Expanding on my notes from my journal which were gathered from discussions with my uncle, I have decided to look further into the history of what my Great Grandad was part of. The facts that I have are sparse but I feel I just have enough to flesh his story out using research and archive imagery as well as my own which is important.
I do know that my Great Grand dad joined up for to support the war effort at the age of just 14. After carrying out research I found out that as many as 250.000 boys were under the age of 18 during WW1. As it stood, boys under the age of 19 weren't allowed to fight but were able to join the cause to carry out other roles. For William, he started out looking after the war horses before being posted to the RAMC (Royal Army Medical Corps) where he acted as a stretcher bearer. Although they law forbid them to fight, some under age soldiers fought because of the desperate situation the British army faced. I wonder if William was one of those boys?
I found some interesting facts as to why some of these underage soldiers made it onto the battlefield.
• Recruitment officers were paid two shillings and sixpence for each new army recruit, and would often ignore any concerns they had about age.
• Many people at the start of the 20th Century didn't have birth certificates, so it was easy to lie about how old you were.
• The minimum height requirement was 5ft 3in (1.60m), with a minimum chest size of 34in (0.86m). If you met these criteria you were likely to be recruited.
• Some young boys were scared of being called a coward and could not resist the pressure from society.
Information and images taken from:
The image below is the cap badge of the Royal Army Medical Corps which I have managed to obtain a more than likely replacer.
The Battle of the Somme: 1 July - 13 November 1916
www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/battle_somme.shtml
One fact that I do know is that William (My Great Grand dad) carried out his stretcher bearing duties during the Battle of the Somme and Ypres.
The Battle of the Somme was a planned attack on a 23 mile front shared between the British and the French. The first stage was to bombard the German strongholds which ended up being a massive 1.6 million shells! After the reign of fire, British commanders were so confident, that they ordered a slow march to the German front. What followed, can only be described as slaughter, the germans were that well dug in that the shelling didn't have a real impact. They cut down the British a armies which ended in a loss of 20.000 lives ad 40.000 casualties on the very first day!
Over the months, the battle became stale mate as neither side gained any significant ground.
The Somme was also the first time where tanks were used but they proved ineffective because of the torrential rains that turned the churned up fields into swamps and due to mechanical failure
The Somme was also the first time where the Many Pals Battalions were introduced which was a when a group of friends who were local to one another joined up together. This was a tragedy because small communities lost a whole generation of friends.
When the battle came to an end, the British had only gained a mere five miles of ground which came at a cost of around 420,000 casualties. The battle which was intended to be a decisive break through turned into one of Britain's darkest battles of all time.
What saddens me, is that young William was amongst this terrible tragedy, I can't imagine what he was feeling on that very first day of battle where he would have had to carry the injured and dead back and forth, It's sad to think of the horrors he must have saw.
I stumbled across a famous poem by Pte Tommy Crawford which is called "The Stretcher Bearer" I thought it was a fitting piece of writing which expresses his feelings and experience of being a Stretcher Bearer on the front.
The Stretcher Bearer
My stretcher is one scarlet stain,
And as I tries to scrape it clean,
I tell you what – I’m sick of pain,
For all I’ve heard, for all I’ve seen;
Around me is the hellish night,
And as the war’s red rim I trace,
I wonder if in Heaven’s height
Our God don’t turn away his face.
I don’t care whose the crime may be,
I hold no brief for kin or clan;
I feel no hate, I only see
As man destroys his brother man;
I wave no flag, I only know
As here beside the dead I wait,
A million hearts are weighed with woe,
A million homes are desolate.
In dripping darkness far and near,
All night I’ve sought those woeful ones.
Dawn suddens up and still I hear
The crimson chorus of the guns.
Look, like a ball of blood the sun
Hangs o’er the scene of wrath and wrong,
“Quick! Stretcher-bearers on the run!”,
Oh Prince of Peace! How long, how long?”
Tommy Crawford, Somme, 1916
www.firstworldwarcentenary.co.uk/pte-tommy-crawford-stretcher-bearer/
Just like Tommy, William was one of the very few to survive the Somme even though the odds were against both of them because the life expectancy for their role was just a day and a half!
The Third Battle of Ypres
As well as The Somme, to my uncles understanding my Great Grand Dad was involved in the Battle of Ypres which was infamous for both it's large scale casualties and it's mud.
This image pretty much sums up what the conditions soldiers and William faced. The churned up mud's were a result of the millions of shells that were used, combined with the heavy rains that fell upon them.
I have an actual quote from my uncle that was told to him by William himself. He said that he was "Knee Deep In Mud" William Taylor This quote is poignant and fits in from what you can see in this image below.
This has been both an emotional and interesting piece of research. I feel I have enough information here to flesh out Williams story. I can see a journal building in my minds eye which will hold all this content and inform my planned video. I can see that poem finding place within this project (As long as I reference it), but most of all, I can see that quote "Knee Deep In Mud" playing an important role sum how.
No comments:
Post a Comment