Last Day!!

Today is the last day to download THE GREAT PROMISE for free at Amazon Kindle.

I want to thank those that took advantage and downloaded my book. I hope you enjoy it and recommend it to your friends. As a self-published author it is very difficult to enter the market and access the distribution channels that are available to traditional publishers. Therefore independent writers must use social media to get their message out that their book is worth reading. If enough readers like the book and recommend it to friends, as well as publish their rating of the book on Amazon, it helps move sales.

Again, thanks to those that support me in my efforts to tell my grandfather's story.

It starts today

The free download of The Great Promise (kindle version) is available on Amazon Kindle starting today. This will be the last opportunity to get a free copy of the book that people will be talking about.

If you're new to my blog, look through the archives to get a feeling of the compelling journal entries that are included in the book. The Great Promise

Book trailer:

About Photo

I discovered that the photo of my grandfather, that I posted yesterday, he was wearing a captain's uniform. Which I found interesting because he must have been promoted to the temporary rank of captain since he wasn't given the permanent rank until near the end of the war.

I have the answer: in this communication he was given the temporary rank of Captain in June 1916 when he was acting Adjutant of the AA batteries. His permanent rank was Lieutenant until he received his permanent Captain's rand in 1919. 

Picture taken 1917

this photograph was taken of my grandfather before he was shipped back to France in 1917.

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Free: The Great Promise

Getting Gassed

My book contains all the journal entries and much more than my recent posts The Great Promise


April 26th
The battery started to march about 8:30 a.m., halting outside the town of Vlamertinghe. As the battery remained outside of the town, George, Collins, and I went with the CO to reconnoiter a position for the battery.
As we neared Ypres we could hear the hellish bombardment going on. While galloping along the road we witnessed dead horses, overturned Lorries,15 and discarded equipment along both sides of the road. Hundreds of wounded were being carried down, or seen hobbling along, the road the best way they could.
As we directed our horses through the town, some disturbing sights met our eyes. It seemed that along every few yards of the road there was something dead, or bits and pieces of men and horses that had been blown apart during the bombardment.
Shells were still absolutely falling everywhere. The town was an inferno. It seemed that every second man we met was wounded. We said to each other, “I reckon we’re on the last lap of this journey.”
We found a likely position where a few old branches and some dugouts were still intact, about a half mile to the rear of St. Jean. Shells were bursting right over us, so we continued to search for a more favorable position.Yet everywhere we looked seemed to be the same.The captain wasn’t comfortable with the area for there was practically no cover remaining.
We went a little closer to the town where a Canadian Officer stopped us and asked what we were wanting. When we ex- plained that we were looking for a spot to bring the battery into position, he said, “For God’s sakes, don’t bring them here; this corner is hell itself. Get out of it as quick as you can.” Shells were dropping all around us. It seemed astounding that none of us had gotten hit.
Afterwards I learned that this part of the town was called “Dead Man’s Corner”. It deserved the name, for many dead were there about.
We left the Canadian and returned to our prior position.We decided it would have to suffice for all places seemed to be equally vulnerable.
While the remainder of the battery was approaching, we started to lay out a wire to a likely observation spot. George took a couple of chaps to start from the observation station while Collins, Billison, and I ran wire from the battery position through the village of St. Jean. We managed to reach the village unharmed, but like everywhere else, it was being heavily shelled.
I was jumping over a small stream that was by the church when a large shell burst almost on us.We took shelter behind a building.We could not move an inch due to all the shrapnel bullets flying about. It was miserable, for we had to remain there for an hour as shells continued to fall.
I noticed that just a few yards from us an artillery man and his horse were lying dead. Nearby was a smashed motor ambulance with the driver burned to a cinder. The ambulance’s petrol tank must have ignited when it was hit by a shell. A native from one of our battalions lay dead in a ditch. At the end of the building there were several other corpses.
After a time the shelling abated a little, allowing us to start moving again. I met up with George, who had been in much the same terrible show as we had gone through. I was thirsty and thankfully managed to get a drink of water.
As we made our way back, we didn’t get far before the shell- ing started again. We ran for our previous little shelter and gained it just in time. Shells were bursting very near and I asked Collins, “What is that strong, stinking smell?” My eyes were watering and we all three began coughing.We decided to chance it and go anywhere away from where we were.
After an exciting half-hour we got to the guns, but by that time I felt very sick. Afterwards we learned from an officer that it was due to the gas shells the Germans were using.

It was very lucky that we hurried to get out of it when we did or undoubtedly the three of us would have been gassed properly instead of partially.As it was I had enough gas to sufficiently stop me from eating anything for three days.
Shelling around the guns was getting pretty warm but we started to return fire in good style.The wire broke three times, and each time communications was lost with the forward ob- server. Normally in this case the batteries would stop firing. However, it was agreed that if we lost communications, we would raise the range of our guns.
During the afternoon I traveled through St. Jean and while doing so I became uneasy, dreading any further exposure to the gas. The reoccurring images of my previous gas experi- ence made me anxious and tense. By the time I returned at nightfall, I thought I had been very fortunate to make it through the day.
The enemy kept up hard shelling everywhere.

Battle of Neuve Chapelle

he Battle of Neuve Chapelle took place between the 10 th and 13 th of March, 1915. Located in northwestern France, Neuve Chapelle is north of La Bassee and west of Lille.
Sir John French’s plan was to capture Neuve Chapelle then push forwards to the village at Aubers, situated a mile east of Neuve Chapelle. If he successfully captured Aubers, his army would attack the German defenses at Lille, a major communication hub.
To accomplish these goals Sir John French had amassed 374 pieces of artillery. Douglas Haig’s First Corps were to lead the attack after a 35 minute artillery barrage. It was reported that the shelling was so intense, that it resembled machine gun fire.
The focus of the shelling was along the German frontline.The bombardment was so devastating, that when the shelling lifted, only small sections of the enemy’s trench remained.All of the entanglements were in ruin, allowing the British to rush through the opening.
Often there was hand-to-hand fighting as the British and Indian infantry made a rapid advance towards Neuve Chapelle. It took just four hours to secure the village. Nevertheless, the artillery barrage around Aubers was lacking in both scope and intensity, thus causing little dam- age to the enemy’s trench entanglements. Of the 1,000 troops that at- tacked Aubers, no one survived.
Due to the lack of artillery shells, as well as communication problems, the British were unable to maintain the extensive artillery pressure necessary to prevent the enemy from bringing up its reserves.

With the accumulated strength of its reserves, the Germans launched a counterattack on March 12. The British were able to repel the attack and hold the ground they had gained.
This battle was the first offensive undertaken by the British from static, set-piece trenches, where several military innovations were put into place, including timed lifts of artillery barrages. Other strategies newly employed were: color-coded maps marked with objectives to be taken, a concurrent aeroplane bombing sequence, and the maintenance of effective secrecy prior to the bombardment.


March 4th
We started our march at 3:00 a.m. and came into action about 400 yards on the right of the Richebourg Church.
We were informed that we were to bombard Neuve Chapelle, a village that was on our left front. It had been in the hands of the Germans since October.We took a firing position and then engaged in digging a gun pit and fortifying our position as much as possible.

March 5th–9th
Our battery is preparing for the big bombardment that is to take place in a couple of days. We were joined by several other batteries and soon forces were everywhere.There were guns under almost every tree. Our giant 15 inch Howitzer was to make her debut, as well as quite a few of our new 9.2 inch guns. Communications would be critical so George and I made sure that we laid out double lines to our observing sta- tion, as well as lines to various parts of the trenches.
Large amounts of ammunition were distributed at each gun. Every preparation was made to give the Germans the biggest shock they had yet to receive at our hands.

March 10th
The bombardment of Neuve Chapelle commenced at 7:30 a.m. along a four mile front. It was beyond description, listen- ing to the tons of metal going through the air from all 476 guns. Our heavy artillery, a new 18 pound gun, was to con- centrate on the enemy’s trenches in order to cut the enemy’s wire entanglement. All the batteries kept up their fierce rate of firing for three-quarters of an hour.The bombardment was only lifted around the Bois-du-Beiz area to enable our infantry


Our trenches were lined with Garhwalis, Gurkhas, and several other regiments of native troops from India. The Leicestershire Regiment made the first charge, capturing the German trenches in grand style.They were held up on the edge of an orchard outside Neuve Chappell until a regiment of Territorials’ came to their assistance.With reinforcements a horrific battle of hand-to-hand fighting ensued, especially at a spot that we later called “The Street of Hell”.
The massive scale and fierceness of the fighting was more than I can describe. We finally gained control of the village about midday.
While the Leicestershire Regiment made their charge, the natives advanced on the right and captured the trenches in front. However, they were held up by machine guns in a re- doubt that was located on the left edge of the Bois du Biez.
The Gurkhas did grand work, especially with their wicked little knives, which accounted for many slit German heads. When the Germans ran from their trenches the little Gurkhas were right after them. Many of the little chaps would climb on the backs of the big Germans and cut their throats in the style of Sweeney Todd.
The Seaforths were brought up to assist.They made a splen- did charge, which (according to our officers, and many old campaigners observing with us), was the finest sight they had ever witnessed. The Seaforths went into the murderous ma- chine gunfire as though they were going to a picnic. In spite of the enormous losses they captured the redoubt, along with its contents of Germans and the machine guns.

