Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967)
132 Counter-Attack
Click on the link to the Oxford First World War Poetry unit on Sassoon’s “Counter-Attack” and work your way through as many of the poems/letters as you wish.
Explanatory Notes not covered in Oxford tutorials.
- Lewis gun: A light machine gun, designed in 1911 by U.S. Army Col. Isaac Lewis, and widely used by British and Empire forces from 1915 onwards.
- Sap: A covering over a trench; the extension of a trench from within the trench itself to a point beneath an enemy’s fortifications.
- Allemands: Germans, from the French “Allemand,”; German: sometimes referred to as the “Alleyman.”
- Five-nines: 5.9-calibre shells.
- Fire-step: A board or ledge in a trench, upon which soldiers stand when firing.
