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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 November 2019

Aaron Pegram
Affiliation:
Australian War Memorial
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Summary

Towards the end of Somme Mud, Edward Lynch’s fictionalised memoir of fighting on the Western Front, the book’s protagonist, Nulla, encounters a group of British and French soldiers who had spent the previous three years as prisoners of war. Among them is a ‘tall, gaunt figure’ who sways up to Nulla and introduces himself as an Australian who ‘got knocked’ and was taken prisoner at Fleurbaix in July 1916. ‘Can you spare a couple of tins of bully beef?’ he asks. Nulla looks pitifully on the ‘poor, half-starved wretches. All dirty yellow skin, hollow cheeks and sunken, hopeless eyes.’ He gives food and cigarettes to these ‘scarecrows on legs’ that clutch with ‘long, claw-like, grasping fingers that shake’. Nulla was appalled. ‘How we pity these poor beggars! How we thank our lucky stars we escaped the ordeal of being prisoners of war. We look upon [these] fellow men reduced to skin-clad skeletons and are sickened.’

Type
Chapter
Information
Surviving the Great War
Australian Prisoners of War on the Western Front 1916–18
, pp. 1 - 17
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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  • Introduction
  • Aaron Pegram, Australian War Memorial
  • Book: Surviving the Great War
  • Online publication: 12 November 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108643559.001
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  • Introduction
  • Aaron Pegram, Australian War Memorial
  • Book: Surviving the Great War
  • Online publication: 12 November 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108643559.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Aaron Pegram, Australian War Memorial
  • Book: Surviving the Great War
  • Online publication: 12 November 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108643559.001
Available formats
×