A Rifleman Went to War by Herbert W. McBride

Author:Herbert W. McBride [McBride, Herbert W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: World War I, Western Front, military history, trench warfare, marksmanship, sniping
ISBN: 9781623580292
Publisher: Tales End Press
Published: 2012-05-08T04:00:00+00:00

Things having quieted down a bit and the Major having gone back to his dug-out, I meandered along the line, stopping now and then to check up on the various M.G. crews. Just as I arrived at the gun emplacement at the junction of the O and P trenches I heard a sharp challenge from the sentry on the firing step and, immediately after, saw a German soldier come crawling over the parapet and drop down into the trench, the sentry all the time keeping him covered with his rifle. Seeing me, he, (the sentry) said: “Here’s a prisoner, Sergeant – and don’t forget that I got him.”

I took charge of the German and escorted him back to the Major’s quarters. The Major was much interested, but, as he had no German, was at a loss to interrogate the fellow as he would have liked to do. My German was not anything to brag about, but, upon trying to talk to him in his own tongue, the boy – for that was all he was – about eighteen or nineteen – answered in English. He said: “We go bombing: we get lost: the shells come so quick I know not what to do. I look back and it is so far: I look here and it is so near. I think this is the better way so I come.” Can you beat that?

But here comes the “coincidence.” He was a youngster named Caspar Meyer, from Sachsenhausen, Waldeck, Bavaria, and I had visited with his family when he was a babe in arms and had, at that time persuaded his elder sister to take up the study of English. It seems that the boy also took it up when he became old enough. Well, he went back – a prisoner of war – but he seemed to be pretty well satisfied at that.

That was, I think, the first prisoner taken by the Twenty-first Battalion. The next was one whom I “captured” as he came over our parapet early one morning – a week or so later – and who turned out to be one of our Intelligence officers but, as he was wearing the full German uniform, I held him up and sent him back under guard. (You ought to have heard him swear.)

After that we picked them up, now and then; perhaps from a patrol, sometimes in a raid; but the first time we saw them in large numbers was during the St. Eloi fight. The Fusiliers and the Yorks grabbed off several hundred and sent them back through our lines. It seems that there was a story current in the German army that the Canadians always killed all prisoners and when these fellows found that they were to go through the Canadian lines they begged like good fellows. However they had to do it and, lo and behold, at every cook’s dug-out, they were served with tea and whatever else was available. Captors and captives fared alike and one

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.