“Tommy at Gommecourt is the diary of my Grandfather, Tommy Higgins, who served in the 1st/5th North Stafford Regiment during the First World War.
Tommy describes the life and battles of WWI with vivid detail. These include going over the top at Gommecourt on that fatal day of 1st July 1916, the battle of Bucquoy in March 1917, a desperate bayonet fight at the battle of Lens on the 1st July 1917, and a harrowing 16 months as a prisoner of war.
For 24 years I was reluctant to have this work published, but I have now decided that his story should be told.
Tommy Higgins had an eventful and challenging life from the day he was born. He was found as a baby on the doorstep of Police Sergeant’s Higgins home in 1889. Sergeant Higgins took him in, and raised him as his son. In his mid-twenties, after marrying, Tommy had a son, my Father. And it was while working in Shelton Bar that the Great War changed the course of his destiny and laid waste to most of his generation. Tommy was one of the lucky ones to live through it.”
Alan Higgins, Tommy's Grandson
The following passages give a taste of the book….
Going over the top at Gommecourt on 1st July 1916
“In the trench leading to the front line, the sights I saw are impossible to properly describe. The trenches were literally running with blood. The dead and dying lay in heaps at the bottom of the trench. We had to climb over them as we went on. The shells were bursting everywhere, overhead, in front, and behind us Fritz was blowing our trenches flat. At last we got to the jumping off place, with about half the number of men who started. In the trench was the same scene of blood and death. I should think in about an hour over 600 men were killed and wounded in the trenches alone. The 6TH North was practically wiped out when we got to them. We rested a few seconds or two, and then came the order. “Fix Bayonets.” The bullets were zipping just over the top of the trench and in No Mans land whiz bangs and shells were bursting in hundreds No one expected to come back again. The Officer shouted at the top of his voice. ‘One.Two.Three.’ Over we went with the best of luck.”
An Extract from the Battle on Bocquay
“As I said the night was black before the attack started, now what with the thousands of shells exploding and the Verey lights going up it was as light as day. Men were falling in all directions but the living took no notice, and kept on, filled with the determination to get to the German trenches and have it man to man. With shells and bullets he mowed our boys down in dozens. It was literally raining shrapnel. It pattered on our steel helmets as we went. At last after what seemed a life time we reached his barbed wire. Our shells had hardly touched it. Then we had to use wire cutters under a rain of bullets and bombs. Some of us got through it, lots were killed amongst it. The trench was full of Germans who were throwing bombs and dropping mortars amongst us in the wire. We were like flies entangled in a spider’s web. We put some of his machine guns out of action with bombs. We could only get into the trench one or two at a time owing to the struggle to get through the wire. Most of those who got in were killed .the Germans swamped us. There were too many for us, as fast as we killed them with bombs and bayonet, others came up to take their places.”
An Extract from the battle of Lens
“Then we became a struggling crowd of British and Germans. Nothing was used now, only the bayonet, on both sides. It was a duel to the death. Our breath was coming in gasps as we glared at one another. It was thrust and stab. In those awful moments with death staring is in the face, how sweet life seemed. We did want to live, and we kept on killing to hold on to our own lives as long as we could. It was indeed a fight for life. A big German rushed at me. I could not stop him because a Jerry I had struck had snatched my rifle out of my grasp as he fell. I bent down and just missed the point of his bayonet, and then I saw stars. I got a clout on the head with his butt. My tin hat saved me, or it would have knocked my brains out. There was only about three of us left out of the group I had been fighting in .A German officer then shouted in English, ‘Surrender‘, so we threw our rifles down, and put our hands up. Then I was taken prisoner of war.”
Tommy goes on to tell of his life as a Prisoner of War, explicitly describing the conditions that POW’s had to endure. This is a topic on which little has been documented at first hand.
“I served 24 years in the Grenadier Guards and saw active service in Cyprus and Northern Ireland. But compared with my Grandfathers service, my action was a stroll in the park.
I don’t think any one can imagine the horrors of what our forefathers went through for us. That is the reason I decided to have the book published. For this and future generations to know what a great sacrifice the British People have made for our country.
As my family cannot trace our ancestors before Tommy, I have also included the three generations that followed him into Military Service, and the Medals they won; Tommy Higgins, my Grandfather. Henry Higgins, my Uncle. Alan Henry Higgins myself. Alan David Higgins, my son.”
Alan Higgins, Tommy's Grandson
If you want to hear more about Tommy's life or to purchase Tommy at Gommecourt please e-mail me at:
alan@higgins33.freeserve.co.uk
The book price direct from me from the e-mail above is £8.95 plus p+p
The book is also available from the following outlets:
National Memorial Arboretum
Alrewas
Staffordshire
DE13 7AR
Staffordshire Regimental Museum
Lichfield
Staffordshire
WS14 9PY
SHAKESPEAR & HALL
No 1 HIGH STREET
DUNSTER
EXMOOR
SOMERSET
TA24 6SF
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