Battle of the Somme

By Brian Ballard, Friends of the Aldershot Military Museum

In August, 1987, I and two friends went on a battlefield tour of France and Belgium with the main intention of finding the grave of the grandfather of one of my friends. Sadly, my friend's mother never knew her father as he was killed on 14th October, 1916 as the costly Somme offensive was nearing its end. Our guides kindly diverted our coach to the British cemetery which straddles the German Scwarben Redoubt which was being attacked by 118th Infantry Brigade when my friend's grandfather fell, mortally wounded. Happily, we found his grave and we took photos with our friend at the headstone, to show his mum, also he was able to sign the visitors' book and pick a Poppy from the slope where his grandfather fell. A tear-jerking but happy event.

We were accompanied on this trip by a reporter from the French newspaper, 'Le Figaro'. He was on the coach to write about why we Brits were so keen to visit the WW1 battlefields, apparently a practice alien to the French! He was amazed when a tape was played of all the WW1 songs and we all burst into song also that we ALL knew the words of the, then, 70 years old songs! When we visited Vimy Ridge on August Bank Holiday Sunday, many French families were having a picnic, with their children, among the dozens of shell craters!!

Also, on this trip we were privileged to meet a 93 years old survivor, a tall, upright, quiet man - quiet that is, until Vimy Ridge brought back vivid memories for him and he opened up. He told us, haltingly, how he and his comrades had advanced across this spot, which was a carpet of dead Canadians, all with socks stuffed in their mouths as they had believed that urinating on their socks and putting them in their mouths would prevent them being gassed! It did NOT work! Bill, that was his name, told us many more tales of his experiences, which I think helped him come to terms with them. As Bill lived only about 15 miles from Aldershot, we went to see him one evening about a month later. He laid on snacks and coffee and we had a good talk, Bill doing most of the talking even though he was getting over a cold, caught by sitting in a hedge all night, with a shotgun, to catch a fox which had been after his chickens!

I saw Bill's name in a newspaper about 10 years later, on a list of WW1 survivors who were all over a 100 years old.

Credits

Copyright © Brian Ballard. This article, including the accompanying pictures, may not be reproduced or republished, in whole or in part, either in print or electronically, including on any websites or social media sites, without the prior permission of the author.