环球英语 — 447：The Last Soldier

　　Voice 1

Hello, I’m Tony Ford 1.

Voice 2

And I’m Rachel Hobson. Welcome to Spotlight 2. This programme uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.

Voice 1

A crowd of people stand quietly. Light rain drops on their faces. A strong wind blows around their coats and hats. A young man steps out of the crowd. He turns and faces the people. He starts to read out loud. It is a poem about some young soldiers who died fighting. He says:

Voice 3

“They will not grow old as we who are left grow old ...

At the going down of the sun and in the morning – we will remember them.”

Voice 1

The people bow their heads. They are thinking about members of their own families. These family members were brave men. They died here, in these fields, all those years ago. Now, all that is left here are thousands of white stones. They are all the same size and shape. These stones stand like soldiers – tall and straight. On each stone there are some words – names, dates. On many there are no names, just the words: “A soldier of the Great War, known to God.” Later, the people in the crowd will walk among these stones. They will find the stone for the person related 3 to them. And they will put some flowers there. The flowers say, ‘Thank you’. They say, ‘We will never forget this sacrifice’.

Voice 2

A man called Harry 4 Patch 5 was invited to the ceremony.  But he chose not to go.  He was one of those soldiers in the Great War of 1914 to 1918.  But Harry survived.  He survived to the age of one hundred and eleven.  In his old age, Harry lived in a home in the west of England.  He would sit in a chair by the window.  In the distance, he could hear children playing.  Harry wore some shiny medals attached to his chest - awards for bravery.  People came to visit Harry.  They wanted to hear his story.  But it always troubled Harry to talk about the events of 1917.  When he did talk, he did not hide how bad it was.  Harry remembered,

Voice 4

“I was one of the poor foot soldiers. Poor is what we were! They paid us eighteen pence 6 a day.”

Voice 1

Harry served in the British Army. In 1914, Germany invaded 7 Belgium. Britain had a treaty 8 with Belgium. The British government wanted to honour this. So, it declared war on Germany. A long, bloody 9 conflict followed. Many of the battles took place in the fields of Northern France and Belgium – an area called the Western Front. Soldiers from each side dug trenches 11. These trenches were long deep holes in the surface of the ground. They were many kilometres long. Soldiers hid in the trenches. They also kept supplies and ammunition 12 in them. When it was time to fight, they climbed out of them. The two armies then faced each other on the land in between the two sets of trenches. The fighting was usually hard and fierce. Thousands of soldiers lost their lives in battles on the Western Front.

Voice 2

Harry Patch remembers war in the trenches. He is the last British soldier alive who does. He joined the army in 1916. He says:

Voice 4

“I knew what war was going to be like – dirty and horrible.”

Voice 2

The conditions in the trenches were particularly bad. Any rain that fell turned the earth into thick, wet mud. The mud would then stick to the soldiers’ clothes. Most of the time, it got inside their boots and wet their feet. Many soldiers became sick with “trench 10 foot”. This condition developed if soldiers could not dry their feet. Doctors had to treat it straight away – or else the foot would become infected. Some soldiers even died from “trench foot”. In fact, death was hard to avoid on the Western Front. So how did Harry manage to survive?

Voice 1

It was September 1917. This was more than three years after the start of the war. The alliance 13 of armies that included Britain formed a plan. Their aim was to capture 14 a particular piece of high ground from their enemies. This land was near a small village called Passchendaele. Harry Patch was part of a group of five soldiers. Harry and the other soldiers were operating a machine gun. Their position was on the open ground between the trenches. After some time, the army leaders gave orders to Harry’s group. They told them to move back behind the attacking British soldiers. Harry and his friends obeyed. Suddenly, a German shell exploded nearby. Harry says:

Voice 4

“I can remember the shell bursting. I saw the bright light. But the next thing I remember was the medical station. I had a wound at the top of my leg.”

Voice 1

In fact, a piece of the shell had entered Harry’s leg. The doctors took it out while Harry was awake. Medical helpers had to hold Harry down while they did this – the pain was so bad. Harry remembers:

Voice 4

“The medical officer came to see me. He wrote something in a book. Later, somebody came in and called my name and number. He told me I was going back to England. I could not believe it.”

Voice 2

Harry and another soldier escaped death. But the explosion 15 killed their three friends. And even after all these years, Harry cannot forget the terrors of war:

Voice 4

“I sit there and think. And some nights I dream – of my first battle. I cannot forget it. I fell in a trench. There was a soldier there. He must have been my age. Metal from a shell had torn open the top part of his body. I held his hand for the last sixty seconds of his life. He only said one word: “Mother”. He passed from this world into the next. And it felt as if I was in God’s presence 16. You never forget it. Never.”

Voice 2

Harry Patch feels sad. He is not proud he is the last British soldier to survive the war in the trenches. For him, being the last soldier is a serious responsibility. He must continue to tell his story for as long as he can. And maybe one day, people will learn. And they will finally understand the terrible lesson that war can teach them.

Voice 4

“It wasn’t worth it. No war is worth it. No war is worth the loss of one or two lives, let alone thousands.”