Back in 1984, Chorley Pals historian John Garwood interviewed Chorley Pal, Lance Corporal 15349 James Snailham – then aged 86.
Jimmy Snailham [pictured above left] said of the attack at Serre on the Somme on the 1st July 1916:
“Once I got into No Man’s Land and started forward I could see the lads being hit and falling down. It was not like you see at the pictures, jumping all over the place when they were shot; they gave a little grunt, their knees folded and they pitched forward on to their faces. It was like they were Mohammedans saying their prayers. They also twirled round and fell in all kinds of ways when they were hit.”
He described how he disobeyed the order to walk that morning and managed to reach the German trenches - one of only a small number of men from his Battalion to do so:
“We were told not to run but to walk over, but after I saw the lads get hit, I ran across. I got to the German front line barbed wire, some ten yards in front of their trenches completely untouched. I then dropped to the ground. I turned round to see how many of my mates were with me, and I was on my own – not a soul moving, just dead and wounded.”
Eventually wounded in both legs, James Snailham attempted to reach the British trenches across No Man’s Land:
“I kept on going and fell into our trench. I crawled around one of the bays and came across Tom Mather from Chorley, who saw me and said ‘What are you doing here?’ he was one of the Battalion’s Military Police. I told him I was wounded. He then carried me to the road that went to Doullens and left me for the medical lads to pick me up and take me to the casualty clearing station.”
He continued: “I was taken to the casualty clearing station to await treatment and removal of the shrapnel from my legs. When my turn came along I was laid on a plank of wood across trestles. Four or so men held me down while the medical officer removed it. This was done without the use of an anaesthetic. It looked like a butcher’s shop, the clearing station, but when one looks back the poor medical officer had to work quickly, because there were so many who required treatment.”
James Snailham was posted to Mesopotamia in 1917, returning to his home village of Whittle-le-Woods in 1919; he died in Wakefield in October 1991.
