A dead teenager and life on the Somme
Like many young men, New Zealander Jim Warner lied about his age to enlist in World War I and found himself going into action on the Somme with the Auckland Infantry at the age of 18.
In this excerpt from a lengthy interview he recorded with Radio New Zealand reporter Andrew McRae in 1982, he recalls the conditions, the death of his 16-year-old friend and the shattered landscape of northern France which had been shelled heavily by the time the New Zealanders arrived in September 1916.
Year:1916 (Recorded 1982)
Location:Somme, Picardie, France
A dead teenager and life on the Somme
Like many young men, New Zealander Jim Warner lied about his age to enlist in World War I and found himself going into action on the Somme with the Auckland Infantry at the age of 18.
In this excerpt from a lengthy interview he recorded with Radio New Zealand reporter Andrew McRae in 1982, he recalls the conditions, the death of his 16-year-old friend and the shattered landscape of northern France which had been shelled heavily by the time the New Zealanders arrived in September 1916.
Year: 1916 (Recorded 1982)
Length: 04:08
Source: Radio New Zealand collection, Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
Catalogue Reference: S25038 [James Warner recalls his World War I experiences]
People: William James "Jim" Warner, Andrew McRae, Arthur Huckin
Location: Somme, Picardie, France
Image Title: E04803, Australian War Memorial
Image Source: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/E04803/
Jim Warner’s young friend Arthur Huckin is one of the thousands of men who died on the Western Front and who lie in an unmarked grave. He is remembered on the New Zealand Memorial at Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, where over 5,000 Commonwealth soldiers are buried.
In 2004, the remains of an unidentified New Zealand soldier were exhumed by staff of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission from Caterpillar Valley Cemetery and laid to rest within the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, at the National War Memorial in Wellington.
One reason for the high causalities, as Warner explains, was that the traditional sunken farm roads of the Somme region provided an ideal hiding place for German forces and proved a lethal obstacle when combined with barbed wire entanglements.