BATTLEFIELD OPTIMIST
A GOOD many Gisborne men woke up today to congratulate themselves on having survived by 31 years their participation in the Battle of Passchendaele, one of the bloodiest struggles which marked the Western Front campaign of the First World War. Today is the anniversary of the New Zealand Division's entry into that titanic test of nerve and stamina, the men who came through it still wonder at their good fortune. Time has softened the jagged edges of an experience typified by the losses of one Hawke’s Bay platoon, which went in with 35 men and came out only five strong; and when men recall Passchendaele their minds tend to dwell upon the incidentals of battle.
One Gisborne veteran of the great battle cherishes the memory of a platoon mate who, after four or five days of intense hardship and danger, stood knee-deep In Flanders mud and watched the sun make a momentary appearance through the clouds which had drenched the battlefield throughout the early stages of the attack. “Isn’t it a lovely morning!” he remarked.
Reactions among the shell-hole fellow-tenants were less appreciative. and their comments upon the sanity of the optimist notably unprintable.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/GISH19481004.2.28
Bibliographic details
Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22759, 4 October 1948, Page 4
Word Count
196BATTLEFIELD OPTIMIST Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22759, 4 October 1948, Page 4
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