The horses died

First World War Audio Archive

The horses died

Transcript

In a battery there would be about 12 guns. We had six horses to a

Picture of Soldier with arms crossed.

gun, you see, and then maybe four horses to a limber. In other words, the limber was carrying the bullets for us to use on the gun. There wasn’t an automobile, or a truck. We had small

Picture of Soldier looking directly at the camera.

railroad tracks, you see, that brought all our wounded down, and brought extra guns in, oh, not extra guns, extra ammunition, and they kept us filled up. And there was two battalions of them just putting in the railroad, the little railroad now, don’t get

Serviceman wearing a tuxedo.

me, not a great big thing, nothing but horses. And this little track I’m telling you about, only a single track. You could only go one way one time and the other way the next time. Horses used to pull that, you see. Oh there’s no trains or nothing like that,

Veteran standing in front of other portraits.

if you know what I’m getting at. Coming down near the canals, and you see a lot of water in France and Belgium - little rivers and you know, and mud, mud, mud. You’d hardly believe this, you know. And I’ve seen the mud up to the horses bellies. We had to take them out of there, they just died, just from mud.

Description

Mr. Wood discusses the valuable role played by horses, particularly for moving artillery pieces and for moving supplies forward and evacuating the wounded on the narrow gauge railways constructed at the Front.

Thomas Wood

Thomas Wood, a native of Edinburgh, Scotland was born on March 23, 1898 into a family of printers. His family emigrated to Canada shortly before the war and he grew up in Ottawa, Ontario. At age 16, in 1914, Mr. Wood left school and joined the recently mobilized 1st Battery in Ottawa, followed by training in Valcartier, and went to England in October, 1914. He then went to France in February, 1915, a member of the 57th Battery, 15th Field Artillery Brigade. Mr. Wood was involved in the Vimy bombardment, viewed German gassing technology at Ypres, and sustained a hip and leg wounds from shrapnel. After the war, he was a fixture maker and also a sign painter and lettering artist for Coca-Cola Co. for about 40 years. He was transferred to Toronto, then to Vancouver where he worked as the sign shop manager until retirement. He was married twice and had one son. Mr. Wood died on January 2nd, 1988 in Vancouver, BC.

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