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Returning WWI soldiers' hatred for the leaders who sent them to die

It is one of the most profound and moving books about the Great War based on previously unpublished accounts from the men who lived and died in the trenches.

In yesterday's extract from Richard van Emden's The Soldier's War, troops recalled the horror of battle. Today, we reveal how delight at the Armistice turned to resentment as survivors returned home.

It was a brutal secret no one wanted to face. But despite the flag waving that greeted Britain's returning troops 90 years ago today, many felt nothing but hatred for the leaders who'd sent them to die. and now seemed happy to forget them.

Wearing a distinctive Burberry trench coat, the young English captain was an obvious target for a German sniper. His smart uniform, plus the fact that he was openly poring over a map, marked him out as an officer. As dawn lit up the night sky, his sergeant major warned him to take cover. 'Oh, I'll be all right,' the captain said jauntily.

But he wasn't. Minutes later, he was shot in the stomach. 'He was in great pain,' recalled the sergeant major, Arthur Cook. 'I asked him if there was anything I could do and he said: "No, Sergeant Major. I'm finished."

What made this death so poignant out of all the millions on the Western Front during World War I was that it came so near the end. 'He and I had fought and suffered together so long,' Cook recorded in his diary. 'He never knew what fear was, he was the bravest officer I ever saw, and here he was lying crushed and bleeding at my feet.'

Celebrations in London on November 11, 1918: But many battle scarred soldiers found the concept of peace bewildering

It was November 1, 1918 and the fighting was as fierce as ever with Allied troops pushing the retreating German forces out of France and back towards their own border.

As Cook's battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry moved in to mop up resistance in a French village, snipers began to pick them off, starting with the captain. Then a shell burst on the hard cobbles and Cook was hit by debris and shrapnel.

'I could scarcely believe I was wounded. I had been dodging bullets for four years and I'd begun to feel I was immune. I had been with the battalion from the beginning of the war and had the misfortune to be injured in its very last action.'

Along the Front, the next few days were full of rumours that the Germans were suing for peace. It didn't seem possible. The Kaiser's armies had been fighting a tenacious rearguard action and, though many prisoners had fallen into Allied hands, the expectation was that the war would drag on into 1919.

This sudden talk of an armistice made everyone nervous. Sergeant Walter Sweet recalled how the sound of a shell sent men scurrying for shelter, while before they would have taken little notice. 'If the end was near, we were taking no chances of being pipped at the last minute.'

The morning of November 11 was extremely cold and a white frost covered the Front. Sweet marched his platoon from the Monmouthshire Regiment to the next village and was billeting them in a barn when the colonel walked in.

'He wished us good day and looked at his watch. "It is 10am. Men, I am pleased to tell you that in one hour the Armistice comes into force and you will all be able to return to your homes." '

Armistice Day 1918: Crowds in London's Tralfalgar Square celebrating the end of the first world war

But the news of the imminent German surrender was greeted with silence. 'We did not cheer,' Sweet recalled. 'But just stood, stunned and bewildered.'

He continued: 'Then, on the stroke of 11am the CO raised his hand and told us that the war was over. That time we cheered, with our tin hats on and our rifles held aloft. For old hands like me, it was funny realising that this day we had waited so long for had come at last.'

The celebrations began. Lieutenant John Godfrey was lucky: he toasted the victory with fine wines. The owner of the house in which he was billeted had retrieved vintage bottles from the garden where he had hidden them from the German occupiers.

'The bally war is over, which is the great thing and a joy,' the lieutenant noted. But the concept of peace was baffling after so many years of bloody conflict. 'To think that I shall not have to toddle among machine guns again and never hear another shell burst. It is simply unimaginable.'

Another soldier admitted that he too was apprehensive. 'What's to become of us?' he asked. 'We have lived this life for so long. Now we shall have to start all over again.'

The Royal Family, seen on the balcony at Buckingham Palace, celebrating with servicemen and civilians after the announcement of the Armistice

The actual return home was a joy. Private John McCauley of the 2nd Border Regiment remembered cheering crowds, waving flags and bands playing music everywhere. In London, he went onto the streets 'to be swallowed up in the swirling multitude'.

But being demobbed meant sad farewells 'handshakes with old comrades fine fellows with whom I had shared experiences that will live in the memory as long as life shall last.'

And many were haunted by painful memories. Pte Charles Heare, his discharge papers in his pocket, was on a train returning from the Front when he passed the Ypres battlefield, where he had fought. He saw how 'smashed up' it was and wondered to his mates how they had managed sweet alhambra necklace fake to live through it.

'A lot of luck, good hearing and a sense of danger,' one alhambra pendant necklace fake replied. Then someone asked: 'What was it for? What have we got for it, or anyone else for that matter?' No one had an answer.

The vintage alhambra necklace 10 motifs fake crowd gathered outside the Stock Exchange and the Bank of England in London after the announcement of the Armistice

As he neared his home in Wales, his friend Pte Black, who had been with him in France since the start in 1914, was sentimental about leaving his comrades.

'We have had to protect one another from danger, share our sleep and food. We have seen thousands of dead and dying. We have had romping good times and horrid bad ones together. But now we must part and start a new life. Let's hope we have lived through it all for a good purpose.'

Many men now found themselves reflecting on what had happened and asking themselves and each other the same question: Was it all worth it?

The Wall

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