The man you're looking at is Cyril Jose, who at the age of 15, signed up as a private in the 2nd BN, The Devonshire Regiment in 1915. The enlistment photo still shows him wearing his school uniform. He lied about his age and within a year, found himself on the Western Front in France, Somme to be exact.
On the morning of July 1, the first day of the offensive, he and the rest of the men went over the top at 7:00 am, at 7:35 am, he was shot through the left arm and chest. Being severely wounded and unable to move, he became stranded on no man's land for 24 hours. 24 hours of lonely, painful, fearful silence as he lay wounded, knowing any movement could alert the Germans and end his life.
All he could do was lie motionless, as he bled and pondered what he could do to survive. He tried to patch his wounds up as best as possible while also trying to avoid capture, since the Germans would launch patrols in order to capture wounded soldiers and take them prisoner.
Cyril recalls: "I lay doggo clutching a Mills bomb ready to pull out the pin with my teeth. Rather that than be taken prisoner. It seemed I was alone in a field of dead men. They were all the result of the few minutes going across. That’s where we lost most of our men. Out of our battalion, 27 answered roll call after the battle. 27 out of about 900 or 1,000 men. Men went down like corn before a scythe.”
It was am, a full 24 hours since he had launched over the top, when he felt able to risk inching back to British lines. "Stiff and in pain, my uniform purple with blood” he began “the long crawl back”.
Halfway along his perilous route, he met a badly wounded Brit and they struggled along together back to friendly lines. Cyril survived his wounds and the war until his death in 1984. #stayzero #zerofoxtrot #war