It hardly seems credible today that a nineteen-year-old boy, just
commissioned into the Seaforth Highlanders, could lead a platoon of men
into the carnage of the Battle of the Somme. Or that, as the machine gun
bullets whistled past and shells exploded, he could maintain his own
morale to lead a platoon, keeping its discipline and cohesion, in spite
of desperate losses. Norman Collins, the author of this superb memoir,
was this remarkable man.
Despite being wounded three times, Norman lived to see his hundredth
birthday so becoming one of the last surviving combatants of this
terrible conflict. Through his eloquent memories recorded late in life
and a rare collection of letters that he wrote from the front, he tells
the story of his life as a young subaltern at the front during 1916 and
1917. Using Norman's own words, this book follows him from his childhood
in Hartlepool to his subsequent service in France. The book also covers
such shattering events as the German naval assault on Hartlepool in
December 1914 when, as a seventeen-year-old, Norman was subjected to as
big a bombardment as any occurring on the Western Front at that time.
Norman's enlistment and training are covered in detail in his letters,
as is his posting to France and the epic attack at Beaumont Hamel in
November 1916. Service at Arras in April 1917 and in the weeks prior to
the Third Battle for Ypres is also recorded before serious injury
hospitalized him for a year.
Norman's love for, and devotion to, the men under his command shine out
in this book and his stories are gripping and deeply moving. They are
illustrated by a rare collection of private photographs taken at or near
the front by Norman himself, although the use of a camera was strictly
proscribed by the Army. Most of the images have never been published
before.
