A lot of fellows broke down

First World War Audio Archive

A lot of fellows broke down

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Transcript

Artillery guns being fired.

We were put in there rather hurriedly to plug a gap in September

Soldiers attacking from the trenches.

1915. Cripes, I hadn’t the faintest idea. No, we had just shot

Soldiers on road walking around dead horses and men.

two horses of our own. We thought we were being attacked and we were about 15 km behind the line. I wasn’t scared. I was never

One soldier is killed as a group leave the trench for thier attack.

what you would call, I didn’t have fear. I was too stupid. A lot of fellows broke down, you know, and they were sent back

Solciers firing thier rifles as explosions happen around them.

with shell shock and one thing or another. Not me, no, because I

Gun crew firing rifles as they try to move back.

didn’t know enough. I was just that kind of a person. I had the

Soldiers moving accross the battle field after the fight.

respect of my platoon, which is as far as I wanted to go, and I

Capture soldiers being escorted.

never had any trouble getting another guy if I wanted from another platoon. He’d be glad to transfer to me. I was never an adolescent, you see. See, I missed that. From fourteen on, I was

Picture of soldiers cooking in the trenches.

in the hands of a deity that I didn’t quite understand either.

Picture of Jesus on the cross, surrounded by a destroyed building.

Description

Mr. MacLellan describes his naivete early in the war and gaining the confidence of his men as the war progressed.

Campbell MacLellan

Campbell MacLellan was born in Nanaimo, British Columbia, on February 17, 1900, and grew up in Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia. Coming from a background of poverty, he enlisted when he was just under fifteen years of age at Amherst, Nova Scotia. He trained at Valcartier for a time with the 22nd Battalion and was later selected for the 6th Canadian Mounted Rifles. He sailed to England aboard, ironically enough, the German cattle boat Herschel. At Ypres, Mr. MacLellan suffered a serious leg wound. The intervention of a young American doctor saved his leg from an earlier verdict of amputation. Prior to this, he had also taken shrapnel in the lungs. His later reflections speak of the patriotic attitude of Canadian soldiers. He was discharged at the rank of sergeant in February 1919. He married Joanna Nolen on April 21, 1924, and had two sons. Mr. MacLellan died on November 5, 1986.

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