Tucker - Johnny get your gun : a personal narrative of the Somme, Ypres and Arras

JOHNNY GET
YOUR GUN

JOHNNY GET
YOUR GUN

A PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF
THE SOMME, YPRES & ARRAS

JOHN F TUCKER

Pen & Sword
MILITARY

First published in Great Britain in 1978 by William Kimber & Co. Limited

Reprinted in this format in 2015 by

PEN & SWORD MILITARY

An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street

Barnsley, South Yorkshire

S70 2AS

Copyright The Estate of John F. Tucker, 1978, 2015

ISBN 978 1 47385 385 0

The right of John F. Tucker to be identified as Author of
this work has been asserted by him in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

The Publishers have made every effort to trace the author, his estate
and his agent without success and they would be interested to hear
from anyone who is able to provide them with this information.

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is available from the British Library

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Contents

List of Illustrations

I must first acknowledge the debt I owe to my wife Lilian, who originally encouraged me to put these experiences in writing. In 1914 she was one of the little girls watching over the walls of her school at Sudbury as my battalion one day marched past on the way to Harrow; neither of us aware that we were to meet and marry about ten years later. Our daughters Pamela and Joan have also given me much help and encouragement. Pamela accompanied me on a short trip to France, where we paid hurried visits to St Omer, Arras, and Amiens, including the site at Beaurains where I was wounded. She has spent valuable hours in searching for and obtaining official war maps and in vetting the manuscript and rendering advice and help with the design for the book-jacket.

I am so grateful for the kindness shown by Miss Monica Dickens, her sister Mrs Doris Danby, and cousin Mr Charles Cedric Dickens, who have gone to so much trouble in searching for and eventually finding the print of the cross which I inscribed for their uncle Major C.C. Dickens.

Thanks are also due to Mr Albert Oborn for the photograph of the cross of his brother Sergeant F.S. Oborn. Mr S.G. (Stan) White, MBE, formerly Hon Sec of the Kensington OCA has been most helpful in providing photographs. Miss V.M. Palmer and Mr F.W. Milsom kindly made excellent copies of several photographs for reproduction. I am also most grateful to Mr Norman Sewell who supplied much valuable data without which it would have been difficult to have drawn my map in such detail.

My publishers Messrs William Kimber & Co. Ltd., (in the person of Ms Amy Howlett and Mr Oliver Colman) have my grateful thanks for the kindly guidance and advice given during the production of this volume.

Above all I make humble acknowledgement to the millions who participated with such fortitude in the holocaust of the so-called Great War.

JOHN FRANCIS TUCKER

January 1978
Wembley

This is the narrative of a young mans life during the four years of the Great War from 1914 to 1918. It is by no means intended as a war history, which could better be derived from official and other sources, but it is a purely personal experience as remembered after an interval of about sixty years. During this period isolated incidents have come to mind from time to time in most vivid form, exactly as experienced and in great detail, without exaggeration or addition of any kind. Recently having been presented with a tape-recorder I decided to dictate a few such reminiscences and to my surprise found that long forgotten memories were being brought to the surface and followed each other in a more or less consecutive manner. As fluent speech has never been easy with me, I commenced putting my story into writing, with the ensuing result.

With the exception of a few quoted official statements, confirmation of several dates and reference to sketch maps to recall place names, the narrative is almost wholly from my own memory and conclusions.

In my efforts to present a true picture of events some of my statements may possibly cause offence to particular individuals, but I believe that in any such cases the facts have already been fully publicised.

Some of the details may be gruesome and distressing, but I have felt that my story would be incomplete or even misleading had they been omitted.

I must be forgiven if many of the episodes are not strictly in their true sequence, time having tended to misplace some occurrences. Also during some of the major battles movements and operations sometimes became so frequent and involved that it is now almost impossible to recall them in proper sequence. Indeed the physical and mental stresses were at times so great as to leave little impression on the mind. It will also be understood that the infantry soldier often did not know much of what was going on around him beyond the space of a few yards. We had no maps and relied mostly on hearsay and rumour. Of the ten men shown in the two group photographs reproduced in this book eight became casualties from wounds. This gives some indication of the losses sustained by the infantry.

The area covered in these reminiscences stretched over the whole length of the British line, from Ypres to the Somme and included operations on almost all sectors.

The excitement and heroics of my childhood imagination have subsided and left me with the realities and disillusionment of war, the fears, horrors, filth and stench. Now that I have recorded my memories perhaps the ghosts will rest.

I was about 17 years old when the Great War broke out, while I was spending the August Bank Holiday 1914 at Brighton. We all thought it would be a short and sharp war, but after about two months it was obvious that it was going to be a long drawn out affair. My cousin Frankie Jones had gone out to France with the first contingent as a sergeant in the Grenadier Guards. His father, a former staff sergeant and a veteran of the South African War, went out early on as a captain in a Suffolk territorial battalion, but was soon wounded and returned to England for discharge.

Appeals were being made for volunteers to reinforce our small Expeditionary Force, and men of all ages were turning up at the recruiting stations in tens of thousands. Morale and patriotism were marvellously high. The great majority of the British public was tremendously proud of our heritage and of our enormous world-wide Empire. The greatest incentive was of course the determination to protect our families and homes from foreign invasion. The possibility of defeat was not for one moment entertained, so great was our faith and trust in our Nation. Spirits were high and much encouragement was given by the popular songs of the time, such as: