WORLD WAR ONE NORTHAMPTON INDEPENDENT SOLDIER NEWSPAPER ARTICLES   

     RIFLEMAN T. BROWN of the 1st Rifle Brigade, Oct 1914

                            An extraordinary escape was experienced by Pte. T. Brown who has been invalided home on furlough with dystentery.

                                “I was knocked down by the bursting of shrapnel and I lay stunned for some time, but to my surprise on coming

                            round found I had not received a scratch.  It was the shock alone that had stunned me, so you can imagine what the

                            explosions are like.  The shrapnel shells are really terrible.  They burst like rockets over the trenches, sending a shower

                            of red hot lead splinters on the men below.  The injuries they inflict are sometimes too awful for words.  For instance,

                            I saw one sergeant of the Somersets have his head blown off.  Added to these sights was the wretchedness of working

                            in trenches which were sometimes waist deep in water.  The Germans have a dread of our rifle fire, and particularly of

                            cold steel.  I was in three bayonet charges.  The first lot of prisoners our brigade captured numbered 150, and would

                            you believe it, the first request some of these prisoners made was for some ‘Woodbine’ cigarettes.  Among the most

                            exciting things of the war are the aeroplane duels.  Our airmen are particularly daring, and deserve all the praise that

                            they are getting.  If is really heartrending to see the refugees fleeing from their homes, some of them scantily clad,

                            going to know not where.  Often we emptied our water bottles and gave them as much food as we could spare, so

                            pitious were the appeals of these destitute and homeless people.”