The news of the King's arrival and journey to Fricourt seemed to have spread well ahead, for everywhere numbers of troops were strewn along the roadside, and even far behind as I was, I could hear the echoing cheers which resounded over hills and valleys for miles around.
Finally the cars came to a halt at an appointed place near the ruins of the village and once beautiful woods of Fricourt, well within range of the enemies' guns.
The spot where the King alighted was known as the Citadel, a German sandbag fortification of immense strength.
It was arranged in the form of a circle, with underground tunnels and dug-outs of great depth. In various sections of the walls were machine-gun emplacements, and the whole being on the top of the hill, formed a most formidable obstacle to the advance of our troops. I may add that the hill is now known as "King George's Hill."
The King and his party had already alighted when I arrived to set up my camera, and hurrying forward was very difficult work, especially as I had to negotiate twisted masses of enemy barbed wire entanglements. But eventually, after much rushing, and being very nearly breathless, I got ahead, and planted my machine on the parapet of an old German trench and filmed the party as they passed. To keep ahead after filming each incident was very hard work. It meant waiting here and there, jumping trenches, scrambling through entanglements, stumbling into shell-holes, and at times fairly hanging by my eyebrows to the edge of trenches, balancing my camera in a way that one would have deemed almost impossible. But I am gratified to think that I managed to keep up with the King, and I succeeded in recording every incident of interest.
At a point on the hill-top the King halted, and General —— described the various movements and details of the attack and capture of the village, the King taking a very keen interest in the whole procedure.
I continued turning the handle. I did not allow a single scene to pass. Such a thing had never been known before. Throughout it all the guns, large and small, were crashing out, and the King could see the shells bursting over the German lines quite distinctly.
The guide, who was a lieutenant in the Engineers, suddenly called attention to an old German trench. The Prince of Wales first entered and examined from above the depths of an old dug-out.
With a jump I landed on the other side of the trench and sticking the tripod legs in the mud I filmed the scene in which His Majesty and the Prince of Wales inspected the captured German trenches.
The party halted at the entrance to another dug-out. The guide entered and for some moments did not reappear, the King and the General meanwhile standing and gazing down. Suddenly a voice echoed from the depths: