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diff --git a/25076-8.txt b/25076-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6ea3b0e --- /dev/null +++ b/25076-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5950 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Between the Lines, by Boyd Cable + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Between the Lines + +Author: Boyd Cable + +Release Date: April 15, 2008 [EBook #25076] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BETWEEN THE LINES *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +BETWEEN THE LINES + + +BY + +BOYD CABLE + + + + +TORONTO + +McCLELLAND, GOODCHILD, & STEWART, LTD. + +1916 + + + + +TO + +THE EDITOR OF THE CORNHILL + +REGINALD JOHN SMITH + +_for whose helpful criticism and advice, kindly consideration and +unfailing courtesy to an unknown writer, a sufficiency of grateful +appreciation can never be expressed by_ + +THE AUTHOR + + + + +FOREWORD + +This book, all of which has been written at the Front within sound of +the German guns and for the most part within shell and rifle range, is +an attempt to tell something of the manner of struggle that has gone on +for months between the lines along the Western Front, and more +especially of what lies behind and goes to the making of those curt and +vague terms in the war communiqués. I think that our people at Home +will be glad to know more, and ought to know more, of what these bald +phrases may actually signify, when, in the other sense, we read +'between the lines.' + +Of the people at Home--whom we at the Front have relied upon and looked +to more than they may know--many have helped us in heaping measure of +deed and thought and thoughtfulness, while others may perhaps have +failed somewhat in their full duty, because, as we have been told and +re-told to the point of weariness, they 'have not understood' and 'do +not realise' and 'were never told.' + +If this book brings anything of interest and pleasure to the first, and +of understanding to the second, it will very fully have served its +double purpose. + +BOYD CABLE. + +'SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE' + _Sept._ 15, 1915. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + THE ADVANCED TRENCHES + SHELLS + THE MINE + ARTILLERY SUPPORT + 'NOTHING TO REPORT' + THE PROMISE OF SPRING + THE ADVANCE + A CONVERT TO CONSCRIPTION + 'BUSINESS AS USUAL' + A HYMN OF HATE + THE COST + A SMOKER'S COMPANION + THE JOB OF THE AM. COL. + THE SIGNALLER'S DAY + + + + +BETWEEN THE LINES + + +THE ADVANCED TRENCHES + +'_Near Blank, on the Dash-Dot front, a section of advanced trench +changed hands several times, finally remaining in our possession._' + + +For perhaps the twentieth time in half an hour the look-out man in the +advanced trench raised his head cautiously over the parapet and peered +out into the darkness. A drizzling rain made it almost impossible to +see beyond a few yards ahead, but then the German trench was not more +than fifty yards off and the space between was criss-crossed and +interlaced and a-bristle with the tangle of barb-wire defences erected +by both sides. For the twentieth time the look-out peered and twisted +his head sideways to listen, and for the twentieth time he was just +lowering his head beneath the sheltering parapet when he stopped and +stiffened into rigidity. There was no sound apart from the sharp +cracks of the rifles near at hand and running diminuendo along the +trenches into a rising and falling stutter of reports, the frequent +whine and whistle of the more distant bullets, and the quick hiss and +'zipp' of the nearer ones, all sounds so constant and normal that the +look-out paid no heed to them, put them, as it were, out of the focus +of his hearing, and strained to catch the fainter but far more +significant sound of a footstep squelching in the mud, the 'snip' of a +wire-cutter at work, the low 'tang' of a jarred wire. + +A few hundred yards down the line, a dazzling light sprang out, hung +suspended, and slowly floated down, glowing nebulous in the misty rain, +and throwing a soft radiance and dusky shadows and gleaming lines of +silver along the parapets and wire entanglements. + +Intent, the look-out stared to his front for a moment, flung muzzle +over the parapet and butt to shoulder, and snapped a quick shot at one +of the darker blotches that lay prone beyond the outer tangles of wire. +The blotch jerked and sprawled, and the look-out shouted, slipped out +the catch of his magazine cut-off, and pumped out the rounds as fast as +fingers could work bolt and trigger, the stabbing flashes of the +discharge lighting with sharp vivid glares his tense features, set +teeth, and scowling eyes. There was a pause and stillness for the +space of a couple of quick-drawn breaths, and then--pandemonium! + +The forward trench flamed and blazed with spouts of rifle-fire, its +slightly curved length clearly defined from end to end by the spitting +flashes. Verey lights and magnesium flares turned the darkness to +ghastly vivid light, the fierce red and orange of bursting bombs and +grenades threw splashes of angry colour on the glistening wet parapets, +the flat khaki caps of the British, the dark overcoats of the Germans +struggling and hacking in the barb-wires. The eye was confused with +the medley of leaping lights and shadows; the ear was dazed with the +clamour and uproar of cracking rifles, screaming bullets, and +shattering bombs, the oaths and yells, the shouted orders, the groans +and outcries of the wounded. Then from overhead came a savage rush and +shriek, a flash of light that showed vivid even amidst the confusion of +light, a harder, more vicious crash than all the other crashing +reports, and the shrapnel ripped down along the line of the German +trench that erupted struggling, hurrying knots of men. + +A call from the trench telephone, or the sound of the burst of bomb and +rifle fire, had brought the gunners on the jump for their loaded +pieces, and once more the guns were taking a hand. Shell after shell +roared up overhead and lashed the ground with shrapnel, and for a +moment the attack flinched and hung back and swayed uncertainly under +the cruel hail. For a moment only, and then it surged on again, +seethed and eddied in agitated whirlpools amongst the stakes and +strands of the torturing wires, came on again, and with a roar of hate +and frenzied triumph leaped at the low parapet. The parapet flamed and +roared again in gusts of rapid fire, and the front ranks of the +attackers withered and went down in struggling heaps before it. But +the ranks behind came on fiercely and poured in over the trench; the +lights flickered and danced on plunging bayonets and polished butts; +the savage voices of the killing machines were drowned in the more +savage clamour of the human fighter, and then . . . comparative silence +fell on the trench. + +The attack had succeeded, the Germans were in and, save for one little +knot of men who had escaped at the last minute, the defenders were +killed, wounded, or taken prisoners. The captured trench was shaped +like the curve of a tall, thin capital D, a short communication trench +leading in to either end from the main firing trench that formed the +back of the D and a prolongation outwards from it. The curve was in +German hands, but no sooner was this certain than the main trench +sprang to angry life. The Germans in the captured curve worked in a +desperation of haste, pulling sandbags from what had been the face of +the trench and heaving them into place to make a breastwork on the new +front, while reinforcements rushed across from the German side and +opened fire at the main British trench a score of yards away. + +Then, before the gasping takers of the trench could clear the dead and +wounded from under their feet, before they could refill their emptied +magazines, or settle themselves to new footholds and elbow-rests, the +British counter-attack was launched. It was ushered in by a shattering +burst of shrapnel. The word had passed to the gunners, careful and +minute adjustments had been made, the muzzles had swung round a +fraction, and then, suddenly and quick as the men could fling in a +round, slam the breech and pull the firing lever, shell after shell had +leapt roaring on their way to sweep the trench that had been British, +but now was enemy. For ten or fifteen seconds the shrapnel hailed +fiercely on the cowering trench; then, at another word down the +telephone, the fire shut off abruptly, to re-open almost immediately +further forward over the main German trenches. + +From the main British trench an officer leaped, another and another +heaved themselves over the parapet, and in an instant the long, level +edge of the trench was crowded with scrambling, struggling men. With a +hoarse yell they flung themselves forward, and the lost trench spouted +a whirlwind of fire and lead to meet their rush. But the German +defenders had no fair chance of resistance. Their new parapet was not +half formed and offered no protection to the stream of bullets that +sleeted in on them from rifles and maxims on their flanks. The +charging British infantry carried hand grenades and bombs and flung +them ahead of them as they ran, and, finally, there was no thicket of +barb-wire to check the swing and impetus of the rush. The trench was +reached, and again the clamour of voices raised in fear and pain, the +hoarse rancour of hate, the shrill agony of death, rose high on the +sounds of battle. The rush swept up on the trench, engulfed it as a +wave engulfs the cleft on a rock beach, boiled and eddied about it, and +then . . . and then . . . swept roaring over it, and on. The +counter-attack had succeeded, and the victors were pushing their +advantage home in an attack on the main German trench. The remnants of +the German defenders were swept back, fighting hopelessly but none the +less fiercely. Supports poured out to their assistance, and for a full +five minutes the fight raged and swayed in the open between the +trenches and among the wire entanglements. The men who fell were +trampled, squirming, underfoot in the bloody mire and mud; the fighters +stabbed and hacked and struck at short arm-length, fell even to using +fists and fingers when the press was too close for weapon play and +swing. + +But the attack died out at last without the German entanglements being +passed or their earthwork being reached. Here and there an odd man had +scrambled and torn a way through the wire, only to fall on or before +the parapet. Others hung limp or writhing feebly to free themselves +from the clutching hooks of the wire. Both sides withdrew, panting and +nursing their dripping wounds, to the shelter of their trenches, and +both left their dead sprawled in the trampled ooze or stayed to help +their wounded crawling painfully back to cover. Immediately the +British set about rebuilding their shattered trench and parapet; but +before they had well begun the spades had to be flung down again and +the rifles snatched to repel another fierce assault. This time a storm +of bombs, hand grenades, rifle grenades, and every other fiendish +device of high-explosives, preceded the attack. The trench was racked +and rent and torn, sections were solidly blown in, and other sections +were flung out bodily in yawning crevasses and craters. From end to +end the line was wrapped in billowing clouds of reeking smoke, and +starred with bursts of fire. The defenders flattened themselves close +against the forward parapet that shook and trembled beneath them like a +live thing under the rending blasts. The rifles still cracked up and +down the line; but, in the main, the soaking, clay-smeared men held +still and hung on, grimly waiting and saving their full magazines for +the rush they knew would follow. It came at last, and the men breathed +a sigh of relief at the escape it meant from the rain of +high-explosives. It was their turn now, and the roar of their +rifle-fire rang out and the bomb-throwers raised themselves to hurl +their carefully-saved missiles on the advancing mass. The mass reeled +and split and melted under the fire, but fresh troops were behind and +pushing it on, and once more it flooded in on the trench. . . . + +Again the British trench had become German, although here and there +throughout its length knots of men still fought on, unheeding how the +fight had gone elsewhere in the line, and intent solely on their own +little circle of slaughter. + +But this time the German success was hardly made before it was blotted +out. The British supports had been pushed up to the disputed point, +and as the remnants of the last defenders straggled back they met the +fierce rush of the new and fresh force. + +This time it was quicker work. The trench by now was shattered and +wrecked out of all real semblance to a defensive work. The edge of the +new attack swirled up to it, lipped over and fell bodily into it. For +a bare minute the defence fought, but it was overborne and wiped out in +that time. The British flung in on top of the defenders like terriers +into a rat-pit, and the fighters snarled and worried and scuffled and +clutched and tore at each other more like savage brutes than men. The +defence was not broken or driven out--it was killed out; and lunging +bayonet or smashing butt caught and finished the few that tried to +struggle and claw a way out up the slippery trench-sides. Hard on the +heels of the victorious attackers came a swarm of men running and +staggering to the trench with filled sandbags over their shoulders. As +the front of the attack passed on over the wrecked trench and pressed +the Germans back across the open, the sandbags were flung down and +heaped scientifically in the criss-cross of a fresh breastwork. Other +men, laden with coils of wire and stakes and hammers, ran out in front +and fell to work erecting a fresh entanglement. In five minutes or +ten--for minutes are hard to count and tally at such a time and in such +work--the new defence was complete, and the fighters in the open ran +back and leapt over into cover. + +Once more a steady crackle of rifle-fire ran quivering up and down the +line, and from their own trenches the Germans could see, in the light +of the flares, a new breastwork facing them, a new entanglement waiting +to trap them, a steady stream of fire spitting and sparkling along the +line. They could see, too, the heaped dead between the lines, and in +their own thinned ranks make some reckoning of the cost of their +attempt. + +The attempt was over. There were a few score dead lying in ones and +twos and little clumped heaps in the black mud; the disputed trench was +a reeking shambles of dead and wounded; the turn of the +stretcher-bearers and the Red Cross workers had come. There would be +another column to add to the Casualty Lists presently, and another +bundle of telegrams to be despatched to the 'Next of Kin.' + +And to-morrow the official despatch would mention the matter coldly and +tersely; and the papers would repeat it; and a million eyes would read +with little understanding . . . 'changed hands several times, finally +remaining in our possession.' + + + + +SHELLS + +'_. . . to the right a violent artillery bombardment has been in +progress._'--ACTUAL EXTRACT FROM OFFICIAL DESPATCH. + + +No. 2 Platoon of the Royal Blanks was cooking its breakfast with +considerable difficulty and an astonishing amount of cheerfulness when +the first shell fell in front of their firing trench. It had rained +most of the night, as indeed it had rained most of the past week or the +past month. All night long the men had stood on the firing step of the +trench, chilled and miserable in their sodden clothing, and sunk in +soft sticky mud over the ankles. All night long they had peeped over +the parapet, or fired through the loopholes at the German trench a +hundred yards off. And all night long they had been galled and stung +by that 'desultory rifle fire' that the despatches mention so casually +and so often, and that requires to be endured throughout a dragging day +and night before its ugliness and unpleasantness can be realised. + +No. 2 Platoon had two casualties for the night--a corporal who had +paused too long in looking over the parapet while a star-shell flared, +and 'caught it' neatly through the forehead, and a private who, in the +act of firing through a loop-hole, had been hit by a bullet which +glanced off his rifle barrel and completed its resulting ricochet in +the private's eyes and head. There were other casualties further along +the trench, but outside the immediate ken of No. 2 Platoon, until they +were assisted or carried past on their way to the ambulance. + +Just after daybreak the desultory fire and the rain together had almost +ceased, and No. 2 Platoon set about trying to coax cooking fires out of +damp twigs and fragments of biscuit boxes which had been carefully +treasured and protected in comparative dryness inside the men's +jackets. The breakfast rations consisted of Army bread--heavy lumps of +a doughy elasticity one would think only within the range of badness of +a comic paper's 'Mrs. Newlywed'--flint-hard biscuits, cheese, and tea. + +'The only complaint against the rations bein' too much plum jam,' said +a clay-smeared private, quoting from a much-derided 'Eye-witness' +report as he dug out a solid streak of uncooked dough from the centre +of his half-loaf and dropped it in the brazier. + +Then the first shell landed. It fell some yards outside the parapet, +and a column of sooty black smoke shot up and hung heavily in the damp +air. No. 2 Platoon treated it lightly. + +'Good mornin',' said one man cheerfully, nodding towards the black +cloud. 'An' we 'ave not used Pears' soap.' + +'Bless me if it ain't our old friend the Coal Box,' said another. 'We +'aven't met one of 'is sort for weeks back.' + +'An' here's 'is pal Whistling Willie,' said a third, and they sat +listening to the rise-and-fall whistling _s-s-sh-s-s-sh_ of a +high-angle shell. As the whistle rose to a shriek, the group of men +half made a move to duck, but they were too late, and the shell burst +with a thunderous bang just short of the front parapet. Mud and lumps +of earth splashed and rattled down into the trench, and fragments of +iron hurtled singing overhead. + +The men cursed angrily. The brazier had been knocked over by a huge +clod, half-boiling water was spilt, and, worst of all, the precious dry +wood had fallen in the mud and water of the trench bottom. But the men +soon had other things than a lost breakfast to think of. A shrapnel +crashed overhead and a little to the right, and a sharp scream that +died down into deep groans told of the first casualty. Another shell, +and then another, roared up and smashed into the soft ground behind the +trench, hurting no one, but driving the whole line to crouch low in the +narrow pit. + +'Get down and lie close everyone,' shouted the young officer of No. 2 +Platoon, but the 'crump-crump-crump' of another group of falling shells +spoke sterner and more imperative orders than his. For half an hour +the big shells fell with systematic and regular precision along the +line of the front trench, behind it on the bare ground, and further +back towards the supports' trench. The shooting was good, but so were +the trenches--deep and narrow, and steep-sided, with dug-outs scooped +under the bank and strong traverses localising the effect of any shell +that fell exactly on the trench. There were few casualties, and the +Royal Blanks were beginning to congratulate themselves on getting off +so lightly as the fire slackened and almost died away. + +With the rest of the line No. 2 Platoon was painfully moving from its +cramped position and trying to stamp and shake the circulation back +into its stiffened limbs, when there came a sudden series of swishing +rushes and sharp vicious cracks overhead, and ripping thuds of shrapnel +across and across the trench. The burst of fire from the light guns +was excellently timed. Their high velocity and flat trajectory landed +the shells on their mark without any of the whistling rush of approach +that marked the bigger shells and gave time to duck into any available +cover. The one gust of light shells caught a full dozen men--as many +as the half-hour's work of the big guns. + +Then the heavies opened again as accurately as before and twice as +fast. The trench began to yawn in wide holes, and its sides to crumble +and collapse. No. 2 Platoon occupied a portion of the trench that ran +out in a blunted angle, and it caught the worst of the fire. One shell +falling just short of the front parapet dug a yawning hole and drove in +the forward wall of the trench in a tumbled slide of mud and earth. A +dug-out and the two men occupying it were completely buried, and the +young officer scurried and pushed along to the place shouting for +spades. A party fell to work with frantic haste; but all their energy +was wasted. The occupants of the buried dug-out were dead when at last +the spades found them . . . and broken finger-nails and bleeding +finger-tips told a grisly tale of the last desperate struggle for +escape and for the breath of life. The officer covered the one +convulsed face and starting eyes with his handkerchief, and a private +placed a muddy cap over the other. + +'Get back to your places and get down,' said the officer quietly, and +the men crawled back and crouched low again. For a full hour the line +lay under the flail of the big shells that roared and shrieked overhead +and thundered crashing along the trenches. For a full hour the men +barely moved, except to shift along from a spot where the shaken and +crumbling parapet gave insufficient cover from the hailing shrapnel +that poured down at intervals, and from the bullets that swept in and +smacked venomously into the back of the trench through the shell-rifts +in the parapet. + +A senior officer made his way slowly along the sodden and quaking +trench. He halted beside the young officer and spoke to him a few +minutes, asking what the casualties were and hoping vaguely 'they would +ease off presently.' + +'Can't our own guns do anything?' asked the youngster; 'or won't they +let us get out and have a go at them?' + +The senior nodded towards the bare stretch of muddy plough before their +trench, and the tangle of barbed wire beyond. + +'How many men d'you suppose would get there?' he asked. + +'Some would,' said the youngster eagerly, 'and anything would be better +than sticking here and getting pounded to pieces.' + +'We'll see,' said the major moving off. 'They may ask us to try it +presently. And if not we'll pull through, I dare say. See that the +men keep down, and keep down yourself, Grant. Watch out for a rush +through. This may be a preparation for something of the sort.' + +He moved along, and the lad flattened himself again against the side of +the wet trench. + +A word from a man near him turned him round. '. . . a 'tillery +Observin' Officer comin'. P'raps our guns are goin' for 'em at last.' + +The gunner officer stumbled along the trench towards them. Behind him +came his signaller, a coil of wire and a portable telephone in a +leather case slung over his shoulder. No. 2 Platoon watched their +approach with eager anticipation, and strained ears and attention to +catch the conversation that passed between their officer and the +artilleryman. And a thrill of disappointment pulsed down the line at +the gunner's answer to the first question put to him. 'No,' he said, +'I have orders not to fire unless they come out of the trenches to +attack. We'll give 'em gyp if they try it. My guns are laid on their +front trench and I can sweep the whole of this front with shrapnel.' + +'But why not shut up their guns and put a stop to this?' asked the +officer, and his platoon fervently echoed the question in their hearts. + +'Not my pidgin,' said the gunner, cautiously peering through the +field-glasses he levelled through a convenient loophole. 'That's the +Heavies' job. I'm Field, and my guns are too light to say much to +these fellows. Look out!' and he stooped low in the trench as the +rising rush of sound told of a shell coming down near them. + +'That's about an eight-inch,' he said, after the shell had fallen with +a crash behind them, a spout of earth and mud leaping up and spattering +down over them and fragments singing and whizzing overhead. 'Just tap +in on the wire, Jackson, and raise the Battery.' + +The telephonist opened his case and lifted out his instrument, groped +along the trench wall a few yards and found his wire, joined up to his +instruments, dashed off a series of dots and dashes on the 'buzzer,' +and spoke into his mouthpiece. No. 2 Platoon watched in fascinated +silence and again gave all their attention to listening as the +Artillery officer took the receiver. + +'. . . That you, Major? . . . Yes, this is Arbuthnot. . . . In the +forward firing trench. . . . Yes, pretty lively . . . big stuff +they're flinging mostly, and some fourteen-pounder shrap. . . . No, no +signs of a move in their trenches. . . . All right, sir, I'll take +care. I can't see very well from here, so I'm going to move along a +bit. . . . Very well, sir, I'll tap in again higher up. . . . +Good-bye.' He handed back the instrument to the telephonist. 'Pack up +again,' he said, 'and come along.' + +When he had gone No. 2 Platoon turned eagerly on the telephonist, and +he ran a gauntlet of anxious questions as he followed the Forward +Officer. Nine out of ten of the questions were to the same purpose, +and the gunner answered them with some sharpness. He turned angrily at +last on one man who put the query in broad Scots accent. + +'No,' he said tartly, 'we ain't tryin' to silence their guns. An' if +you partickler wants to know why we ain't--well, p'raps them Glasgow +townies o' yours can tell you.' + +He went on and No. 2 Platoon sank to grim silence. The meaning of the +gunner's words were plain enough to all, for had not the papers spoken +for weeks back of the Clyde strikes and the shortage of munitions? And +the thoughts of all were pithily put in the one sentence by a private +of No. 2 Platoon. + +'I'd stop cheerful in this blanky 'ell for a week,' he said slowly, 'if +so be I 'ad them strikers 'ere alongside me gettin' the same dose.' + +All this time there had been a constant although not a heavy rifle fire +on the trenches. It had not done much damage, because the Royal Blanks +were exposing themselves as little as possible and keeping low down in +their narrow trenches. But now the German rifles began to speak +faster, and the fire rose to a dull roar. The machine-guns joined in, +their sharp rat-tat-tat sounding hard and distinct above the rifles. +As the volume of rifle fire increased, so, for a minute, did the shell +fire, until the whole line of the Royal Blanks' trenches was vibrating +to the crash of the shells and humming with rifle bullets which whizzed +overhead or smacked with loud whip-crack reports into the parapet. + +The officer of No. 2 Platoon hitched himself higher on the parapet and +hoisted a periscope over it. Almost instantly a bullet struck it, +shattering the glass to fragments. He lowered it and hastily fitted a +new glass, pausing every few moments to bob his head up over the +parapet and glance hastily across at the German trench. A second time +he raised his instrument to position and in less than a minute it was +shot away for a second time. + +The Artillery officer came hurrying and stumbling back along the +trench, his telephonist labouring behind him. They stopped at the +place where they had tapped in before and the telephonist busied +himself connecting up his instrument. The Artillery officer flung +himself down beside the Platoon commander. 'My confounded wire cut +again,' he panted, 'just when I want it too. Sounds as if they meant a +rush, eh?' The infantryman nodded. 'Will they stop shelling before +they rush?' he shouted. + +'Not till their men are well out in front. Their guns can keep going +over their heads for a bit. Are you through, Jackson? Tell the +Battery to "eyes front." It looks like an attack.' + +The telephonist repeated the message, listened a moment and commenced, +'The Major says, sir----' when his officer interrupted sharply, 'Three +rounds gun-fire--quick.' + +'Three rounds gun-fire--quick, sir,' bellowed the telephonist into his +mouthpiece. + +'Here they come, lads. Let 'em have it,' yelled the Platoon commander, +and commenced himself to fire through a loophole. + +At the same moment there came from the rear the quick thudding reports +of the British guns, the rush of their shells overhead, and the sharp +crash of their shells over the German parapets. + +'All fired, sir,' called the telephonist. + +'Battery fire one second,' the Observing Officer shouted without +turning his head from his watch over the parapet. + +'Number one fired--two fired--three fired,' the signaller called +rapidly, and the Observing Officer watched narrowly the white +cotton-wool clouds of the bursting shrapnel of his guns. + +'Number three, ten minutes more right--all guns, drop +twenty-five--repeat,' he ordered, and in swift obedience the guns began +to drop their shrapnel showers, sweeping along the ground in front of +the German trench. + +But the expected rush of Germans hung fire. A line of bobbing heads +and shoulders had showed above their parapet and only a few scattered +groups had clambered over its top. + +'They're beat,' shouted the infantry officer, exultingly. 'They're +dodging back. Give it to 'em, boys--give it--_ow_!' He broke off and +ducked down with a hand clapped to his cheek where a bullet had scored +its way. + +'Get down! get down! Make your men get down,' said the gunner officer +rapidly. 'It's all . . .' + +Again there came the swishing rush of the light shells, a series of +quick-following bangs, and a hail of shrapnel tearing across the +trench, before the men had time to duck. + +'All a false alarm--just a dodge to get your men's heads up within +reach of their Fizz-Bangs' shrapnel,' said the artilleryman, and called +to the signaller. 'All guns raise twenty-five. Section fire five +seconds. . . . Hullo--hit?' he continued to the Platoon officer, as he +noticed him wiping a smear of blood from his cheek. + +'Just a nice little scratch,' said the lad, grinning. 'Enough to let +me swank about being wounded and show off a pretty scar to my best girl +when the war's over.' + +'Afraid that last shrapnel burst gave some of your fellows more'n a +pretty scar,' said the gunner. 'But I suppose I'd better slow my guns +up again. . . . Jackson, tell them the attack's evidently +stopped--section fire ten seconds.' + +'Can't you keep on belting 'em for a bit?' asked the Platoon officer. +'Might make 'em ease up on us.' + +The gunner shook his head regretfully. + +'I'd ask nothing better,' he said. 