Both Sides of the Wire

Captain William Ambrose Cull fought the First World War from both sides of the wire. As a young infantry officer on the Western front, Cull went out most nights to patrol No Man's Land and lead daring trench raids against the German trenches. He took part in bitter fighting on the Somme at Pozies and Gueduecourt, but Cull was severely wounded in an attack on the German trenches near Warlencourt in February 1917 and was taken prisoner of war. In German captivity, on the other side of the wire, he sat out the rest of the war in the hands of the enemy and endured a very different war than the one played out on the battlefield. Both Sides of the Wire is the untold story of a wounded Australian prisoner of war in Germany during the First World War. Originally published in 1919, Cull's raw and candid portrayal of captivity documented for the very first time in Australia the experience of the 3,861 Australian troops taken prisoner on the Western Front. Cull endured months of pain and suffering as he slowly recovered from his wounds, but his story reveals how badly Germany's home front was faring after years of hard and relentless fighting.