The Pardon

Well educated, confident and a fluent German speaker, Yorkshireman Harry Oldham holds a job with the British Board of Trade. Oldham then enlists not long after the beginning of WW1. He is appointed an Officer and sees service in quieter conflicts during the early years of the war, but is eventually posted to the Somme campaign. After a day's particularly fierce fighting, Oldham is repairing the British lines when he finds a dying young German soldier, injured and trapped in barbed wire. Instead of killing him, Oldham frees the young man and saves his life, taking him to be treated by British medical orderlies and taken as a prisoner. Oldham is later posted to Passchendaele. He leads his company in an ill-fated assault on German lines in pouring rain. The charge is a failure and with many men lost, Oldham is forced to retreat. Amidst the retreat, a shell explodes near Oldham and throws him into a flooded shell-hole. Up to his chest in water, Oldham is unable to climb out, and discovers other men of his are in the shell-hole with him too. Oldham becomes trapped in the shell-hole in pouring rain for the rest of the day and overnight. The next morning, Oldham discovers all the men in the shell-hole with him have died due to the brutal conditions. Oldham hears shooting and discovers German soldiers are killing any dying British soldiers still lying in the battlefield. When the German soldiers arrive at Oldham's shell-hole, he manages to recall his German studies and speaks to the soldiers. Miraculously, the German commanding officer takes pity on Oldham and retrieves him from the shell-hole, after which Oldham is sent for treatment and repatriated back to England. Oldham undergoes intensive surgery for infection and shell-wounds in England. Recovering from the operation and still feeling the effects of the anaesthetic, Oldham speaks in German whilst hallucinating. A young Irish nurse hears the German language, and believing Oldham to be a spy, informs the senior Army officer working at the hospital. Thankfully, before further action is taken against Oldham, the Surgeon intervenes and Oldham's life is saved, once again. Oldham later meets the young nurse and in 1919, they married each other and stayed married for the rest of their lives.