In the words of Lieutenant Michael Thomas Wall

Royal Irish Regiment in the Battlefields of Flanders 1916-1917

Dearest Mater,

I’m going to ask you not to worry about me as I shall be as safe as houses. I’m still here in the land of the living and a chance of seeing dear old Dublin again......we all just wish the war was over now and I am quite certain we will finish off the Germans this year.

Ah, I wonder will we ever get us the girls we deserve or will there be none left for us when we get back home. Today I found a piece of shamrock and who says it grows nowhere else but our dear old Ireland? My teeth are not good now but too late to be thinking of dentists. Each day we must thank God we are still alive but our losses are heavy and my nerves are nearly gone.

The rain has stopped and then there was a blackbird piping his merry song as we fixed bayonets and awaited our whistle. An eerie hush fell as men whispered their last words. The Dublins took out their rosary beads. Irishmen from north and south would now fight side by side and they’ll die side by side.

Every man of historic Irish Regiments knows what he must do today. We shall be going over the top now and God grant that I come through safe.

I have seen the tired eyes of rough men fill with tears and I have never seen carnage like it.

Not a single human body left intact, just bits and pieces, arms and legs and heads as the enemy squealed and groaned and died.

As we are now determined to kill everyone we find. Nothing was spared, nothing and when done there was not one more yard left.

Ever Your Fond Son,

Michael

One More Yard

By Evamore

The wait it’s killing me

Soon I’ll face what will be

When the whistle breaks this trance

I’ll see my friends take their last chance

And we know there’s no return

Our hopes in this hole will burn

But now I can see

Little children play upon green hills far far away

Our girls our mums our friends

I can see their tears they know our end

For now our time has come and only god survives man's gun

I can’t go on

One more yard

Grey ghosts now drifting by

Oh I can hear their lonesome cries

And this battle now is over

For all my friends all gone and died

And now it’s time to kneel and pray to our god

Spare me again so I can still fight on

This war’s so hard

I can’t go on

One More Yard