2nd Battle of Ypres - Canadian Revenge

The enemy kept up hard shelling everywhere. It sounded like one continual roar of shells bursting over us, with bullets and splinters knocking lumps off of my dugout. I really thought that this place might be the finishing touch. Of all the places I had been throughout the campaign, this was by far the worst. It seemed impossible for one to live long in it.
I had a few hours’ sleep, yet was awakened now and again when a large shell burst somewhere nearby. At daylight we were at it again.The first thing that met George this morning was a shell dropping just the other side of the hedge. It fell among what had been a Canadian Battery Wagon line.
It didn’t matter that the shell fell there, because most of the men had been killed when the Germans bayoneted them while they slept.The enemy also hung a Canadian officer to a barn and used bayonets to crucify a sergeant of the Canadian Scottish army to the barn door.
The Canadians’ wagon line once had 200 horses and now only a dozen horses remain.. If this wasn’t enough, all of the Canadian guns were captured by the enemy.All this happened when the Germans broke through our lines the previous week.

Later the Canadians were revenged through a magnificent charge by their infantry.They are considered to be fine fellows and splendid fighters. They hated the Germans and cursed them for their murderous ways of waging war.

I was told that a couple of days previous the Canadian Scottish were ordered to retire, but refused to do so. Instead of retiring as ordered, they charged the enemy on their own. It was a mad thing to do for they lost over 500 men, although they captured 100 or more prisoners.
I dare say that not one of the captured Germans was brought down as a prisoner.

All the soldiers in the Allied Armies started fighting like the enemy, no quarter given, and the Canadians gave none. As evidence of this, just to the rear of our guns, there was the corpse of a husky Prussian guardsman - a fine figure of a man who stood fully at 6 foot 3 inches in height.The Canadians had pinned him to a tree with a bayonet. They stuck a postcard on his forehead that said, “Canada does not forget!” Then someone had written, “We’ll give them crucify” next to the word “Canada”.
The cruel and barbaric happenings around this period would fill a book with horrors of all descriptions.The merciless style of war created by the Germans carried over to their enemy. The centuries that it has taken to develop the meaning behind the word “civilized” has only taken a couple of years to reduce to “barbaric.”
I was pleased with the splendid fighting of both the Canadians and the Indian troops and proud that they were fighting with us. By the end of November, truly enough Canadians had served in the battle of Ypres as did the 7th, 8th, and 1st British Divisions.

Milking Goats

While mending breaks in the wire, Fred and George noticed a farm house and decided to investigate. The small farm that had chickens, rabbits, and other provisions in the house. It had been left by the inhabitants, which meant that they were forced to leave in a hurry.
Along with the other animals George and I found a few goats which we collared. I was content listening to the milk splashing into my pail. I looked up to see how George was progressing. He had a puzzled look on his face, as he attempted to find udders on a billy goat. I had a good laugh about that one! Entering the house we took our fill of the available food then returned to the battery with the remaining goat’s milk and provisions.
Later I prevailed upon Old George to slip over to the farm to make a can of tea and bring it back, while I attended to the firing. No sooner had he left than a German horse artillery battery opened dead range upon us and kept up a hot fire for a period of time.
The shelling was so terrible that nothing could have lived above the ground.We were absolutely tied to our little trenches, making it impossible for us to return fire.
The shelling went on for two hours.All I could think about was Old George and how he must have been caught by the shelling on his way to the farm. I was greatly surprised to see him crawling along the trenches with the can in his hand.
While George made his way along the trenches, three guys and two officers, one of whom was Lt. Marshall, stood up and shouted at George to get under cover.
I was also yelling at George at the same time as Lt. Marshall, when I heard a whining and a bang. Lt. Marshall collapsed with seven shrapnel bullets in him; all this happened in a flash.


Old George must have had a charmed life, being able to get to and back from the farm through all of the shelling and live through it.To me it was marvelous.
Even though Lt. Marshall was wounded, George and I drank the tea for it cost near one life and a dozen very narrow escapes. The tea was even better when we added the goat’s milk I had procured earlier.

