Heavy losses at the front
Heroes Remember - The First World War
Heavy losses at the front
Transcript
And then I got to the front line,
it was May 6th, 1916 and
then from there on, off and on,
we would be on this duty at night time and
then you went to rest period and there
we trained again and the Germans
broke through on June 2nd, 1916
from the front line and so we force
marched up to and tried to hold the line
anyway and then on June 12th,
we went up and took our,
but with an awful lot of losses.
We had five hundred and fifty,
we came out with one hundred and twelve.
Description
Mr. Gies recalls arriving at the front line and remaining static for the first month. After a German breakthrough at the Somme, his unit is sent to help repel them. In the ensuing action, four-fifths of his unit are either killed or wounded.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration:
- 0:49
- Person Interviewed:
- Frederick Gies
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- First World War
- Battle/Campaign:
- Somme
- Branch:
- Army
- Units/Ship:
- 71st Battalion
Related Videos
Russian POW's were miserably treated.
Mr. Gies discusses the relative treatment for British and Russian POWs, with the Russians faring far worse. He notes that the Russian camp saw many deaths by starvation and suicide.
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