"Promptly, we mounted the ladders and climbed into the open land. We had about 50 yards to go to the crest of a ridge before we could see the German front line. As soon as our heads appeared over this ridge we were greeted by a perfect inferno of machine- gun fire from the flanks and a destructive barrage of high-explosive shells.
One of the dreaded 5.9 inch shells dropped about ten yards in front of my team, and when the smoke cleared I found I was the only one left alive.
By the time we had crossed our own front-line trench and were advancing across no-man’s land, there was not a single Seaforth Highlander for 30 yards to my left.
I picked up the Lewis gun and, carrying on with the rest of the fast-diminishing company. Eventually we crossed the enemy front line and by nightfall, the remnants of the battalion were only holding on to about 100 yards of the German front line.
We received a message from the brigadier to withdraw at dark back to our own front line." - Private John Cartmell, Seaforth Highlanders, Somme, France, 1916. #war #reality