 CHAPTER XXIV. When Great Britain declared war on Germany, I considered it my duty as a member of the Canadian militia to volunteer my services for the front. The 106th Winnipeg Light Infantry to which I belonged was the first infantry regiment to leave Western Canada to join the mobilization camp at Valcardier, Quebec. Under the new scheme of organization, every regiment lost its identity and we were merged into the 10th Battalion 2nd Infantry Brigade. Early in October, we left Canada for England, arriving at Plymouth, and were then taken by train to Salisbury Plains, which is noted for mud and rain. After undergoing training in the winter, we embarked at Avonmouth Bristol and sailed for France in a cattle boat, landing at Saint Nays in the Bay of Biscay four days later. Then we had two days traveling in a boxcar up to the Trout, and after a short rest we went to Pluge Street Woods and went under a system of training with the Dublin Fusiliers. The method of training we went through was excellent in every way, each one of us being posted with one of the Dublin's and to do what they did. When we reached the trenches I was posted with Spud Murphy, who was then on Sentry Go. Spud was a hero of Mons, having had safely survived up to the present, and so we had quite a lot to talk about. Pluge Street being a quiet front, there was nothing very exciting, so we were pleased when we were shifted to the village of Fleur Bay to relieve an English division and to take trenches over on our own. We were placed on the line near the village of La Boutillerie, where the trenches cut through the walls of a convent. The Germans were about 150 yards away and seemed to have well constructed trenches. During the first night in one of the Germans shouted over and asked what part of Canada we were from, how they learned that the Canadians were in front of them I have no idea, but as they had plenty of spies in our rear they must have received the information from them. The Germans were in happy spirits that night, as they were singing and playing instruments almost till dawn. One of them had a fine baritone voice and sang several songs in English, including Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep. I think they were Saxons, as it was never customary for the Prussians or Bavarians to act in that manner. Although the trenches were wet and muddy, things were not too bad, as we were allowed to build fires so we could warm our macaniche rations and also make tea. There was hardly any artillery fire, but the German snipers were very clever in that region and it meant death to show ahead. I had one periscope shot out of my hands which will show what their snipers can do. After three days in we were taken out for a rest and billeted in a schoolhouse in Flourbet. The next time we went to the front line my platoon was ordered to man a redoubt behind the front trench. The idea of a redoubt is in case the enemy breaks through the front line the men manning it can pour in filleted fire into the enemy while they are passing in their advance to the second line of trenches. This particular redoubt was a circular sandbagged construction large enough to allow sixty men to fire through the loopholes and had two lines of entanglements round it with one narrow path through them to enable us to get in or out. This pathway could easily be blocked by a massive wire called a chavaux de frieze which was kept in the redoubt and which could be placed in position when we had all entered. Food which would last a platoon for ten days and a barrel of water was always kept in stock and was only allowed to be used in case the garrison was besieged. Things being quiet at this time we had permission to use a cottage which was only a few yards away to sleep in at nights. On the second day we remained in the cottage for part of the time but as we had lit a fire to cook the dinner on the Germans must have seen smoke coming out of the chimney and soon got our range with one of their seventy seven millimeter field guns. The second shell hit the roof of the cottage bursting the shrapnel bullets were scattered in the next room to where I was. The platoon lieutenant was in the room when the shell burst and was talking to a sergeant and a corporal. The corporal was hidden thirty one places down his left side and was in a terrible mess. The lieutenant was wounded in the arm and the sergeant in the leg. The rest of us picking them up rushed to the redoubt another shell hitting the cottage just after we left. This taught us a lesson and for the next few days we stayed under cover. We were moved to the e-pray front in April to relieve a French division marching twenty two miles from a stair to a bill in one day with full marching order including one hundred fifty rounds of ammunition. The battalion rested at a bill for a few days and then we marched through Popperinghi and the town of e-pray up to the front line. At last we were in the dreaded e-pray salient the worst sector of the front and on which the Germans had sacrificed thousands of men in an effort to gain e-pray and the roads to the channel ports. As the French came down one side of the road we went up the other into the front line. At the part we were on the trenches cut across the Polka Peli Pasquandale road where the British Seventh Division cut the Prussian guards to pieces the previous October. The next morning we could see hundreds of dead Germans lying beyond our entanglements who had been dead five months and as there was a light mist which would easily hide us the German trenches being eight hundred yards away a few of us crawled through the wire and went to have a look at them. By their epaulets we could see that they were the 235th Prussian regiment and they must have had a terrible list of casualties by the number who were dead. Any German shell which dropped short fell among them and many had heads and legs missing. The stench was so bad that two of our men vomited and it was a sight that no doctor would recommend for anyone suffering from shattered nerves. After six days up there in the badly constructed trenches and under continual bombardment without a hot drink all the time working like slaves every night filling sandbags and strengthening the parapets our appetite spoiled by the sights and stench of the dead fritzies we were at last relieved by our fifth battalion and marched into epré to the billets which were in a large mill alongside the easer canal. epré at this time was full of the civilian population and a staminaise. Restaurants and the marketplace were open so we had a splendid opportunity to change our diet from the everlasting bully in biscuits. Two days after we entered epré the Germans opened up their great offensive on the 22nd of April where they used their poisonous gases for the first time. They also commenced to shell the town with every sized gun they had from 18 pounders to their 14 inch Austrian Skoda Howitzers the largest caliber gun used on the western front. Scores of civilians were killed as they rushed out of the town and it was pitiful to see the little children lying dead in the streets. The Germans broke through the Algerians on our left flank under cover of their poisonous gases which killed thousands of Algerians and our own men in the front line trenches. Our battalion and the 16th Canadian Scottish were the only reserves in the whole salient and as the Germans had broken through things were looking very black for us. We were instantly summoned to fall in and soon we were on our way to fill the gap. We were two thousand men to stop the German divisions in their countless thousands. An ordinary general would have posted us in a reserve line of trenches until the Germans advanced the next morning but not so general Alderson our divisional commander an English general who proved himself one of the geniuses of the war. He tried strategy which was one of the biggest bluffs of the war and which utterly surprised the Germans. Instead of waiting for the Germans to swamp us the next morning with their greater superiority of 20 to one man he ordered us to make a night attack on the Pilgrim Woods where the Germans were massing for their attack. The attack was made in lines of double companies 500 men in each of the four lines a and b company of our battalion being in the front line and supported by c and d company and then the 16th battalion behind them unsupported by artillery we advanced shortly after midnight getting to within 30 yards of the Germans before being discovered the Germans at once opened up rapid fire with every machine gun and rifle they had the night air being rent with the cracks of hundreds of rifles and machine guns how any man could pass through that hail of lead has always been a mystery to me but the remnants of us after a desperate struggle in the dim light took possession of the wood at the point of the bayonet the German garrison was completely demoralized and our impetuous advance did not cease until we reached the far side of the wood and there we entrenched an hour later a most formidable concentration of artillery sweeping the wood as a tropical storm sweeps the forest made it impossible for us to hold the position instead of retiring we tried our old tactics of advancing and attack the Germans once more who were digging themselves in about 200 yards in front we soon gained an objective and remained there until the next day our ranks by this time were sadly depleted our colonel was killed and only two officers still remained in the fight we were still losing men owing to the German artillery fire and our ranks being now so thin it was inadvisable for us to remain out in that exposed position 1500 men had already fallen and what could the remaining 500 of us do against the German hordes sick as we were with the gas fumes and the terrific strain we had undergone we retreated back through the wood to an old line of trenches and there waited for reinforcements our object had been achieved the Germans were demoralized and puzzled as to how many men we had their proposed attack was cancelled for a few hours to enable them to reform and organize and by the next hour or two our reinforcements would have arrived our first brigade appeared on the scene and the line was strengthened and then the buffs the famous English regiment came up at the double after having marched miles from another part of the line the bluff that we pulled off was therefore entirely successful and the Germans thought that we had about 20,000 men attacking them it never struck their imaginative cold-blooded and calculating minds that 2000 men would have the audacity to attack whole german divisions without artillery support they certainly have had many lessons showing the difference between spirit and material the charge we made stands out as one of the finest achievements of the war and only equaled in the estimation of british experts by the wonderful charge of the Worcestershire regiment who with only 500 men charged a division of prussian guards at gellivelt in october 1917 also the famous black watch and the scott's grays in their spectacular stirrup at st quinton it will always be a source of pleasure to me to know that i was in the front line of the first attack made by soldiers from the continent of america and was in the battle of eprey which made the name of canada ring through the world remaining on eprey front for several days the remnants of the battalion were taken to the rear to await for reinforcements these in due course arrived and we were then sent to festa bear and on may 17th our remade infantry brigades advanced toward the firing line once more on the 21st of may we went over the top at festa bear with the object of capturing a strong german redoubt called beechill my platoon was practically annihilated by machine guns and none of us succeeded in passing the entanglements over 50 of the men of the platoon which numbered 60 being killed or wounded in less than two minutes the rest of us seeing that things were hopeless retired to an old communication trench and made our way to bomb our way past the barricade which led to the redoubt as we threw bombs over the barricade the germans retaliated and i discovered that it is impossible to indulge in the practice of throwing grenades for any length of time without someone getting hurt at this time a german bomb fell in the bottom of our trench and burst there wounding three of us myself getting a piece of shell in the foot i was in the hospital only three weeks and then returned to the battalion who were on the labase front on the third day of my second time in the trenches at jivan chi the germans opened up a bombardment with high explosives and while walking up a communication trench an eight inch german shrapnel burst in the air and one piece of shell hit my ammunition pouches while another passed through my arm and then hit my side while in the hospital gangrene posamy set in and i was sent to glasco scotland where i remained for many weeks my arm being partly paralyzed i was returned to canada and discharged in may 1916 two weeks after i joined the canadian active militia paycore and was promoted a sergeant but never recovered the full use of my arm and consequently was unable to return to france end of chapter 24 chapter 25 of what the boys did over there by henry fox this libra vox recording is in the public domain three years and two months in france by lance corporal edmund hall second scottish rifles bef after being in the army 11 years and with one year to go to finish my time as a regular soldier of the british army for which period i had signed on i was beginning to think that i would be unfortunate enough to finish my soldiering without seeing active service but after all i was not to be disappointed and i saw more active service than ever i bargained for at the time great britain declared war on germany i was stationed with the british garrison at malta an island fortress in the mediterranean sea where in peacetime a garrison is kept consisting of five regiments of infantry and several batteries of artillery on the fourth of august we received orders to proceed from barracks to take up positions in the land entrenchments and redoubts as an attack was expected from part of the german fleet the gubern and brezlau at the time being somewhere in the vicinity the attack which we expected did not materialize as the german ships ran for cover to the golden horn in constantanople and were afforded shelter by the turks in this respect they were as fortunate as their sister ships who had the protection of the keel canal we were now waiting for the territorial battalions which were to relieve us so that we could take our place on the western front and fight with the regulars who were stemming the german tide in flanders on the 17th of september our relief arrived and the ships which brought them to malta took us to england and we were camped for a time at winchester while our division was being mobilized this division the eighth was made up of regulars from foreign service and included regiments from gibraltar egypt india and our own from malta the average service of the men of the scottish rifles was seven years and we were in the best of training having just finished maneuvers it was this training excellent shooting an individual initiative which earned for us the praise of the germans who said that every british regular was a trained non-commissioned officer we landed in france on the 5th of november 1914 and in train for the railhead nearest the noeva glisse and mesine front this front at the time was being taken over from the french and we relieved one of their regiments in the front line of trenches at this time of the campaign trench warfare was just beginning as the fighting previously at mon marne and the ain was a retreat or an advance and was mostly field warfare the germans having failed in their terrific drive for the channel ports during the first battle of epre where the flower of the prussian guard had been destroyed by our seventh division decided to dig themselves in and to wait for the spring before opening another offensive on a large scale consequently when we relieve the french the trenches were little better than ditches and we had not even sandbagged parapets erected or barbed wire entanglements thrown out in front it was the surprise of my life when our platoon officer informed us that the particular part of the ditch which we were in was a trench and was to be our home for the next few days a local attack from the germans was expected at any time as they were anxious to get command of the mesine ridge ground which they coveted for observation purposes the french had warned us to be particularly on the lookout this night and advised us not to post extra centuries and it was very fortunate that we heeded their warning because about two hours after the century shouted from the listening posts that the germans were coming the company commander gave us instructions not to fire until he blew the whistle and this he did as soon as he could see the gray mass of figures advancing across no man's land in the weird light