CASE STUDY

The Imperial War Museum Sound Archive has now put its First World War collection online so you can listen to the voices of those who fought. Ulick Burke was born on 24 April 1895. He attended HMS Conway, a naval training school, moored on the Mersey between 1908 and 1909. After failing to gain entrance to Osborne Naval College, he moved on to Plymouth College where he was a cadet in the Officers’ Training Corps. On the outbreak of war, he was commissioned. On 31 July 1917, Lieutenant Ulick Burke went over the top with the 2nd Devonshire Regiment facing the Westhoek Ridge: It was only when you got to within 20 yards of the trench that you said “Charge!” They then brought their rifles facing the enemy and charged into the trench, killing and bayoneting. It only lasted a few seconds. If there weren’t many troops about you knew there must be more so you threw bombs down the dugouts, that wasn’t so much to kill them, it was to keep them there. They pushed on, moving slightly to the left of Bellewaarde Lake. But then, as their attack ran out of steam, Burke was badly wounded in action: You jump into the trench. This German put his bayonet up and I’m afraid I caught it in the right shoulder, right across my back and just missing my spine – I was impaled on this. My only fear was that he would press the trigger which would have made a hell of a mess. My sergeant, who was near me, saw me, he came in close, shot the fellow and then hoisted me with the help of another man off the bayonet, because I was on top of the German – he was dead – and it wasn’t pleasant. Burke returned to his regiment in 1917, but on 27 May 1918 he was wounded during the defence of Pontavert Bridge during the German attack on the Aisne. Captured, he was a POW in Germany, before being repatriated in October 1918. He was hospitalised until 1921.

You can hear Burke’s voice on iwm.org.uk/ collections/item/object/ 80000565.