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The soldiers who played football in battle World War one
While the trench warfare of the First World War saw four years of bloody slaughter
This didn't seem to dim the British enthusiasm for football or soccer as it's sometimes called outside of Britain
Quite literally on the front lines this passion would overflow onto the battlefield itself
So much so that right at the beginning of the war one part of the frontline had a truce on Christmas Day
So there could be a football match in no-man's land between the British and the Germans
the Christmas truce had many senior officers concerned about socialising with the enemy and footballs were then banned for fear of
Mutiny in the following year in 1915 the London Irish rifles football team went the next step further
smuggling several footballs into the trenches
All but one had been punctured by an officer the night before the big push at the Battle of Luce where?
Chlorine gas would be used for the first time by the British to cover their advance
Rifleman Frank Edwards later known as the Footballer of loose have kept a deflated ball under his uniform
As the other man applied their gas masks in haste
The win had blown the gas back into the British trenches
Many men slow in adjusting their masks fell choking to the floor of the trenches
Edwards meanwhile calm and collected use every available breath to inflate his football
When the whistle blew he threw the football into no-man's land
As he and his fellow soldiers went over the top they defiantly passed it back and forth during combat as they attacked a German lines
They even spread out in a forward formation like in a football game
Edwards was shot in the thigh and suffered from the chlorine gas, but he would survive the war
It is believed that the football ended up in the German barbed wire
So many British professional players signed up for military service that the army created two special football battalions for propaganda purposes
These were part of the Duke of Cambridge's Middlesex regiment and were mostly made up of former full-time footballers officials and referees
These battalions made their debut at the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and between then and the end of the war suffered truly appalling
casualties
One of his early members sergeant Arthur nippy Wileman was a former Chelsea player who won a military service medal for bravery and was sadly
Killed in action just a few months before the war ended
But maybe the most daring of the football exploits happened on the very first day of the Battle of the Somme in northern France
Which was to be one of the bloodiest battles ever in the history of warfare
The salm offensive started on July 1st 1916 at 7:30 a.m
It was brutal in the extreme in just the first 30 minutes of the battle over 20,000. British soldiers had been killed
It's an average of around 11 men killed every second
Squad commander captain Wilfred P Neville along with his man of the 8th East Surrey regiment were charging with bayonets fixed towards the German trenches
They were tasked with breaking through the German lines and capturing the French village of motovlog
The young captain had brought some footballs over from England with him and planned to use them as a playful and cheeky
Encouragement for when his men went over the top at the beginning of the salm offensive
He had written on one the great European Cup tie fine on East saris versus Bavarian kickoff at zero
While on the other at red no referee
The last one was thought to be captain Neville's Way of telling his men not to treat the enemy too. Kindly
So as they attacked for wood that day captain Neville dribbled his football across the uneven surface of no-man's land
Having to contend with the rough uneven surfaces of churned up mud bomb craters unexploded bombs mines an enemy machine-gun fire
While the other ball was kicked along by his squad
Straightaway, they were met with stiff enemy resistance
But despite this captain Neville almost made it to the enemy line
which was nearly
300 yards away before being shot in the head and killed as he attempted to throw a hand grenade into the nearby German trenches
He was just 21 years old when he died
Later, his football was found close by in the German barbed wire. It was still intact
The second ball was also discovered unconquered in the German barbed wire less than 60 feet from the enemy trenches
Their objective the village of Montalban fell into British hands by the afternoon
But few of the Athey saris lived to see that happen as they suffered appalling casualties during the initial advance
Captain Neville had offered a prize to anyone who was first to put a ball into the German trench. The prize was left unclaimed
Afterwards his commanding officer wrote to his mother and his words best summed up captain Neville's courage and character
He was one of the bravest men I have ever met and was loved and trusted by his men to such a degree
That would have followed him anywhere
major APB Erwin
Captain Neville was buried at the Karno military cemetery in France along with
850 British and Commonwealth soldiers killed in the area in various battles between 1915 and 1916
As for the footballs both were brought back to Britain to be displayed in museums
One was sadly destroyed in a fire in 2016 while the other one is still on permanent display at the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment
Museum at Dover Castle
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