of a misty moon the germans received a very warm welcome from our particular part of the contemptible little army and must have also had a rude awakening when we opened up with rapid fire with our lee in field rifles they evidently thought the french were in front of them until they heard our fire but as they heard the rapid fire of the lee in fields on previous occasions it didn't take them long to know that the hated british were on the spot the britishers mad minute was the name the germans gave our rapid fire when they first experienced it at man's because they were astonished that infantry could average 30 rounds a minute per man this speed could not be equaled by any other army at the time the french being equipped with the level rifle which did not have a clip loading action and the germans who relied more on their machine gun fire to break up infantry attacks were amateurs in comparison to our army where rifles were concerned the germans were mowed down before they reached us and although they made too further attacks during the night we had not the opportunity to use the bayonet the germans being all killed or wounded before reaching our trench or ditch the germans gave up the attempt for the messine ridge and during the terrible winter campaign of 1914 and 1915 we did trench duty three days in the front line and then three days in the reserve this awful monotonous life under the worst climatic conditions and living in a sea of mud was only brightened by one incident during the rest of the winter the germans hung up chinese lanterns on christmas eve and sang carols and both sides refrained from firing during christmas day some of the boulder spirits of the german regiment opposite stood up on the parapet and as none of our men would fire on them an unofficial armistice was therefore on our men did likewise and not a shot was fired both sides believing in the old saying peace and goodwill to all men on christmas day this was the only time throughout the war that such an incident happened as we received strict instructions not to fraternize with the enemy on account of their despicable and treacherous acts in bringing machine guns up under cover of stretcher bearers on several occasions when armistices were allowed to bury the dead shortly before christmas when spring arrived we were on tiptoe with the excitement for the coming offensive as we were fed up with the trenches and mud and wanted to get the germans in the open the first offensive of the year 1915 was made by the british at neuve chappelle on march 10th and several divisions including our own were masked in the vicinity a few days beforehand batteries of artillery to the number of 500 guns were masked and hidden until they opened up for the preliminary bombardment the germans had no inkling of the coming attack and the surprise it caused was a nasty knock to their boasted secret service and civilian spies who were placed throughout flanders years before the war and who posed as belgian and french farmers they devised many schemes for informing the enemy what was happening and on previous occasions they had been able to supply the germans with accurate information by their windmill and other tricks this time they were fooled and when the bombardment commenced at 6 30 a.m the germans were at breakfast according to the statements which the prisoners made when they were captured we had taken our positions in the front line trenches the night before and had erected trench climbing ladders for jumping over the parapets at 7 a.m we went over the top in the first offensive our army made since trench warfare first began after the battle of the aim the previous october at this time i was acting as company stretcher bearer and therefore had to follow the company as they advanced across no man's land although we had a large number of guns we were very deficient in heavy artillery and howitzers the majority being 18 pounder field guns and which proved a failure as a means to blast away the barbed wire and parapets of the german trenches and redoubts on part of the line where we attacked the barbed wire was not destroyed and consequently we were held up and suffered terrible losses from machine gun fire at last some of our men broke through the wire by breaching it with wire clippers and then jumping in the trenches bayonetted german after german from traverse to traverse until they were all accounted for in that part of the line our losses were appalling during the few minutes it took to cut the wire our casualties totaling over 750 men out of the thousand engaged a young subaltern was the only officer who got through the engagement the colonel major agitant and company commanders all being killed while leading the attack our officers had all been in the army for a number of years and were excellent soldiers we could ill afford to lose such men as there were none who could fill their places and we noticed a remarkable difference when the reinforcements arrived the new officers being hastily trained and the ink stains not yet off their fingers the remnants of the battalion reached the german third line of trenches and there waited for reinforcements for two days i carried the stretcher without arrest until at last i collapsed under the strain and had to rest for a few hours how many men i carried i do not know and the last few hours seemed like a dream broken with the cries of the wounded my clothes were saturated with the blood of the men i bandaged and carried and when i was finally relieved i had to get a new suit from the quartermaster stores on the first night of the offensive the germans made a counter attack in a vain endeavor to recapture the redoubt and the line of trenches called