The Ballad of Bill Hubbard

"Two things that have haunted me most are the days when I had to

collect the paybooks; and when I left Bill Hubbard in no-man's-land."

"I was picked up and taken into their trench. And I'd no sooner taken

two or three steps down the trench when I heard a call, 'Hello Razz,

I'm glad to see you. This is my second night here,' and he said 'I'm

feeling bad,' and it was Bill Hubbard, one of the men we'd trained

in England, one of the original battalion. I had a look at his wound,

rolled him over; I could see it was probably a fatal wound. You could

imagine what pain he was in, he was dripping with sweat; and after

I'd gone about three shellholes, traversed that, had it been... had

there been a path or a road I could have done better. He pummeled

me, 'Put me down, put me down, I'd rather die, I'd rather die, put me

down.' I was hoping he would faint. He said 'I can't go any further,

let me die.' I said 'If I leave you here Bill you won't be found, let's

have another go.' He said 'All right then.' And the same thing

happened; he couldn't stand it any more, and I had to leave him

there, in no-man's-land."

"I don't mind about the war, that's one of the things I like to watch, if it's a war going on, 'cause then I know if our side's winning,

if our side's losing..."