I was going to stick this in the YT thread, but I think it deserved its own thread. It is worth ten minutes of your time.
I was going to stick this in the YT thread, but I think it deserved its own thread. It is worth ten minutes of your time.
So the 93 yr old was born 10 years after WW1 finished,so was he on a re-birth journey.
I hope I am as sharp as this fella is at 98,
Nice video thank you for posting it.
Now days people will not even make the sacrifice of getting vaccinated because they might get a hangnail.
This man was sent back for seven days of leave after describing his buddies/mates being wounded and dying when they "went over" climbing out of the trench. Some of them still alive and getting eaten by rats. He described millions of rats on the battlefield.
All seven of those men returned to duty. The sense of brotherhood back then...
... I could load this thread with more of these videos, and maybe more of these men should be heard. An Irishmen, A Brit, and an American. Why not? All heroes back then.
My paternal grandfather. I was told this was taken in 1914, if so then he was 16 years old.
He always talked of The Essex Cycles, which I presume to have been The 8th (Cyclist) Battalion, Essex Regiment. That was actually a Home Defence force, they used bicycles to patrol the Essex coast. Little-known fact: Essex has the longest coastline of any English county. The 8th never saw action but many of its soldiers transferred to units at the front and my grandfather fought on the Somme, incuding a spell missing, presumed dead. Later in life he was a typical cheeky Cockney chappie, never talked much about the war and when he did it was mostly about having permanantly wet feet when in the trenches.
What side was he fighting for?
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)