port arthur during the attack i was in the front line attending the wounded men who needed attention and so i had a good view of the germans as they were advancing they advanced as was their custom in close order or mass formation our reinforcements who had come up just after dark had brought several machine guns so we were quite prepared to give the germans a fight to a finish our officers knowing that the germans could not break through our wire under the terrific hail of lead we would send over gave strict orders not to fire until the germans were up to the entanglements thus at that short range the slaughter would be much greater and fewer germans would reach back to their own lines during the consequent retreat there was not enough room on the parquet or firing platform for all our men and the unlucky ones who were left standing at the bottom of the trench dragged some of the men on the parquets so that they could get a few rounds off and so settle old scores with fritz under the rapid fire of our machine guns and rifles the germans were mowed down almost to a man very few of even their swiftest runners making a home run i was in the trenches at newev chappelle for a few more days until the remnants of our battalion were taken to the rear to be reformed when the drafts arrived after six days rest we were again on trench duty and this continued until may ninth when our division was moved to from l to participate in the offensive on that sector during the first part of this offensive our battalion acted as supports to the london rifles whose objective was the german third line of trenches when this objective was reached we received the order to advance in open formation german machine guns opened up fire on us as we advanced and men were soon dropping like flies my chum who is carrying the other end of the stretcher was riddled with machine gun bullets it so happened that he was caught by the group shots from one gun it was lucky for me that the german machine gunner was grouping his shots and not using the traverse system or i would have been hit also i was then left to carry the stretcher alone and while advancing further saw our new colonel fall wounded so i rushed to his assistance the bone of his leg was smashed by a bullet and as i went up to him he ordered me away and told me to take cover or i would be killed as the bullets by this time were flying around in hundreds i walked a few paces and returned for another attempt to bandage him but he again ordered me to take cover so i said to him well if you don't want help there are plenty around who do this officer was colonel van de lure who was captured during the retreat of maan while in command of the chest shire regiment he escaped from the german prison camp owing to the fact that he could speak the german language like a native and when he reached london by way of holland he was granted an audience with the king as he was the first britisher to escape from germany after having a rest he was again sent to france and took command of our battalion having lost my chum i had to work single-handed and this meant carrying wounded on my back we remained at fromel for three days and were under bombardment all the time the germans being heavily supplied with heavies and a plentiful supply of jack johnson's and coal boxes our attack at fromel was not as successful as we had anticipated owing to insufficient artillery support and we were at a disadvantage during the year 1915 on account of the shortage in heavy artillery the germans who had prepared for so many years beforehand were plentifully supplied with all kinds of artillery from 77 millimeter to 17 inch scota howitzers and for every shell we fired they fired 10 shortly after the fromel affair i was wounded while in the front line and remained in the hospital for three months when i returned to the battalion they were doing trench duty at fleur bay and with only two minor engagements i suffered the agonies of trench warfare once more this time for several months including the winter of 1915 and 1916 on the first of july 1916 an offensive on the psalm was started and our division was now in the thick of it this was a change from the previous engagements as our munition and armament factories in britain had been working at top pressure for months and we had ample supplies of guns and ammunition and could give fritz shell for shell i had left the stretcher bearers and during the psalm offensive i was fighting in the ranks and went over the top this time with rifle and bayonet after severe fighting we took fry court our first objective and after entering the village the prisoners were collected and i was detailed to escort prisoners to the cages and to remain as one of the centuries until relieved one of the prisoners who could speak english asked me if the men of our regiment were sailors because at this time we wore the scotch balmeral block hats and he evidently mistook them for sailors hats as they are not unlike the headgear of the british navy and it must have been the first time he had seen them as most of the scottish troops were the glingaries i quickly informed him that we were the famous scottish rifles the old 90th of foot who had made a reputation in previous wars and who intended to keep up the reputation made by knocking hell out of the germans on every possible occasion he was different than the rest of the prisoners the majority of them being morose and sullen so i kept up a conversation with him and it was interesting at the time to listen to a german prisoner who could speak english and who wished to tell me of the things that had happened to him he had been a steward on one of the hamburg american lineboats plying between germany