Mr Allingham once attributed his grand age to 'cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women'.
He described to the Daily Mail how he remained haunted by scenes from the third battle of Ypres.
'They would just stand there in two feet of water in mud-filled trenches, waiting to go forward,' he said.
'They knew what was coming. It was pathetic to see those men like that.
'In many ways I don't think they have ever got the admiration and respect they deserved.'
He was also shot in the arm, telling the newspaper: 'The bullet passed through my arm and out the other side.
'They just bandaged me up and sent me out again. It's so long ago that the scar has gone.' 18 July 2009
Goodbye, Sir.
All Quiet on the Western Front
The 1930 Version was the Best. The graveyard shelling is spooky.
2 comments:
My Grandpa was Joe Merka Sr. of Bryan, Tx.
He was shot in the arm the third time he went over the top, near Toule, Fr. in WWI. He pulled the 8mm Mauser round out of his arm with his wire cutting pliers, bandaged himself and went on. He had a swivel mounted in the round, and added it to his old dogtag for a watch fob. It is a treasure that I inherited. In 1918/19, things were not so touchy-feely as they are now. If you got shot, you dealt with it and often you died. My Grandpa was a country boy, a second-generation Moravian/Czech grandson of immigrants. We have put at least one of our family in every war and conflict since we immigrated... He never mentioned the mud, the fear or the horror. In his mind, the memorable part was the long train rides to and from Philadelphia and the big ship USS Lithuania that carried him into harm's way. These old guyd didn't cry and whine - they went, they fought, then they came home and went to work. No shrinks, no PTSD benefits, no newspaper articles. They are giants in our history.
At least he went out with dignity and he knew the war he fought in, horrible that it was, was necessary.
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