Ellen stands on her front door. She looks to her right and sees the neighbour a few doors down the road, both women are sweeping the front porch as per usual every morning. A post-lady approaches the neighbour and hands a brown envelope. She opens the letter and reads it then she burst into tears and howls. Other women who are also outside, they rush to her side to comfort her. She sobs loudly, Ellen holds her head down. She looks up again as the post-lady walks towards her, holding a brown envelope. Ellen can see the ‘OHMS’ printed on the envelope. The post-lady stops by Ellen, looks at the envelope then walks on. Ellen watches the post-lady walk off, has a quick look at the sobbing neighbour, then holds her head low and walks back indoors.

Wednesday September 26th at 5.40 am, the troops have been awake for half an hour now. Battle order is commanded; the men hand in their heavy rucksacks and greatcoats, having only a small rucksack. Handed out are two days rations, extra ammunition and bombs, picks or shovels. A thick mist hangs in the air, the view obstructed to little more than five metres. The soldiers are told to line up in a queue then the commanding officer says “two minutes”. The first person passes it on the chap behind, who then passes it behind and so on, the message passing down the line. The message gets to the young lad who can’t speak, Tom says to the man behind “two minutes” and the message carries on. He leaned forward and notices the boy crying. He says quietly in the boys ear “don’t worry, we’ll get through this”

The boy replies “I’m not really Cecil, I’m Cedric and I’m only seventeen”

“Oh” says Tom

“I used my dead brother’s birth certificate. I wished I hadn’t”

“It’s a bit late to be declaring that now”

“If I die, tell people who I am. I want my parents to know”.

“Yes, I’ll do that, don’t you worry about that”

The men line up and wait. The British guns fire their arsenal continuously for about an hour, with retaliation from the enemy then the British guns stop and there is an eerie silence. With so much noise going on for weeks, here is something that the troops haven’t heard for a while.

Tom leans back slightly and says to Harry behind “hear that?”

The soldier looks puzzled and says “don’t hear nothing”

“Precisely”

The Germans start to send shells over again but they are up to something more deadly. In between firing normal explosive shells they are also firing gas shells, no one hears the plop as they land and let out their deadly cargo. No one is aware of the smell as the gunpowder constantly going off everywhere masks the smell. No one knows about the gas they are about to run into.

As the soldiers line up to go over the top, they are standing with their tin cups while waiting for the rum to be dished out. The CO walks down the line with a large earthenware jug and is pouring into the men’s cups which they gulp down in one go.

“Ah, here comes the old grey hen” comments Andy.

The young lad stands and looks into his cup while Tom gulps his ration down “aaah!” then passes his mug over his shoulder. The soldier behind takes the mug and hangs it on Tom’s haversack.

After Tom has his rum he leans forward and says to the lad “drink up your grog, lad”.

The boy gingerly drinks the contents of his mug and gasps, his mouth is on fire. Both Tom and Andy in front of the boy both smile. Tom holds his hand over the boys shoulder takes the mug and hooks in onto the boys’ haversack.

Waiting for the time is like eternity, all the soldiers know what is going to happen and some (like Andy) can’t control their emotions anymore and just cry. Then the commanding officer turns to the first man in line ‘one minute’. That minute seems like an hour but the time does come, and the line marches through the catacombs that are the trenches. The first line trench is now empty of the first and second lines and fills with the reserves. A message at one end of the line that says ‘bayonets’. As the first man inserts his bayonet onto the end of his Lee Enfield, the next man does the same, and the next and the next. The copycat action is so quick that the whole platoon fixes their bayonets within a few seconds. Tom stands there with his gun, stands and waits. Then the whistle blows and the men climb the ladders and over the top.

The soldiers go over; they run across the empty area between the two sides’ trenches totally unaware of what the gas that has been released; the Germans in their masks fire a few shots at the oncoming Tommies. The German machine gunners also in gas masks let rip with their guns, the British soldiers stand little chance. Many are mown down from gunfire.

Nothing can be seen further than a few metres but there is something eerie about the place. Tom looks about him while he is running, there is no-one. An occasional ‘plop-plop’ of bullets hitting the mud and maybe a bullet would whizz past. Then he notices, soldiers lying on the ground, some still moving with their hands at their throats. A carpet of soldiers litter the ground, all of them are down. No one is allowed to stop to see to the wounded, he has to keep running, let the stretcher bearers deal with these men. He realises that this can’t just be gunfire, he starts to choke.

“Ohno” he thinks “gas. I’ve breathed it in, it’s too late”.

He drops his gun and grabs his throat, and then coughing fits begin. He stumbles and falls to the ground himself.

Tom lay in the mud gasping for air but can’t breathe, he sees his fellow soldiers also falling to the ground and over there is Cecil with his hands at his throat, choking. There are bullets flying overhead that go ignored, there is just the inability to breathe. He can just make out blurred images, his sight gets worse as the burning takes hold, with heavy tears flowing to try and combat the searing effect of the gas. “This is it” he thinks, perhaps never to see the end of the war. The last thought passes through Tom’s mind is whether he will see Ellen again.

The final reserve troops are ready to go out into No Mans Land when the order comes to ring the bell and put on gas masks, which the soldiers do with perfection having performed the operation hundreds of times before. They are ready; they climb the ladders and walk quickly out into the mist, fired upon by the few remaining German gunners left. Many men fall with bullet wounds, but enough get through to the enemy trench to take it. The allies are a step closer to taking Passchendaele.

But while the battle ensues, Tom lays there in the mud. Everything is blurred because the tears flow so much, it obscures his vision. As he lay there gasping, he doesn’t notice that his watch and picture of Ellen slide out of his pocket and onto the muddy floor before he slips into unconsciousness.