'I could just give those trenches +beans. But our orders are strict, and we daren't waste a round on +anything but an attack. I'll bet that's my Major wanting to know if he +can't slack off a bit more,' he continued, as the signaller called +something about 'Wanted to speak here, sir.' + +He went to the instrument and held a short conversation. 'Told you +so,' he said, when he returned to the infantry officer. 'No attack--no +shells. We're stopping again.' + +'Doesn't seem to be too much stop about the Germs,' grumbled the +infantryman, as another series of crackling shells shook the ground +close behind them. He moved down the line speaking a few words here +and there to the crouching men of his platoon. + +'This is getting serious,' he said when he came back to his place. +'There's more than the half of my lot hit, and the most of them pretty +badly. These shrapnel bullets and shell splinters make a shocking mess +of a wound, y'know.' + +'Yes,' said the gunner grimly, 'I know.' + +'A perfectly brutal mess,' the subaltern repeated. 'A bullet now is +more or less decent, but those shells of theirs, they don't give a man +a chance to pull through.' + +'Ours are as bad, if that's any satisfaction to you,' said the gunner. + +'I s'pose so,' agreed the subaltern. 'Ghastly sort of game altogether, +isn't it? Those poor fellows of mine now--the killed, I mean. Think +of their fathers and mothers and wives or sweethearts----' + +'I'd rather not,' said the gunner. 'And I shouldn't advise you to. +Better not to think of these things.' + +'I wish they'd come again,' said the Platoon commander. 'It would stop +the shells for a bit perhaps. They're getting on my nerves. One's so +helpless against them, sticking here waiting to know where the next +will drop. And they don't even give a fellow the ordinary four to one +chance of a casualty being a wound only. They make such a cruel messy +smash of a fellow. . . . Are you going?' + +'Must find that break in my wire,' said the gunner, and presently he +and the telephonist ploughed off along the trench. + +The bombardment continued with varying intensity throughout the day. +There was no grand finale, no spectacular rush or charge, no crashing +assault, no heroic hand-to-hand combats--no anything but the long-drawn +agony of lying still and being hammered by the crashing shells. This +was no 'artillery preparation for the assault,' although the Royal +Blanks did not know that and so dare not stir from the danger zone of +the forward trench. They were not even to have the satisfaction of +giving back some of the punishment they had endured, or the glory--a +glory carefully concealed from their friends at home, and mostly lost +by the disguising or veiling of their identity in the newspapers, but +still a glory--of taking a trench or making a successful attack or +counter-attack. It was merely another 'heavy artillery bombardment,' +lived through and endured all unknown, as so many have been endured. + +The Royal Blanks were relieved at nightfall when the fire had died +down. The Artillery Observing Officer was just outside the +communication trench at the relief hour and saw the casualties being +helped or carried out. A stretcher passed and the figure on it had a +muddy and dark-stained blanket spread over, and an officer's cap and +binoculars on top. + +'An officer?' asked the gunner. 'Who is it?' 'Mr. Grant, sir,' said +one of the stretcher-bearers dully. 'No. 2 Platoon.' + +The gunner noted the empty sag of the blanket where the head and +shoulders should have been outlined and checked the half-formed +question of 'Badly hit?' to 'How was it?' + +'Shell, sir. A Fizz-Bang hit the parapet just where 'e was lyin'. +Caught 'im fair.' + +The bearers moved on, leaving the gunner groping in his memory for a +sentence in the youngster's last talk he had heard. "Ghastly business +. . . cruel messy smash,' he murmured. + +'Beg pardon, sir?' said the telephonist. + +The Forward Officer made no answer but continued to stare after the +disappearing stretcher-bearers. The signaller shuffled his feet in the +mud and hitched up the strap of the instrument on his shoulder. + +'I suppose it's all over now, sir,' he said. + +'Yes, all over--except for his father, or mother, or sweetheart,' said +the officer absently. + +The signaller stared. 'I meant the shellin', sir.' + +'Oh--ah, yes; the shelling, Jackson. Yes, I dare say that's over for +to-night, since they seem to have stopped now.' + +'P'raps we might see about some food, sir,' said the signaller. + +'Food--to be sure,' said the officer briskly. 'Eat, drink, and be +merry, Jackson, for--I'm hungry too, now I think of it. And, oh Lord, +I'm tired.' + +No. 2 Platoon were tired too, as they filed wearily out by the +communication trench, tired and worn out mentally and physically--and +yet not too tired or too broken for a light word or a jest. From the +darkness behind them a German flare soared up and burst, throwing up +bushes and shattered buildings, sandbag parapets, broken tree-stumps, +sticks and stones in luminous-edged silhouette. A machine-gun burst +into a stutter of fire, the reports sounding faint at first and louder +and louder as the muzzle swept round in its arc. 'Ssh-sh-sh-sh,' the +bullets swept overhead, and No. 2 Platoon halted and crouched low in +the shallow communication trench. + +'Oh, shut it, blast ye,' growled one of the men disgustedly. 'Ain't we +'ad enough for one day?' + +'It's only 'im singin' 'is little evenin' hymn as usual,' said another. + +'Just sayin' 'is good-bye an' sendin' a few partin' sooveniers'; and +another sang 'Say aw rev-wore, but not good-bye.' + +'Stop that howling there,' a sergeant called down the line, 'and stop +smoking those cigarettes and talking.' + +'Certainly, sergeant,' a voice came back. 'An' please sergeant, will +you allow us to keep on breathin'?' + +The light died, and the line rose and moved on, squelching softly in +the mud. A man clapped a hand to his pocket, half halted and exclaimed +in annoyance. 'Blest if I 'aven't left my mouth-organ back there,' he +said. 'Hutt!' said his next file. 'Be glad ye've a mouth left, or a +head to have a mouth. It might be worse, an' ye might be left back +there yerself decoratin' about ten square yards of trench.' + +'Tut-tut-tut-tut' went the maxim behind them again. + +'Tutt-tutt yourself, you stammer-an'-spit blighter,' said the +disconsolate mouth-organ loser, and 'D'you think we can chance a smoke +yet?' as the platoon moved out on the road and behind the shelter of +some ruined house-walls. + +Platoon by platoon the company filed out and formed up roughly behind +the houses. The order to move came at last and the ranked fours swung +off, tramping slowly and stolidly in silence until some one struck up a +song-- + + '_Crump, crump, crump, says the big bustin' shells----_ + +A chorus of protest and a 'Give the shells a rest' stopped the song on +the first line, and it was to the old regimental tune, the canteen and +sing-song favourite, 'The Sergeant's Return,' that the Royal Blanks +settled itself into its pack shoulder-straps and tramped on. + + I'm the same ol' feller that you always used to know-- + Oh! Oh! you know you used to know-- + An' it's years since we parted way down on Plymouth Hoe-- + Oh! Oh! So many years ago. + I've roamed around the world, but I've come back to you, + For my 'eart 'as never altered, my 'eart is ever true. + [Prolonged and noisy imitation of a kiss.] + _Ain't_ that got the taste you always used to know? + + +The colonel was talking to the adjutant in the road as the companies +moved past, and he noted with some concern the ragged ranks and +listless movement of the first lot to pass. + +'They're looking badly tucked up,' he said. + +'They've had a cruel day,' said the adjutant. + +'Yes, the worst kind,' agreed the O.C. 'And I doubt if they can stand +that sort of thing so well now. The old regiment is not what it used +to be. We're so filled up with recruits now--youngsters too. . . . +Here's B company--about the rawest of the lot and caught the worst of +it to-day. How d'you think they stand it?' + +But it was B company that answered the question for itself and the old +regiment, singing the answer softly to itself and the O.C. as it +trudged past-- + + I'm the same ol' feller that you always used to know-- + Oh! Oh! you know you used to know. . . . + + +'Gad, Malcolm,' said the O.C. straightening his own shoulders, 'they'll +do, they'll do.' + + . . . My 'eart 'as never altered, my 'eart is ever true, + +the remnant of No. 2 Platoon sang past him. + +'They haven't shaken us yet,' said the O.C. proudly. + +'Tutt, tutt!' grumbled the maxim faintly. 'Tutt, tutt!' + + + + +THE MINE + +'_. . . a mine was successfully exploded under a section of the enemy's +trench. . . ._'--ACTUAL EXTRACT FROM AN OFFICIAL DESPATCH. + + +Work on the sap-head had been commenced on what the Captain of the +Sappers called 'a beautiful night,' and what anyone else outside a +lunatic asylum would have described with the strongest adjectives +available in exactly the opposite sense. A piercing wind was blowing +in gusts of driving sleet and rain, it was pitch dark--'black as the +inside of a cow,' as the Corporal put it--and it was bitterly cold. +But, since all these conditions are exactly those most calculated to +make difficult the work of an enemy's sentries and look-outs, and the +first work of sinking a shaft is one which it is highly desirable +should be unobserved by an enemy, the Sapper Captain's satisfaction may +be understood. + +The sap-head was situated amongst the ruins of a cottage a few yards +behind the forward firing trench, and by the time a wet daylight had +dawned the Sappers had dug themselves well underground, had securely +planked up the walls of the shaft, and had cut a connecting gallery +from the ruins to the communication trench. All this meant that their +work was fairly free from observation, and the workers reasonably safe +from bombs and bullets, so that the officer in charge had good cause +for the satisfaction with which he made his first report. + +His first part of the work had been a matter of plans and maps, of +compass and level, of observing the ground--incidentally dodging the +bullets of the German snipers who caught glimpses of his crawling +form--by day, and of intricate and exact figuring and calculating by +night, in the grimy cellar of another ruined house by the light of a +candle, stuck in an empty bottle. + +Thereafter he spent all his waking hours (and many of his sleeping ones +as well) in a thick suit of clayey mud; he lived like a mole in his +mine gallery or his underground cellar, saw the light only when he +emerged to pass from his work to his sleep or meals, and back to his +work, and generally gave himself, his whole body and brain and being, +to the correct driving of a shallow burrow straight to the selected +point under the enemy trench a hundred and odd yards away. He was a +youngish man, and this was the first job of any importance that had +been wholly and solely entrusted to him. It was not only his anxiety +to make a creditable showing, but he was keen on the work for the +work's own sake, and he revelled in the creative sense of the true +artist. The mine was his. He had first suggested it, he had surveyed +it, and plotted it, and measured and planned and worked it out on +paper; and now, when it came to the actual pick-and-shovel work, he +supervised and directed and watched each hour of work, and each yard of +progress. + +It was tricky work, too, and troublesome. At first the ground was good +stiff clay that the spades bit out in clean mouthfuls, and that left a +fair firm wall behind. But that streak ran out in the second day's +working, and the mine burrowed into some horrible soft crumbly soil +that had to be held up and back by roof and wall of planking. The +Subaltern took a party himself and looted the wrecks of houses--there +was no lack of these in the village just behind the lines--of +roof-beams and flooring, and measured and marked them for sawing into +lengths, and would have taken a saw with pleasure himself. + +Then he dived cheerfully into the oozing wet burrow and superintended +the shoring up, and re-started the men to digging, and emerged a moment +to see more planking passed down. He came in fact dangerously near to +making a nuisance of himself, and some of his men who had been sapping +and mining for wet and weary months past were inclined to resent quite +so much fussing round and superintendence. But the Corporal put that +right. He was an elderly man with a nasty turn of temper that had got +him into almost as many troubles in his service as his knowledge, +experience, and aptitude for hard work and responsibility had got him +out of. + +'Leave the lad be,' he had said when some of the party had passed +grumbling remarks about 'too bloomin' much fuss an' feathers over a +straight simple bloomin' job.' The Corporal had promptly squashed that +opinion. 'Leave the lad be,' he said. 'He's young to the job, mebbe, +but he's not such a simple fool as some that take this for a simple +job. It's not goin' to be all that simple, as you'll find before +you're done.' + +He was right, too. The crumbling soil was one little difficulty +promptly and easily met. The next was more troublesome. The soil grew +wetter and more wet until at last the men were working ankle deep in +water. The further the mine went the wetter it became. The men worked +on, taking their turn at the narrow face, shovelling out the wet muck +and dragging it back to the shaft and up and out and away by the +communication trench. They squeezed aside in silence when the +Subaltern pushed in to inspect the working, and waited with side winks +to one another to see what he would do to overcome the water +difficulty. 'Pumps' would of course have been the simple answer, but +the men knew as well as the Subaltern knew that pumps were not to be +had at that particular time and place for love or money, and that all +the filling of all the 'indents' in the R.E. would not produce one +single efficient pump from store. + +The Subaltern did not trouble with indent forms or stores. He had had +something of a fight to get a grudging permission for his mine, and he +felt it in his bones that if he worried the big chiefs too much with +requisitions he would be told to abandon the mine. He shut his teeth +tight at the thought. It was his mine and he was going to see it +through, if he had to bale the water out with a tea-cup. + +He made a quick cast through the shell-wrecked village, drew blank, sat +for fifteen minutes on the curb of a rubble-choked well and thought +hard, jumped up and called the Corporal to provide him with four men +and some odd tools, and struck back across muddy and shell-cratered +fields to the nearest farm. The farmer, who had remained in possession +despite the daily proximity of bursting shells, a shrapnel-smashed tile +roof, and a gaping hole where one house-corner should have been, made +some objection to the commandeering of his old-fashioned farm pump. He +was at first supported in this by the officer in charge of the men +billeted in the barn and sheds, but the Sapper explained the urgency of +his need and cunningly clinched the argument by reminding the Infantry +officer that probably he and his men would soon be installed in the +trenches from which the mine ran, and that he--the Sapper--although he +was not supposed to mention it, might just hint that his mine was only +hurrying to forestall an enemy mine which was judged to be approaching +the trench the Infantry officer would presently occupy. This last was +a sheer invention of the moment, but it served excellently, and the +Sapper and his party bore off their pump in triumph. It was later +erected in the mine shaft, and the difficulty of providing sufficient +piping to run from the pump to the waterlogged part of the mine was met +by a midnight visit to the house where Headquarters abode and the +wholesale removal of gutters and rain-pipes. As Headquarters had its +principal residence in a commodious and cobwebby cellar, the absence of +the gutters fortunately passed without remark, and the sentry who +watched the looting and the sergeant to whom he reported it were quite +satisfied by the presence of an Engineer officer and his calm assurance +that it was 'all right--orders--an Engineers' job.' + +The pump did its work excellently, and a steady stream of muddy water +gushed from its nozzle and flowed down the Headquarters gutter-pipes to +a selected spot well behind the trenches. Unfortunately the pump, +being old-fashioned, was somewhat noisy, and all the packing and oiling +and tinkering failed to silence its clank-clink, clank-clink, as its +arm rose and fell. + +The nearest German trench caught the clank-clink, and by a simple +process of deduction and elimination arrived at its meaning and its +location. The pump and the pumpers led a troubled life after that. +Snipers kept an unsteady but never silent series of bullets smacking +into the stones of the ruin, whistling over the communication trench, +and 'whupp'-ing into the mud around both. A light gun took a hand and +plumped a number of rounds each day into the crumbling walls and +rubbish-heaps of stone and brick, and burst shrapnel all over the lot. +The Sappers dodged the snipers by keeping tight and close to cover; +they frustrated the direct-hitting 'Fizz-Bang' shells by a stout +barricade of many thicknesses of sandbags bolstering up the fragment of +wall that hid their shaft and pump, and finally they erected a low roof +over the works and sandbagged that secure against the shrapnel. There +were casualties of course, but these are always in the way of business +with the Sappers and came as a matter of course. The Germans brought +up a trench-mortar next and flung noisy and nerve-wrecking +high-explosive bombs into and all round the ruin, bursting down all the +remaining walls except the sandbagged one and scoring a few more +casualties until the forward trench installed a trench-mortar of their +own, and by a generous return of two bombs to the enemy's one put the +German out of action. A big _minnenwerfer_ came into play next, and +because it could throw a murderous-sized bomb from far behind the +German trench it was too much for the British trench-mortar to tackle. +This brought the gunners into the game, and the harassed infantry (who +were coming to look on the Sapper Subaltern and his works as an +unmitigated nuisance and a most undesirable acquaintance who drew more +than a fair share of enemy fire on them) appealed to the guns to rid +them of their latest tormentor. An Artillery Observing Officer spent a +perilous hour or two amongst the shrapnel and snipers' bullets on top +of the sandbagged wall, until he had located the _minnenwerfer_. Then +about two minutes' telephoned talk to the Battery and ten minutes of +spouting lyddite volcanoes finished the _minnenwerfer_ trouble. But +all this above-ground work was by way of an aside to the Sapper +Subaltern. He was far too busy with his mine gallery to worry about +the doings of gunners and bomb-throwers and infantry and such-like +fellows. When these people interfered with his work they were a +nuisance of course, but he always managed to find a working party for +the sandbagging protective work without stopping the job underground. + +So the gallery crept steadily on. They had to carry the tunnel rather +close to the surface because at very little depth they struck more +water than any pumps, much less their single farmyard one, could cope +with. The nearness to the surface made a fresh difficulty and +necessitated the greatest care in working under the ground between the +trenches, because here there were always deep shell-holes and craters +to be avoided or floored with the planking that made the tunnel roof. +So the gallery had to be driven carefully at a level below the danger +of exposure through a shell-hole and above the depth at which the water +lay. This meant a tunnel too low to stand or even kneel in with a +straight back, and the men, kneeling in mud, crouched back on their +heels and with rounded back and shoulders, struck their spades forward +into the face and dragged the earth out spadeful by spadeful. Despite +the numbing cold mud they knelt in, the men, stripped to shirts with +rolled sleeves and open throats, streamed rivulets of sweat as they +worked; for the air was close and thick and heavy, and the exertion in +the cramped space was one long muscle-racking strain. + +Once the roof and walls caved in, and three men were imprisoned. The +collapse came during the night, fortunately, and, still more +fortunately behind the line and parapet of the forward trench. The +Subaltern flung himself and his men on the muddy wreckage in frantic +haste to clear an opening and admit air to the imprisoned men. It took +time, a heart-breaking length of time; and it was with a horrible dread +in his heart that the Subaltern at last pushed in to the uncovered +opening and crawled along the tunnel, flashing his electric torch +before him. Half-way to the end he felt a draught of cold air, and, +promptly extinguishing his lamp, saw a hole in the roof. His men were +alive all right, and not only alive but keeping on hard at work at the +end of the tunnel. When the collapse came they had gone back to where +their roof lay across the bottom of a shell-hole, pulled a plank out, +and--gone back to work. + +When the tunnel reached a point under the German parapet it was turned +sharp to left and right, forming a capital T with the cross-piece +running roughly along the line of trench and parapet. Here there was +need of the utmost deliberation and caution. A pick could not be used, +and even a spade had to be handled gently, in case the sounds of +working should reach the Germans overhead. In some places the +Subaltern could actually hear the movements and footsteps of the enemy +just above him. + +Twice the diggers disturbed a dead German, buried evidently under the +parapet. Once a significant crumbling of the earth and fall of a few +heavy clods threatened a collapse where the gallery was under the edge +of the trench. The spot was hastily but securely shored up with +infinite caution and the least possible sound, and after that the +Subaltern had the explosive charges brought along and connected up in +readiness. Then, if the roof collapsed or their work were discovered, +the switch at the shaft could still be pressed, the wires would still +carry the current, and the mine would be exploded. + +At last the Subaltern decided that everything was ready. He carefully +placed his charges, connected up his wires again, cleared out his +tools, and emerged to report 'all ready.' + +Now the 'touching off' of a good-sized mine is not a matter to be done +lightly or without due and weighty authority, and that because more is +meant to result from it than the upheaval of some square yards of earth +and the destruction of so many yards of enemy trench. The mine itself, +elaborate and labour-making as it may have been, is, after all, only a +means to an end. That end may be the capture of a portion of the ruins +of the trench, it may be the destruction of an especially strong and +dangerous 'keep,' a point of resistance or an angle for attack. It may +even be a mine to destroy a mine which is known to be tunnelling into +our own trenches, but in any case the explosion is usually a signal for +attack from one side or the other, and therefore requires all the usual +elaborate arrangements of reinforcements and supports and so on. +Therefore the Sapper Subaltern, when he had finished his work and made +his report, had nothing to do but sit down and wait until other +people's preparations were made, and he received orders to complete his +work by utterly and devastatingly destroying it. The Subaltern found +this wait about the most trying part of the whole affair, more +especially since he had for a good many days and nights had so much to +occupy his every moment. + +He received word at last of the day and hour appointed for the +explosion, and had the honour of a visit of inspection from a very +superior officer who pored long and painstakingly over the paper plans, +put a great many questions, even went the length of walking down the +communication trench and peering down the entrance shaft, and looking +over the sandbagged wall through a periscope at the section of German +trench marked down for destruction. Then he complimented the Subaltern +on his work, declined once again the offer of a muddy mackintosh and an +invitation to crawl down the mine, and went off. The Subaltern saw him +off the premises, returned to the shaft and donned the mackintosh, and +crawled off up his tunnel once more. + +Somehow, now that the whole thing was finished and ready, he felt a +pang of reluctance to destroy it and so fulfil its destiny. As he +crawled along, he noted each little bit of shoring-up and supporting +planks, each rise and fall in the floor, each twist and angle in the +direction, and recalled the infinite labour of certain sections, his +glows of satisfaction at the speed of progress at the easy bits, his +impatience at the slow and difficult portions. It seemed as if he had +been building that tunnel for half a lifetime, had hardly ever done +anything else but build it or think about building it. And now, +to-morrow it was all to be destroyed. He recalled with a thrill of +boyish pleasure the word of praise from the Corporal--a far greater +pleasure, by the way, than he had derived from the Great One's +compliments--the praise of one artist to another, the recognition of +good work done, by one who himself had helped in many good works and +knew well of what he spoke. 'She's done, sir,' the Corporal had said. +'And if I may say so, sir, she's a credit to you. A mighty tricky job, +sir, and I've seen plenty with long years in the Service that would ha' +been stumped at times. I'm glad to have had a hand in it wi' you, sir. +And all the men feel the same way about it.' + +Ah well, the Subaltern thought as he halted at the joint of the +T-piece, none of them felt the same about it as he himself did. He +squatted there a moment, listening to the drip of water that was the +only sound. Suddenly his heart leapt . . . was it the only sound? +What was that other, if it could be called a sound? It was a sense +rather, an indefinable blending of senses of hearing and feel and +touch--a faint, barely perceptible 'thump, thump,' like the beat of a +man's heart in his breast. He snapped off the light of his electric +lamp and crouched breathless in the darkness, straining his ears to +hear. He was soon satisfied. He had not lived these days past with +the sound of digging in his ears by day and his dreams by night not to +recognise the blows of a pick. There . . . they had stopped now; and +in imagination he pictured the digger laying down the pick to shovel +out the loosened earth. Then, after a pause, the measured thump, thump +went on again. The Subaltern crawled along first one arm of the +cross-section and then the other, halting every now and then to place +his ear to the wet planking or the wetter earth. He located at last +the point nearest to the sound, and without more waste of time scurried +off down his tunnel to daylight. + +He was back in the mine again in less than half an hour--a bare thirty +minutes, but each minute close packed with concentrated essence of +thought and action. + +The nearest trench telephone had put him in touch with Battalion +Headquarters, and through them with Brigade, Divisional, and General +Headquarters. He had told his story and asked for his orders clearly, +quickly, and concisely. The Germans were countermining. Their tunnel +could not possibly miss ours, and, by the sound, would break through in +thirty to sixty minutes. What were his orders? It took some little +time for the orders to come, mainly because--although he knew nothing +of it--his mine was part of a scheme for a general attack, and general +attacks are affairs that cannot be postponed or expedited as easily as +a cold lunch. But the Subaltern filled in the time of waiting, and +when the orders did come he was ready for them or any other. They were +clear and crisp--he was to fire the mine, but only at the latest +possible minute. That was all he got, and indeed all he wanted; and, +since they did not concern him, there is no need here to tell of the +swirl of other orders that buzzed and ticked and talked by field +telegraph and telephone for miles up and down and behind the British +line. + +Before these orders had begun to take shape or coherency as a whole, +the Subaltern was back listening to the thump, thump of the German +picks, and busily completing his preparations. It was near noon, and +perhaps the workers would stop for a meal, which would give another +hour for troops to be pushed up or whatever else the Generals wanted +time for. It might even be that a fall of their roof, an extra inflow +of water to their working, any one of the scores of troubles that +hamper and hinder underground mining might stop the crawling advance of +the German sappers for a day or two and allow the Subaltern's mine to +play its appointed part at the appointed time of the grand attack. + +But meantime the Subaltern took no chances. First he connected up a +short switch which in the last extreme of haste would allow him with +one touch of his finger to blow up his mine and himself with it. He +buried or concealed the wires connecting the linked charges with the +switch outside so as to have a chance of escape himself. He opened a +portable telephone he had carried with him and joined up to the wire he +had also carried in, and so was in touch with his Corporal and the +world of the aboveground. All these things he did himself because +there was no need to risk more than one man in case of a quick +explosion. Then, his preparations complete, he sat down to wait and to +listen to the thudding picks of the Germans. They were very near now, +and with his ear to the wall the Subaltern could hear the shovels now +as well as the picks. He shut his lamp off after a last look at his +switch, his revolver, and the glistening walls and mud-ooze floor of +his tunnel, and sat still in the darkness. Once he whispered an answer +into the telephone to his Corporal, and once he flicked his lamp on an +instant to glance at the watch on his wrist. Then he crouched still +and silent again. The thumping of his heart nearly drowned the thud of +the picks, he was shivering with excitement, and his mouth grew dry and +leathery. He felt a desire to smoke, and had his case out and a +cigarette in his lips when it occurred to him that, when the Germans +broke through, the smell of the smoke would tell them instantly that +they were in an occupied working. He counted on a certain amount of +delay and doubt on their part when their picks first pierced his wall, +and he counted on that pause again to give him time to escape. So he +put the cigarette away, and immediately was overwhelmed with a craving +for it. He fought it for five minutes that felt like five hours, and +felt his desire grow tenfold with each minute. It nearly drove him to +doing what all the risk, all the discomfort of his cramped position, +all the danger, had not done--to creep out and fire the mine without +waiting for that last instant when the picks would break through. It +could make little difference, he argued to himself, in the movements of +those above. What could five minutes more, or ten, or even fifteen, +matter now? It might even be that he was endangering the success of +the explosion by waiting, and it was perhaps wiser to crawl out at once +and fire the mine--and he could safely light a cigarette then as soon +as he was round the corner of the T. So he argued the matter out, +fingering his cigarette-case and longing for the taste of the tobacco, +and yet knowing in his inmost heart that he would not move, despite his +arguments, until the first pick came through. He heard the strokes +draw nearer and nearer, and now he held his breath and strained his +eyes as each one was delivered. The instant he had waited for came in +exactly the fashion he had expected--a thud, a thread of yellow light +piercing the black dark, a grunt of surprise from the pick-wielder at +the lack of resistance to his stroke. All this was just what he had +expected, had known would happen. The next stroke would show the +digger that he was entering some hole. Then there would be cautious +investigation, the sending back word to an officer, the slow and +careful enlargement of the opening. And before that moment came the +Subaltern would be down his tunnel, and outside, and pressing the +switch . . . + +But his programme worked out no further than that first instant and +that first gleam of light. He saw the gleam widen suddenly as the pick +was withdrawn, heard another quick blow, saw the round spot of light +run out in little cracks and one wide rift, and suddenly the wall fell +in, and he was staring straight into the German gallery, with a dark +figure silhouetted clear down to the waist against the light of an +electric bulb-lamp which hung from the gallery roof. For an instant +the Subaltern's blood froze. The figure of the German was only +separated from him by a bare three yards, and to his dark-blinded eyes +it seemed that he himself was standing in plain view in a brilliant +blaze of light. Actually he was in almost complete darkness. The +single light in the German gallery hardly penetrated through the gloom +of his own tunnel, and what little did showed nothing to the eyes of +the German, used to the lamp-light and staring suddenly into the black +rift before him. But the German called out to some one behind him, +twisted round, moved, stooping, back to the lamp and reached up a hand +to it. The Subaltern backed away hastily, his eyes fixed on the glow +of light in the opening. The hole had broken through on a curve of his +tunnel, so that for fifteen or twenty feet back he could still see down +the German gallery, could watch the man unhook the lamp and carry it +back to the opening, thrust the lamp before him and lean in over the +crumbling heap of earth his pick had brought down. The Subaltern +stopped and drew a gasping breath and held it. Discovery was a matter +of seconds now. He had left his firing switch, but he still carried +the portable telephone slung from his shoulder, the earth-pin dangling +from it. He had only to thrust the pin into the mud and he was +connected up with the Corporal at the outside switch, had only to shout +one word, 'Fire!'