Horrors of war recalled

[caption id="attachment_156637" align="aligncenter" width="500"] SAD DAYS: Lorraine Addison pages through the World War 1 diary of her father in- law, Eric Addison[/caption]

100 years after Somme, family members tell of relatives’ ordeals, Ivor Markman writes

Grabbing a quick cup of tea was the difference between life and death.

The Battle of the Somme was a defining moment of World War 1, and the Port Elizabeth granddaughter of one of the men who was at the centre of it remembers him describing the horror of momentarily leaving his platoon to snatch a hot drink, only to return to find a massive crater and no survivors.

At precisely 7.20am on July 1 1916, the British exploded the Hawthorn underground mine beneath the German trenches and signalled the start of what is called the Somme Offensive.

At 7.28am, the first soldiers “went over the top” and charged the German lines.

This is the time the UK has chosen to commemorate the centenary of the battle today. At the end of the day, 19 240 British soldiers lay dead or wounded and in the space of one hour, British forces suffered their highest-ever casualty rate.

Karen Duffell-Canham’s grandfather, Colin Cooper, used to tell her about the war when she was a young girl. “He talked to us about trench warfare, the goriness of it and how he feared the mustard gas.

“He came from the protective environment of Port Nolloth and he had absolutely no idea what he was in for.

“He was exposed to all the horrors of trench warfare – the lice, the rain, the mud, the wounded, the dying, and all the bodies,” she said.

Memories of the time are also recorded in the diary of Eric Addison, whose daughter-in-law, Lorraine Addison, still has a copy of his recollections.

Eric wrote: “All soldiers who die in action are young men full of life, and pleasant anticipations for the future.”

At her Summerstrand home this week, Addison said: “When they went to South West Africa [now Namibia] it was a great adventure.”

But when Eric ended up in the trenches on the Western Front, he found things a lot different. He wrote: “We entrained in the famous French railway trucks and after a horrible night journey, arrived at some village where, for the first time, we’ve heard the ominous rumble of a distant gun fire.

“The great Somme Push had started on July 1 1916, and although the German frontline was captured in several sectors, it was the greatest disaster the British Army has ever suffered in one day.

“As soon as we detrained, we moved towards the sound of gunfire, which became louder the further we moved into the huge salient the British had pushed into the German position,” Eric wrote.

On the way, they passed camps, dumps and war material and a continuous stream of traffic up and down the roads, including ambulances with their loads of wounded men.

Later, Eric wrote: “We heard of the deaths of several friends . . . [and] all this news made us feel sad, in spite of this area being known as ‘Happy Valley’.” An unforgettable sight was a huge arc of fire, 50km across the base, caused by the flashes of the artillery. “Men were living, dying, eating, sleeping and perhaps laughing in that inferno, and we would have to go into it,” Eric wrote.

“I hated the idea.”