With Innocence and Hope
Genre: Kindle Edition
Brand: YouCaxton Publications
Author: Mike Williams
Price: £0.00
2nd Edition - Amended
When war was declared on Germany, driven on by a surge of patriotism and a feeling that they should go and ‘do their bit’ for King and Country, thousands of men rushed to sign up for active service.
Like countless other country boys who had only known the simple pattern of life lived in the heart of rural England, although still underage, Walter Williams was one of those who enlisted to serve his country, only to be plunged into the filth and horror of a war to end all wars in which, after four agonizing years of bloody conflict, a complete generation, the flower of British youth, would not come home. Although badly wounded, Walter was one of the lucky ones who did, only to find that life could never be the same again. While still only sixteen, he survived his first trench bombardment. Later, after being badly wounded by mortar fire it was found that he was underage and sent back to England, only to return again to France as soon as he was nineteen. This book describes the actions he fought in as a member of the Machine Gun Corps and then the Northumberland Fusiliers, the hardships and horrors, the highs and lows, that he experienced during the next three years. During that time he experienced the rigors of the notorious training camp at Etables, the freezing conditions encountered on the Vimy Ridge and the horror of the mud at Passchendaele, only to be severely wounded while taking part in an attack on the Canal du Nord in the dying months of the war by a bullet fired from a machine gun mounted in an enemy aircraft.
As well as graphic descriptions of the horrific sights he witnessed and the damage he saw that was inflicted on both civilian and service personnel, one chapter describes the disgust he felt when being made to witness a young soldier being executed for cowardice. On a lighter note, another tells how he was surprisingly given additional ‘agricultural leave’ to plough, then plant potatoes between the huts at an aerodrome which is now RAF Shawbury!
2014 will mark the 100th anniversary of the conflict that would become known throughout history as the Great War.
This book is dedicated to the memory of the many young men who went With Innocence and Hope’, only to pay with their lives fighting in a quarrel not of their own making.
When war was declared on Germany, driven on by a surge of patriotism and a feeling that they should go and ‘do their bit’ for King and Country, thousands of men rushed to sign up for active service.
Like countless other country boys who had only known the simple pattern of life lived in the heart of rural England, although still underage, Walter Williams was one of those who enlisted to serve his country, only to be plunged into the filth and horror of a war to end all wars in which, after four agonizing years of bloody conflict, a complete generation, the flower of British youth, would not come home. Although badly wounded, Walter was one of the lucky ones who did, only to find that life could never be the same again. While still only sixteen, he survived his first trench bombardment. Later, after being badly wounded by mortar fire it was found that he was underage and sent back to England, only to return again to France as soon as he was nineteen. This book describes the actions he fought in as a member of the Machine Gun Corps and then the Northumberland Fusiliers, the hardships and horrors, the highs and lows, that he experienced during the next three years. During that time he experienced the rigors of the notorious training camp at Etables, the freezing conditions encountered on the Vimy Ridge and the horror of the mud at Passchendaele, only to be severely wounded while taking part in an attack on the Canal du Nord in the dying months of the war by a bullet fired from a machine gun mounted in an enemy aircraft.
As well as graphic descriptions of the horrific sights he witnessed and the damage he saw that was inflicted on both civilian and service personnel, one chapter describes the disgust he felt when being made to witness a young soldier being executed for cowardice. On a lighter note, another tells how he was surprisingly given additional ‘agricultural leave’ to plough, then plant potatoes between the huts at an aerodrome which is now RAF Shawbury!
2014 will mark the 100th anniversary of the conflict that would become known throughout history as the Great War.
This book is dedicated to the memory of the many young men who went With Innocence and Hope’, only to pay with their lives fighting in a quarrel not of their own making.