Battle of the Somme

[RichieR]

Maybe it would be worth framing them to stop any deterioration.

[Billhook]

We still have many letters from the First World War.

My Grandfather Jim was wounded in April 1916 at Souchez near Arras, and the gangrene which followed the shrapnel wound in his foot eventually led to his leg being amputated in July in Oxford. He was still a skeleton in November and it killed him in the end in WW2 when my father was away with the RAF and Grandfather overbalanced while cutting branches by a pond, fell in and drowned in a few inches of water having hit his head on a rock.

 

These are letters from the Somme written by Harry Wayman to his great friend my Gt Grandfather also Harry. They would both be about sixty at the time.

 

Written in pencil enclosed in an envelope which read

“Field Post Office” “Field Censor Passed”

“ On Active Service” “Examined”

 

BEF France 6/5/1916

 

My Dear Harry

Thanks many for your letter. I haven’t seen Jim’s name, papers are rather few and far between here and I have been very hard worked lately.

I am of course sorry, very sorry, but at the same time knowing this war and the happenings in it I am relieved to think that he will retain his limbs and health and also he as the doctor put it I hope he has not suffered much, was it a shell or grenade?

I trust that he will get on rapidly and that you will see him soon in England once more. I shall be very glad to hear how he goes on.

Where I am now it is by no means pleasant even for war, I can assure you and I can’t see that the Hun is short of much.

As the papers say there is great activity which means a lot, some of it not nice to talk of.

The men seem fine and I have as much admiration for them as I have contempt for many at home, meddling politicians who are awful and responsible for so much.

Well, things look like going on, it seems sometimes a lifetime since we shot partridges doesn’t it? Good Luck

Yours ever

H.R.B. Wayman

 

Ps it was damnable the recalling people from leave at 10 hours notice.

It was after all a mistake.

 

BEF France 3/6/1916

 

My Dear Harry

Thank you for your letter, but I was and am so very sorry such bad news of Jim’s wound, and hoped to hear better. His youth and strength I’m sure will count for much and I knew that his pluck was always all it should be. It is bad luck, I sincerely hope that they will save the limb and that I shall soon hear better news.

Things have been very active here lately and a tremendous amount of shelling. It is a ghastly war and will doubtless last a long time and it is likely too, as the papers say, but no one knows. We can stand it longer than the Hun I think. It is a great mistake to think the Hun is not a fine soldier or a fine fighter. Of course we all knew their dirty tricks and I’m not referring to them.

There is no rest here. My C.O. is away in hospital which leaves me in command for the time being, so I have a good deal to think about. It is wonderful how the men stick things, I am very proud of them, Of course discipline is very strict, as it must be, but that is essential, and they know it.

I hear news of a naval engagement but have nothing definite.

Hoping Jim is better

Yours ever sincerely

 

H.R.B Wayman

 

P.s. It seems ages since we shot together.

 

 

BEF France 24th June 1916

 

My Dear Harry

Thanks so much for card, I am so glad to hear Jim is a bit better and sincerely hope he will maintain progress. It has been and is a trying time for you all and for him poor chap, and I trust his pluck and constitution will push him through. How well I remember the old dining hall, it seems aeons ago now

I am so busy that I have hardly a moment, things have been very very strenuous now, as I have been commanding the battalion for nearly a month as the C,O is dead poor man.

My men have been doing so well and they did a particularly fine bit of work

Hoping for more news of Jim

Yours ever H,R,B,Wayman

 

 

BEF France 16th August 1916.

 

My dear Mr Hoff

I was so glad to get your letter containing the good news that Jim was out of the wood, he must have had a perfectly marvellous constitution. I pray he will get well soon and be able to get about. It is wonderful nowadays what contrivances they have to enable one to do so, so don’t take too gloomy a view of things and if he goes on well I am sure you won’t.

At this present moment the Huns are shelling this place and sending bits about. We are not on the Somme now, we had 11 days of the battle and the sights one saw were indescribable. A great many men I knew are alas no more. It was a very warm place.

We who came out of the Somme are now in another part of the line, which after the Somme battle seems comparatively quiet, although we are very close to the Huns, a very few yards in parts. I hope to be able to tell you about it some day if I’m lucky enough to return.

The Huns fought well and I saw many prisoners

Good luck and hoping Jim is going on well, remember me to him please

Yours ever

H.R.B Wayman

[Pinkfoot]

We still have many letters from the First World War.

My Grandfather Jim was wounded in April 1916 at Souchez near Arras, and the gangrene which followed the shrapnel wound in his foot eventually led to his leg being amputated in July in Oxford. He was still a skeleton in November and it killed him in the end in WW2 when my father was away with the RAF and Grandfather overbalanced while cutting branches by a pond, fell in and drowned in a few inches of water having hit his head on a rock.

 

These are letters from the Somme written by Harry Wayman to his great friend my Gt Grandfather also Harry. They would both be about sixty at the time.

