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I'm Remembering My Father Who Fought in 1918

By Josie

12 November 2006

Listen to my father reading this, shortly before he died at 86 years of age on my website:

http://www.whiteheadm.co.uk/html/william_c_poole.html

My daughter had to write a letter as if she were a prisoner of war, to her parents as a GCSE project, and I said: "Ask Grandad in the next room. He was a prisoner of war in 1918" and he put this onto a tape recorder for her in the 1980s. There is also a letter from the Queen's Grandfather etc which you can read on this website, together with photographs. He was 17 years of age when he signed up (18 the next month) - and you can see from the photographs that he was really so very very young to have faced up to what he did. They were all so frightened when they discovered what it was REALLY like there.

Today we are remembering those who fought and those who gave their lives for our country. I haven't yet seen anything on this subject here today (which is surprising) - but here is my contribution which is fact, not fiction:

You can hear him on the website mentioned in my introduction:

William Cedric Poole 1899 - 1985

Josie's father, who was working for Lucas, enlisted in 1917 and was involved in the 2nd battle of the Somme in May 1918. He caught a bullet wound in the left leg and shrapnel in the right knee and taken as a prisoner of war. He was sent first to a hospital camp in Germany, which he said was quite primitive, and then to a convalescent POW camp in Crossen on Oder on the Polish border. Crossen on Oder is now in Poland and has been renamed Krosno Ordzanskie.

The following is an unedited MP3 file (5mb) and a transcript of a tape he made for our daughter for a school project entitled " Letters home from a WW1 Prisoner of War"

I expect you are wondering what has happened to me that you have not heard from me for some time but I am a prisoner of war in Germany. I was wounded in the battle of the Somme on the 27th of May 1918. I had a bullet wound in my left leg and a shrapnel wound in my right knee. I am in hospital at the present time, it's rather, a little bit primitive but still I'm out of the war, I'm in Germany. Perhaps you could get the Red Cross to send me a food parcel.

I am going on all right and feeling fairly well and comfortable. The bullet wound went just above my ankle and the shrapnel wound was just above the knee, so that is the extent of my injuries at present. We are in Germany down by the Rhine.

We were in a very heavy battle and a very heavy barrage when I got my wounds but luckily one of the Germans saw me to the ambulance train. I was put on the train and taken straight away in the train to Germany and then we were put straight into hospital.

It is a very big camp and there are a lot of prisoners here and several badly wounded people but I'm very lucky my wounds are not too severe and I am hoping to be able to get about in time. It will take a bit of time for the wounds to knit and luckily I'm able to take my food, sit up and do what is required for myself etc. We get our own orderlies, they are medical orderlies and they come round to attend to our wounds and see to our needs etc.

Since my last letter I have moved to a convalescent camp in Crossen on the Oder in Poland I am able to get about and walk about and my legs seem to be going on all right and I am able to walk and get round. We go down the town, they take us down the town round the shops and that so all together things are not too bad. I am sending you a photo, which was taken by one of the Germans, a Mr Muller who has got his studio here and I've gone down and helped him with the printing of the photos. All together things are not too bad and we've got a canteen and library and we have concerts and play football, I don't play because of my leg but some of them do. There is a quite an atmosphere of friendliness in the camp and everyone seems to be on pretty good terms with one another. Cedric
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Incidentally the teacher who marked her project thought some of the facts she included like the trips into town highly unlikely! Josie said: "Why didn't you tell him that your grandfather told you this was how it was?" She was a bit shy I think.

My father said he has often said that he would have liked to have met the German soldier who captured him again and thanked him. "He could easily have shot me instead" he said.

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I think that this exercise is still part of the National Curriculum GCSE - and I think many young people would be surprised to read what my father told us. We have photographs on our website of the Germans and English putting on a variety show together with their faces blacked. They would be surprised to know that they shared out cigarettes and played football together. They were all young 18 year olds who only wanted to get home to their families. The documents on our website may well interest people - especially the handwritten letter from the Queen's grandfather.

I heard a young person say this today: "Remember the people who have fought and died for our country, because they did so because they loved their home country and were prepared to give up their lives for it."

