NOTES FOR SOMME

THERE WAS A TIME WHEN FOR ME THE FIRST WORLD WAR WAS JUST A DATE FROM THE PAST.ALTHOUGH MY DAD SERVED LIKE MANY OF HIS TIME IN THAT WAR, ALSO LIKE MANY HE DID NOT WANT REMINDING OF THE HORRIFYING EVENTS THAT HE HAD ENCOUNTERED.THE FIRST TIME HE WENT TO FRANCE HE WAS ONLY FIFTEEN AND WHEN THEY FOUND OUT HIS AGE,THEY SENT HIM BACK TO ENGLAND . BUT HE WENT BACK IN 1917 TO FIGHT ON THE SOMME,FIRST WOUNDED BY A GRENADE AND THEN MUSTARD GASSED JUST BEFORE THE ARMISTICE.HE SPENT SIX MONTHS IN A FRENCH HOSPITAL AFTER THE WAR BECAUSE HE HAD ALSO GOT PNEUMONIA.HE WAS SIX FEET THREE INCHES AND WEIGHED JUST BELOW SIX AND A HALF STONE.NOW I WISHED THAT WE HAD HAVE TALKED,BECAUSE THEN I MIGHT HAVE BEEN PREPARED FOR THE AFTERMATH OF EMOTIONS WHICH BOMBARDED MY SENSES ON THE FIRST CEMETERY VISIT.

SO IT WAS WITHOUT TREPIDATION THAT I LEFT LAST OCTOBER WITH THE SOUTH KIRBY GANG FROM THE BRITISH LEGION WHO ADOPTED ME FOR THE ENTIRE WEEK AND MADE ME THEIR RESPONSIBILITY,EVEN THOUGH APART FROM JACK WARDLE I WAS THE ELDEST.I WAS NOT ALLOWED TO MISS THE LEAST LITTLE THING,THEY WERE A MINE OF IMFORMATION.AND I MADE SOME TRUE FRIENDS LAST OCTOBER IN YPRES.

THE FIRST CEMETERY I WE VISITED WAS THE WHERE THE JOHN MC CREA MEMORIAL IS JUST OUTSIDE THE GATES.WHEN I WENT TO SIGN THE VISITORS BOOK ,THE NAME BEFORE MINE WAS SIR HARRY SECOMBES, HE MUST HAVE BEEN THERE TO RECORD A SERVICE FOR REMEMBERANCE DAY.

I WALKED PAST THE ROWS AND ROWS OF WHITE STONES AND FOUND MYSELF IN WHAT I CAN ONLY CALL CONCRETE SHELTERS,STILL THE SAME AS THEY HAD BEEN IN 1918,NOTHING TOUCHED. APPARENTLY THESE SHELTERS WERE USED TO SHELTER THE WOUNDED MEN UNTIL THEY COULD BE TRANSPORTED TO A SAFE HOSPITAL.

AS I STOOD THERE ON THAT COLD OCTOBER MORNING AN ODD SHIVER OF APPREHENSION FEATHERED ALONG MY NERVE ENDINGS ,HERE WAS I ,MOTHER OF FOUR SHEILA BETTS TOTALLY UNPREPARED FOR MY INITIAL CONFRONTATION WITH THE GREAT WAR.

I FELT AN OVERWHELMING SURGE OF EMOTION THAT WAS FRIGHTENING IN IT'S NEARNESS.I FELT THE SPIRITS OF THESE YOUNG AND VULNERABLE LADS WHO LOST THE RACE ,THEIR FUTURE SNATCHED AWAY FROM THEM IN SECONDS BY A GERMAN BULLET.ALL I FELT FOR THE HUNS AT THAT PRECISE MOMENT WAS A SEARING CONTEMPT,THAT THEY HAD DARED TO ROB OUR GREAT NATION OF SO MANY YOUNG MEN.

I CLENCHED MY TEETH TO STOP THE FLOW OF TEARS CASCADING FROM MY EYES AND VISUALISED MY OLD DAD A TEENAGER BLINDED BY THE GAS AND RELYING ON THE MAN IN FRONT WHOSE SHOULDER HE LEANT ON TO SHOW HIM THE WAY. AT THAT MOMENT IT WAS SHOCKINGLY BROUGHT HOME TO ME JUST WHAT A SAVAGE WAR THIS HAD BEEN. HORRIFIED ,SHOCKED,APPALLED,BEWILDERED ,OVERWHELMED AND STUNNED.I FELT ALL OF THESE THINGS AND MORE . BUT AS I CONTINUED TO STAND IN THAT CONCRETE TOMB,I REMEMBERED SOMETHING MY MUM HAD SAID TO A NEIGHBOUR DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR,WHEN I WAS ABOUT EIGHT. "THEY MAY BE GERMANS ,BUT THEY ARE STILL SOME MOTHERS SONS.".

AS I FOUGHT TO REGAIN MY COMPOSURE BEFORE I REJOINED THE OTHERS,I DECIDED THAT IN ORDER TO MAKE AN UNBIASED ACCOUNT OF WHAT I SAW,I HAD TO DISPENCE WITH THESE OVERWROUGHT EMOTIONS AND STICK TO THE TASK IN HAND . THIS WAS NOT THE TIME OR THE PLACE TO LET MY EMOTIONS OVERIDE MY SENSE OF PERSPECTIVE.

THERE WERE RIBALD JOKES AND GOOD HUMOURED PATTER ON THE BUS IN BETWEEN STOPS AND IT KIND OF LIFTED OUR SPIRITS FOR THE NEXT DESTINATION.IN THE GERMAN CEMETERY I SUDDENLY REALISED THAT THESE MEN WEREN'T OGRES,BUT HAD BEEN LIVING BREATHING HUMAN BEINGS WHO HAD ALSO ENDURED MUCH SUFFERING,WHAT IS IT THEY SAY ABOUT SINS OF THE FATHERS BEING VISITED UPON THEIR CHILDREN.SOME OF THEM I'M AM SURE WERE MEN OF HONOUR. AN ODD SHIVER OF APPREHENSION FEATHERED ALONG MY NERVE ENDINGS NOT KNOWING WHAT MY FIRST EXPERIENCE BE LIKE…….