Tom by Christie Moore

Author:Christie Moore [Moore, Christie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781467880732
Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
Published: 2012-01-12T00:00:00+00:00

This is the big one they are told, the big push to gain the town of Passchendaele. The POR are to be in reserve while the main regiments start the attack. The soldiers break up and continue with their work with a heavy weight on their shoulders, the rest of the day is spent moving and loading rations as usual. During the night, Tom gets little sleep but not just because of the nightly bombardment. This is the big one, they are sure. He thinks of Ellen, wondering what she is doing now.

Ellen stands on her front door. She looks to her right and sees the neighbour a few doors down the road, both women are sweeping the front porch as per usual every morning. A post-lady approaches the neighbour and hands a brown envelope. She opens the letter and reads it then she burst into tears and howls. Other women who are also outside, they rush to her side to comfort her. She sobs loudly, Ellen holds her head down. She looks up again as the post-lady walks towards her, holding a brown envelope. Ellen can see the ‘OHMS’ printed on the envelope. The post-lady stops by Ellen, looks at the envelope then walks on. Ellen watches the post-lady walk off, has a quick look at the sobbing neighbour, then holds her head low and walks back indoors.

Wednesday September 26th at 5.40 am, the troops have been awake for half an hour now. Battle order is commanded; the men hand in their heavy rucksacks and greatcoats, having only a small rucksack. Handed out are two days rations, extra ammunition and bombs, picks or shovels. A thick mist hangs in the air, the view obstructed to little more than five metres. The soldiers are told to line up in a queue then the commanding officer says “two minutes”. The first person passes it on the chap behind, who then passes it behind and so on, the message passing down the line. The message gets to the young lad who can’t speak, Tom says to the man behind “two minutes” and the message carries on. He leaned forward and notices the boy crying. He says quietly in the boys ear “don’t worry, we’ll get through this”

The boy replies “I’m not really Cecil, I’m Cedric and I’m only seventeen”

“Oh” says Tom

“I used my dead brother’s birth certificate. I wished I hadn’t”

“It’s a bit late to be declaring that now”

“If I die, tell people who I am. I want my parents to know”.

“Yes, I’ll do that, don’t you worry about that”

The men line up and wait. The British guns fire their arsenal continuously for about an hour, with retaliation from the enemy then the British guns stop and there is an eerie silence. With so much noise going on for weeks, here is something that the troops haven’t heard for a while.

Tom leans back slightly and says to Harry behind “hear that?”

The soldier looks puzzled and says “don’t hear nothing”

“Precisely”

The Germans start to send shells over again but they are up to something more deadly.

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