How I Filmed the War: A Record of the Extraordinary Experiences of the Man Who Filmed the Great Somme Battles, etc.Malins, Geoffrey H.
History
How I Filmed the War: A Record of the Extraordinary Experiences of the Man Who Filmed the Great Somme Battles, etc.
Malins, Geoffrey H.
Malins, Geoffrey H.; Motion pictures; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, British
I left the dressing station and paused upon a mound near a tree stump,
the top of which had been carefully split off by shell-fire. I stood
looking in the direction of Trones. The Bosches were "strafing" it
pretty thoroughly. Away across at Montaubon village the same thing was
happening. They were fairly watering the place with H.E. and shrapnel.
Our guns were rattling out as well, and I am glad to say that it sounded
to me as though ours were at least ten to their one.
Well, the scenes had to be obtained. I admit the job looked anything but
pleasant. "Well, here goes!" I said, and putting on a cigarette, I
trudged off with my apparatus across the open, making a bee-line midway
between Montaubon and Bernafay Wood. I gave both places a wide berth,
thereby steering clear of possible Bosche shells. How hot it was.
Perspiration was literally pouring from me. I kept on over the ground
captured from the Germans. The smell in places was almost unbearable. I
puffed away at my cigarette, thereby reducing the stench to a minimum.
Several shells came whizzing overhead in the direction of the dressing
station I had just left. With a grinding crash they exploded. "Shrapnel,
woolly bears," I said under my breath. They seemed to burst right on top
of them too. I thought of all those poor wounded Tommies lying helpless
on their stretchers. Another--then another--came hurtling over. The
splitting crash of the burst can only be appreciated by those who have
been in close proximity to a German H.E. Woolly Bear exploding. It gives
one rather a sickening sensation. Another came over. This time it burst
nearer. "Gee! they're dropping the range." I hastily grabbed my tripod
and hurried off at a tangent. Proceeding for a distance of about five
hundred yards I turned off again and made tracks for my original point.
In front, at a distance of about seven hundred yards, one of our forward
field batteries of 18-pounders opened fire. I at first thought they were
French 75 mm. owing to the extreme rapidity of fire. From my position I
could not see the guns, but stretching across the country a rough line
of brown earth was thrown up, which I afterwards found out was one of
the old German lines. The guns were cunningly concealed in the trench.
Thinking that it would make rather a good scene I decided to film it in
action.
I may add that I have previously been rather wary about having much to
do with forward artillery positions. On three previous occasions I have
been badly "strafed" by brother Fritz. He has the uncommonly irritating
habit of putting his whizz-bangs much too near to be pleasant, with the
result that I have more than once been compelled to take my camera and
self off to the more congenial quarters of a dug-out, from which place,
you will agree, one cannot obtain very interesting pictures.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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