First Ypres - Continued

On October 31 the Germans attacked the British lines along a narrow front on the Messines Ridge, forcing the British troops from their position.The enemy continued advancing until General Haig’s First Corps staged a ferocious counterattack.

The German Army continued their mission to break through the British line, but whenever this was accomplished, a British counterattack would drive it back to its prior position.

It wasn't until the onset of winter weather that there was a break in the fighting. The combat had been so unrelenting, and the loss of life so horrific, that the British survivors were content to say that a man was not a soldier unless he had served on the Ypres front. Of the one- hundred and sixty thousand men sent to France with the BEF, thirty per- cent were either killed in action or died of their wounds. Nevertheless, ninety percent of them were impacted by the encounter in some way, with either physical injuries or some form of mental and/or emotional distress


Fred Coxen and the rest of 40 battery left the church and returned to the main force, however, establishing a forward observation post was still necessary so Fred and his friend George were ordered to run wire to a convent that was in close proximity to the British troops.

Running wire was a dangerous job because often the runners were exposed to sniper fire and artillery shelling. Often, when shelling was the the heaviest, wires were severed  and the telephonist/signalers would have to crawl along the wire to find and fix the breaks. Fred describes one of his near death experiences:

We rejoined the guns without mishap. George Millington and I were ordered to lay our wire to a large deserted convent near our infantry.As we ran the wire we were sniped at pretty hard by Germans hidden in houses to our left; one missed me by inches. The next morning I went back to the spot, found the bullet, and saved it as a souvenir.
In the afternoon the French infantry had been forced to re- tire; our infantry went up to hold what the French had lost. Although they were greatly outnumbered, they held.
We were firing at very short range, even though we knew we would be observed by the enemy.
The night passed quickly. We were dug in by the side of a stream, which effectually screened us from the continual pres- ence of rifle bullets. We had to go without food all day and were not pleased with the events.

Often soldiers would take advantage or the opportunity of adding variety to their rations when they found food sources in abandoned homes or buildings.

October 22nd
George and I laid our wire to the convent. We described it as heavenly, for it was well-stocked with provisions.We found biscuits, butter, and jam, George and I had a good feast and brought some away with us for the battery.
It got pretty warm getting back to the guns. The enemy sniped at us across a large scarred field. 

Military life during the war could be best described by hours of boredom interspersed with split seconds of terror. Boredom is the devil's playground and men with time on their hands find creative ways to amuse themselves.

While waiting for us to set up good communications, two signalers dug a shallow trench by the edge of the field. They amused themselves by putting their hats on a flagpole, raising them until the crown of the hat was just above the crest of the trench.Tempting the Germans to shoot at them proved to be an amusing diversion.

We fired hard all morning. The enemy replying on the village did grand shooting on the church, where shell after shell passed through the steeple. Finally the church caught fire and was soon one mass of flames. The clock steeple collapsed with a crash; it was a dramatic sight. It seemed that they wanted to get at our battery for they shelled the fellows in front and behind our wagon line, wounding a few men and killing some horses.
Fortunately for those of us at the guns, only a few men were wounded. 

Our infantry was forced to retire, so we requested an infantry escort of 100 men for our guns. All they could send us was one platoon of 20 men. At dark, George Millington (“Old George”) had gone along the wire to forage for food. While he was gone, bullets were very plentiful. Eight of us clutched to our little trench, waiting for him to get into communication and return with the spoils.
Things seemed to quiet down for about half an hour when suddenly the Germans played a machine gun dead on us. We thought they had us.Although we did not know it, the infantry was on our left.They had moved while we were waiting for George.
As the infantry took care of the machine gun, I heard strange rustling sounds in the bushes on the other side of the stream. For a moment I thought it was some of the German snipers getting in our rear. I crawled very cautiously on my hands and knees along the stream to a small bridge crossing. I found after no little time that the sound I had heard was caused by some rabbits that our chaps released from an adjoining 

farm.

It was amusing to think about it afterwards but not at the time.

Old George returned, loaded with goods. When I mentioned the machine gun and the rabbit stalking he said, “Blast the guns and rabbits, and have a bit of this strawberry jam, Old China. It’s the goods.” I declined the food for I was too dry to eat.

Nothing drinkable was to be had except the water in the stream and that was dirty.The rest of the night passed rather quietly. In the morning, out of desperation, I was compelled to drink some of the stream water.