i wrote a short story once and figured i'd make an AH.com editon.
Frontline Memories
A short novel by M. Merkam
Nieuw Amsterdam, CNN(Confederatie van Nieuw Nederland(confederation of new Netherlands), 1974
I Am Edward O’Connor, and these are my memories of the front of 1915 and the rest of my life.
But anyway let’s get this over with.
I was a 17- year old boy when I arrived at the front together with some other guy’s from Oxford; just like my fellow students I had been drafted. Of course we didn’t knew what was waiting for us. The horror of the trenches, blood and bodies just everywhere, and each and every thing was covered with mud especially during the fall and spring. And then de disease not rarely caused by poison gas of the Germans. We thought we’d be back by the falling of the leaves. We were horribly wrong. My officer was lt. Brady a good fellow from Liverpool. he wasn’t too happy with the war either and the nonsense infantry attacks that would cost thousands of young boys their lives. He once told me a story about the Christmas of 1914: in the days before Christmas the fighting stopped because of the weather and the British soldiers visit the Germans and they sat around a Christmas tree and exchanged gifts. The day after there was a soccer match (the Germans won with 5 – 1). The soldiers warned each other for attacks and when a commanding officer would come and inspect the troops then they would say to the Germans that they would shoot over their heads. But one time an officer saw trough the set-up and said to a young soldier; why don’t you shoot that old bearded man who has his head above the trench? Why would I, he does that every day, replied the soldier. Because he is the enemy! Said the officer but he doesn’t do me any harm! The soldier replied. The generals were furious! if this would happen the next Christmas then the men of the always would loyal artillery to point their guns at the Germans and the infantry who were celebrating Christmas with them. And so it never happened again. But his stories only gave distraction for a short time. Lt. Brady said that soon we would ‘go over the top’. I was wondering what that would mean so I turned to a bunch of veterans. They immediately turned away but one man with his uniform in a dozen pieces hanging around his body stayed he said: you don’t want to talk about that kid. It means that we are going to attack the Germans soon. A lot of them will die cause’ the machinegun fire you could better just hide in a bomb crater. I was stunned. I didn’t know that I would be confronted with the danger so soon. But I knew that it couldn’t be always fun and games.
Chapter 2
Over the top
In the early morning of April the 15th we got the message: this afternoon you are going over the top to attack and obliterate the Germans! For king and country! We will crush die wacht am Rhein! We knew we were dead men walking there was no chance to get past the mines, barbed wire and machine gun fire, across the Rhine and still be able to kill of some German soldiers. But then at 2:00 pm I went over the top for the first time with no training at all. They had send us in there like a cows to a slaughterhouse, there were ripped-off body parts everywhere because of the enemy artillery constantly shooting. And the Germans too send their men in a counter-attack after most of our soldiers were dead. now it was fighting not only with rifles, machine guns and grenades but also with bayonets, knives and even with bare hands. We had to retreat, to the trenches, the attack was strong. And then a giant grenade shell had hit the retreating soldiers behind me, first I thought that there were no survivors but then I heard a scream, a scream of pain, fear and agony; it went right through my bones. When I walked up to the bomb crater I didn’t believe at first that there was actually somebody in the crater but when I got there I couldn’t believe my eyes : there was a German in the crater, and he was still alive. I felt no hatred for him and I wanted to help him But I saw that there was little that I could do for him, so I gave him some of my water. I stayed with him until he died but before he closed his eyes for the final time, he gave me a letter and said with his last breath if I could give it to his mother. And, who am I to refuse someone’s last wish? German or not... and suddenly the bombing stopped and both armies went back to their trenches I prayed for his soul and then I too went back.
I saw that a lot of men were dead. Some bodies were recovered but most still laid in no-man’s land those bodies would be eaten by some birds that would come by. It was a horrific sight I never fully recovered. And now we had to wait for the German counter-attack and repel it. Often soldiers went over the bodies of men died in the last attack it was disgusting and sometimes we encountered men who were still alive, we could do nothing more but give them a coup de grace. More and more men died and more and more man came from all around the world and one by one they died in reckless attacks on the trenches of the enemy: Pakistani, Australians, new Zealanders, Indians, Africans and Americans. They all walked into their horrific dead but the generals kept sending more and more men to the front. I was lucky to survive I was one of the last of my regiment who survived in fact. When the war was over, and the Kaiser defeated in the west, I returned to England were I said farewell to arms and to death.