--and it would all be over. Quickly but noiselessly +he put his hand down to catch up the wire with the earth-pin. His hand +touched the revolver-butt in his holster, checked at it, closed round +it and slid it softly out. All this had taken an instant of time, and +as he raised his weapon he saw the German still staring hard under the +upheld lamp into the gloom. He was looking the other way, and the +Subaltern levelled the heavy revolver and paused. The sights stood out +clear and black against the figure standing in the glow of light--a +perfect and unmissable target. The man was bareheaded, and wore a +mud-stained blue shirt with sleeves cut off above the elbow. The +Subaltern moved the notched sights from under the armpit of the raised +arm that held up the light, and steadied them on the round of the ear +that stood out clear against the close-cropped black hair. He heard a +guttural exclamation of wonder, saw the head come slowly round until +the circle of the ear foreshortened and moved past his sights, and they +were centred straight between the staring eyes. His finger contracted +on the trigger, but a sudden qualm stayed him. It wasn't fair, it +wasn't sporting, it was too like shooting a sitting hare. And the man +hadn't seen him even yet. Man? This was no man; a lad rather, a +youth, a mere boy, with childish wondering eyes, a smooth oval chin, +the mouth of a pretty girl. The Subaltern had a school-boy brother +hardly younger than this boy; and a quick vision rose of a German +mother and sisters--no, he couldn't shoot; it would be murder; it--and +then a quick start, an upward movement of the lamp, a sharp question, +told him the boy had seen. The Subaltern spoke softly in fairly good +German. 'Run away, my boy. In an instant my mine will explode.' + +'Who is it? Who is there?' gasped the boy. + +The Subaltern chuckled, and grinned wickedly. Swiftly he dropped the +revolver, fumbled a moment, and pulled a coil of capped fuse from his +pocket. + +'It is the English,' he said. 'It is an English mine that I now +explode,' and, on the word, lit the fuse and flung it, fizzing and +spitting a jet of sparks and smoke, towards the boy. The lad flinched +back and half turned to run, but the Subaltern saw him look round over +his shoulder and twist back, saw the eyes glaring at the fiery thing in +the mud, the dreadful resolve grow swiftly on the set young face, the +teeth clamped on the resolve. He was going to dash for the fuse, to +try to wrench it out and, as he supposed, prevent the mine exploding. +The Subaltern jerked up the revolver again. This would never do; the +precious seconds were flying; at any moment another man might come. He +would have saved this youngster if he could, but he could allow nothing +to risk failure for his mine. 'Get back,' he said sharply. 'Get back +quickly, or I shall shoot.' + +But now what he had feared happened. A voice called, a scuffling +footfall sounded in the German gallery, a dim figure pushed forward +into the light beside the boy. The Subaltern saw that it was an +officer, heard his angry oath in answer to the boy's quick words, his +shout, 'The light, fool--break it'; saw the clenched fist's vicious +buffet in the boyish face and the quick grab at the electric bulb. The +Subaltern's revolver sights slid off the boy and hung an instant on the +snarling face of the officer. . . . + +In the confined space the roar of his heavy revolver rolled and +thundered in reverberating echoes, the swirling powder-reek blinded him +and stung in his nostrils; and as the smoke cleared he could see the +boy scrambling back along his gallery and the officer sprawled face +down across the earth-heap in the light of the fallen lamp. + +The Subaltern smashed the lamp himself before he too turned and +plunged, floundering and slipping and stumbling, for his exit in an +agony of haste and apprehension. It was all right, he told himself a +dozen times; the officer was done for--the back of that head and a past +knowledge of a service revolver's work at close range told him that +plain enough; it would take a good many minutes for the boy to tell his +tale, and even then, if a party ventured back at once, it would take +many more minutes in the dark--and he was glad he thought to smash the +lamp--before they could find his charges or the wires. It was safe +enough, but--the tunnel had never seemed so long or the going so slow. +He banged against beams and supports, ploughed through sticky mud and +churning water, rasped his knuckles, and bruised knees and elbows in +his mad haste. It was safe enough, but--but--but--suppose there was no +response to his pressure on the switch; suppose there had been some +silly mistake in making the connections; suppose the battery wouldn't +work. There were a score of things to go wrong. Thank goodness he had +overhauled and examined everything himself; although that again would +only make it more appallingly awful if things didn't work. No time +now, no chance to go back and put things right. Perhaps he ought to +have stayed back there and made the contact. A quick end if it worked +right, and a last chance to refix it if it didn't; yes, he . . . but +here was the light ahead. He shouted 'Fire!' at the top of his voice, +still hurrying on and half cowering from the expected roar and shock of +the explosion. Nothing happened. He shouted again and again as loud +as his sobbing breath and labouring lungs would let him. +Still--nothing; and it began to sear his brain as a dreadful certainty +that he had failed, that his mine was a ghastly frost, that all the +labour gone to its making and the good lives spent on it were wasted. +He stumbled weakly out into the shaft, caught a glimpse of the +Corporal's set face staring at the tunnel mouth, and tried once more to +call out 'Fire!' But the Corporal was waiting for no word. He had +already got that, had heard the Subaltern's first shouts roll down the +tunnel, in fact was waiting with a finger on the exploding switch for +the moment the Subaltern should appear. The finger moved steadily over +as the Subaltern stumbled into sight--and the solid earth heaved +convulsively, shuddered, and rocked and shook to the roaring blast of +the explosion. + +The shock and the rush of air from the tunnel-mouth caught the +Subaltern, staggering to his knees, and flung him headlong. And as he +picked himself up again the air darkened with whizzing clods and mud +and dust and stones and dirt that rained down from the sky. Before the +echoes of the explosion had died away, before the last fragments and +debris had fallen, there came the sound of another roar, the bellowing +thunder of the British guns throwing a storm of shell and shrapnel +between the German supports and the ruined trench. That, and another +sound, told the Subaltern that the full fruits of his work were to be +fully reaped--the sound of the guns and of the full, deep-chested, +roaring cheers of the British infantry as they swarmed from their +trenches and rushed to occupy the crater of the explosion. + + * * * * * + +Later in the day, when the infantry had made good their possession of +the place, had sandbagged and fortified it to stand against the +expected counter-attacks, the Subaltern went to look over the ground +and see at first and close hand the results of his explosion. +Technically, he found it interesting; humanly, it was merely sickening. +The ground was one weltering chaos and confusion of tossed earth-heaps +and holes, of broken beams and jagged-ended planks, of flung sandbags +and wrecked barricading. Of trench or barricade, as trench and +barricade, there remained, simply, no sign. The wreckage was scattered +thick with a dreadful debris of dead bodies, of bloody clothing, of +helmets and broken rifles, burst packs and haversacks, bayonets, +water-bottles, and shattered equipments. The Ambulance men were busy, +but there were still many dead and dying and wounded to be removed, +wounded with torn flesh and mangled limbs, dead and dying with scorched +and smouldering clothes. The infantry, hastily digging and filling +sandbags and throwing up parapets on the far edge of the reeking +explosion pit, had found many bodies caught in the descending avalanche +of earth or buried in the collapsed trenches and dug-outs; and here and +there, amid the confusion, a foot or a hand protruding stark from some +earth-heap marked the death-place of other victims. The whole scene +was one of death and desolation, of ruin and destruction, and the +Subaltern turned from it sick at stomach. It was the first result of a +big explosion he had seen. This was the sort of thing that he had read +so often summed up in a line of the Official Despatch or a two-line +newspaper paragraph: 'A mine was successfully exploded under a section +of the enemy's trench.' A mine--_his_ mine. . . . 'God!' the Subaltern +said softly under his breath, and looked wonderingly about him. + +''E's a bloomin' little butcher, is that Lefftenant of ours,' the +Corporal said that night. ''Course it was a good bit o' work, an' he'd +reason to be proud of it; but--well I thought I'd a strongish stomach, +an' I've seen some dirty blood-an'-bones messes in my time but that +scorchin' shambles near turned me over. An' he comes back, after +lookin' at it, as cheerful as the cornerman o' a Christie Minstrel +troupe, an' as pleased as a dog wi' two tails. Fair pleased, 'e was.' + +But he was a little wrong. What had brought the Subaltern back with +such a cheerful air was not the sight of his work, not the grim picture +of the smashed trenches. It was an encounter he had had with a little +group of German prisoners, the recognising amongst them of a dirty, +mud-stained blue shirt with sleeves cut off above the elbows, a +close-cropped bare head, a boy's face with smooth oval chin and girlish +eyes. The mine work he had directed, but others had shared it. It was +the day's work--it was an incident of war--it was, after all, merely 'a +mine successfully exploded . . .' But that one life saved was also his +work, and, moreover, his own, his individual personal work. It was of +that he thought most as he came back smiling to his Corporal. + + + + +ARTILLERY SUPPORT + +'_. . . supported by a close and accurate artillery +fire . . ._'--EXTRACT FROM OFFICIAL DESPATCH. + + +From his position in the 'Observation Post' the Artillery Forward +Officer watched the fight raging along his front much as a spectator in +the grand-stand watches a football match. Through his glasses he could +see every detail and movement of the fighters, see even their facial +expressions, the grip of hands about their weapons. Queerly enough, it +was something like looking at the dumb show of a cinema film. He could +see a rifle pointed and the spit of flame from the muzzle without +hearing any report, could see an officer gesticulating and his mouth +opening and closing in obvious stentorian shoutings without hearing the +faintest sound of his voice, could even see the quick flash and puffing +smoke of a grenade without catching the crash of its explosion. It was +not that he was too far off to hear all these sounds, but simply +because individually they were drowned in the continuous ear-filling +roar of the battle. + +The struggle was keenly interesting and desperately exciting, even from +a spectator's point of view; and the interest and excitement were the +greater to the Forward Officer, because he was playing a part, and an +important part, in the great game spread before him. Beyond the line +of a section of the British front white smoke-puffs were constantly +bursting, over his head a succession of shells streamed rushing and +shrieking; and the place where each of those puffs burst depended on +him, each shell that roared overhead came in answer to his call. He +was 'observing' for a six-gun battery concealed behind a gentle slope +over a mile away to his right rear, and, since the gunners at the +battery could see nothing of the fight, nothing of their target, not +even the burst of a single one of their shells, they depended solely on +their Forward Officer to correct their aim and direct their fire. + +All along the front--or rather both the fronts, for the German +batteries worked on exactly the same system--the batteries were pouring +down their shells, and each battery was dependent for the accuracy of +its fire on its own Observing Officer crouching somewhere up in front +and overlooking his battery's 'zone.' + +The fighting line surged forward or swayed back, checked and halted, +moved again, now rapidly, now slowly and staggeringly, curved forward +here and dinted in there, striving fiercely to hold its ground in this +place, driving forward in that, or breaking, reeling back into the arms +of the supports, swirling forward with them again. But no matter +whether the lines moved forward or back, fast or slow, raggedly and +unevenly, or in one long close-locked line, ever and always the shells +soared over and burst beyond the line, just far enough barely to clear +it if the fight were at close quarters; reaching out and on a hundred, +two hundred, yards when the fighters drew apart for a moment; always +clear of their own infantry, and as exactly as possible on the fighting +line of the enemy, for such is the essence of 'close and accurate +artillery support.' + +The Forward Observing Officer, perched precariously in an angle of the +walls of a ruined cottage, stared through his glasses at the confusion +of the fight for hour after hour until his eyes ached and his vision +swam. The Forward Officer had been there since daybreak, and because +no shells obviously aimed at his station had bombarded him--plenty of +chance ones had come very close, but of course they didn't count--he +was satisfied that he was reasonably secure, and told his Major back at +the Battery so over his telephone. The succession of attack and +counter-attack had ceased for the time being, and the Forward Officer +let his glasses drop and shut his aching eyes for a moment. But, +almost immediately, he had to open them and lift his head carefully, to +peer out over the top of the broken wall; for the sudden crash of +reopening rifle fire warned him that another move was coming. From far +out on his left, beyond the range of his vision, the fire began. It +beat down, wave upon wave, towards his front, crossed it, and went +rolling on beyond his right. The initiative came from the British +side, and, taking it as the prelude of an attack, developing perhaps +out of sight on his left, the Forward Officer called up his Battery and +quickened the rate of its fire upon the German line. In a few minutes +he caught a quick stir in the British line, a glimpse of the row of +khaki figures clambering from their trench and the flickering flash of +their bayonets--and in an instant the flat ground beyond the trench was +covered with running figures. They made a fair target that the German +gunners, rifles, and maxims were quick to leap upon. The German trench +streamed fire, the German shells--shrapnel and high-explosive--blew +gaping rents in the running line. The line staggered and flinched, +halted, recovered, and went on again, leaving the ground behind it +dotted with sprawling figures. The space covered by the Forward +Officer's zone was flat and bare of cover clear to the German trench +two hundred yards away. It was too deadly a stretch for that gallant +line to cover; and before it was half-way across, it faltered again, +hung irresolute, and flung itself prone to ground. The level edge of +the German trench suddenly became serrated with bobbing heads, +flickered with moving figures, and the next moment was hidden by the +swarm of men that leaped from it and came charging across the open. +This line too withered and wilted under the fire that smote it, but it +gathered itself and hurled on again. The Forward Officer called down +the shortening ranges to the guns, and the answering shrapnel fell +fiercely on the German line and tore it to fragments--but the fragments +still advanced. The remnant of the British line rose and flung forward +to meet it, and as the two clashed the supports from either side poured +out to help. As the dense mass of Germans emerged, and knitted into +close formation, the Forward Officer reeled off swift orders to the +telephone. The shrieking tempest of his shells fell upon the mass, +struck and slew wholesale, struck and slew again. The mass shivered +and broke; but although part of it vanished back under the cover of the +trench, although another part lay piled in a wreckage of dead and +wounded, a third part straggled forward and charged into the fight. +The British line was overborne, and pushed struggling back until new +supports brought it fresh life and turned the tide again. The Germans +surviving the charge were killed, wounded, or taken prisoners, and the +Forward Officer, lifting his fire and pouring it on the German trench, +checked for the moment any further rush of reinforcements. The British +line ran forward to a field track running parallel to the trenches and +nearly midway between them, flung itself down to escape the bullets +that stormed across and began, as rapidly as the men's cramped position +would allow, to dig themselves in. To their right and left the field +track sank a foot or two below the surface of the field, and this +scanty but precious shelter had allowed the rest of the line to stop +half-way across and hold on to get its breath and allow a constant +spray of supports to dash across the open and reinforce it. Now, the +centre, where the track ran bare and flat across the field, plied +frantic shovels to heap up some sort of cover that would allow them +also to hang on in conformation of the whole line and gather breath and +reinforcements for the next rush. + +The Germans saw plainly enough what was the plan, and took instant +steps to upset it. Their first and best chance was to thrust hard at +the weak and ill-protected centre, overwhelm it and then roll up the +lines to right and left of it. + +A tornado of shell fire ushered in the new assault. The shells burst +in running crashes up and down the advanced line, and up and down the +British trench behind it; driving squalls of shrapnel swept the ground +between the two, and, in addition, a storm of rifle and machine-gun +bullets rained along the scanty parapet, whistled and droned and hissed +across the open. And then, suddenly, the assault was launched from all +along the German line. + +At the same instant a shell struck the wall of the Forward Officer's +station, burst with a terrific crash, swept three parts of the +remaining wall away in a cloud of shrieking splinters and swirling dust +of brick and plaster, and threw the Forward Officer headlong half a +dozen yards. By some miracle he was untouched. His first thought was +for the telephone--the connecting link with his guns. He scrambled +over the debris to the dug-out or shelter-pit behind his corner and +found telephonist and telephone intact. He dropped on hands and knees +and crawled over the rubble and out beyond the end of the wall, for the +cloud of smoke and plaster and brick-dust still hung heavily about the +ruin. Here, in the open as he was, the air sang like tense +harp-strings to the passage of innumerable bullets, the ground about +his feet danced to their drumming, flicked and spat little spurts of +mud all over him. + +But the Forward Officer paid little heed to these things. For one +moment his gaze was riveted horror-stricken on the scene of the fight; +the next he was on his feet, heedless of the singing bullets, heedless +of the roar and crash of another shell that hit the ground and flung a +cart-load of earth and mud whizzing and thumping about him, heedless of +everything except the need to get quickly to the telephone. + +'Tell the Battery, Germans advancing--heavy attack on our front!' he +panted to the telephonist, jumped across to his corner, and heaved +himself up into place. The dust had cleared now, so that he could see. +And what he could see made him catch his breath. An almost solid line +of Germans were clear of their trenches and pushing rapidly across the +open on the weak centre. And the Battery's shells were falling behind +the German line and still on their trenches. Swiftly the Forward +Officer began to reel off his corrections of angles and range, and as +the telephonist passed them on gun after gun began to pitch its shells +on the advancing line. + +The British rifles were busy too, and their fire rose in one continuous +roar. But the fire was weakest from the thin centre line, the spot +where the attack was heaviest. The guns were in full play again, and +the shells were blasting quick gaps out of the advancing line. But the +line came on. The rifles beat upon it, and a machine-gun on the less +heavily pressed left turned and mowed the Germans down in swathes. +Still the line came on stubbornly. It was broken and ragged now, and +advanced slowly, because the front ranks were constantly melting away +under the British fire. The Forward Officer watched with straining +eyes glued to his glasses. A shell 'whooped' past close over his head, +and burst just beyond him. He neither turned his head nor moved his +glasses. One, two, three, four burst short, and splinters and bullets +sang past him; two more burst overhead, and the shrapnel clashed and +rattled amongst the stone and brick of the ruins. Without moving, the +Forward Officer began to call a fresh string of orders. The rush of +his shells ceased for a moment while the gunners adjusted the new +angles and ranges. 'Number One fired. Two fired. Three, Four, Five, +Six fired, sir,' called the telephonist, and as he spoke there came the +shrieks of the shells, and the white puffs of the bursts low down and +between the prone British line and the advancing Germans. + +'Number Three, one-oh minutes more left!' shouted the Forward Officer. +'Number Five, add twenty-five--repeat.' + +Again came the running bursts and puffing white smoke, and satisfied +this time with their line, position, and distance, the Forward Officer +shouted for 'Gun-fire,' jumped down and across to the telephonist's +shelter-pit. + +'I'm putting a belt of fire just ahead of our line,' he shouted, +curving his fingers about his lips and the mouthpiece in an attempt to +shut out the uproar about them. 'If they can come through it we're +done--infantry can't hold 'em. Give me every round you can, and as +fast as you can, please.' He ran back to his place. A cataract of +shells poured their shrapnel down along a line of which the nearest +edge was a bare twenty yards from the British front. The Forward +Officer fixed his eyes on the string of white smoke-puffs with their +centre of winking flame that burst and burst and burst unceasingly. If +one showed out of its proper place he shouted to the telephonist and +named the delinquent gun, and asked for the lay and fuse-setting to be +checked. + +The advancing Germans reached at last the strip of ground where his +shrapnel hailed and lashed, reached the strip and pushed into it--but +not past it. Up to the shrapnel zone the advance could press; through, +it could not. Under the shrapnel nothing could live. It swept the +ground in driving gust on gust, swept and besomed it bare of life. +Here and there, in ones and twos and little knots and groups, the +Germans strove desperately to push on. They came as far as that deadly +fire belt; and in ones and twos and little knots and groups they stayed +there and died. Supports hurried up and hurled themselves in, and a +spasm of fresh strength and fury lifted the line and heaved it forward. +So far the fire of its fury brought it; and there the hosing shrapnel +met it, swept down and washed it away, and beat it out to the last +spark and the last man. + +But from the German trenches another assault was forming, from the +German batteries another squall of shell-fire smote the British line; +and to his horror, the Forward Officer saw his own shells coming slower +and slower, the smoke-bursts growing irregular and slower again. He +leaped down and rushed to the telephone. + +Back in the Battery the telephone wires ran into a dug-out that was the +brain-centre of the guns, and from here the Forward Officer's +directions emerged and were translated to the gunners through the +Battery Commander and the Battery Sergeant-Major's megaphone. + +All the morning the gunners followed those orders blindly, sluing the +hot gun-muzzles a fraction this way or that, making minute adjustments +on sights and range drums and shell fuses. They could see no glimpse +of the fight, but, more or less accurately, they could follow its +varying fortunes and trace its movements by the orders that came +through to them. When they had to send their shells further back, the +enemy obviously were being pressed back; when the fire had to be +brought closer the enemy were closer. An urgent call for rapid fire +with an increasing range meant our infantry attacking; with a lessening +range, their being attacked. + +Occasionally the Battery Commander passed to the Section Commanders +items of news from the Forward Officer, and they in turn told the +'Numbers One' in charge of the guns, and the gun detachments. + +Such a message was passed along when the Forward Officer telephoned +news of the heavy pressure on the weakened centre. Every man in the +Battery knew what was expected, and detachment vied with detachment in +the speedy correcting of aim and range, and the rapid service of their +guns. When the order came for a round of 'Battery fire'--which calls +for the guns to fire in their turn from right to left--one gun was a +few seconds late in reporting ready, and every other man at every other +gun fretted and chafed impatiently as if each second had been an hour. + +At another message from the Forward Officer the Battery Commander +called for Section Commanders. The Sergeant-Major clapped megaphone to +mouth and shouted, and two young subalterns and a sergeant jumped from +their places, and raced for the dug-out. The Major spoke rapidly and +tersely. 