J.R. McIlree's interview is transcribed in full below.
[START 00:00]
Interviewer: Can you tell me about the 22nd of April?
John McIlree: Yes. When we finished our trip in the trenches we went back into [unknown] brigade reserve and we were out on working parties for two or three nights and then on the 22nd of April just as the sun was going down we saw a weird light
in the sky from the west and then we smelled it and then I remembered our chemistry classes, chlorine. One of our transport drivers came who had been into Ypres. He came galloping up in his limber and he said, "They've broken through, they've broken
through". Someone said, "Shut up, you bastard". We'd fallen in, in the meantime, quite instinctively. All that day and the day before we had such strict aeroplane control that nobody was allowed to move as long as there was a plane in sight. Consequently
we were the only billet in sight, only farm in sight, that had not been shelled. Well, we went up. We could see, before that, all of our troops coming up and a lot of buildings on fire in the background. You could see them silhouetted along the ridges
coming up in single file. We dug in with entrenching tools and stayed there the next night and the next day without any action. The enemy knew we were behind there somewhere but they couldn't see us and we couldn't see them. Picks and shovels were brought
up and we dug in and dug trenches. I got word in the middle of the morning from my company commander to retreat, to take our section and cover the retreat. I went up there and there was sort of a hedge, there was nothing in sight. We were there and the
enemy started coming over. You could just see the tops of their heads, that was all.
[TIME: 3:15]
Interviewer: Would that have been up there by the Gravenstafel Ridge?
McIlree: I imagine so. As I explained, I don't know where I was at any time. Am I talking too long? (Interviewer: You’re doing beautifully, go ahead.)The retreat, I imagine, was the Gravenstafel Ridge which would involve St. Julien
on the left. Is that right? (Interviewer: Mmhmm.) I didn't withdraw with the rest of them, I got a bullet through the corner of my coat, my tunic, and when I came back to the partial trench we had dug, I found one of my sergeants who had
been shot above the heart and there was this fellow who was not very bright who had attached himself to me and I didn't want him so I said to this fellow, "See if you can take the sergeant and get the sergeant back" and in some miraculous manner he did,
though he died. We got to a road with a village which you say was St. Julien. We went back in a very leisurely manner. There was no space in the trench available there. It was very deep trench. There was one of our machine gun sergeants, Sgt. Weeks,
whom I saw behind, with one helper, blazing away in all directions. [unknown] ever been under a machine gun, don’t do it again. But he disappeared. I then tried to organize things, using our own dead as firing steps because the trench was too deep to
see over without support underneath. [unknown] There were places where we knew the enemy would be and we just tried to keep them down. Then the tear gas started to come over, just go "plop". After a little while, you couldn't sight your rifles for fifty
yards. Then one of our stragglers came back, started to come back the same route that I had taken and a German ran out along the road into St. Julien and started to shoot him. A young fellow from the 13th Battalion shot him and a second after he got
it right between the eyes. I was shoulder to shoulder with him and nobody tried to shoot me. Then the word came down from the right, "Cease fire" from Major Something-Something. You know how messages get garbled but I knew that it was my company commander,
Major Byng Hall.
[TIME: 7:29]
McIlree: Well then the question arose as to what to do. The propaganda was such that I figured that if I was taken prisoner I would die a lingering and miserable death and a quick and merciful bullet would be the easiest way out of it and
offer some sporting chance, so I gave the order, "Every man for himself" and about six of us started off and we had to dive through the hedge behind and then get into a field with the enemy and St. Julien on one side and then a hedge on the other side
and a fellow ahead of me was hit and fell screaming and, grabbing my foot, tripped me up. Then I got the idea of playing possum. I braced myself and run forward a few yards and dropped and lie dead or possibly have a few artistic wiggles if I was an
extremist. My clothing and equipment were hit at least half a dozen times and I never got a scratch. I finally got up and walked off. I was the only one that got out from there; all the rest were taken prisoner. And the Germans weren’t, as I say, they
weren't killing except a few extremely excitable ones. They knew they had us in the bag and as long as you didn't try to be belligerent or escape, they let it go at that. That was my impression anyway. I drifted back and found a certain number of the
battalion who were right back in the billets where they started from. That night, the Imperials were coming through, a couple of battalions on the other side of the salient, in open order with the big, black coal boxes bursting over them. [unknown] That
night we were collected and brought up to I don't know where and dug in to the left of the newly arrived Territorials, absolutely green battalion. In the morning I found next door to me, three old fellows from No.. 1 Company and when one of them saw
my sergeant's stripes he said, "Now look here, kid, don’t you start giving any orders". There was nothing in sight at all as usual, except a farm, what was left of a farm, slightly to our left. Away far to the left we could see the Germans coming up
in solid queues about the extent of an acre, [unknown] oh I'd say at a thousand yard range but on the immediate front, nothing doing. There we were shelled by a little artillery, the usual business that night. The Germans were behind us. The wounded
we had, in the morning they were simply taken prisoner and disappeared. I hope I’m not being too [unknown]. (Interviewer: No, you’re doing fine. You go ahead.) By that time I had been five days and nights without sleep and as dusk started and
it started to get dark, I saw coming from the right Noah's Ark, two and two, just like a child’s art. They came and they climbed up the chimney, the elephants and the giraffes and all the rest of it, and down the other side. I saw it quite plainly. Then
we were taken out again and went back. I was carrying one fellow on my arm and his rifle and he was asleep but he was walking. Nobody interfered. The first thing we heard was at British outpost and they were our own people. We went back a bit and we
got a light and there were trenches further back. I broke into an estaminet, you know, pub, which was deserted and drank a whole quart bottle of white wine and boy, was it good.
[TIME: 14:04]
Interviewer: That's the best thing that happened to you in five days, eh?
McIlree: Then we went up again, back to the same old spot, and dug in individually and I knew nothing more for six hours. When I woke up, everybody who had dug in with me had disappeared. [unknown] wonderful six hours sleep. I slept
for another bit and found a young officer and we went out that night. I went down to where the officers had been, our company officers, besides from a few dead horses that had accumulated in the meantime, everything was as usual but all the company mail
that they started to censor was lying around on the floor. I picked that up and put it in a sand bag and brought it out. We went out on the other side of the salient, on the east side, in single file at three paces interval. At one place there was a
quiet battle going on just about two hundred yards to our left. You could see the flashes of rifles and grenades and so forth, no shell fire. It was just exactly like the illustrations of Dante's Inferno. Then we went through Ypres which was deserted
except for an occasional lorry dashing through. I still remember one poor bugger, he was badly wounded and all by himself and he was staggering around and I've often wondered what happened to him.
[TIME: 16:24]
Interviewer: How many would there have been left of the battalion?
McIlree: I couldn't give you any idea. In my platoon, which went in on the 22nd with fifty strong, eight of us mustered afterwards. In the whole brigade, three of the four medical officers were killed in their dressing stations. When they
arrived at the dressing station, they were simply told that they were filled and if they were capable of moving, keep going, keep going.
[END 17:10]