and new york and he had learned to speak english by talking to passengers he said that he was glad to be captured and for this information i handed him a few cigarettes shortly after i was again sent back to the front line and during the next two weeks we advanced 20 miles capturing combos and other towns the battle of the psalm was the biggest offensive during 1916 considerable ground was retaken and thousands of germans captured we were sent to the bethune front which was at the time a quiet sector in comparison to the psalm and there we did trench duty for six weeks before being returned once again to the psalm on the 23rd of october we again attacked and gained more ground by this time the psalm battlefield was a land of shell holes and mud the hardships we had to undergo were terrible the bombardments never ceased and sometimes it increased to drumfire for the next few months we remained on this front this being my third winter in the trenches i was beginning to be fed up with the whole thing i had had one seven days leave to england at the end of 1915 and in november 1916 i was granted one month's furlough on account of having completed my term as a time-serving man the conscription act coming into force kept me on for the duration of the war but in consideration of my long service having completed my 13 year as stipulated on my attestation this special leave was granted what a relief it was to know that for the next four weeks i would not hear the shells or stumble along in the mud up to my knees and sometimes up to the waist how my mouth watered when i realized that i would get a change of diet from the everlasting bully beef and biscuits commonly known as hard tack how pleasant to know that the cooties would soon be off me and a new change of clothing on my back one can only appreciate good food and clean clothes after months of horror experienced by eating bully and biscuits and being tormented by cooties or as we called them we scunners during the months furlough i spent in london i had the time of my life but as all good days have to end at some time or other i was soon back in the trenches and to make things worse we were on the sown christmas day i again spent in the trenches but this time there was no fraternizing both sides being very bitter and for any of us to show ahead above the parapet meant death from a german sniper we could never forget the zeppelin raids the sinking of the lucetania and the despicable treachery of the enemy on every occasion wherever they got a chance the germans proved themselves worse than the lowest savages and lord kichner said that they were worse than the dervishes of the sudan the fanatics of the desert never will a british soldier forget the incident where british soldiers were burned alive by the orders of prince ruprecht of bavaria and the crucifying of the canadians at eprey in the spring of 1917 the germans retreated to a new line of defense and for three weeks we advanced under cover of the night throwing out patrols to try and get in touch with the germans this was a welcome change as there was no firing and as we were on the move it was less monotonous than being in the trenches the germans had destroyed everything in their retreat farmhouses being blown up orchards cut down crossroads destroyed and every trick the germans who are past masters in this kind of thing knew so well how to do the countryside was laid waste and i saw hundreds of dead men who had been left behind by the germans unburied and left to rot most of them had been mangled by shell fire and it was sites such as these that make men think of the terrible folly of war and why such things should be we have one consolation and that is the men of the allies who were killed did not die in vain as the objects for which we entered the war have been achieved and the wrongs will be righted at last we got in touch with the germans and dug ourselves in and then we had another spell of trench duty until taken away from the somme and moved up to belgium to participate in the passion dale offensive in june 1917 of all the fronts i was ever on passion dale was the worst the front included the eprey salient where fighting had been going on almost incessantly from october 1914 neither side made much progress and during these three years the ground had changed hands many times and was mostly shell holes in fact for miles it was difficult to find a few square yards untouched by shells and i think that more men were killed in the eprey salient than any other place of its size in the world it was impossible to build trenches on this front and the system of defense was to fortify shell holes with sandbags two or three men to a shell hole i was in one advance which we made under cover of the biggest barrage thrown over at that time and when our objective was reached we manned the shell holes until relieved in september 1917 i was sent to a bombing school and went through a course which i passed and was then qualified to act as a bombing instructor when i arrived back to the battalion the course lasted one month and in that time i learned all there was to know about bombs especially the deadly mills bomb with its three and a half to five seconds time fuse i found bombing more interesting than any other kind of warfare i had yet taken up and the fact that it was possible to kill or wound a number of germans with one well-aimed bomb greatly appealed to me when i returned to the line my rifle was placed as second favorite the bombs always holding first place in my estimation when i arrived back to the battalion they were at pluge street or plug street as we called it and this front being rather quick we had a picnic in comparison to some of the previous