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Tizer
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07/03/2008
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11:02
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A poem has been written for Harry Patch, Great War veteran, by the Poet Laureate
He was born, Henry John Patch on June 17 1898 in Combe Down, Somerset, and was an 18-year-old apprentice plumber in Bath when he was called up for service. He served with the Duke of Cornwall's light infantry and saw action at the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917. During the fighting three of his best friends were killed by an exploding shell, and he was badly wounded. In three months more than 70,000 soldiers died at Passchendaele. On a visit to the site of the battle in 2007, Mr Patch said, "Too many died. War isn't worth one life."
Inside Out West has commissioned the Poet Laureate Andrew Motion to compose a new work in honour of Harry Patch, our last survivor of the World War One trenches.
The programme follows the poet's creation and performance of the poem.
Harry Patch, from Somerset, fought for the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry at the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917.
For the Poet Laureate, the project was an exciting challenge. Andrew Motion has long been a student of First World War poetry. He wanted his poem to reflect Harry's amazing life - his childhood in 19th century Somerset, suffering the horror of losing friends on the First World War battlefields, and his experiences after the war, working on the construction of the Wills Tower in Bristol. The poem, in five acts, was unveiled at a special event at the Bishop's Palace in Wells, in front of an invited audience.
The guests were also shown a video message from HRH, The Prince of Wales in which he said: "Harry Patch is one of the last of those remarkable men who almost unimaginably endured so much; the last survivor of the unutterable hell of the trenches. It has been a real privilege to have come to know him a little over the last few years. He epitomizes the courage, the long sufferingness and the tenacity of his generation."
The programme follows the poet's creation and performance of the poem. See the Inside Out West programme on Friday 7 March on BBC One at 19.30 (local western TV channel). It can also be seen at 1930 on Sky digital satellite channel 986 and will be available on the BBC iPlayer, bbc.co.uk/iplayer.
For more details about Harry Patch, see the wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Patch
Edited by - Tizer on 07/03/2008 11:02:40
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panbiker
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Posted - 07/03/2008 : 13:43
Thanks for posting this Tizer, I have watched Harry numerous times over the years on various documentaries of World War One. A remarkable man who carries the weight of his experiences in the trenches into the 21st Century. You can see in his eyes that he is haunted by what he went through and the friends he lost. I will give the program a watch tonight.
Ian  |
Tizer
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Posted - 07/03/2008 : 16:47
I like the quote on Wikipedia:
"In November 2004 (at the age of 106), he met Charles Kuentz, a 108-year-old veteran who had fought on the German side at the battlefield of Passchendaele (and on the French side in World War II). Patch was quoted as saying: "I was a bit doubtful before meeting a German soldier. Herr Kuentz is a very nice gentleman however. He is all for a united Europe and peace – and so am I". Kuentz had brought along a tin of Alsatian biscuits and Patch gave him a bottle of Somerset cider in return."
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 08/03/2008 : 08:42
The story about Harry Patch and Herr Kuentz rings bells with me. All right, in the heat of battle you killed each other but in different circumstances there was little animosity between the protagonists except where cultures had clashed as in the case of the Japanese. On a far more shallow level, I got on well in Berlin with the old Wehrmacht men in the bars and the border guard posts where many of them got employment after the war. (contrast with the US disbanding the Iraq army!) They were no different than us and if you asked them what the problem was during the war the reply was always the same. "It was Hitler!". It isn't the PBI that start the wars, they just have to take the punishment and as soon as the war is over they are surplus to requirements. Tommy Atkins all over again.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
frankwilk
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Posted - 08/03/2008 : 09:01
When Harry Patch dies he should be given a Full State Funeral, not just for Harry but for what he represents.
Frank Wilkinson Once Navy Always Navy |
Tizer
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Posted - 08/03/2008 : 11:29
I watched the TV programme last night (on local west channel) and it was very moving. Some of it about Andrew Motion writing the poem and the rest about Harry nowadays, but interspersed with his memories. He lives in a home and is well taken car of. A friend takes him out in the car and he still likes to go for his fish and chips.
He has a wicked sense of humour. Said how when he was a lad his dad had fruit trees in the garden and the pears were large and delicious. He was told not to pinch them from the tree so he climbed up and and bit the back out of each pear!
