I got an awful wound in the left hip. A shell burst in the trenches
close to me, killing five of our chaps; so I had a lucky get off. I
had to lie in the trench wounded all day, as the battle was so fierce
they could not take me to cover. A few days before this happened I
and another of our chaps were captured by some Germans. They took
everything I had, even my watch and chain. The escort took us to a barn
for the night. We laid down and made out as if we were asleep. We could
hear them talking, and they touched us, but we did not move, so they
lay down themselves and soon dropped off to sleep. There were eleven of
us altogether. Then we thought they were all right and sound asleep,
so I seized a German rifle next to me, which was fully loaded, and I
touched my mate and we both moved slyly away. I was determined to shoot
the first German that moved and make a run for it; but we got away all
right and slept the night in a wood: _Pte. Evenden, 1st Coldstream
Guards_.
“Got Me, Too!”
“Come on now, lads,” said our officer, and we went running on as hard
as we could. We had got to take the hill, you see, or smash the Germans
that were on it. At last we got quite near--not 150 yards from the
trenches. I and two pals of mine and two others got behind a hedge and
started to blaze away. We lost our sick feeling then. There was one
chap got hit in the face with a shrapnel bullet. “Hurt, Bill?” I said
to him. “Good luck to the old regiment,” said he. Then he rolled over
on his back. There was a grey German helmet over the side of the trench
with a rifle under it. I let that German have a bullet all to himself.
I saw his helmet roll back and his rifle fly up. Then I got on my knees
to bandage up a pal, and just as I moved there was a smash on my side.
They’d got me, too, and I rolled over and thought I was done for: _Pte.
S. Smith, 1st Warwickshire Regiment_.