'We are putting down a belt of shrapnel in front of our own +infantry--very close to them. You know what that means--the most +careful and exact laying and fusing, and fire as hot and heavy as you +can make it. The infantry can't hold 'em. They're depending on us; +the line depends on us. Tell your men so. Be off, now.' The three +saluted, whirled on their heels, and were off. They told their men, +and the men strained every nerve to answer adequately to the call upon +them. The rate of fire worked up faster and faster. Between the +thunder-claps of the gun the Sergeant-Major's megaphone bellowed, +'Number Six, check your lay.' Number Six missed the message, but the +nearest gun caught the word and passed it along. The Section Commander +heard, saluted to show he had heard and understood, and ran himself to +check the layer's aim. + +Up to now the Battery had worked without coming under any serious fire. +There were always plenty of rifle bullets coming over, and an +occasional one of the shells that roared constantly past or over fell +amongst the guns. A few men had been wounded, and one had been killed, +and that was all. + +Then, quite suddenly, a tempest of high-explosive shell rained down on +the battery, in front of, behind, over, and amongst the guns. +Instinctively the men hesitated in their work, but the next instant the +voices of the Section Commanders brought them to themselves. There +were shelter-pits and dug-outs close by, and, without urgent need of +their fire, the guns might be left while the gunners took cover till +the storm was over. But there could be no thought of that now, while +the picture was in everyone's mind of the infantry out there being hard +pressed and overborne by the weight of the assault. So the gunners +stayed by their guns and loaded, laid, and fired as fast as they could +serve their pieces. The gun shields give little or no protection from +high-explosive shells, because these burst overhead and fling their +fragments straight down, burst in rear, and hurl jagged splinters +outwards in every direction. The men were as open and unprotected to +them as bare flesh is to bullet or cold steel; but they knelt or sat in +their places, and pushed their work into a speed that was only limited +by the need for absolute accuracy. + +A shell burst close in rear of Number One gun, and the whirlwind of +splinters and bullets struck down half the detachment at a blow. The +fallen men were lifted clear, the remaining gunners took up their +appointed share of the lost men's duties, a shell was slung in, the +breech slammed shut, the firing-lever jerked--and Number One gun was in +action again and firing almost as fast as before. The sergeant in +charge of another gun was killed instantaneously by a shrapnel bullet +in the head. His place was taken by the next senior before the last +convulsive tremors had passed through the dead man's muscles; and the +gun kept on without missing a round. + +The shell-fire grew more and more intense. The air was thick and +choking with smoke and chemical fumes, and vibrant with the rush and +shriek, of the shells, the hum of bullets, and the ugly whirr of +splinters, the crash of impacting shells, and ear-splitting crack of +the guns' discharge, the 'r-r-rupp' of shrapnel on the wet ground, the +metallic clang of bullets and steel fragments on the gun-shields and +mountings. But through all the inferno the gunners worked on, swiftly +but methodically. After each shot the layers glared anxiously into the +eye-piece of their sights and made minute movements of elevating and +traversing wheels, the men at the range-drums examined them carefully +and readjusted them exactly, the fuse-setters twisted the rings marking +the fuse's time of burning until they were correct literally to a +hair-line; every man working as if the gun were shooting for a +prize-competition cup. Their care, as well as their speed, was needed; +for, more than any cup, good men's lives were at stake and hanging on +their close and accurate shooting. For if the sights were a shade to +right or left of their 'aiming point,' if the range were shortened by a +fractional turn of the drum, if a fuse was wrongly set to one of the +scores of tiny marks on its ring, that shell might fall on the British +line, take toll of the lives of friend instead of foe, go to break down +the hard-pressed British resistance instead of upholding it. + +Man after man was hit by shell splinter or bullet, but no man left his +place unless he was too badly injured to carry on. The seriously +wounded dragged themselves clear as best they could and crawled to any +cover from the bursting shells; the dead lay where they fell. The +detachments were reduced to skeleton crews. One Section Commander laid +and fired a gun; another, with a smashed thigh, sat and set fuses until +he fainted from loss of blood and from pain. The Battery Commander +took the telephone himself and sent the telephonist to help the guns; +and when a bursting shell tore out one side of the sandbags of the +dug-out the Battery Commander rescued himself and the instrument from +the wreckage, mended the broken wire, and sat in the open, alternately +listening at the receiver and yelling exhortation and advice to the +gunners through the Sergeant-Major's megaphone. The Sergeant-Major had +gone on the run to round up every available man, and brought back at +the double the Battery cooks, officers' grooms, mess orderlies and +servants. The slackening fire of the Battery spurted again and ran up +to something like its own rate. And the Major cheered the men on to a +last effort, shouting the Forward Officer's message that the attack was +failing, was breaking, was being wiped out mainly by the Battery's fire. + +And then, as suddenly as it had begun, the tornado of shell-fire about +them ceased, shifted its storm-centre, and fell roaring and crashing +and hammering on an empty hedge and ditch a full three hundred yards +away. + +And at the same moment the Major shouted exultingly. 'They're done!' +he bellowed down the megaphone; 'they're beat! The attack--and he fell +back on the Forward Officer's own words--'the attack is blotted out.' + +Whereat the panting gunners cheered faintly and short-windedly, and +took contentedly the following string of orders to lengthen the range +and slacken the rate of fire. And the Battery made shift to move its +dead from amongst the gun and wagon wheels, to bandage and tie up its +wounded with 'first field dressings,' to shuffle and sort the +detachments and redistribute the remaining men in fair proportion +amongst the remaining guns, to telephone the Brigade Headquarters to +ask for stretcher-bearers and ambulance, and more shells--doing it all, +as it were, with one hand while the other kept the guns going, and the +shells pounding down their appointed paths. + +For the doing of two or more things at once, and doing them rapidly, +exactly, and efficiently, the while in addition highly unpleasant +things are being done to them, is all a part of the Gunners' game of +'close and accurate artillery support.' + + + + +'NOTHING TO REPORT' + +'_On the Western Front there is nothing to report. All remains +quiet._'--OFFICIAL DESPATCH. + + +The 7th (Territorial) King's Own Asterisks had 'taken over' their +allotted portion of the trenches and were settling themselves in for +the night. When the two facts are taken in conjunction that it was an +extremely unpleasant night, cold, wet and bleak, and the 7th were +thoroughly happy and would not have exchanged places with any other +battalion in Flanders, it will be very plain to those who know their +Front that the 7th K.O.A. were exceedingly new to the game. They were: +and actually this was their first spell of duty in the forward firing +trenches. + +They had been out for some weeks, weary weeks, filled with the digging +of communication trenches well behind the firing trenches, with drills +and with various 'fatigues' of what they considered a navvying rather +than a military nature. But every task piled upon their reluctant +shoulders had been performed promptly and efficiently, and now at last +they were enjoying the reward of their zeal--a turn in the forward +trenches. + +The men were unfeignedly pleased with themselves, with the British +Army, and with the whole world. The non-coms, were anxious and +desperately keen to see everything in apple-pie order. The Company +officers were inclined to be fidgety, and the O.C. was worried and +concerned to the verge of nerves. He pored over the trench maps that +had been handed to him, he imagined assaults delivered on this point +and that, hurried, at the point of the pencil, his supports along +various blue and red lines to the threatened angles of the wriggly line +that represented the forward trench, drew lines from his machine-gun +emplacements to the red-inked crosses of the German wire entanglements, +frowned and cogitated over the pencil crosses placed by the O.C. of the +relieved battalion where the lurking-places of German maxims were +suspected. Afterwards he made a long and exhaustive tour of the muddy +trenches, concealing his anxiety from the junior officers, and speaking +lightly and cheerfully to them--following therein truly and +instinctively the first principle of all good commanders to show the +greater confidence as they feel it the less. He returned to the +Battalion Headquarters, situated in a very grimy cellar of a +shell-wrecked house behind the support trenches, and partook of a +belated dinner of tinned food flavoured with grit and plaster dust. + +The signallers were established with their telephones at the foot of +the stone stair outside the cellar door, and into this cramped +'exchange' ran the telephone wires from the companies in the trenches +and from the Brigade Headquarters a mile or two back. Every word that +the signallers spoke was plainly heard in the cellar, and every time +the Colonel heard 'Hello! Yes, this is H.Q.,' he sat motionless +waiting to hear what message was coming through. When his meal was +finished he resisted an impulse to 'phone' all the forward trenches, +asking how things were, unlaced his boots, paused, and laced them up +again, lay down on a very gritty mattress in a corner of the cellar, +and tried to sleep. For the first hour every rattle of rifle fire, +every thud of a gun, every call on the telephone brought him up on his +pillow, his ears straining to catch any further sound. After about the +tenth alarm he reasoned the matter out with himself something after +this fashion:-- + +'The battalion is occupying a position that has not been attacked for +weeks, and it is disposed as other Regular battalions have been, and no +more and no less effectually than they. There isn't an officer or man +in the forward trenches who cannot be fully trusted to keep a look-out +and to resist an attack to the last breath. There is no need to worry +or keep awake, and to do so is practically admitting a distrust of the +7th K.O.A. I trust them fully, and therefore I ought to go to sleep.' + +Whereupon the Colonel sat up, took off his wet boots, lay down again, +resolutely closed his eyes--and remained wide awake for the rest of the +night. + +But if there be any who feel inclined to smile at the nervousness of an +elderly, stoutish, and constitutionally easy-going Colonel of +Territorials, I would remind them of a few facts. The Colonel had +implicit faith in the stout-heartedness, the spirit, the fighting +quality of his battalion. He had had the handling and the training of +them ever since mobilisation, and he knew every single man of them as +well as they knew themselves. They had done everything asked of them +and borne light-heartedly rough quarters, bad weather, hard duties. +But--and one must admit it a big and serious 'but'--to-night might be +their real and their first testing in the flame and fire of War. + +Even as no man knows how he will feel and behave under fire, until he +has been under fire, so no regiment or battalion knows. The men were +razor-keen for action, but that very keenness might lead them into a +rashness, a foolhardiness, which would precipitate action. The Colonel +believed they would stand and fight to the last gasp and die to the +last man rather than yield a yard of their trench. He believed that of +them even as he believed it of himself--but he did not know it of them +any more than he knew it of himself. Men, apparently every bit as good +as him, had before now developed some 'white streak,' some folly, some +stupidity, in the stress and strain of action. Other regiments, +apparently as sound as his, had in the records of history failed or +broken in a crisis. He and his were new and untried, and military +commanders for innumerable ages had doubted and mistrusted new and +untried troops. + +Well . . . he had done his best, and at least the next twenty-four +hours should show him how good or how bad that best had been. But +meantime let no one blame him for his anxiety or nervousness. + +And meantime the 7th Asterisks, serenely unaware of their Commanding +Officer's worry and doubt--and to be fair to them and to him it must be +stated that they would have flouted scornfully any suggestion that he +had held them--joyfully set about the impossible task of making +themselves comfortable, and the congenial one of making the enemy +extremely uncomfortable. The sentries were duly posted, and spent an +entirely unnecessary proportion of their time peering over the parapet. + +There were more Verey pistol lights burnt during the night than would +have sufficed a trench-hardened battalion for a month, and the Germans +opposite, having in hand a little job of adding to their barbed-wire +defences, were puzzled and rather annoyed by the unwonted display of +fireworks. They foolishly vented their annoyance by letting off a few +rounds of rapid fire at the opposition, and the 7th Asterisks eagerly +accepted the challenge, manned their parapets and proceeded to pour a +perfect hurricane of fire back to the challengers. The Germans, with +the exception of about a dozen picked sharp-shooting snipers, ceased to +fire and took careful cover. + +The snipers, daring the Asterisks' three minutes of activity, succeeded +in scoring seven hits, and the Asterisks found themselves in possession +of a casualty list of one killed and six wounded before the Company and +platoon commanders had managed to stop the shooting and get the men +down under cover. + +When the shooting had ceased and the casualties had been cleared out on +their way to the dressing station, the Asterisks recharged their +rifle-magazines and spent a good hour discussing the incident, those +men who had been beside the casualties finding themselves and their +narratives of how it happened in great demand. + +And one of the casualties, having insisted, when his slight wound was +dressed, on returning to the trench, had to deliver a series of +lecturettes on what it felt like, what the Medical said, how the other +fellows were, how the dressing station was worked, and similar +subjects, with pantomimic illustrations of how he was holding his rifle +when the bullet came through the loophole, and how he was still fully +capable of continuing to hold it. + +A heavy shower dispersed the audiences, those of the men who were free +to do so returning to muddy and leaky dug-outs, and the remainder +taking up their positions at the parapet. There was as much chance of +these latter standing on their heads as there was of their going to +sleep, but the officers made so many visiting rounds to be certain of +their sentries' wakefulness, and spent so long on each round and on the +fascinating peeps over into 'the neutral ground,' that the end of one +round was hardly completed before it was time to begin the next. + +Occasionally the Germans sent up a flare, and every man and officer of +the K.O.A. who was awake stared out through the loopholes in +expectation of they knew not what. They also fired off a good many +'pistol lights,' and it was nearly 4 A.M. before the Germans ventured +to send out their working-party over the parapet. Once over, they +followed the usual routine, throwing themselves flat in the mud and +rank grass when a light flared up and remaining motionless until it +died out, springing to silent and nervous activity the instant darkness +fell, working mostly by sense of touch, and keeping one eye always on +the British parapet for the first hint of a soaring light. + +The 'neutral ground' between the trenches was fairly thickly scattered +over with dead, the majority of them German, and it was easy enough for +an extra score or so of men, lying prone and motionless as the dead +themselves, to be overlooked in the shifting light. The work was +proceeding satisfactorily and was almost completed when a mischance led +to the exposure of the party. + +One of the workers was in the very act of crawling over the parapet +when a British light flared. Half-way over he hesitated one moment +whether to leap back or forward, then hurriedly leapt down in front of +the parapet and flung himself flat on his face. He was just too late. +The lights revealed him exactly as he leapt, and a wildly excited +King's Own Asterisk pulled back the cut-off of his magazine and opened +rapid fire, yelling frenziedly at the same time that they were +coming--were coming--were attacking--were charging--look out! + +Every K.O.A. on his feet lost no time in joining in the 'mad minute' +and every K.O.A. who had been asleep or lying down was up in a +twinkling and blazing over the parapet before his eyes were properly +opened. The machine-gun detachment were more circumspect if no less +eager. The screen before the wide loophole was jerked away and the fat +barrel of the maxim peered out and swung smoothly from side to side, +looking for a fair mark. + +It had not long to wait. The German working-party 'stuck it out' for a +couple of minutes, but with light after light flaming into the sky and +exposing them pitilessly, with the British trench crackling and +spitting fire from end to end, with the bullets hissing and whistling +over them, and hailing thick amongst them, their nerves gave and broke; +in a frantic desire for life and safety they flung away the last chance +of life and safety their prone and motionless position gave them. + +They scrambled to their feet, a score of long-cloaked, crouching +figures, glaringly plain and distinct in the vivid light, and turned to +run for their trench. The sheeting bullets caught half a dozen and +dropped them before they had well stood up, stumbled another two or +three over before they could stir a couple of paces, went on cutting +down the remainder swiftly and mercilessly. The remainder ran, +stumbling and tripping and staggering, their legs hampered by their +long coats, their feet clogged and slipping in the wet, greasy mud. +The eye glaring behind the swinging sights of the maxim caught that +clear target of running figures, the muzzle began to jet forth a stream +of fire and hissing bullets, the cartridge belt to click, racing +through the breach. + +The bullets cut a path of flying mud-splashes across the bare ground to +the runners, played a moment about their feet, then lifted and swept +across and across--once, twice, thrice. On the first sweep the +thudding bullets found their targets, on the second they still caught +some of them, on the third they sang clear across and into the parapet, +for no figures were left to check their flight. The working party was +wiped out. + +It took the excited riflemen another minute or two to realise that +there was nothing left to shoot at except an empty parapet and some +heaps of huddled forms; but the pause to refill the empty magazines +steadied them, and then the fire died away. + +The whole thing was over so quickly that the rifle fire had practically +ceased before the Artillery behind had time to get to work, and by the +time they had flung a few shells to burst in thunder and lightning roar +and flash over the German parapet, the storm of rifle fire had +slackened and passed. Hearing it die away, the gunners also stopped, +reloaded, and laid their pieces, waited the reports of their Forward +Officers, and on receiving them turned into their dug-outs and their +blankets again. + +But the batteries covering the front held by the Asterisks remained by +their guns and continued to throw occasional rounds into the German +trenches. Their Forward Officers had passed on the word received from +the Asterisks of a sharp attack quickly beaten back--that being the +natural conclusion drawn from that leaping figure on the parapet and +the presence of Germans in the open--and the guns kept up a slow rate +of fire more with the idea of showing the enemy that the defence was +awake and waiting for them than of breaking up another possible attack. +The battalions of Regulars to either side of the Asterisks had more +correctly diagnosed the situation as 'false alarm' or 'ten rounds rapid +on working parties,' and their supporting Artillery did no more than +carry on their usual night firing. + +The result of it all was that the Asterisks throughout the night +enjoyed the spectacle of some very pretty artillery fire in the dark on +and over the trenches facing them, and also the much less pleasing one +of German shells bursting in the British trenches, and especially in +those of the K.O.A. They had the heaviest share on the simple and +usual principle of retaliation, whereby if our Section A of trenches is +shelled we shell the German section facing it, and _vice versa_. + +The fire was by no means heavy as artillery fire goes these days, and +at first the Asterisks were not greatly disturbed by it. But even a +rate of three or four shells every ten or fifteen minutes is galling, +and necessitates the keeping of close cover or the loss of a fair +number of men. It took half a dozen casualties to impress firmly on +the Asterisks the need of keeping cover. Shell casualties have an +extremely ugly look, and some of the Asterisks felt decidedly squeamish +at sight of theirs--especially of one where the casualty had to be +collected piece by piece, and removed in a sack. + +For an hour before dawn the battalion 'stood to,' lining the trench +with loaded rifles ready after the usual and accepted fashion, +shivering despite their warm clothing and mufflers, and woollen caps +and thick great-coats in the raw-edged cold of the breaking day. For +an hour they stood there listening to the whine of overhead bullets and +the sharp 'slap' of well-aimed ones in the parapet, the swish and crash +of shells, the distant patter of rifle fire and the boom of the guns. + +That hour is perhaps always the worst of the twenty-four. The rousing +from sleep, the turning out from warm or even from wet blankets, the +standing still in a water-logged trench, with everything--fingers and +clothes and rifle and trench-sides--cold and wet and clammy to the +touch, and smeared with sticky mud and clay, all combine to make the +morning 'stand to arms' an experience that no amount of repetition ever +accustoms one to or makes more bearable. + +Even the Asterisks, fresh and keen and enthusiastic as they were, with +all the interest that novelty gave to the proceedings, found the hour +long-drawn and trying; and it was with intense relief that they saw the +frequently consulted watches mark the finish of the time, and received +the word to break off from their vigil. + +They set about lighting fires and boiling water for tea, and frying a +meagre bacon ration in their mess-tin lids, preparing and eating their +breakfast. The meal over, they began on their ordinary routine work of +daily trench life. + +Picked men were told off as snipers to worry and harass the enemy. +They were posted at loopholes and in various positions that commanded a +good outlook, and they fired carefully and deliberately at loopholes in +the enemy parapet, at doors and windows of more or less wrecked +buildings in rear of the German lines, at any and every head or hand +that showed above the German parapet. In the intervals of firing they +searched through their glasses every foot of parapet, every yard of +ground, every tree or bush, hayrick or broken building that looked a +likely spot to make cover for a sniper on the other side. If their eye +caught the flash of a rifle, the instantly vanishing spurt of haze or +hot air--too thin and filmy to be called smoke--that spot was marked +down, long and careful search made for the hidden sniper, and a sort of +Bisley 'disappearing target' shoot commenced, until the opponent was +either hit or driven to abandon his position. + +The enemy's snipers were, of course, playing exactly the same game, and +either because they were more adept at it, or because the Asterisks' +snipers were more reluctant to give up a position after it was +'spotted' and hung on gamely, determined to fight it out, a slow but +steady tally was added to the Asterisks' casualty list. + +Along the firing and communication trenches parties set to work of +various sorts, bailing out water from the trench bottom, putting in +brushwood or brick foundations, building up and strengthening dug-outs +and parapets, filling sandbags in readiness for night work and repairs +on any portion damaged by shell fire. + +By now they were learning to keep well below the parapet, not to linger +in portions of the communication trench that were enfiladed by +shrapnel, to stoop low and pass quickly at exposed spots where the +snipers waited a chance to catch an unwary head. They had learned to +press close and flat against the face of the trench or to get well down +at the first hint of the warning rush of an approaching shell; they +were picking up neatly and quickly all the worst danger spots and +angles and corners to be avoided except in time of urgent need. + +One thing more was needed to complete their education in the routine of +trench warfare, and the one thing came about noon just as the Asterisks +were beginning to feel pleasant anticipations of the dinner hour. A +faint and rather insignificant 'bang' sounded out in front. The +Asterisks never even noticed it, but next moment when something fell +with a thudding 'splosh' on the wet ground behind the trench the men +nearest the spot lifted their heads and stared curiously. Another +instant and with a thunderous roar and a leaping cloud of thick smoke +the bomb burst. The men ducked hastily, but one or two were not quick +enough or lucky enough to escape, although at that short distance they +were certainly lucky in escaping with nothing worse than flesh wounds +from the fragments of old iron, nails and metal splinters that whirled +outwards in a circle from the bursting bomb. Everyone heard the second +shot and many saw the bomb come over in a high curve. + +As it dropped it appeared to be coming straight down into the trench +and every man had an uncomfortable feeling that the thing was going to +fall directly on him. Actually it fell short and well out in front of +the trench and only a few splinters and a shower of earth whizzed over +harmlessly high. + +The third was another 'over' and the fourth another 'short' and the +Asterisks, unaware of the significance of the closing-in 'bracket' +began to feel relief and a trifle of contempt for this clumsy +slow-moving and visible missile. Their relief and contempt vanished +for ever when the fifth bomb fell exactly in the trench, burst with a +nerve-shattering roar, and filled the air with whistling fragments and +dense choking, blinding smoke and stench. + +Having got their range and angle accurately, the Germans proceeded to +hurl bomb after bomb with the most horrible exactness and persistency. +For two hundred yards up and down the trench there was no escape from +the blast of the bursts. It was no good crouching low, or flattening +up against the parapet; for the bombs dropped straight down and struck +out backwards and sideways and in every direction. + +Even the roofed-in dug-outs gave no security. A bomb that fell just +outside the entrance of one dug-out, riddled one man lying inside, and +blew another who was crouching in the entrance outwards bodily across +the trench, stunning him with the shock and injuring him in a score of +places. Plenty of the bombs fell short of the trench, but too many +fell fairly in it. When one did so there was only one thing to do--to +throw oneself violently down in the mud of the trench bottom, and wait, +heart in mouth, for the crash of the explosion. + +The Artillery, on being appealed to, pounded the front German trench +for an hour, but made no impression on the trench-mortar. The O.C. of +the Asterisks telephoned the Brigade asking what he was to do to stop +the torment and destruction, and in reply was told he ought to bomb +back at the bomb-throwers. But the Asterisks had already tried that +without any success. The distance was too great for hand bombs to +reach, and the men appeared to make poor shooting with the rifle +grenades. + +'Why not try the trench-mortar?' asked the Brigade; to which the +harassed Colonel replied conclusively because he didn't possess one, +hadn't a bomb for one, and hadn't a man or officer who knew how to use +one. + +The Brigade apparently learnt this with surprise, and replied vaguely +that steps would be taken, and that an officer and detachment of his +battalion must receive a course of instruction. + +The Colonel replied with spirit that he was glad to hear all this, but +in the meantime what was he to do to prevent his battalion being blown +piecemeal out of their trenches? + +It all ended eventually in the arrival of a trench-mortar and a pile of +bombs from somewhere and a very youthful and very much annoyed +Artillery subaltern from somewhere else. The Colonel was most +enormously relieved by these arrivals, but his high hopes were a good +deal dashed by the artilleryman. + +That youth explained that he was in effect totally ignorant of +trench-mortars and their ways, that he had been shown the thing a week +ago, had it explained to him--so far as such a rotten toy could be +explained--and had fired two shots from it. However, he said briskly, +if off-handedly, he was ready to have a go with it and see what he +could do. + +The trench-mortar was carried down to the forward trench, and on the +way down behind it the youngster discoursed to the O.C. of the +Asterisks on the 'awful rot' of a gunner officer being chased off on to +a job like this--any knowledge of gunnery being entirely superfluous +and, indeed, wasted on such a kid's toy. And the O.C., looking at the +trench-mortar being prepared, made a mental remark about 'the mouths of +babes' and the wise words thereof. + +The weapon is easily described. It was a mere cylinder of cast iron, +closed at one end, open at the other, and with a roomy 'touch-hole' at +the closed end. The carriage consisted of two uprights on a base, with +mortar between them and pointing up at an angle of about forty-five +degrees. + +The charge was little packets of gunpowder tied up in paper in measured +doses. The bomb was a tin-can--an empty jam-tin, mostly--filled with a +bursting charge and fragments of metal, and with an inch or so of the +fuse protruding. + +The piece was loaded by throwing a few packets of powder into the +muzzle, poking them with a piece of stick to burst the paper, and +carefully sliding the bomb down on top of the charge. A length of fuse +was poked into the touch-hole and the end lit, sufficient length being +given to allow the lighter to get round the nearest corner before the +mortar fired. + +The whole thing was too rubbishy and cheaply and roughly made to have +been fit for use as a 'kid's toy,' as the subaltern called it. To +imagine it being used as a weapon of precision in a war distinguished +above all others as one of scientifically perfect weapons and +implements was ridiculous beyond words. + +The Colonel watched the business of loading and laying with amazement +and consternation. + +'Is it possible to--er--hit anything with that?' he asked. + +'Well, more or less,' said the youthful subaltern doubtfully. 