Somme Mud

[eyes]

I'm lucky, an Aussie mate recently sent me this book. An excellent book that sharing a Digger's life and perceptions with the reader. Articulate and well-paced - it's an easy, absorbing read. There are graphic, moving descriptions. The humour is good and typically soldierly. Fascinating description of staying awake whilst on watch. And the description of the stretcher bearers' lot is outstanding.

Thanks, Geoff, for sending it to me. Get logged onto Amazon in Feb 08, you Poms

Chris

Chris

Not relevant to the thread but just noticed your quote "Beyond the mountain, mountains. Drive the body on, there is no finish line." Good one. Where's it from? Sounds Airborne.

Colin

[Chris Best]

Chris

Not relevant to the thread but just noticed your quote "Beyond the mountain, mountains. Drive the body on, there is no finish line." Good one. Where's it from? Sounds Airborne.

Colin

Colin

Twenty-two years ago I spent 2 years with the Canadian Forces on an exchange appointment. I represented the Base as a runner and ran a few distance events including a couple of marathons. I picked up the quote from a running shoe manufacturer's advertising. And yes, it suited my ex-AB attitude. Oh, that I could now!

Happy Christmas.

Chris

[digger5410]

I was given a copy of Somme Mud Christmas 2006 by a grateful ex serviceman I'd helped with a few things. Excellent read editing of the originals really well done. Pity Lynch's exercise books lay hidden for so long but the wait was well worth it.

Rod

[Old Tom]

Hello,

I have just finished this excellent book. Noting that most of the comments above are by Aussies may I add a Pommie comment. Most of my reading has been about the conduct of operations and related topics, I have read little about individual soldiers; no doubt a fault but there is only limited time. What impressed me was that while the accounts of operations (stunts) are not precisely tied to time and place they fell nicely into my understanding of the operations in which 'Nulla' took part. By that I mean his references to particular equipments and techniques, put from an infantryman's point of view, added to my appreciation. I recommend it without hesitation.

Old Tom

[trenchtrotter]

Got the paper back this Christmas and am up to chapter entitled "Fallen Comrades"......what can I say...so far a superb and moving read....highly recommended.

Kind regards

TT

[jasmor58]

Got this for Christmas. facinating read.

Jasmor58

[bruce]

this is one of those books which I will be disappointed to finish, as i am enjoying it that much.

A cracking good read!

[willy]

the book is a gem.

[singin]

I had loan of this book in the Autumn and found it a very good read. The descriptions of the actions and casualties were more vivid that most books, and this made it difficult to put the book down. I was sorry to hand the book back, but Santa came to the rescue and delivered my own copy, which will definiatly get re-read in the future.

John Ellis

[john jerome mcmanus]

G'day all,

If you refer to my past posts you may notice that I advised of the publication of this book many months ago (I actually believe I purchased the first copy in Australia). I am not trying to brag but just wish to advise those that seem to have missed the original posts concerning Will Davies' fantastic book that a supplement has also been published titled 'In the footsteps of Private Lynch' which contextualises Lynch's and the 45th Battalion's experiences with the other actions of the Great War. A superb companion to the original.

Regards

Pop

[phil andrade]

This book was given to me as a Christmas Tree present by my sister in law. It's an eye opener for those of us who've been taught that bayonets rarely crossed in that war.....the chapter Fallen Comrades gives grisly descriptions of burial details encountering the aftermath of hand to hand combat: Tommies and Fritzes impaled on each other's bayonets, heads cleaved open with entrenching tools...it sounds more like 1066 than 1916 !

Have to agree, though : a compelling and moving account, well worth the read, and exquisitely defiant of our modern PC fixations!

Phil.

[Will O'Brien]

Just over half way through at the moment & I'm finding it to be a fasinating read. One of the best 1st hand accounts I have read in a long time.

[Guest KevinEndon]

PART 2 is just as good

K

[RedCoat]

A brilliant book, i was disappointed that there was hardly any focus on his stay in hospital....did you say part 2 K?.....

Donnie

[auchonvillerssomme]

In the Footsteps of Private Lynch...only one in th UK on ABE so get in quick

[RedCoat]

In the Footsteps of Private Lynch...only one in th UK on ABE so get in quick

Cheers mate ...

Donnie

[Ice Tiger]

To be frank (who ever he is) I found this the BEST WRITTEN first hand account I have read.

Not only does it deal with his experieces of the war, it also shows the social attitude of the time in a non modernised un pc way.

The editor deserves praise for not modernising the comments or omitting statements, which if written today, would be classed as racist.

I would have no hesitation in reccomending this to anyone.

Can't wait to read part two.

Andy

[tomstorrow]

Agree with other posters - this is an excellent, well-paced and accessible book. Leaving the non-PC stuff and the banter in makes it much more real and gives us an insight into the attitudes and ideas of the time. Highly recommended.

[Simon Furnell]

Good afternoon all,and a very merry new year to you all.

