Last Man Standing by Richard Van Emden

Author:Richard Van Emden
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War I
ISBN: 9781781597750
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2012-10-24T04:00:00+00:00

An artist’s vivid (and inaccurate) idea of how the assault on Beaumont Hamel progressed. The tanks, far from mounting the German front line, became bogged down in No Man’s Land. Over the page. The jumping-off trenches for the 51st Division can be clearly seen, as can the damage to the German lines. This picture was taken four days after the advance. One of two ditched tanks is marked ‘A’ on the photograph.

Everyone went in with fixed bayonets and as many mills bombs as they could carry, except Lewis gunners who carried a revolver and mills bombs. The officers carried a cane, a walking stick, a .45 revolver and they also carried a few bombs. The cane was no use to us whatever, but every officer carried a walking stick, it was just a bit of show. Although I carried a .45 revolver it wasn’t until much later, when I went on a shooting course, that I was shown how to use it, because a .45 kicks so heavily that you couldn’t hit a barn door at ten yards.

At 6.00am it was still dark and there was a thick fog, then suddenly a mine went up under the enemy line and two thousand guns opened fire and dropped on their trenches. The whole of the horizon seemed to go up in flames. It was so loud you could not pick out individual shells, it was just a continuous drumming. A solid canopy of steel went over our heads.

Then there was dead silence, and the silence was itself stunning; the contrast, and then about two minutes later our artillery raised their sights and dished out their barrage on to their second line. The noise was terrific, although after the main barrage had stopped I could certainly have spoken to those near to me. I can’t recall anything I said, something absolutely ridiculous probably. Even so the men looked to me for encouragement, and you made jokes if you could.

I suppose I might have blown a whistle but it didn’t mean anything, so you sort of shepherded the men over. You are very aware of the example you are setting the men; if they saw you funking it – showing fear – they wouldn’t think much of you. I went out and saw men dropping right and left; I’ve a vision of a Gordon Highlander pitching forward with his rifle and bayonet on to his hands and knees. I went up to him and he was stone dead, his kilt raised showing his backside.

You’re working in a very small area, the rest of the Front is nothing. You quickly look to see if a man who had dropped is dead or not or if there was anything you could do for him, but you hadn’t time to stop. I had to keep up a certain bearing in front of the men and when you saw men wandering about, which did happen, because to begin with it was dark, and if they had got

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