Mad Jack (Scene 7) Poem by John Fenton Mcleish

mad jack
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scene 7
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Siegfried is approaching the front line on his motorbike.He takes a muddy road up a small hill to a village where the howitzers and artillery are positioned.He leaves his bike in a barn and walks over to the observation post.Siegfried introduces himself to the commanding officer.When the small talk is over, siegfried takes a pair of binoculars, sitting on a bench and scans the battlefield, stretching out into the distance below.
The trench system extends as far as the eye can see, to the north and south.In total this trench system spans thousands of miles, from the north sea, all the way to the border with switzerland.
The front line trench zigzigs through the countryside.About two to three hundred yards behind that, is the support trench, and about two hundred yards behind the support trench is the reserve trench.Connecting these trenches are the communication trenches.In a way it reminds him of a open termite mound.
Beyond the front line trench is no man's land.Only two hundred yards seperates the german front line from the allies front line.
No man's land is covered in barbed wire and shell craters.The howitzers are blasting away and the noise is deafening.
Siegfried watches the shells exploding on the german front line and no mans land.With each explosion, tons of earth is thrown up into the air, but the barbed wire seems to remain mostly intact.
He focuses his attention on the thousands of soldiers standing and waiting, bayonets fixed in the front line.
Behind them, thousands more soldiers wait their turn in the support and reserve trenches.
Smoke from the exploding shells slowly drifts to cover no mans land.(soon the barrage will cease and the men will go over the top)

At 6.00am the fire suddenly stops, the officers blow their whistles.Siegfried watches the soldiers climbing out of the trench and walk towards the german line.(they are told not to run incase they lose their formation?)
Immediately, machine gun fire breaks out.Some of the soldiers don't even make it out ot the trench, their dead bodies falling back onto their comrades, still in the trench.
Siegfried looks for the machine gun post but the smoke blocks his vision.Waves upon wave of soldiers walk into the smoke and bullets.Thousands of these men are mowed down in minutes.The slaughter is unimaginable.
The rat tat tat of the machine guns continues for hours, but eventually due to attrition and lack of reinforcements, the attack is halted.
The machine guns cease and no mans land clears of smoke.What siegfried sees is unbelievable.The whole of no mans land is covered with the bodies of dead and wounded soldiers.
He hands the binoculars to an orderly and rushes to the front line.
Siegfried is about to enter hell.
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// this poem may contain copying errors