Ozzie Posted 2 May , 2007 Share Posted 2 May , 2007 I chose this out of a list of suggestions put up. I think that each person's interpretation of "Why?" may be very interesting. Come on, let's all have a go, even those who have not been game enough before, to put it out there. This is a place that welcomes new ideas and thoughts, without getting shot down. Cheers Kim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spike10764 Posted 2 May , 2007 Share Posted 2 May , 2007 Come on, let's all have a go, even those who have not been game enough before, to put it out there. This is a place that welcomes new ideas and thoughts, without getting shot down. WHY? This topic should give enough scope for most people, Kim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Landsturm Posted 3 May , 2007 Share Posted 3 May , 2007 Good choice, Kim! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spike10764 Posted 4 May , 2007 Share Posted 4 May , 2007 WHY?? My effort:- A letter from a C.O.- the hardest letter he ever had to write 4th April 1917 Dear Mrs Graham, I realise you are trying to make sense of trying times, that at times like these strain the best of us. Believe me, if I had the answers to your question I should at once divulge them, but in these times answers are not always what they seem. In the short time I knew your man and your son, they struck me as true british men, honest and hardworking. That they both enlisted within minutes of each other speaks volumes for their patriotism and you should be proud of this. As their commanding officer, I was wary of such a close family relationship in an army unit, but the qualities of the two were such that they could be both kin and soldiers with ease. They were such a good team that I made them the heart of my Lewis Gun team. To see them work together would, I believe, have made you proud. They came through so much and to see them fall in the way they did, was a bitter blow to all their fellow soldiers of this battalion. I know I wrote you the letter which upset you so (and caused you so much heartache and so many questions). I apologise for the slightly banal formula used. I have been at the war for 3 years now and I'm afraid that the number of letters of the like I've had to write, have made me somewhat hard and in my attempts to spare the relatives feelings, trite. As you have asked to know the details of their deaths, I will tell you. John and Joseph were manning a strongpoint that day, as part of the Lewis Gun team. We knew a Boche attack was imminent and we had suffered badly in a bombardment, the like of which I had never seen. The defences were in such a state that we relied on the Strongpoints to save us and that they did. When the attack came the Lewis Gun teams worked wonders (Joe and John's especially) and drove back attack after attack, helping hold our part of the line. They never flinched and despite heavy odds against, drove the Germans back to their trenches in disarray, more than once that day. After many hours fighting the battalion was relieved and went into supports. John and Joe had a dugout they had enlarged from a scrape in the trench and after they were stood down, they retired to it for some well earned rest. Just before rations arrived, we were hit by a stray shell, two bays away from my HQ. Unfortunately it hit right on John and Joe's dugout and collapsed it. By the time we had dug them out they were dead. When I said they felt nothing in my previous letter(it was not a clean shot to the head, as I said, admittedly) I meant it, as far as I could tell, as they had serene faces when they were found, no pain evident. We think the shock of the blast may have killed them both. The thing that really was a blow to us all was that from the angle of the shell and the sound it made, it was a British "short" (the battery responsible apologised two days later). I hope this revelation will not cause you extra grief, but I am trying to be as honest as I can, as you requested. I hope this goes someway to setting the record straight. They were buried in a local village cemetery side by side, in death as in life, and the details passed on the the graves registration officer. Soon you should hear from them the location ( I cannot risk the censor) and one day when this war is over may be able to visit what by then should be a pretty French churchyard, where your "boys" rest. I am sorry to have had to write of these things but understand fully your need to know. I have been able to, I hope, explain to you the "how" and part of the "where", but I hope you understand ma'am, the WHY just escapes me. Maybe one day it will reveal itself to me and I'll be able to give you this answer. The officers and men of this battalion would like to put it on record, the esteem and comradeship which John and Joseph Graham were held and their sorrow at the deaths. Yours Sincerely Lt Col. T.E. McCabe C.O. 11th Dentons BEF France Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Landsturm Posted 4 May , 2007 Share Posted 4 May , 2007 Great opening, Spike! May is going to be a good MGWAT month Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Landsturm Posted 9 May , 2007 Share Posted 9 May , 2007 My ink-work with coloration by Johanna Jouppila (her artpage and her dollpage, both very interesting) The better quality view of this piece in my DeviantART gallery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spike10764 Posted 10 May , 2007 Share Posted 10 May , 2007 Excellent, Landsturm (and Johanna)- I was beginning to feel a bit lonely in the May MGWAT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozzie Posted 12 May , 2007 Author Share Posted 12 May , 2007 Oh my. What an excellent start. Spike, wow. Landsturm, I think this is your best yet. Kim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Landsturm Posted 12 May , 2007 Share Posted 12 May , 2007 Landsturm, I think this is your best yet. Thank you very much, but not all mine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spike10764 Posted 12 May , 2007 Share Posted 12 May , 2007 Come on Kim, we await your entry.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Morton Posted 12 May , 2007 Share Posted 12 May , 2007 All the entries so far are intense! Good job everybody!!! All the best, Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loganshort Posted 13 May , 2007 Share Posted 13 May , 2007 The letter posted by Spike tells it all. Very moving. What must have gone on through the woman's mind reading the "standard" letter and then the more truthful one. the leut col did his best in such tragic circumstances. "We're here because we're here, because we're here, because we're here." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Landsturm Posted 17 May , 2007 Share Posted 17 May , 2007 Captain's log May 17th 2007, Thursday. Still no sign of people or new entries. I wonder how long we'll have to be stuck here alone? God help us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marina Posted 17 May , 2007 Share Posted 17 May , 2007 Courage, mom ami - they're on their way...surely... Marina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen D Posted 17 May , 2007 Share Posted 17 May , 2007 Sorry not posted on MGWAT for awhile, sort of lost interest. Can't get creative juicies going again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozzie Posted 18 May , 2007 Author Share Posted 18 May , 2007 Know that feeling well, Owen. I actually tried to do a drawing for this one. When the soldier turned out larger than the horse, I gave up. Shall have to find the music agian. Kim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spike10764 Posted 18 May , 2007 Share Posted 18 May , 2007 It's freezin cold in this sap, when will the relief arrive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Landsturm Posted 18 May , 2007 Share Posted 18 May , 2007 May 18th 2007, Friday Distress calls seem useless. I just found out that Kim and Owen had tried to break through to us, but depressing conditions and lack of enthusiasm stopped them and they were driven back. There's still time left, I hope we get to see our friends again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen D Posted 18 May , 2007 Share Posted 18 May , 2007 Kim and Owen How did you know my wife's name? I know you meant Ozzie Kim but I had a weird image of me and Mrs D struggling up a sap to relieve you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozzie Posted 20 May , 2007 Author Share Posted 20 May , 2007 Couldn't sleep so got up and tried to find the music. Why? A man stood in a stark, black world, his shoulders slumped in the khaki cloth that covered his bony frame. At the end of his thin arms, dirt encrusted fingers spread out, pointing down, towards the dark, slimy earth. His eyes, red rimmed and sunken in skin that held a blue tinge, stared at the scene that lay before him. What had been a man, once a feeling, living human being, now lay with half his face missing, his entrails flowing out, turning green, as Mother Nature took her course. To the left of the remains of this form who was once Private Jamie Mitchell, lay another heap. Unrecognisable as human, but the soldier knew it once was. The markings on the uniform said he was a Corporal, an Australian one, the Rising Sun on what was left of the uniform, said it was so. There was nothing otherwise to say what this human looked like, felt like, just the dull khaki and the metal badges. The soldier moved his eyed to the right. Nothing new there. A disembowelled horse, sitting as if just resting, except for the blue grey mass that lay alongside its stomach. Another uniform, another body. There were fifteen, twenty of them. The smell of cordite, sour earth and suppurating flesh drifted upwards, causing him to sniff, to hark in the back of his throat. He had seen it all before. What was it that affected him