'They mowed down our lads with bombs and machine guns': Harrowing diaries of WWI captain revealed after being hidden in wardrobe for 40 years



Captain Edwin Vaughan in 1916 when, aged just 19, he was commissioned into the Army. A year later he was sent to the Western Front

The astonishing diaries of a First World War captain whose company was slaughtered on the Western Front have been discovered after remaining hidden in a wardrobe for 40 years.

The journal of Capt Edwin Vaughan, detailing the Battle of Ypres in 1917 in which his band of 90 men were decimated to just 15, has been published, graphically throwing light on the battlefield carnage .



He notes how a fellow officer was overcome with a feeling of 'this is the end of us' when they received orders to advance across No Man's Land. He was killed by a shell a short time later.

The captain, aged just 20, then describes how one comrade was 'blown to atoms' by a bomb while others dropped dead in front of him, their limbs severed by flying fragments of shell.

He ordered one terrified trooper he found huddled in a shelter to 'do his duty and fight', only to see him shot and killed seconds later.

And he wrote of how he listened helplessly to the pitiful cries of men as they drowned in rising rainwater while languishing in shell-holes, unable to move due to their wounds.

When it was all over he took a count of his men who had survived. He wrote: 'Feeling sick and lonely I returned to my tent to write out my casualty report.

'But instead I sat and drank whiskey after whiskey as I gazed into a black and empty future.'

Having survived the war, Capt Vaughan, from Forest Gate, east London, tragically died aged 34 after he was administered the wrong drugs in hospital.

After his death his brother Frank hid the diaries in a cupboard in case they upset Capt Vaughan's four children.

The memoirs remained in the same cupboard until they were found 40 years later.

They were originally turned into the book 'Some Desperate Glory' in 1981 but there was a low print run and copies soon ran out. They have been re-published now to mark the 80th year of Capt Vaughan's death.

The officer was commissioned into the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in June 1916 and arrived in January 1917 on the Western Front near Ypres where he remained for the next eight months.

Some Desperate Glory is the account of Capt Vaughan, pictured in 1918, in which he details the horrific events of the Battle of Ypres

During a shelling of their shelter in the trenches on March 13, Capt Vaughan described the bloody aftermath: 'Of Corporal Everett we found no trace; he must have been struck by the shell and blown to atoms.

'Bennett was badly shattered and most of his head was gone while Hollins was unrecognisable.'

A month later his company took part in an advance to recapture a farm from the Germans - a raid that was met by more heavy shelling.

He wrote: 'In a few minutes two figures staggered back, one with his arm gone the other shot in the side; one collapsed and died, the other we patched up and sent back.

'The show had been a ghastly failure for the Boche had vacated their trench and from positions on the high ground had mown down our lads with bombs and machine-guns.'

British soldiers in the trenches of Ypres where some of the blooodiest battles of World War I were fought

On June 17 his men took part in a raid across No Man's Land. He noted how Second Lieutenant Cooper was to experience his first taste of combat and was a bundle of nerves.

After the raid his men returned carrying a stretcher. He wrote: 'I approached and asked who the wounded man was. "Mr Cooper, sir" replied the bearer.

'Cooper had heard my voice and greeted me very faintly. Sick at heart (I) bent down to say a few words to him.

'A large chunk of shell had entered his back and he was only half conscious. As the stretcher bearers raised him we grasped his hand and (Laurie) Hammond said "Cheerio Cooper, I'll see you in Blighty again."

'"No Laurie," came the faint voice, "I shan't see Blighty again." And he was right, he died on the stretcher.'



On August 27 his officer, Captain Sydney Pepper, received orders for the men to advance during the Battle of Passchendaele.

He wrote: 'Pepper read this out to me in a tone which implied "this is the end of us".' A short while into the advance Capt Vaughan came upon a cowering soldier.

'I saw Lynch shaking and helpless with fear.'he wrote.' I ran out and told him to go forward. "I can't Sir, I can't," he moaned.

'I said "You know what your duty is," and (he) ran across the road. Before he had gone three yards he fell dead.'

Capt Vaughan went on: 'I went out again and walked along our line; a few heavies were still pounding about us but a more terrible sound now reached my ears.

'From the darkness on all sides came the groans and wails of wounded men; faint, long, sobbing moans of agony and despairing shrieks.

'It was too horribly obvious that dozens of men with serious wounds must have crawled for safety into new shell-holes and now the water was rising about them and powerless to move they were slowly drowning.

'Horrible visions came to me with those cries. Dunham was crying quietly beside me and all the men were affected by the piteous cries.'

British troops marching to the trenches of Ypres in 1917 where Capt Vaughan's unit was decimated

Capt Vaughan and the remainder of his men were later relieved and made their way back to their HQ.

He wrote: 'The cries of the wounded men had much diminished now, and as we staggered down the road the reason was only too apparent for the water was right over the tops of the shell-holes.

'I hardly recognised the boilerhouse for it had been hit by shell after shell and at its entrance was a long mound of bodies.

'Crowds of Berks had run there for cover and had been wiped out by shrapnel. I had to climb over them to enter HQ and as I did so a hand stretched out and clung to my equipment. Horrified I dragged a living man from amongst the corpses.

'I found that I was alone in my tent which I entered soaked in mud and blood from head to foot.'

The following morning Capt Vaughan set about assessing what was left of his company.

He wrote: 'It was a terrible list. Poor old Pepper had gone - hit in the back by a chunk of shell; twice buried as he lay dying in a hole, his dead body blown up and lost.

'Out of our happy little band of 90 men only 15 remained.'

Some Desperate Glory is published by Pen and Sword books.