'There's +a certain amount of luck about it, I believe.' + +'But why on earth,' said the Colonel, beginning to wax indignant, 'do +they send such a museum relic here to fight a reasonably accurate and +decidedly destructive mortar?' + +The subaltern chuckled. + +'That's not any museum antique,' he said. 'That's a Mortar, Trench, +Mark Something or other--the latest, the most modern weapon of the kind +in the British Army. It was made, I believe, in the Royal Arsenal, and +it is still being made and issued for use in the field--the Engineers +collecting the empty jam-pots and converting them to bombs. They've +only had four or five months, y'see, to evolve a---- look out, sir! +Here's one of theirs!' + +The resulting explosion flung a good deal of mud over the parapet on to +the Colonel and the subaltern, and raised the youth to wrath. + +'Beasts!' he said angrily, and poked a length of fuse in the +touch-hole. 'Get away round the traverse!' he ordered the mob near +him. 'And you'd better go, too, sir--as I will when I've touched her +off. Y'see, she's just as liable to explode as not, and, if she does, +she'd make more mess in this trench than I can ever hope she will in a +German one.' + +The Colonel retired round the nearest traverse, and next moment the +lieutenant plunged round after him just as the mortar went off with a +resounding bang. Every man in the trench watched the bomb rise, +twirling and twisting, and fall again, turning end over end towards the +German trench. + +At about the moment he judged it should burst, the lieutenant poked his +head up over the parapet, but bobbed down hurriedly as a couple of +bullets sang past his ear. + +'Pretty nippy lot across there!' he said. 'I must find a loophole to +observe from. And p'r'aps you'd tell some of your people to keep up a +brisk fire on that parapet to stop 'em aiming too easy at me. Now +we'll try another.' + +At the next bang from the opposite trench he risked another quick peep +over and this time ducked down with an exclamation of delight. + +'I've spotted him.' he said. 'Just caught the haze of his smoke. Down +the trench about fifty yards. So we'll try trail-left a piece--or +would if this old drain-pipe had a trail.' + +He relaid his mortar carefully, and fired again. Having no sights or +arrangement whatever for laying beyond a general look over the line of +its barrel and a pinch more or less of powder in the charge, it can +only be called a piece of astounding good luck that the jam-pot bomb +fell almost fairly on the top of the German mortar. There was a most +satisfying uproar and eddying volume of smoke and eruption of earth, +and the lieutenant stared through a loophole dumb-founded with delight. + +'I'll swear,' he said, 'that our old Plum-and-Apple pot never made a +burst that big. I do believe it must have flopped down on the other +fellow and blown up one or two of his bombs same time. I say, isn't +that the most gorgeous good luck? Well, good enough to go on with. +We'll have a chance for some peaceful practice now?' + +Apparently, since the other mortar ceased to fire, it must have been +put out of action, and the lieutenant spent a useful hour pot-shotting +at the other trench. + +The shooting was, to say the least, erratic. With apparently the same +charge and the same tilt on the mortar, one bomb would drop yards short +and another yards over. If one in three went within three yards of the +trench, if one in six fell in the trench, it was, according to the +lieutenant, a high average, and as much as any man had a right to +expect. But at the end of the hour, the Asterisks, who had been hugely +enjoying the performance, and particularly the cessation of German +bombs, were horrified to hear a double report from the German trench, +and to see two dark blobs fall twinkling from the sky. + +The following hour was a nightmare. Their trench-mortar was completely +out-shot. Those fiendish bombs rained down one after the other along +the trench, burst in devastating circles of flame and smoke and +whirling metal here, there, and everywhere. + +The lieutenant replied gallantly. A dozen times he had to shift +position, because he was obviously located, and was being deliberately +bombarded. + +But at last the gunner officer had to retire from the contest. His +mortar showed distinct signs of going to pieces--the muzzle-end having +begun to split and crack, and the breech-end swelling in a +dangerous-looking bulge. + +'Look at her,' said the lieutenant disgustedly. 'Look at her opening +out an' unfolding herself like a split-lipped ox-eyed daisy. Anyhow, +this is my last bomb, so the performance must close down till we get +some more jam-pots loaded up.' + +The enemy mortars were evidently of better make, for they continued to +bombard the suffering Asterisks for another full hour. They did a fair +amount of damage to the trench and parapet, and the Germans seized the +opportunity of the Asterisks' attempted repairs to put in some maxim +practice and a few rounds of shrapnel. + +Altogether, the 7th King's Own Asterisks had a lively twenty-four hours +of it, and their casualties were heavy, far beyond the average of an +ordinary day's trench work. Forty-seven they totalled in all--nine +killed and thirty-six wounded. + +They were relieved that night, this short spell being designed as a +sort of introduction or breaking in or blooding to the game. + +Taking it all round, the Asterisks were fully pleased with themselves. +Their Colonel had complimented them on their behaviour, and they spent +the next few days back in the reserve, speculating on what the papers +would say about them. The optimists were positive they would have a +full column at least. + +'We beat on an attack,' they said. 'There's sure to be a bit in about +that. And look at the way we were shelled, and our Artillery shelled +back. There was a pretty fair imitation of a first-class battle for a +bit, and most likely there would have been one if we hadn't scuppered +that attack. And don't forget the bombing we stuck out--and the +casualties. Doesn't every one tell us they were extra heavy? And I +believe we are about the first Terrier lot to be in a heavy "do" in the +forward trenches. You see--it'll be a column at least, and may be two.' + +The pessimists declared that two or three paragraphs were all they +could expect, on account of the silly fashion of not publishing details +of engagements. 'And whatever mention we do get,' they said, 'won't +say a word about the K.O.A. It'll just be a "battalion," or maybe "a +Territorial battalion," and no more.' + +'Anyway,' said the optimists, 'we'll be able to write home to our +people and our pals, and tell them it was us, though the despatches +don't mention us by name.' + +But optimists and pessimists alike grabbed the papers that came to hand +each day, and searched eagerly for the Eye-witness' reports, or the +official despatch or communiqué. At last there reached them the paper +with the communiqué dated the day after their day in the trenches. +They stared at it, and then hurried over the other pages, turned back, +and examined them carefully one by one. There were columns and columns +about a strike and other purely domestic matters at home, but not a +word about the 7th Kings Own Asterisks (Territorial), not a word about +their nine dead and thirty-six wounded--not a word; and, more than +that, barely a word about the Army, or the Front, or the War. + +'There might be no bloomin' war at all to look at this paper,' said one +in disgust. 'There's plenty about speeding-up the factories (an' it's +about time they speeded up some one to make something better'n that +drain-pipe or jam-pot bomb we saw), plenty about those loafin' swine at +home, but not a bloomin' word about us 'ere. It makes me fair sick.' + +'P'raps there wasn't time to get it in,' suggested one of the most +persistent optimists. 'P'raps they'll have it in to-morrow.' + +'P'raps,' said the disgusted one contemptuously, 'an' p'raps not. Look +at the date of that despatch. Isn't that for the day we was in the +thick of it? An' look what it says. Don't that make you sick?' + +And in truth it did make them 'sick.' For their night and day of +fighting--their defeat of an attack, their suffering under shell, +bullet, and bomb, their nine killed and their thirty-six wounded--were +all ignored and passed by. + +The despatch for that day said simply: 'On the Western Front there is +nothing to report. All remains quiet.' + + + + +THE PROMISE OF SPRING + +'_Only when the fields and roads are sufficiently dry will the +favourable moment have come for an advance._'--EXTRACT FROM OFFICIAL +DESPATCH. + + +It is Sunday, and the regiment marching out towards the firing line and +its turn of duty in the trenches meets on the road every now and then a +peasant woman on her way to church. Some of the women are young and +pretty, some old and wrinkled and worn; they walk alone or in couples +or threes, but all alike are dressed in black, and all alike tramp +slowly, dully, without spring to their step. Over them the sun shines +in a blue sky, round them the birds sing and the trees and fields +spread green and fresh; the flush of healthy spring is on the +countryside, the promise of warm, full-blooded summer pulses in the +air. But there is no hint of spring or summer in the sad-eyed faces or +the listless, slow movements of the women. It is a full dozen miles to +the firing line, and to eye or ear, unless one knows where and how to +look and listen, there is no sign of anything but peace and pleasant +life in the surroundings. But these black-clad women do know--know +that the cool green clump of trees over on the hill-side hides a +roofless ruin with fire-blackened walls; that the church spire that for +all their lives they had seen out there over the sky-line is no longer +visible because it lies shell-smitten to a tumbled heap of brick and +stone and mortar; that the glint of white wood and spot of scarlet +yonder in the field is the rough wooden cross with a _képi_ on top +marking the grave of a soldier of France; that down in the hollow just +out of sight are over a score of those cap-crowned crosses; that a +broad belt of those graves runs unbroken across this sunlit face of +France. They know, too, that those dull booms that travel faintly to +the ear are telling plain of more graves and of more women that will +wear black. It is little wonder that there are few smiles to be seen +on the faces of these women by the wayside. They have seen and heard +the red wrath of war, not in the pictures of the illustrated papers, +not in the cinema shows, not even by the word-of-mouth tales of chance +men who have been in it; but at first-hand, with their own eyes and +ears, in the leaping flames of burning homes, in the puffing white +clouds of the shrapnel, the black spouting smoke of the high-explosive, +in the deafening thunder of the guns, the yelling shells, the crash of +falling walls, the groans of wounded men, the screams of frightened +children. Some of them may have seen the shattered hulks of men borne +past on the sagging stretchers; all of them have seen the laden +ambulance wagons and motors crawling slowly back to the hospitals. + +And of these women you do not say, as you would of our women at home, +that they may perhaps have friend or relation, a son, a brother, a +husband, a lover, at the front. You say with certainty they have one +or other of these, and may have all, that every man they know, of an +age between, say, eighteen and forty, is serving his country in the +field or in the workshops--and mostly in the field--if so be they are +still alive to serve. + +The men in the marching khaki regiment know all these things, and there +are respect and sympathy in the glances and the greetings that pass +from them to the women. 'They're good plucked 'uns,' they tell each +other, and wonder how our women at home would shape at this game, and +whether they would go on living in a house that was next door to one +blown to pieces by a shell yesterday, and keep on working in fields +where hardly a day passed without a shell screaming overhead, whether +they'd still go about their work as best they could for six days a week +and then to church on Sunday. + +Two women, one young and lissom, the other bent and frail and clinging +with her old arm to the erect figure beside her, stand aside close to +the ditch and watch the regiment tramp by. 'Cheer up, mother,' one man +calls. 'We're goin' to shift the Boshies out for you,' and 'Bong +jewer,' says another, waving his hand. Another pulls a sprig of lilac +from his cap and thrusts it out as he passes. 'Souvenir!' he says, +lightly, and the young woman catches the blossom and draws herself up +with her eyes sparkling and calls, 'Bonne chance, Messieurs. Goo-o-o-d +lock.' She repeats the words over and over while the regiment passes, +and the men answer, 'Bong chawnse' and 'Good luck,' and such scraps of +French as they know--or think they know. The women stand in the +sunshine and watch them long after they have passed, and then turn +slowly and move on to their church and their prayers. + +The regiment tramps on. It moves with the assured stamp and swing of +men who know themselves and know their game, and have confidence in +their strength and fitness. Their clothes are faded and +weather-stained, their belts and straps and equipments chafed and worn, +the woodwork of their rifles smooth of butt and shiny of hand-grip from +much using and cleaning. Their faces bronzed and weather-beaten, and +with a dew of perspiration just damping their foreheads--where men less +fit would be streaming sweat--are full-cheeked and glowing with health, +and cheek and chin razored clean and smooth as a guardsman's going on +church parade. The whole regiment looks fresh and well set-up and +clean-cut, satisfied with the day and not bothering about the morrow, +magnificently strong and healthy, carelessly content and happy, not +anxious to go out of its way to find a fight, but impossible to move +aside from its way by the fight that does find it--all of which is to +say it looks exactly what it is, a British regiment of the regular +Line, war-hardened by eight or nine months' fighting, moving up from a +four days' rest back into the firing line. + +It is fairly early in the day, and the sun, although it is bright +enough to bring out the full colour of the green grass and trees, the +yellow laburnum, and the purple lilac, is not hot enough to make +marching uncomfortable. The road, a main route between two towns, is +paved with flat cobbles about the size of large bricks, and bordered +mile after mile with tall poplars. There are farms and hamlets and +villages strung close along the road, and round and about all these +houses are women and children, and many men in khaki, a few dogs, some +pigs perhaps, and near the farms plenty of poultry. By most of the +farms, too, are orchards and fruit-trees in blossom; and in some of +these lines of horses are ranked or wagons are parked, sheltered by the +trees from aerial observation. For all this, it must be remembered, is +far enough back from the firing line to be beyond the reach of any but +the longest-range guns--guns so big that they are not likely to waste +some tons of shells on the off-chance of hitting an encampment and +disabling few or many horses or wagons. + +Towards noon the regiment swings off the road and halts in a large +orchard; rifles are stood aside, equipments and packs are thrown off, +tunics unbuttoned and flung open or off, and the men drop with puffing +sighs of satisfaction on the springy turf under the shade of the +fruit-trees. The 'travelling cookers' rumble up and huge cauldrons of +stew and potatoes are slung off, carried to the different companies, +and served steaming hot to the hungry men. A boon among boons these +same cookers, less so perhaps now that the warmer weather is here, but +a blessing beyond price in the bitter cold and constant wet of the past +winter, when a hot meal served without waiting kept heart in many men +and even life itself in some. Their fires were lit before the regiment +broke camp this morning, and the dinners have been jolting over the +long miles since sun-up, cooking as comfortably and well as they would +in the best-appointed camp or barrack cook-house. + +The men eat mightily, then light their pipes and cigarettes and loll at +their ease. The trees are masses of clustering pink and white blossom, +the grass is carpeted thick with the white of fallen petals and +splashed with sunlight and shade. A few slow-moving clouds drift +lazily across the blue sky, the big, fat bees drone their sleepy song +amongst the blossoms, the birds rustle and twitter amongst the leaves +and flit from bough to bough. It would be hard to find a more peaceful +picture in any country steeped in the most profound peace. There is +not one jarring note--until the 'honk, honk' of a motor is followed by +the breathless, panting whirr of the engine, and a big car flashes down +the road and past, travelling at the topmost of its top speed. There +is just time to glimpse the khaki hood and the thick scarlet cross +blazing on a white circle, and the car is gone. Empty as it is, it is +moving fast, and with luck and a clear road it will be well inside the +danger zone at the back door of the trenches in less than twenty +minutes. In half an hour perhaps it will have picked up its full load, +and be sliding back smoothly and gently down the cobbled road, swinging +carefully now to this side to avoid some scattered bricks, now to that +to dodge a shell-hole patched with gravel, driven down as tenderly and +gently as it was driven up fiercely and recklessly. + +Presently there are a few quiet orders, a few minutes' stir and +movement, a shifting to and fro of khaki against the green and pink and +white . . . and the companies have fallen in and stand in straight +rulered ranks. A pause, a sharp order or two, and the quick staccato +of 'numbering off' ripples swiftly down the lines; another pause, +another order, the long ranks blur and melt, harden and halt instantly +in a new shape; and evenly and steadily the ranked fours swing off, +turn out into the road, and go tramping down between the poplars. +There has been no flurry, no hustle, no confusion. The whole thing has +moved with the smoothness and precision and effortless ease of a +properly adjusted, well-oiled machine--which, after all, is just what +the regiment is. The pace is apparently leisurely, or even lazy, but +it eats up the miles amazingly, and it can be kept up with the shortest +of halts from dawn to dusk. + +As the miles unwind behind the regiment the character of the country +begins to change. There are fewer women and children to be seen now; +there are more roofless buildings, more house-fronts gaping doorless +and windowless, more walls with ragged rents, and tumbled heaps of +brick lying under the yawning black holes. But the grass is still +green, and the trees thick with foliage, the fields neatly ploughed and +tilled and cultivated, with here and there a staring notice planted on +the edge of a field, where the long, straight drills are sprinkled with +budding green--'Crops sown. Do not walk here.' Altogether there is +little sign of the heavy hand of war upon the country, and such signs +as there are remain unobtrusive and wrapped up in springing verdure and +bloom and blossom. Even the trapping of war, the fighting machine +itself, wears a holiday or--at most--an Easter-peace-manoeuvre +appearance. A heavy battery has its guns so carefully concealed, so +bowered in green, that it is only the presence of the lounging gunners +and close, searching looks that reveal a few inches of muzzle peering +out towards the hill crest in front. Scattered about behind the guns, +covered with beautiful green turf, shadowed by growing trees, are the +dwelling-places of the gunners, deep 'dug-outs,' with no visible sign +of their existence except the square, black hole of the doorway. Out +in the open a man sits with a pair of field-glasses, sweeping the sky. +He is the aeroplane look-out, and at the first sign of a distant speck +in the sky or the drone of an engine he blows shrilly on his whistle; +every man dives to earth or under cover, and remains motionless until +the whistle signals all clear again. An enemy aeroplane might drop to +within pistol shot and search for an hour without finding a sign of the +battery. + +When the regiment swerves off the main road and moves down a winding +side-track over open fields, past tree-encircled farms, and along by +thick-leaved hedges, it passes more of these Jack-in-the-Green +concealed batteries. All wear the same look of happy and indolent +ease. Near one is a stream, and the gunners are bathing in an +artificially made pool, plunging and splashing in showers of glistening +drops. They are like school boys at a picnic. It seems utterly +ridiculous to think that they are grim fighting men whose business in +life for months past and for months to come is to kill and kill, and to +be killed themselves if such is the fortune of war. Another battery of +field artillery passes on the road. But even here, shorn of their +concealing greenery, in all the bare working-and-ready-for-business +apparel of 'marching order,' there is little to suggest real war. +Drivers and gunners are spruce and neat and clean, the horses are sleek +and well fed and groomed till their skins shine like satin in the sun, +the harness is polished and speckless, bits and stirrup-irons and +chains and all the scraps of steel and brass twinkle and wink in bright +and shining splendour. The ropes of the traces--the last touch of +pride in perfection this, surely--are scrubbed and whitened. The whole +battery is as spick and span, as complete and immaculate, as if it were +waiting to walk into the arena at the Naval and Military Tournament. +Such scrupulous perfection on active service sounds perhaps unnecessary +or even extravagant. But the teams, remember, have been for weeks past +luxuriating in comfortable ease miles back in their 'wagon-line' +billets, where the horses have done nothing for days on end but feed +and grow fat, and the drivers nothing but clean up and look after their +teams and harness. If the guns up in the firing line had to shift +position it has meant no more to the teams than a break of the monotony +for a day or two, a night or two's marching, and a return to the rear. + +It is afternoon now, and the regiment is drawing near to the trenches. +The slanting sun begins to throw long shadows from the poplars. The +open fields are covered with tall grass and hay that moves in long, +slow, undulating waves under the gentle breeze that is rising. The +sloping light falling on them gives the waves an extraordinary +resemblance to the lazy swell on a summer sea. Here and there the +fields are splashed with broad bands of vivid colour--the blazing +scarlet of poppies, the glowing cloth-of-gold of yellow mustard, the +rich, deep, splendid blue of corn-flowers. + +For one or two miles past the track has been plainly marked by +sign-posts bearing directions to the various trenches and their +entrances. Now, at a parting of the main track, a group of +'guides'--men from the regiment being relieved from the trenches--wait +the incoming regiment. Company by company, platoon by platoon, the +regiment moves off to the appointed places, and by company and platoon +the outcoming regiment gathers up its belongings and moves out. In +most parts of the firing line these changes would only be made after +dark. But this section bears the reputation of being a 'peaceful' one, +the Germans opposite of being 'tame,' so the reliefs are made in +daytime, more or less in safety. There has been no serious fighting +here for months. Constant sniping and bickering between the forward +firing trenches has, of course, always gone on, but there has been no +attack one way or the other, little shell-fire, and few aeroplanes over. + +The companies that 'take over' the support trenches get varied +instructions and advice about tending the plants and flowers round the +dugouts, and watering the mustard-and-cress box. They absorb the +advice, strip their accoutrements and tunics, roll up their +shirt-sleeves, and open the throats, fish out soap and towels from +their packs, and proceed to the pump to lather and wash copiously. The +companies for the forward trench march down interminable communication +trenches, distribute themselves along the parapet, and also absorb +advice from the outgoing tenants--advice of the positions of enemy +snipers, the hours when activity and when peace may be expected, the +specially 'unhealthy' spots where a sniper's bullet or a bomb must be +watched for, the angles and loopholes that give the best look-out. The +trenches are deep and well-made, the parapets solidly constructed. For +four days or six, or as many as the regiment remains 'in,' the range of +the men's vision will be the walls of the trench, the piled sandbags, +the inside of their dug-outs, and a view (taken in peeps through a +loophole or reflected in a periscope mirror) of about fifty to a +hundred yards of 'neutral ground' and the German parapet beyond. The +neutral ground is covered with a jungle of coarse grass, edged on both +sides with a tangle of barbed wire. + +Close to the German parapet are a few black, huddled heaps--dead +Germans, shot down while out in a working party on the wire at night, +and left there to rot, and some killed in their own trench, and tumbled +out over the parapet by their own comrades. The drowsy silence is +broken at long intervals by a rifle shot; a lark pours out a stream of +joyful thrilling song. + + * * * * * + +A mile or two back from the firing line a couple of big motor-cars +swing over the crest of a gentle rise, swoop down into the dip, and +halt suddenly. A little group of men with scarlet staff-bands on their +caps and tabs on their collars climb out of the cars and move off the +track into the grass of the hollow. They prod sticks at the ground, +stamp on it, dig a heel in, to test its hardness and dryness. + +The General looks round. 'This is about as low-lying a spot as we have +on this part of front,' he says to his Chief of Staff. 'If it is dry +enough here it must be dry enough everywhere else.' + +The Chief assents, and for a space the group stands looking round the +sunlit fields and up at the clear sky. But their thoughts are not of +the beauties of the peaceful landscape. The words of the General are +the key to all their thoughts. For them the promise of spring is a +grim and a sinister thing; to them the springy green turf carpet on the +fields means ground fit to bear the weight of teams and guns, dry +enough to give firm foothold to the ranks of infantry charging across +the death-trap of the neutral ground, where clogging, wet, slippery mud +adds to the minutes under the hail of fire and every minute there in +the open means hundreds of lives lost. The hard, dry road underfoot +means merely that roads are passable for heavy guns and transport. The +thick green foliage of the trees is so much cover for guns and the +moving of troops and transport under concealment from air observation; +the clear, blue sky promises the continuance of fine weather, the final +release from the inactivity of the trenches. To these men the 'Promise +of Spring' is the promise of the crescendo of battle and slaughter. + +The General and his Staff are standing in the middle of a wide patch of +poppies, spread out in a bright scarlet that matches exactly the red +splashes on the brows and throats of the group. They move slowly back +towards the cars, and as they walk the red ripples and swirls against +their boots and about their knees. + +One might imagine them wading knee-deep in a river of blood. + + + + + +THE ADVANCE + +'_The attack has resulted in our line being advanced from one to two +hundred yards along a front of over one thousand yards._'--OFFICIAL +DESPATCH. + + +Down to the rawest hand in the latest-joined drafts, everyone knew for +a week before the attack commenced that 'something was on,' and for +twenty-four hours before that the 'something' was a move of some +importance, no mere affair of a battalion or two, or even of brigades, +but of divisions and corps and armies. There had been vague stirrings +in the regiments far behind the firing line 'in rest,' refittings and +completings of kits, reissuing of worn equipments, and a most ominous +anxiety that each man was duly equipped with an 'identity disc,' the +tell-tale little badge that hangs always round the neck of a man on +active service and that bears the word of who he is when he is brought +in wounded--who he was when brought in dead. The old hands judged all +the signs correctly and summed them up in a sentence, 'Being fattened +for the slaughter,' and were in no degree surprised when the sudden +order came to move. Those farthest back moved up the first stages by +daylight, but when they came within reach of the rumbling guns they +were halted and bivouacked to wait for night to cloak their movements +from the prying eyes of the enemy 'planes. The enemy might +have--probably had--an inkling of the coming attack; but they might not +know exactly the portion of front selected for the heaviest pressure, +and this must be kept secret till the last possible moment. So the +final filing up into the forward and support trenches was done by +night, and was so complete by daylight that no sign of unwonted +movement could be discerned from the enemy trenches and observing +stations when day broke. + +It was a beautiful morning--soft and mildly warm and sunny, with just a +slight haze hanging low to tone the growing light, and, incidentally, +to delay the opening of fire from the guns. Anyone standing midway +between the forward firing trenches might have looked in vain for +living sign of the massed hordes waiting the word to be at each other's +throats. Looking forward from behind the British lines, it could be +seen that the trenches and parapets were packed with men; but no man +showed head over parapet, and, seen from the enemy's side, the parapets +presented blank, lifeless walls, the trenches gave no glimpse of life. +All the bustle and movement of the night before was finished. At +midnight every road and track leading to the forward trenches had been +brimming with men, with regiments tramping slowly or squatting stolidly +by the roadside, smoking much and talking little, had been crawling +with transport, with ammunition carts, and ambulances and +stretcher-parties, and sappers heavily laden with sandbags and rolls of +barbed wire. The trenches--support, communication, and firing--had +trickled with creeping rivulets of khaki caps and been a-bristle with +bobbing rifle-barrels. Further back amongst the lines of guns the last +loads of ammunition were rumbling up to the batteries, the last shells +required to 'complete establishment'--and over-complete it--were being +stowed in safe proximity to the