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Battle of Arras April – May 1917
By Stanley Russell Harris
The new mad author
& A Poetry Soup honourably mentioned poet

I was not there.  I have to say.
I was not born.  I meant to say.
Had I been of age, you know.
None these words would surely show.
World War I was finally won.
Many battles were fought in that one.
Each one was fought until the death.
Rolls of honour reveal what I’ve just said.
The Suffolk Regiments did us proud.
On that Arras bloody battleground.
Many souls were lost, I do implore.
Seek elsewhere, their battles scores.
The Battle of Arras was our men’s one.
The 2nd 7th 11th later 4th Suffolk regiments one.
From April to May 1917; so much carnage was then seen!
So many souls rose they say.
158,000 from both sides in that battle heydays.
Many more were no doubt lost.
For ground, that was won at such a cost.
It matters not what I say.
Many Suffolk folk mourned and prayed.
For that Battle soon did end.
Other battles went before.
The Somme, Passchendaele to name just two more.
But of all of them, you must agree.
Arras was the greatest for, ‘The Suffolk’s,’ you see.
May, ‘The Suffolk’s’, with their Canadian allies.
Rest now their weary battle cries.
As through those chalk tunnels they did go.
Named Wellington, Nelson, they did so.
Then finally, once under no man’s land.
Took battle, to their enemy Germans.
On Arras bloody battlegrounds.

(N.B. No man’s land is the name given to the space between two enemy positions; it is an area of land covered by weapons of both sides, so whoever enters it is sure of being fired upon.  There was usually little or no shelter; apart from crater holes, caused by either sides artillery shells.  On this particular battleground tunnels were constructed by the British/Allied forces through the chalk soil, they were named Wellington and Nelson. Thus bypassing this particular killing ground, allowing more close quarter fighting. The tunnels were named by those that constructed them, New Zealanders, need I say more. Apart from thank you.)
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