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THE EMMA GEES
Bouchard
THE EMMA GEES
y
HERBERT W. McBRIDE
Captain, U. $. A.
Late Twenty-firt Canadian Battalion
Illustrated
with Photographs and
Trench Maps
INDIANAPOLIS
THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
COPYRICHT 1918
THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
PRES OF
BRAUNWORTH CO.
BOOK MANUFACTURER
BROOLYN, N. Y.
TO THE MEMORY OF
TILLIAM EMMANUEL OUCHARD
LANcE-CoRPORAL
MACl-IINE GUN SECTION
TWENTY-FIRST CANADIAN ]NFANTRY
BATTALION
KILLED IN ACTION, AT COURCELLETTI-
SEPTEMBER ISTH
96
In Flanders' fieIds the crosses stand--
Strange harvest for a fertile land[
Where once the wheat and barley grew,
With scarlet poppies running through.
This year the poppies bloom to greet
Not oats nor barley nor white wheat,
But only crosses, row by row,
Where stalwart reapers used to go.
Harvest in FlandersLoulsZ DISCOLI.
INTRODUCTION
When the final history of this war is written,
it is doubtful if any other naine xvill so appeal
to the Canadian as Ypres and the Ypres Salient;
every foot of which is hallowed ground to French,
elgians, British and Colonials alike; hot a yard
of which bas hot been consecrated to the cause
of human liberty and baptized in the blood of
democracy.
Here the tattered remnants
"contemptible little army," in
of that glorious
October, 1914,
checked the first great onrush of the vandal
hordes and saved the channel ports, the loss of
which would have been far more serious than
the capture of Paris and might, conceivably, have
proved the decisive factor in bringing about a
trussian victory in the war.
Here the first Canadian troops to fight on the
soil of Europe, the Princess Pat's, received their
trial by tire and came through it with untarnished
name, and here, also, the First Canadian Cen-
INTRODUCTION
tingent withstood the terrible ordeal of poison
gas in April, 1915, and, outnumbered four to
one, with flank exposed and without any artillery
support worthy of mention, hurled back, time
after rime, the flower of the Prussian army, and,
in the words of the Commanding General of all
the British troops: "saved the situation."
t-Iere, too, as was fitting, we received out bap-
tism of tire (Second Canadian Division), as
also the third when it came over.
For more than a year this salient was the home
of the Canadian soldier and Langemarck, St.
Julien, I-Iill 60, St. Eloi, I-Iooge, and a host of
other names in this sector, have been emblazoned,
in letters of tire, on hîs escutcheon.
Baffled in his attempts to capture the city of
Ypres, the I-Iun began systematically to destroy
it, turning his heaviest guns on the two most
prominent structures: The Halles (Cloth Hall),
and St. lIartin's Cathedral, two of the grandest
architectural monuments in Europe. Now there
was no military significance in this; it was simply
INTRODUCTION
an exhibition of unbridled rage and savagery.
With Rheims Cathedral, and hundreds of lesser
churches and châteaux, these ruins will be per-
petual monuments to the wanton ruthlessness of
German kultur.
When we first went there the towers of both
these structures were still standing and formed
landmarks that could be seen for mlles. Gradu-
ally, under the continued bombardment, they
melted away until, when I last passed through
the martyred city, nothing but small bits of shat-
tered wall could be seen, rising but a few feet
above the surrounding piles of broken stones.
Glorious Ypres! Probably never again will you
become thç city of more than two hundred thou-
sand, whose "Red-coated ]3urghers" won the day
at Courtrai, aainst the trained army of the Count
d'Artois; possibly never again achieve the com-
mercial prominence enjoyed but four short years
since; but your naine will be forever remembered
in the hearts of men from ail the far ends of the
earth xvhere liberty and justice prevail.
H. W. l'IcB.
NEW NAMES FOR OLD LETTERS
When reading messages sent by any "visual"
method of signaling, such as flags, heliograph or
lamp, it is necessary for the receiver to keep his
eyes steadily fixed upon the sender, probably
using binoculars or telescope, which makes it diffi-
cult, if not impossible, for him to write clown each
letter as it cornes, and as thls is absolutely re-
quired in military work, where nearly everything
is in code or cipher, the services of a second man
are needed to write down the letters as the first
calls them off.
As many letters of the alphabet bave sounds
more or less similar, such as "S" and "F," "M"
and "N" and "D" and "T," many mistakes bave
occurred. Therefore, the ingenuity of the sig-
naler was called upon to invent names for certain
of the letters most commonly confused. Below
is a list of the ones which are now officially rec-
ognized :
NEW NAMES FOR OLD LETTERS
A pronounced ack
B " beer
D " don
M " emma
P " pip
S «' esses
T " tock
V " vick
Z " zed
The last is, of course, the usual pronunciation
of this letter in England and Canada, but, as it
may be unfamiliar to some readers, I bave in-
cluded it.
After a short tîme all soldiers get the habit of
using these designations in ordinary conversation.
For instance, one will say: "I ara going over to
"esses-pip seven,' " meaning "Supporting Poînt
No. 7," or, in stating the time for any event,
"ack-emma" is A. M. and "pip-emma" P. M.
As the first ten letters of the alphabet are also
used to represent numerals in certain methods of
signaling, some peculiar combinations occur, as,
for instance: "N-ack-beer" meaning trench "'N-
I2," or "O-don" for "0-4."
NEW NAMES FOR OLD LETTERS
"Ack-pip-emma" is the Assistant :Provost Mar-
shal, whom everybody hates, while just "pip-
emma" is the Paymaster, who is always welcome.
Thus, the Machine Gunner is an "Emma Gee"
throughout the army.
CONTENTS
CHAPTF PAGE
I H,ADED OR HS KAISr ...... 1
II STRAIGHT TO THE FRONT ...... 12
III IN T,'. MIDST OF A BATTL.-FIELa ....
IV EmHT DAYS I1 .......... 47
V
ri
VlI
VIII
IX
X
XI
xii
XlIi
XIV
XV
XVI
XVII
AT CAPTAIN'S POS" ......... 60
OUR OWN CHEERFUL FASHION ..... 74
SNIPER'S BAIN .......... 83
Gk-r'rlNG THE FLAC ......... 99
HUNTIN« HVlS .......... 111
A FIN- DAY »0R MURDFm ....... 126
WITH0tlT I-IoPE 0F REWARa ...... 133
THZ WA II H- Ara ........ 143
THS B^arI.E OF ST. EL0r ....... 150
FOçTEm D^Ys" FIrlTII ...... 166
BLmTY ANa BACK ......... 179
OUT I Fo FIClaTII'C ....... 187
DOWN ANa OuT--FOR ^ WrlILE ..... 209
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
BOUCI-IARD .................................. Frontisçece
FRENCH HOTCHKISS GUN FIRING AT AEROPLANE ...... IO
HOTEL DU FAUCON .................................. 28
LIGHT VICI<ERS GUN IN ACTION AGAINST AIRCRAFT .... 34
FRENCH USlNG AN ORDINARY VINE BARREL ON VHICI-I
A VAGON VHEEL IS MOUNTED TO FACILITATE THE
IEVOLVING MOVEMENT TO ANY DESlRED DIRECTION 44
FRENCH PAPER VAR-IVoNEY» ISSUED BY THE VARIOUS
MUNICIPALITIES. EVERY TOWN HAS ITS 13ANK OF
ISSUE. THERE ARE PRACTICALLY NO COINS IN
CIRCULATION .................................... 5 6
CANADIANS WlTH MACHINE GUN TAKING UP NEW
POSITIONS ...................................... 64
WYTSCHAETE MAP ................................... 8 4
HIGHLANDERS WITH A MAXlM Gul .................. 96
A LIGHT VICI<ERS GUN IN ACTION .................... lO8
CANADIAN MACHINE GUN SECTION GETTING THEIR
GUNS INTO ACTION .............................. II8
CANADIAN SOLDIERS IN ACTION WITH COLT IVACHINE
GuNs .......................................... i2
]RITISH MACHINE GuN SQUAD USING GA$ MASKS... 136
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS--Cont{nued
FACING PAGE
GERMAN AEROPLANE TROPHY--JULES VEDRINE EXAMIN-
ING THE MACHINE GUN .......................... I44
ST. ".LOI MAP .......................................
L-ws Gtm m Acrm i FRONT-L- TRENCH ...... I66
CANADIAN IACHINE GUNNER$ DIG6ING THEMSELVE$
INTO S HELL-HOLES ............................... x76
A SHELL EXPLODING IN FRONT OF A DUG-IN IAEHINE
Gu ........................................... 88
HOLLEBV-KV- M.P .....................................
L.WlS MACHINE GU SçUAD OBSKRVING WlTI
SCOPE AT HILL 60 ................................ 202
REMOVING THE GERMAN WOUNDED FROM MONT
THE EMMA GEES
THE EMMA GEES
CHAPTER I
I-IEADED FOR THE KAISER
HE following somewhat disjointed narrative,
written at the solicitation of numerous
friends, follows the general course of my expe-
rience as a member of the Machine Gun Section of
the Twenty-first Çanadian In fantry Battalion.
Compiled from letters written from the front, sup-
plemented by notes and maps and an occasional
short dissertation covering some phase of present-
day warfare and its weapons and methods, it is
offered in the hope that, despite its utter lack of
literary merit, it may prove of interest to those
who are about to engage in the "great adventure"
or who bave relatives and friends "over there."
The only virtue claimed for the story is that it is
ail literally true: every place, naine and date beinff
authentic. The maps shown are exact repro-
I
THE EMMA GEES
luctions of front-line trench maps ruade from
airplane photographs. They have never before
been published in this country.
I ara sorry I can not truthfully say that the
early reports of German atrocities, or tbe news
of Belgium's wanton invasion impelled me to fly
to Canada to enlist and offer my lire in the cause
of humanity.
No, it was simply that I wanted to find out what
a "regular war" was like. It looked as though
there was going to be a good scrap on and I didn't
want to miss it. I had been a conscientious stu-
dent of the "war-game" for a good many years
and was anxious to get some real first-hand infor-
mation. I got what I was looking for, all right.
The preliminaries c.an be briefly summarized.
The battalion mobilized at Kingston, Ontario,
October I9th, 1914, and spent the wïnter training
at that place. The training was of the general
character established by long custom but included
more target practise and more and longer route
marches than usual. The two thingæ we really
]earned were how to march and how to shoot, both
2
ttEADED FOR THE KAISER
of which accomplishments stood us in good stead
at a later date.
Leaving Kingston May 5th, 1915, we sailed
from Montreal the following morning on the Met-
aga»uz, a splendid ship of about twelve thousand
tons. We had as company on board, several hos-
pital units, including about one hundred and fifty
Nursing Sisters, all togged up in their natty blue
tmi forms and vearing the two stars of First
"Leftenant," which rank they hold. And, be-
lieve me, they deserve it, too. Of course they
v, ere immediately nicknamed the "Bluebirds."
lIany's the man in that crowd who has since had
cause to bless those same bluebirds in the hospitals
of France and England.
We ran into ice at the mouth of the St. Law-
rence and for two days were constantly in sight
of bergs. It was a beautiful spectacle but I'm
afraid ve did hot properly apprecïate it. We re-
rnembered the Tita.nîc.
Then we got word by wireless that the Lusf-
taldc had been torpedoed. I thlnk an effort was
ruade to suppress this news but it soon ran
3
THE EMMA GEES
throughout the ship. Personally, I did hot believe
it. I had had plenty of experience of "soldier
stories," which start from nowhere and amount to
nothing, and besides, I could not belïeve that any
nation that laid any clairns to civilization would
permit or cornrnit such an outrage. I began to be-
lieve it however when, ne.xt day, we received
orders to go down in the hold and get out all our
guns and rnount thern on deck. çVe had six guns;
two more than the usual allotment for a battalion;
two having been presented to our Commanding
Officer, Lieutenant-Colonel (now Brigadier-Gen-
eral) W. St. Pierre Hughes, by old associates
in Canada, just a few days belote our departure.
Two of the guns were rnounted on the forward
deck, two on the flying brïdge and two on the aff
bridge. I'm not sure, to this day, just what we
expected to do against a subrnarine with those ma-
chine guns, but at any rate they seerned to give
an additional feeling of security to the others on
board and of course we rnachine gunners put up an
awful bluff to persuade them that we could sink
any U-boat without the least difficulty. Of one
ttEADED FOR THE KAISER
thing we were sure. Belng a troop ship we could
expect no mercy from an enemy and xve were at
least prepared to make it hot for any of them who
came fooling around within range provided they
came to the surface. I was with the forward guns
and, as we had several days of pretty rough
weather, it was a wet job. Our wireless was con-
tinually cracking and sputtering so I suppose the
skipper was getting his sailing orders from the
Admiralty as we changed direction several times
a day. We had no convoyïng war-ships and sight-
ed but few boats, mostly Norwegian sailing ves-
sels, untiI, one night about nine o'clock, several
dark slim shadoxvs came slipping up out of the
blackness and established themselves in front, on
both flanks and behind us. We gunners had been
warned by the captaln to look out for something
of the kind, but I can assure any one who has hot
been through the experïence that the sigh of re-
lief whïch ",vent up from those gun crews was sin-
cere and deep. "Ve were running without lights,
of course, and none but the crew was allowed on
kleck. The destroyers (for such they were), were
THE EMMA GEES
also perfectly dark and we could barely discern
their outlines as they glided silently along,
accommodating their pace to ours.
Just before sunrise we dropped anchor inside
Plymouth breakwater. Ths was a surprise, as
we had expected to land at Liverpool or Bristol.
13ut you may depend on it, no one ruade any
complaint; any port in England Iooked good to
us. A few hours later we moved into the harbor
and tied up at Devonport Dock where we lay ail
day, unloading cargo. Right next to us was a big
transport just about to sali for the Dardanelles.
The Dublin Fusiliers were aboard ber and they
gave us a çheer as we came in. Poor devils, they
had a rough time of it down there; but I guess
by this rime they think the saine about us; so we'll
call it square.
It rained alI day, but we finally got everything
off the ship and on the trains and pulled out about
dark. No one knew where we were going. The
only training camp we had heard of in England
was Salisbury Plain and what we had heard of
.'.hat place did hot make any of us anxious to see
6
I-IEADED FOR THE KAISER
it. The First Canadian Division had been there
and the reports they sent home were anything but
encouraging'. Our men were nearly ail native-
born Canadians and "Yankees," and they
cracked many a joke about the little English "car-
riages," but they soon learned to respect the pull-
ing power of the engines. \Ve ruade ourselves as
comfortable as possible with eight in a compart-
ment, each man with his full kit, and soon after
daylight the train stopped and we were told to get
ott. The naine of the station was Westerhanger
but that did hOt tell us anything. The native Brit-
ishers we had in our crowd were mostly from
"north of the Tweed" so what could they be ex-
pected to know about I(ent. For Ient it was, sure
enough, and after a match of some two or three
toiles we round ourselves "'at home" in West Sand-
ling Camp. _And how proudly we marched up the
long bill and past the Brigade I-Ieadquarters, our
pipers skirling their heartiest and the drummers
beating as never before. For we were on exhibi-
tion and we knew it. The roads were lined with
soldiers and they cheered and heered as we came
7
THE EMMA GEES
rnarching in. We were tired, our loads were
heavy and the mud »vas deep, but never a man in
that colunm would have traded his place for the
most luxurious coin forts at home.
There came a rime when we hated that hill and
that camp as the devil hates holy water, but that
Sunday morning, marching into a British camp,
wkh British soldiers, eager to keep right on across
the channel and clean up Kaiser Bill and feel-
ing as though we were able to do it, single-hand-
ed--why, the rneanest private in the Tventy-first
Canadians considered himself just a little bit better
than any one else on earth.
Thus we came to our home in England, where
we worked and sweated and swore for four solid
months before we were considered fit to take our
place in the firing-line. All that time, rom the
top of Tolsford Hill, just at the edge of our camp,
we couId see France, "'the promised land"; we
could hear the big guns nearly every night, and we,
in our ignorance, could hot understand why we
were hot alIowed to go over and settle the whole
business. We rnarched all over Southern Eng-
8
I-IEADED FOR THE KASER
land. I know I have slept under every hedge-row
in Kent. We dug trenches one day and filled them
up the next. \Ve ruade bombs and learned to
throw them. We mastered every kïnd of signal-
ing" from semaphore to wireless, and we nearly
wore out the old Roman stone roads hiking all
the way from Hythe to Canterbury. We carried
those old Colt guns and heavy tripods far enough
to have taken us to Bagdad and back.
]ut, oh, man! what a tough lot of soldîers it
Rade of us. Without just that seasoning we
vould never bave been able to make even the first
two days' marches when we finally did go across.
The weaklïngs fell by the wayside and were re-
placed until, when the "great day" came and we
embarked for France, I verily believe that that
battalion, and especially the "Emma Gees," was
about the toughest lot of soldiers who ever went
to war.
(Emma Gee is signaler's lingo for M. G., mean-
ing machine gunner.)
It must hot be inferred that our four months in
]England were all work and worry. Personally, 1
9
THE EMMA GEES
derived great pleasure from them. We were right
in flae midst of , lot of old and interesting places
whïch figure largely in the early history of Eng-
land. Within a toile of our camp was Saltwood
Castle, built in 499 by the Romans and enlarged
by the Norrnans. It was here that the conspira-
tors met to plan the assassination of Thomas
à Becket at Canterbury, only sixteen mlles away,
and which we had ample opportunities to visit.
Hythe, one of the ancient "Cinque Ports,"
xvas but a toile or so distant, with its old
church dating from the rime of Ethelbert, Iing
of I,[ent. In its crypt are the bones of several hun-
dred persons which have been there slnce the time
of the Crusaders, and in the church, proper, are
arms and armor of some of the old timers who
v«ent on those saine Crusades. Among numerous
tablets on the walls is one "To the memory of Cap-
tain Robert Furnis, Commanding H. M. S. Queen
Charlotte: killed at the Battle of Lake Erie:
i813"mPerry's victory. About three mlles away
was "Monk's Horton, Horton Park and
Horton Priory," the latter church dating from the
IO
Pkoto by I! est«rn Ne,spaper Union
French Hotchkiss Gtm Fil'ing at Aeroplane
t-IEADED FOR THE KAISER
tvelith century and remaining just about as it
was when it was built. Then there vas Lympne
Castle, anotlaer Roman stronghold; Cesar's Plaill
and Caesar's Camp, where Julius is said to have
spent some time on his memorable expedition to
England; and, within easy rach by bicycle,
Hastings and I3attle Abbey where \Villiam the
Nornmn defeated Harold and conquered England.
The very roads over which we marched were,
many of them, built by the Romans. Every little
town and hamlet tlarough which we passed has a
l'.istory running back for lmndreds of years. We
took our noon rest one day in the yard of the
famous "Chequers Inn," oll the road to Canter-
bury. \Ve camped one night in Hatch Park,
where the deer scampered about in great droves.
On Sundays we could charter one of the big "rub-
ber-neck" autos and make the round trip to Mar-
gate, Ramsgate, I3roadstairs, Deal and Dover.
But, just the same, xvllen we were told, posi-
tïvdy, that we were going to leave, there were no
tears shed. We had gone over there to figlat and
notlling else would satisfy s.
II
CHAPTER II
STRAIGHT TO THE FRONT
HE Machine Gun Section, having its own
transport, traveled via Southampton, as
there were better facilities for loading horses and
wagons there than at the ports from which the
remain.der of the troops embarked. _After we
had everything aboard ship it was an even ber
among the crowd as to whether ve were going to
France, the Dardanelles or Mesopotamia. There
v«ere other ships there, Ioading just as we were,
some of whïch were known to be destined for the
eastern theater; so how could we know? As a
matter of fact, our officers did not know any
more about it than the men.
On the dock I discovered a box containing
bIank post-cards given out by "The Missions
to Seamen." I wrote one to my mother
and stuck it in a mail-box, on the chance
that ît n.i9ht go through. I had no stamps
and didn't really expect it to be taken up, but some
12
STRAIGHT TO THE FRONT
one "with a heart" ïnscribed on it "0. H. iVf. S.,"
and, sure enough, On His Majesty's Servïce it
went, straight to Indianapolis.
SOUrANP'ON
POST CARD. PAID,4
«...
After hav{ng everything nicely stowed in the
hold, Sandy McNab and I had to go down and
dig out a couple of guns to mourir on deck. It re-
quired quite a lot of acrobatie stunts to get down
in the first place and then to get the lns and
munition up, but we managed to finish the o.b
just before dark and got the guns mounted, mine
on the starboard and Sandy's on the port side,
before we steamed out. It was a black drizzly
THE EIIiIA GEES
night and the cold wind cut like a knife, but we
"stood to" until dawn, expecting anything or noth-
ing. After an hour or so we didn't çare rnuch
what happened.
Everything was dark, hot a light showing
aboard ship or elsewhere antil, about midnight,
I saw a glow on the horîzon, nearly dead ahead.
As the ship's lookouts said nothing, I did likewise,
but I assure you I vas mightily puzzle& I
knew we could hOt be near enough to shore to see
a lighthouse and, anyway, there was too much
light for any ordinary shore sigmal. I finally con-
cluded that it must be a ship burning and won-
dered what we xvould do about it, but the thing
gradually took on the appearance of a gîgantic
Christmas tree and then I felt sure that I was go-
ing "plumb nutty." I sneaked over to McNab's
side and round him in about the same frame of
mind. We were both too proud to ask questions,
so we simply stood there and watched--xvhat do
you suppose ?--a lzospftal ship! lighted from v«ater
line to truck wlth hundreds of electric lights;
strings of them rulming from mast-head to toast-
14
STRAIGHT TO THE FRONT
head and dozens along the sides, fitted wlth re-
flectors to throw the light down so as to show the
broad green stripe which is prescribed by the Gen-
eva Convention. Then we both laughed. Little
did we think then that we would both be coming
back to "Blighty" on just such a ship; Sandy with-
in a few weeks and I more than a year later.
Before daylight we picked up a string of bea-
cons, red and white, and dropped anchor. 'As
soon as it was light we could sec the harbor
of Le Havre. I had been there before and recog-
nized it quïckly enough. Then we knew that
France was our destination.
fter waiting for the proper stage of the tide,
the anchor was weighed, and with a lot of fussy
little tugs buzzing" about, now pushing atone end
and then scurrying around to give a pull at the
other, we finally tied up to the dock at our ap-
pointed place and prepared to disembark. The
docks were thronged with men, mostly in some
sort of uniform and all busy. Many of the French
soldïers were wearing the old uniforms of blue and
red, while others vere clothed in corduroy. The
I5
THE EMMA GEES
new "horizon blue" had hot yet been adopted.
There were many English soldiers, mostly elder-
ly men of fle so-called "Navvie's Battalions," but
alnong all the others, was quite a number whose
uniform was the subject for much speculation
untiI some one happened to notice that they
were always working in groups and were,
invariably, accompanied by a poiht carrying a
rifle with bayonet fixed. It was our first sight of
German prisoners and it gave us a genuine thrill.
The war was confing closer to ts every minute.
Disembarking was nothing more than common,
every-day, hard. labor, relieved, occasionally, by
the antics of some of the horses that did not want
to go down the steep narrow gangway. It was
tbe devil's own job to get them aboard in the first
place and equally difficult to persuade them to go
ashore. Such perversity, I have noticed, is not
confined to horses: the average soldier can We
exhibitions of it that would shame the wildest
mustang.
We had been living, since leavlng Sandling, on
"bully beef" and biscuits, but here on the dock we
16
STRAIGHT TO THE FRONT
round one of those wonderful little coffee canteens,
maintained and operated by one of the many
thousands of noble English women who, from the
beginning of the war, have managed, God knows
how, always to be at the right place at the right
rime, to cheer the soldier on lais way; working,
apparently, night and day, to hand out a cup
of hot coffee or tea or chocolate to any tired and
dirty Tommy who happened to corne along. If
you have any money, you pay a penny; if you are
broke, it doesn't rnake the least bit of difference;
vouget your coffee just the same, and the smile
that always accompanies the service is as cheerful
and genuine in the one case as in the other. Many
women of the oldest and most aristocratic fami--
lies of England have given, and are still giving,
hot only their money but their personal labor to
this work; making sandwiches, boiling tea, yes,
and washing the dishes, too, dav after day and
month after month. You do hot often hear of
them; they are too busy to advertise. But Tommy
knows and I venture the assertion that no single
sentence or "slogan" has been as often used
i 7
THE EMMA GEES
among the soldiers in France as "God bless the
women."
So we finally got everything off, wagons load-
ed and teams hitched up, and about mid-after-
noon ruade out way through the quaint old city
to a "rest camp" on the outskïrts where we had
time to wash and shave and eat another biscuit
before we received orders that we were to march,
at midnight, and entrain at Station No. --. It
commenced to tain about this rime and never let
up until we had entrained the next morning'.
That was a night of horrors. Sloshinff through
the mud, over unknown roads and streets, soaked
to the skin. Oh! well, it was a very good initia-
tion for what »vas to follow, ail right, all riffht.
Polite language is hOt adequate to describe
tbe loading of out train: getting all the wagons
on the dinky little flat-cars and the horses aboard.
The horses fared better than the men for, while
they were only eight "to a car, we were forty or
more; and in the saine kind of cars, too. They
look like our ordinary cattle cars but are only
about one-hal f as bi'g. Forty men, with full equip-
8
STRAIGHT TO THE FRONT
ment, bave some difficulty to crowd into one,
let alone to sit or lie down..And, of course, every-
thing we had was soaked through. When I corne
to think of it, the strangest thing about the whole
business was that there were no genuine com-
plaints. The usual "grousing," of course, with-
out which no soldier could remain healthy, but
I never heard a word that could have been taken
to ndicate that any one was really unhappy.
While we were loading, our cooks had managed
to make up a good lot of hot tea and that helped
some. We also got an issue of cheese and more
bully and biscuits and, after filling up on these,
everybody joined in a "sing-song" which contin-
ued for hours.
This subject of soldier's songs would make an
înteresting study for a psychologist. Not being
versed in this science I can only note some of the
peculiarities which impressed me from time to
time.
