World War One: An extremely rare World War I collection of p...

Hammer

£190

World War One: An extremely rare World War I collection of paperwork from Lt. Col. Richard Crosse DSO and Bar. Lt. Col. Crosse commanded the second battalion, The Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, on the Western Front being mentioned in dispatches an additional four times. He led the battalion in a number of battles on The Somme Battlefield and after his retirement from the army he joined the Ulster Special Constabulary.
The collection relates to soldiers taken prisoner by the Germans and includes a number of letters written at the end of hostilities from prisoners giving first person accounts of their treatment at the hands of the Germans. A number are particularly graphic but one by Pte. Cotton stands out "While we were going over the top, Lay was shot through the knee and it was impossible to keep up with the regiment. We decided to get back again but the machine gun bullets were flying all round us. I had taken some wounded men of the 19th Division to the dressing station in Betoncourt the day previous. There was a heavy bombardment at the corner of the road and it would have been suicide to attempt it. We decided discretion was the better part of valour and we took shelter. It was while we were waiting for the barrage to lift that the Germans came up in their thousands and we were taken prisoner. We spent the night in a cage without food or shelter". In addition to numerous accounts from prisoners, the lot includes a large map of German prisoner of war camps with numerous notations and a comprehensive list of those captured with notations from Lt. Col Crosse showing where each man was captured, rank, name and additional remarks, a fascinating archive