this time? Why were the dead bodies in front of him more real than the others? He shook his head, trying to clear the fog that was trying to spread its tendrils through his mind. The colours, the colours of the patches on the arms of the soldiers. They were familiar. They were sending him a message. His face suddenly lost all tension, lines that were there a minute ago, melted away, as if an artist had taken a brush and washed them out. A small spark ignited in the blue eyes, his jaw jutted forward as he clamped his teeth together. Slowly, the fog parted, and he whipped his head from side to side, searching, trying to find what his mind was rebelling against. There, draped over the broken shaft of an ambulance wagon, was a body that held a familiar look. Slowly, the soldier reached his hands forward, his head still shaking back and forth in denial. The mud sucked at his legs as he tried to go forward. He stumbled as a piece of barbed wire snagged at his trouser leg. He fell into the morass, but pushed himself up on his elbows, and dragged his body through the muck. So intent on getting to the broken body in front of him, he did not try to get up, but wriggled, as a fish out of water would wriggle, to get to his objective. A yard from the smashed wagon, he stopped, his eyes taking in the face that he could not see before. Very slowly, he took a few more digs with his elbows, pulling himself closer, his mind pushing away the truth that lay before his eyes. Time stopped, the noise stopped, the world came to a halt. He reached out and with one dirty finger, traced the cold jaw line of the soldier, whose body lay draped over the shafts. “You told me that God was with you. You told me that you would not leave the priesthood,” the soldier groaned. He let his fingers trace the dead mans lips, letting them fall upon the dark metal of the rising sun. “I had a letter to say you had joined, that you were in the Field Ambulance. Where you felt that you could help the most, seeing as you couldn’t bear to shoot at a man.” He pulled his finger away, his hand clenching into a fist. Drawing his legs under him, he sat up, cross legged, like a child. He stared at the face that was so familiar to him, but changed. Flecks of blood, fragments of metal, ringed by black, pockmarked that face. He began to rock, back and forth, an old nursery rhyme flowing through his mind. “Ring a ring a rosy, A pocket full of posy,” He laughed, more a cackle than a laugh. As suddenly as he had started rocking, he stopped, and leant forward, until his lips were brushing the dead man’s ears. “I know you can hear me, cause you once said the dead can hear. You always knew everything. You knew where the best blackberries were, you knew when Father Brian was sipping from the bottle. You knew why Molly had to get married. We counted on you, we trusted you to look after us. I used to think that you were too good for us. My brother: the one who was always clean, when we were dirty. The one who always stuck up for us, did our homework, carried the load when we were knackered. The one the girls fancied.” He drew away, his tears mingling with the mucous running from his nose. He dragged his sleeve across his face, smearing mud, mucous and tears. “Why? Why should you, a man of beauty and goodness, the brother to whom we looked up to, why should you end up in this place?” he whispered. He pushed his hands down into the mud, and dragging up handfuls of it, threw them at the wagon. Jerking back his head, he looked to the sky and screamed, “But then, why should anyone be here? Why are we here? Here in hell.” Kim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spike10764 Posted 21 May , 2007 Share Posted 21 May , 2007 Brilliant Kim, simply brilliant..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loganshort Posted 21 May , 2007 Share Posted 21 May , 2007 Moving story Kim. Could visualise it and sense the agony in his mind. Where is it from? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozzie Posted 22 May , 2007 Author Share Posted 22 May , 2007 Ta Spike. Ta Logan. Out of my head. Whoops, out of my imagination. Sometimes it is there and sometimes not. Lately a lot not. Could probably rework it, but I put up 1st drafts cause I reckon they are the most honest ones. Cheers Kim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunboat Posted 22 May , 2007 Share Posted 22 May , 2007 Nice one Kim....obviously the writers block has been unblocked Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunboat Posted 22 May , 2007 Share Posted 22 May , 2007 Following on from Spikes letter Why? She drops the letter to the floor Buries her head in her hand The husband and son who marched to War Lie together in a foreign land Rocking back and forth in a chair To stunned to even cry She mumbles quietly in despair Why? Why? Why?... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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