'I put the sack within 25 yards of our trench. 'Oh, I say, look at that.' Then he returned to the logistical problem of the burial. He permitted himself a short exclamation of joy.

He was face to face with the grave of John Walter Malthouse, West Yorkshire Regiment. As Doc Wilson was wheeled past the headstones of several Royal Berkshires and the grave of 'a Soldier of the Great War known unto God', he gave a start. A broken-roofed farm building abutted the cemetery wall, and a storm-damaged tree looked as though a German shell had just blackened and torn it. Initially successful, they had to halt their advance and dig in just beyond the village after the ammunition ran out.Īt the Fauquissart Military Cemetery outside Neuve Chapelle, the veterans left their coach again. It is hard to imagine that this dull landscape with its concrete telephone poles, rickety modern houses and their leek-filled gardens, was the site of savage fighting as the British inched forward after the 35-minute opening bombardment. The land is crossed with long, damp ditches all the way to the village of Neuve-Chapelle, on which the British launched their first genuine offensive of the war in 1915. The ground was too waterlogged for proper trenches the troops filled sandbags to make shallow protective breastworks.

The fields around are filled with chewed mud, slashed and turned by the plough. We didn't want to go back, we'd only just come.' I was blown through the door and put my hand to my head. 'It was by that cottage, about ten yards away. First stop was at Richebourg l'Avoué, where Gunner Norman Tennant, aged 92, visited the site of his observation post. On Thursday the party set out to see some old battlegrounds.

Birdsong sebastian faulks review