Ypres
20 July 1915
Dear Mother,
Please don’t think me bad, but when you read this letter I’ll be dead. They’ll take me out this coming dawn, and end my seventeen years born. Some said that I had run away, a coward afraid to fight and stay. I explained my mind was so destroyed – The bombs! The gas! The bloody noise!
I couldn’t see, I couldn’t think from breathing in that putrid stink of rotten flesh, decaying heads…my rations tasted of the dead. The rats inside the gaping mouths, gnawing at the eyes from inside out, Oh Mother, please forgive your son I never should have took the gun, or lied about my date of birth, they think that I am two years plus.
They want to warn my other chums, that might be scared to charge those guns, but there’s no difference to the stench, in no mans land or the muddy trench. So when they tie me to that stake, remember me for Jesus sake.
I will die the best I can – one day a boy – next day a man.
Photo Internet
The memorial portrays a young British soldier blindfolded and tied to a stake ready to be shot by a firing squad. The memorial was modelled on the likeness of 17-year-old Private Herbert Burden, who lied about his age to enlist in the armed forces and was later shot for desertion
An ineffably compassionate piece.
Again thank you for reading Louis, and your comments.