 

Written in pencil enclosed in an envelope which read

“Field Post Office” “Field Censor Passed”

“ On Active Service” “Examined”

 

BEF France 6/5/1916

 

My Dear Harry

Thanks many for your letter. I haven’t seen Jim’s name, papers are rather few and far between here and I have been very hard worked lately.

I am of course sorry, very sorry, but at the same time knowing this war and the happenings in it I am relieved to think that he will retain his limbs and health and also he as the doctor put it I hope he has not suffered much, was it a shell or grenade?

I trust that he will get on rapidly and that you will see him soon in England once more. I shall be very glad to hear how he goes on.

Where I am now it is by no means pleasant even for war, I can assure you and I can’t see that the Hun is short of much.

As the papers say there is great activity which means a lot, some of it not nice to talk of.

The men seem fine and I have as much admiration for them as I have contempt for many at home, meddling politicians who are awful and responsible for so much.

Well, things look like going on, it seems sometimes a lifetime since we shot partridges doesn’t it? Good Luck

Yours ever

H.R.B. Wayman

 

Ps it was damnable the recalling people from leave at 10 hours notice.

It was after all a mistake.

 

BEF France 3/6/1916

 

My Dear Harry

Thank you for your letter, but I was and am so very sorry such bad news of Jim’s wound, and hoped to hear better. His youth and strength I’m sure will count for much and I knew that his pluck was always all it should be. It is bad luck, I sincerely hope that they will save the limb and that I shall soon hear better news.

Things have been very active here lately and a tremendous amount of shelling. It is a ghastly war and will doubtless last a long time and it is likely too, as the papers say, but no one knows. We can stand it longer than the Hun I think. It is a great mistake to think the Hun is not a fine soldier or a fine fighter. Of course we all knew their dirty tricks and I’m not referring to them.

There is no rest here. My C.O. is away in hospital which leaves me in command for the time being, so I have a good deal to think about. It is wonderful how the men stick things, I am very proud of them, Of course discipline is very strict, as it must be, but that is essential, and they know it.

I hear news of a naval engagement but have nothing definite.

Hoping Jim is better

Yours ever sincerely

 

H.R.B Wayman

 

P.s. It seems ages since we shot together.

 

 

BEF France 24th June 1916

 

My Dear Harry

Thanks so much for card, I am so glad to hear Jim is a bit better and sincerely hope he will maintain progress. It has been and is a trying time for you all and for him poor chap, and I trust his pluck and constitution will push him through. How well I remember the old dining hall, it seems aeons ago now

I am so busy that I have hardly a moment, things have been very very strenuous now, as I have been commanding the battalion for nearly a month as the C,O is dead poor man.

My men have been doing so well and they did a particularly fine bit of work

Hoping for more news of Jim

Yours ever H,R,B,Wayman

 

 

BEF France 16th August 1916.

 

My dear Mr Hoff

I was so glad to get your letter containing the good news that Jim was out of the wood, he must have had a perfectly marvellous constitution. I pray he will get well soon and be able to get about. It is wonderful nowadays what contrivances they have to enable one to do so, so don’t take too gloomy a view of things and if he goes on well I am sure you won’t.

At this present moment the Huns are shelling this place and sending bits about. We are not on the Somme now, we had 11 days of the battle and the sights one saw were indescribable. A great many men I knew are alas no more. It was a very warm place.

We who came out of the Somme are now in another part of the line, which after the Somme battle seems comparatively quiet, although we are very close to the Huns, a very few yards in parts. I hope to be able to tell you about it some day if I’m lucky enough to return.

The Huns fought well and I saw many prisoners

Good luck and hoping Jim is going on well, remember me to him please

Yours ever

H.R.B Wayman

 

We have letters like these from the front and they all seem the same .

They make little fuss about all the vile things that happen to them

Really impressive generation of people.

[Farmifan36]

I live in a rural area, next to a derelict church with a graveyard and war memorial. On the memorial the names of the farms the fallen came from are listed too. You could drive from one end of the parish to the other and almost every farm or small holding lost a son, some more than one. What a waste of life and potential.

[Mull]

I live in a rural area, next to a derelict church with a graveyard and war memorial. On the memorial the names of the farms the fallen came from are listed too. You could drive from one end of the parish to the other and almost every farm or small holding lost a son, some more than one. What a waste of life and potential.

 

 

Without them making the great sacrifice there would be no " potential"!

[Farmifan36]

Aye, that's a fair comment, but such a waste that they didn't get the chance to realise theirs beyond the war.

[Mark Bolam]

We still have many letters from the First World War.

 

My Grandfather Jim was wounded in April 1916 at Souchez near Arras, and the gangrene which followed the shrapnel wound in his foot eventually led to his leg being amputated in July in Oxford. He was still a skeleton in November and it killed him in the end in WW2 when my father was away with the RAF and Grandfather overbalanced while cutting branches by a pond, fell in and drowned in a few inches of water having hit his head on a rock.

