Flamethrower poem by Rifleman Colin Mitchell

[Tom W.]

Hi:

New member here.

I'm looking for the publishing data (book title, author, publisher, publishing date and place, page numbers) of a poem by Rifleman Colin Mitchell, 8th (later 3rd) Battalion The Rifle Brigade. I'm not sure of the title of the poem, but it's about the German flamethrower attack at Hooge on July 30, 1915. Any help will be gratefully accepted.

Thanks in advance.

Tom W.

The poem reads in part:

Hooge! More damned than Sodom and more bloody,

‘Twas there we faced the flames of liquid fire.

Hooge! That shambles where the flames swept ruddy:

A spume of heat and hate and omens dire;

A vision of a concrete hell from whence

Emerged satanic forms, or so it seemed

To us who, helpless, saw them hasten hence.

Scarce understood we if we waked or dreamed.

“Stand To! Stand To! The Wurtembergers come!”

Shouting vile English oaths with gutter zest.

And boastful threats to kill they voice, while some,

In uniforms of grey and scarlet dressed,

Wear flame-projectors strapped upon their backs.

How face a wall of flame? Impossible!

“Back, boys! Give way a little; take the tracks

That lead to yonder wood, and there we’ll fill

Such trenches as are dug, and face the foe,

And no Hell-fire shall move us once we’re there.

We’re out to win or die, boys; if we go

Back and yet back, leaving good strongholds bare,

We’ll save our lives, perhaps, but not our name.

There’s no one in this well-trained company

Who’d save his skin and perjure his good fame.”

[Graham-McAdam]

He's not in the Faber Book of War Poetry, or Wordsworth First World War Poetry or Andrew Motion First World War Poems.

Not much help, but a few anthologies to tick off the list. Somebody will find it within the hour!

Cheers

GMcA

[marina]

The poem is online here at Jacky's site:

http://www.hellfire-corner.demon.co.uk/jacky8.htm

Marina

[Tom W.]

The poem is online here at Jacky's site:

http://www.hellfire-corner.demon.co.uk/jacky8.htm

Marina

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi, thanks for your response.

That's where I got the poem, and it doesn't have any credits. I tried e-mailing Jacky, but the address was dead. I'm looking for the publishing info so I can include the poem in a book that I'm writing.

Best regards,

Tom W.

[Mark Hone]

Hello, Tom, what is the book about? I'm interested in the Hooge flamethrower attack. It will be the subject of a battlefield walk on my next school tour in October. Rifleman William D. Lauria of 8th KRRC, an old boy of our school, died in the ensuing fighting. He is commemorated on the Menin Gate. Unfortunately he is one of the few old boys of whom I do not have a photograph.

[stiletto_33853]

Tom,

Quite an action where Lieutenant S.C. Woodruffe of the 8th R.B.'s won the first New Army Victoria Cross. Battalion lost 342 men killed and wounded and 132 missing (missing in this case being synonymous with being burned to death) and 19 out of 24 officers lost.

Andy

[Tom W.]

Hello, Tom, what is the book about? I'm interested in the Hooge flamethrower attack. It will be the subject of a battlefield walk on my next school tour in October. Rifleman William D. Lauria of 8th KRRC, an old boy of our school, died in the ensuing fighting. He is commemorated on the Menin Gate. Unfortunately he is one of the few old boys of whom I do not have a photograph.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hello Mark:

The book is about the Garde-Reserve-Pionier-Regiment, which used flamethrowers in the war. Every time I think I have enough information about the subject, I find something else. I wanted to include this poem because it's actually one of the more dramatic accounts of what it was like to be on the receiving end of a flamethrower attack.

Good luck with your battlefield walk. Someday I hope to do my own tour of WWI battlefields. I went to Gettysburg for the first time last year, and it was awe inspiring.

[Paul Hodges]

He's not in the Faber Book of War Poetry, or Wordsworth First World War Poetry or Andrew Motion First World War Poems.

Not much help, but a few anthologies to tick off the list.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Nor in Everyman's Never Such Innocence collection...

There was a Mitchell, which got me excited, but it's a (female) nurse...

[Tim Godden]

Hi Tom,

Do you know that it was definitely published?

Just a thought.

Cheers,

Tim

[Tom W.]

Hi Tom,

Do you know that it was definitely published?

Just a thought.

Cheers,

Tim

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi Tim:

No, that's the problem. I know nothing about the poem or the poet. I just found it on the Web site mentioned by Marina above, and that's where it ends.

It may all be moot because the poem is likely in the public domain now, given that Mitchell was killed in action in 1918. If his family renewed the rights, that's a different story, but according to British law, copyrights expire 75 years after the author's death.

I'll keep checking back here periodically.

Cheers.

[Guest Mervyn Mitchell]

Hi Tom W,

I doubt that this will reach you after 7 years but in 2005 you were asking for information on Colin Mitchell, my great uncle, who was one of the minor published WWI poets. If you are still interested, I can send you directly (or post) a synopsis of his life and also, if you wish, a facsimile of his book of poems called Trampled Clay.

Mervyn Mitchell

[Guest]

To Mervyn

I would be very interested in obtaining a synopsis of Colin Mitchell's life and a facsimile of Trampled Clay for an exhibition commemorating the outbreak of the Great War at my local museum.

Ann Symons