:23:45.613
-(SHOUTING <i>IN</i> GERMAN)
-'l'd say that they were, if anything,

01:23:45.729 --> 01:23:47.072
rather despondent.

01:23:47.105 --> 01:23:48.573
They knew they had lost the war.'

01:23:48.690 --> 01:23:52.570
'We, as front-line soldiers,
knew they were giving up.'

01:23:52.611 --> 01:23:57.242
'Quite frankly, the Germans were
fed up with the whole thing.'

01:23:57.366 --> 01:24:01.041
'And, gradually, that is how
the war itself came to an end.'

01:24:01.078 --> 01:24:06.209
'I got the impression that most of
the German soldiers couldn't care less

01:24:06.250 --> 01:24:08.548
who won, as long as the war finished.'

01:24:08.585 --> 01:24:12.761
'Of course, that's what everybody was
thinking about then. We'd had enough.'

01:24:12.881 --> 01:24:15.634
'And after a time,
perhaps, nobody cared.'

01:24:15.759 --> 01:24:18.262
<i>All right, boys, here it comes.</i>

01:24:18.303 --> 01:24:21.603
<i>- We're in the pictures! (LAUGHS)
- Shush.</i>

01:24:21.723 --> 01:24:23.976
'There was a fella in
the war called Rumour,

01:24:24.101 --> 01:24:27.071
he knows everything, you see,
and Mr Rumour told us that

01:24:27.104 --> 01:24:29.983
the Germans were also
negotiating for an armistice.'

01:24:30.107 --> 01:24:32.280
'There was a huge poster.

01:24:32.317 --> 01:24:35.742
"All hostilities will cease
on the Western Front

01:24:35.779 --> 01:24:40.250
at 11 o'clock on 11th November, 1918."

01:24:40.284 --> 01:24:42.628
So we said to each other,
"What day is it?"

01:24:42.744 --> 01:24:45.964
And somebody discovered
it was November 11th!'

01:24:46.081 --> 01:24:47.298
<i>Smile for the camera!</i>

01:24:47.416 --> 01:24:49.919
'Then we had to shine our boots
and clean our buttons.

01:24:49.960 --> 01:24:52.839
- We knew the war was over then...'
-(CHEERING)

01:24:52.963 --> 01:24:56.263
'..and we were quite confident that
we would be there when it ended.'

01:24:56.300 --> 01:25:00.806
'This proclamation was read out,
stating that the hostilities would cease

01:25:00.929 --> 01:25:05.480
from 11 that morning, and actually
there wasn't a cheer of any kind raised

01:25:05.517 --> 01:25:07.190
when that was read out.'

01:25:07.311 --> 01:25:11.111
'At 11 o'clock, the noise
of the gunfire just rolled away,

01:25:11.148 --> 01:25:13.526
like a peal of thunder in the distance.'

01:25:13.650 --> 01:25:17.154
<i>(GUNFIRE AND SHELL FIRE FADES)</i>

01:25:21.325 --> 01:25:23.373
<i>(INDISTINCT CHATTER)</i>

01:25:26.204 --> 01:25:29.799
'Never heard it being quiet.
Now it was dead silent.'

01:25:30.709 --> 01:25:34.054
'You were so dazed that you could
stand up straight and not be shot.'

01:25:34.171 --> 01:25:35.844
'It was eerie.'

01:25:37.341 --> 01:25:39.719
'There was a feeling of
relief and gladness,

01:25:39.843 --> 01:25:42.687
I suppose, but no celebration.'

01:25:42.721 --> 01:25:45.474
'The staff officer shut his watch up
and said,

01:25:45.515 --> 01:25:48.064
"I wonder what
we're all going to do next."'

01:25:48.185 --> 01:25:50.688
'There was no demonstration of any kind,

01:25:50.729 --> 01:25:53.858
nobody said a word,
everybody just slumped away.'

01:25:54.733 --> 01:25:58.203
'The only way we could have celebrated
as regards to a liquid

01:25:58.236 --> 01:26:00.159
would have been tea, that's all.'

