Private Arthur Forknall

R.A.M.C.

The Rushden Echo 23rd July 1915, transcribed by Kay Collins

Rushden Man Home On Leave

Pte. A. Forknall (Rushden), of the R.A.M.C., from whom many interesting letters have been published in our columns, has been spending 7 days' leave from the front with his wife at Rushden. He has been at the front since last August, and the brief leave he has just had has been the first real rest he has had since the outbreak of hostilities.

Interviewed by a representative of the "Rushden Echo" he said:

"The battery to which I am attached has not been out of action since October 25th and the seven days I have been allowed at home, which I am sorry have now nearly come to an end, have been like a taste of heaven after eleven months of hell. I am pleased to say I have arrived home all in one piece, although I can thank my lucky stars that I am not minus three or four legs, as I have had plenty of narrow escapes. One such was on the day following the big scrap at Neuve Chapelle. We had gone out with a water cart with the intension of getting water for the battery and on the return journey had got to within about 30 yards of the battery when an enemy shrapnel shell, commonly called a coal-box, fell and ‘busted’ about 20 yards in front of us. Fortunately none of us were hit and I couldn’t tell you whether any fragments of the shell came in our direction, as we didn’t stop to see, I can tell you. You couldn’t see our heels for dust as we made for cover as hard as we could hop it. On the same day another of these coal boxes fell on the edge of the field where the battery was situated and this slightly wounded two of the chaps but did no damage to the guns.

“The most serious thing that happened at this time was the blowing up of one of our own guns. This however was not due to any efforts of the enemy. We don’t exactly know how it happened, except that the shell, instead of leaving the muzzle, burst inside the breech and blew the gun to blazes. The gun looked like a penny watch when a kid has finished playing with it. Three of the gun section in charge were killed outright and two or three more were wounded. One of those seriously wounded was Gunner L. Green, of Rushden, who is now in the London Hospital, Whitechapel. He was very badly wounded in the arm and side. I saw the fellows that were killed and they were so badly mangled that it makes me bad to think about it. My friends tell me that I have got thin since I been at the front and I dare say I have. So would you if you were out there. You get all your fat frightened off you, you can take it from me. I should soon put on weight if I could stay at home a bit, as it is a treat to get a drop of good old English ale after the spoilt water you get out there at a penney a pint.

“I have saved one chap’s life since I have been at the front, although I haven’t been given the iron cross for doing it. It happened this way. I had a fancy to learn to ride a horse and volunteered to take one down to a village near by for a drink. I got on his back and started off at a walk. The chap who was usually in charge wanted to see him trot and incidentally see me break my neck, so he touched the animal on the hocks and off I came in double quick time. Whilst he was watching me training for the Derby a German shell dropped straight in the roadway, opposite where the staff was billeted, and burst. The chap to whom the horse belonged would have been passing there at the time if he had been riding instead of me, so it is plain to everyone, including himself, that if I hadn’t desired to become jockey he and his horse would have gone up in the air.

“You would be surprised to see the havoc that has been wrought by the German bombardment of the various places we have been through. The villages where the battery was stationed when I left for home has been reduced to nothing but a mass of ruins, in spite of that however, many of the residents cling to their homes, and go about just as if nothing was happening. It is surprising the nerve some of them. There are not many of the villagers that can talk English at all, although we can always make them understand when we want beer. We have only got to hang our tongues out and they know what we want. One day one of our chaps wanted some eggs, and could not make the lady of the farm understand what he wanted. He went through all sorts of manoeuvres with his hands and cackled like a fowl. He then pointed at a hen, and the old girl picked it up and wrung its neck. He didn't get his eggs but he had the fowl. The fowls out there have a nasty habit o of disappearing if they come anywhere near any of our chaps.”

Asked whether he thought the war would last much longer, Pte. Forknall said:

"I don't think the first five years will be so bad. It is hard to say when it will be over, as opinions at the front vary. Personally, I don’t think the Germans will face another winter, and the war will probably finish in the late autumn. I don’t want another winter there, anyway.”