Chapter 3:
The homeward bound
When I got back to England I went straight to my parents house to tell them that my visit would be brief and that there was business not yet done in Germany and that I didn’t know when I’d come back ...
It was in the late summer of 1921 that I could travel to Germany and whilst I was travelling to Berlin were the military archives were I saw the destructions of the Great War and all the loss that was caused by the repaying that Germany had to do after the treaty of Bruxells and when I finally got to Berlin it was hard to find the address of the soldier but I did it. I could finally deliver the letter to his mother. She lived in Bonn it wasn’t a pleasant journey because I was nearing the former battlefields, now a hilly landscape ploughed by artillery shells although this was not in Germany itself now, but the Rhineland Republic. And so I arrived in Bonn I went straight to the house, were I found his mother. At first she tried to keep me away because I was an Englishman but then I showed her the letter. And she tried to hug and kiss me. Then she called her daughter. She was beautiful her eyes were deep blue as the sea her blond hairs as a thousand sunbeams her voice like a bird singing it’s most beautiful song and when she saw me she smiled my hart melted. We fell in love instantly and when I returned to England a few weeks later she was my wife. my son was born in the spring of 1921 we called him Adolph, after the dying soldier Adolf Hitler that I met on that bloody day at the Rhine. Of course my parents and the other people in our neighbourhood were not at all glad that I married a German girl. We had no place to go so, we decided to move to New Amsterdam.
Chapter 4:
the Nieuw-Netherlands dream
We arrived in New Amsterdam in late 1919. The Economy was booming. Buisness was booming because President Theodore Roosevelt just got re-elected after he punched recession in the face. I found work in a car factory. It was hard work, but it paid well. It was with DAF motor works, the prime car builder in the CNN. Of course it was hard for me to understand Dutch the first few years when we were there, so I took classes in it, and I wasn’t the only one, from all over Europe immigrants came, learning the beautiful Dutch language. Although some people went to Dutch Canada (Quebec and Acadia, captured from the French in the Napoleonic wars), for the beautiful nature there. But Nieuw Amsterdam is the Biggest city on the continent, and you can see it, skyscrapers everywhere, people everywhere, even at night. It is the city that never sleeps. They say the streets are paved with gold, and it couldn’t be more true. Although there are not as many historical buildings as in the capital of the greater Dutch federation Amsterdam . Or Villendaal (Philadelphia), the capital of the CNN province, it is still a magnificent city. We watched as Karel Lindenberg completed the first solo-flight over the atlantic ocean in his modified Fokker D. XIII when he flew from Amsterdam to Nieuw Amsterdam in 1921. He was hailed as a great hero as he was driven through the Streets of the city. In the Summer of 1923 our daughter was born. We called her Joan. She was a cheerful kid, always interested in new things. We had to put locks on the doors of our balcony, otherwise she might decide to take a look there. Our boy, Adolph, who was 2 years old at the time, loved his little sister. But there were more things he loved. He loved to visit the naval dock to see the giant ships there, his favourite was the battleship Z.K.H. Zeeleeuw. (HMS Sealion)
Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today
I want to be a part of it - new A, new A
These vagabond shoes, are longing to stray
Right through the very heart of it - new A, new A
I wanna wake up in a city, that doesn't sleep
And find I'm king of the hill - top of the heap
These little town blues, are melting away
I'll make a brand new start of it - in old new A
If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere
It's up to you - new A, new A.
New A, new A
I want to wake up in a city, that never sleeps
And find I'm a number one top of the list, king of the hill
A number one
These little town blues, are melting away
I'm gonna make a brand new start of it - in old new A
And if I can make it there, I'm gonna make it anywhere
It up to you - new A new A
New A