I have just finished reading Somme Mud by E.P.F Lynch,and i thought it was an excellent read,very well written and informative.

There were many things noted in the book by Mr Lynch that i didn't realise were actually happening during the closing months of the war,such as troop carrying tanks and the air re-supply of ammunition in the last great advance during August and September 1918,forward bombing by the RAF,a kind of all arms war that has become the norm.

Having been very interested in the 3rd Ypres battles,as well the actions around Villers-Brettoneux in April 1918,his descriptions of the landscape that these were held in create a very vivid picture of the conditions these battles were fought in.

Having had a relative who was a runner(he was awarded the M.M in September 1918,while serving with the British army),Mr Lynch's accounts of running messages,and his nasty wound received while carrying one of these messages,was a real eye opener to how difficult this job was.

His descriptions of "hop overs" and "stunts" are very vivid,and obviously made a great impression on him,so detailed are his recollections of these actions several years after the war.

My wife bought this for me for christmas and was a little concerned that she may have got hold of something that was not in my line of interest.

She doesn't have to worry,because i am a great fan of first hand accounts and this is one of the most interesting first hand accounts i have read for a long time.

Highly recommended and i am off to read it again,even being a Pom.

All the best.

Simon Furnell

[kenf48]

In the foreword to 'Somme Mud' it is claimed that Edward Lynch said 'Nulla', the hero and narrator of his manuscript was based on a friend but we're asked to believe he was, in fact Private Lynch. The only justification for this suspension of belief is if these are composite characters based on the experiences of Edward Lynch can the memoir be described as 'non-fiction'? The manuscript is given no meaningful provenance, although his grandchildren apparently used it in their HCS and in part it often reads like a school project, with a mixture of historical fact and some incongruous precise details.

Nulla is 18 years old and the sensitive narrator for this band of brothers. Only nicknames are used for his comrades. NCOs and named officers barely exist in his war. We first meet up with the reinforcements for the 45^th Bn AIF as they leave for France, bade farewell by swooning, but bravely stoical, Australian womanhood. On arrival at Etaples Longun (the larrikin character) soon gets the better of the base instructors and how we laughed when one of these authority figures burned his fingers while demonstrating a flamethrower.

Early on in the narrative there is an appalling racist anecdote involving a soldier in a Labour Corps unit who has his hand blown off by a 'bomb' after naively pulling the pin. The apocryphal 'hand in the trench wall' story is repeated yet again, this time with a racist undertone. The Maoris, however, are an acceptable minority, earning acceptance by proving themselves in battle.

After their first experience in the line the doomed replacement character, 'Young Jacko', joins them. Posted to 15 Platoon, 14 Platoon make him feel so welcome he remains with them for a few months until his death. Nobody seems bothered by this.

Nulla becomes a runner which allows him, to have many adventures, including a bizarre exchange with his (unnamed) Colonel on the nature of war, after which they depart, allegedly 'the best of friends'.

Eventually, on the 7^th June 1917 they are on Messines Ridge. Three days later young Jacko is killed, bleeding out with his mates around him, his mother's name on his dying lips as his 'boyish' hands lose their grip on life. His melodramatic death provokes Longun to go on a rampage of revenge against 'Fritz' with his bayonet. CWGC has no record of Private Jackson 45^th Bn. AIF killed that day, or even that month. Astonishingly our 'crowd of seven', who sailed away together (although knocked about a bit) are eventually reunited to travel home together and return to 'our own people'. As they voyage home Nulla helpfully gives a rambling dissertation on the uniquely Australian social and cultural identity of 'mateship'.

Edward Lynch was a soldier. He was wounded twice, his service record is unremarkable but no less distinguished for being typical of the thousands of volunteers of all nations. We're told he served as a Captain in WW2 and later became a teacher. The editor notes this is an 'abridged version' of Lynch's manuscript and racist language is included as a record of the type of attitudes and language of the time. Soldier's language was no doubt extreme and yet there are no other expletives in the book, although there are absurd euphemisms at odds with the received Australian pride for straight talking.

Like so many of the relatively new publishing genre of 'rediscovered memoirs' that coincides with the passing of the last veterans I believe 'Somme Mud' probably says more about popular attitudes to history in the twenty first century than adding anything new to the classic literature and experience of the Great War.

Ken

[Guest]

From your tone, it seems that you are using present day values to judge values of 1914-1918 and have no idea of what an Anzac was.

That's good coming from the land were most Anzac soldiers originated from, either 1st or 2nd or 3rd generation, and carrying British values, like racism. You know like niggers, and those 'wretched Indians", those that died in their thousands in Britain's name in WW1. And then were forgotten and conveniently ignored.

Have you a problem with the Anzacs, cause it sure comes across like you do. Or possibly you beleive that British soldiers all wore shiny silver armour.

Maybe you should research the Anzac bravery citations and Field Punishment records before you "have a go", you might find that this account is startingly accurate in a variety of respects. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Regards

Ozzie

[Roxy]

I enjoyed the book - apparently more than Ken! However, I agree that some of the 'less PC' elements in the book - particularly the bit in South Africa - added nothing to the book. Ken is entitled to his opinion - even if it is against the majority of the forum.