The first thing that one notices is the fact that
the so-called soldier's songs, written by out mul-
titudinous army of "popular" song-smiths to catch
THE EMMA GEES
the iïleeting fancy of the patriotically aroused
populace, are _c.onspi'cuous by their absence. No
matter how great a popularity they may achieve
among the home-folk and even the embryo sol-
diers, during the early days of their training, they
seldom survive long enough to become popular
with the soldiers in the field. When in training,
far away from the field of battle, soldiers appear
very fond of all the "Go get the Kaiser" and "On
to ]3erlin" stuff and are hot at ai1 averse to com-
plmenting themselves on their heroism and
invincibility, with specific declarations of what
they are going to do. Sort of "Oh, what a brave
boy I ara," you know. But as they corne closer
to the real business of war, while their enthusi-
asm and determination may be hot a, wlfit less,
they become more reserved and less prone to self-
advertisements; so, as they UlUSt sing somethi'ng,
they fall back on the old-timers, such as tnnie
Laurie or My Old Keltttcky Home when they
feel particularly sentimental, and for marching
songs, any nonsenscal music-hall jingle with a
"swing" to it will serve.
STRAIGHT TO THE FRONT
Our crowd was what might be called "a regu-
lar singing bunch" and had a large and varied
repertoire, including everything trona religious
hymns to many of that class of peculiar soldier's
songs which although vividly expressive and ap-
propriate to the occasion are, unfortunately, hot
for publication. Among the naost popular were
The Tulip and the Rose, Michigan and Thcre's
a Long, Long Trail tz«hzding, together with
several local compositions set to such airs as John
Brown's Body and Britisl» GrencMicrs. ¥ou
might hear Orvward, Ch-ristiar Soldier sand-
wiched between some of the worst of the
"bad ones" or Calvary t;olloved by The Buc-
caneers. You never heard that last one, and
never will, unless you "'go for a soldîer."
l've heard men singing doleful songs, such as I
lVa.t to Go Home, when everything was bright
and cheerful with no sign of war, and I bave
heard them, in the midst of the rnost deadly com-
bat, shouting" one of Harry Lauder's f'avorites, as
I Love a Lassi«. I once saw a long line "going
over the top" in the gray of the morning, and
21
THE EMMA GEES
when they had got lined up, outside the wire,
and started on their plodding journey which is
the "charge" of now-a-days, one waved to lais
neighbor who happened to be on a slight ridge
above him and sang out: "You tak the High
Road an' l'll tak the Low Road." And imme-
diately the song spread up and down the line;
even above the tremendous roar of the guns you
could hear that battalion going into action to the
tune of Loch Lo»ond.
So, you see, there is a difference between "songs
about soldiers" and "soldier's songs," the latter
being the ones he sings because they appeal to
his fancy and the former including the long and
constantly growing list of cheaply-sentimental
airs intended for home consumption. The differ-
ence between the two classes is as great as that
between war as it really is and war as the people
at home think it is. This is a difference which
will never be understood by any excepting those
who bave been over there. Those so unfortunate
as fo be unable fo learn it af first hand will be
forever ignorant of the real meaning of war.
22
STRAIGHT TO THE FRONT
There is no language which can adequately de-
scribe it; no artist can paint it; no imagination
can conceive it. It is just short of the knowledge
of one who has died and returned to lire. So,
by all means, let us have songs ïl they serve to
cheer or amuse any one, whether at home or
abroad.
It will probably do the soldier no harm to
have people think he is a "little tin god on
wheels" any more than it will hurt him to be belit-
tled by the sickly mollycoddling naine of "Sain-
mie," no matter how deeply he resents it. It is
astonishing to me that out newspapers persist
în the use of this appellation in flae face of the
fact, which they should know, that it is obnoxious
to the American soldier himself. Would they
call a Canadian or Australian or Scotch soldier
a "Tommy"? If they do, I advise them to hide
out and doit by telephone. Such sobriquets, to
be of any real value, must corne spontaneously;
perhaps by accident; possibly conferred by an
enemy. They can never be "invented."
But, to get back to our story. This country
23
THE EMMA GEES
througk which we passed is an historical pag-
eant,--from the very port of Harfleur, which
figllres largely in the stories of both Norman and
English invasion, all the way up the valley of the
Seine. Who could see Rouen, for the first rime,
wiflaout experiencing a. flrill o.f sentiment as the
memories of Jeanne d'Arc, Rollo the Norman,
Duke William, Harold and many others corne
forth from their hiding-places in the back of one's
brain? Although we passed through without a
stop, we could see the wonderful cathedral and the
Iospice on the hill and, crossing the river, we had
a fleeting glimpse o.f the delightful little village
of St. Adrien, with its curious church, eut out
of the face of the chalk cliff; where the maidens
corne to pray the good Saint Bonaventure to send
them a. husband within the year.
On, past the field of Crécy, across the Somme
which was to us only a name at that rime but to
become "an experience" at a later date, we ruade
our slow progress across northern France. At
a certaïn junction we were joined by the rest of
the battalion which had traveled from England
by a different and shorter route.
24
STRAIGHT TO THE FRONT
In the early hours of the morning we came to
our stopping place, St. Orner, which was then the
headquarters of the British Expeditionary Force
in France. We did not tarry, however, but be-
lote daylight were on the march---eastward. We
stopped for a couple of hours, near some little
town, long" enough to make tea, and then went
on again. This was the hardest day we had had.
Every one was overloaded, as a new soldier al-
ways is, and, moreover, out packs and clothing
had not dried and we were carrying forty or
fifty pounds of water ïn addition to the regulation
sixty-one-pound equipment. Then, too, the roads
were of the kind called pavé; that is, paved with
what we knov as cobble-stones or ]3elgian
blocks. On the smooth stone or macadamized
roads of England we vould not have minded it
so much, but this kind of going was new to us:
ankles were continually turning, our iron-shod
soles eternally slipping on the knobbed surface of
the cobbles and, take it all in all, I consider it the
hardest march I have ever done, and I have made
forty-eight mlles in one day over the show in the
Northwest, too.
5
THE EMMA GEES
'About dark we were halted at a £arrn and told
"that we were to go into bivouac and would prob-
abIy remain there for a week or more. Now, one
characteristic of the good machine gunner is that
he is always about two jumps ahead of the
other fellow, so, there being a big barri with lots
of clean straw in it, we just naturaIly took pos-
sessïon xvhile the test of the troops were patiently
waiting for the Quartermaster to assign them to
billets. Of course we had a fight on out hands
a little Iater but, by a compromise which let the
signaIers and s_COUts corne in with us, we were
enabled to bang on to the best part of the place.
From names înscrîbed on the bearns we learned
that the Princess Pat's had once occupied the
saine place, and frorn the people who lived there
we heard tales of how the Germans had carried
off all their stock when they rnade their first
great advance. All this was the next day, how-
ever, as we were too tired even to eat that ni,ht;
ve simply dropped on the straw and slept.
Next morning was bright and fait and every-
body got busy, drying kits, overhauling and clean-
STRAIGHT TO THE FRONT
ing the lns and ammunition and fixlng up out
quarters for the promised week's rest. About
four o'clock in the afternoon we were ordered
to form up and march to a place about two miles
distant, where, we were told, General Alderson,
Commander-ïn-Chier of the Canadians, was to
give us a little talk.
We arrived at the appointed place ahead of
time, and while we were lying about waiting
we had our first glimpse of rem war. It was a
long way off and high up in the air but it was
a thrilling sight for us. couple of Getnnan
airplanes were being shelled by some of out
anti-aircraft guns, and as we watched the numer-
ous shell-bursts, apparently close to the planes,
we expected, every moment, to see the flyers
corne tumbling down. However, none was hit
and they went on their way. It was only later
we learned that itis the rarest thing in the world
for an airplane to be brought down by mms from
the ground. I suppose I bave seen several hun-
dred thousand shots fired at them and have vet
to see one hit by a shell from an "Archie" and
27
THE EMMA GEES
only one by machine-gun tire from the ground.
,The majority of planes destroyed are shot clown
by machine guns in combat with other flyers.
Vhen the General finally came, he looked us
over and told us what a fine body of troops we
appeared to be, and just for that, he was going
to let us go right into the front line, instead of
puttîng us throngh the usual preliminary stages
an reserve and support. Of course we felt prop-
erly "swelled up" about it and considered it a
great compliment. ,\re did hOt know, what we
now know, that they were about to start the
big offensive which is known as the ]3attle of Loos
and that the ]3ritish had not enough troops in
France to be able to afford sucb luxuries as re-
ser-res. It was a case of everybody get in and
"'get your feet wet."
As we were to march at daybreak, we had a
busy night getting out scattered belonhgs to-
gether and repacked. This was our first experi-
ence of what shortly became a common occurrence
and we soon learned that, in the field, a soldier
never knows one day where he will be the next,
28
Il I
STRAIGHT TO THE FRONT
and thus he is alxvays "expecting the unex-
pected."
We moved out at dawn and had another heart-
breaking match as the weather had turned very
warm. Through Hazebrouck and numerous small
towns we continued our eastward way to Bailleul,
stopping there for an hour's test. Our section
happened to be right in the market square so had
a good opportunity to see sortie of the principal
points of interest in this famous and ancient city.
The Hotel de Ville with its curious weather-vane
of twelfth-century vintage and the Hotel Fauçon
particularly interested me: the fOlqner because I
had read of it and the latter because it had
rem beer. on ice. This is the place which Bairns-
father speaks of as the hotel at which one could
lire and go to war every day and I afterward did
that very thing, for one day; leaving the front-
line trenches in the morning, having a good din-
ner at the Fauçon and being back in the front
line at night. That happened to be Thanksgivîng
Day; November 25, 915 .
After our rest we contïnued on our way and
29
,THE EMMA GEES
arrived at the lltfle town of Dranoutre, in Flan-
ders, about rive o'clock in the evening and went
into bivouac. On this day's march we saw more
evidence o£ war. Here and there a grave beside
the road; occasi0nally a ho.use that showed the
effect of shell or rifle tire and, almost continually,
firing at airplanes, both Allied and German.
At our cmaap we fotmd detachments of the
East Kents (The ]3uffs), and the Second East
Surrey legiment, from v¢hom we were to take
over a se_c_tor of the line. They said that it vas
¢omparatively quiet at that point but had been
pretty rough a few months earlier.
The ]VIaclfine Gun Sectïon went in the next
mornîng, two days ahead of the infantry, and the
]ïast Surreys remained during the two days to
show ts the ropes. They were a splendid lot of
soldiers and I ara sorry to say that when they
left us it was to go to Loos, where they were
badly cut up at the Hohenzollern redoubt. We
never connected up with them again.
CHAPTER III
IN THE MIDST OF A BATTLE-FIELD
T was a bright warm Sunday morning, that
nineteenth day of September, when we ruade
our first trip to the front-line trenches. Only the
Number Ones, lance corporals, of each gun
,vent in ahead, the guns and remainder of the
section to come up after dark. I was a "lance-
jack" at that time, in charge of No. 6 gun; and
had a crew of the youngest boys in the section,
two of whom were under seventeen when they
enlisted and hot one of whom was twenty at that
time. Subsequent events proved them to be the
equals of any in the whole section; a section of
which a general officer afterward wrote: "I con-
sider it the best in France." They were strong
and healthy, keen observers, always ready for any
duty and during all the time I was with them I
never saw one of them weaken. They played
the gaine right up to the finish, in fait weather
31
THE EMMA GEES
and foul, during the easy rimes and the "rough,"
each until hïs appointed rime came to "go \Vest."
One, in particular, named Bouchard, a boy who
enlisted when but sixteen, developed into the
brightest and most efficient machine m.mner I
have ever known. His zeal and eagerness to leam
so impressed nie that it became my greatest pleas-
ure to give him all the assistance in my power,
and, despite the difference in our ages, there grew
up between us such a friendship as can only be
achieved between kindred spirits sharing the vicis-
situdes of war. Small of stature and slight of
frame, ït was only by sheer grit and determination
that he was able to endure the terrible strain of
that first winter. At times, when the mud was
nearly waist deep, he would throw away his over-
coat, blanket and other personal effects, but never
would he give up his beloved o-un. When trenches
v«ere absolutely impassable he would climb up on
top, scorning bullets and shells, intent on the one
job in hand--to get to his appointed station with-
out delay. He vas a constant source of ihspira-
tion to ail of us, often inciting the oIder heads
3 2
IN THE MIDST OF A BATTLE-FIELD
to undertake and achieve the apparently impos-
sible by daring them to follow his lead.
Our sector was ruade up of what were then
known as the "C" trenches, runnilg north /rom
fle Neuve Eglise-Messines road and directly be-
tween \Vulverghem and Messines. To the south
of the road was the Douve River and just beyond
that "Plugstreet" (Ploegstert). There had been
some very hard fighting all along the Messines
Ridge during the preceding year, but for several
months things had been quiet. Now, by "quiet"
I do hot mean that there was any cessation of
hostilities for there is always artillery firing and
sniping going on, with a fair arnount of rifle
grenade and trench-mortar activity. It simply
means that there is no attempt being made, by
either side, to attack in force and to capture and
hold captured ground.
Out route, that first morning, was rather a
roundabout one, by way of Lindhoek, taken, as
explained by our ïde, because it was less ex-
posed to enemy observation than a much shorter
road which we used when moving at night. When
33
THE EMMA GEES
a short distance out from town, we passed in
front of one of our howitzer batteries which de-
cided that then was just the proper tïrne to cut
loose with a salvo, right over our heads. We
were not more than fifty yards from the guns and
the result was that we were ail "scared stiff," to
say nothlng of being almost deafened. This ap-
pears fo be a characteristic and never-ending joke
with artillerymen and so we soon learned fo
"spot" their emplacements and go behind them,
when possible.
At all cross-roads ("Kruisstraat," in Flemish),
sentries were stationed who acted as guides and
also gave warnlng of the approach of enemy air-
craft. At a long blast of the whistle every per-
son was supposed fo stop and hOt make a move
until the signal "all clear," indïcated by two
blasts, was given. It appears that, while the
airmen have no difficulty in seein moving ob-
jects on the ground it is next to impossible for
them to locate stationary ones.
As xve progressed, the sîgns of war were multi-
plied. Numerous graves along the road, each
34
IN THE MIDST OF A BATTLE-FIELD
rnarked by a cross, houses and barns torn by shells,
a bridge and railroad track blown up and trees
shattered and rent, until, finally, everything was
desolation. When we arrived at Wulverghem, we
had out first sight of a really "ruined" town.
Of course we saw many worse ones later, but at
that rime, we could not ¢onceive more complete
destruction than had been wrought here by the
German shells. Every building had been hit, per-
haps several rimes; some had one or more walls
standing, while many were totally destroyed
and were nothing but pi|es of broken brick and
mortar. Part of the church tower remained and
one hand of the clock still hung to the side facing
the German lines. This seemed to agm-avate the
hoche as, every day, he "vould send from a
dozen to forty or fifty shells over, all seemingly
directed at the church tower.
As Messines Ridge is now "ours" I think there
can be no objection to my going into details about
out dispositions. Our ]3attalion Headquarters
was located in the St. Quentïn Cabaret, about
two hundred yards south of Wulverghem and we
35
THE EMMA GEES
had a supporting gun, with infantry, at Souvenir
Farm and also at a redoubt near by, called "S-5."
Our front-line guns were distributed from the
Neuve Eglise road to the northern end of out
battalion frontage, about "'C-3."
These numbers refer to certain locations on the
map, and the cabarets are hot exactly such as one
is accustomed to seeing in American cities. They
are, or vere, inns, such as in England would be
.alled public bouses and in 'America, road bouses.
In F1, mish they are herbergs, but these happened
to bear French names, hence were called caba-
rets. One can hot help wondering at the indis-
crlminate manner in which French and Flemish
names are used ïn this corner of the world.
Neuve Eglise, Bailleul, Dranoutre and Locre are
ail mixed up with \Volverghem, Ploegstert,
Wytschaete and Lindhoek : Ypres and Dickebusch
are neighbors; while St. Julian and Langemarck
lie side by side, as do Groot Vierstraat and La-
Clytte. Look at a map of West Flanders and the
adjoining parts of France and you will sec what
I mean.
3 6
IN THE MIDST OF. A BATTLE-FIELD
Just as we arrived at the Battalion Head-
quarters the sïgnal was sounded, "Geman up,"
which is the short way of saying that an enemy
airplane is approaçhing, so we were obliged to
take cover and remain quiet for some rime. We
were near a group of fal"m buildings and, going
inside, round that former occupants had left elabo-
rate records of their visits. Among other mural
decorations were some rough sketches drawn by
Captain Bairnsfather, which afterward became
famous as "Fragments from France."
This suggests another interesting field for
speculation. }Vhy is it that all men, regardless
of race, creed or color, have an inborn craving
to inscribe their names on walls and trees and
rocks, especially on walls other than those of
their own home ? Wherever you go, all over the
world, you will find the carved or wrïtten record
stating that, et such and such a date, John Doe,
of Oskaloosa, Iowa, honored the place with
presence. The buildings of FLanders and France
are storehouses of historical records. Fronl
them the historien could almost reconstruct the
.THE EMMA GEES
campMmas of tlie war. Would it hOt be an inter-
esting task to make a thorough search of all the
old buildings and dug-outs, just as the archeolo-
gfsts have been doing in Egypt and all the ancient
llabitations of mankind? The prehistoric caves
of Spain or the cliff dwellings of the Colorado
could hot be more interesting than a compilation
of these records, including the drawings and
sketches, some of which are real works of art.
legimental crests and badges are often shown
with the utmost attentïon to detail and, in one
place which we afterward occupied, one of the
walls bore an elaborately carved tablet enumerat-
ing the campaigns and battles of one of the oldest
]3ritish line regiments, together xvith a list of the
honors, V. C's. and so on, won by members
thereof. On one of the walls at Captain's Post
one of my boys, Charlie Wendt, carved a large
maple leaf upon which le inscribed the names
of all out squad. He was killed a few days later
and otlàers at vari'ous times and of that whole
list, I ara the sole survivor. I would give .
great deal to have that bit of wall here in my
owna home.
38
IN THE MIDSOE OE A BATTLE-FIELD
Meantime, the Allemand has gone away and we
are free to continue our journey to the front line.
In an orchard behind the house we entered a
communication trench and after ;t few final words
of advice from the guide as to the necessity of
keeping our heads down wherever the walls were
low, started on the mlle-long trip. We learned
that the trench by which we were goi',lg in was
rtamed Surrey Lane, in honor of the West Sur-
reys who constructed it. .t various points we
came upon intersecting trenches, most of which
,were marked with the naine of the point to which
they led. One, I reme,aaber, was "Wipers Road";
hot that it ran all the way to Ypres but led in the
direction of that place.
Except for an occasional large shell, whis-
pering overhead, consigned from Kemmel to
V¢arneton or vice versa, and the distant mutter-
ing of the French guns away to the south, every-
thing was quiet and peaceful, and had it hot been
'for the ruined buildings and torn-up roads it
would have been difficult to imagine that xve were
in the midst of a battle-field.
Passing through ail the rze of cross tren¢hes,
39
THE EMMA GEES
we finally reahed the front line which we round
to be what we afterward called a "hall-and-hall"
trench ; that is, ît was dug down to a depth of per-
haps four feet and built up about the saine with
sand-bags, making it possibly eight feet from the
bottom of trench to top of parapet. It was quite
dry and clean and comfortable and proved that
the Buffs and Surreys had not been loafing during
the summer. I'm afraid we did hot properly
appreciate it at that rime, but as I look back
over all the tïme that has passed since, I am com-
pelled to adroit that it was the finest bit of
trench we ever occupied.
"VVe had no more than arrived in the line than
the cook of the first gun crev we struck brought
out a "dixie" of tea and an unlimited supp|y of
bread and butter and jam and învited us to fill up.
("Dixie" is the soldier's naine for the camp
kettle used in the British army.) Now i
you have been paying attention to the story
of our movements since leaving England, I think
you oen readily imagine that we were hungry.
These soldiers had been out, some of them, sin¢
4o
IN THE MIDST OF A BATTLE-FIELD
the beginning of the war and had becorne inured
to all the hardships which are a necessary part of
the gaine, and, splendid fellows that they were,
flae first flfing they thought of was our cornfort.
Frorn that tirne on I never met up with any body
of British Imperial soldiers who did hOt show
this sarne consideratïon and solicitude for the
stranger. And they do it so unostentatiously and
naturally that they challenge the adrniration of ail,
especially of Colonials such as we, who were, I
fear, very apt to forger the little niceties of man-
ner which are inbred in the native Briton. While
we afterward became the best of friends there
'as never any danger of our becorning "alike."
We secretly adrnired their perfect and unalterable
observan_ce of ail orders even though we were, at
the sa_me rime, scherning to evade a lot of those
sarne restrictions which appeared to us to be un-
necessary. They, on thelr part, could hot help
admitfing that the dash and "devil-rnay-caxe"
spirit shown by out men often accornplished re-
sults hot otherwlse attainable but frorn the ernu-
lation of which they were barred by "tradîtions."
4I
THE EMMA GEES
The discipline of the one and the discipline of the
other are based on two entirely different
modes of lire; the former carefully trained
to rely on and obey implicitly the orders of any
superio.r of-ficer, while the latter looks only for
initial direction, depending upon his own initiative
and ingenuity to see him through any trouble
that might arise.
From this line we çould see the whole valley
which separated us from the famous Messïnes
1Ridge. The enemy was firmly established on
its crest, with his advance lines in the valley
and even, at some places, on the sides of the
slope below us. The town of Messines, directly
opposite, was in plain sight but nearly a mlle
away, the church and hospice, or infirmary, being
conspicuous landmarks on the sky-line. Our front
lines were from about one hundred and fifty to
three hundred yards apart. Numerous ruined
farms and cabarets were scattered along the line,
sometimes in out territory and sometimes be-
longing to the enemy. These were, as a rule, con-
42
IN THE MIDST OF A BATTLE-FIELD
verted into redoubts or "strong-points," and de-
fended by both infantry and machine guns. To
the northward, within the German lines, was the
town of Wytschaete, while ve had Mont I(em-
mel, a prominent hill which gave our artillery
good observation all the way front Ypres tO
"Plugstreet."
Several of the prominent roads within the
German lines were in plain sight from out posi-
tion and, while the artillery devoted considerable
attention to harassing the enemy, we were hOt
sufficiently supplied with ammunition at that rime
to strafe them as vas desirable. This was
especially true of several "dumps," whic
is the colloquial word designating the
points where the wagons and motor trans-
ports deposit ammunïtion, food and other trench
stores and whence they are carried up to the front
line by the men. Thus an ammunîtion dump
means a point where ammunifion is stored, while
a ration dump is a place where the ration carry-
ing parties repair at night to procure the rations
43
THE EMMA GEES
for the following" day. At some points the field
cookers or "rolling" kitchens" corne up at night
and the cooked food is ..carried from there to the
front. One such place at Messines, we called
"'Cooker's Halt."
The machine gun of-ficer of the outgoing Sur-
reys had begun to develop some ideas of his own
as to the feasibility of strafing enemy ,trans-
ports and dttmps at night and bad selected a
tentative position behind a slight crest, about one
hundred and fifty yards N. E. of "In den Kraaten-
berg Cabaret" and immediately adjacent to a ds-
tlsed communication trench called "Plum Ave-
nue." Now I had bee.n a crank on long range,
indirect tire in Englalld, so I had no difficulty in
persuading our M. G. officer to turn this job over
to me. We improved the position and also estab-
lished another one, about one hundred yards clown
the trench for daylight work against aircraft. In
those days the planes wou|d corne over at altïtudes
of two thousand feet and less and we had some
splendid opportunities to practise on them. We
succeeded in brlnging" one down with his petrol
IN THE MIDST OF. A BATTLE-FIELD
tank on tire, and we turned back a good many
more until they began to fly so high that we could
hot reach them. At night, by using information
obtained from our artillery and our own forward
observers, we were able to eut up a lot of their
transports. At first they would drïve down to
place called the Barricade, but af ter we caught
them there two or three times they carne only to
the top of the hill, to "Cooker's Halt." We soort
chased them out of that, however, and then
guess poor Fritz had to carry his stuff all
the way from behind the Ridge. On two
occasions we caught large working parties,
broad daylight, and cut them up and dispersed
them. Our position in front of the group of build-
îngs (In den Kraatenberg) naturally led the
enemy to believe that ve were using the building
for cover, so he shelled the poor inoffensive
bouses and barns most industriously but never put
anything close enough to our real position to do
any damage. This taught me a lesson which 1-
put into operation, later on, at Sniper's Barri, witl
the best of results.
45
THE EMMA GEES
From that rime on, stratîng was an important
part of machine gunnery until, now, together with
barrage tire, it comprises about all there is to
machine-gun work, proper, for the automatic rifle
has taken over the greater part of the front-line
offensive work.
CHAPTER IV
EIGHT DAYS Ir
S the subject of machine guns is one of
great interest at this rime, it may not be
amiss to devote a little space to explaining some of
the salient /eatures of the most commonly used
types.
All automatic arms are dlvided into classes, as
determlned by the following characteristics:
1st. Method of applying the power necessary
to operate: (gas or recoil).
2nd. Method of supplying ammunitîon : (belt,
magazine or clïp).
3rd. Method of cooling: (water or air).
Another well-defined distinction fs ruade be-
tween the true machine gun and the automatic
rifle; the former being so heavy that it must De
mounted on a substantial tripod or other base,
while the latter is so light that it may be t:arried
and operated by a single man. Of the former
47
THE EMMA GEES
class, the Colt, (35 lbs.), the Vickers, (38. lbi.)
and the Maxim, _(63 lbs.) may be taken as repre-
sentative. They are all mounted, for field
v«ork, on tripods weighing fifty pounds or more.
In the latter class, tbe Lewis, ]3enet-Mercie, and
ttotchkiss, running from 7 to 25 lbs., are fair
examples. They are all equipped witil light,
skeleton "legs" or tripods, whicb, by the way, are
never used in the field although they are still
considered essential for trainihg purposes.
In the gas-operated arms, a small hole is drilled
in the under side of the barrel, six to eight incbes
from the muzzle, so that, when the bullet has
passed this point, and during the rime it takes
it to traverse the remainihg fev inches to the
muzzie, a certain portion of the enclosed gas
is forced through this hole, vhere it is
"'trapped," in a small "gas-chamber" and its force
directed against a piston or lever whiclq, being
onnected with the necessary working parts of the
gun by cams, links or ratchets, performs the func-
tions of removing and ejecting the empty cart-
ridge case, withdrawing a new cartridge from the
48
EIGHT DAYS IN
belt, clip or magazine, a.nd "cocklng" the gun"
that is, forcing the "hammer" or striker back and
compressing its spring. As the pressure gener-
ated in the barrel by our alnmunition is hot less
than 5o,ooo lbs. to the square inch, very little
gas is required to do all this. There must also
be sufficient force to compress or coil a strong
spring or springs called "main-springs" or re-
tracting springs which, in their turn, force the
mechanism forward to its original position, at-
ing the new cartrïdge in the chamber and releas-
ing the striker, thus firing another shot. This
action continues as long as the "trigger" is kept
pressed or until the belt or magazine is emptied.
The Colt, Benet-Mercie, Hotchkiss and Lewis are
in this class. They are all of the air-cooled type.
In the recoil operated guns, the barrel i'tself is
forced to the rear by the "kick," as we commonly
call it, and the force applied directly to the work-
ing parts, thus performing the saine operations
above described. The Maxim, Vickers, Vickers-
Maxim and Maxim-Nordenfeldt belong to this
class. They are all water-cooled, having a water-
S9
THE EMMA GEES
jacket of sheet metal entirely surrounding the
barrel.
AIl the last-mentioned class, and also the Colt,
have the amrnunitïon loaded in belts containing
two hundred and fifty rounds each. The Hotch-
kiss and Benet-Mercie use clips of from twenty to
thirty rounds, v¢hile the Lewis is fed from a
round, fiat, pan-shaped magazine holding forty-
seven rotlnds. (For aircraft g-uns these maga-
zines are ruade larger; about double this capacity,
I think.)
During the early part of the war, before the
advent of the Lewis and other automatic rifles,
the only machine guns ïn general use were of
the heavy, tripod-motmted t)q)e and it was neces-
sary for them to advance with or even ahead of
attacking troops. As the guns and tripods were
very conspicuous objects they naturally became
the especial targets for enemy riflemen and snipers
and the casualties among machine gunners tan
]?ar above the average for other troops. It was
this that caused the Emma Gee sections to be
named Suicide Clubs.
5 °
EIGHT DAYS IN
Now, however, the Lewis gun, being light and
ïnconspicuous, can be carried by advancing troops
and used effectively ïn the attack without its
operators suffering excessively, and at the saine
rime it bas been demonstrated that the truc ma-
chine gun, of the heavier type, mounted on its
firm base, can effectively cooperate vifla the ar-
tillery in maintaining protective or other bar-
rages and in delivering harassing tire upon the
enemy at points behind his front line. As this
tire îs, necessarily, over the heads of out own
troops, sometimes but a few feet over them, it
nmst be extremely accurate and dependable and
it has been proved that lns of the lighter, auto-
rnatic-ritïle type, can not be safely used for this
purpose, even when mounted on the heavy tripods
of the other guns. This is probably due to the
excessive vibratïon of the lighter barrels.
For the benefit of any who are hot familiar
with the word, I might say, in passing, that "'bar-
rage" is a French word meaning a "barrier" or
a "data" and when used in a military sense it
means a veritable barrier or wall of tire, where the
5I
THE EMMA GEES
shells or bullets, or both, are falling so thlckly
as to make it iinpossible for any body of troops
to go through without suffering great loss.
I know nothing of the Browning gun, as it
a new invention and bas never been used in the
field. We can only hope that it will prove as
good as the Vickers and Lewis which are giving
perfect satisfaction on the battle-fields of Flanders
and France. No real machine gunner expects or
requires anything better, but I can hot imagine
any one type of man that can replace both of them
any more than a single 61ass of artillery cm1 com-
bine the functions of both the light field guns and
the heavy howitzers.
The Germans evidenfly had good spies within
our lines as fley always l<new when we changed
over; that is, when we took over a new line.
first they would call out : "Hello, Canadians, how
are you," sometimes even naming the battalion.
Later on, however, they used much stronger lan-
guage but they knev« who we were, just the saine.
Their methods of communicatïng informatioll
from our lines were many and very ingenious.
52
EIGHT DAYS IN
For instance, at one rime it was learned by out
intelligence department that spies were making
use of the many windmills to signal messages
across the line. They did this by stoppïng the
sails of the mills at certain angles and moving
them about from time to tiaae. Vhen this was
liscovered the orders went out for all windmills
to be stopped in such a position that the arms
should always be at an exact forty-five degq-ee
angle whenever the mill was not running, with
the understanding that failure to observe this
regulation would result in our artillery in the
inunediate vicinity turning fleir ms on the
offending mill. At one place we discovered a
large periscope with a heliographic attachment by
xvhich a seemingly iaoffensive Belgian peasant
kept in constant cornmunication with the hoche.
This periscope was concealed in the chïmney of
a partially ruined farm building within our lines.
At other places underground cables were discov-
ered, with telephones or field telegraph instru-
ments concealed in :ellars or old buildings. Car-
rier pigeons were also much used and, wïthout a
53
THE EMMA GEES
doubt, many men passed back and forth between
the lines, some of them, as we learned from time
to rime, regularly enlisted in out armies. At sev-
eral places we had men shot down and killed by
snipers masquerading as farmers, behind out lines.
Needless to say, such affairs were promptly at-
tended to, on the spot, "'tout de suite," as the
French say.
So, although that part of the line had been
very quiet for a long time, they began at once to
give us a receptibn. While the shelling was as
nothing compared to bombardments xve went
through later, still it gave us an opportunity to
make the acquaintance of the various kinds of
shells from "whizz-bangs" up to somethlng of
about eight-inch caliber.
The first casualty in the battallon was a scout
named Boyer who was killed on his initial trip into
No Man's Land the first night in the trenches.
Next day Starkey decided he could hot see
enough with a periscope, so took a look over tlm
parapet. ]3oth men are buried in the garden back
of the St. Quentin Cabaret together v¢ith many
54
EIGHT DAYS IN
/rom the best and most /amous ]3ritish Line
Regiments.
The Emma Gees came out pretty lucky, hav-
ing but one man seriously wounded. His naine
was Mangan, a Yankee, who had served in the
U. S'. Army in the Philippines. He was badly
wounded by shrapnel and was sent back to Eng-
land. We used to hear from him occasionally
until about a year later the letters stopped.
After eight days we were relieved by the Twen-
tieth ]3attalion and went back te Dranoutre for
out first "test." We went by way of Neuve Eglise
but, as it was night, we could see but little of
that much shot-up city. It commenced to rain
belote we started out and kept it up until ve went
back again, four days later. At that rime it was
customary te carry in and out everything, includ-
i'ng ammunition, and we soon learned te dread
the days when we had to move. We v«ould
bave pre/erred to stay in the front line for a month
at a rime rather than carry all that heavy
stuff ih and out so often. However, we managed
to get a bath and some clean clothes, which marie
THE EMMA GEES
eveDrbody feel better. \Ve had no regular bil-
lets at Dranoutre but rigged up Iittle shelter
tents, somewhat similar to those used in the 13".
S. Army, by lacing two or more rubber sheets
together. Out cooking was done by gun crews,
somewhat on the order of a lot of Boy Scouts,
in that no t',vo crews had the smne ideas or used
the saine methods. My squad dug out a nice little
"store" in a bank, and by covering it with fiat-
tened-out biscuit tins and making a pipe of tin
cans of various so'rts, managed to get along very
v«ell. Here we received out first pay since arriv-
ing in France; fifteen francs each. It doesn't
sound like much but, believe me, we ruade those
"sous" go a long way and bought lots of little
delicacies we could not otherwise have had.
\Vhile at Dranoutre we associated with the
inhabitants, in the stores and estaminets. The
Germans had taken of whatever they needed in
the way of live stock and foodstuffs, but the town
itself happened to be one of the many scattered
up and down the line, which had miraculously
escaped even an ordinary bombardment.
56
VINGT'CINQ CENTIMES ..
Quartcr of a Franc
Prescrit z'«hte abo.ut fore" cents
Hale a Franc
Prescrit zmlue about cight
cctts
Quarter of a Frauc
"Good for" about four cents
French l:'aper X, Var-Ioney, Issued by the Various ik[unicipalitles.
ILvery Town Has its Bauk of Issue. There are Practically no
Coins in Circulation
EIGHT DAYS IN
There were refugees, hundreds of them; from
the towns and cities farther to the eastward,.
whence they had fled with little or nothing be-
sides the clothes on their backs. There were chil-
dren who had lost their parents; wives who knew
hot what had become of the[r husbands, and men
whose wives and familles were somewhere back
in the German-occupied territory. They told of
enduring the direst hardships and sufferlng; of
cold and hunger.
Every town behind the lines that had escaped
destruction was crowded with these poor homeless
people. Every habitable house sheltered all who
could find no room to lie on the floor. Those
v«ho could, worked on the roads or in the neigh-
boring fields. Many of the women worked in the
military laundries. They ail received some assist-
ance from the French Government and from the
many charitable societies. When talking with
them they would tell their stories in a monotonous
sort of way, seldom making any complaint; seem-
ing to think that all these things were to be
endured as a matter of course.
57
THE EMMA GEES
I have read all the available reports on the
subject of atrocities and have no doubt that they
are true, but none ever came under my personal
observation.
In the midst of a battle many men do things
which would, at other rimes, fill them with hot-
rot. The excitement of combat seems to breed a
lust for killing and the sight of blood is like a
red flag to a bull. This, unfortunately, is hot
confined to Germans. One of our officers who
had had a brother killed a few days before de-
liberately shot and killed several unarmed prison-
ers. He was, himself, killed the saine day. On
another occasion, a wounded German, lying in
a shell-hole, stabbed and killed one of out
wounded and attacked another only to be beaten
at his own gaine and killed with his mvn knife.
A soldier of the Royal Fusiliers, at St. Eloi, was
detected by his sergeant in the act of shooting
an unarmed prisoner, whereupon the sergeant
immediately shot and killed the soldier. I saw
this, myself.
But the deliberate shooting of wounded men
58
EIGHT DAYS IN
and stretcher-bearers has been, so far as I knoxv,
confined to the Hun. On numerous occasions,
some of which are mentioned elsewhere in flfis
story, German snipers deliberately and in cold
blood shot down our helpless wounded and the
men who were endeavoring to succor flem.
CHAPTER V
AT CAPTAIN'S POST
HE Battle of Loos had opened on the twenty-
fifth of September and, although it was a
considerable distance to the south of us, we had
been hearing the continuous rumble of the g-uns
ever since we had corne ttp to the line. It was the
first rime we had heard "'drum-fire," as the French
call in It is such an incessant bombardment,
xith such a large number of g-uns, that you can
hot distinuish any single reports, but the whole
makes a continual "'rumble," something like the
roll of heavy thunder in the distance; never
slacking, night or day. I have forgotten just how
many days they kept it up, but it was something
like two weeks.
To create a diversion, and prevent the enemy
from taking troops from other parts of the line
to strengthen the attacked point, out arfillery,
all along the line, was doihg its best and out
6o
AT CAPTAIN'S POST
infantry ruade feint attacks at several places. We
had gone back in the line on the first of October
and, early the ,lext mornïng, our brigade, Fourth
Canadian, took part in one of these attacks. Out
battalion did hot go "over the top," but Bouchard
and I stuck our gun up on the parapet and helped
support the advance, whiçh was ruade by the Nine-
teenth Battalion. It was out first experience of
that kind and was, to say the least, interesting.
The enemy kept up an incessant rifle and machine-
gun tire on our position, the bullets were snapping
around out heads like a bunch of fire-crackers and
the mud was flyïng everywhere, but that little
seventeen-year-old "kid" kept feeding in belts and
all the while whooping and laughing like a
maniac. It certainly cheered me up fo bave
him there. The whole thing was over in about
wenty minutes but, during that short rime, we
had learned something which can be learned in
no other way--that if is possible for thousands
of bullets fo corne close fo you without doing any
harm. From that rime on, neither ]3ouchard nor
I ever felt the least hesitation about slipping over
6
THE EMMA GEES
the parapet at night to "see what we could
see."
During this tour we were subjected to con-
siderably more sheIIing than on the first occasion,
and che morning Fritz ruade a mistake with one
of his shells ïntended for "our arm," as we
called the buildings in the rear, and dropped it
"ker-plunk" right înto one of out dug-outs.
v¢as a place we had fixed up for cooking, and we
were all outside, but it certainly ruade a mess of
out "kitchen furniture." Then they shot np our
communication trench tntil it was posïtively dan-
gerous to go up and down it for rations and am-
munition. Narrow escapes were numerous, but
our luck held, and we went out the night of the
eighth without having sustained a casualty. The
battalion did hot rare so well, having quite a nnm-
ber of wounded, but none killed.
That was our last visit to those trenches, as
we marched, that night, away to the north-
xvard. "Eéps" was the word that went up and
down the line, that being the Flemish pronuncia-
tion of Ypres, (in French pronounced "Eé-pr" and
62
AT CAPTAIN'S POST
in Tommy's English, "Wipers"). We had a hard
march; in the rain, as usual; and, about daylight,
stopped at the town of LaClytte, which was to
be the battalion's billeting place for several
months. The rest of the battalion remained there
a few days, resting, but the Emma Gees
went on ahead and took over some support
positions at Groot Vierstraat and along the Ypres-
Neuve Eglise road. We relieved the King Ed-
ward Horse who were acting, as was all the
çavalry, as infantry.
My crew, together with Sandy McNab's, was
assi'gned to an old Belgian farm called Captain's
Post. The place was pretty well shot up but
we managed to clear out enough room to gïve us
very good quarters; by far the best we had had
since leaving England. We were some ,25o
yards from the enemy lines but in plain sight
of them, hence it was necessary to be very care-
ful hot to alloxv any one to more about outside
the buildings in daytime, nor to make any smoke.
No doubt some one got careless, for about noon
the next day we heard the long-drawn-out
63
'I'HE EMMA GEES
"'who-o-o-o-i-s-s-s-h" of a big shell coming.
struck about twenty-five yards behind our build-
ing and failed to explode; in soldïer's parlance,
if was a "dud." We were eating dinner and
refused to be disturbed. Then came a steadv
strearn of the big fellows; to the right, to the left,
in front of the building and, finally, "smack,"
right into the house. Altogether, they put thirty-
two "five-point-nine" (5o mm.) shells into ihat
e old buildïng and all the damage they did ,,vas
to ruin our dinner by filling the "dixie" with mud.
How in the world we escaped has always
been a mystery to me, but later on, after
other and xvorse affairs, the rnen called it
"SIc]3ride's luck." They shelled us pretty
regularly, after that, sometimes just two or
three shells, but on at least one occasion, they
evidently had ruade up theïr rninds to put fle
placeout of business entirely, for they kept up
a continuous bornbardment, xith guns of at least
three calibers, for more than an hour. At that
tirne I was a corporal and had twelve men, with
two guns at this place, yet, although nearly every
64
AT CAPTAIN'S POST
one was hit by pîeçes of brick and mud and cov-
cred with dust, hot a mini was hurt nor a gull
injured.
One morning, just after daylight and during
a fog, I was up in an old hay-loft where we had
a gun, when I heard a cock pheasant "squawk-
ing" (that's the only word that describes it), out
i'n front. Looking froln the gun position I saw
hiln, standing on the parapet of an abmdoned
French trench across the road. I could not resist
the temptation, so took a shot at him, with the
result fllat we had pheasant stew for dinner that
dav.
It was a source of never-ceasing wonder to me
that the birds and other forms of wild lire seemed
to be so little affected by the continual noise of
guns and shells. So far as I could notice they
did not pay the slightest attention to it. Pheas-
ants, partridges and rabbits were numerous at one
point in and behind our liues and I have seen
them running about, feeding or playîng where
shells were falling and bursting all about them,
without showing any sign of fear. Indeed
65
THE EMMA GEES
they were somefimes killed by the shells, especially
shrapnel, but those unhit would "carry on" with
the business in hand, indifferent to the rate of
their companions.
The little robin redbreasts (the English
robin and the French rouge,-gorTe ) were
abundant, as were the ubiquitous English spar-
rows, which, sitting out in front on the barbed
wire, were often used as targets by men firing
experimental shots.
A pair of swallows reared a family of young in
a dug-out which I once occupied, the nest being
withîn a few feet of my head when I was in
my bunk. They would corne in and go out
through a small hole which we left in the burlap
curtain and the old bird would sit on the nest
and look at me in such a confidential, unafraid
sort of way that she ruade a friend for lire and
I would have fought any one who had at-
tempted to disturb or injure her. But, of course,
no such thing was possible. All the men seemed
to take a kindly interest in the birds and, except
for the occasional shot at the English sparrows
66
AT CAPTAIN'S POST
(which never hlt them, anyhow), they rarely,
ever, molested any o.f theln unless it was for the
purpose of getting a meal of pheasant or part-
ridge, which was considered perfectly legitimate
although forbidden by "orders." It was all right
if you could "get away with it," as the saying is.
One morning, after an unusually intense bom-
bardment of a wood called the Bois Carré, I
round many dead birds; killed either by direct
bits or by the concussion of the heavy shells.
This same morning I vatched a pair of magpies
'ho were building a nest in a tree near our sta-
tion. A shell had struck the tree, below the nest,
and had Lut it in hall while a large branch had
lodged just above the nest. The whole thing was
swaying dmagerously in the light breeze and a
strong wind vould surely bring it down, but that
pair of chattering magpies appeared to be debat-
ing whether to continue their work or move else-
where. One would hop down to fle place where
the shell had hit and, cocking his head
this way and that, would let loose a flow
of magpie talk that would bring his mate to him
67
THE EMI{A GEES
and then they would both investigate, flying to the
shattered place, clinging to the bark and picking
out splinters and pieces of wood. Then they
would go up aloft and consult about the nest itself.
I watched them for the better part of an hour
when the verdict appeared to be to "take a chance"
and go ahead w,.'th the building. We leff that
place soon after and I never learned the final out-
corne.
At one point, where our lines were about
one hundred yards from the enemy, there
was a small pond in No Man's Land just outside
our wire, and a pair of ducks, teal, I think,
ruade it their home during the entire winter of
I915-I6. In spite of the fact that shells xvere
continualIy falling all around and sometimes
bursting squarely in the pond itself, they never
sbowed the leat inclination to abandon the place.
As this pond was surrounded by a fringe of small
willows we often made use of the cover they
afforded to make nlght reconnoissances, but soon
learned that it xvas impossible to approach tbe
pool without alarming the ducks and drawing
68
AT CAPTAIN'S POST
from them a low scolding note of protest,
accompanied by a splashing of water. This was
carefully noted and, thereafter, all sentries at
that point were especïally warned to listen in-
tently for these noises as it would probably meart
flaat an enemy patrol was exploring in the vicinity.
The abandoning of so many of the farms and
villages left a great many cats without homes.
Nearly every ruined barri or house sheltered one
or more of tlaem and they vere, as a rule, quite
wild. Some, however, had been caught and tamed
by the soldiers who ruade great pers of them.
Frequemly a soldier would be seen going in or
out of the front line with a kitten perched con-
tentedly on top of his pack. There was one big
brindle "madame" car who adopted our machine
gun outfit when we first went in. She traveled
up and down the llne but never stayed anywhere
except in one of the machine gun emplacements.
On bright days she vould hop up on top of the
parapet and sit there, making ber toilet, and then
stretch out on the sand-bags for a nap. At this
point it was hot possible to show a hand or a peri-
69
THE EMMA GEES
scope or any other small object without drawing
the tire of some alert hoche, but they never
shot at the cat. I don't know why, superstition,
perhaps.
This old car had two litters of kittens while
she was a "member" of out section and they were
all grabbed up as soon as weaned, by both officers
and men alike. It is simply human nature to
want to have a pet of some kind and, as it was
forbidden to take dogs into the lines, the sol-
diers turned to the cats. Of course they were
of some use in killing mice, but the rem scourge
of the trenches, the giant rats, were too big and
strong for any car to tackle. There were literally
mi'liions of these rats. At night they appeared
to be everywhere. They would eat up any rations
that were left within reach and, boldly enter-
ing the dug-outs, would run about all over the
sleeping men. It is decidedly unpleasant to be
awakened to find one of these fellows perched
on your chest and "sniff-sniff-sniffing" in your
face. The men killed them in all sorts of ways,
one of the most popular of which was to stick a
70
AT CAPTAIN'S POST
bit of cheese on the end of the bayonet and, hold-
ing it down along the bottom of the trench, wait
until Mr. Rat went af ter the cheese and then
tire the rîfle. Needless to say that rat was
"na-poo," which is soldier-French, meaning
"finis."
At Captain's Post a cat had a famîly of kittens,
just learning to walk, hidden in a haymow, when
we were shelled unmercifully. After the bom-
bardment ceased, upon going up into the mow to
inspect the damage, I round them. They were
all covered with brick-dust but unhurt. By actual
count, no less than rive shells had burst within
ten feet of the nest in whïch they were hidden;
in fact, the whole place was an utter ruin, yet
they came through it untouched. Then, at Sniper's
arn there was a big black cat, wild as a fox,
which had a hiding-place somewhere among the
ruins of the upper story. I had a sniping nest,
burrowed under a lot of tobacco which had been
stored there, and was occupying it one day when
the Germans shelled the place. They put several
shells into that part of the building, cutting the
71
THE EMMA GEES
legs off the trïpod of my telescope and burying
the whole works, including myself. But what
interested and amused me most was when a shell
rooted out tiret cat and sent it flying down into
my quarters, unhurt but so plastered with dus.
from the bricks and mortar that no one wouid
have ever suspected it of being black. It was an
entirely new variety--a red cat. It sat and
looked at me for a long time. Disgust, just
plain, every-day disgust, was written all over
that animal's face. I don't knoxv what would
bave happened had I hot laughed. I simp!y
could hOt help it, the sïght was so funny. With
my first shout the cat seemed to "corne to" and,
with a terrified yowl, sped through a narrow
opening and took to the woods.
To change the subjeçt: Many of our men wiil,
doubtless, be comforted to know that in one re-
spect Flanders is like Ireland--there are no
snakes.
One of out guns on ths line was in the upper
story of an old brewery at Vierstraat, about seven
hundred yards from my position, and we occa-
7 2
AT CAPTAIN'S POST
sionally exchanged visits. One day, I was
down there talking with the boys when a five-inch
(sïxty pounder) shrapnel shell burst in front
the building, the case coming right on through,
into the room where we v,'ere. It "scooted,"
glanced, ricochetted, or whatever you wmat
call it, ail around that room and you never saw
such a scampering to get out. It finally stopped,
however, and one of fle boys dragged ît out into
the light for an examination. On the side it was
branded "BEARDMORE, SCOTLAND." Now,
how do you suppose Heinie got that ?
CHAPTER ¥I
OUR OWN CHEERFUL FASI-IIOIi
N October twelfth there was a general attack
along our front, to try out SOlaae new "smoke
bombs" and shells. It was the first rime the
smoke barrage was used. We took our guns
down about half-way to the front line and set
them up in hedge-rows and other places where
we could sweep the front ïn case the enemy ruade
a counter-attack and got into out lines. How-
ever, we were hot needed, so remained spectators
of about as pretty a show as I have ever seen.
At a given signal, every gun behind our lines
dropped smoke shells in a continuous row along
the line, just in front of the enemy's parapet. As
each shell struck, it burst, sending out great
streamers of white smoke that soon became a
dense wall through which no one could sec. Under
cover of this, out bombers advanced, threw
hand grenades into the enemy trenches and then
74
OUR OWN CHEERFUL FASHION
retired. No attempt was made to take any part
of the line; it was more in the nature of a try-
out for the new shells and also for the purpose
of harassing the enemy.
Naturally, the hoche, expecting a general
attack, commenced to shell everything in that part
of the country and also opened up a heavy ma-
chine-gun and rifle tire, a good deal of which
came our way, but no one was lait. On the way
back to the barn, Bouchard and I were walking
side by side, perhaps three or four feet apart,
when a "whizz-bang" came right bet»veen us and
struck the ground not more than ten feet in front.
In nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a
thousand that would have spelled out finish, but
the shell struck on the edge o t; a lïttle htunp, at
the side of a ditch, turned sidewise and spun
round like a top. We stood there, speechless,
fascinated by the peculiar antics of the thing, until
ït stoppe& It was a pretty toy, a lO 5 mm.,
painted red and with a beautiful brass fuse-:ap.
I picked it up but as it was too hot to handle I
put on my asbestos gloves, used for changing
75
.THE EMMA GEES
barrels of machine ms, and carrled it "holne"
where I put it away, intending to get some
artilleryman to remove the fuse and explosive
so that I might keep it as a souvenir; but a bunch
of boys from the Eighteenth Battalion round it,
and taking it back to their dug-out at Ridgewood,
tried to unload it themselves. Some were killed
and several wounded when the thing exploded.
afterward saw one of those who had been
wounded and he told me about it.
At this stage of the soldier's career he is always
a "souvenir hunter," picking up and carrying
around with him all sorts of things, from German
bullets to big shells. I was a fiend of
the first magnitude and collected enough
stuff fo stock a museum, only to bave to
abandon it whenever we moved. I had French
rifles, bayonets and other equipment; German
ditto and about every size and type of shell and
fuse that was used on our front. Whenever we
moved I would bury or cache the whole lot,
ïn the hope that I could get back for it some day.
tut the lever finally wore off, and I got so that
76
OUR OWN CHEERFUE FASHION
I would not even pick up a German helmet. Now,
of course, I wish I had some of that stuff to show
the folks.
On the fifteenth of October we went
into the front line; a line which we, alternating
with the Twentïeth Battalion, vere destined to
hold until the following April. About this time the
rains set in "for keeps" and we were seldom dry
or warm or clean for nearly six months. Mud,
mud, nothing" but mud--mud wïthout any bot-
tom. We had no trenches, proper; they were
simply sand-bag barricades between us and the
enerny and it was a continual struggle to keep
them built up. They would ooze away like
rneltinff butter.
When the deadlock came, in the fall of I94,
and the opposing arlnies lay entrenched, from
the North Sea to Switzerland, it found the Ger-
mans occupying the dolninating heights, with out
forces hanging on, as best they could, to positions
on the lower ground.
This vas the case at the point where we were
located. Out sector (about eleven hundred yards
77
THE EMMA GEES
for the battalion rontage) extended rom the
Voormezeele-Wytschaete road, northward to the
bottom o.t the bill at the top of which was the
village of St. Eloi. Dïrectly opposite our left was
Piccadilly Farm, located on a hill about ten
meters higher than out lines. From there toward
the right, the enemy line gradually descended un-
til, at the right of out line, it »vas only about
two meters higher. The distance between the
front lines varied trom about seventy yards, at the
right, to about two hundred and fity yards at
the lett. The net result ot this situation was that
the Germans could dig trenches o t considerable
depth, draining the water out under their parapets
or into two small streams which ran from their
lines to ours. They had a playful habït of dam-
ming up these streams until an unusually hard
tain would çome, when they would open the
gates and glve us the benefit ot the whole dose.
I have seen the water in these streams rise seven
feet within less than an hour and there were rimes
when in one of out communication trenches it
was over a man's head. A soldier of the West
78
OUR OWN CHEERFUL FASHION
York's regiment was drowned in this trench one
night.
Under such conditïons, it was impossible for
us to dig. AI1 we could do was to construct
sand-bag parapets or barricades, while our so-
called "dug-outs" consisted of huts constructed
of sand-bags, roofed with corrugated îron and
covered »vitla more sand-bags. They afforded
protection from shrapnel and small shell frag-
ments, but, of course, hot against direct hits from
any kind of shells. Even a little "whizz-bang"
v«ould go through them as though they were
egg-shells. All the earth thereabouts was of
the consistency of thick sotlp and our para-
pet had a habit of sloughing away just about as
"fast as we could build ït up. As a matter of
fact, out communication trenches did become com-
pletely obliterated and x-e had no recourse but to
go in and out of the trenches "overland." At
night this »vas hot so bad. although we were
¢ontinually losing men from stray bullets.
But »vhen ît was necessary, as it sometimes
was, to go in or out ïn daylight x.vhy, it »vas a
79
THE EMMA GEES
cinch that some one was going to get hit, as the
enemy had many good snipers watching for just
such opportunities. At one rime, for over two
weeks more than two hundred yards of out
parapet were down, and if you went from one
end of the line to the other 5"ou must expose your-
self to the full viêv of enemy snipers, lIy duties
rêquired me to cover this stretch of trench at
least tvice a day.
Out conduct in taking short cuts across the
fields when the trenches were knee-deep with mud,
was scandalous in the eyes of out neighbors of
the Imperial army, as the troops from the 13ritish
Isles are known. Ouite frequently we were
subjected to the most scathing tongue-lashing
from officers of the old school, but we won the
astonished admiration of the Tommies by out dis-
regard of instructions and advice. I well re-
member one day when a party of us were
going out through the P. & O. comlnunication
trench and, finding the mud too deep, we climbed
out and walked across the open, whereat an old
Colonel of some Highland regiment gave us a
80
OUR OWN CHEERFUL FASHION
"beautiful calling." His discourse was a master-
piece of fluent soldier talk and, as a Scot usually
does when excited, he lapsed into the "twa-talk"
of his native Hielans. I can remember his last
words, which were to the effect that: "Ye daft
Cany-deens think ye're awfu' brave but I tell
ye the noo it's no bravery; it's sheer stupidity."
Of course he was right, but we could hot allow the
small matter of a bullet or two to stand in the
way of our getting out in rime for tea, and
finally they gave it up in disgust and allowed
us to "go to hell ïn our own cheerful fashion,"
as they said.
With the assistance of the engineers, we finally
succeeded in constructing a nexv line, slightly in
the rear of the old one which was abandoned
except for a couple of machine-gun positions and
a listening post. We also managed to get out
a fairly good barbed-wïre entanglement along
most of the front. Fritz appeared to be having
his troubles, too, so did not bother us nmch at
night. We always got a few shells every day and
usually quite a number of rifle grenades and
8
THE EMMA GEES
"fish-tail" aerlal torpedoes, but they did very little
damage. I-Iere was where the mud was
out friend, for, unless a shell dropped squarely
on the top of you, it would do no harm.
CHAPTER VII
SNIPER'S ]ARN
UST as streets and roads must have their
names, so must all trenches have official
desig'nations. This applies also to localities,
farms, cross-roads, woods and such places which
bave no "regular" names or which possess Flem-
ish or French names difficult of pronunciation
by the soldiers.
Front-line trenches are usually designated by
letters or numbers, running in regular order, from
iight to left in each sector. Certain important
poïnts may have special names. Communication
trenches are always given distinctive names.
Probably the majority of these names are those
of prominent streets and roads in England, espe-
cially in London. At Messines we had "Surrey
Lane," "Stanley Road" and "Plum Avenue" for
communication trenches, while out front line em-
braced the whole series of "C" trenches. During
83
THE EMIA GEES
the winter ",ve occupied the "N" and "O" front-
lïne trenches, while our communication trenches
bore such names as "Poppy Lane," "Bois Carré,"
(afterward called "Chicory Trench" because it
ran tllrough a chicory field), emd the "P. & O."
so named because it entered the front line at the
junction of the "O" and "P" trenches and P. &
O. is so much easier to say than O. & P. At
St. Eloi, "Convent Lane" and "Queen Victoria
Street" "««ere examples of the communication
trenches, while the front-line posïtions were desig-
nated by numbers, as elsewbere explained. Orïgi-
nally, they vere called the "Q" and "R" trenches.
Opposite Hill 60 (so named because it is sixty
meters ab, ove sea level), the numberîng method
was continued in the front line, while the com-
munication trenches included "Petticoat Lane,"
"Fleet Street" and "Rat Alley." At various places
along the lines you would find "Marble _Arch,"
Hlghgate, "Piccadilly Circus, and so on.
Supportïng points were generally designated
as "S. P. 7" (or other number), or as "Re-
doubts" with identifying names. In one place we
84
WYTSCHAETE MAP.
The repro&tction on the opposite page s a sec-
tion [rol the nap k,»ow as Vytschaete. Here
arc Shellcy Farm, IVh.ite Horse Cdlars afd
St. Eloi, with the British Iront line shozvz by
dashes, crossin 9 the road that runs through White
ttorse Cdlars, af fig*tre 2. The German trenches,
indicated by irregular black lines, are close fo the
Britisl front af thîs point, but run lmrply away
down to Piccadilly Farrrt and beyond on the le[t.
The trenches on th.ls n,ctp are corrected to Febrtary
20th. 1916. Sniper's Barn that figures so thrillingl_v
'a Captain McBridds experiences s shown at the
e.vtreme left of the map, o,ly the word Barn ap-
peariny.
SNIPER'S BARN
had the "Solthern, Eastern and Western" re-
doubts along the edges of a certain wood.
Sometimes the original Flemish names were
retained for the farms, châteamx and cross-roads,
but more often they would be _Anglicized bv
our map makers. Thus xve had "Moated Grange,"
"Bus House," "Shelley Farm," "Beggar's
Rest," "Dead Dog Farm," "Sniper's Barn,"
"Captain's Post," "Maple Copse," the "White
Château" and the "Red Château," "Dead Horse
Corner," "White Horse Cellars" and so on, in-
definitely. "Scottish Wood" was so named for
the London Scottish who made a famous charge
there in the early part of the war. Hallebast
Corner was changed by the soldier to "Hell-
blast" Corner, just as Ypres became "Wipers" and
Ploegstert was translated into "Plugstreet." As
to the estaminets, (drinking places), while
many retained their original names, such as
"Pomme d'Or," "Repos aux Voyageurs" or
"Herberg in der Kruisstraat," such names as
"The Pig & Whistle" and "Cheshire Cheese"
were hot uncommon.
85
THE EMMA GEES
"Shrapnel Corners" and "Suicide Corners"
were numerous and had merely a local signïfi-
cance. The names are seff-explanatory. "Gordon
Farm," where the Gordon Highlanders had
stopped for a time, and "School Farm," where
we had a bombing and machine-gun school, vere
other examples. "ttyde Park Corner," after-
ward changed to "Canada Corner," was an ina-
portant junction point of the roads back of our
lines. "Bedford House" was a naine given to a
château which the Bedfords once occupied. It
would require a large book to enumerate them
all.
Out llne was at the exact spot where the
Princess Pat's first went înto action and severaI
of them were buried in our trenches, together
with many others, both French and Englïsh. In
fact, it was difficult to dig anywhere for earth
to fill sand-bags without uncoverïng bodies.
The whole place was nothing more nor less than
one continuous grave. There were a great many
crosses, put up by comrades, giving naine, date
and organization, but liundreds had no mark other
SNIPER'S BARN
than the cross, sometimes inscribed "an unknowt
soldier," but more often umnarked. Here one
of out sergeants round the grave of his brother,
who had been serving in the King's Royal Rifles
and I noticed another cross near by marked with
the nmne of Meyers, Indianapolis, Indiana,
said to have been the first man of the Princess
Pat's killed in action. There was a maze
of old French and English trenches, some
in front of our line and some behind ït and alt
more or less filled with bodies that had
never been buried. Some of the Indian troops
had fought here and had left many of their num-
ber behind. Whenever it was possible, we buriêd
the 3odies, but often they were in such positions
that this was impossible and any attempt to do
so would only have resulted i'n further losses. I
nearly forgot to mention it; but there were plenty
of Germans mixed up with the lot; in one small
area, just ïn front of a farm building, some rive
hundred yards in out rear, I round eight of them.
Inside the building was a dead French soldier who.
as we fioared it out, had accounted for the eight
87
THE EMMA GEES
hoches belote they got him. This place was
called Sniper's t3arn.
While out artillery had been considerably in-
creased, it was still far below that of the enemy
in number or size of guns, and the ammunition
supply was so short that each gun was limited to
a very few rounds a day. It was only during
the following surnmer that the English caught up
with the Germans in artillery. This, naturally,
did hot tend to cheer up the men. It was aggra-
vating, to say the least, to have the other fellow
sending over "crumps" without lïmit, and be able
to send back nothing but six or eight "whizz-
bangs." ("Crump" is the general naine for high-
explosive shells of from 4. I up, but the common-
est size is the 5-9 or I5O mm.)
Having been so successful at the strafing at
Messines, our Colonel was anxious that we con-
tinue the gaine here and I was delegated to locate
a good position and "go to it." After going over
all the ground back of out lines, I decided to try
the experiment of placing the gun in a small
hedge which tan across the lower end of an old
garden or orchard, in front of Sniper's Barn;
88
SNIPER'S BARN
that is, on the side toward the enemy. It looked
rather foolhardy, at first glance, for the place was
in plain sight from the German lines and only
about rive hundred yards a»vay at the nearest
poïnt; but I remembered our experience at out
first strafing place and depended on Heinie to
jump to the conclusion that we were in the farm
buildings, and devote his attention to them. It
vorked; he "ran true to form," as a race horse
man »vould say, and while we maintained a gun,
and sometimes two, in that place for six months,
and the boche shot up the barn regularly during ail
that time, there was never a shell, apparently, di-
rected at out position, and except for an
occasional "short," none burst near us.
From there we would shoot, day and night,
often, at the first, havîng our targets where we
could "see 'em fall," a very unusual occurrence
for a machine gunner, save during a general en-
gagement. Of course we would have to get into
the position before daylight and remain until dark
as the way to and from it was exposed to view
from "across the way."
Here we worked out many of the constantly
89
.THE EMMA GEES
recurring problems which confront the machine
gunner in the field, and which are, as a rule, over-
looked or neglected durïng the preliminary train-
ing. .As our own soldiers will have to contend
vith the saine conditions, I may menti'on some
of them.
One of the first things we discovered was that
«hile all file small-arrns ammunition issued was
ruade pursuant to uniform specifications, fur-
nished by fle War Office, a large percentage of
it ",vas manufactured in new, hastily equïpped
factories, by partially trained workmen, and
vhile it was apparently near enough to the
standard to pass the tests exacted by the inspect-
ors, only an extremely small proportion would
function properly in machine mans or other auto-
matic arms. A few of the old standard brands,
ruade in government arsenals or by the promi-
nent, long-established private manufacturers,
could be depen.ded upon at all rimes, but, unfortu-
nately, these brands were comparatively scarce
and hard to get. At least seventy-five per cent. of
what we received was the product of the small,
SNIPER'S BARN
new and ill-equipped factories, established under
the press of war demands, and, while it appeared
to work satisfactorily in the ordinary rifles, both
Enfield and Ross, it was utterly useless for ma-
chine lns. The difference of a minute fraction
of an inch in the thickness of the "rira" would
break extractors as fast as fl,ey could be replaced,
v«hile various other irregularities, so small as to be
undiscoverable without the most accurate meas-
urements by delicate micrometers, would cause
stoppages and the breaking of different small
parts. And. at that rime, spare parts were almost
tmknown, so ït required the utmost ingenuity on
the part of the gunners to improvise, xvith what
materials could be round on the spot, and with
the very few tools at hand, many of the small
but ail-important parts that go to make up the
interior economy of the guns.
All automatically operated firearms are, of
necessity, very d,elicately balanced mechanisms.
Vrhether gas or recoil operated, there must be
just sufficient power obtained from the firing of
one shot to overcome the normal friction of the
91
THE EI[MA GEES
working parts, eject the empty cartridge case,
withdraw a new caa'tridge from the belt or maga-
zine, load it properly in the chamber and tire it;
:ontinuing this action as long as the trigger, or
other firing devïce, is kept pressed or until the
belt or magazine is emptied. Ammunition which
does hot give the proper amount of pressure or
cartridges which, through faulty manufacture,
cause an undue amount of friction, either in seat-
ing them in the chamber, withdrawing them from
the belt or in removing the fired case, will hOt
operate the n properly and will cause "jams."
On the other hand, ammunition which develops
too much pressure or creates too little friction,
xvill cause breakages because of the excess jar and
harnmering of the moving parts.
,Ve utilized parts of cream separators, sewing
machines, baby carrïages, bicycles and various
agricultural implements, round in and around the
old Belan farms, and it soon became common
talk that we could make every part of a machine
gun excepting the barrel. We learned that there
,vas a certain bolt, a part of the rifle carrier on the
9 2
SNIPER'S BARN
French bicycle, which was an exact duplicate of an
important part of out guns, so, whenever we
found one of those old, broken and abandoned
cycles, we would take time to remove thïs par-
ticular part and carry it along for emergencies.
This is but one instance of many.
Then, fllere was the matter of concealing the
flash, when firing at night. As the position we
occupied was in plain view of the enemy lines,
to bave fired without some device fo prevent the
flash being seen would, inevitably, have resulted
in a çoncentration of tire upon us which would
bave rendered the position untenable. We trïed
many schemes, from the crude "sand-bag" screen
to the most elaborate devices ruade in the
armorer's shops, while back in billets, and finally
perfected one which was thoroughly satisfactory.
I csm hot describe it here, as I hope to see it used
by our soldiers in France, but I can say that, out
of probably fifty different contrivances ruade for
the saine purpose, this was the only one that
"filled flae bill" from every standpoint.
As most of our firïng was done at night, it was
93
,THE EMMA GEES
aecessary to improve the manner of mountlng
and "laying" the guns as we soon round that the
methods taught at the training schools and the
lamps and other mechanical devices furnished by
the authorities were of no use under actual service
conditions.
The various schemes and devices which we
originated and elaborated are at the disposal of
the proper military authorities in this country
but, obviously, can hot be described here.
The foreim't officers, ]3ritish and French, who
are now in thîs country acting as instructors and
advisers are doing everything in their power to
impress t, pon our officers and men the necessity
for keeping up to date in all the various and com-
plïcated departrnents of military training', even
to the exclusion of many of the pet ideas of some
of the most accomplished instructors in out service
schools. The trouble with us is that we have hot,
;and never bave had, any machine gunners in the
United States Army. ]3y this I mean men skilled
in machine mnery as applied to present-day war-
iare. The evolution of machine-gun tactics
94
SNIPER'S BARN
perhaps, the most outstandinff feature of tlie
whole war. From being', as it was considered
four years ago, merely an emergency weapon or,
as the text-book writers were pleased to call it,
"'a weapon of opportunity," it bas become the
naost important single weapon in use in any army,
hot even excepting the artillery. A properly di-
rected machine-m barrage is far more difficult
to traverse than anything the artillery can put
clown and the combination of artillery and ,ha-
chine guns, working together, whether on the
offensive or defensive, represents the highest point
ever attained in the effective use of tire in battle.
Out instructors bave been technical theorists
of the very highest order, basïng their theories
and working out their problems on the experience
furnished by previo_us wars and of course it is
difficult for them to realize that nearly
every hypothesis which they bave assumed in
working" out their theories bas been proved fa]se.
They can hot believe that "tire control" of in-
fantry, as taught in the school of tire, bas no
place in modern trench warfare. It will break the
95
THE EMMA GEES
hearts of some of them to learn that the ability
to read a map and use a prismatic compass is
of far more value thart knowledge of the "mil-
scale" or "fire-control rule." They will irobably
be scandalized by the statement, which I make
seriously and with full knowledge whereof I
speak, that one common shovel and an annful
of sand-bags are worth more than all the range-
finders that have been or ever will be bought
for the use of machine gunners.
Every foot of m-ound in France, Belgium and
Gernmny has been so thoroughly and accurately
mapped tiret there need be no such thing
as estimating ranges. You know the range; you
do hOt have to depend on mental or mechanical
estimates. And, as machine-gun tire is almost
entirely indirect tire, the guns must be laid by
using map, compass, protractor and clinometer
(quadrant), in exactly the saine rnanner as ar-
tillery tire is directed. The average machine
gunner will probably go through the whole war
without ever seeing a live enemy--excepting
prisoners. The various methods of controlling
96
SNIPER'S BARN
indirect tire by resectïon, base lines and observa-
tion from two or more points are, like the use
of an tuxiliary aiming point, useless in trench
warfare. They are fine in theory and ord
n:uch interesting diversion on the training raages,
but when you go to war, why, ït can't be done,
that's ail.
This is a common, plain, hard-headed business
proposition: where the only idea is to kill as
rnany of the enemy as possible before he kills
you, it bas been round that the oldest, crudest
and most primitive methods lave, in many cases,
proved the most effective for the attainment of
this end.
Never belote bas it been of such vital im-
portance to train the individual soldier, whether
he be rifleman, bomber, machine gunner or any
other specïalist, so that he tn "carry on" with-
out the direction of an officer. The officer must
plan everything in advance; he must look after
the health and comfort of lais men, see that they
are properly equipped and supplied, must station
them in their appointed positions, make frequent
97
.THE EMMA GEES
personal inspections and, finally, lead them in
the advance. But in every engagement there
cornes a time when every man is "on his own,"
whel ït is impossible for the officer, if he be
still living, to direct the action. The idea that
an officer can exercise "tire control" as taught
in our service schools, or can personally direct the
tire of a number of machine guns, once the action
has started, is ridiculous. The limits of one man's
sphere of action, at such a ff'me, are extremely
small. If the men have been properly instructed,
beforehand, and then given a good start, they
will do the rest. It is just this ability to assimi-
late individual instruction that has ruade the
Canadian superior to the native-born Bri'ton.
is better educated, as a rule, has lived a freer and
more varied lire and, as a result, possesses that
initiative and individual ingenuity which are so
often necessary at the critical stages of a tight.
We have every reason to expect that the Amerî-
tan soldier, for these saine reasons, will prove to
be at least the equal of the Canadianthe finest
type of fighting man yet developed by this war.
9 8
CHAPTER VIII
GETTNG THE FLAG
E soon fell into the rontine of moving;
from front line to support; from support
to the front line and back to reserve. For some
rime these movements were uncertain but we
finally settled down to a regular schedule, which
was maintained, with few breaks, throughout
the winter. When the rime came to go into the
reserve, the test of the battalion would go back
to LaClytte but the Emma Gees went only to
the Vierstraat-Brasserie line before described.
From there detachments v«ould alternate in going
back to the battalion billets for a bath and clean
clothing. Some of us rigged up out own bath
bouse in Captain's Post, so round it unnecessary
to go any farther. Personally, there was only
one day in three months when I ,,vas out of sight
of the Germata lines. We had comfortable quar-
ers where we were and the towns of Dickebusch
and LaClytte had no attractions for me; and as to
99
THE EMMA GEES
the battalion billets, they were abominable. They
consisted of so-called buts which were simply
floors with roofs over them: no walls at all;
just a sloping, tent-like roof on top of a rough
board floor. Outside, they were partly banked
up and plentifully smeared with mud, camou-
flaged, as it were. The ]3ïitish ruade it a prac-
tise at that tïme to keep their troops out of the
inhabited towns that were within ratage of the
enemy's guns, so as hot to give any excuse for
shelling them. LaClytte was a very small town
of but a few hundred native inhabitants, but
Dickebusch, situated about midway between the
lines and LaCl.xrtte, was a city of several thou-
sands. I, both places were hundreds of refugees
from the ruined towns to the eastward.
However, it seemed to make little difference to
the boche; he shelled both towns, intermittently,
killing a number of civilians but very rarely hit-
ring a soldier. Later, in the spring of 1916, they
started in to wlpe out Dickebusch, and, for all
practical purposes, they succeeded. I will speak
of this in a later chapter.
IOO
GETTING THE FLAG
Where opposing lines are so close together,
say less than one hundred yards apart, and the
ground is level and star shells are going ttp al-
most continuously, it would seem to be nearly an
impossibility for any man or number of men
to venture out into No Man's Land without
being seen and fired upon by the enemy. But
xx'ith certai'n members of each organization itis
merely a part of the daily routine. Every night
they slip over the parapet and, in small groups,
patrol up and down fle line, constantly on the
alert to prevent any surprise attack by the enemy.
But this is not all. There are times, at ail points,
when it is necessary to put out new barbed wire
or repair the old ; xYhen large parties of men must
go out there and xvork for hours, within a stone's
throw of a vi'gilant and merciless enemy. Occa-
sionally they are discovered and have trouble, but
in the great majority ,of cases the work is done
and every one gets back unhurt.
How is it done? Simply a matter of training
and careful preparation. Every man is rehearsed
in his work until he can do it perfectly, quickly
IOI
THE EMMA GEES
and wïthout noise. Materials are carefully
checked up and distrlbuted and, each man having
a certain specified task and no other, there is no
confusion or blundering. They all know that,
when a tiare goes up near by, they must "freeze"
in whatever position they may be. Movements
of anv kind would be sure to discover them to
the enelny lookout, but lacking that movement it
is a hundred-to-one shot they will be unde-
tected.
There have been a good many înstances where
a flag has been planted by the enemy, on lais para-
pets or inside lais wire, with a challenge to any
one fo corne over and get if. There was one
such opposite out position. Many stories had
been told about that flag: The t3randenburgers
had it first, then the French got it and passed it
along to the English, who relieved them ; then the
Prussîans took it away from the t3ritish and had
held it ever since; for about a year, in fact. We
could see it, plainly enough; a dark blue affair
with some sort of a device in yellov in the center.
I often noticed it from our position back at Snip-
IO2
GETTING THE FLAG
er's ]3arn and had some rather hazy ideas about
going over after it.
One dark rainy night in November, a man
in the section named Lucky announced that he
was going over to Fritz's line to try to locate a
new machine-tm emplacement which we had rea-
son to believe had been recently constructed. He
slipped over the parapet where a road ran through
out lines and those of the enemy. It vas only
about seventy yards across at this point.
Working his vcay through our v¢ire, he crawled
alon the side of the old dist,.sed road, there being
a shallow ditch there which afforded a little con-
cealment. The flares were going up frequently
and progress was, of course, very slow. Atone
place the body of a soldier xvas lying in tbe ditch
and, in trying to roll it out of the vay, he pulled
off one of the feet. ]3y creeping along, inch by
inch, he fially reached the enemy's wire and spent
about an hour working through it. Then crawl-
ing along the outside of the parapet, stopping oft-
en to listen, he soon found the loophole of the
new gun emplacement. Taking a sheet of
o 3
THE EMMA GEES
paper which he had brought for the purpose, he
'fastened it directly below the loophole where it
would be in plain sght from our lines but in-
visible to the occupants of the place. His work
[lone, he was about to start back when he hap-
pened to think of that flag and concluded to have
a try for it. It was probably a hundred yards
or more down the trench from where he then
was and it required the utmost care to avoid
naaking a noise as the front of the parapet, as is
always the _case, was thickly strewn with tin c.ans
and rubbish of all sorts. Lucky had been a. big
gaine hunter in Canada, however, and had even
stalked the wily moose which is about the la.st
word in "still hunting," so he managed to nego-
tiare the distance without detection and finally
reached the flag.
Carefully feellng up along the staff, he dis-
covered that it was anchored with wires which
tan into the ground and then he remembered the
tales that had been told of how it was attached
to a bomb or small mine which would be explod-
ed if the flagstaff were disturbed. That was a
o4
GETTING THE FLAG
eommon German trick and not at ail unlikely in
this case, but, after thinking the matter over, he
decided to make an attempt to unfasten the wires.
This did hot take long, after which ail that re-
mained was to pull out the staff and "beat it."
Taking lais pistol in his right hand, to be ready for'
tmaergencies, nd reaching up with the left, he gave
the pole a sharp jerk. Well, there must have been
another wire, somewhere, connected up wïth two
"fixed rities," aimed directly at the stick for,
when he pulled on it, two ritie reports rang out
and two bullets lait the flagstaff, cutting it off
just below his hand which was also slightly cut.
Quickly rolling down into a slight depression he
b.ugged the flag to him and lay quiet, whïle the
Germans, aroused by the shots, immediately"
opened tire vith rifles, which were soon joined by]
a machine ln. They could hot lait him where he
was so he just lay still and waited. Suddenly,
without warning, they fired a tiare light directly
,¢er his head. I-Ie told me afterward that was the
nly time he was really scared. He thought it was
a bomb. ttowever that soort passed and, the fii'ing
THE EMMA GEES
having died down, he ruade his way back to our
lines with the fIag which he gave to the Colonel
the next morning. "And they gave him a medal
for that."
On another occasion, one of out scouts ruade
hîs way through the German line and having lo-
cated a battery in the rear, started back, only to
discover that the place where he had corne over
was now occupied by several soldiers, and, being
unable to find another opening, was obliged
to bide out and remain ïnside the enemy's lines
all day. The next night he managed to slip back,
none the worse for his adventure.
Such things are being" done every night and
some men consider it the greatest sport in the
v¢orld to go out alone and spend hours under the
lee of a German parapet listening to the Hein-
les talk. Soon after that, orders were issued in
our brigade that no one was to go out alone so
v«hen we wanted to prowI around -s'e had to start
in pairs. As soon as we were over the parapet ,,ve
would split and each go his way, to meet Iater at
an appointed place. One man, alone, c.an get
Io6
GETTING THE FLAG
axvay with a lot of things that would be impos-
sible for two, but we observed the letter, if hot
the spirit, of the order.
We had cleared out one of the compartments of
the big barn at Captain's Post, carefully pluggihg
up all the shell-holes with. sand-bags and other
materials so that no light could filter thl:,ugh, and
there, at night, would build a great tire in the
middle of the stone floor and proceed to enjoy our-
selves. Usually one or two guns would do a little
strafing every night" simply going out into
the field in front of the building and setting up
the gun in a convenient shell-hole. After . while,
from our own observations and from information
supplied by the artillery, we occasionally located
an enemy battery within range of our g-uns.
Then we would bave a regular "strafing party."
Laying all the guns so as to delix-er a converng
tire on the battery ..position, we would, as soon as
it was dark, open tlp on them, knowing that
flaey would be moving about in the open and
exposed to tire. We could always tell when we
had "stung" them, for they would invariably
IO 7
THE EMMA GEES
corne back at us with a tremendous tire, shooting
wildly at everything within our lines in file rai.
endeavor to locate us. I'll ber we caused them
to expend a hundred thousand rounds of perfect-
ly good ammunition in this way, but we never had
a man hit vhile at the gaine. The German is not
much of a hand for night artillery work unless you
stir hiln up, but we could always get a rise out of
him, and often did it, just for amusement. This is
what is called "getting his wind up." The saine
thing can be done i'n the front line by a few men
opening up with rive or ten rounds, rapid tire, di-
rected just over Heinie's parapet. In nearly every
case, he will commence shooting blindly toward
our lines: the contagion will spread and, the first
thing you know, he will have wasted about a mil-
lion rounds.
Here, as in most parts of the line, except
luring an engagement, cooking was done right
in the front trenches. The method is to use a
brazier ruade from an old iron bucket, punched
full of holes, in which çharcoal or coke is burned.
s we seldom had charcoal, it was necessary to
GETTING TtIE FLAG
atart the tire before daylight, using wood to ignite
the coke which ruade no smoke but, with care-
fui nursing, could be ruade to burn all day. The
presence of smoke always drew the tire of rite
grenades, trench-mortar shells and ever arti]lery.
It was one of our favorite forms of amuse-
ment to locate a cook house and shoot it
up; and when a shell ruade a direct hit, if, among
the pots and pans flying through the air, we
could distinguish a German cap or something that
looked like a part of a boche, there was nmch
rejoîcing in our lines. Of course it was a gaine
at which t-,vo could play and we were hot immune
by any means.
These little things helped to keep up the inter-
est and break the monotonv of the work. About
this time file famous Lahore ]3-attery, from fle
Indian city of that naine, was added to the artil-
Iery behind our sector; and they appeared hOt to
be restricted in the number of rounds per da)[
whlch they were permitted to tire. I remember
fle first time they did any shooting over out
heads. It ",vas the day af ter they had "registered
lO9
THE EMMA GEES
in" that a large working party was discovered on
l»iccadilly Farm, directly opposite our left. When
the F. O. O. (forv«ard observing officer) was
informed of it, he had a good look through his
periscope binoculars and then called up the
Lahore ]3attery and, without any prelimi-
nary ragïng shots, ordered "forty rounds per
gun." .As they had six guns, they poured in the
shells at the rate of about one hundred a minute
and they certainly did make things fly in and
about that farm.
CHAPTER IX
HUNTING ItUNS
D URING October the casualties in the Ma-
chine Gun Section were only three wound-
ed, McNab, Redpath and Jack Lee all getting hit
on the same day. They were sent back to Eng-
land. At that time it was not considered the
proper thing for a man to go back if he could, by
any means, "carry on" and these three were all
bitterly disappointed when they round that the)r
would have to leave the section. There cmne a
time, all too soon, when a "Blighty" was the
finest present a man could get; the loss of a few
fingers or even a hand or foot being considered
hot too high a price to pay to get out of hell for
a few months.
When the weather was very bad there
was but little sniping" going on, so we often
vent in and out of the lines "overland" in broad
daylight. Sunday, November fourteenth, was
one such occasion. We had hot been relieved
III
THE EMMA GEES
nntil noon by the Twentieth Battalion vho had
taken a very roundabout vay to get in, so I put
it up to all my crowd to choose whether we should
spend several hours going around or take a chance
down the open road. They unanimously decided
on the road, so I started out ahead, with instruc-
tions for them to follow at about fifty-yard
intervals, and in this fashion we walked down
at least four hundred yards of open road, every
foot of which was in plain sight of the German
lines, and got under cover of a small hill without
a single shot being fired. From this point it was
necessary to cross another small open space but,
as it was partly screened by bushes and trees,
we did not consider it dangerous.
We bad a redoubt concealed in the small hill
mentioned and I stopped to arrange about the
relief of flae gun crew stationed there. The re-
mainder of flae party, except Charlie Wendt,
continued on their way and soon disappeared in
the woods. Charlie stayed a few minutes and
then said: "I'll go on ahead, Mac, and wait for
vou at the Eastern Redoubt." Iffe started out
112
ttUNTING HUNS
across the fleld and I continued my talk with
Endersby, who was in charge of the local gun,
v«hen, all at once, I heard some one call out : "O11,
Mac," and looked to see Wendt on the ground
about one hundred yards away waving his hand
to me. Endersby immediately ran to him and I
followed as soon as I coukl drop part of the
heavy load I was carrying. On reaching him I
round that he had been shot througb the abdomen.
Just then another bullet snapped beside us, so I
told Endersby to get back to the redoubt and
telephone for stretcber-bearers, while I bandaged
the wound. Charlie remarked: "\Vell, they got
me, but I hope you get about ten of them for me."
I assured him that we would and told him to
keep lais nerve and he would corne through all
right. He was a very strong, clean-living young
man and I really thought he had a chance. He
did hot think so, saying he was afraid the doctors
would have some difficulty in patching up such a
hole. He did hot cry out nor lnake the slightest
complaint but kept assuring me that "everything
is ail right."
x3
THE EMMA GEES
Meantime, the sniper »vas keeping up a con-
tinuous tire, hitting everything in the neighbor-
lmod but me, at whom he was shooting. It was
such a miserable exhibition of marksmanship---
only about rive hundred yards distant and a bright
clear day--that I told Charlie I would be
ashamed to have such a poor shot in our outfit.
Any American soldier who could qualify as a
marksman would scarcely miss such a target and
a sharpshooter or expert rifleman would be for-
ever di»graced if he made less than the highest
possible core. However, I forgave that fellow;
being a German he could not be expected to
know how to shoot straight at any range beyond
three hundred meters. The shot that hit Charlie
was just a "Iuck shot," but that did hot help
much.
I tried to drag him along toward a slight de-
pression, but it hurt him so I desisted and waitecl
for the stretcher-bearers. When I saw them ap-
proaching I called a warning and had one of them
crawl to us with the smalI trench stretcher, on
which we managed to get Charlie ïnto a sheltered
II4
HUNTING HUNS
place, where they shifted him to a long litter and
started out with him. The last thing he said
was : "'It's all right, Mac; ever_ hiag is all right ;
don't you worry."
They did all they could for him while I had to
go back and get the machine o-un that he had
dropped. The fellow across the way showed
perseverance, at any rate, and kept up his "schut-
z.nfest" as long as I was ïn sight but without
result.
Next day ",'ce learned that Charlie had died and
v¢a3 buried at Bailleul. He wts not caly one of
the most popular men in the section, but vas the
first vve had had killed and vve all felt very much
depressed. I got a permit to go to Bailleul to see
whether or not he had been properly buried and
there ruade my first acquaintance with the G. R. C.
VVe had often seen those letters, followed by a
rmmber, on the crosses, in trenches, in cemeteries
or along the roads, but none knew what they
meant. At Bailleul I round fle head office of fixe
"Graves Registration Commissïon" and, within
rive minutes, knew where Wendt ,as buried and
115
THE EMMA GEES
the number of his grave. This wonderful or-
ganization undertakes to furnish a complete
record of the burial place of every soldier.
\¥here suitable crosses bave not been pro-
vided, they furnish one, bearing an aluminum
plate showing the naine, number, regiment and
date of death wherever this information is avail-
able. Now tbey have golfe even further and are
compiling a photographic record of all known
graves so that relatives, writing to tbe Commis-
sion, can secure not only a verbal description but
an actual pbotograph of the loved oe's grave.
I wènt back and began to plan ways and means
of "getting" Charlie's ten boches, but a day or two
later something happened to alter my scheme to a
certain extent.
At that time, out ration parties were going out
just before daylight, as we laad no communica-
tion trencb ad had to cross the open and exposed
ground behind out lie. Tbe two, v«ho went from
one of the guns, however, Dupuis and Lanning,
were a little bit late, so that it was light when they
started out. .About fifty yards down the road
tIUNTING tIUNS
was a bend, afterward called the Devil's E1-
bow. From this point, they were in plain sight
from the enemy line and, no sooner had they
reached the Elbow than a sniper fired and got
Lanning through the lungs. As he fell, Dupuis
knelt down to assist, when he received a bullet
through the head, killing him instantly. One of
our detachment of stretcher-bearers (composed of
the members of out pipe band) was located but a
few yards away and, without hesitation, one of
the "Scotties" dashed out to help the fallen men.
He was instantly shot down, as were three others
in succession, who attempted to get to the spot.
By this rime an officer arrived and prevented
more of the men from running out. This officer,
by crawling carefully down a shallow ditch along-
side the road, managed with the assistance of a
sergeant to recover ail the bodies. Four were
'dead and two wounded, one of whom died a few
hours later. These stretcher-bearers were un-
armed and wore the broad white brassard with the
red cross conspicuously displayed on their sleeves.
The sniper was only about one hundred yards
lI 7
THE EMMA GEES
distant and could not possibly have failed to see
this mark.
Then and there I registered a silent vow that
these men, to paraphrase Kipling:
" should go to their God in state:
lCith fifty file of Germa.zs, to opet them Heav-
en's cdcde.'"
Later, I was to see other and worse happen-
ings along that saine road, but, at that rime, I
considered this as about the limit.
The officer who had done such splendid work
in recovering the wounded men was himself
killed about an hour later, together with one of
his sergeants and two men, by a shrapnel shell.
t-Ie was the first officer we had lost in the battal-
ion, Lieutenant Wilgress, and had been very pop-
ular, with officers and men alike.
It was a sad day for us, that twenty-seventh
of November, 1915 , and yet it was one of
those days when "there is nothing to report from
the Ypres salient."
Next day I asked and received permission to
go back a few toiles to a sniper's school, where I
II8
HUNTING HUNS
got a specially targeted rifle, equipped with the
finest kind of a telescopic sight. I only remained
long enough to sight it in and get it "zeroed" and
was back again in front that saine night.
"Zeroing" a rifle is the process of testing it out
on a range at known distances and setting the
sights to suit one's individual peculiarities of
aiming. Having once established the "zero" the
marksman can always figure the necessary altera-
tions for other ranges or changed conditions of
wind and light.
Fl-om that time on, I "lived" in Sniper's Barn.
It ruade no difference whether the battalion
was in the front line or in billets, I was there for
a purpose and I accomplished it. When the guns
were in the front or in support, we had one
mounted in the hedge and kep.t the rïfie handy.
Bouchard, with a large telescope, and I with my
binoculars, scanned everything along the enemy's
front and behind his lines. We knew the ranges,
to an inch. If one or two men showed, I used
the rifle; if a larger number, the machine gun.
Prior to this time, during all the very bad
II 9
THE EMMA GEES
weather, we had ample opportunities to shoot
ïndividual Germans from our Sniper's Barn po-
sition but had refrained because out own men
'ere also necessarily exposing themselves daily,
and to have started a sniping campaigrt would
bave done us no particular good and would cer-
tainly have resulted in additional deaths on our
side. It seems that the troops opposed to us up
fo this time had been Saxons who were quite -
well satïsfied to leave us alone provided we would
do the same by them. Of course we did shoot
them occasionally when they became too careless
and exposed themselves in groups, but that was
perfectly legitimate madine-gaan work and taught
them a well-needed lesson. Now, however, a
different breed of Huns had corne in and they
had started the dirty xvork. They were Bavarians
alternating with Marines, and we soon learned
that for genuine low-down cussedness the Marine
had them ail beaten, although the Bavarians and
Prussians were pretty bad.
When we first began on them it was no unusual
occurrence to bave from ten to twenty good open
shots a day. The ranges averaged about six
I20
HUNTING HUNS
hundred yards and as I was using a speclally
targeted Ross rifle, equipped with the latest
Warner & Swazey sight, and as I had spent many
years in learning the finer points of military rifle
shoofing, I ana very much afraid that some
them got hurt. For about a month we kept it up,
the "hunfing" getting poorer every day until
finally the few German snipers working along the
front were safely cnsconced in carefully prepared
dug-outs. A hoche cap above the parapet was
rare sight, but we had our lmndred, ail right;
and then some; for, as Bouchard said: "We'd
better get a little pay, in advance before they
'bump us off.'"
Several times in later days similar events oc-
curred and in each case swlft and terrible retri-
bution was meted out to the criminal enemy.
They shot down our stretcher-bearers, engaged
in their noble work of trying to save the wound-
ed, but we took bloody toll from them whenever
this occurred, using unusual methods and taking
desperate chances, sometimes, to drïve the lesson
home.
On one occasion our observers had reported
I2I
THE EMMA GEES
a large gathering of the enemy at a place called
Hiele Farm, about eight hundred yards from our
position and I had laid two guns on them when,
flrough our telescope, I discovered that it was a
burial pal-ty assembled in a little cemetery just
behind the farm buildings and telephoned to the
officer in charge that I did hot intend to shoot up
any funeral. Within a few minutes came word
than an enemy sniper had shot and killed one of
our most popular stretcher-bearers and had also
fired several shots î'nto the wounded man whom
he »vas bringing in, killing him also. Then, with-
out hesitation, I ordered both guns to open up and
we maintained an intermittent tire on that place
until long after dark. We could see numbers of
Gerlnans lying about on the ground. I have never
regretted it.
Then, the day before Christmas, 1915, while
the Twentieth Battalion was occupying" the front
line and we were back in the redoubts of the
supporting line, I ,vas up in the gun position at
"S-P-7," the redo.ubt just in rear of the point
where the slaughter of November twenty-seventh
122
HUNTING HUNS
fiad taken place, when a boche shell dropped
directly in the dug-out which vas my home
when in the front line. It killed two men, one
I remember was named Galloway, and wounded
several others. I was so close that I could see
everything that happened. One of the wounded
was in such b.ad shape that the only possible
chance to save his life was to get him back
to a dressing station without delay. The com-
munication trenches were washed out and the
only way was down that ill-fated Devil's Elbow
road. The oflîcer in command called for volun-
teers to carry the man out, relnarking that, as
it was Christmas Eve, he did hot think
even a German would shoot at a wounded
man or unanned stretcher-bearers. _All hands
offered to go and two were chosen. The oflîcer
vent with them and they started clown the road.
The minute they reached the fatal bend, where
they came in sight of the German lines, a shot
rang out and down went the first man..¬her
shot and the second was down, while a third
dropped the officer, who was trying to assist the
12 3
THE EMMA GEES
allen. I could see each shot strike in the water
alongside the road and could tell just about the
spot from whence they came so, although we had
absolute orders never to tire from that position
unless attacked, I inmlediately swung the goEm
around and commenced to "fan" that particular
spot, at the saine time calling to out sigmaler to
get the Sixteenth Battery Oll the wire and call for
S. O. S. tire. (Each yard of enemy line is covered
by the uns of some one of our batteries which,
when hot firing, are kept "laid" on their par-
ticular section of parapet.) Within a few mo-
ments tlçe battery opened up but not before at
least a half dozen machine o-uns in our front line
had been hoisted upon tlle parapets and were
ripping Heinie's sand-bags across the way. Dur-
ing this proceeding the wounded men were
recovered from the road, but, unfortunately, both
the volunteer carriers and the man originally
wounded had died. The officer, although pain-
fully injured, recovered.
In retaliation for tllis trick, out heavy mans
wiped out at least rive lmndred yards of German
124
HUNTING HUNS
trenclï. It was the most artistic job of work I
have ever seen. From a point approximately
two hundred and fifty yards on either side of
this murderer's nest we utterly destroyed every
vestige of a parapet. How many of the assassins
we killed will never be known, but our hearts
were filled' with unholy joy when we could dis-
tingulsh bodies or parts of enemy's bodies among"
the debris thrown up by one of the big 9. shells.
CHAPTER X
A FINE DAY r0 MURDER
at "S-P-7" one morning in December,
The person addressed, a swarthy
wearing the uniform mad stripe of
AY, kid, want to go sniping?" called out a
lank individual as he came over the bridge
1915 .
little boy
a lance-
corporal of the Twenty-first Canadian Machine
Gun Section, took a long careful look around the
sky, hastily swallowed a strip of bacon he had
in his fingers and as he darted into a little "rabbit-
burrow" sort of tunnel, flung back the words;
"Hell, yes; this looks like a fine day for a
murder." In a few moments he reappeared with
a water-bottle and a large chunk of bread.
I-Iastily filling the former from a convenient petrol
tin and cramming the latter into his pockets, he
walked over to the older man and divested him of
some of the paraphernalia with which he was
festooned. I-Ie took a long case containing a tele-
I26
FINE DAY FOR MURDER
scope, another carrier holding the tripod, two
bandoliers of ammunition and a large haversack.
"How we going in?"
"Straight across," said the sniper.
"Ver-re-well, young-fella-me-lad, if you can
stand it I can," said the youngster, for he knew
full well that to go from there to Sniper's Barn
in broad daylight meant to expose himelf to
observation from "Germany," only about rive hun-
dred yards away, and with a fat chance of playing
the part of "the sniper sniped."
Without another word they departed. The
sentry on guard at the crossing of the creek vol-
unteered the cheerful hope that they'd get pinked
belote they got across the field, upon which the
boy assured him that he would be drinking rem
beer in London when the pessimistic sentry was
"pushing up the daisies" in Flanders. Crossing
the open field to a hedge, they slipped into a shal-
low remnant of an old French trench, just in rime
to escape a snapping bullet which was aimed
about one second too late. From here they
crawled carefulIy along the hedge, bullets cutting
127
THE EMMA GEES
intermittently through the bare branches above
them and, at last, came to a small ol)ening that
gave entrance to a garden, about one hundred
yards from a group of demolished farm buildiugs.
Here they rested for a few minutes, while the
bullets continued to "tan" the hedge up which
they had corne and which led to the buildings.
The boy--"Bou" the other called him--worked
his xvay along the ground to an old cherry tree
and was about to lift up a sort of trap-door at
its roots when the other stopped him.
"Never mind the gun," he said, "we'll just wait
here until they do their morning strafe and then
go into the buildings. I want fo try for a few
of them over on Piccadilly to-day and you can't
use a machine gun for that. You'll simply ha'ce
to be the observer, that's ail."
Bou came back, lit a cigarette which the other
promptly extinguished and then subsided.
"What you think you're going to do; shoot
from the farm?" Bou couldn't possibly keep
quiet any longer.
"Sure, Mike;. why hot?"
I28
FINE DAY FOR MURDER
"'Oh, nothing; but do you think we can get
away with it?"
"Well, you've been here as long as I bave and
if you ha.ve hot figured out the way the boches
do things around this place I'm afraid I can't
tell you; but I'll try. Now, they saw us corne
over here, didn't they? And they naturally think
we are in the farm buildings. Just as soon as
that feIlow who was shooting at us can get word
to their batteries they will proceed to shoot up
the place. After about a dozen direct bits they
will feel pretty well satisfied that they bave either
driven us out or 'na-pooed" us, so that will be our
rime to get inside and take a shot at this
brilliant young Bavarian who will, without a
doubt, be looking over the parapet in the hope
that he may get a crack at us trying to 'beat it.'
l've been wanting to get that guinea for a long
rime mad have a hunch that this is our day. See?"
Before the boy could answer there came a swift
"whit; whit; whit ;" and three "bang; bang;
bangs" in and above the main building of the
f.arm. Followed several more salvos, finally
129
THE EMMA GEES
crashing through the walls and throwing up foun-
tains of brick-dust and earth. After waiting sev-
eral minutes they worked their way carefully
along the hedge and around behind the buildings.
:Entering file one nearest the road, which was a
mere shell with the roof and two walls entirely
gone, they crept cautiously across the floor, and
dodging the carcass of a cow that lay with its
head in an old fireplace, they finally round them-
selves in a back room. Many bales of tobacco
lay piled up on the floor, covered with the litter
and wreckage from the upper story. Here the
older man uncovered an opening under the to-
bacco, through which they entered a small cham-
ber, perhaps eight feet square, comparatively
clean. At one side of this narrow space lay a
figure covered with the well-known blue overcoat
of the French soldier.
"Who's your friend ?" inquired the youngster.
"I don't know; he was here when I first came;
but I think he was the original sniper of Sniper's
Barn. Look at that pile of shells beside him."
.A_ FINE DAY FOR MURDER
Near the dead soldier was his rifle and a great
pile of empty cartridge cases.
"We'll have to bury him some day: I think he
earned it. I-Ie's got a hole right through the heart.
l¥Iust have been here a year : he's all dried up, like
13. llltlnlllly."
\Vhile delivering this discourse the sniper had
been carefully removing straw and tobacco Ieaves
from an irregular hole in the brick wall. Here
he set up the telescope and settled hilnself to
scrutinize that part of the German line which lay
directly opposite. After a few minutes' observa-
tion he began to clear away another and smaller
opening, to the right of and below that where the
telescope was set.
"He's there, all right: look just about four
'clock in the 'scope as it stands. See him, right
beside that leaning tree? Keep your eye on him
while I get my sight set."
In a few seconds, everything ready for action,
the tall man spraxxled himself on the floor,
sling adjusted, piece loaded and cocked, while
131
THE EMMA GEES
Bou, now behind the telescope, vhispered excited-
ly: "He's still there and Iooking right at me.
can see his cap badge. He's one of those damned
Marines. Get him, Mac, for God's sake, get him,
quick."
"I'll get him, all right," muttered the other as
he gingerly poked the muzzle of his rifle througlt
the few remaining straws. "Now watch and see
if his hands corne up and whether he falls for-
ward or just drops ;" with which he slowly pressed
the trigger and the shot roared in the small
chamber.
"You got him !" shrieked Bou; "I saw his hands
corne up to his face and he pitched right for-
ward into the trench. Hooray! that's another
one for Charlie Wendt."
CHAPTER XI
WlTtlOUT HOPE OF REWARD
LL the bandsmen (we had both bagpipe and
bugle bands) go into the front line with the
other troops. They are unarmed, but equipped
with first-aid kits and stretchers. It is their task to
administer first aid to ail wounded and then to
carry or otherwise assist them back to the dress-
ing stations which may be anywhere from a few
hundred yards to a toile or more, depending on
the ground. "When a man is hit -«hile in an ex-
posed place, whether in No Man's Land or be-
bind our lines, it is up to the stretcher-bearers to
get to him at the earliest possible moment. I
have seen these men, rime after rime, rush to the
assistance of a stricken soldier, knowing full well
that they would ïmmediately become the target
for snipers' bullets. Personal considerations
never appeared to enter their heads. Never, in
ail my experience, bave I seen one of theln back-
133
THE EIIMA GEES
ward in going to the aid of a wounded man.
Often they would spend hours in the effort to
bring b.ack to the lines some soldier too badly in-
jured to help himself; and the pity ot it was
that, on many occasions, after all their self-sac-
rificing labor, they would be shot down just as
they were about to corne over the parapet and
into the trench.
And all without hope of reward other than the
love and admiration of their comrades. There
was a time, before this war, when such exploits
were considered worth the Victoria Cross. Now,
however, they are merely a matter of daily rou-
tine. Thousands of men are, every day, perform-
ing deeds of valor, which in any other war
would have brought the highest decorations,
without receiving even so much as an honor-
able mention. Exposure to tire such as theorists
had told us would demoralize any army is merely
a part of the day's work. Troops go in and out
of the trenches, often under artillery tire that,
according to out books, ought to annihilate them,
and they do it without thinking it anythi'ng un-
34
WITHOUT HOPE OF REWARD
usual or worthy of comment other than perhaps,
in answer to a question, to remark: "'Oh, yes,
they shot us up a bit in the P. & O." or "They
handed us a few 'crumps' and 'wooIly bears' com-
ing through Ridgewood." ("Woolly bear" is the
naine given to a large, high explosive shell, with
rime fuse, which bursts overhead, giving out a
dense black smoke, which expands and rolls
about in such a manner as to suggest the animal
for which it is named.) In fact, nearly all the
names invented by the soldier to describe the
ous projectiles are so apt and expressive as to be
self-explanatory. The "Silent Lizzies," "Sighing
Susans" and "\Vhispering \Villies" belong to
the class of large caliber, long range naval gun
shells which pass over the front line so high that
çnly a sort of whispering sound is heard. The
"middle heavies" with percussion fuses, which
burst on impact and give out a dense black
smoke, bave been called "Jack Johnsons" and
"coal boxes," but are now usuaIIy grouped under
the general desiaation of "crumps," because of
the peculiar sound of their explosion. They run
135
THE EMMA GEES
all the way t;rom 4.1 inch to 9.2 inch calibers.
Some of the very large shells are called "Grand-
mothers" or "railroad trains." The French call
them "marlnites," meaning a large cooking pot
or ketfle. The "whizz-bang" is just exactly
what the naine would suggest: a small shell of
very high veloclty, which arrives and bursts with
such suddenness as to give no rime for taking
cover. Its moral effect exceeds flae material in
the trenches, but it îs deadly along roads or in the
open. Gas shelIs bave a peculiar sound, all their
own, diflîcult to describe but never forgotten
when once heard. It bas been described as a
"rumbIing" noise, bttt I think "gurgling" is ber-
ter. (It's a pity some one can hOt take a phono-
graph into the lines and "can" some of these
things.) When gas shells land they do hot make
much noise, having a very small bursting charge;
merely sufficient to break the case which contains
the gas in liquid form. They are often mistaken,
by new troops, for "duds" or "blinds," as we call
shells which fail to explode. As soon as the
li'quid gas is liberated, however, it vaporizes and
136
11
._WITHOUT HOPE OF REWARD
quickly spreads over a considerable area. There
are many kinds, but they can generally be distin-
guished by the smell. Solne are merely lachry-
matory or "tear" shells; the gas affecting the
eves in such a manner as to produce constant
"weeping" and consequent inability to see clear-
ly. Others, however, are deadly and one good
breath will put a man out of action and a couple
of "lungfuls" will usually kill him.
About this time, I think it was December Igth,
I95, we had out first experience with chlorine
ga.s or "cloud gas" as distinguished from "shell
§as." The troops Oll out immediate left got a
pretty bad dose, but, owing to the peculiar forma-
tiOl of the lines and varying air currents, we did
hot surfer severely from it. The lines in the
Ypres salient were so crooked that the enemy
rarely attempted to tse this form of gas af ter
the first big attack in April, 95, as it
would frequently roll back upon his own troops.
Shell gas xvas constantly used, generally being
fired ag-aïnst out positions in the rear; artillery
emplacements and such. Being well equippeoE
37
THE EMMA GEES
with gas masks or respirators, we suffered little
harm from if.
Christmas, 1915, was a quiet day on out front,
both sides being apparently willing to "lay off"
for a day. There was no firing of any kind and
both our men and the enemy exposed themselves
with impunïty. side from this, however, it was
the saine as any other day. There was none of
the visiting and fraternizing of which ve heard
so much on the previous Christmas. The Ger-
mans opposite us had a number of musical instru-
ments and on that night and on New Year's Eve
they almost sang their Teutonic heads off.
January passed quietly. By this time we had
become so accustomed fo the mud and rain that I
doubt if we would have been happy without them.
In spire of all the difficultïes, we managed to get
our rations and nail every day. The regular
shelling had become a part of out daily lire, and
the constantly 'owing list of killed and wounded
we accepted without comment. The l[achine
Gun Section was gradually losing its original
members and replacing them by drafts from the
138
WITHOUT HOPE OF REWARD
infantry companles. It was simply a case of
"Conditions continue normal in the Ypres salient,"
to quote the official reports. We now maintained
two strafing guns, shifting about from one posi, tion to another whenever an opportunity offered
to harass the hoche.
That winter, I915-I6 , was what they call a
"wet winter," that is, it rained continually and
rarely got cold enough to freeze. With the ex-
ception of a light flurry in late November
and a fairly heavy snov about the first of March,
we never saw any of the "beautiful." A few
times there was frost enough to make thin ice,
but never enough to enable us to walk on top of
the mud which was from six inches deep in the
best parts of the trench to thigh deep in the worst.
We had no rubber boots at the start but got some
late in the winter.
A peculiar affliction, first noticed during this
war, is what is known as "trench feet." Where
men are required to remain for long periods
standing in cold water and unable to move about
to any great extent, the circulation of blood in the
39
THE EMMA GEES
lower limbs becomes sluggish and, eventually,
stops. The result appears to be exactly the saine
as that caused by severe frost-bite; in fact it as
freezing without frost, (I don't know why not,
if you can cook with a fireless cooker), and, in
severe cas, amputation as necessary.
\Vhile the Imperial troops on our flank suffered
«onsiderably from this dreaded affliction, we had
but few cases, altbo,gh our position was înfinite-
ly worse than theirs, we being in lower ground.
Probably the average Canadian as better able to
stand the cold and wet than the native-born Bri-
ton. We had but one case in the Machine Gun
Section and that was hot severe.
As a preventive measure, whale o1 was issued
with positive orders that every man must, at some
time during each twenty-four hours, remove lais
shoes and socks and rub lais eet with this oil. I
never did think the oil was anything but just an
excuse to make the men rub as that in itself would
be sufficient to restore the circulation. At any
rate, when the oil gave out, we still kept up the
rubbing gaine and there was no noticeable change
in the result.
14o
..WITHOUT HOPE OF REWARD
Another hitherto unknown disease which de-
veloped during that season was what is commonly
l«own as "trench lever." The vicfim's retapera-
turc runs up around one hundred and three and
he is affected with lassitude and general debility
and it requires from three weeks to a month in
hospital to put him in shape for duty. The medi-
cal officers use a Greek naine for this lever, which,
transIated, means, "a lever of unknown origin"
bnt the colloquial desio-nation is "G. O. Iç.," (God
only knows). It is rarely, if ever, fatal. I never
heard of any one dying of it.
Then there is a sort of skin affection; a "rash,"
whi_.ch is said to be caused by eating so much
meat, especially rats, without taking sufficient
exercîse. A few sulphur baths at specially pre-
pared places behind the lines soon eradicate this
trouble.
Really dangerous diseases are extremely rare.
Typhoid lever is ahnost unknown, pneumonia is
seldom heard of and even rheumatism, which one
would naturally expect to be prevalent, is by no
means common. The ratio of sickness, from ail
causes, was far below that in any of the training
141
THE EMMA GEES
camps in this country although never, in Canada,
]ïngland, Flanders or France, did we have as
comfortable quarters as are furnished /or all the
troops here. But we did bave at all rimes, plenty
of good warm woolen clothing and an abundance
of substantial food. Ctton uniforrns, underwear
or socks are unknoxxn in any army except that
of the United States. Perhaps you can find the
ansver in that statement.
Durin, February an a|l-nOst continuous fight
was waged for a snaall length of trench on out
left, known as the International Trench, because
it changed hands so often. It culminated, Match
second, with the ]3attle of the Bluff, by which
]3ritish troops took and held this line. We were
in support, as usual, and suffered rather heavily
/rom shell tire. This was the benning ot the
spring offensive, and /rom that time on we
caught it, hot and heavy, /or four solid months.
CHAPTER XII
TItE WAR IN THE _AIR
F ROM the time we first caught sight of our
guns shelling the German airplanes there
was rarely a day that we did hot see many of
them, scouting, bombarding or fighting. At first,
as mentioned elsewhere, they flew very low;
within easy range of machine-gun tire, but soon
began to climb to higher altitudes until, at the
time of my departure, most of their work was
done from a height of about twelve thousand feet.
There was one of our planes, piloted by a ma-
jor. I never heard his name but he was known
all up and down the line as "The Mad Major."
He was a pioneer in all the malarelous evolutions
which now form an important part of the air-
rnan's training. Side slips, spinning dives, tail
slides; all were alike to him. He would go over
the enemy lines and circle about, directing the tire
of a battery, scorning to notice the tire of the
143
THE EMMA GEES
"Pu-chies," (flyers' naine for anti-alrcraft guns)
and when that job was finished, would corne home
in a series of somersaults, loops and spins which
ruade one dizzy to watch. He was a great joker
and frequently, when the shell-bursts were un-
usually thick around him, would corne tumbling
down from the sky like a shot pigeon, only to re-
cover at a height of several hundred feet and
shoot off in a bee line for the airdome, l've
no doubt that the enemy often thought flaey had
"got him," but at last reports he was still there.
I watched the planes for months wiflout seeing
one hit and had about concluded that, to make an
Irish bull, the only sale place on earth was up
in the air, when, one morning, heaxing the nov
familiar "put-put-put" of machine guns up above,
we looked np to see one of out large observing
biplmes engaged -« ith a very small but fast en-
emy plane. The boche had all the best of it
and soon out plane was seen to slip and stag-
ger and ben to descend. The little "wasp"
came swooping down after it, firing all the while
tmtil, when a few hundred feet from the ground,
r44
i II I
THE WAR IN THE AII
our machine turned its nose straight downward
and crashed to earth, ,«-ell behind our lines, botll
occupants being instantly killed, or perhaps they
had already been killed by file bullets. The Ger-
man thereupon turned and was soon back over his
own territory. That saine afternoon, anoflaer of
out machines was shot down, apparently by the
saine man, just opposite out position, inside the
German lines.
Shortly after thls, when back in reserve, we
"«'atched another fight directly over our heads.
This was a pitiful tragedy. One of England's best
:and rnost farnous flyers, Captain Saunders, had
been over the Gerrnan lines and had engaged and
brought down an enemy and then, having
exhausted his ammunition, started bacl
"home" for more, but encountered a fast-flying
hoche who immediately attacked him. Being
unable to return the tire, he tried every trick
known to the blrdrnan to escape but without
avail. He carne lower and lower in his evolutions
and finally settled into a wide and sweeping spir-
al. The boche did hot corne very loxv as several
145
TEIE EMMA GEES
machine guns and "Archies" opened on hikn.
The other plane came slowly down in its perfect
spiral course and, noti'clng that the engine was hOt
running, we thought the aviator was intending to
make a landing in a large open field toward
which he was descending, but when the spiral con-
tinued until the tip of one wing touched the
ground and crumpled up we knexv there was
something wrong and ran to file spot, hot more
than one hundred yards from xvhere we were
standing. We got the Captain out and fotmd that
he had been shot in the head but was still con-
scious, l-le died wi'thin a short rime.
Other of our aviators who had witnessed
first fight furnished the beginning of the story and
we could see that in the second engagement he
never fired a shot, and every one of his magazines
was empty. I examined them myself.
The large, sausage-shaped observation balloons
sometimes afford at little diversion. When we
were at Dmnottre one of them used to bang
over out billeting place. One day an en-
terprising I-Iun came flyng" across and endeav-
46
THIï WAR IN THE AIR
ored to attack it but was driven off by two of out
planes.
Again, one of our balloons broke awt. in a.
strong wind and started toward Germany. Both
the occupants of the basket ruade sale parachute
descents with all their instruments and papers, but
the balloon sailed swiftly away. Then the Ger-
mans opened on it with every o-un in that sector, i
feel sure that they fired at least two thousand
shots at it. The air around was so filled with the
smoke of shell-bursts that it was sometimes dif-
ficult to discern the balloon itself. It was late in
the evening and the last we saw of the "sausage"
it vas still traveling eastward, apparently unhit.
The joke of the whole thing is that the balloon
was never hit and, the wind veering during the
night, it returned and came down inside out lines
within a few mlles of its starting place.
On two occasions Zeppelins came over out
lines, evidently returning from raids across the
>hannel. One time it was night and we
could only hear, but not sec the air-ship. The oth-
er time, during the St. Eloi fight, I saw one, just
147
THE EMMA GEES
at daybreat/. It was in plain sight but well over
the German lines and headed east. No attempt
was ruade to do any bombing of our positions by
the Zeppelins alfllough we occasionally received
visits from bombing airplanes. .The night belote
I left France, the last rime, they dropped several
bombs on the village of Ecoviers where I was
stayi,ag. The o,fly result was the killing" of two
eivilians, the wounding of several others and the
wrecking of one of the few xvhole houses in the
town which had often been a victim of shells.
Not a soldier was injured.
You bave, no doubt, read of cases were bombs
bave been dropped on or near hospitals, ambu-
Lances and so on, and possibly you think tiret this
was intentional on the part of the hoche. If so
you flatter him. This bomb dropping is, at best,
very uncertain business and it would be xvell-nigh
impossible for tbe most expert flyer to aire at and
lait any single building. The fact is that, iv,
nearly every town and city behind the lines, hos-
pitals, ammunition stores and billets are located
in close proximity to one another, with probably
148
THE WAR IN THE AIR
a railway running near by,_ so that any attempt
to bomb the really important "military" points
will necessarily jeopardize the homes of non-
combatants--including hospitals. Even the Zep-
pelins, which are much more stable than an air-
plane, bave never been able to place their born
with a.ny degree of accuracy.
CHAPTER XIII
THE BATTLE OF ST. ELOI
'O one realizes better than I the utter futility
of attempting to describe a modern battle
so that the reader can really understand or visual-
ize it. There are no words in my vocabulary that
convey the emotions and thoughts o.f persons dur-
ing the long days and nights of horror--of the
continual crash of the shells, the melting away
or total annihilation of parapets and dug-outs;
being buried and spattered with mud and blood;
with dead and wounded everywhere and, worst
of all, the pitiful ravings of those whose nerves
have suddenly given way from shell shock. No
imagination c'an grasp it; no picture can more
than suggest a small part of it. None who has
hot had the actual experience tan ever under-
stand it. The hospital and ambulance people
back at the rear see some of the results, but
even they can bave no conception of what it [s
like to be actually in the torment and hell-fire
af the front.
THE BATTLE OF ST. ELOI
I could hOt, if I so desired, give an ac_cumte
description of the operati'ons in general. I have
hot the necessary data as to the various troops
engaged or local results accomplished. Histo-
rians will record all that. My field of descrip-
tion is limited to my field of personal observa-
tion, which was hot very extensive. I suppose,
however, that I saw as nmch as it was possible for
any one person to see, so I shall try to describe
that part of the battle of St. Eloi i'n which it was
my fortune to participate.
At the point at the southem end of the Ypres
salient, where the line turns sharply to the east-
ward, stood the village of St. Eloi. It consisted
of perhaps fifteen or twenty buildings of the sub-
stantial brick and iron construction character-
istic of all Flemish towns and was situated at
the intersection of the two main roads
paved with granite blocks, one running to
Ypres and the other through Voormezeele. The
village itself, except for two or three out-
lying buildings, was inside out lines. The por-
tion held by the enemy, however, included a
prominent eminence, called the "Mound," which
151
THE EMMA GEES
domïnated our whole line for a mile or more.
This mound had been a bone of contention for
naore than a year and several desperate attemptg
had been ruade to take it; notably in February
and in March, I915, When the Princess Pat's
were so terribly cut up and lost their first Com-
manding Officer, Colonel Farquhar. ,_11 these
attempts having failed, our engineers proceeded
to drive tunnels and lay mines, six in number,
so as to cut off the poiat of the German saliet
for a distance of about six hundred yards.
All was completed; mi'nes loaded and ready,
and the time for the attack was fixed for day-
break of the twenty-sevenfla of March. The mines
were to be fired simultaneously, folIowed imme-
diately by an attack, in force, by the Royal Fusi-
liers, the Northumberland Fusiliers and a battal-
ion of the West Yorkshires. Our brigade (Fourth
Canadian) was immediately to the right of the
point of attack, but, as the Imperial troops had
changed their machine guns for the lighter Lewis
automatîc rifles to be used with the advancing
troops, it was deemed advisable to bring up all
5 .
ST. ELOI MAP.
The nap on the opposte page ;s knowz as St.
Eloi .mp. It is particularly interesting as showin 9,
¢,cry [aintly, a 9reat 9roup o[ nine craters ithin
the British lines. No. 1 tan be seen in the lower
left section just above the horizontal fold in the
map aM to the left of the perpendiczdar. Here
the British line cones in at the lower left cn.er,
,here it a.lost nmediately branches, passin 9
through figures 44 and 77, joinhtg the n.ain line
again at the left and below Shelley Farm. IVithi
this loop are the sLç enormous nffne craters. No.
2 is imnediate fo the right of figure 96, wh[le 3,
4 and 5 are in a line witl it ]ust to the right of the
perpendlcular fold. The faht dotted lhe that cones
fo an a.pcx j«st below St. Eloi is the British trench
kn, as Q2«e Vctoria Street. This n-ap i.ç
,e [.rom air photographs dated March 5th,
I9X6.
THE BATTLE OF ST. ELOI
available machine guns of the heavier types to sup-
port the advance and to resist the inevitable coun-
ter-attacks. These guns, twelve in number, were
placed at advantageous positions on the flanks of
the attacking troops. I was only a sergeant at
that time, but, having been an officer, and havi'ng
had more actual experience in machine-gun work
than the others, the direct supervision of these
guns was entrusted to me.
We got all the guns up and in place during the
night of the twenty-sixth. In addition, out people
brought up a great many trench mortars of differ-
ent calibers, with enormous quantities of ammuni-
tion. We then sat down to vai't for the "zero"
hour, meaning the time for the show to begin.
I took my position at out extreme left, as I wanted
to be where I could see everything.
Promptly at the appointed time, the mines were
fired and then ensued the most appallingly mag-
nificent s':ght I bave ever witnessed. There was
little noise but the very earth appeared to writhe
and tremble in agony. Then, slowly, it seemed
în the di'm light, the ground heaved up and tp
THE EMMA GEES
until, tinally, bursting all bonds, earth, rees,
buildings, trenches and men went skyward. Im-
mediately followed great clouds of flaming gas,
expanding and growing like gigantic red roses
suddenly bursting into full bloom. It was an
earthquake, followed by a volcanic eruption.
13efore the flying debris had reached the ground
the Fusiliers were over the top, fighting their
way through the jungles of wire and shell :raters.
The occupation of the mine craters themselves
was, of course, unopposed as there was no one
there to offer opposition. They kept on, how-
ever, meeting the German reinforcements coming
ap from the rear, fighting them to a standstill and
establishing themselves beyond the Mound.
Then ail hell broke loose. From the beginning
out artillery, machine guns and trench mortars
had been maintaining a continuous tire, but the
Germans, taken by surprise, were several minutes
getting started. When they did open up, how-
ever, they gave us the greatest demonstration of
accurate and unlimited artillery tire which I, or
any of us, for that matter, had ever seen.
54
THE BATTLE OF ST. ELOI
air seemed to be literally full of shells bursting"
like a million tire-files. Out parapets were blow
down in a hundred places and the air was filled
wïth ftying sand-bags, iron" beams and timbers.
A shell struck under the gun By which I was
standing" and flung gun, tripod, anmatmition-box
and all, high into the air. Even under such con-
ditions I could not help laughing at the ridiculous
sight of that gun as it spun around in the air,
with the legs of the tripod sticki'ng stiffly out
and the belt of ammunition coiling and uncoiling
around it, like a serpent. The lance-corporal îr
charge of it looked .on, spell-bound, and when it
finally came down back of a dug-out, he Iooked
at me with a most peculiar e_xpl-essiola and said:
"Well, what do you think of that?" Then he
jumped up and went after the wreckage and,
strange to relate, hot a thïng was broken. After
about twenty minutes of stripping and cleanila i
k.e had the gun back on the parapet, shooting away
as though nothing had happened. He was an
Irishnmn, named Meeks.
I walked down the trench to get a spare bar-
55
THE EMMA GEES
rel for a gun when a shell struck about ten feet
in front, killing a man. I started on and another
lit exaçtly where I had been standing. During
that little trip of perhaps fifty yards and back I
was knocked down and partly buried no less
than four times.
Then the prisoners commenced to corne back.
They appeared to be glad fo get out of ït and
I don't blame them. When they round that
they had fo go through the Canadian's lines,
however, they held back. They had been told;
that the Canadians killed all prisoners. (Ve
had heard something of the saine kind about the
Germans, too.) However, when our cooks came
out with "dixies" full of steaming tea, with bread
and marmalade sandwiches, they soon became
reconciled. Out naen ruade no distinction that
morning between captor and captive, serving
all alike with everything we had fo eat or drink.
At one rime, however, owing to the congestiola
in the trench, we were compelled to "'shoo" a
lot of the prîsoners back "overland," fo the next
support trench. s their artillery was raising
156
THF BATTLE OF" ST. ELOI
rnerry hell ail over that section, they were a
backward about starting and it required threats
and a display af bayonets to get them out of the
trench and on their way. It was a funny sight
to sec them beat it. There was little in the
way of obstacles to impede their progress and I
think that several of thean came near to establish-
ing new world's records for file distance. When
they arrived at the second line they wasted no time
in climbing down into it; they went in head-first,
like divers going" into the water. I don't thïnk
any of them vas hit during this maneuver,
at least I did hot see any of them fall.
Now, it has corne to be an axiom that "any
one can take a trench but fe»v can hold one."
Itis another way of expressing the idea that
"it isn't the original costmit's the upkeep."
It was no trick at ail, wifl the assistance of
the mines, to advance our lines to what had been
the German third line, but, right there, some one
had ruade a rniscalculation. Ifs a cinch out
"higher-ups" did hOt know how much artillery
the Germans had tbat they could turn on
I57
.THE EMMA GEES
that salient. Out own artillery had been greatly,
increased and they evidently thought we were
at least equal to the enemy in this respect, but,
say: the stuff he turned loose on us ruade out
artillery look like pikers. For every "whizz-
bang" we sent over he returned about a dozen
5.9's. By that night, nearly ail the original at-
tackers were gone and Fritz was back in at least
two of the çraters.
During the day a good many of us, including
ail out stretcher-bearers, ruade many trips through
the devastated German trenches, getting out
wounded and collecting arms and other plunder.
I went up where the Fusiliers were trying to
consolidate their position, intendïng to bring up
a few guns if it appeared to be practicable, but
abanioned the idea as, in my opinion, they were
due to be shelled out within a short rime, which
proved to be correct. We did dig out and mount
a German gun which was used for a wlaile, but
I then had ït taken, with several others, back
to out line. We could do so much more good
from out original position by maintaining a _con-
58
,THE ]BATTLE OF ST. ELOI
'tinuous barrage to hamper the enemy in getting"
'up supports. From prisoners taken ,later we
learned that out machine-gun barrage was much
more effective than that of our artillery. How-
ever, as we were obliged to tire from temporary
positions, on the parapet and without cover of any
kind, it was.impossible to prevent the loss of some
guns by direct bits from shells. During that night
and the next day a Highlaud brigade came up to
relieve the Fusiliers. They included battalions
of the Royal Scots and the Gordons.
By this tilne the Germans had brought up more
guns and were keeping up such a terrific tire
en out position that it did hot seem htunanly
possible to hold it, but that night a bombing at-
tack by the Fourth Canadian Brigade bombers,
reinforced by about two hundred volunteers,
retook the craters and reestablished our line in
a, more advanced position than that occupied
by the orinal attackers. This line was there-
after called the Canadian trench to distinguish
it from the other, which was called the
]3ritish trend.
I59
,'I'HE EMMA GEES
Early next moming we had a chance
to sec some of the "I,2ilties" in action with
the bayonet, during a counter-attack, which they.
repulsed. s I remernber it, they did very little
shooting but jumped out of their trench to meet
the attackers with the cold steel. I never saw
any lot of soldiers who seemed so utterly de-
termined to wipe out all opposition. They were
like wild men; savage and blood-thirsty in the
nslaught and, although the Germans must have
outnumbered them at least three to one, they never
had a chance agaînst those brawny Scots. But
few of the boches got back to their own line and
no prisoners were taken. }Ve then appreciated the
nicknmaae given by the Gennans (first applied to
Canadian Highlanders at Langemarck, but after-
ward used to desioate alI "Kilties"), "The Ladies
from I-Iell."
From that rime the Canadians were alone in
the fight. The Fusiliers, having started it, faded
away, and the Scots, after a few brief days, like-
wise vanished and for two months or more St.
Eloi was a continuons struggle between the Sec-
.16o
THE BATTLE OF ST. ELOI
ond Canadian Division and at least four Germall
Divisions, including some of the infamous Prus-
sian Guards.
During the next twelve days fle fighting was
almost uninterrupted. Troops came in and troops
xvent out, but the ]Emma Gees held on, forever,
as it seemed to us. But few remained of the
original un crews who started the eno-agement.
Not ail had been killed or wounded, but it had
been necessary to relïeve some who were utterly
exhausted. How I kept going is a mystery to
me as it was to others at the time. One thing
xvhch probably helped was the fact that I never,
or one minute, permitted myself to think of
anything except the matter of keeping those
guns oing. Sentime-nt I absolutely .cast out. I
was nothing but a cold-blooded machine. Good
/riends were killed but I gave them no thought
other than to get the bodies out of the trench
so that we need hot step on them. To fie up and
asslst wounded was a mere matter of routine.
In no other way could I have withstood the
awful strain. I xvas hit, slightly, on several oc¢a-
6
THE EMMA GEES
sons but never severely enough to necessltate my
going out. A dug-out in which I had a table
where I wrote reports and figured firing data was
hlt no less than three times while I was in it,
finally becoming a total vreck. The fact that I
was not killed a hundred times was due to just
that many miracles--nothing less. 2kly leather
jacket ,'md my tunïc were cut to shreds by bits
of shell, a bullet went through my cap and another
grazed my head so .close as to raise a red welt,
but that saine old "luck" which had become pro-
,erbial in the battalion, still held and I was hot
seriously injured.
Our troubles were hot all caused by artillery
tire by any means. Fritz had a large and varied
assortment of "Minenwerfer" with which to en-
terrain us at all hours, day and night. A good
many people, even among the soldiers themselves,
think that Minenwerfer or "Minnïe" for short,
is the naine of the projectile or torpedo, vhile,
as a marrer of fact, it is file instrument which
throws [t; a literal translation belng "mine-
thrower." In the same way they often speak of
THE BATTLE OF ST. ELOI
tlie shells thrown by trençh mortars as "trench
mortars" themselves. Now the family of "Min-
nies" is a large one and includes every device,
from tle ancïent types used by the Greeks and
lïomans, with sprlngs of wood, to the latest and
most modern contraption in which the propel-
ling power may be steel springs, compressed air
or a small charge of powder. In its smallest form
it îs simply a "rifle grenade," somewhat similar
to a hand grenade or ordinary "bomb," to which
is attached a rod of brass or îron which slips
down into the bore of the regular service rifle
and is fired with a blank cartridge. Other and
newer types are without flfis rod but have vanes
or rldders affixed to the rear end whîch serve
to guide tlae projectile in its flight. These usually
bave a hole through the center through which the
bullet passes and can tlms be used v«ith the regular
service amrntmitïon. This whole class, embracing
everything from the small "pineapples," fired
from the rifle, to the monstrous "aerial torpe-
;does," are conmonly spoken of as "fish-tails."
The shells from the trench mortars proper,
I63
THE EMMA GEES
and most of the "fish-tail" family, are somewhat
similar to ordinary artillery shells in that they
are lnade of steel or iron and designed to btlrst
into small fragments, each of which constitutes
a deadly missile. On the other hand, the "nfines"
thrown by the Minenwerfer, are merely light
sheet-metal containers for heavy charges of high
explosives (T. N. T. or tri-nitro-toluol as a rule),
and depend for their effectiveness on the shock
and blasting effect of the detonation. They bave
been increasing in size continually. At first we
called them "sausages," then "rum-jars" (they
resembled the ordinary one-galloI. rum jar in
size and shape), then they became "flyïng pigs"
and by this rime, I bave no doubt, new and still
more expressive names bave been applied to then.
The havoc created in a trench by one of the
large ones passes belief. The strongest dug-out is
wiped out in a twinkle; whole sections of para-
pet are obliterated, and where was a strong, well-
built wall eight feet or more in helght there re-
mains a hole or "crater" fifteen or twenty feet in
diameter and several feet deep. Any man who
x64
THE BATTLE OF ST. ELOI
happens to be within this area is, of course, blown
to atoms, while frequently men in the near vicin-
ity, but hot exposed to the direct blast, are killed
instantaneously by the shock. Medical men say
that the effect is identical to that known as
"caisson sickness," and is caused by the forlnation
of bubbles of carbonic acid gas in the blood ves-
sels. Not being a "medico" I can hot vouch for
this, but you çan take it for what itis worth.
In daylight it is not difficult to dodge these
devilish things and even at nîght, if they corne
one at a tïme, it is possible to escape the most
of them, but when they corne over in flocks, as
they sometimes do, it is more a matter of luck
than anything else.
CHAPTER XIV
FOURTEEN DAYS' FIGtITING
Y this ,time there was no doubt of the
enemy s superiority in artillery, and to
make matters worse, the craters were changing
hands daily or even hourly. We never knew, for
sure, whether out troops or those of the enemy
held any certain crater, except the ones on
each end, numbers one and six (we held them
throughout the entire two months of fighting),
lut numbers two, three, four and rive were de-
Iatable ground for several weeks. On two occa-
sions I ruade the complete circuit of all the craters
at night, going through the Canadian trench and
¢oming back via what had been our original front
line. On one of these trips I was accompanied
by Captain Congreve, afterward Major Congreve,
V. C., (now dead) who was the only staff offi-
cet I saw in that sector during all the rime we
were in the line. Sometimes we met individual
I66
FOURTEEN DAYS' FIGHTING
German sent'ri'es and quick, quiet and accurate
work was necessary to avoid detection and prob-
able capture. I round that a French bayonet,
the rapier shape, was a very satisfactory weapon
at such rimes. Trench knives have been invented
since and may be an improvement. After leav-
ing me that night Captain Congreve came upon
a party of eighty-two Gerlnans, commanded by
an officer, who had been eut off in one of the
craters for several days, without food or ammu-
nition, and captured them all, single-handed. For
this feat he received the Distingmished Service
Order and promotion to Major. Later, on the
Somme, he continued his brilliant work and won
the award of the Victoria Cross, but was killed
at Mametz Wood before receiving the decoration,
which was given to his widow. He was only
twenty-five at the rime of his death but had proved
himself one of the most enterprising officers in
the British army.
What had been left of the village of St. Eloi
when the fight commenced was rapidly disappear-
ing under the hall of shells. \Vhere our original
16 7
THE EMMA GEES
'front line had been there remained but few de-
tached fragments of parapet. For perhaps six
hundred yards we were holding on wïth scattered
and isolated groups. At one place, on our imme-
diate left, was a hole in the line at least two hun-
dred yards wide. Time after rime the Canadians
attacked and retook the craters, only to be literally
blown out of them by the ensuing hm-ricane
of shells.
The task of getting out the wounded was
heart-breaking. Out own stretcher-bearers
worked night and day, but they had suffered
many casualties and were unequal to the task.
The Border Regiment and the Durham Light
Infantry, who occupied our old trenches md
were not under heavy tire, sent volunteer carry-
ing parties to assist in the work, so that all were
taken out with a mininmm of delay. It was im-
possible to remove the dead and they were buried
in shelI-holes, where they fell. During the suc-
ceeding days many were disinterred by other
shells.
Then, the matter of maintaining communica-
68
FOURTEEN DA'fS" FIGHTING
tion with out supports and the headquarters in
the rear was of the utmost importance and otlr
signalers waged a continuous fight, against heaxy
odds, to keep the wires connected up. It would
hot be fair to others to specify any particular.
branch as being better. All who serve in the
front line at a tirne like this are equalIy en-
titled to credit. At times, xvhen ït is necessary
to go out and search for breaks and repair them,
tle work of the sio-nalers is "extra hazardous,'"
just as is that of the stretcher-bearers when
obliged to expose themselves to succor the
wounded, or the machine gunner when it is neces-
sary to mount his gun on top of the parapet,
within plain sight of the enemy, or the riflemen,
bombers and scouts in advancing to the attack.
There can be no fair distinction--tbey Ml, taken
as a unit, are in a class separated by a wide gulf
from those back in supporting or reserve or artil-'
lery positions, who, in turn, are separated from
the transport and ambulance drivers, who, while
occasionally und, er shell tire, are in tle zone of
comparative safety, where "people" still lire and
THE EMMA GEES
farm and run stores and estaminets. I would
hot have you think that I ana minimizing the
value of the services of these men. Their work is
of vital importance to the success of the fighting
forces and n«,ust be done; and I can truly say that
in ail my experience I bave never known them to
rail in the performance of their duties.
In this var, as in most others, it is the infantrv-
man veho stands the brunt of the fighting. True,
he is dïsguised under many other names, such as
rifleman, bomber, automatic rifleman, rifle-
grenadier, scout, silo-haler, sniper, runner or
machine gunner but, when you get right down to
the bottom of the whole business, he is the fellow
who travels on his two feet and actually "goes
over and gets 'ena." Trenches can be battered
to pieces by artillery but they can hot be actually
"'taken" and held by any one but the plodding,
patient, long-suffering "doughboy" or "web-
foot" as he is called by the men of the other
branches.
Atone tïme, during this period, Sergeant H.
Norton-Taylor and four rnen from out section,
'I70
FOURTEEN DAYS' FIGHTING
held one of the craters for rive days, against
numerous attacks, and even captured prisoners.
They had no food, water or ammunition other
than that which they could get from the bodies of
dead soldiers in the immediate vicinity. We sent
many detachments to relieve them but were unable
to locate their position and it was only by accident
that they were discovered and relïeved by a scout-
ing party of the Nineteenth Battalion which was
over on out |eft. But for this, they might be
there now, as they were hOt the quitting kind.
Norton-Taylor was commissioned and com-
manded the section at Courcellette, where he was
killed, September 15, I916. He came of a long line
of distinguished British ofiïcers, his father having
been a Colonel in the Royal Field Artillery. A
brother and a brother-in-law were in the service,
one of them losing both feet by a shell. A sister
was working in the hospitals in France and
another in England. He was a true friend and a
gallant officer--every inch a gentleman.
On the night of April tenth we were relieved
by the Twentieth ]3attalion and went out for a
ITI
THE EMMA GEES
rest. I had not laid down to sleep for fourteen
days, snatchïng what rest I could, for fifteen
or twenty minutes at a time, leaning against a
parapet or propped up in the corner of a traverse.
,¥e were only able to get as far as Voormezeele,
where we stopped in the ruins of the convent
school, and dropping on the stone floor slept
like the dead for twenty-four hours. The place
-,vas being shelled ail this time but none knew
or cared. The next night we ruade our way to
where the battalion was in billets, near Renning-
helst, where I immediately "flopped" for a
straight forty-eïght hours' continuous sleep.
fter that a bath, a shave and general clean-up,
supplemented by a good hot "feed," ruade me as
good as new. During that two weeks up in front
we had had no v«arm food, nothing but "bully
and biscuits" and, occasîonally, a can of "Macono-
chie," a ration of prepared meat and vegetables,
which is excellent when served hot but hOt very
palatable when eaten cold.
We now had the longest rest we had enjoyed
slnce coming over, as we did hot go back to the
'172
FOURTEEN DAYS' FIGHTING
front line until April twentieth. Our Sixth and
Fifth Brigades had been in during the rime we
were out and both had suffered severely in the
manv counter-attacks, but held on, like truc British
bull-dogs, to what had been our original front
line. The craters were lost as it was impossible
for any troops to hold them nnder the devastating
tire of the German gares. Nearly every battalion
of the Second Canadian Division had retaken one
or more of them but, as it only resulted in addï-
tional loss of lire, it was decided by the higher
command to give it up and endeavor to re-
establish out front along its original line.
We went in via Voormezeele, a town of several
thousand inhabitants before the war, now a pile
of ruins. From here a payé road ran directly to
St. F.loi and there had been two good communi-
cation tren_c.hes leading up to the front line. \Ve
soon discovered however that several things had
happened during our absence. On the road to St.
Eloi and about rive hundred yards behind out
front line, had been a telglan farm called tus
House. (A; London omnibus was lying, smashed,
x73
THE EMMA GEES
in front of it.) This place was now but a pile
of brick and tïmbers. To the left, another group
of farm buildings, called Shelley Farm, was in
about the saine conditîon, and where St. Eloi had
1)een was nothing but a barren waste. Not a signa
of a house or any part of a house was visible;
hot a brick remained and even the roads, the fine
stone-paved roads, had been obliterated. Where
had been hedges or trees there was nothing but
a desolate expanse of mud which, from a distance,
appeared to be a smooth level plain. For a good
six hundred yards back of our front line there
was hot a shrub or bush or tree nor any land-
mark of any kïnd. Every inch of this ground
had been churned over and over again by shells.
Literally, it was not possible to set foot on a
spot which had hot been upturned. The whole
area was simply a continuation of shell craters,
joined and interlocked without a break. Where
our communication and support trenches had
been ît was just the saine. No man could have
gone over that ground and said" "Here was a
house," or "There was a field," or "That was once
74
FOURTEEN DAYS' FIGHTING
a road," because house, turnip field and road
looked exactly alike. The great granite blocks
of the road had been pulverized to dust, and the
bricks of the houses had shared a like fate. Even
the contour of the ground was changed--ditches,
depressions and ridges having been hammered to
a uni for,n elevation.
And every hole was full of water. To traverse
this desert one must wade and tïounder through
liquid mud waist deep and sometimes deeper.
Yet it had to be done. We had nine positions
ip there at each of vhich a handful of men must
be relïeved daily; or rather nightly, as it was,
obvi'ously, impossibIe to more about over that
open expanse in daylight. Every yard of it was
tlnder scrutiny from thc German lines and, even
at night, owing to the lavish use of star-shells by
the enemy, it was a long and slow journey as it
vas necessary to stop and remain absolutely quiet
when a light came near.
The hardest thing about the whole business
was to find the men who v¢ere tobe relieved.
There was no path nor road nor land-mark of
75
THE EMIIA GEES
any kind. During the time we were in, it rained
continuously and at no time was a star visible.
The positions where they were stationed were
exactly like the rest of the surrounding country--,
merely enlarged shell-holes with, perhaps, a frag-
ment of a sand-bag parapet. No lights could be
shown, they did not even dare use "Very lights,"
as our "star-lights" are known. They were hot
in any regular formation but at irregular inter-
vals along what had been a very crooked line.
Fortunately, we had a "natural born" guide on
our first trip in and we round them all. After
that we managed to "carry on" but hot without
many slips. It was nothing unusual for a relief
party suddenly to find themselves in the German
lines and have to work their way out as best
they could. If caught out after dawn one
had tolie loxv in a shell-hole all day, probably
under heavy artillery tire, until darkness came
and ruade it possible to return unseen. This
trouble was hot confined to out side and it was
by no means an uncommon occurrence for parties
of the enemy to get lost i'n the same way. Some-
ï6
FOURTEEN DAYS' FIGHTING
tirnes these adventures resulted in rather sharp
bornbing engagements. One night a whole
platoon of about forty Gerrnans went through
a gap in our line and bumped into a strong sup-
porting party of ours at Shelley Farm where they
were ail captured. They had been looking for
one of the craters whose garrison they were to
relieve. Individual prisoners were taken nearly
every nlght.
Under the prevaillng conditions, it v«as ïrnpos-
sible to take machine guns up, so we depended
entirely upon Lewis mans. Fortunately no de-
termined attack was rnade on us during this rime
as it is extrernely doubtful if we could have held
thern there. We would, of course, have stopped
thern a few hundred yards back, at out support
line, and I rnust confess that I had at tirnes a
sneaking deslre to see them corne over and
get into that rnud so we could more back to
cornparatively çomfortable quarters.
As we no longer had any trenches, we
abandoned the old letter method of desimaation
and simply nurnbered the various positions. On
77
THE EMMA GEES
the first morning in, the gun and crew at No. I4
were blown up by a shell. This was an unlucky
position as the saine thing had happened there to a
crew from the Twentieth ]attalion. We then
moved that position SOlne fifty yards to one side
and had no further trouble.
We alternated wîth other battalions of the
division, going in and out, holding that line and
-,'radually improving it, tmtil, on the twenty-
second day of May, while we were back in billets,
I was "warned for leave" (a week in England),
and little Bouchard, my particular protégé and
warmest friend, was to go along.
You people who have stayed at home can
never realize what "leave" means to a soldier after
eight months in the trenches and I, for one, will
hot attempt the impossible by trying to describe
the sensation.
We packed out kits and hiked to Poperinghe,
where, after sitting up all night, we took train
at four o'clock .. N., arriving at Boulogne about
noon and were in "Blighty" by four in the
afternoon.
"Oh, ain't it a grand and glorious feeling!"
778
CHAPTER XV
]LIGHT r AND ]ACK
N London we round things running along
about as usual and proçeeded to enjoy our-
selves. Oh, the luxury of having clean clothes
and being able to keep them clean; to sleep in
real beds and eat from regular dishes and at
white-clothed tables. It seemed almost worth the
price we had paid to be able to get so much down-
right enjoyment out of the merest "necessities"
of ordinary civilian lire. The theaters vere all
running and we took in some shov every night,
but I derived the most satisfaction from taking
my young companion around to sec the museums
and many old historical places in and about Lon-
don. He was a stranger and I was fairly well
acquainted.
But, when the time drew near for us fo go back,
I began to experiençe a feeli'ng of depression.
While I had not noficed it belote, I suppose the
THE EMMA GEES
cumulative effect of the experiences of the last
eight months was beginning to tell on me. I
noticed that Bouchard appeared to be in about
the saine condition. He would sometimes sit for
an hour or more, in our room at the Cecil, gazing
i1to space, never uttering a word. Poor
boy whïle of course he could hOt know that this
was to be lais last trip, I believe he had a presenti-
ment that such was the case.
I found mvself now and then "checkîng up" my
own physical and mental condition. I had been
slightly injured several timeswtwo scratches from
bullets on my left hand, a bullet in my right elbow,
two pieces of shell in my shoulder, a knee-cap
knocked loose and a fractured cheek-bone
from the fuse-cap of a "whizz-bang." None
of these had put me out of action for more
than a few hours and I had managed to keep
out of the hospital. (I had an instïnctive dread
of hospitals.) But I knew, right down in my
heart, that my nerve was weakenng. Thinking
over some of the things we had done, I believed
I could never do them again. I do not thlnk
BLIGHTY AND BACK
the rnan e-ter lived who would not, eventually,
get into this condition. Some men "break" at
the first shell that strikes near thern, xvhile
others will go for rnonths under the heavïest
shell tire but, as I have said, it will certainly gel:
thern in the end. Of course I did not express
any of these feelings to Bouchard, but tried to
keep things rnoving all the tirne so as to give him
little opportunity to worry. But, to tell the truth,
I guess I needed the diversion more than he did,
for he was the bravest and "garnest" youngster I
ever knew.
Before we left France for our week in London
I was told by my Colonel that I had been recorn-
rnended for a commïssion and something or other
in the way of a decoration and he suggested that
I call upon General Carson, Canadian General in
London, and find out about it. I did call at the
General's office several rimes but was unable to
see him. It afterward developed that the corn-
mission had already been gazetted
really and truly a First "Leftenant."
hear of it for nearly a month and,
I8I
and I was
I did not
during the
THE EMMA GEES
interval, xvent through, as a sergeant, one of the
hottest times in my whole career.
When our leave ",vas up we, together with hun-
dreds of others, left Victoria Station early one
morning for Folkestone and ]3ouloo-ne aJd so
on, back to Poperinghe, where we arrived just
at daybreak the following morning and were wel-
comed by an early rising hoche airman, who
dropped about hall a dozen bombs, evidoEtty
aimed at the railroad station. Fortunately,
no one .,vas hit. Then we trudged down the road,
kilometer a fter kilometer, every one gloomy and
grouchy, |ooking for our several units. Ours
had moved and we spent the whole day before
we located ït.
We round the battalion in camp near the town
of Dickebusch and soon settled down to the saine
old routine. They had not been back in the
line since we left but had been engaged in some
specia! work in and around this town, about which
there is an interesting story.
Dickebusch was a town of several thousand
inhabitants and considerable commercial m-
BLIGHTY AND BACK
portance, located on the Ypres-Bailleul road,
about three and one-half toiles directly west of
St. Eloi. Ail troops going into the line anywhere
from "Vytschaete to Hill 6o were obliged to pass
through or very close to it. Just east of the
town was a shallow lake or pond, about a toile
long and hall as broad, called Dickebusch
Etang, to cross which it was necessary to follow
a narrow causeway, _constructed by our engineers.
While we continually passed and repassed
through the place, we never had any troops ac-
tually billeted there, as it was vithin easy range
of the German guns and was still occupied by
the native population.
About the tîme of the St. Eloi affair, how-
ever, one of out Brigade Headquarters had been
located in a group of buildings at the edge of
the town, perfectly camouflaged and concealed
from aircraft observation. It had long been
suspected that there were spies among the people
of this place and that they had effective means
of communicatlng with the enemy, so when
Fritz turned his ms on that headquarters,
83
THE EMMA GEES
no one was very much surprised, but a determined
effort was ruade to discover the guilty parties.
Just what means were used I do hot know, but
it was learned that several of the prominent citi-
zens, including the mavor or burgomaster, were
în on it and they were summarily dealt with.
Following this, German airmen dropped notices
into the town, warning all the civilians to get
out as they were going to raze it to the ground.
Not many would bave gone, however, had not out
authorities ordered the evacuation. As soon as
the people had moved out, our troops proceeded
to prepare the buildings for use as billets, rein-
forcing lower rooms and cellars with iron beams
and protecting them with sand-bags. This was
the work with which our battalion, and others,
had been occupied and was just about completed
vvhen, true to fleir word, the Heinies started in,
systematically, to write "finis" for Dickebusch.
The church had already been pretty well shot up,
as well as the surrounding graveyard where many
of the tombs and monuments were smashed and
the dead thrown from their graves. This
]3LIGHTY AND ]3ACK
blowing up of the dead seems to be a favorite
pastime with the gentle Hun. They, the Germans,
were now engaged in the demolition of the build-
ings along the principal streets and were doing it
in a very thorough manner. We had here many
demonstrations of a matter about which I have
been questioned, rimes widlout number, by both
military men and civilians, and that is, "What is
the effective radius of a shell of a certain caliber ?"
It is one of the things which out theorists in geu-
eral, and artillerymen in particular, delight in.
Many hours of learned discourse have been de-
voted to proving, theoreticaIIy, that an area of
a given size can be ruade impassable by dropping
a certain number of shells on it, af stated inter-
vals. This is all rot. Common sense should
teach us better. Thë plain fact is that it
depends entirely upon what the shell strikes. If
it falls on soft earth, the effect is merely local
and a man within a few feet would be uninjured;
while, should it fall on a hard, stone-paved road,
pieces might be effective at a distance of half a
mlle or more.
85
THE EMMA GEES
In the bombing schools we are told that the
Mills hand grenade has an effective radius of ten
yards, yet one will quite frequently escape unhurt
from a dozen of them bursting within this
radius aaad yet may be hit by a fraoxnent from
a distance of two hundred yards or more. _Ail
these theories are based on the assumption that
the ground on a battle-field is level, free from
obstructions and of a unifolnaa degree of hardne, s ;
hot one of which conditions ever exists. A small
ditch, a log or stump or a water-filIed shelI-hole
will make so much difference in the effect of the
explosion of a shell or bomb that all efforts to
prove anything by mathematics is a waste of rime.
If one is unluck-y he wil! probably get hurt, other-
wise not.
CHAPTER XVI
OUT IN FRONT FIGHTING
E had been "home" but a few days when
we received rush orders to pack up and
match toward Ypres. There had been an intense
bombardment going on up that way and we soon
learned the cause from straggling wounded whom
we met coming along the road. It was the second
of June, 1916, and the Gemnans had launched
their great surprise attack against the Canadians
at Hooge. It was the be#nning of what has
been called the Thïrd t3attle of Ypres, but will
probably be recorded in history as the t3attle
of Sanctuary Wood.
The enemy had gradually increased his cus-
tomary bombardment and then, assisted by some
mines, had swept forward, in broad daylight,
overwhelrning the defenders of the first and sec-
ond lines by sheer force of numbers and had only
been checl<ed af ter he had driven through out
187
THE EMMA GEES
lines to a depth of at least seven hundred yards
over a front of nearly a mlle, incl,ding the village
of Hooge, and was firmly established in a
large forest called Sanctuary X, Vood and in other
woods to the south. ]3y the time we had arrived
at our reserve lines (called the G. H. Q. or Gen-
eral Headquarters Line), we were diverted and
directed to a position on the line just south
of the center of the disturbance where we "dug
ourselves in" and held on for four days. Shell
tire was about ail we got here. but there was
plenty of that. The rifle and machine-,un bullets
that came our way were hot numerous enough
to cause any concern although we did lose a few
men in that way.
Here the news of the fight filtered through to
us. It seemed that the Princess Pat's (unfor-
tunate beggars), had got another cutting-up, to-
gether with some of the Mounted Rifles, and
Major-General Mercer and Brigadier-General
¥ictor Vqilliams, ,«ho had been up in the front
line on a tour of inspection, had both been
v«ounded and captured. General Mercer after-
188
OUT IN FRONT FIGHTING
ward died, in Gemaaaa hands, but General
Williams recovered and remains a prisoner. It
was said that less than one hundred from each
the Pat's aald the Fourth C. M. R. came out
ot the fight.
At this place several of out gun positîons were
in the grounds of what lla.d been one of the most
beautiful châteaux in Flanders--the Château
Segard, hundreds of years old but kept up in
the most modern style until the war came. Now
the buildings were but a mass of ruins. Not only
this but the g-rounds had been wonderfully laid
out in m'oves, gardens, moats and fish-ponds with
carefully planned walks and drives throughout
the whole estate which comprised af |east forty
actes. There were trees and plants from all over
the vorld; beautiful borders and hedges of sveet-
smelling, flowerîng shrubs and cunningly planned
paths through the thickets, ending at some old
wondrously carved stone bench v«ith perhaps an
arbor covered wïth climbing rose bushes.
Ail had felt the blighting" touch of the vandal
shells. The trees vere shattered, the roads and
I89
THE EMMA GEES
paths torn up, the ponds filled with debris and
the beautifu! lawn pitted with craters, but in spite
of all this devastation, the flowers and trees were
making a brave fight to live. I could not but
think, as I wandered through this place, how well
the little fIowers and the mighty oaks typified
the spirit of France and Belgium. Sorely stri'cken
thev were--wounded unto death; but with that
sublime courage and determination which bave
been the admiration of the world they were re-
solved that they should hot die.
Along the main road leading up to the chfiteau
was a charming little chapel, handsomely deco-
rated and appointe& It was the only structure
on the estate that had hot been struck by a shell.
We used it as sleeping quarters for two crews
whose guns were located in the immediate vîcin-
it y. One night a big shell struck so close as to
jar all the saints and apostles from their niches
and send them crashing to the floor, but did no
other damage.
This saine thing happened to us once when we
were sleeping in the convent school at Voor-
I9O
OUT IN FRONT FIGHTING
mezeele, when all the statues on the walls were
hurled down upon us by a large shell which struck
the building.
The boys used to take these sacred effigies and
place them on graves of theïr dead friends. We
were not a very religious bunch but I suppose
they thought it might help some--at any rate it
proved their good intentions and I never inter-
fered to stop it.
For several days the fighting continued furious-
|y, the Canadians recovering some of the lost
ground, including most of Sallcttlary Wood, and
then things settled down to fle old "siege opera-
tion." During this rime we had many oppor-
'tunities to watch the splendid work of the men
of the ammunition columns taking shells up to
the batteries in broad daylight and within plain
view of the enemy lines. It was one of the most
inspiring sights I have ever witnessed and brought
back memorïes of pictures I had seen of artillery
going into action in the old days.
Down the road they would corne, on the dead
gallop, drivers standing in their stirrups, waving
I9r
THE EMMA GEES
tleir whips and shouting at the horses, while the
limbers bounded crazily over the shell-torn road,
the men holding on for dear lire and the shells
bursting with a COltïnuotls roar all about them.
It was the sight of a lifetime, and whenever
they came past our men would spring out of the
trenches and cheer as though mad. Time after
rime they ruade the trip and the escapes of some
were miraculous. A few were hit, watons
smashed and horses and men killed or wounded,
but hot many, considering the number of chances
they took.
The stories of heroism during that first day's
fighting equal anything ïn history. Batteries
v«ere shot down to a man but continued working
the guns to the Iast. One artilleryman, the Iast
of his gun squad, after having one arm shot off
at the elbow, continued to load and tire. Then
a shel! blew off about a foot of the muzzle of
the gun but he stil! kept it going. He was round,
lying dead across his m and a trail of clotted
blood showed where he had gone back and forth
to the ammunition recess, bringing up shells. One
t92
OUT IN FRONT FIGHTING
member of the crew remained alive long enQugh
to tell the story.
In anofler place, i,a Sanctuary Wood, were
two g'uns known as "sacrifice guns," as they vere
intended to cover a certain exposed approach in
case of an attack and to fight to the finish. How
well they carried out their orders may be judged
Crom the fact that every man was killed at the
gtms, by Gcrman bayoncts, af ter having shot down
many times, their own number of the enemy.
Our old Iriends of the Lahore ]3attery lost so
maay men that they were having difficulty in
maintaining an effective tire untiI two of out ma-
chine-ln squads vohmteered to act as ammuni-
tion carriers, which thev did for several hours,
suffering heavy casualties.
Here occurred the only case of which I have
m, er heard where one of out nqedical officers was
apparently "murdered." Cal»tain Haight, M. O.
of one of out western battalions was reported, on
excellent authority, to bave been bayoneted and
killed while attendîng the xx'ounded.
While we were here, ]lajor-General .Turner,
x93
THE EMMA GEES
V. C., who was in cornrnand of the entire Ca-
nadian Corps, paid us a visit. He carne up un-
amotmced and accornpanied by a lone Staff
Captain. I was instructed to act as his g-uide
over out sector. During one trip along an ex-
posed road we round ourselves in the rnidst of a
furious hall of shells. I looked at the General
to see if he wanted to take cover (I'm sure the
test of us did) ; he never "batted an eye" but con-
tinued at an even pace, talking, asking questions
and stopping here and there to observe sorne par-
ticular point. I overheard one of our men say:
"'General Turner? General Hell! he ain't no
general ; he's a reg'lar soIdier.'"
On the nigbt of the sixth we were relieved and,
next day, took up our quarters in Dickebusch.
The Ernma Gees had taken possession of a
bank building, about the best ïn town, and had
strenhened it, inside and out, with steel and
sand-bags until it looked as though it would with-
stand any bombardrnent. Fortunately it was hot
hit while we were there, although many large
shells fell very near; but when I again passed that
194
HOZZEBEKE TRENCH MAP
The map on the cppos¢te page s a reprodzctio,
of what is knozc,n as "Hollebeke Trench Map--
Part of Sheet 28." Famous ttill 60 is shown
circled by a contour line, ju«t below Zwartelecn.
The 'oad running off af top a,d le[t of map lcads
to Ypres. The blaclç atd white line immediately to
the right of this army road is the «ailroad
Ypres to Comines. The fine irrcgular lines reprc-
sent the pcrfcct wtwork of mai and communica-
tion German trenches. U arious si9ns indicate sup-
ply dumps, dug-outs. nine craters, obsem,atio»
posts, earthworks, ,nine craters [ortitïed. hedges ,
[ctces or ditches, chtrches, mills, 'oads, [ootpath,;
entanglements, grot.nd eut «p by artillerv tire, etc.,
etc. The Britizh Iront-line trench is stov«i ¢,ery
[aitly on this reproduction but can be pich, ed
as it pa«ses throttgh the first "'e'" in Zwarteleezt.
and traccd up past the figure 3 o. At the le[t o]:
Zwartclec it can be. seen «rossig the railroad
and army road., This tap. as ¢,ere the others,
ze,as carried by Captain McBride and the sec-
tion sho¢cqz represents about one-sixth o]: the total
sze. It was nade [ oto photoyraphs taken by Al-
led a,îators. The bhwred line bsectit9 the
]ust below ]îgures 35 and 36 is one
[olds in the map.
OUT IN FRONT FIGHTING
way, just a week later, I noticed that a big shell
had gone through our carefully prepared "bomb-
proof" and completely wrecked it. We only re-
mained a fev .days and then received orders to go
into the front line at Hill 6o (soutll of
Hooge), as an attack was tobe nmde to recover
the trenches lost on the second.
As we had never been in the sector it was
necessary for the non-commi'ssioned officers to go
in a day ahead to locate the m positions and
be able to guide the section in. We went in in
daylight (the non-coins.) and round it to be the
longest trip we had ever undertaken on such a
mission. From t3edford House, on the reserve
line, it is at least two mlles to the front line, ail
the way exposed to observation and tire. There
had been a little trench tramway" but it had been
wrecked by shells. ]3y breaking our party up
into twos we escaped any severe shelling and
the rifle tire ,,vas at such long range that we
ignored it. Beyond three hundred yards the Ger-
man's shooting is a joke.
We went over the position which extends from
95
THE EMMA GEES
-what was known as the Ravine, to a point
exactly opposite Hill 60. _At sorne places the lines
were less than forty yards apart and it was possible
to throw hand grenades back and forth. It re-
quired the entire day to farniliarize ourselves with
the wonderful rnaze of communication and sup-
port trenches at this place, as we had never seen
anhing like it before. We had becorne so accus-
torned to doing without communication trenches
that they were a distinct novelty. They, together
with the rnany support trenches, rnade a perfect
labyrinth: like a spider's web, only hot quite so
regular in forrn.
The next night we moved in. _As the battalïon
was crossing the long open stretch we carne under
tire frorn an enerny machine gun and sorne rnen
¢ere hit. There's no use talking, no other weapon
used in the war îs as deadly as machine gun.
Where you can xvalk through an artillery bar-
rage with a few casua'lties, the well-directed tire
of only one machine gun will pile rnen up as fast
as they corne along. When one of thern catches
you in the open the only thing fo do is to drop
196
OUT IN FRONT FIGHTING
into the nearest hole and stay there until the firing
ceases.
We »vent in on the night of the twelfth and the
attack »vas scheduled for the night of the
thirteenth, or rather the lnorning" of the four-
teenth, as the preliminary bombardment was to
commence at twelve-forty-five and "zero" ",vas
one-thirty A. .
This was the greatest place I have ever seen
for rifle grenades and "Minnies." They came
over in flocks or shoals and one must be ever-
lastingly on the lookout to dodge them. But we
had as many as they and also a lot of Stokes
guns which seemed to "put the fear of God" into
the hoche. They sprung a new "Minnie" here,
much larger than any we had seen. It hurled
a whale of a shell; not less than one hundred and
sixty pounds of pure T. N. T., and what it did to
our trenches and dug-outs was a sin. And the
worst of it vas, they had it in a hole in a deep rail-
road cutfing at the bottom of Hill 60, where our
artillery could not reach it.
At this rime we had both the relar machine
lO7
THE EMMA GEES
guns and also a lot of Lewis automatic rifles.
Shortly after, the latter were turned over to the
inf,'mtry companies, while the former were taken
into the newly-organized machine gun corps,
an entirely separate branch of the service, which
was under the direct command of the t3rigade
Commander. The ns were distributed along
the line in favorable locations for either defense
or offense but, as there vere no prepared em-
placements, the men had but lïttle protection.
I-tere our work, as at St. Eloi, was to support
the advance; in fact, that is the normal function
of machine guns in an attack, although the lighter
automatic rifles of the Lewis type are usually
with the assaulting troops.
Out "Higher Command" had learned a lesson
from the St. Eloi experience and had brought
up many new batteries, including a faîr sprïnk-
ling of the "super-heavies" of txvelve and fifteen-
inch calibers. It has been said, on good authority,
that we had more than one thousand gtms con-
centrated on about a thousand yards of trench,
or a gun to every yard, and I am perfectly will-
9 8
OUT IN FRONT FIGHTING
ing to believe it after hearing them all at work.
It was our tirst experience of that delightful
situation where we had "'superïorlty of tire" and
it ruade everybody happy. Afterward, on the
Somme and Ancre, it had become a permanent
condition; but to us, who had been "carrying on"
under the overxvhelming odds of the German
guns, it was a welcome change. It did our hearts
good to hear those monster thirteen hundred and
fifty pound "babies" coming over out heads
with a "woosh" and landing in the lines across the
v«ay, on Hill 6o, where they left marks like mine
crater. \Ve could put up with quite a lot just to
see that, and although we were suffering consld-
erably fron'l the rite grenades and the "Minnies,"
every one appeared to be in a good humor.
With everything ready we waited for the
"zero" hour. Exactly at the designated rime the
artillery opened. It was as though all the hounds
of hell were let loose. Such a wailing and
screeching and hissing as filled the air, from
the eighteen-pounders ("whlzz-bangs"), which
seemed to just shave our own parapet, to the gi-
99
THE EMMA GEES
gantic missiles from the "How-guns," as the
Howitzers are affectionately called, each with its
own peculiar noise. The explosions became
merged into a continual roaring crash, "«ithout
pause or break. Then our Stokes guns joined in,
and, if there ever was an infernal machine, that is
it. Vomiting out shells as ast as they can be fed
into its hungry maw ; so fast, indeed, that it is pos-
sible for seven of them to be in the air at one time,
from one gun, at a range of less than four hun-
dred yards, it is the last word in rapid-fire
artillery.
Of course the Emma Gees started at the
head of the procession and kept up a continuous
tire.
Fritz soon began to do the best he could
but, what with the noise of out own guns and
the bursting shells, we were unable to hear
unless they struck very close. He did give us
trouble, though, with that devilish Minenwerfer
which sent over a wheel-barrow load of high ex-
plosive at each shot. He blew the left end of out
line "off the map" for a distance of a hundred
20O
OUT IN FRONT FIGIITING
yards or more and ruade ït untenable--for any
one but a machine gunner. The infantry was
ordered to evacuate that part and did so, but hot
the Emma Gees; they stuck until one of the
big "terrors," striking" alongside, killed and
wounded all the crew but one and then he still
stuck it, loading and firing until I was able to
get a reserve crew up to relieve him. He was a
Scot, one of the kind that doesn't know what it
means to quit. Here's to you, "Wullie" Shep-
herd, wherever you are!
The attack was carri'ed off with absolute pre-
cision. At one-thirty the barrage lifted and over
the boys went, sweeping everything before them,
back to the original position and then a little
farther for good measure. By dayligllt they had
the new line so well consolidated that Fritz was
never able to make a dent in it and the Canadian
prestige was once more established.
At the left end of out li'ne, where the Minen-
werfer had done so much damage, was a mine
shaft; one of many in that vicinity which out
engineers were driving under Hill 6o (they
2OI
THE EMMA GEES
afterward blew it up), and it seemed as though
the boche knew of it and was endeavoring to cave
it in with the "Minnies." In fact, they did succeed
in partly destroying it, but the sheltering roof
at the mouth of the shaft remained in fair
condition, and as it was the only protective
covering ila that nelghborhood, Bouchard and
/ were sitting inside, with our feet hang-
ing down the shaft, holding doxvn that end of the
line. We had relieved the other crew, or rather I
had sent them back about two hundred yards along
the trench as a precautionary measure and then,
feeling" that some one must remain to keep lookout,
decided to take care of the job myself. The
boy, of course, insisted upon staying with me.
The big fellows were conaing over with regular-
ity (I nearly said monotonous, but those things
never get rnonotonous), and were bursting too
close for comfort. ]3ou had just ruade a propo-
sition tlmt we sneak over after dark and try to
locate the devil-machine and blow it up, when we
heard something moving below us in the mine-
shaft, and a moment later a mud-encrusted face
|
OUT IN FRONT FIGHTING
came up into the light. With an unusually fluent
flow of "language," which sounded strangely
tanfiliar to me, two men came up the ladder, and
as the first one emerged into the daylight he
took a look at me and said: "Iffello, Mac; it's a
long way to Ft. George, isn't ît ?" When he had
removed some of the dirt from his face I recog-
nized a miner, named licLeod, who had once
helped rescue me from the Giscome Rapids and
afterxvard worked for me up in British Columbia.
He and his partner had been caught in the shaft
and had been a day digging themselves out. After
a rest of a few minutes they went their way,
down the trench, and I never saw or heard of
them again.
During the next hour or two I managed to
work around through the wreckage of this part
of our line, searching for wounded and makinK
a list of the dead. I round none of the former,
all having been removed by their companions
when they were ordered to evacuate, but [ did find
a number of bodies which I examined for identi-
fication disks or other marks and ruade a coin-
2o3
THE EMMA GEES
plete record which I afterward turned in to our
Headquarters. This is a custom that is always
followed, if possible, so that, in the event that
your own troops do not return to that spot, a
record will be preserved and relatives notified.
If this were hot donc, many would be reported
as "missing" which is, to relatives, far more
terrible than the knowledge that death has been
swift and sure. This is work in which many
chaplains bave especially distinguished them-
selves, often working close behind the advancing
lines during a battle; writing last messages for
the dying and compiling lists of the dead who
may or may hot be buried at a later date.
In burying dead on the field, every effort is
ruade so to mark the grave that it may afterward
be identified and a proper record obtained for
the archives of the Graves Re#stration Commis-
sion. The best way is to write all the data, name,
regiment and number together with the date, on
a piece of paper, place it in a bottle and stick
the bottle, neck down, in the top of the
grave. If no bottle is available, the next best
2o4.
OUT IN FRONT FIGHTING
way is to write the record on a smooth piece of
wood with an ordinary lead pencil which will
withstand the action of water far better than
ink or indelible pencil.
Here I had my last talk with Bouchard. He
was very anxious to go to college and
take an engineering course. I suggested Purdue,
but he thought he would find it necessary to spend
a year or two at some preparatoly school. He
had heard me speak of Culver and was very much
interested in that place, and when I left it was
definitely decided that, should he survive the war,
he would spend at least four years at any educa-
tional institution I might recommend.
.As soon as darkness came our infantry re-
turned, and by working hard all night managed
to restore the damaged part of the parapet. I
xvent back to my dug-out for a little sleep and had
just ruade myself comfortable when a six-inch
shell struck the place and drove me out, together
with a companion, George Paudash, a Chippeway
Indian and corporal of out section. We had
several Indians, there being two pairs of brothers,
o5
THE EMMA GEES
ail from the same reservation and all of them
splendid soldiers.
We had several men hit that night by rifle
grenades. I particularly remember two: Flana-
gan and McFarland. The former v¢as hit in
numerous places, some of them really serious,
but was most concerned over a little scratch on his
face "vhich he as afraid would injure his good-
looks. McFarland, just a boy, about eighteen,
had lais left hand terribly mangled and nearly
twenty pieces of metal in other parts of his body,
but he laughed and called out: "I've got my
]31ighty; l've got my ]31ighty." His brother had
been shot through both eyes and tota!ly blinded
a short time before. ]3y the merest chance I saw
McFarland a few days later, as he vas being taken
aboard a hospital ship at Boulogne and he then
gave me lais wrist watch, which had been shat-
tered and driven into the flesh, asking that I send
if to his father ha Canada: I sent: it by registered
post, from London, but never heard from it.
The artillery fightîng continued for several
days and on the night of the eighteenth we were
_'206
OUT IN FRONT FIGttTING
relleved and moved back to Bedford House, in
reserve.
Next morning I was summoned to Battalion
Headquarters mld informed that I had been com-
missioned and was ordered back to England to
«ct as an instructor in one of the training divi-
sions. Our Colonel at this rime also received his
promotion to ]3rigadier-General and he promise(l,
as soon as he was assigned to a brigade, that he
xvould request I be trmsferred to his com-
mand as brigade machine gun officer. Ne did,
afterward, make an effort to have this done,
but i't was.too late. I had finally got my "long
]31ighty," and was out.
It was hard to part from that old crowd. I
did not know xvhen I would get baril,
but we ail kmew, without question, that
there would be other faces gone from the ranks
before ve met again. When I did return,
during the Somme campaign, I was attached to
another battalion and did hot often see the
Twenty-first and when I did, I recognized
but few of them. They had taken part in
207
THE EMIIA GEES
the great advance of September fifteenth, which
captured Courcellette and numerous other towns--
the greatest gain ever ruade in one day on the
Western Front until the recent one at Cambrai--
and had helped to add another glorïous page to
Canada's brilliant record. But the cost was great.
Many, oh, so many of the bravest and the best
fell that day and among them was "my little
boy," Bouchard, killed at the a.ge of eighteen,
after two years of service.
Yes; a boy in years, but he worked like a man,
fought like a man and, thank GooE he died like
a man--out in front, fighting.
CHAPTER XVII
DowN AN OUTFOR A WHILE
HILE the following has no direct connec-
ti'on with the machine guns, and is,
really, a part of "another story," I think it fitting
that I take this opportunity to render my humble
tribute of gratitude and admiration for the splen-
did work of the British Red Cross Society; and
that the reader rnay fully understand, it is neces-
sary to relate the occurrences which led up to
rny first hospital experience.
Upon returning to England, I was assïgned to
a Training Battalion at out old camp--Sand-
lingmbut round the work so tedious and rnonot-
onous that I requested a transfer to other and
more active duties, and soon after was engaged
first, in conducting troops to France; then, as a
rnessenger to and from the varlous headquarters ;
later, on court-martial work at Rouen and
Le Havre; and finally reassigned to the Fourth
2o9
THE EMMA GEES
Canadian Brigade and ordered to the front, dur-
ing the latter part of the Somme Battle. I was
with a party of officers of the Gloucestershire
and the "Ox and Bucks" (Oxford and
t3uckinghmnshire) Regilnents and through an
error on the part of the R. T. O. (railway trans-
portation officer) my transportation order was
ruade out the saine as theirs, and the first thing
I knew I was away over on the right of out
line, opposite Combles, where ve joined the
French. As there was a fight on, I went in wifll
the "Glosters," and after the fall of Combles
ruade my way up the line until I located my own
command, near Çourcellette.
Here I heard of the great advance of Septem-
ber fifteenth and also of the death of many of my
old friends. 'Among them, it seemed, 13ouchard
and his ¢rew had been wiped out by a big shell,
but no one had been able to get back to look for
them or bury them. I was very busy, but getting
all available information as to the spot where they
xvere seen to fall, I managed, at night, to make
several trips over the ground, but without result.
2IO
DOWN AND OUT--FOR A WHILE
The spot was near the famous "Sugar Refiner3","
just outside the village, and as this had been one
of the hottest places in the fight, there were many
bodies lying around but none that I could recog-
nize.
I had a cross ruade, bearing the names of ail
the crew and decided that, at the first opportunity,
I would plant it at that spot; and when out whole
division was ordered out, on October tenth, I tonk
the cross and made my way up the Bapaume road
and across the shell-torn field to the place. The
enemy was shelling the road, dropping severaI
heavies, near me, so I hastily gathered into a
shell-hole the remains of all the dead in flac imme-
diate vicinity and covered them up as best I
could, then placed the cross firmly in the ground'
and turned to leave. I had not gone far whe
a "crump" struck so close as to stun and partly
bury me. \'Vhen I regained my senses I round
that I could not sec. My eyes, especialIy the Ieft,
had been giving me a great deal of trouble ever
since I had been lait on the side of the face by
a pîece of shelI at the time of the Bluff fight,.
2II
THE EMMA GEES
but now they appeared to be entirely out of com-
mission, and were very painful.
I lay there for some rime, tryin i to figure
some way out of it, all the rime hearing the
shells coming over. This gave me an idea.
Inowing file direction from which the shells
came with relation to the locati'on of the road,
I started out to make my way there. Troops
were continually passing at night and I
would be sure to find assistance.
From that rime on my remembrance of things
is not clear. I have hazy recollections of falling
into a.trench, crawling out and getting tangled up
in some wire and then, I think I fell into another
hole. I do remember, distinctly, talking aloud
to myself, as though to another person, and tell-
ing him to "get down on your knees and cravI,
you damn fool: first thing you know you'll fall
into one of those deep holes and break your
neck."
Whatever I did after that must have been done
instinctively. (Was afterward told that I was
round, lying stretched out across the Bapaume
road.)
t,i' ;! r¢lOt, IT-b'-ELOI P.-de-C.) G,.IERRE i¢Ji4_lgl(- i.,:
Removing the German \Votmded from ,[ollt St. Eloi
DOWN AND OUT--FOR A WHILE
The next thing I knew I suddenly discovered
that I was trying to think of something. I be-
lieve I was conscious. I felt as though I could
move if I wanted to, but didn't want to. I could
see nothing, but that also was of 11o importance.
It was something else that ,,vas wrong and it
worried me in a vag-ue, half-interested sort of
way. One thing was sure--I was dead, all right,
and it wasn't half bad. Even if I cou!dn't see
or more or think, I was hot suffering any pain
or inconvenience, which was a great relief from
"soldiering." Notlaing seemed to matter, any-
x'ay, and I guess I ,,vent to sleep.
I felt, or rather sensed, the presence of others
moving about from tïme to time, but took no
interest in the matter until, suddenly, back came
the old feeling that something was hot right--
that there had been a big change in all the affairs
of the world--and then, after what seemed hours
of strtggling with the problem, it came to me
like a flash--it was the "quiet" that was bother-
ing me. That was it; tlere was no noise; and
tten, my brain becomïng clearer all the time, I
began to wonder whether I was deaf or whether
213
.THE EMMA GEES
the war was over. It occurred to me that
might clap my hands or make some movement
to final out whether or hot I could hear,
but fle idea was dismissed as involving too much
exertion; just as it was too much work to open
my eyes to try to see.
Then I hcard some one corne close to me,
heard voices, faint and far away they seemed,
so I shouted to them (I thought I shouted but it
was only a mumbling whisper), and then a voice,
low and close at hand, asked me: "'Are you
awake ?"
"Course; what's marrer ?"
"'Nothing is the marrer; you're all right now.
Don't you think you could eat something?"
I pondered that for some time, but as
quite comfortable and could hot see the sense of
dead folks eating, anyhow, I declined and fell
asleep again. It was too much trouble to talk,
especialIy to answer questions.
When next I awoke it was different. I actual-
ly opened my eyes, or at least one of them, the
other being bandaged, and I could see a face
214
DOWN AND OUT--FOR A WHILE
looking down at me--a face and a white expan
of something wifl a brilliant red cross in the
center, and when the face asked me how I felt
now and did I think I could eat a little,
I grunted something vhich was intended
to assure her that I was feeling all right and
,vas hungry. At any rate, she understood, and
disappearing, soon returned with a tray, loaded
with things. She first helped me hold up my head
while she gave me a tumblerful of hot milk with
brandy in it, but that was no good--it would hot
stay clown; so, af ter a little trouble on that ac-
Count, she vanished again and came back with
a pint bottle of chmnpaae which she opened and
fed to me; first a spoonful at a time and fllen a
full glass. That paved the way all right and I
was able to eat
just what, but it
13y this time I
ail my hands and
Satisfied on that
something, I don't remember
was good.
had discovered that I still had
feet and could move them about.
point, I asked where I was.
"Hogpital ; but you mustn't talk."
"What hospital; why can't I talk ?"
215
THE EMMA GEES
"Number Twelve; but I think you should keep
«luiet and rest."
"Had plenty rest; where's Number Twelve?"
"St. 1ol; but, really, you must go to sleep
IO'V." I went to s]eep, wondering how the dickens
I happened to be in St. Paul, which xvas what I
mderstood ber to sa)'. (The French spell ît
diffcrently but p.ronounce if about the sme.)
From that rime on, scarcely an hour passed that
one of the kindly nurses or sisters did hot
corne in and look to see if I was awake, and if
so, could they get me something to eat or drink.
It was heaven, all right; or at least, my îdea of
what heaven should be.
I learned that, although I was disabled on the
night of fle tenth, I was not picked up unfil the
twelfth and then had been relayed fllrough several
dressing" stations and hospitals until I landed in
Number Twelve General Hospltal, at the town of
St. Fol. It was a B. R. C. (British Red Cross)
înstitution and was altog'ether different from my
preconceived ideas of hospitals. The day when I
216
DOWN AND OUT--FOR A WHILE
first "woke up" vas the fifteenth of October, rny
birthday.
After several days I was put aboard a hospital
train and taken to LeTreport, where I was as-
signed to Lady Murray's Hospital, another
B. R. C. place. It had been, belote the
war, The Golf I-Iotel, one of the many
splendid seaside hotels that have been con-
verted into hospitals, t-Iere, again, I was royally
treated. Every wish appeared to be anticipated
by the indefatigable and ever-cheerfuI women and
girls, many of them volunteers, members of
prominent and even titled familles. Lady Mur-
ray personally visited every patient at least once
a day.
All these ambulmaces at LeTreport are driven
by girls belonging to the V. A. D. I'm hot
sure whether it means Volunteer Ambulance De-
partment or Volunteer Aïd Department, but that
is immaterial; they are wonders, whatever naine
they sali under.
They work ai1 hours, day or'nght, transferring
patients to and from traîns and hospitals.
2 7
.THE EMMA GEES
They furnished their own uniforms and paid M1
their own expenses, and for a long time served
x-ithout any compensation, but I have heard that
a smM1 allowance has been made them recently.
The girl who took us down to the train told
me that she had been over there two years. I
asked lier if it was hot pretty hard work and she
replied: "011, sometimes it is hard, when the
v«eather is bad. but we know it is nothing to what
the men are doing up in front, so we are glad
fo be able to do out little bit, wherever we can."
Going" down the bill, we passed n. big ambu-
lance, filled with wounded, standing alongside
the road. A little slip of a girl, who looked as
though she weighed about ninety pounds, was
changing a ff're and I honestly believe that that
lire and rira weighed as much as she did. Out
driver stopped and proffered assîstance but the
little one declined, remarking that we'd better
hurry or she would beat us to the train. s a
matter of fact, she was hot rive minutes after us.
I was in pretty bad shape; could see very lîttle
and had an attack of trench lever. As soon as I
218
DOWN AND OUT--FOR A WHILE
was able to travel I was sent, with several others,
by hospital train to Le Havre, where 'e went
aboard the hospital ship Carisbrook CastlG
landing" at Southampton, and so on to London,
where I was lucky enough to draw an assigmnent
to another B. R. C. hospital--Mrs. Pollock's, at
50 \Veymouth Street. And here I remained until,
passed on by numerous "boards" and subjected
to many examinations, I round myself aain on
the way to France, where I reported the fifth of
December--still able to "carry on."
est
V
; [' ::; I t I I I1 I I
