He couldn’t understand what I wanted.

Heroes Remember

He couldn’t understand what I wanted.

Transcript

We’d gone over the top. We’d gone over the top, I think, in 19… just about the finish of the war in 1918. And we got over the top and I was assigned. I was assigned by my corporal in charge of my section. I was assigned to go along the trench and check all the dugouts eh, check all the dugouts. And, of course, we took mills bombs with us. And we’d come to these dugouts and these hollow… and then, of course, we threw a bomb down and then went on to the next one. But there is quite a little episode there that comes into it. And that is, after I got to the end of that particular part of the trench where the dugouts were, and I went up on top onto what would be ‘No Man’s Land’ prior to that, it wasn’t of course. The Germans had gone back. And I saw this man coming across the field, a German, and I went across to meet him. I went across to meet him. And the thing that struck my head was, well, I wanted a souvenir. This is funny. I said I wanted a souvenir but I couldn’t make him understand what I wanted. He talked about his watch. I said, “I don’t want no watch.” Then his ring. “No, I don’t want any ring. I want a souvenir. What have you got that I can have?” And finally I went… I took that man back into the line again with me, just the one man. I took him back into the line with me. He gave me a frank, not a frank, but a German mark, German mark. And my mother had that right for years after. You’ve got to give me…that’s all I could get for a souvenir was a German mark.

Description

Mr. Savage describes sweeping a captured trench and taking a very modest souvenir from a captured German soldier.

Septimus Savage

Septimus Savage was born in East Hartley, England on October 8, 1898. He was the youngest of seven sons. Mr. Savage left school at age fifteen. All of his brothers had enlisted and he felt pressured to do the same. Being too young for active service, he attempted to join his local army canteen committee in 1914, at the age of sixteen. Eventually, he joined the Young Soldiers Battalion in Staffordshire, England. Once old enough, he joined the 10th Yorkshire Battalion, with whom he served in Europe. Mr. Savage fought in the battle at the Somme and was later wounded at Albert. After the war, he immigrated to Canada, first working as a railroad section man and then as a dairy farmer near Edmonton. When the Second World War began, he mobilized with the 19th Alberta Dragoons as a recruit trainer at Camrose, Alberta. He held the highest non-commissioned rank of Regimental Sergeant Major, and later received his Captain’s commission. Mr. Savage married Edith Stanton in England on January 24th, 1920 and had one daughter. At the time of his interview, Mr. Savage was living in Sardis, British Columbia. He died June 17th, 2001.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 1:51
Person Interviewed:: Septimus Savage
War, Conflict or Mission:: First World War
Location/Theatre:: Europe
Battle/Campaign:: Somme
Branch:: Army
Units/Ship:: 10th Yorkshire Regiment

Language selection

He couldn’t understand what I wanted.

Heroes Remember