places the trenches at pluge street were well constructed and fairly dry and were always considered the best on the british front the germans were 1,300 yards away and a small river ran between their lines and ours owing to the great distance between the lines patrols were always out at night so as to prevent a surprise attack our patrols consisted of a non-commissioned officer and two men but sometimes a fighting patrol of 10 men with a lewis gun were sent out as the germans always had patrols out as well this was a ticklish business as it was quite common for the patrols to meet and then there would be a little dirty work on these occasions i always had a good supply of bombs and one night when near a bridge of planks which crossed the river i heard the creaking and knew that a german patrol was crossing the night being pitch dark made it impossible for me to see them so i whispered to the two privates to creep back to the bushes which were a few yards away and there we would wait for them this we did in a few seconds i could hear the german patrol walking through the grass toward us and when i judged they were about 25 yards away i quickly removed the safety pin from the bomb and threw it in their direction by the time the first one burst i had the pin removed from another one and as the place was lit up by the flash of the bomb i had a good view of the german fighting patrol and so consequently the second bomb which i threw fell in the middle of them as they were beating it for the bridge and evidently some of them were hit as they squealed like most germans do when wounded knowing that the survivors would open fire in our direction as soon as they were over the bridge we ran for cover to a bunch of trees and there lay down for a few minutes until the firing had died down telling my two chums to remain under cover until i returned i crawled back to see if the germans had returned for any of their wounded carefully maneuvering i could hear the low moans of a wounded german so i went to see what damage i had done one german was dead and the other who was moaning was severely wounded in the legs several pieces of the bomb hitting him in different places seeing that he needed immediate assistance and wishing to get him back to our lines for information purposes i crawled back to my chums and told them to come back with me to the wounded german when we reached him i told one of them to go down to the bridge and watch in case the germans would return the first thing i did was to kick the germans rifle out of the way in case he wanted to use it when our backs returned and then proceeded to bandage his wounds then walking down to the bridge i told my chum that everything was ready to carry the prisoner back and after stumbling and carrying him for over a thousand yards we reached our lines and then handed him over to the stretcher bearers who took him to the dressing station after a few weeks at pluge street we were again shifted to passion dale and as the winter was now on things were much worse than on our previous visit the first time we went to the front line we experienced on this occasion something new previously in the trenches we always had ration parties go back to the rear at night for supplies and always received rations daily and a lot of rum in the morning the shell fire being so bad made it too costly at passion dale to send men back every night so before we went up the line we were served with three days rations and a gasoline can full of water in addition to this every man had to carry 250 rounds of ammunition several bombs gas mask trench coat and waterproof sheet rifle bayonet and grubber sandbags trench helmet and a shovel i shall never forget the six miles march up to the front line with all the equipment the shovel which i had tied to the middle of my back kept banging against my legs and i was always scared of losing my can of water several men while crossing the duckboards fell off and went up to their necks in mud and if curses would have killed the kaiser he would have died that night at last we reached the front line and relieved the devins who had been up there three days three days in a shell hole half full of water bully beef biscuits and cold water tainted with gasoline for our rations shell fire continuously and occasionally a cloud of gas i do not think it possible for a person who was never experienced it to have the slightest imagination what suffering and torture we had to undergo on the passion dale front many a wounded man while staggering back over the duckboard slipped off and was drowned not having the strength to pull himself out of the mud fatigue parties were working every night to keep the duckboard paths in repair as shells were continuously hitting them and every hit meant a few duckboards smashed to splinters the dump where new supplies of duckboards were kept was five miles from the front line and if new ones were required it meant a five mile hike with a duckboard on our shoulders and a five mile hike back we lost 30 men out of a fatigue party one night by shell fire and the casualties were so heavy that there was a continuous stream of motor ambulances along the roads in the rear this was my fourth winter in the trenches and the constant strain was beginning to tell on me and i fell sick with pneumonia and developed trench feet this time i was sent to england and when i came out of the hospital i obtained convalescent leave to see my people who were living in winnipeg canada my health not improving i was discharged from the army in may 1918 after having served 15 years as a regular soldier and was three years and two months in france end of chapter 25 end of what the boys did over there by henry fox