I knew what it meant too – and had been hoping for the end, but hearing myself discussed in such a manner awoke what little self-respect and pride I had left. I thought to myself, ‘I’ll show them if I’m done for or not.’
The next morning, although I had eaten nothing for several days, I managed to stumble downstairs and out to the working party. The guards seemed delighted to see me again. Perhaps they did not want to be bothered with the trouble of a funeral. I did not do any work, but the fresh air and the sunshine helped me to regain a little strength.
But it did not last long. Soon I was in hospital in Sedan, so weak that I could not walk; so thin that I could not sit down.
Rifleman Victor Denham joined the London Rifle Brigade at eighteen, and went to France in August 1917. Took part in the battle for Cambrai in November 1917. Shot in the head during the German offensive at Arras, March 1918, and made prisoner of war. Repatriated from Lamsdorf Camp (an unofficial War Prisoners’ Camp), December 1918. Discharged, September 1919.
Table of Contents
Title
Copyright
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
The Old Contemptibles, 1914
The Retreat from Mons, August 23rd-September 5th, 1914
An Old Contemptible at Le Cateau
The First Battle of Ypres, October 1914
In France and Flanders, 1915-
A Territorial in the Salient
The First Gas Attack
The Battle of Loos
A Highland Battalion at Loos
At a Sap-Head
Trenches at Vimy Ridge
In a Kite Balloon
A Night Counter-Attack
A Gunner’s Adventure
The Carnoy Cows
Ordinary War on the Somme
Delville Wood
In a Billet
17-21
A Wireless Operator
At Messines Ridge in 1917
A July Day at St. Julien
A Labour Company at Ypres
Two Nights
On the Belgian Coast
A Nightmare
A Cavalry Brigade at Cambrai, November 1917
La Vacquerie, December 3rd, 1917
A Boy’s Experiences
Varieties of Trench Life
A Runner’s Story 1916-18
In a Highland Regiment, 1917-18
Opening of German Offensive, March 1918
‘Stand-to’ on Givenchy Road
When Tank Fought Tank
Bravery in the Field
Noyon, March 23rd, 1918
A Casualty Clearing Station
Rations
A Padre’s Story
Messines, October 1918
At Gallipoli
A Boy at Gallipoli
The Flood at Suvla Bay
The Evacuation of Suvla Bay
In Macedonia
The End of Bulgaria
In Palestine
A Sapper in Palestine
Tell-el-Sheria
In Mesopotamia
The Corridor
Those Desert Days
In German East Africa
The Devil - My Friend
In the Air
‘The Circus’
The Casualty
August to November 1918
Some Women
August 1914
The Great Retreat in Serbia in 1915
The Story of a W.A.A.C.
On the Sea
War at Sea
Zeebrugge
Torpedoed in the Aegean Sea
Prisoners
First Days of Imprisonment
Captivity in the Ardennes