For sale, diary of a soldier's hell at the Somme
By OLINKA KOSTER
21st February 2007
Private Walter Hutchinson kept a detailed diary of his experiences at the Battle of the Somme
It was (and still is) the worst day of slaughter in British military history.
After five hours of fighting, more than 57,000 British officers and infantrymen lay dead or wounded, cut down by German machine guns or obliterated by shells.
Now a vivid and harrowing first-hand account of the Battle of the Somme has emerged. It was written by Private Walter Hutchinson, a grocer from South Yorkshire, who kept a diary during his time on the Western Front.
Described as "astonishing and unusual", it describes in chilling detail the events of July 1, 1916, the opening day of the battle which left 19,240 British soldiers dead. The total number of British casualties, including those wounded and reported missing, was 57,470.
One of the survivors of the battle, Private Hutchinson, of the 10th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment, wrote his diary in the water-filled trenches to the sound of constant shelling.
He recalls the fateful day when, at 7.30am, a continuous line of British soldiers went "over the top" and walked slowly towards enemy lines.
They were cut down by German machine guns, which the British leaders mistakenly believed had been knocked out by a week of heavy bombardment.
The diary begins on June 21, 1916, and ends on July 7, just a week after the day British Army losses exceeded battle casualties of the Crimean, Boer and Korean wars combined.
The Battle of the Somme ended on November 14 and in the 140 days it lasted, Britain's share of casualties was more than 400,000.
The troops had advanced only six miles and were still four miles short of Bapaume, which the cavalry had hoped to take in the opening attack.
Private Hutchinson's diary will go on sale at specialist auctioneers Dix Noonan Webb in London on March 7. It will be sold along with the Military Cross, which he received for bravery, an inscribed gold half-hunter watch, and several photographs.
The collection has been estimated to fetch £800 but, in line with other evocative First World War diaries which have surfaced in recent years, could fetch considerably more.
The pocket watch given to Private Hutchinson is inscribed: "The Great War, Presented to Walter Hutchinson by the Conisbrough Heroes Committee in recognition of his winning the Military Cross, October 5, 1917."
After surviving the battle, Private Hutchinson, from Conisbrough, went back to the job he had known before the conflict, working as a grocer.
He and his wife Evelyn had just one daughter, Connie.
Mrs Hutchinson died in the early 1970s, and Private Hutchinson-passed away in his eighties the following decade.
The item's vendor, Jeanette Ive, 75, from Wimborne, Dorset, is Private Hutchinson's niece by marriage and was handed the collection when Connie - her cousin - died two years ago.
"I was amazed," she said yesterday. "I knew that the medal existed and I knew vaguely about the watch. I didn't know anything about the notebook until I received it from the executor of my cousin's will.
"I remember him as a very quiet man. He was a stretcher bearer during the war when he got the medal. He wasn't the sort of person you would really imagine doing anything really brave - but he obviously was."
dailymail.co.uk
By OLINKA KOSTER
21st February 2007
Private Walter Hutchinson kept a detailed diary of his experiences at the Battle of the Somme
It was (and still is) the worst day of slaughter in British military history.
After five hours of fighting, more than 57,000 British officers and infantrymen lay dead or wounded, cut down by German machine guns or obliterated by shells.
Now a vivid and harrowing first-hand account of the Battle of the Somme has emerged. It was written by Private Walter Hutchinson, a grocer from South Yorkshire, who kept a diary during his time on the Western Front.
Described as "astonishing and unusual", it describes in chilling detail the events of July 1, 1916, the opening day of the battle which left 19,240 British soldiers dead. The total number of British casualties, including those wounded and reported missing, was 57,470.
One of the survivors of the battle, Private Hutchinson, of the 10th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment, wrote his diary in the water-filled trenches to the sound of constant shelling.
He recalls the fateful day when, at 7.30am, a continuous line of British soldiers went "over the top" and walked slowly towards enemy lines.
They were cut down by German machine guns, which the British leaders mistakenly believed had been knocked out by a week of heavy bombardment.
The diary begins on June 21, 1916, and ends on July 7, just a week after the day British Army losses exceeded battle casualties of the Crimean, Boer and Korean wars combined.
The Battle of the Somme ended on November 14 and in the 140 days it lasted, Britain's share of casualties was more than 400,000.
The troops had advanced only six miles and were still four miles short of Bapaume, which the cavalry had hoped to take in the opening attack.
Private Hutchinson's diary will go on sale at specialist auctioneers Dix Noonan Webb in London on March 7. It will be sold along with the Military Cross, which he received for bravery, an inscribed gold half-hunter watch, and several photographs.
The collection has been estimated to fetch £800 but, in line with other evocative First World War diaries which have surfaced in recent years, could fetch considerably more.
The pocket watch given to Private Hutchinson is inscribed: "The Great War, Presented to Walter Hutchinson by the Conisbrough Heroes Committee in recognition of his winning the Military Cross, October 5, 1917."
After surviving the battle, Private Hutchinson, from Conisbrough, went back to the job he had known before the conflict, working as a grocer.
He and his wife Evelyn had just one daughter, Connie.
Mrs Hutchinson died in the early 1970s, and Private Hutchinson-passed away in his eighties the following decade.
The item's vendor, Jeanette Ive, 75, from Wimborne, Dorset, is Private Hutchinson's niece by marriage and was handed the collection when Connie - her cousin - died two years ago.
"I was amazed," she said yesterday. "I knew that the medal existed and I knew vaguely about the watch. I didn't know anything about the notebook until I received it from the executor of my cousin's will.
"I remember him as a very quiet man. He was a stretcher bearer during the war when he got the medal. He wasn't the sort of person you would really imagine doing anything really brave - but he obviously was."
dailymail.co.uk