Work in Progress (June 2025)

“The tragedy of the Somme battle was that the best soldiers, the stoutest-hearted men were lost; their numbers were replaceable, their spiritual worth never could be” unidentified German soldier.

The First World War, The War to End all Wars, if only that was true. It cost the lives of over fifteen million civilians and military, with an estimated casualty list reaching in excess of forty million. Men, horses and wildlife would drown in the deep swamp-like mud; poisonous gas was ever a curse; barbed wire thorns would rip and tear; no man’s land, neither here nor there. Thousands of lives expired for the gain of a few yards, only to be lost to the other side in a tug of war – the rope a human chain. You can go to any library or bookstore and pick up numerous books with information on the battlefronts, units and dates, but this is not a fact-finding book for historians, this is a real tale of human-interest, one-man writing home in 1918, the year the hostilities would cease. 

A collection of over one hundred love letters penned in the fields of France, on active service by Gunner Willie Webber who describes himself as a middle-class man, writing to his love, his dearest, his wife Gladys Valentine. Each letter has been carefully transcribed, giving the reader an insight to life on the front line in France. Willie would survive for over four years in this cruel war of pointless destruction, being wounded and still expected to fight to the end, which he did. Intertwined with historical facts, official war diaries giving the reader better understanding throughout. 

A true story, the third in a series sharing the letters of regular servicemen. This particular title is not dissimilar to the play written by R.C. Sheriff (1928), “Journey’s End” although the play is written about trench warfare. Gazing Homewards has a similar feel, told from the viewpoint of an artillery man, who in his own words is eager to maim the Boche in any way possible after witnessing firsthand their destructive nature and brutality. Willie Webber faces the Germans head on as they play out their finale in March 1918 in the Spring Offensive, lasting three months with the loss of over 700,000 men on both sides. Soon the German army would quickly concede any gains made as the allies fought back harder than ever in the last 100 days of the conflict. A million more men would perish before the cease of hostilities on 11th November 1918.

“And I be widowed who was scarce a bride”

Nina Murdoch