01:26:00.197 --> 01:26:03.326
'It was one of
the flattest moments of our lives.

01:26:03.367 --> 01:26:05.495
We just couldn't comprehend it.'

01:26:06.912 --> 01:26:10.542
'We had that sort of feeling as though
we'd been kicked out of a job.'

01:26:10.666 --> 01:26:13.886
'To some of us, it was practically
the only life we'd known.

01:26:14.002 --> 01:26:16.380
What was one going to do next?'

01:26:16.505 --> 01:26:19.008
'It was just like being made redundant.'

01:26:19.049 --> 01:26:21.893
'That was very much
the feeling of everyone.'

01:26:21.927 --> 01:26:25.227
'We were thoroughly upset,
we'd all got no work to go to.

01:26:25.347 --> 01:26:27.065
"I don't want to go back."'

01:26:27.182 --> 01:26:32.063
'There was no cheering, no singing,
we were drained of all emotion.

01:26:32.187 --> 01:26:36.533
We were too far gone,
too exhausted to enjoy it.'

01:26:36.566 --> 01:26:40.446
'All things come to an end
and even a drama can go on too long.

01:26:41.571 --> 01:26:44.745
It didn't end with a whimper,
but something very much like one.'

01:27:00.882 --> 01:27:02.555
'I was very happy to leave.

01:27:02.592 --> 01:27:04.720
I'd had enough, you know.

01:27:04.761 --> 01:27:07.765
After a time, it begins to wear on one,
you know.'

01:27:07.889 --> 01:27:11.109
"'Thank goodness the bloody thing
is over," that was all.'

01:27:11.226 --> 01:27:15.902
'As far as I was concerned, I was out
of it and now the next step in life.'

01:27:15.939 --> 01:27:18.909
'The first thing we did was write home,
say we were all right,

01:27:18.942 --> 01:27:21.445
making sure we got the date
on the envelope right.'

01:27:21.486 --> 01:27:24.581
'To someone like myself,
who was interested in nature,

01:27:24.614 --> 01:27:27.288
after the horrors
that man had made of the battlefront,

01:27:27.409 --> 01:27:30.413
I was immensely delighted to find
shell holes in which I picked

01:27:30.454 --> 01:27:32.582
lilies of the valley and larkspur.

01:27:32.622 --> 01:27:36.126
And I pursued Cambervvell Beauties
and swallowtail butterflies

01:27:36.168 --> 01:27:38.091
along the banks of the Aisne River.'

01:27:38.128 --> 01:27:40.301
'We went to Boulogne.

01:27:40.338 --> 01:27:42.432
By the way, we came home with full pack.

01:27:42.466 --> 01:27:46.471
The only thing we left behind was
the bullets, we had to discard those,

01:27:46.511 --> 01:27:48.684
but we still kept our rifle.

01:27:48.805 --> 01:27:50.853
We went over to Folkestone,

01:27:50.974 --> 01:27:56.105
and there were long trestle tables
with very kind ladies.

01:27:56.146 --> 01:28:01.277
They gave you a sausage roll, or a bun,
and a cup of tea and that was welcome.'

01:28:01.318 --> 01:28:05.664
'We entrained to Victoria
and there we broke up.'

01:28:05.781 --> 01:28:08.830
'We went to the barracks
and we just dumped rifles,

01:28:08.867 --> 01:28:14.124
bayonets and everything and there were
a lot of suits on display, hats, shoes.

01:28:14.164 --> 01:28:18.670
You could tell her which one you wanted,
style and colour and they measured you.'

01:28:19.836 --> 01:28:23.340
'I was horrified by what I saw
when I came back here

01:28:23.465 --> 01:28:25.513
and when one tried to get a job.'

01:28:25.634 --> 01:28:29.013
'There was mass unemployment.
I thought, "This isn't much of a life."'

01:28:29.137 --> 01:28:32.186
'It was a difficult thing to realise
you're of no commercial value.'

