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ISBN: 978-1094956763 RRP. £9.99 150 pages 40 b&w photographs.
Exploring the emotional bond between the war horses and soldiers in World War One.
My book There From the Start follows the exploits of my grandfather Edwin Clark who spent four Novembers during his 42 months on the western front with the Field artillery war horses. The book explores the extraordinary relationship between the men and the war horses and how they were trained and cared for under horrendous conditions.
The men were devoted to them, spending most of their working hours with them, and they helped sustain the men’s physical and mental well-being by being their confidants, friends and comrades.
Impossible to imagine the carnage.
They were in it together and just as the horses and mules did their utmost to help the troops the men reciprocated by doing all they could to ease their hardships. They fought and suffered together, faced the same dangers, often rested, slept and ate together and ultimately died together.
Edwin received serious injuries in early November 1918 when a bomb was dropped on him and his colleagues while they were feeding and grooming the horses a mile behind the front line. It caused carnage, killing and maiming many of the horses and men. I find it impossible to imagine the awful sounds, sights and smells he had to endure, made worse I’m sure by witnessing the suffering of his harmless equine comrades.