Wounded on the Somme: A 16th Soldier

Battlefield on the Somme. (P. Ferguson image 2007)

I GOT HIT ON THE SOMME

Corporal Norman Caldwell (16th Battalion CEF) and his brother Harry Calldwell (67th Battalion CEF) were the nephews of Mr. L.A. Berkeley of Roccabella.

A portion of Norman’s letter entitled, Brothers Have Seen Some Heavy Fighting  appeared in The Daily Colonist, 7 November  1916, page 10.

I got hit on September 24…at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon, down in the Somme district, between Thiepval and Courcelette, where we had made an attack that day. I got through the charge all right and was dug in up on the ridge which we had taken from Fritz. We had been there only a few hours when a high explosion shell burst right on the edge of the trench where I was posted and buried me. The concussion at the same time tore a strip out of me about two or three inches wide, extending from about half way down the thigh on my right leg to about half way between the knee and ankle. The wound, however, was not very deep, and not at all serious. I was burnt a bit by the shell explosion as well, but my injuries are healing now.

I also got a few shrapnel cuts on the left shin, caused by the shell splinters, but they have only broken the skin, and all signs of them, I think, will be gone by another week.

I was buried for about fifteen minutes before I could be dug out. It seemed like a year while I was lying there, half smothered with earth and the weight on top of me.

Now that I think of it, I don’t think I ever told you that I was made corporal at the beginning of last July. If I hadn’t been wounded, I probably would have been sergeant by this time, as there were a few sergeants wounded whose places would have to be filled by senior corporals…

In 1918 Caldwell was awarded the Military Medal for bravery in the field.