01:28:32.307 --> 01:28:36.403
'It was a shame, the way ex-servicemen
were treated. You weren't wanted.

01:28:36.520 --> 01:28:39.820
Some places said,
"No ex-servicemen need apply,"

01:28:39.856 --> 01:28:42.860
and that was the sort of attitude
you were up against.'

01:28:42.984 --> 01:28:46.033
'One of my pals was killed
and, when I went home,

01:28:46.154 --> 01:28:48.498
the first thing that I did
was go to his mother,

01:28:48.532 --> 01:28:51.752
who, if she'd had a frying pan,
she'd have hit me.

01:28:51.868 --> 01:28:54.337
Her son had been killed
and I'd come back alive.

01:28:54.371 --> 01:28:56.044
She was very bitter.'

01:28:56.164 --> 01:28:57.837
'The first night I came home,

01:28:57.874 --> 01:29:02.550
I got into my old bed, the first bed
I'd laid in since ljoined the army.

01:29:02.671 --> 01:29:05.265
When Mother brought my cup
of tea up in the morning,

01:29:05.382 --> 01:29:07.259
she found me fast asleep on the floor.'

01:29:07.384 --> 01:29:09.182
'People never talked about the war.

01:29:09.219 --> 01:29:12.063
It was a thing that had
no conversational value at all.

01:29:12.180 --> 01:29:14.899
Most people were
absolutely disinterested.'

01:29:14.933 --> 01:29:19.609
'When I got home, my father and
my mother didn't seem interested.

01:29:19.729 --> 01:29:22.528
They hadn't any conception
of what it was like.'

01:29:22.566 --> 01:29:26.412
'And there was no reason why any one of
us millions should have been favoured

01:29:26.528 --> 01:29:29.532
with a "thank you very much"
for having got a little bit muddy

01:29:29.573 --> 01:29:31.450
and out of touch with good manners.'

01:29:31.575 --> 01:29:36.752
'And on occasions when I did talk about
it, my father would argue points of fact

01:29:36.788 --> 01:29:39.962
that he couldn't have known about,
because he wasn't there.'

01:29:40.083 --> 01:29:43.087
'Every soldier I've spoken to
experienced the same thing.

01:29:43.128 --> 01:29:45.927
We were a race apart from the civilians,

01:29:46.047 --> 01:29:49.301
and you could speak to your comrades,
and they understood

01:29:49.426 --> 01:29:52.305
but, the civilians,
it was just a waste of time.'

01:29:52.429 --> 01:29:55.729
'However nice and sympathetic they were,

01:29:55.765 --> 01:29:58.564
attempts of well-meaning people
to sympathise

01:29:58.602 --> 01:30:03.108
reflected the fact that
they didn't really understand at all.'

01:30:03.148 --> 01:30:06.778
'I think the magnitude
was just beyond their comprehension.

01:30:06.902 --> 01:30:10.281
They didn't understand
that people that you'd known

01:30:10.405 --> 01:30:14.000
and played football with
were just killed beside you.

01:30:14.117 --> 01:30:19.499
My friend who enlisted with me lay there
like a sack of rags until he went black

01:30:19.623 --> 01:30:21.796
before anybody troubled to bury him.'

01:30:21.917 --> 01:30:25.296
'They knew that people came back
covered with mud and lice,

01:30:25.420 --> 01:30:28.469
but they'd no idea of
the strain of sitting in a trench

01:30:28.506 --> 01:30:30.975
and waiting for something
to drop on one's head.'

01:30:31.092 --> 01:30:34.642
'You couldn't convey
the awful state of things,

01:30:34.763 --> 01:30:37.858
the way you lived like animals
and behaved like animals.

01:30:37.974 --> 01:30:42.821
People didn't seem to realise
what a terrible thing war was.'

01:30:42.854 --> 01:30:47.485
'l think they felt that the war
was one continual cavalry charge.

01:30:47.609 --> 01:30:50.158
They hadn't any conception.
And how could they?'