He says that at school his maths teacher asked him how do you define a curve and he answered with something like: "It's a straight line with a bend in it".
As Frank points out elsewhere, the poem can now be heard via a link on:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/west/
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panbiker
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Posted - 08/03/2008 : 17:46
I watched it as well Tizer and agree with your comments and those of the other contributors. Something that struck me was that even in the heat of battle, Harry said that as a machine gunner, he and his crew would aim low for the legs of the approaching opposition forces only going for the kill if absolutely necessary. In Harry's view, far better to wound and disable the enemy from the battle than to take a human life.
I thought the poem was excellently constructed, not dwelling too much on the carnage of the western front but celebrating the life of a normal bloke caught up for a brief period in momentous events that personify the experiences of thousands of lads of the same era. A right and fitting tribute.
Ian |
frankwilk
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Posted - 08/03/2008 : 18:04
This is not posted looking for an argument, but I sometimes wonder if it was an inhumane thing to do shooting a soliders legs from under him. Just think no medical assistance in the trenches, no fast medical evacuation by chopper. I have the greatest respect for Harry Patch, but don't feel I can let this pass by without comment.
Frank Wilkinson Once Navy Always Navy |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 09/03/2008 : 07:25
I'm a bit sceptical about the ability of the Vickers to be that accurate at anything over 100 yards. I can remember the footprints for fall of shot we used to be given and they were very large. Yes, we still used the Vickers in 1954........ Sten and Bren also. They once told me there were still some Lewis guns about as well, used mainly for AA defence.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
panbiker
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Posted - 09/03/2008 : 15:21
I thing Harry's comments reflected his desire rather than the probable outcome. Fortunately I have never experienced anything like this myself but I would imagine that a line of men advancing from 1000 yards would not present such a large target, as Stanley says it would not really be possible to be so accurate, even at at say 500, 400, 300 yards a line of 6ft blokes is just that, a line, to be stopped at any cost. I have heard comments from a German machine gunner who operated one of the crossfire positions defending Omaha beach in June 1944. His name is Franz Gockel He has the unenviable accolade of being responsible for more kills on D Day than any other combattent, something that he is not proud of but has to live with. You can tell that the bloke is living in hell as a result of his actions on the 6th June. They reckon over a thousand men were killed by his gun position, he continued firing until he had to abandon his gun position through lack of ammunition, he was wounded in the hand and was captured later in the day when the American troops finaly broke out of the beachhead. He comments that from his position it was difficult to miss, any guys that did manage to get out of the landing craft alive were picked off by the snipers in the bluffs between the machine gun positions. All this was in the first few hours of the assault when General Omar Bradley commanding the assault contemplated pulling out of Omaha as the casualties were so bad. When you stand in the American Cemetery at Coleville-sur-Mer on the headland above Omaha Beach and look at over 9,000 crosses and stars it is difficult to imagine that one soldier is probably responsible for over 10% of the carnage.
Harry's battle, The Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) claimed over 500,000 men, unbelievable carnage. I found this comment from Siegfried Sasson which although short, encapsulates the horror of it all.
"I died in Hell (they called it Passchendaele); my wound was slight and I was hobbling back; and then a shell burst slick upon the duckboards; so I fell into the bottomless mud, and lost the light"
Ian |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 10/03/2008 : 07:18
The Lee enfield .303 [yes, we were using that as well] was very accurate but even with that it was a good man that could hit the bull at 600 yards. Memory tells me the bull was about ten inches in diameter. The old cliche; 'don't fire till you see the whites of their eyes' comes to mind. The experts told us there was a far higher kill rate for number of rounds fired at ranges below 100 yards. I don't doubt Harry's laudable intentions for one minute but in the heat of action....... Almost all my live firing was on the range under ideal conditions. I never had to face what Harry did but I suspect any inhibitions would have left me......
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 10/03/2008 : 07:21
PS. I've written about Paschendaele before. I've stood at the top of the slope and looked down into the valley and it's an ideal killing ground. When I stood there and thought back I was horrified that anyone would even consider sending men up there. They took the village eventually but then abandoned it later in the war. All those lives wasted........
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Poem written for Great War veteran Harry Patch
