A Terrible Day

Thursday 1st April 1915: A terrible day, spent in crawling towards a hospital after being severely wounded by shrapnel and narrowly escaping with his life, is described by Private Arthur Allen, an old soldier from Markyate [Hertfordshire] who rejoined at the beginning of the war and has since been serving at the front with the 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment. He told us: "I am getting on fine now. I can nearly get my arm straight, but my leg is very weak. I tried to get out of bed yesterday, but couldn't stand, so had to get back again. the shin-bone is chipped. I am having the bullets taken out next week if all goes well. If they had been rifle bullets they would have gone right through and that would have been better, but it was shrapnel".

"I saw the shell burst right on us. I happened that morning to cut a bigger hole in the ground to cover my head and shoulders, or I should have been more wounded or killed. It was a sight to see the field. I used to have a peep now and then before I got wounded and then I was done for. When I was wounded I had to stop where I was until night, or chance getting shot again … I was bound up by a comrade and he advised me to stop until night but I said: "No, on my hand and knees I go". I started falling over dead and wounded in the trench. My right wrist wouldn't stick it far, so I had to rest, covered with mud and blood".

"There were shells and rifle fire all round. I kept thinking that one would drop close to me. As I was getting cold I started again. I crawled from my own trench to another one that was full of water - an old German trench. There I had to stand on my left leg and hop about 50 yards through this water. I found three more comrades wounded in the head and lots of dead. One fellow with a slight wound got me an old bush to walk with, so I got upright to toddle along. I was then left on my own. I came to open ground from which we had just driven the Germans. There I had to go quick or stop. I got to a heap of dirt and stopped there till night - wet through and with everything cut through to get at my wounds and bind them up".

Explaining that though this is told in a few lines it covered the period from 10 a.m. till 6 p.m. when it was getting dark, he continues: "When I had had a good rest, up I got and hobbled along for another hour, till I came in sight of a stretcher bearer party. I shouted my regiment, but they didn't belong to the regiment, and said "Your ambulance is up the road a mile" so I was done there. They told me the road my party was on and that they were coming my way, but I couldn't walk a mile. I stopped for I was in too much pain. I was found at 11 o'clock at night and taken to a dressing station. Thank the Lord I got there all right. I have left a lot out and must tell you that when I get home, if all goes well"(1).

Source: Luton News 1st April 1915

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(1) It sounds as if Private Allen was wounded during the Battle of Neuve Chapelle. He seems to have survived the war.