01:30:50.195 --> 01:30:52.994
'Well, it started off
in a reasonable manner,

01:30:53.031 --> 01:30:55.625
it was people fighting
on horseback with swords,

01:30:55.659 --> 01:30:57.832
but it developed
into something ghastly.

01:30:57.953 --> 01:31:00.832
People don't realise
the potential of military equipment.

01:31:00.956 --> 01:31:04.051
A man's life wasn't worth
anything at the end of the war.'

01:31:04.167 --> 01:31:06.295
'We were none of us heroes, you know.

01:31:06.336 --> 01:31:09.340
We didn't like this business
of being killed at all.'

01:31:09.381 --> 01:31:12.180
'When we were talking among ourselves,
we used to say,

01:31:12.217 --> 01:31:14.720
"Christ! They won't have
any more wars like this!"'

01:31:14.844 --> 01:31:19.190
'How did we endure it? The answer
must be partly the fear of fear,

01:31:19.307 --> 01:31:21.355
the fear of being found afraid.

01:31:21.476 --> 01:31:24.150
Another is belief in human beings,
your colleague,

01:31:24.187 --> 01:31:26.030
and there's no letting him down.'

01:31:26.064 --> 01:31:30.535
'There may be right on both sides,
but I think war is horrible.

01:31:30.568 --> 01:31:33.367
Everything should be done to avoid war.'

01:31:34.364 --> 01:31:37.083
'I still can't see
the justification for it.

01:31:37.200 --> 01:31:39.248
It was all really rather horrible.

01:31:39.369 --> 01:31:44.000
I think history will decide, in the end,
that it was not worthwhile.'

01:31:46.543 --> 01:31:50.389
'The only thing that really did annoy me
was, when I went back to work

01:31:50.505 --> 01:31:53.349
after I'd got demobilised,
I went down the stores,

01:31:53.383 --> 01:31:56.683
and the bloke behind the counter
was a bloke who I knew.

01:31:56.720 --> 01:31:59.894
He said, "Where have you been?
On nights?"'

01:32:44.309 --> 01:32:47.984
(MAN WHISTLING
MADEMOISELLE FROM ARMENTIERES)

01:33:00.950 --> 01:33:02.998
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:33:03.119 --> 01:33:05.121
♪ Parlez-vous

01:33:05.163 --> 01:33:07.131
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:33:07.248 --> 01:33:09.125
♪ Parlez-vous

01:33:09.167 --> 01:33:11.261
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:33:11.294 --> 01:33:13.342
♪ She hasn't been kissed in 40 years

01:33:13.463 --> 01:33:15.841
♪ Hinky dinky, parlez-vous

01:33:17.467 --> 01:33:19.595
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:33:19.636 --> 01:33:21.309
♪ Parlez-vous

01:33:21.429 --> 01:33:23.682
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:33:23.807 --> 01:33:25.480
♪ Parlez-vous

01:33:25.600 --> 01:33:27.648
♪ Our top kick in Armentiéres

01:33:27.685 --> 01:33:29.813
♪ Broke the spell of 40 years

01:33:29.938 --> 01:33:32.657
♪ Hinky dinky, parlez-vous

01:33:33.858 --> 01:33:36.111
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:33:36.152 --> 01:33:38.029
♪ Parlez-vous

01:33:38.154 --> 01:33:40.156
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:33:40.281 --> 01:33:42.033
♪ Parlez-vous

01:33:42.158 --> 01:33:44.126
♪ You didn't have to know her long

01:33:44.160 --> 01:33:46.458
♪ To know the reason men go wrong

01:33:46.496 --> 01:33:48.999
♪ Hinky dinky, parlez-vous

01:33:50.500 --> 01:33:52.628
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:33:52.669 --> 01:33:54.512
♪ Parlez-vous

01:33:54.629 --> 01:33:56.723
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:33:56.840 --> 01:33:58.513
♪ Parlez-vous

