Pozieres described by Lance Corporal Arthur John Foxcroft

Discussion in 'World War 1' started by liverpool annie, May 9, 2009.

  1. liverpool annie

    liverpool annie New Member

    I felt the anguish of this Lance Corporal in the telling of this story ... and the holding back .... so many soldiers did the same thing and carried the torment for years ..... :(

    Lance Corporal Arthur John Foxcroft, 3090, 4th Battalion, A.I.F., describes the fighting at Pozieres. He was wounded at Mouquet Farm on 19th August 1916 and eventually retuned home to Australia on 26th September 1917 -

    "On 23 July we captured the village of Pozieres and went through a rough four days and nights all without sleep. The taking wasn't so hard but consolidating our gains is terrible because they know the nicety of our position to shell us. They rely on their biggest shell, 9.5 inch, which throws up a mountain of dirt and buries you. We have nearly all had a turn at being buried, some several times, and if you are not noticed at the time you are almost in your grave. I will not detail it for it is too horrible but as our artillery is more dreadful than theirs they must have suffered properly, in fact we saw proof of it when we got amongst them. Some of them are so demoralized by our guns and by our bombardment preventing them getting their rations they just staggered into our trench and some cried like kids.

    At Mouquet Farm.

    If you are killed you are left there and your pockets or disc are not even looked at and you are known as dead by being missing at the assembly after coming out of the trenches after being relieved. If bodies were buried they would only be rooted up again by shells - for as far as you can see all around us to the horizon is torn up, over and over again. When we get the Hun a good way back the cleaning up parties will bury the dead and pick up all the material off the field."

    (Arthur John Foxcroft – enlisted on 9th August 1915 the son of W. Foxcroft, Blenheim, 30 Cameron Street, Coburg, Victoria, he was 24. He embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A29 “Suevic” on 20 December 1915. He returned to Australia 26 September 1917.)

    http://outofbattle.blogspot.com/2008/04/pozieres-described-by-lance-corporal.html
     

Share This Page