 

 

 

These are letters from the Somme written by Harry Wayman to his great friend my Gt Grandfather also Harry. They would both be about sixty at the time.

 

 

 

Written in pencil enclosed in an envelope which read

 

“Field Post Office” “Field Censor Passed”

 

“ On Active Service” “Examined”

 

 

 

BEF France 6/5/1916

 

 

 

My Dear Harry

 

Thanks many for your letter. I haven’t seen Jim’s name, papers are rather few and far between here and I have been very hard worked lately.

 

I am of course sorry, very sorry, but at the same time knowing this war and the happenings in it I am relieved to think that he will retain his limbs and health and also he as the doctor put it I hope he has not suffered much, was it a shell or grenade?

 

I trust that he will get on rapidly and that you will see him soon in England once more. I shall be very glad to hear how he goes on.

 

Where I am now it is by no means pleasant even for war, I can assure you and I can’t see that the Hun is short of much.

 

As the papers say there is great activity which means a lot, some of it not nice to talk of.

 

The men seem fine and I have as much admiration for them as I have contempt for many at home, meddling politicians who are awful and responsible for so much.

 

Well, things look like going on, it seems sometimes a lifetime since we shot partridges doesn’t it? Good Luck

 

Yours ever

 

H.R.B. Wayman

 

 

 

Ps it was damnable the recalling people from leave at 10 hours notice.

 

It was after all a mistake.

 

 

 

BEF France 3/6/1916

 

 

 

My Dear Harry

 

Thank you for your letter, but I was and am so very sorry such bad news of Jim’s wound, and hoped to hear better. His youth and strength I’m sure will count for much and I knew that his pluck was always all it should be. It is bad luck, I sincerely hope that they will save the limb and that I shall soon hear better news.

 

Things have been very active here lately and a tremendous amount of shelling. It is a ghastly war and will doubtless last a long time and it is likely too, as the papers say, but no one knows. We can stand it longer than the Hun I think. It is a great mistake to think the Hun is not a fine soldier or a fine fighter. Of course we all knew their dirty tricks and I’m not referring to them.

 

There is no rest here. My C.O. is away in hospital which leaves me in command for the time being, so I have a good deal to think about. It is wonderful how the men stick things, I am very proud of them, Of course discipline is very strict, as it must be, but that is essential, and they know it.

 

I hear news of a naval engagement but have nothing definite.

 

Hoping Jim is better

 

Yours ever sincerely

 

 

 

H.R.B Wayman

 

 

 

P.s. It seems ages since we shot together.

 

 

 

 

 

BEF France 24th June 1916

 

 

 

My Dear Harry

 

Thanks so much for card, I am so glad to hear Jim is a bit better and sincerely hope he will maintain progress. It has been and is a trying time for you all and for him poor chap, and I trust his pluck and constitution will push him through. How well I remember the old dining hall, it seems aeons ago now

 

I am so busy that I have hardly a moment, things have been very very strenuous now, as I have been commanding the battalion for nearly a month as the C,O is dead poor man.

 

My men have been doing so well and they did a particularly fine bit of work

 

Hoping for more news of Jim

 

Yours ever H,R,B,Wayman

 

 

 

 

 

BEF France 16th August 1916.

 

 

 

My dear Mr Hoff

 

I was so glad to get your letter containing the good news that Jim was out of the wood, he must have had a perfectly marvellous constitution. I pray he will get well soon and be able to get about. It is wonderful nowadays what contrivances they have to enable one to do so, so don’t take too gloomy a view of things and if he goes on well I am sure you won’t.

 

At this present moment the Huns are shelling this place and sending bits about. We are not on the Somme now, we had 11 days of the battle and the sights one saw were indescribable. A great many men I knew are alas no more. It was a very warm place.

 

We who came out of the Somme are now in another part of the line, which after the Somme battle seems comparatively quiet, although we are very close to the Huns, a very few yards in parts. I hope to be able to tell you about it some day if I’m lucky enough to return.

 

The Huns fought well and I saw many prisoners

 

Good luck and hoping Jim is going on well, remember me to him please

 

Yours ever

 

H.R.B Wayman

 

 

Very poignant mate, thank you for sharing.

[Mull]

Aye, that's a fair comment, but such a waste that they didn't get the chance to realise theirs beyond the war.

 

 

Yes, sad indeed, not sure we can really appreciate it nowadays,we have very easy lives, thanks to them.

[shavey]

Yes, sad indeed, not sure we can really appreciate it nowadays,we have very easy lives, thanks to them.

 

Yes very true all those servicemen and the 1000's of horses who went to foreign land fighting too secure this great country for future generations

[Stumpy Grinder]

Just did a bit of research which really puts this event into perspective!

Total British Serviceman lives lost per recent conflict:

Northern Ireland - 763

Falklands - 255

Iraq - 179

Afghanistan - 453

 

Total - 1650

 

Day one of the Somme - 19,240 British lives lost!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In one Day!!

How can we ever forget that?

SG