01:33:58.633 --> 01:34:00.806
♪ She's the hardest working girl in town

01:34:00.844 --> 01:34:02.846
♪ She makes her living upside-down

01:34:02.971 --> 01:34:05.394
♪ Hinky dinky, parlez-vous

01:34:11.187 --> 01:34:13.235
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:34:13.356 --> 01:34:15.074
♪ Parlez-vous

01:34:15.191 --> 01:34:17.364
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:34:17.485 --> 01:34:19.158
♪ Parlez-vous

01:34:19.195 --> 01:34:21.539
♪ She sold her kisses
for ten francs each

01:34:21.573 --> 01:34:23.575
♪ Soft and juicy, as sweet as a peach

01:34:23.700 --> 01:34:26.169
♪ Hinky dinky, parlez-vous

01:34:27.704 --> 01:34:29.832
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:34:29.873 --> 01:34:31.875
♪ Parlez-vous

01:34:31.916 --> 01:34:34.010


01:34:34.043 --> 01:34:35.716


01:34:35.753 --> 01:34:38.051
♪ Madame, you've got a daughter fair

01:34:38.089 --> 01:34:40.091
♪ To wash a soldier's underwear

01:34:40.216 --> 01:34:42.560
♪ Hinky dinky, parlez-vous

01:34:44.345 --> 01:34:46.393
♪ I didn't care what came of me

01:34:46.431 --> 01:34:48.229
♪ Parlez-vous

01:34:48.266 --> 01:34:50.519


01:34:50.560 --> 01:34:52.278


01:34:52.395 --> 01:34:54.523
♪ I didn't care what came of me

01:34:54.564 --> 01:34:56.692
♪ So I went and joined the infantry

01:34:56.733 --> 01:34:59.236
♪ Hinky dinky, parlez-vous

01:35:33.811 --> 01:35:35.939
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:35:35.980 --> 01:35:37.903
♪ Parlez-vous

01:35:37.941 --> 01:35:39.989


01:35:40.109 --> 01:35:41.952
♪ Parlez-vous

01:35:41.986 --> 01:35:44.114
♪ Went in her bed, she sure was fun

01:35:44.155 --> 01:35:46.123
♪ Working her arse like a Maxim gun

01:35:46.157 --> 01:35:48.785
♪ Hinky dinky, parlez-vous

01:35:50.286 --> 01:35:52.334
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:35:52.455 --> 01:35:54.298
♪ Parlez-vous

01:35:54.415 --> 01:35:56.463
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:35:56.501 --> 01:35:58.299
♪ Parlez-vous

01:35:58.419 --> 01:36:00.467
♪ I had more fun than I could tell

01:36:00.505 --> 01:36:02.633
♪ Beneath the sheets with
Mademoiselle

01:36:02.674 --> 01:36:05.143
♪ Hinky dinky, parlez-vous

01:36:06.803 --> 01:36:08.851
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:36:08.972 --> 01:36:10.815
♪ Parlez-vous

01:36:10.932 --> 01:36:12.980
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:36:13.017 --> 01:36:14.815
♪ Parlez-vous

01:36:14.852 --> 01:36:16.980
♪ She'd give a wink and cry, "Oui, oui!

01:36:17.021 --> 01:36:18.989
♪ Let's see what you can do with me!"

01:36:19.107 --> 01:36:21.610
♪ Hinky dinky, parlez-vous

01:36:23.027 --> 01:36:25.325
♪ They say they mechanised the war

01:36:25.446 --> 01:36:26.948
♪ Parlez-vous

01:36:26.990 --> 01:36:29.334
♪ They say they mechanised the war

01:36:29.450 --> 01:36:31.168
♪ Parlez-vous

01:36:31.286 --> 01:36:33.334
♪ They say they mechanised the war

01:36:33.371 --> 01:36:35.465
♪ So what the hell are we marching for?