Roxy

[Fedelmar]

May I point out that original records are not changed to suit today's beliefs. By the same token you cannot measure history by today's standards ... such being the case would you critique the crucifixion (or bible) in a similar fashion Ken?

Perhaps the critics themselves should become published authors.

Bright Blessings

Sandra

[john jerome mcmanus]

G'day all,

Hear, Hear! Sandra and Kim are totally right in thier criticisms.

'Somme Mud' is not some new writing, nor, I beleive a fictitous account of a soldier of the Great War.

To me it is akin to reading Caesars accounts or those of any other author whose writings have only recently come to light and give us insight into days where ther are none left to tell the tale.

In historical provenience 'Somme Mud' is invaluable not only for the descriptions of the ordeals of a soldier in WW1 but also as a window into the social/racial ethos of the times.

Political correctness is a child of the latest century not a reason to discard important sources of a time quickly fading.

I am open to debate on this subject.

Regards

Pop

Sean McManus

[kenf48]

I was under the impression this section of the Forum was 'Book Reviews', it would probably be best to stay on topic. Its' about the book, can it be trusted as a true and accurate account of an Australian infantryman's life in the Great War, or is it a non-fiction novel, or 'faction'.

In the preface Somme Mud is compared to AQOTWF, how do we know Edward Lynch was not trying to sell an Australian AQOTWF when he submitted the manuscript in the twenties and thirties?

A footnote in Geoff Dyer's 'Missing of the Some' describes a telegram sent in 1929 by Richard Aldington to his American agent urging early publication of 'Death of a Hero' to 'take advantage of the public mood. Large-scale English war novel might go big now'. A cynic might substitute e-mail for telegram and 'personal memoir' for English novel and note nothing changes in publishing, like any other business it seeks to make a profit.

An Australian Great War memoir that reinforces traditional Australian cultural identity and supports twenty first century headlines screaming 'Immigrants to take mateship test' might fit the bill and make a perfectly acceptable novel. A non-fiction account should at least be accurate if it is going to use the veterans who can't speak for themselves, to make a statement on those values as espoused on the Australian Government web site in 2009.

'Somme Mud' takes a broad sweep of history; great events are posted like landmarks in the narrative, this lack of chronology has been described by another reviewer as 'annoying', it certainly is.

Edward Lynch's service record is more realistic reflection of the life of an infantryman on the Western Front. It's a highly recommended read and stands without embellishment. Australian researchers are incredibly lucky to have free access to such rich primary sources.

The highlights of Lynch's record are that he embarked 22.8.1916 and in October he was admitted to hospital with mumps. He left for France on the Princess Clementine and arrived in Etaples on 22.12.16. and taken on the strength of the 45^th Bn on New Year's Day 1917. Wilfred Owen, who arrived in Etaples on the 30^th December, has described Etaples on New Year's Eve 1916 and thought it was important enough to recall it in a letter to his mother the following year. I think 18-year-old Edward's first Christmas away from home and might get a mention in a diary account. Whatever other qualities Great War soldiers possessed they were a sentimental crowd when it came to thoughts of home.

In March 1917 Lynch spent nearly a month in hospital in Rouen with 'Trench Foot (Sev.)', it must have been agony and involved constant changed dressings, but again ,no mention. This stay in hospital also skews the chronology of the book, we shall never know maybe he even began writing it during his frequent stays in hospital. Perhaps the trench foot gave him the inspiration for the title of his manuscript, we will never know.

As for some of the other characters in Somme Mud there are 29 soldiers named Dark listed in the records, none of the available records show service in the 45^th Bn. of the AIF. Then there is Jakob the Russian Jew. Dr Elena Govor's 'Russian Anzacs in Australian History' (pub.2005) places this group of veterans in a historical context although I've not seen it in the UK. The Roll of Honour on her website lists no Jakob attached to the 45^th Bn.

Last Friday I was able to pay my respects at the 1^ST AIF Division Memorial just outside Pozieres while driving home from Amiens. Alone on the observation platform above the Gibraltar Redoubt looking out towards Thiepval on a crystal clear spring day quietly contemplating the sacrifice of the AIF this book and its irritating inconsistencies kept intruding on my thoughts.

Quiet contemplation is very difficult to achieve at the best of times on the Somme these days. Albert was full of coaches and there were six more at the Lochnagar Crater, which as anyone who has visited there will know is an impossible situation. Looking out across the Somme Valley coach after coach of school children roared past on the way to Thiepval and the shiny new visitor centre. There were no Australian children to pay their respects at the AIF Memorial, which was deserted. An Australian newspaper review reported Somme Mud is in its sixth reprint, was being snapped up by schools.

The fact it is going on High School reading lists surely is another reason for trying to establish we can trust 'Somme Mud' and that it is in the correct category of Great War literature.

Ken