Brewster 'A Glimpse of War through a Private's Eyes', a retrospective account of experiences in World War I, 1915-1917 / John James Brewster - Page 179
You are here
Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 179]
would be turned to the bay on the right & when the shell burst took place there, looking just as if it had blown the bay to "smithereens" the burst going about 50 feet in the air showing a mass of dirt bits of bags etc being hurled heavenward with a deafening roar, every man including the sentry would crush close in to the parapet, knowing well it was their turn next & sure enough they got it, then recovering from the terrible shock & sound, would brush the dirt off their faces & eyes, & in awe watch for the burst of the next shell on the left. Then looking round would ask "Who's hit" and as there were always two three or four wounded, would help to dress them in the already crowded dug out
Being near a "sally port" (an entrance to "No mans land" through the trench) it was always received new men otherwise every one would have been a "casualty" after the second or third visitation of these shells from the enfilading battery on the left.
The very first man wounded in this bay had a piece of flesh taken out of his side as large as a mans hand laying bare two ribs & rendering the inside of his body visible. Luckily the poor fellow was too bad to know or care how severe his wound looked otherwise the shock would probably have killed him outright.
The "amateur" AMC men (no skilled men being available) were still trying to fix him up at 9 am Thursday. The ordinary field dressing being too small to do so quickly, nearly every man had use for his own. This man eventually recovered to rejoin his battalion the following February.
It seemed that one part of this bay was almost a fatal spot, for before a single man was "hit" the bayonet of the man standing here had a piece knocked clean out of it without breaking the bayonet in two pieces. At the same spot the next shell knocked another mans bayonet