01:36:35.498 --> 01:36:38.172
♪ Hinky dinky, parlez-vous

01:36:56.185 --> 01:36:58.233
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:36:58.354 --> 01:37:00.197
♪ Parlez-vous

01:37:00.231 --> 01:37:02.359
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:37:02.483 --> 01:37:04.030
♪ Parlez-vous

01:37:04.068 --> 01:37:06.366
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:37:06.404 --> 01:37:08.372
♪ She hasn't been kissed for 4O years

01:37:08.489 --> 01:37:11.038
♪ Hinky dinky, parlez-vous

01:37:12.535 --> 01:37:14.754
♪ The officers get all the steak

01:37:14.871 --> 01:37:16.418
♪ Parlez-vous

01:37:16.539 --> 01:37:18.712
♪ The officers get all the steak

01:37:18.750 --> 01:37:20.377
♪ Parlez-vous

01:37:20.501 --> 01:37:22.549
♪ The officers get all the steak

01:37:22.670 --> 01:37:24.889
♪ And all we get is a belly ache

01:37:24.922 --> 01:37:27.425
♪ Hinky dinky, parlez-vous

01:37:29.052 --> 01:37:31.180
♪ You might forget the gas and shells

01:37:31.220 --> 01:37:32.893
♪ Parlez-vous

01:37:33.014 --> 01:37:35.267
♪ You might forget the gas and shells

01:37:35.391 --> 01:37:36.938
♪ Parlez-vous

01:37:37.060 --> 01:37:39.279
♪ You might forget the groans and yells

01:37:39.395 --> 01:37:41.568
♪ But you never forget the mademoiselles

01:37:41.606 --> 01:37:44.075
♪ Hinky dinky, parlez-vous

01:38:02.126 --> 01:38:04.128
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:38:04.253 --> 01:38:06.221
♪ Parlez-vous

01:38:06.255 --> 01:38:08.303
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:38:08.424 --> 01:38:10.301
♪ Parlez-vous

01:38:10.426 --> 01:38:12.394
♪ Many and many a married man

01:38:12.428 --> 01:38:14.430
♪ Wants to go back to France again

01:38:14.472 --> 01:38:16.975
♪ Hinky dinky, parlez-vous

01:38:18.601 --> 01:38:20.820
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:38:20.937 --> 01:38:22.280
♪ Parlez-vous

01:38:22.397 --> 01:38:24.775
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:38:24.899 --> 01:38:26.617
♪ Parlez-vous

01:38:26.734 --> 01:38:28.907
♪ Just blow your nose and dry your tears

01:38:28.945 --> 01:38:30.913
♪ We'll all be back in a few short years

01:38:30.947 --> 01:38:33.496
♪ Hinky dinky, parlez-vous

01:38:35.118 --> 01:38:37.120
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:38:37.245 --> 01:38:38.622
♪ Parlez-vous

01:38:38.746 --> 01:38:41.169
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:38:41.290 --> 01:38:42.917
♪ Parlez-vous

01:38:42.959 --> 01:38:45.132
♪ I fell in love with her at sight

01:38:45.253 --> 01:38:47.301
♪ And wet myself for half the night

01:38:47.338 --> 01:38:49.807
♪ Hinky dinky, parlez-vous

01:38:51.509 --> 01:38:53.603
♪ Mademoiselle from Armentieres

01:38:53.636 --> 01:38:55.309
♪ Parlez-vous

01:38:55.346 --> 01:38:57.815


01:38:57.849 --> 01:38:59.647


01:38:59.684 --> 01:39:01.778
♪ You might forget the gas and shell

01:39:01.811 --> 01:39:03.688
♪ You never forget the mademoiselle

01:39:03.813 --> 01:39:06.316
♪ Hinky dinky, parlez-vous

01:39:07.817 --> 01:39:09.819
♪ You might forget the gas and shell

01:39:09.944 --> 01:39:11.992
♪ You'll never forget the mademoiselle

01:39:12.113 --> 01:39:14.616
♪ Hinky dinky, parlez-vous ♪

01:39:16.113 --> 01:39:35.616
جديدترين اخبار فيلم و سريال در کانال تلگرام و اینستاگرام سايت
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