My father said: "We (he and his friends who live in his village near Leominster) joined the army in 1917 because we thought it was a bit of a lark, rather like joining the boy scouts. We didn't know that things were as they were because nobody had told us. We then thought it would be all over by Christmas (1917). When we eventually got to France and to the front, we were terrified and wanted to go home. The reason we were pushed forward to the front and told to run was because we knew we would be shot if we didn't do it." He was the only one who came home to his home village. He said they were mown down just like a big lawn mower going over them. The German soldiers then came over to shoot any remaining alive. He was still alive and shut his eyes and prayed. One German soldier came up to him with his rifle, but, to his huge surprise, he helped him to his feet and told him that he couldn't shoot him because he reminded him of his kid brother. He then helped him onto the Red Cross ambulance from whence he was taken to the German Hospital.

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I

Reviews

Written by Phil (6683 comments posted) 12th November 2006

Interesting piece Josie. My computer wouldn't let me follow the link to the MP3 file for some reason, but no matter.

I have a recording of my grandmother talking about her early life in service. Fascinating, just as this was.

Thanks.

Phil.

Written by Phil (6683 comments posted) 12th November 2006

Tried again from your web site instead. Found it this time.

Thanks Josie.

Phil.

THANK YOU FOR SAYING IT WAS INTERESTING
Written by Josie (2780 comments posted) 13th November 2006

Thank you so much, Phil, for saying that you found it interesting. I just thought that if people of today, with their problems, put themselves into the shoes of a young man being pushed and told to run in front of a "firing squad" (and that was what it was) - they might think the problems in this country today (many of which are of their own making) - are not so bad after all. I have read "Birdsong"by Sebastian Faulks (and if you haven't read it, please do). People in this country didn't know that it was as bad there as it was. It describes vividly the battle my father was in, and the waste of human life. I wept when I realized what he and our other young people had gone through - and we have our freedom today, (and thank God for that) - but dod we really appreciate it?

Brought back memories...
Written by Clifftown (619 comments posted) 13th November 2006

When I was at school (a while ago now) our class were told about World War I and asked to write a letter from a soldier in the trenches. I'll never forget the class in which we had to read them all out, it made me cry and affected me for weeks afterwards. My Grandad was a pilot in World War II and before he died he told me that most of the time he would only go up after drinking a whole bottle of whisky. It's amazing that he survived, I suppose.

You are right, Josie, we all need to know and understand what went on then so we can appreciate the sacrifices made for us. As Phil says, this is a fascinating and interesting piece.

Written by Josie (2780 comments posted) 13th November 2006

To Clifftown
Written by Josie (2780 comments posted) 13th November 2006

I wonder if this letter still has to be done by children? In my daughter's case, what she was being taught by the teacher was what he had read in a book. Now how interesting it would be if the children in the classes today could hear one account (by my father) which would be an eye-opener to them. They probably don't know about the German and English youngsters playing football, cards and wandering round the town all day together, planning their variety concert together for the evening - and buying and sending postcards home to let their parents know they were Ok. I am sure it wasn't always like this, but Dad was in the prisoner of war camp for about the last three months of the war, and the 18 yr olds of both countries had just had about enough and were glad to pass the time quietly and happily together (well in that camp). They were "keeping their heads down" so to speak.

The western front
Written by Fledermaus (3246 comments posted) 17th November 2006

I remember one scene from a movie based on "Im Westen nichts Neues" (All quiet on the western front): A group of German boys had enlisted and were marching to the train singing and joking. But, just as they were about to board the train to the front, the train FROM the front arrived, carrying the dead and the wounded.
Even though it was just a movie, it was pretty shocking to see the change in their attitude.
It always surprises me how veterans from WW1 can tell about their experiences. They have seen people being chopped in pieces, being gassed and gunned, but they can tell of this in such a quiet manner...

To Fledermaus
Written by Josie (2780 comments posted) 17th November 2006

Thanks for your review. I don't think many young people who were sent there were told how awful it was - and my father and his friends were not. But Dad did realize how lucky he was to come home again because all his friends who had joined up at the same time were all killed at the same time in the Battle of the Somme in May 1918. When you hear of people today with their problems, what happened then make problems of today (away from war zones) look small by comparison. It was a dreadful war, no doubt about it, and yet my father's account of the young Germans and Brits playing football together, organizing concert parties, playing cards and helping the old German, Herr Muller to print photographs is something we couldn't imagine as having happened - but it did and the photographs are on our website to prove it.

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