A short break from Public Parks, Recreation Grounds, Allotments and Civil Cemeteries.
On Sunday 11th last the centenary of the signing of the Armistice to end the hostilities of the Great War was commemorated by many respectful events across the country. One particular comment made on a radio programme by an ex-conscript (recorded many years ago) was to the effect that when their battalion was informed on that morning the troops gave no emotional or excited response but simply turned and returned to their billet. To us now this may seem strange, but maybe not.
Maybe the soldiers were too war-weary to celebrate anything, maybe they were preoccupied with thoughts of what was going to happen to them now (we know now but at that point they didn’t). Maybe the news came as no surprise as the British forces had been pushing-back the German army since May of that year, indeed so fast that some battalions were near the Belgian and German borders, poised to invade.
My father was a conscript to the Tank Corps from 1917 (see photo above taken on Hunstanton promenade – probably dated about 1955 – he was 49 years old when I was born). My research on his life and particularly his wartime experiences (see Family Studies, Sidney Walter Clarke, 1899-1987 in Publications and Articles section of this website) was just that after his death as, like millions of other combatants, he never spoke to me of his experiences.
Here a quote from my biography – ‘During August to November 1918 the 9th Tank Battalion was periodically entrained east to chase the German retreat. On 7th September 1918 the 9th Tank Batallion was again in Havrincourt Wood and by mid-month Bourlon Wood, Bourlon village having been re-captured. So Sidney was re-crossing the same land as when less than a year before he had first seen action at the Battle for Cambrai. By October 1918 Cambrai itself had been re-taken. By 1st November the 9th were in sight of the Belgian border. On the 11th November the Battalion diary simply records ‘Hostilities cease’.
(To be continued).