guns. At midnight there were scores of +thousands of men and animals busily at work with preparations for the +slaughter-pen of the morrow. Before midnight came again the bustle +would be renewed, and the circling ripples of activity would be +spreading and widening from the central splash of the battle front till +the last waves washed back to Berlin and London, brimming the hospitals +and swirling through the munition factories. But now at daybreak the +battle-field was steeped in brooding calm. Across the open space of +the neutral ground a few trench periscopes peered anxiously for any +sign of movement, and saw none; the batteries' 'forward observing +officers,' tucked away in carefully chosen and hidden look-outs, +fidgeted with wrist-watches and field-glasses, and passed back by +telephone continual messages about the strength of the growing light +and the lifting haze. An aeroplane droned high overhead, and an +'Archibald' (anti-aircraft gun) or two began to pattern the sky about +it with a trail of fleecy white smoke-puffs. The 'plane sailed on and +out of sight, the smoke-puffs and the wheezy barks of 'Archibald' +receding after it. Another period of silence followed. It was broken +by a faint report like the sound of a far-off door being slammed, and +almost at the same instant there came to the ear the faint thin whistle +of an approaching shell. The whistle rose to a rush and a roar that +cut off abruptly in a thunderous bang. The shell pitched harmlessly on +the open ground between the forward and support trenches. Again came +that faint 'slam,' this time repeated by four, and the 'bouquet' of +four shells crumped down almost on top of the support line. The four +crashes might have been a signal to the British guns. About a dozen +reports thudded out quickly and separately, and then in one terrific +blast of sound the whole line broke out in heavy fire. The infantry in +the trenches could distinguish the quick-following bangs of the guns +directly in line behind them, could separate the vicious swish and rush +of the shells passing immediately over their heads. Apart from these, +the reports blent in one long throbbing pulse of noise, an +indescribable medley of moanings, shrieks, and whistling in the air +rent by the passing shells. So ear-filling and confused was the +clamour that the first sharp, sudden bursts of the enemy shells over +our trenches were taken by the infantry for their own artillery's +shells falling short; but a very few moments proved plainly enough that +the enemy were replying vigorously to our fire. They had the ranges +well marked, too, and huge rents began to show in our parapets, strings +of casualties began to trickle back to the dressing stations in a +stream that was to flow steady and unbroken for many days and nights. +But the enemy defences showed more and quicker signs of damage, +especially at the main points, where the massed guns were busy +breaching the selected spots. Here the lighter guns were pouring a +hurricane of shrapnel on the dense thickets of barbed-wire +entanglements piled in loose loops and coils, strung in a criss-cross +network between pegs and stakes along the edge of the neutral ground; +the howitzers and heavies were pounding and hammering at the parapets +and the communication trenches beyond. + +For half an hour the appalling uproar continued, the solid earth shook +to the roar of the guns and the crashing of the shells. By the end of +that time both fronts to a depth of hundreds of yards were shrouded in +a slow-drifting haze of smoke and dust, through which the flashes of +the bursting shell blazed in quick glares of vivid light, and the spots +of their falling were marked by gushes of smoke and upflung billowing +clouds of thick dust. So far the noise was only and all of guns and +shell fire, but now from far out on one of the flanks a new note began +to weave itself into the uproar--the sharper crackle and clatter of +rifle and machine-gun fire. + +Along the line of front marked for the main assault the guns suddenly +lifted their fire and commenced to pour it down further back, although +a number of the lighter guns continued to sweep the front parapet with +gusts of shrapnel. And then suddenly it could be seen that the front +British trench was alive and astir. The infantry, who had been +crouched and prone in the shelter of their trenches, rose suddenly and +began to clamber over the parapets into the open and make their way out +through the maze of their own entanglements. Instantly the parapet +opposite began to crackle with rifle fire and to beat out a steady +tattoo from the hammering machine-guns. The bullets hissed and spat +across the open and hailed upon the opposite parapet. Scores, hundreds +of men fell before they could clear the entanglements to form up in the +open, dropped as they climbed the parapet, or even as they stood up and +raised a head above it. But the mass poured out, shook itself roughly +into line, and began to run across the open. They ran for the most +part with shoulders hunched and heads stooped, as men would run through +a heavy rainstorm to a near shelter And as they ran they stumbled and +fell and picked themselves up and ran again--or crumpled up and lay +still or squirming feebly. As the line swept on doggedly it thinned +and shredded into broken groups. The men dropped under the rifle +bullets, singly or in twos and threes; the bursting shells tore great +gaps in the line, snatching a dozen men at a mouthful; here and there, +where it ran into the effective sweep of a maxim, the line simply +withered and dropped and stayed still in a string of huddled heaps +amongst and on which the bullets continued to drum and thud. The open +ground was a full hundred yards across at the widest point where the +main attack was delivering. Fifty yards across, the battalion +assaulting was no longer a line, but a scattered series of groups like +beads on a broken string; sixty yards across and the groups had +dwindled to single men and couples with desperately long intervals +between; seventy yards, and there were no more than odd occasional men, +with one little bunch near the centre that had by some extraordinary +chance escaped the sleet of bullets; at eighty yards a sudden swirl of +lead caught this last group--and the line at last was gone, wiped out, +the open was swept clear of those dogged runners. The open ground was +dotted thick with men, men lying prone and still, men crawling on hands +and knees, men dragging themselves slowly and painfully with trailing, +useless legs, men limping, hobbling, staggering, in a desperate +endeavour to get back to their parapet and escape the bullets and +shrapnel that still stormed down upon them. The British gunners +dropped their ranges again, and a deluge of shells and shrapnel burst +crashing and whistling upon the enemy's front parapet. The rifle fire +slackened and almost died, and the last survivors of the charge had +such chance as was left by the enemy's shells to reach the shelter of +their trench. Groups of stretcher-bearers leaped out over the parapet +and ran to pick up the wounded, and hard on their heels another line of +infantry swarmed out and formed up for another attack. As they went +forward at a run the roar of rifles and machine-guns swelled again, and +the hail of bullets began to sweep across to meet them. Into the +forward trench they had vacated, the stream of another battalion +poured, and had commenced to climb out in their turn before the +advancing line was much more than half-way across. This time the +casualties, although appallingly heavy, were not so hopelessly severe +as in the first charge, probably because a salient of the enemy trench +to a flank had been reached by a battalion farther along, and the +devastating enfilading fire of rifles and machine-guns cut off. This +time the broken remnants of the line reached the barbed wires, gathered +in little knots as the individual men ran up and down along the face of +the entanglements looking for the lanes cut clearest by the sweeping +shrapnel, streamed through with men still falling at every step, +reached the parapet and leaped over and down. The guns had held their +fire on the trench till the last possible moment, and now they lifted +again and sought to drop across the further lines and the communication +trenches a shrapnel 'curtain' through which no reinforcements could +pass and live. The following battalion came surging across, losing +heavily, but still bearing weight enough to tell when at last they +poured in over the parapet. + +The neutral ground, the deadly open and exposed space, was won. It had +been crossed at other points, and now it only remained to see if the +hold could be maintained and strengthened and extended. + +The fighting fell to a new phase--the work of the short-arm bayonet +thrust and the bomb-throwers. In the gaps between the points where the +trench was taken the enemy fought with the desperation of trapped rats. +The trench had to be taken traverse by traverse. The bombers lobbed +their missiles over into the traverse ahead of them in showers, and +immediately the explosions crashed out, swung round the corner with a +rush to be met in turn with bullets or bursting bombs. Sometimes a +space of two or three traverses was blasted bare of life and rendered +untenable for long minutes on end by a constant succession of grenades +and bombs. In places, the men of one side or the other leaped up out +of the trench, risking the bullets that sleeted across the level +ground, and emptied a clip of cartridges or hurled half a dozen +grenades down into the trench further along. But for the most part the +fight raged below ground-level, at times even below the level of the +trench floor, where a handful of men held out in a deep dug-out. If +the entrance could be reached, a few bombs speedily settled the affair; +but where the defenders had hastily blocked themselves in with a +barricade of sandbags or planks, so that grenades could not be pitched +in, there was nothing left to do but crowd in against the rifle muzzles +that poked out and spurted bullets from the openings, tear down the +defences, and so come at the defenders. And all the time the captured +trench was pelted by shells--high-explosive and shrapnel. At the +entrances of the communication trenches that led back to the support +trenches the fiercest fighting raged continually, with men struggling +to block the path with sandbags and others striving to tear them down, +while on both sides their fellows fought over them with bayonet and +butt. In more than one such place the barricade was at last built by +the heap of the dead who had fought for possession; in others, crude +barriers of earth and sandbags were piled up and fought across and +pulled down and built up again a dozen times. + +In the middle of the ferocious individual hand-to-hand fighting a +counter-attack was launched against the captured trench. A swarm of +the enemy leaped from the next trench and rushed across the twenty or +thirty yards of open to the captured front line. But the counterattack +had been expected. The guns caught the attackers as they left their +trench and beat them down in scores. A line of riflemen had been +installed under cover of what had been the parapet of the enemy front +trench, and this line broke out in 'the mad minute' of rifle fire. The +shrapnel and the rifles between them smashed the counter-attack before +it had well formed. It was cut down in swathes and had totally +collapsed before it reached half-way to the captured trench. But +another was hurled forward instantly, was up out of the trench and +streaming across the open before the infantry had finished re-charging +their magazines. Then the rifles spoke again in rolling crashes, the +screaming shrapnel pounced again on the trench that still erupted +hurrying men, while from the captured trench itself came hurtling bombs +and grenades. Smoke and dust leaped and swirled in dense clouds about +the trenches and the open between them, but through the haze the ragged +front fringe of the attack loomed suddenly and pressed on to the very +lip of the trench. Beyond that point it appeared it could not pass. +The British infantry, cramming full cartridge-clips into their +magazines, poured a fresh cataract of lead across the broken parapet +into the charging ranks, and the ranks shivered and stopped and melted +away beneath the fire, while the remnants broke and fled back to cover. +With a yell the defenders of a moment before became the attackers. +They leaped the trench and fell with the bayonet on the flying +survivors of the counter-attack. For the most part these were killed +as they fled; but here and there groups of them turned at bay, and in a +dozen places as many fights raged bitterly for a few minutes, while the +fresh attack pushed on to the next trench. A withering fire poured +from it but could not stop the rush that fought its way on and into the +second-line trench. From now the front lost connection or cohesion. +Here and there the attackers broke in on the second line, exterminated +that portion of the defence in its path or was itself exterminated +there. Where it won footing it spread raging to either side along the +trench, shooting, stabbing, flinging hand grenades and bearing down the +defenders by the sheer fury of the attack. The movement spread along +the line, and with a sudden leap and rush the second line was gained +along a front of nearly a mile. In parts this attack overshot its +mark, broke through and over the second line and, tearing and hacking +through a network of wire, into the third trench. In part the second +line still held out; and even after it was all completely taken, the +communication trenches between the first and second line were filled +with combatants who fought on furiously, heedless of whether friend or +foe held trench to front or rear, intent only on the business at their +own bayonet points, to kill the enemy facing them and push in and kill +the ones behind. Fresh supports pressed into the captured positions, +and, backed by their weight, the attack surged on again in a fresh +spasm of fury. It secured foothold in great sections of the third +line, and even, without waiting to see the whole of it made good, +attempted to rush the fourth line. At one or two points the gallant +attempt succeeded, and a handful of men hung on desperately for some +hours, their further advance impossible, their retreat, had they +attempted it, almost equally so, cut off from reinforcements, short of +ammunition, and entirely without bombs or grenades. When their +ammunition was expended they used rifles and cartridges taken from the +enemy dead in the trench; having no grenades they snatched and hurled +back on the instant any that fell with fuses still burning. They waged +their unequal fight to the last minute and were killed out to the last +man. + +The third line was not completely held or even taken. One or two +loopholed and machine-gunned dug-out redoubts, or 'keeps,' held out +strenuously, and before they could be reduced--entrance being gained at +last literally by tearing the place down sandbag by sandbag till a hole +was made and grenade after grenade flung in--other parts of the trench +had been recaptured. The weak point that so often hampers attack was +making itself felt. The bombers and 'grenadiers' had exhausted the +stock they carried; fresh supplies were scanty, were brought up with +difficulty, and distributed to the most urgently required places with +still greater difficulty. The ammunition carriers had to cross the +open of the old neutral ground, the battered first trench, pass along +communication trenches choked with dead and wounded, or again cross the +open to the second and third line. All the time they were under the +fire of high-explosive shells and had to pass through a zone or +'barrage' of shrapnel built across their path for just this special +purpose of destroying supports and supplies. Our own artillery were +playing exactly the same game behind the enemy lines, but in these +lines were ample stores of cartridges and grenades, bombs, and +trench-mortars. The third and fourth lines were within easy bomb- and +grenade-throwing distance, and were connected by numerous passage-ways. +On this front the contest became a bombing duel, and because the +British were woefully short of bombs and the enemy could throw five to +their one, they were once again 'bombed out' and forced to retire. But +by now the second trench had been put in some state of defence towards +its new front, and here the British line stayed fast and set its teeth +and doggedly endured the torment of the bombs and the destruction of +the pounding shells. Without rest or respite they endured till night, +and on through the night, under the glare of flares and the long-drawn +punishment of the shell fire, until the following day brought with the +dawn fresh supports for a renewal of the struggle. The battered +fragments of the first attacking battalions were withdrawn, often with +corporals for company leaders, and lieutenants or captains commanding +battalions whose full remaining strength would hardly make a company. +The battle might only have been well begun, but at least, thanks to +them and to those scattered heaps lying among the grass, spread in +clumps and circles about the yawning shell-holes, buried beneath the +broken parapets and in the smashed trenches--to them, and those, and +these others passing out with haggard, pain-lined faces, shattered +limbs, and torn bodies on the red, wet stretchers to the dressing +stations, at least, the battle was well begun. The sappers were hard +at work in the darkness consolidating the captured positions, and these +would surely now be held firm. Whatever was to follow, these first +regiments had done their share. + +Two lines of trenches were taken; the line was advanced--advanced, it +is true, a bare one or two hundred yards, but with lives poured out +like water over each foot of the advance, with every inch of the ground +gained marking a well-spring and fountain-head of a river of pain, of a +suffering beyond all words, of a glory above and beyond all suffering. + + + + +A CONVERT TO CONSCRIPTION + +'_. . . have maintained and consolidated our position in the captured +trench._'--EXTRACT FROM OFFICIAL DESPATCH. + + +Number nine-two-ought-three-six, Sapper Duffy, J., 'A' Section, +Southland Company, Royal Engineers, had been before the War plain Jem +Duffy, labourer, and as such had been an ardent anti-militarist, +anti-conscriptionist, and anti-everything else his labour leaders and +agitators told him. His anti-militarist beliefs were sunk soon after +the beginning of the War, and there is almost a complete story itself +in the tale of their sinking, weighted first by a girl, who looked +ahead no further than the pleasure of walking out with a khaki uniform, +and finally plunged into the deeps of the Army by the gibe of a +stauncher anti-militarist during a heated argument that, 'if he +believed now in fighting, why didn't he go'n fight himself?' But even +after his enlistment he remained true to his beliefs in voluntary +service, and the account of his conversion to the principles of +Conscription--no half-and-half measures of 'military training' or rifle +clubs or hybrid arrangements of that sort, but out-and-out +Conscription--may be more interesting, as it certainly is more typical, +of the conversion of more thousands of members of the Serving Forces +than will ever be known--until those same thousands return to their +civilian lives and the holding of their civilian votes. + + * * * * * + +By nightfall the captured trench--well, it was only a courtesy title to +call it a trench. Previous to the assault, the British guns had +knocked it about a good deal, bombs and grenades had helped further to +disrupt it in the attacks and counter-attacks during the day, and +finally, after it was captured and held, the enemy had shelled and +high-explosived it out of any likeness to a real trench. But the +infantry had clung throughout the day to the ruins, had beaten off +several strong counter-attacks, and in the intervals had done what they +could to dig themselves more securely in and re-pile some heaps of +sandbags from the shattered parapet on the trench's new front. The +casualties had been heavy, and since there was no passage from the +front British trench to the captured portion of the German except +across the open of the 'neutral' ground, most of the wounded and all +the killed had had to remain under such cover as could be found in the +wrecked trench. The position of the unwounded was bad enough and +unpleasant enough, but it was a great deal worse for the wounded. A +bad wound damages mentally as well as physically. The 'casualty' is +out of the fight, has had a first field dressing placed on his wound, +has been set on one side to be removed at the first opportunity to the +dressing station and the rear. He can do nothing more to protect +himself or take such cover as offers. He is in the hands of the +stretcher-bearers and must submit to be moved when and where they think +fit. And in this case the casualties did not even have the +satisfaction of knowing that every minute that passed meant a minute +farther from the danger zone, a minute nearer to safety and to the +doctors, and the hospitals' hope of healing. Here they had to be +throughout the long day, hearing the shriek of each approaching shell, +waiting for the crash of its fall, wondering each time if _this_ one, +the rush of its approach rising louder and louder to an appalling +screech, was going to be the finish--a 'direct hit.' Many of the +wounded were wounded again, or killed as they lay; and from others the +strength and the life had drained slowly out before nightfall. But now +that darkness had come the casualties moved out and the supports moved +in. From what had been the German second trench, and on this portion +of front was now their forward one, lights were continually going up +and bursts of rifle and machine-gun fire were coming; and an occasional +shell still whooped up and burst over or behind the captured trench. +This meant that the men--supports, and food and water carriers, and +stretcher-bearers--were under a dangerous fire even at night in +crossing the old 'neutral' ground, and it meant that one of the first +jobs absolutely necessary to the holding of the captured trench was the +making of a connecting path more or less safe for moving men, +ammunition, and food by night or day. + +This, then, was the position of affairs when 'A' section of the +Southland Company of Engineers came up to take a hand, and this +communication trench was the task that Sapper Duffy, J., found himself +set to work on. Personally Sapper Duffy knew nothing of, and cared +less for, the tactical situation. All he knew or cared about was that +he had done a longish march up from the rear the night before, that he +had put in a hard day's work carrying up bales of sandbags and rolls of +barbed wire from the carts to the trenches, and that here before him +was another night's hard labour, to say nothing of the prospect of +being drilled by a rifle bullet or mangled by a shell. All the +information given him and his section by their section officer was that +they were to dig a communication trench, that it must be completed +before morning, that as long as they were above-ground they would +probably be under a nasty fire, and that therefore the sooner they dug +themselves down under cover the better it would be for the job and for +all concerned. 'A' section removed its equipment and tunics and moved +out on to the 'neutral' ground in its shirt-sleeves, shivering at first +in the raw cold and at the touch of the drizzling rain, but knowing +that the work would very soon warm them beyond need of hampering +clothes. In the ordinary course, digging a trench under fire is done +more or less under cover by sapping--digging the first part in a +covered spot, standing in the deep hole, cutting down the 'face' and +gradually burrowing a way across the danger zone. The advantage of +this method is that the workers keep digging their way forward while +all the time they are below ground and in the safety of the sap they +dig. The disadvantage is that the narrow trench only allows one or two +men to get at its end or 'face' to dig, and the work consequently takes +time. Here it was urgent that the work be completed that night, +because it was very certain that as soon as its whereabouts was +disclosed by daylight it would be subjected to a fire too severe to +allow any party to work, even if the necessary passage of men to and +fro would leave any room for a working party. The digging therefore +had to be done down from the surface, and the diggers, until they had +sunk themselves into safety, had to stand and work fully exposed to the +bullets that whined and hissed across from the enemy trenches. + +A zigzag line had been laid down to mark the track of the trench, and +Sapper Duffy was placed by his sergeant on this line and told briefly +to 'get on with it.' Sapper Duffy spat on his hands, placed his spade +on the exact spot indicated, drove it down, and began to dig at a rate +that was apparently leisurely but actually was methodical and nicely +calculated to a speed that could be long and unbrokenly sustained. +During the first minute many bullets whistled and sang past, and Sapper +Duffy took no notice. A couple went 'whutt' past his ear, and he swore +and slightly increased his working speed. When a bullet whistles or +sings past, it is a comfortable distance clear; when it goes 'hiss' or +'swish,' it is too close for safety; and when it says 'whutt' very +sharply and viciously, it is merely a matter of being a few inches out +either way. Sapper Duffy had learned all this by full experience, and +now the number of 'whutts' he heard gave him a very clear understanding +of the dangers of this particular job. He was the farthest out man of +the line. On his left hand he could just distinguish the dim figure of +another digger, stooping and straightening, stooping and straightening, +with the rhythm and regularity of a machine. On his right hand was +empty darkness, lit up every now and then by the glow of a flare-light +showing indistinctly through the drizzling rain. Out of the darkness, +or looming big against the misty light, figures came and went stumbling +and slipping in the mud--stretcher-bearers carrying or supporting the +wounded, a ration party staggering under boxes balanced on shoulders, a +strung-out line of supports stooped and trying to move quietly, men in +double files linked together by swinging ammunition boxes. All these +things Sapper Duffy saw out of the tail of his eye, and without +stopping or slacking the pace of his digging. He fell unconsciously to +timing his movements to those of the other man, and for a time the +machine became a twin-engine working beat for beat--thrust, stoop, +straighten, heave; thrust, stoop, straighten, heave. Then a bullet +said the indescribable word that means 'hit' and Duffy found that the +other half of the machine had stopped suddenly and collapsed in a +little heap. Somewhere along the line a voice called softly +'Stretcher-bearers,' and almost on the word two men and a stretcher +materialised out of the darkness and a third was stooping over the +broken machine. 'He's gone,' said the third man after a pause. 'Lift +him clear.' The two men dropped the stretcher, stooped and fumbled, +lifted the limp figure, laid it down a few yards away from the line, +and vanished in the direction of another call. Sapper Duffy was alone +with his spade and a foot-deep square hole--and the hissing bullets. +The thoughts of the dead man so close beside him disturbed him vaguely, +although he had never given a thought to the scores of dead he had seen +behind the trench and that he knew were scattered thick over the +'neutral' ground where they had fallen in the first charge. But this +man had been one of his own company and his own section--it was +different about him somehow. Yet of course Sapper Duffy knew that the +dead must at times lie where they fall, because the living must always +come before the dead, especially while there are many more wounded than +there are stretchers or stretcher-bearers. But all the same he didn't +like poor old 'Jigger' Adams being left there--didn't see how he could +go home and face old 'Jigger's' missus and tell her he'd come away and +left 'Jigger' lying in the mud of a mangel-wurzel field. Blest if he +wouldn't have a try when they were going to give Jigger a lift back. A +line of men, shirt-sleeved like himself and carrying spades in their +hands, moved out past him. An officer led them, and another with +Sapper Duffy's section officer brought up the rear, and passed along +the word to halt when he reached Daffy. 'Here's the outside man of my +lot,' he said, 'so you'll join on beyond him. You've just come in, I +hear, so I suppose your men are fresh?' + +'Fresh!' said the other disgustedly. 'Not much. They've been digging +trenches all day about four miles back. It's too sickening. Pity we +don't do like the Boches--conscript all the able-bodied civilians and +make 'em do all this trench-digging in rear. Then we might be fresh +for the firing line.' + +'Tut, tut--mustn't talk about conscripting 'em,' said Duffy's officer +reprovingly. 'One volunteer, y'know--worth ten pressed men.' + +'Yes,' said the other, 'but when there isn't enough of the "one +volunteer" it's about time to collar the ten pressed.' + +Two or three flares went up almost simultaneously from the enemy's +line, the crackle of fire rose to a brisk fusillade, and through it ran +the sharp 'rat-at-at-at' of a machine-gun. The rising sound of the +reports told plainly of the swinging muzzle, and officers and men +dropped flat in the mud and waited till the sweeping bullets had passed +over their heads. Men may work on and 'chance it' against rifle fire +alone, but the sweep of a machine-gun is beyond chance, and very near +to the certainty of sudden death to all in the circle of its swing. + +The officers passed on and the new men began to dig. Sapper Duffy also +resumed work, and as he did so he noticed there was something familiar +about the bulky shape of the new digger next to him. + +'What lot are you?' asked the new man, heaving out the first spadeful +rapidly and dexterously. + +'We're 'A' Section, Southland Company,' said Duffy, 'an' I say--ain't +you Beefy Wilson?' + +'That's me,' said the other without checking his spade. 'And blow me! +you must be Duffy--Jem Duffy.' + +'That's right,' said Duffy. 'But I didn't know you'd joined, Beefy.' + +'Just a week or two after you,' said Beefy. + +'Didjer know boss's two sons had got commissions? Joined the Sappers +an' tried to raise a company out o' the works to join. Couldn't +though. I was the only one.' + +'Look out--'ere's that blanky maxim again,' said Duffy, and they +dropped flat very hurriedly. + +There was no more conversation at the moment. There were too many +bullets about to encourage any lingering there, and both men wanted all +their breath for their work. It was hard work too. Duffy's back and +shoulder and arm muscles began to ache dully, but he stuck doggedly to +it. He even made an attempt to speed up to Beefy's rate of shovelling, +although he knew by old experience alongside Beefy that he could never +keep up with him, the unchallenged champion of the old gang. + +Whether it was that the lifting rain had made them more visible or that +the sound of their digging had been heard they never knew, but the +rifle fire for some reason became faster and closer, and again and +again the call passed for stretcher-bearers, and a constant stream of +wounded began to trickle back from the trench-diggers. Duffy's section +was not so badly off now because they had sunk themselves hip deep, and +the earth they threw out in a parapet gave extra protection. But it +was harder work for them now because they stood in soft mud and water +well above the ankles. The new company, being the more exposed, +suffered more from the fire; but each man of them had a smaller portion +of trench to dig, so they were catching up on the first workers. But +all spaded furiously and in haste to be done with the job, while the +officers and sergeants moved up and down the line and watched the +progress made. + +More cold-bloodedly unpleasant work it would be hard to imagine. The +men had none of the thrill and heat of combat to help them; they had +not the hope that a man has in a charge across the open--that a minute +or two gets the worst of it over; they had not even the chance the +fighting man has where at least his hand may save his head. Their +business was to stand in the one spot, open and unprotected, and +without hope of cover or protection for a good hour or more on end. +They must pay no heed to the singing bullets, to the crash of a +bursting shell, to the rising and falling glow of the flares. Simply +they must give body and mind to the job in hand, and dig and dig and +keep on digging. There had been many brave deeds done by the fighting +men on that day: there had been bold leading and bold following in the +first rush across the open against a tornado of fire; there had been +forlorn-hope dashes for ammunition or to pick up wounded; there had +been dogged and desperate courage in clinging all day to the battered +trench under an earth-shaking tempest of high-explosive shells, bombs, +and bullets. But it is doubtful if the day or the night had seen more +nerve-trying, courage-testing work, more deliberate and long-drawn +bravery than was shown, as a matter of course and as a part of the job, +in the digging of that communication trench. + +It was done at last, and although it might not be a Class One +Exhibition bit of work, it was, as Beefy Wilson remarked, 'a deal +better'n none.' And although the trench was already a foot deep in +water, Beefy stated no more than bald truth in saying, 'Come to-morrow +there's plenty will put up glad wi' their knees bein' below high-water +mark for the sake o' havin' their heads below low bullet-mark.' + +But, if the trench was finished, the night's work for the Engineers was +not. They were moved up into the captured trench, and told that they +had to repair it and wire out in front of it before they were done. + +They had half an hour's rest before recommencing work, and Beefy Wilson +and Jem Duffy hugged the shelter of some tumbled sandbags, lit their +pipes and turned the bowls down, and exchanged reminiscences. + +'Let's see,' said Beefy. 'Isn't Jigger Adams in your lot?' + +'Was,' corrected Jem, 'till an hour ago. 'E's out yon wi' a bullet in +'im--stiff by now.' + +Beefy breathed blasphemous regrets. 'Rough on 'is missus an' the kids. +Six of 'em, weren't it?' + +'Aw,' assented Jem. 'But she'll get suthin' from the Society funds.' + +'Not a ha'porth,' said Beefy. 'You'll remem--no, it was just arter you +left. The trades unions decided no benefits would be paid out for them +as 'listed. It was Ben Shrillett engineered that. 'E was Secretary +an' Treasurer an' things o' other societies as well as ours. 'E fought +the War right along, an' 'e's still fightin' it. 'E's a anti-militant, +'e ses.' + +'Anti-militarist,' Jem corrected. He had taken some pains himself in +the old days to get the word itself and some of its meaning right. + +'Anti-military-ist then,' said Beefy. 'Any'ow, 'e stuck out agin all +sorts o' soldierin'. This stoppin' the Society benefits was a trump +card too. It blocked a whole crowd from listin' that I know myself +would ha' joined. Queered the boss's sons raisin' that Company too. +They 'ad Frickers an' the B.S.L. Co. an' the works to draw from. Could +ha' raised a couple hundred easy if Ben Shrillett 'adn't got at 'em. +You know 'ow 'e talks the fellers round.' + +'I know,' agreed Jem, sucking hard at his pipe. + +The Sergeant broke in on their talk. 'Now then,' he said briskly. +'Sooner we start, sooner we're done an' off 'ome to our downy couch. +'Ere, Duffy'--and he pointed out the work Duffy was to start. + +For a good two hours the Engineers laboured like slaves again. The +trench was so badly wrecked that it practically had to be +reconstructed. It was dangerous work because it meant moving freely up +and down, both where cover was and was not. It was physically heavy +work because spade work in wet ground must always be that; and when the +spade constantly encounters a debris of broken beams, sandbags, rifles, +and other impediments, and the work has to be performed in +eye-confusing alternations of black darkness and dazzling flares, it +makes the whole thing doubly hard. When you add in the constant whisk +of passing bullets and the smack of their striking, the shriek and +shattering burst of high-explosive shells, and the drone and whirr of +flying splinters, you get labour conditions removed to the utmost limit +from ideal, and, to any but the men of the Sappers, well over the edge +of the impossible. The work at any other time would have been gruesome +and unnerving, because the gasping and groaning of the wounded hardly +ceased from end to end of the captured trench, and in digging out the +collapsed sections many dead Germans and some British were found +blocking the vigorous thrust of the spades. + +Duffy was getting 'fair fed up,' although he still worked on +mechanically. He wondered vaguely what Ben Shrillett would have said +to any member of the trade union that had worked a night, a day, and a +night on end. He wondered, too, how Ben Shrillett would have shaped in +the Royal Engineers, and, for all his cracking muscles and the +back-breaking weight and unwieldiness of the wet sandbags, he had to +grin at the thought of Ben, with his podgy fat fingers and his visible +rotundity of waistcoat, sweating and straining there in the wetness and +darkness with Death whistling past his ear and crashing in shrapnel +bursts about him. The joke was too good to keep to himself, and he +passed it to Beefy next time he came near. Beefy saw the jest clearly +and guffawed aloud, to the amazement of a clay-daubed infantryman who +had had nothing in his mind but thoughts of death and loading and +firing his rifle for hours past. + +'Don't wonder Ben's agin conscription,' said Beefy; 'they might +conscription 'im,' and passed on grinning. + +Duffy had never looked at it in that light. He'd been +anti-conscription himself, though now--mebbe--he didn't know--he wasn't +so sure. + +And after the trench was more or less repaired came the last and the +most desperate business of all--the 'wiring' out there in the open +under the eye of the soaring lights. In ones and twos during the +intervals of darkness the men tumbled over the parapet, dragging stakes +and coils of wire behind them. They managed to drive short stakes and +run trip-wires between them without the enemy suspecting them. When a +light flamed, every man dropped flat in the mud and lay still as the +dead beside them till the light died. In the brief intervals of +darkness they drove the stakes with muffled hammers, and ran the +lengths of barbed wire between them. Heart in mouth they worked, one +eye on the dimly seen hammer and stake-head, the other on the German +trench, watching for the first upward trailing sparks of the flare. +Plenty of men were hit of course, because, light or dark, the bullets +were kept flying, but there was no pause in the work, not even to help +the wounded in. If they were able to crawl they crawled, dropping flat +and still while the lights burned, hitching themselves painfully +towards the parapet under cover of the darkness. If they could not +crawl they lay still, dragging themselves perhaps behind the cover of a +dead body or lying quiet in the open till the time would come when +helpers would seek them. Their turn came when the low wires were +complete. The wounded were brought in cautiously to the trench then, +and hoisted over the parapet; the working party was carefully detailed +and each man's duty marked out before they crawled again into the open +with long stakes and strands of barbed wire. The party lay there +minute after minute, through periods of light and darkness, until the +officer in charge thought a favourable chance had come and gave the +arranged signal. Every man leaped to his feet, the stakes were +planted, and quick blow after blow drove them home. Another light +soared up and flared out, and every man dropped and held his breath, +waiting for the crash of fire that would tell they were discovered. +But the flare died out without a sign, and the working party hurriedly +renewed their task. This time the darkness held for an unusual length +of time, and the stakes were planted, the wires fastened, and +cross-pieces of wood with interlacings of barbed wire all ready were +rolled out and pegged down without another light showing. The word +passed down and the men scrambled back into safety. + +'Better shoot a light up quick,' said the Engineer officer to the +infantry commander. 'They have a working party out now. I heard 'em +hammering. That's why they went so long without a light.' + +A pistol light was fired and the two stared out into the open ground it +lit. 'Thought so,' said the Engineer, pointing. 'New stakes--see? +And those fellows lying beside 'em.' + +'Get your tools together, sergeant,' he said, as several more lights +flamed and a burst of rapid fire rose from the British rifles, 'and +collect your party. Our job's done, and I'm not sorry for it.' + +It was just breaking daylight when the remains of the Engineers' party +emerged from the communication trench and already the guns on both +sides were beginning to talk. Beefy Wilson and Jem Duffy between them +found Jigger's body and brought it as far as the dressing station. +Behind the trenches Beefy's company and Jem's section took different +roads, and the two old friends parted with a casual 'S' long' and 'See +you again sometime.' + +Duffy had two hours' sleep in a sopping wet roofless house, about three +miles behind the firing line. Then the section was roused and marched +back to their billets in a shell-wrecked village, a good ten miles +farther back. They found what was left of the other three sections of +the Southland Company there, heard the tale of how the Company had been +cut up in advancing with the charging infantry, ate a meal, scraped +some of the mud off themselves, and sought their blankets and wet straw +beds. + +Jem Duffy could not get the thought of Ben Shrillett, labour leader and +agitator, out of his mind, and mixed with his thoughts as he went to +sleep were that officer's remarks about pressed men. That perhaps +accounts for his waking thoughts running on the same groove when his +sergeant roused him at black midnight and informed him the section was +being turned out--to dig trenches. + +'Trenches,' spluttered Sapper Duffy, '. . . us? How is it our turn +again?' + +'Becos, my son,' said the Sergeant, 'there's nobody else about 'ere to +take a turn. Come on! Roll out! Show a leg!' + +It was then that Sapper Duffy was finally converted, and renounced for +ever and ever his anti-conscription principles. + +'Nobody else,' he said slowly, 'an' England fair stiff wi' men. . . . +The sooner we get Conscription, the better I'll like it. Conscription +solid for every bloomin' able-bodied man an' boy. An' I 'ope Ben +Shrillett an' 'is likes is the first to be took. Conscription,' he +said with the emphasis of finality as he fumbled in wet straw for a +wetter boot, 'out-an'-out, lock, stock, 'n barrel Conscription.' + + * * * * * + +That same night Ben Shrillett was presiding at a meeting of the Strike +Committee. He had read on the way to the meeting the communiqué that +told briefly of Sapper Duffy and his fellow Engineers' work of the +night before, and the descriptive phrase struck him as sounding neat +and effective. He worked it now into his speech to the Committee, +explaining how and where they and he benefited by this strike, +unpopular as it had proved. + +'We've vindicated the rights of the workers,' he said. 'We've shown +that, war or no war, Labour means to be more than mere wage-slaves. +War can't last for ever, and we here, this Committee, proved ourselves +by this strike the true leaders and the Champions of Labour, the +Guardians of the Rights of Trade Unionism. We, gentlemen, have always +been that, and by the strike'--and he concluded with the phrase from +the despatch--'we have maintained and consolidated our position.' + +The Committee said, 'Hear, hear.' It is a pity they could not have +heard what Sapper Duffy was saying as he sat up in his dirty wet straw, +listening to the rustle and patter of rain on the barn's leaky roof and +tugging on an icy-cold board-stiff boot. + + + + +'BUSINESS AS USUAL' + +The remains of the Regiment were slowly working their way back out of +action. They had been in it for three days--three strenuous nights and +days of marching, of fighting, of suffering under heavy shell-fire, of +insufficient and broken sleep, of irregular and unpalatable rations, of +short commons of water, of nerve-stretching excitement and suspense, +all the inevitable discomforts and hardships that in the best organised +of armies must be the part of any hard-fought action. The Regiment had +suffered cruelly, and their casualties had totalled some sixty per +cent. of the strength. And now they were coming back, jaded and worn, +filthily grimed and dirty, unshaven, unwashed, footsore, and limping, +but still in good heart and able to see a subject for jests and +laughter in the sprawling fall of one of their number plunging hastily +to shelter from the unexpected rush and crash of a shell, in the sultry +stream of remarks from an exasperated private when he discovered a +bullet-pierced water-bottle and the loss of his last precious drops of +water. + +The men were trickling out in slow, thin streams along communication +and support trenches, behind broken buildings and walls and barricades, +under any cover that screened them from the watchful eyes of the enemy +observers perched high in trees and buildings and everywhere they could +obtain a good look-out over our lines. + +In the minds of the men the thoughts of almost all ran in the same +grooves--first and most strongly, because perhaps the oftenest framed +in speech, that it was hot--this hot and that hot, hot as so-and-so or +such-and-such, according to the annoyance or wit of the speaker; +second, and much less clearly defined, a dull satisfaction that they +had done their share, and done it well, and that now they were on their +way out to all the luxury of plenty of food and sleep, water to drink, +water and soap to wash with; third, and increasing in proportion as +they got farther from the forward line and the chance of being hit, a +great anxiety to reach the rear in safety. The fear of being hit by +shell or bullet was a hundred-fold greater than it had been during +their part in the action, when the risk was easily a hundred times +greater, and more sympathy was expended over one man 'casualtied' +coming out than over a score of those killed in the actual fight. It +seemed such hard lines, after going through all they had gone through +and escaping it scot free, that a man should be caught just when it was +all over and he was on the verge of a more or less prolonged spell +outside the urgent danger zone. + +The engagement was not over yet. It had been raging with varying +intensity for almost a week, had resulted in a considerable advance of +the British line, and had now resolved itself into a spasmodic series +of struggles on the one side to 'make good' the captured ground and +steal a few more yards, if possible; on the other, to strengthen the +defence against further attacks and to make the captured trenches +untenable. + +But the struggle now was to the Regiment coming out a matter of almost +outside interest, an interest reduced nearly to the level of the +newspaper readers' at home, something to read or hear and talk about in +the intervals of eating and drinking, of work and amusement and sleep +and the ordinary incidents of daily life. Except, of course, that the +Regiment always had at the back of this casual interest the more +personal one that if affairs went badly their routine existence 'in +reserve' might be rudely interrupted and they might be hurried back and +flung again into the fight. + +But that was unlikely, and meantime there were still stray shells and +bullets to be dodged, the rifles and kits were blasphemously heavy, and +it was most blasphemously hot. The men were occupied enough in picking +their steps in the broken ground, in their plodding, laborious +progress, above all in paying heed to the order constantly passing back +to 'keep low,' but they were still able to note with a sort of +professional interest the damage done to the countryside. A +'small-holding' cottage between the trenches had been shelled and set +on fire, and was gutted to the four bare, blackened walls. The ground +about it still showed in the little squares and oblongs that had +divided the different cultivations, but the difference now was merely +of various weeds and rank growths, and the ground was thickly pitted +with shell-holes. A length of road was gridironed with deep and +laboriously dug trenches, and of the poplars that ran along its edge +some were broken off in jagged stumps, some stood with stems as +straight and bare as telegraph poles, or half cut through and collapsed +like a half-shut knife or an inverted V, with their heads in the dust; +others were left with heads snapped off and dangling in grey withered +leaves, or with branches glinting white splinters and stripped naked, +as in the dead of winter. In an orchard the fruit trees were smashed, +uprooted, heaped pell-mell in a tangle of broken branches, bare twisted +trunks, fragments of stump a foot or a yard high, here a tree slashed +off short, lifted, and flung a dozen yards, and left head down and +trunk in air; there a row of currant bushes with a yawning shell-crater +in the middle, a ragged remnant of bush at one end and the rest +vanished utterly, leaving only a line of torn stems from an inch to a +foot long to mark their place. + +A farm of some size had been at one time a point in the advanced +trenches, and had been converted into a 'keep.' Its late owner would +never have recognised it in its new part. Such walls as were left had +been buttressed out of sight by sandbags; trenches twisted about the +outbuildings, burrowed under and into them, and wriggled out again +through holes in the walls; a market cart, turned upside down, and +earthed over to form a bomb-store, occupied a corner of the farmyard; +cover for snipers' loopholes had been constructed from ploughshares; a +remaining fragment of a grain loft had become an 'observing station'; +the farm kitchen a doctor's dressing station; the cow-house a +machine-gun place; the cellar, with the stove transplanted from the +kitchen, a cooking, eating, and sleeping room. All the roofs had been +shelled out of existence. All the walls were notched by shells and +peppered thick with bullet marks. A support trench about shoulder deep +with a low parapet along its front was so damaged by shell fire that +the men for the most part had to move along it bent almost double to +keep out of sight and bullet reach. Every here and there--where a +shell had lobbed fairly in--there was a huge crater, its sides sealing +up the trench with a mass of tumbled earth over which the men scrambled +crouching. Behind the trench a stretch of open field was pitted and +pock-marked with shell-holes of all sizes from the shallow scoop a yard +across to the yawning crater, big and deep enough to bury the whole +field-gun that had made the smaller hole. The field looked exactly +like those pictures one sees in the magazines of a lunar landscape or +the extinct volcanoes of the moon. + +The line of men turned at last into a long deep-cut communication +trench leading out into a village. The air in the trench was heavy and +close and stagnant, and the men toiled wearily up it, sweating and +breathing hard. At a branching fork one path was labelled with a +neatly printed board 'To Battn. H.Q. and the Mole Heap,' and the other +path 'To the Duck Pond'--this last, the name of a trench, being a +reminder of the winter and the wet. The officer leading the party +turned into the trench for 'The Mole Heap,' walked up it, and emerged +into the sunlight of the grass-grown village street, skirted a house, +crossed the street by a trench, and passed through a hole chipped out +of the brick wall into a house, the men tramping at his heels. The +whole village was seamed with a maze of trenches, but these were only +for use when the shelling had been particularly heavy. At other times +people moved about the place by paths sufficiently well protected by +houses and walls against the rifle bullets that had practically never +ceased to smack into the village for many months past. These paths +wandered behind buildings, across gardens, into and out of houses +either by doors or by holes in the wall, over or round piles of rubble +or tumbled brick-work, burrowed at times below ground-level on patches +exposed to fire, ran frequently through a dozen cottages on end, +passage having been effected simply by hacking holes through the +connecting brick walls, in one place dived underground down some short +stairs and took its way through several cellars by the same simple +method of walking through the walls from one cellar to another. The +houses were littered with empty and rusty tins, torn and dirty +clothing, ash-choked stoves, trampled straw, and broken furniture. The +back-yards and gardens were piled with heaps of bricks and tiles, +biscuit and jam tins; broken fences and rotted rags were overrun with a +rank growth of grass and weeds and flowers, pitted with shell-holes and +strewn with graves. + +The whole village was wrecked from end to end, was no more than a +charnel house, a smashed and battered sepulchre. There was not one +building that was whole, not one roof that had more than a few tiles +clinging to shattered rafters, hardly a wall that was not cracked and +bulged and broken. + +In the houses they passed through the men could still find sufficient +traces of the former occupants to indicate their class and station. +One might have been a labourer's cottage, with a rough deal table, a +red-rusted stove-fireplace, an oleograph in flaming crude colours of +the 'Virgin and Child' hanging on the plaster wall, the fragments of a +rough cradle overturned in a corner, a few coarse china crocks and +ornaments and figures chipped and broken and scattered about the +mantel, and the bare board floor. Another house had plainly been a +home of some refinement. The rooms were large, with lofty ceilings; +there were carpets on the floors, although so covered with dirt and +dried mud and the dust of fallen plaster that they were hardly +discernible as carpets. In one room a large polished table had a +broken leg replaced by an up-ended barrel, one big arm-chair had its +springs and padding showing through the burst upholstering. Another +was minus all its legs, and had the back wrenched off and laid flat +with the seat on the floor, evidently to make a bed. There were +several good engravings hanging askew on the walls or lying about the +floor, all soiled with rain and cut and torn by their splintered glass. +The large open-grate fireplace had an artistically carved overmantel +sadly chipped and smoke-blackened, a tiled hearth in fragments; the +wall-paper in a tasteful design of dark-green and gold was blotched and +discoloured, and hung in peeling strips and gigantic 'dog's-ears'; from +the poles and rings over the windows the tattered fragments of a lace +curtain dangled. There was plenty of evidence that the room had been +occupied by others since its lawful tenants had fled. It was strewn +with broken or cast-off military equipments, worn-out boots, frayed and +mud-caked putties, a burst haversack and pack-valise, a holed +water-bottle, broken webbing straps and belts, a bayonet with a snapped +blade, a torn grey shirt, and a goatskin coat. The windows had the +shutters closed, and were sandbagged up three parts their height, the +need for this being evident from the clean, round bullet-holes in the +shutters above the sandbags, and the ragged tears and holes in the +upper part of the opposite wall. In an upper corner a gaping +shell-hole had linen table-cloths five or six fold thick hung over to +screen the light from showing through at night. In a corner lay a heap +of mouldy straw and a bed-mattress; the table and fireplace were +littered with dirty pots and dishes, the floor with empty jam and +biscuit tins, opened and unopened bully-beef tins, more being full than +empty because the British soldier must be very near starving point +before he is driven to eat 'bully.' Over everything lay, like a white +winding-sheet, the cover of thick plaster-dust shaken down from the +ceiling by the hammer-blows of the shells. The room door opened into a +passage. At its end a wide staircase curved up into empty space, the +top banisters standing out against the open blue sky. The whole upper +storey had been blown off by shell fire and lay in the garden behind +the house, a jumble of brickwork, window-frames, tiles, beams, beds and +bedroom furniture, linen, and clothes. + +These houses were inexpressibly sad and forlorn-looking, with all their +privacy and inner homeliness naked and exposed to the passer-by and the +staring sunlight. Some were no more than heaps of brick and stone and +mortar; but these gave not nearly such a sense of desolation and +desertion as those less damaged, as one, for instance, with its front +blown completely out, so that one could look into all its rooms, upper +and lower and the stairs between, exactly as one looks into those +dolls' houses where the front is hinged to swing open. + +The village had been on the edge of the fighting zone for months, had +been casually shelled each day in normal times, bombarded furiously +during every attack or counter-attack. The church, with its spire or +tower, had probably been suspected as an artillery observing station by +the Germans, and so had drawn a full share of the fire. All that was +left of the church itself was one corner of shell-holed walls, and a +few roof-beams torn and splintered and stripped of cover. The tower +was a broken, jagged, stump--an empty shell, with one side blown almost +completely out; the others, or what remained of them, cracked and +tottering. The churchyard was a wild chaos of tumbled masonry, broken +slates, uprooted and overturned tombstones, jumbled wooden crosses, +crucifixes, black wooden cases with fronts of splintered glass, torn +wreaths, and crosses of imitation flowers. Amongst the graves yawned +huge shell craters; tossed hither and thither amongst the graves and +broken monuments and bricks and rubbish were bones and fragments of +coffins. + +But all the graves were not in the churchyard. The whole village was +dotted from end to end with them, some alone in secluded corners, +others in rows in the backyards and vegetable gardens. Most of them +were marked with crosses, each made of two pieces of packing-case or +biscuit-box, with a number, rank, name, and regiment printed in +indelible pencil. On some of the graves were bead-work flowers, on +others a jam-pot or crock holding a handful of withered sun-dried +flower-stalks. Nearly all were huddled in close to house or garden +walls, one even in the narrow passage between two houses. There were, +in many cases, other and less ugly open spaces and gardens offering a +score of paces from these forlorn last resting-places apparently so +oddly selected and sadly misplaced; but a second look showed that in +each case the grave was dug where some wall or house afforded cover to +the burying-party from bullets. In the bright sunlight, half-hidden +under or behind heaps of debris, with crosses leaning drunkenly aslant, +these graves looked woefully dreary and depressing. But the files of +men moving round and between them, or stepping carefully over them, +hardly gave them a glance, except where one in passing caught at a +leaning cross and thrust it deeper and straighter into the earth. But +the men's indifference meant no lack of feeling or respect for the +dead. The respect was there, subtle but unmistakable, instanced +slightly by the care every man took not to set foot on a grave, by the +straightening of that cross, by those withered flowers and dirty +wreaths, even as it has been shown scores of times by the men who crawl +at risk of their lives into the open between the forward trenches at +night to bring in their dead for decent burial. + +Outside the shattered village stood the remains of a large factory, and +on this the outcoming files of the Regiment converged, and the first +arrivals halted to await the rest. What industry the factory had been +concerned with it was impossible to tell. It was full of machinery, +smashed, bent, twisted, and overturned, all red with rust, mixed up +with and in parts covered by stone and brickwork, beams and iron +girders, the whole sprinkled over with gleaming fragments of +window-glass The outside walls were almost completely knocked flat, +tossed helter-skelter outwards or on top of the machinery. The tall +chimney--another suspected 'observing post' probably--lay in a heap of +broken brickwork with the last yard or two of the base standing up out +of the heap, and even in its remaining stump were other ragged +shell-holes. A couple of huge boilers had been torn off their brick +furnaces by the force of some monster shell and tossed clear yards +away. One was poised across the broken outer wall, with one end in the +road. The thick rounded plates were bent and dented in like a kicked +biscuit-tin, were riddled and pierced through and through as if they +had been paper. The whole factory and its machinery must once have +represented a value of many thousands of francs. Now it was worth just +the value of its site--less the cost of clearing it of debris--and the +price of some tons of old iron. + +Some of the men wandered about amongst the ruins, examining them +curiously, tracing the work of individual shells, speculating on the +number of hands the place had once employed, and where those hands were +now. + +'Man, man,' said a Scottish private, 'sic an awfu' waste. Think o' the +siller it must ha' cost.' + +''Ow would you like to be a shareholder in the company, Jock?' said his +companion. 'Ain't many divvydends due to 'em this Christmas.' + +The Scot shook his head sadly. 'This place an' the hale toon laid +waste,' he said. 'It's awfu' tae think o' it.' + +'An' this is one bloomin' pebble in a whole bloomin' beach,' said the +other. 'D'you remember Wipers an' all them other towns? An' that old +chap we saw sittin' on the roadside weepin' 'is eyes out 'cos the farm +an' the fruit-trees 'e'd spent 'is life fixin' up was blowed to glory +b' Jack Johnsons. We 'ave seed some rummy shows 'ere, 'aven't we? Not +but what this ain't a pretty fair sample o' wreck,' he continued +critically. 'There's plenty 'ud think they'd got their two-pennorth to +see this on the screen o' a picture-show at 'ome, Jock.' + +'Huh! Picturs!' sniffed Jock. 'Picturs, and the-ayters, and racin', +and fitba'. Ah wanner folks hasna better use for their time and money, +at sic a time 's this.' + +'Aw,' said the other, 'But y' forget, Jock. Out 'ere they 'ave their +'ouses blown up an' their business blown in. A thousan' a day o' the +like o' you an' me may be gettin' killed off for six months on end. +But at 'ome, Jock--aw!' + +He stooped and picked up a lump of white, chalky earth from the +roadside, scrawled with it on the huge boiler-end that rested on the +broken wall, and left the written words to finish the spoken sentence. + +Jock read, and later the remains of the Regiment read as they moved off +past the aching desolation of the silent factory, down the shell-torn +road, across the war-swept ruins of a whole country-side. A few +scowled at the thoughts the words raised, the most grinned and passed +rough jests; but to all those men in the thinned ranks, their dead +behind them, the scenes of ruin before them, the words bit, and bit +deep. They ran: + + But it's + Bisness As Usual + --AT HOME. + + + + +A HYMN OF HATE + +'_The troops continue in excellent spirits._'--EXTRACT FROM OFFICIAL +DESPATCH. + + +To appreciate properly, from the Army's point of view, the humour of +this story, it must always be remembered that the regiment concerned is +an English one--entirely and emphatically English, and indeed almost +entirely East End Cockney. + +It is true that the British Army on active service has a sense of +humour peculiarly its own, and respectable civilians have been known, +when jests were retailed with the greatest gusto by soldier raconteurs, +to shudder and fail utterly to understand that there could be any +humour in a tale so mixed up with the grim and ghastly business of +killing and being killed. + +A biggish battle had died out about a week before in the series of +spasmodic struggles of diminishing fury that have characterised most of +the battles on the Western Front, when the Tower Bridge Foot found +themselves in occupation of a portion of the forward line which was +only separated from the German trench by a distance varying from forty +to one hundred yards. Such close proximity usually results in an +interchange of compliments between the two sides, either by speech, or +by medium of a board with messages written on it--the board being +reserved usually for the strokes of wit most likely to sting, and +therefore best worth conveying to the greatest possible number of the +enemy. + +The 'Towers' were hardly installed in their new position when a voice +came from the German parapet, 'Hello, Tower Bridge Foot! Pleased to +meet you again.' + +The Englishmen were too accustomed to it to be surprised by this +uncannily prompt recognition by the enemy of a newly relieving regiment +of which they had not seen so much as a cap top. + +'Hullo, Boshy,' retorted one of the Towers. 'You're makin' a mistake +this time. We ain't the Tower Bridges. We're the Kamchatka +'Ighlanders.' + +'An' you're a liar if you says you're pleased to meet us again,' put in +another. 'If you've met us afore I lay you was too dash sorry for it +to want to meet us again.' + +'Oh, we know who you are all right,' replied the voice. 'And we know +you've just relieved the Fifth Blankshires; and what's more, we know +who's going to relieve you, and when.' + +''E knows a bloomin' heap,' said a Tower Bridge private disgustedly; +'an' wot's more, I believe 'e does know it.' Then, raising his voice, +he asked, 'Do you know when we're comin' to take some more of them +trenches o' yours?' + +This was felt by the listening Towers to be a master-stroke, +remembering that the British had taken and held several trenches a week +before, but the reply rather took the wind out of their sails. + +'You can't take any more,' said the voice. 'You haven't shells enough +for another attack. You had to stop the last one because your guns +were running short.' + +'Any'ow,' replied an English corporal who had been handing round half a +dozen grenades, 'we ain't anyways short o' bombs. 'Ave a few to be +goin' on with,' and he and his party let fly. They listened with +satisfaction to the bursts, and through their trench periscopes watched +the smoke and dust clouds billowing from the trench opposite. + +'An' this,' remarked a Tower private, 'is about our cue to exit, the +stage bein' required for a scene-shift by some Bosh bombs,' and he +disappeared, crawling into a dug-out. During the next ten minutes a +couple of dozen bombs came over and burst in and about the British +trench and scored three casualties, 'slightly wounded.' + +'Hi there! Where's that Soho barber's assistant that thinks 'e can +talk Henglish?' demanded the Towers' spokesman cheerfully. + +That annoyed the English-speaking German, as of course incidentally it +was meant to do. + +'I'm here, Private Petticoat Lane,' retorted the voice, 'and if I +couldn't speak better English than you I'd be shaming Soho.' + +'You're doing that anyway, you bloomin' renegade dog-stealer,' called +back the private. 'Wy didn't you pay your landlady in Lunnon for the +lodgin's you owed when you run away?' + +'Schweinhund!' said the voice angrily, and a bullet slapped into the +parapet in front of the taunting private. + +'Corp'ril,' said that artist in invective softly, 'if you'll go down +the trench a bit or up top o' that old barn behind I'll get this +bloomin' Soho waiter mad enough to keep on shootin' at me, an' you'll +p'raps get a chance to snipe 'im.' + +The corporal sought an officer's permission and later a precarious +perch on the broken roof of the barn, while Private Robinson extended +himself in the manufacture of annoying remarks. + +'That last 'un was a fair draw, Smithy,' he exulted to a fellow +private. 'I'll bet 'e shot the moon, did a bolt for it, when 'e +mobilised.' + +'Like enough,' agreed Smithy. 'Go on, ol' man. Give 'im some more +jaw.' + +'I s'pose you left without payin' your washin' bill either, didn't you, +sower-krowt,' demanded Private Robinson. There was no reply from the +opposition. + +'I expeck you ler' a lot o' little unpaid bills, didn't you?--if you +was able to find anyone to give you tick.' + +'I'll pay them--when we take London,' said the voice. + +'That don't give your pore ol' landlady much 'ope,' said Robinson. +'Take Lunnon! Blimy, you're more like to take root in them trenches o' +yours--unless we comes over again an' chases you out.' + +Again there was no reply. Private Robinson shook his head. ''E's as +'ard to draw as the pay that's owin' to me,' he said. 'You 'ave a go, +Smithy.' + +Smithy, a believer in the retort direct and no trafficker in the finer +shades of sarcasm, cleared his throat and lifted up his voice. ''Ere, +why don't you speak when you're spoke to, you lop-eared lager-beer +barrel, you. Take your fice out o' that 'orse-flesh cat's-meat +sossidge an' speak up, you baby-butcherin' hen-roost robber.' + +'That ain't no good, Smithy,' Private Robinson pointed out. 'Y'see, +callin' 'im 'ard names only makes 'im think 'e's got you angry +like--that 'e's drawed you.' + +(Another voice called something in German.) + +'Just tell them other monkeys to stop their chatter, Soho,' he called +out, 'an' get back in their cage. If they want to talk to gen'l'men +they must talk English.' + +'I like your d--d impertinence,' said the voice scornfully. 'We'll +make you learn German, though, when we've taken England.' + +'Oh, it's Englan' you're takin' now,' said Private Robinson. 'But all +you'll ever take of Englan' will be same as you took before--a tuppenny +tip if you serves the soup up nice, or a penny tip if you gives an +Englishman a proper clean shave.' + +The rifle opposite banged again and the bullet slapped into the top of +the parapet. 'That drawed 'im again,' chuckled Private Robinson, 'but +I wonder why the corp'ril didn't get a whack at 'im.' + +He pulled away a small sandbag that blocked a loophole, and, holding +his rifle by the butt at arm-length, poked the muzzle out slowly. A +moment later two reports rang out--one from in front and one behind. + +'I got 'im,' said the corporal three minutes later. 'One bloke was +looking with a periscope and I saw a little cap an' one eye come over +the parapet. By the way 'is 'ands jerked up an' 'is 'ead jerked back +when I fired, I fancy 'e copped it right enough.' + +Private Robinson got to work with a piece of chalk on a board and +hoisted over the parapet a notice, 'R.I.P. 1 Boshe, late lamented Soho +garçon.' + +'Pity I dunno the German for "late lamented," but they've always plenty +that knows English enough to unnerstand,' he commented. + +He spent the next ten minutes ragging the Germans, directing his most +brilliant efforts of sarcasm against made-in-Germany English-speakers +generally and Soho waiters in particular; and he took the fact there +was no reply from the voice as highly satisfactory evidence that it had +been the 'Soho waiter' who had 'copped it.' + +'Exit the waiter--curtain, an' soft music!' remarked a private known as +'Enery Irving throughout the battalion, and whistled a stave of 'We +shall meet, but we shall miss him.' + +'Come on, 'Enery, give us 'is dyin' speech,' some one urged, and 'Enery +proceeded to recite an impromptu 'Dyin' Speech of the +Dachshund-stealer,' as he called it, in the most approved fashion of +the East End drama, with all the accompaniments of rolling eyes, +breast-clutchings, and gasping pauses. + +'Now then, where's the orchestra?' he demanded when the applause had +subsided, and the orchestra, one mouth-organ strong, promptly struck up +a lilting music-hall ditty. From that he slid into 'My Little Grey +Home,' with a very liberal measure of time to the long-drawn notes +especially. The song was caught up and ran down the trench in full +chorus. When it finished the orchestra was just on the point of +starting another tune, when 'Enery held up his hand. + +'"'E goes on Sunday to the church, an' sits among the choir."' he +quoted solemnly and added, 'Voices 'eard, off.' + +Two or three men were singing in the German trench, and as they sang +the rest joined in and 'Deutschland über Alles' rolled forth in full +strength and harmony. + +'Bray-vo! An' not arf bad neither,' said Private Robinson approvingly. +'Though I dunno wot it's all abart. Now s'pose we gives 'em another.' + +They did, and the Germans responded with 'The Watch on the Rhine.' +This time Private Robinson and the rest of the Towers recognised the +song and capped it in great glee with 'Winding up the Watch on the +Rhine,' a parody which does not go out of its way to spare German +feelings. + +'An' 'ow d'you like that, ol' sossidge scoffers?' demanded Private +Robinson loudly. + +'You vait,' bellowed a guttural voice. 'Us vind you op--quick!' + +'Vind op--squeak, an' squeakin',' retorted Private Robinson. + +The German reply was drowned in a burst of new song which ran like +wild-fire the length of the German trench. A note of fierce passion +rang in the voices, and the Towers sat listening in silence. + +'Dunno wot it is,' said one. 'But it sounds like they was sayin' +something nasty, an' meanin' it all.' + +But one word, shouted fiercely and lustily, caught Private Robinson's +ear. + +''Ark!' he said in eager anticipation. 'I do believe it's--s-sh! +There!' triumphantly, as again the word rang out--the one word at the +end of the verse . . . '_England_.' + +'It's _it_. It's the "'Ymn of 'Ate"!' + +The word flew down the British trench--'It's the 'Ymn! They're singin' +the "'Ymn of 'Ate,"' and every man sat drinking the air in eagerly. +This was luck, pure gorgeous luck. Hadn't the Towers, like many +another regiment, heard about the famous 'Hymn of Hate,' and read it in +the papers, and had it declaimed with a fine frenzy by Private 'Enery +Irving? Hadn't they, like plenty other regiments, longed to hear the +tune, but longed in vain, never having found one who knew it? And here +it was being sung to them in full chorus by the Germans themselves. +Oh, this _was_ luck. + +The mouth-organist was sitting with his mouth open and his head turned +to listen, as if afraid to miss a single note. + +''Ave you got it, Snapper?' whispered Private Robinson anxiously at the +end. 'Will you be able to remember it?' + +Snapper, with his eyes fixed on vacancy, began to play the air over +softly, when from further down the trench came a murmur of applause, +that rose to a storm of hand-clappings and shouts of 'Bravo!' and +'Encore--'core--'core!' + +The mouth-organist played on unheedingly and Private Robinson sat +following him with attentive ear. + +'I'm not sure of that bit just there,' said the player, and tried it +over with slight variations. 'P'raps I'll remember it better after a +day or two. I'm like that wi' some toons.' + +'We might kid 'em to sing it again,' said Robinson hopefully, as +another loud cry of 'Encore!' rang from the trench. + +'Was you know vat we haf sing?' asked a German voice in tones of some +wonderment. + +'It's a great song, Dutchie,' replied Private Robinson. 'Fine +song--goot--bong! Sing it again to us.' + +'You haf not understand,' said the German angrily, and then suddenly +from a little further along the German trench a clear tenor rose, +singing the Hymn in English. The Towers subsided into rapt silence, +hugging themselves over their stupendous luck. When the singer came to +the end of the verse he paused an instant, and a roar leaped from the +German trench . . . 'England!' It died away and the singer took up the +solo. Quicker and quicker he sang, the song swirling upward in a +rising note of passion. It checked and hung an instant on the last +line, as a curling wave hangs poised; and even as the falling wave +breaks thundering and rushing, so the song broke in a crash of sweeping +sound along the line of the German trench on that one word--'England!' + +Before the last sound of it had passed, the singer had plunged into the +next verse, his voice soaring and shaking with an intensity of feeling. +The whole effect was inspiring, wonderful, dramatic. One felt that it +was emblematic, the heart and soul of the German people poured out in +music and words. And the scorn, the bitter anger, hatred, and malice +that vibrated again in that chorused last word might well have brought +fear and trembling to the heart of an enemy. But the enemy immediately +concerned, to wit His Majesty's Regiment of Tower Bridge Foot, were +most obviously not impressed with fear and trembling. Impressed they +certainly were. Their applause rose in a gale of clappings and cries +and shouts. They were impressed, and Private 'Enery Irving, clapping +his hands sore and stamping his feet in the trench-bottom, voiced the +impression exactly. 'It beats Saturday night in the gallery o' the old +Brit.,' he said enthusiastically. 'That bloke--blimy--'e ought to be +doin' the star part at Drury Lane'; and he wiped his hot hands on his +trousers and fell again to beating them together, palms and fingers +curved cunningly, to obtain a maximum of noise from the effort. + +An officer passed hurriedly along the trench. 'If there's any firing, +every man to fire over the parapet and only straight to his own front,' +he said, and almost at the moment there came a loud 'bang' from out in +front, followed quickly by 'bang-bang-bang' in a running series of +reports. + +The shouting had cut off instantly on the first bang, some rifles +squibbed off at intervals for a few seconds and increased suddenly to a +sputtering roar. With the exception of one platoon near their centre +the Towers replied rapidly to the fire, the maxims joined in, and a +minute later, with a whoop and a crash the shells from a British +battery passed over the trench and burst along the line of the German +parapet. After that the fire died away gradually, and about ten +minutes later a figure scrambled hastily over the parapet and dropped +into safety, his boots squirting water, his wet shirt-tails flapping +about his bare wet and muddy legs. He was the 'bomb officer' who had +taken advantage of the 'Hymn of Hate' diversion to go crawling up a +little ditch that crossed the neutral ground until he was near enough +to fling into the German trench the bombs he carried, and, as he put it +later in reporting to the O.C., 'give 'em something to hate about.' + +And each evening after that, for as long as they were in the trenches, +the men of the Tower Bridge Foot made a particular point of singing the +'Hymn of Hate,' and the wild yell of 'England' that came at the end of +each verse might almost have pleased any enemy of England's instead of +aggravating them intensely, as it invariably did the Germans opposite, +to the extent of many wasted rounds. + +'It's been a great do, Snapper,' said Private 'Enery Irving some days +after, as the battalion tramped along the road towards 'reserve +billets.' 'An' I 'aven't enjoyed myself so much for months. Didn't it +rag 'em beautiful, an' won't we fair stagger the 'ouse at the next +sing-sing o' the brigade?' + +Snapper chuckled and breathed contentedly into his beloved mouth-organ, +and first 'Enery and then the marching men took up the words: + + 'Ite of the 'eart, an' 'ite of the 'and, + 'Ite by water, an' 'ite by land, + 'Oo do we 'ite to beat the band? + +(deficient memories, it will be noticed, being compensated by effective +inventions in odd lines). + +The answering roar of 'England' startled almost to shying point the +horse of a brigadier trotting up to the tail of the column. + +'What on earth are those fellows singing?' he asked one of his officers +while soothing his mount. + +'I'm not sure, sir,' said the officer, 'but I believe--by the words of +it--yes, it's the Germans' "Hymn of Hate."' + +A French staff officer riding with the brigadier stared in +astonishment, first at the marching men, and then at the brigadier, who +was rocking with laughter in his saddle. + +'Where on earth did they get the tune? I've never heard it before,' +said the brigadier, and tried to hum it. The staff officer told him +something of the tale as he had heard it, and the Frenchman's amazement +and the brigadier's laughter grew as the tale was told. + + We 'ave one foe, an' one alone--England! + +bellowed the Towers, and out of the pause that came so effectively +before the last word of the verse rose a triumphant squeal from the +mouth-organ, and the appealing voice of Private 'Enery Irving--'Naw +then, put a bit of 'ate into it.' But even that artist of the emotions +had to admit his critical sense of the dramatic fully satisfied by the +tone of vociferous wrath and hatred flung into the Towers' answering +roar of '. . . . _England!_' + +'What an extraordinary people!' said the French staff officer, eyeing +the brigadier shaking with laughter on his prancing charger. And he +could only heave his shoulders up in an ear-embracing shrug of +non-comprehension when the laughing brigadier tried to explain to him +(as I explained to you in the beginning): + +'And the best bit of the whole joke is that this particular regiment is +English to the backbone.' + + + + +THE COST + +'_The cost in casualties cannot be considered heavy in view of the +success gained._'--EXTRACT FROM OFFICIAL DESPATCH. + + +Outside there were blazing sunshine and heat, a haze of smoke and dust, a +nostril-stinging reek of cordite and explosive, and a never-ceasing +tumult of noises. Inside was gloom, but a closer, heavier heat, a +drug-shop smell, and all the noises of outside, little subdued, and +mingled with other lesser but closer sounds. Outside a bitterly fought +trench battle was raging; here, inside, the wreckage of battle was being +swiftly but skilfully sorted out, classified, bound up, and despatched +again into the outer world. For this was one of the field dressing +stations scattered behind the fringe of the fighting line, and through +one or other of these were passing the casualties as quickly as they +could be collected and brought back. The station had been a field +labourer's cottage, and had been roughly adapted to its present use. The +interior was in semi-darkness, because the windows were completely +blocked up with sandbags. The door, which faced towards the enemy's +lines, was also sandbagged up, and a new door had been made by knocking +out an opening through the mud-brick wall. There were two rooms +connected by a door, enlarged again by the tearing down of the +lath-and-plaster partition. The only light in the inner room filtered +through the broken and displaced tiles of the roof. On the floor, laid +out in rows so close packed that there was barely room for an orderly to +move, were queer shapeless bundles that at first glance could hardly be +recognised as men. They lay huddled on blankets or on the bare floor in +dim shadowy lines that were splashed along their length with irregularly +placed gleaming white patches. They were puzzling, these patches, +shining like snow left in the hollows of a mountain seen far off and in +the dusk. A closer look revealed them as the bandages of the first field +dressing that every man carries stitched in his uniform against the day +he or the stretcher-bearers may rip open the packet to use it. A few of +the men moved restlessly, but most lay very still. A few talked, and one +or two even laughed; and another moaned slowly and at even unbroken +intervals. Two or three lighted cigarettes pin-pricked the gloom in +specks of orange light that rose and fell, glowing and sparkling and +lighting a faint outline of nose and lip and cheeks, sinking again to +dull red. A voice called, feebly at first, and then, as no one answered, +more strongly and insistently, for water. When at last it was brought, +every other man there demanded or pleaded for a drink. + +In the other room a clean-edged circle of light blazed in the centre from +an acetylene lamp, leaving the walls and corners in a shadow deep by +contrast to blackness. Half the length of a rough deal table jutted out +of the darkness into the circle of light, and beneath it its black shadow +lay solid half-way across the light ring on the floor. + +And into this light passed a constant procession of wounded, some halting +for no more than the brief seconds necessary for a glance at the placing +of a bandage and an injection of an anti-tetanus serum, some waiting for +long pain-laden minutes while a bandage was stripped off, an examination +made, in certain cases a rapid play made with cruel-looking scissors and +knives. Sometimes a man would walk to the table and stoop a bandaged +head or thrust a bandaged hand or arm into the light. Or a stretcher +would appear from the darkness and be laid under the light, while the +doctors' hands busied themselves about the khaki form that lay there. +Some of the wounds were slight, some were awful and unpleasant beyond +telling. The doctors worked in a high pressure of haste, but the +procession never halted for an instant; one patient was hardly clear of +the light-circle before another appeared in it. There were two doctors +there--one a young man with a lieutenant's stars on his sleeve; the +other, apparently a man of about thirty, in bare arms with rolled-up +shirt-sleeves. His jacket, hooked on the back of a broken chair, bore +the badges of a captain's rank. The faces of both as they caught the +light were pale and glistening with sweat. The hands of both as they +flitted and darted about bandages or torn flesh were swift moving, but +steady and unshaking as steel pieces of machinery. Words that passed +between the two were brief to curtness, technical to the last syllable. +About them the dust motes danced in the light, the air hung heavy and +stagnant, smelling of chemicals, the thick sickly scent of blood, the +sharper reek of sweat. And everything about them, the roof over their +heads, the walls around, the table under their hands, the floor beneath +their feet, shook and trembled and quivered without cessation. And also +without pause the uproar of battle bellowed and shrieked and pounded in +their ears. Shells were streaming overhead, the closer ones with a rush +and a whoop, the higher and heavier ones with long whistling sighs and +screams. Shells exploding near them crashed thunderously and set the +whole building rocking more violently than ever. The rifle and +machine-gun fire never ceased, but rose and fell, sinking at times to a +rapid spluttering crackle, rising again to a booming drum-like roll. The +banging reports of bombs and grenades punctuated sharply the running roar +of gun and rifle fire. + +Through all the whirlwind of noise the doctors worked steadily. +Unheeding the noise, the dust, the heat, the trembling of the crazy +building, they worked from dawn to noon, and from noon on again to dusk, +only pausing for a few minutes at mid-day to swallow beef-tea and a +biscuit, and in the afternoon to drink tepid tea. Early in the afternoon +a light shell struck a corner of the roof, making a clean hole on entry +and blowing out the other side in a clattering gust of flame and smoke, +broken tiles and splintering wood. The room filled with choking smoke +and dust and bitter blinding fumes, and a shower of dirt and fragments +rained down on the floor and table, on the doctors, and on the men lying +round the walls. At the first crash and clatter some of the wounded +cried out sharply, but one amongst them chided the others, asking had +they never heard a Fizz-Bang before, and what would the Doctor be +thinking of them squealing there like a lot of schoolgirls at a mouse in +the room? But later in the day there was a worse outcry and a worse +reason for it. The second room was being emptied, the wounded being +carried out to the ambulances that awaited them close by outside. There +came suddenly out of the surrounding din of battle four quick car-filling +rushes of sound--sh-sh-sh-shoosh--ba-ba-ba-bang! The shells had passed +over no more than clear of the cottage, and burst in the air just beyond, +and for an instant the stretcher-bearers halted hesitatingly and the +wounded shrank on their stretchers. But next instant the work was +resumed, and was in full swing when a minute later there came again the +four wind-rushes, followed this time by four shattering crashes, an +appalling clatter of whirling tiles and brick-work. The cottage +disappeared in swirling clouds of smoke and brick-dust, and out of the +turmoil came shrieks and cries and groans. When the dust had cleared it +showed one end of the cottage completely wrecked, the roof gone, the +walls gaping in ragged rents, the end wall collapsed in jumbled ruins. +Inside the room was no more than a shambles. There were twenty odd men +in it when the shells struck. Seven were carried out alive, and four of +these died in the moving. In the other room, where the two doctors +worked, no damage was done beyond the breakdown of a portion of the +partition wall, and there was only one further casualty--a man who was +actually having a slight hand-wound examined at the moment. He was +killed instantly by a shell fragment which whizzed through the door-way. +The two doctors, after a first hasty examination of the new casualties, +held a hurried consultation. The obvious thing to do was to move, but +the question was, Where to? One place after another was suggested, only +for the suggestion to be dismissed for some good and adequate reason. In +the middle of the discussion a fresh torrent of casualties began to pour +in. Some plainly required immediate attention, and the doctors fell to +work again. By the time the rush was cleared the question of changing +position had been forgotten, or, at any rate, was dropped. The wounded +continued to arrive, and the doctors continued to work. + +By now, late afternoon, the fortunes of the fight were plainly turning in +favour of the British. It was extraordinary the difference it made in +the whole atmosphere--to the doctors, the orderlies, the +stretcher-bearers, and even--or, rather, most of all--to the wounded who +were coming in. In the morning the British attack had been stubbornly +withstood, and thousands of men had fallen in the first rushes to gain a +footing in the trenches opposite. The wounded who were first brought in +were the men who had fallen in these rushes, in the forward trench, in +the communication trenches on their way up from the support trench, and +from the shell fire on the support trenches. Because they themselves had +made no advance, or had seen no advance made, they believed the attack +was a failure, that thousands of men had fallen and no ground had been +gained. The stretcher-bearers who brought them in had a similar tale to +tell, and everyone looked glum and pulled a long face. About noon, +although the advance on that particular portion was still hung up, a +report ran that success had been attained elsewhere along the line. In +the early afternoon the guns behind burst out in a fresh paroxysm of +fury, and the shells poured streaming overhead and drenched the enemy +trenches ahead with a new and greater deluge of fire. The rifle fire and +the bursting reports of bombs swelled suddenly to the fullest note yet +attained. All these things were hardly noted, or at most were heeded +with a half-attention, back in the dressing station, but it was not long +before the fruits of the renewed activity began to filter and then to +flood back to the doctor's hands. But now a new and more encouraging +tale came with them. We were winning . . . we were advancing . . . we +were into their trenches all along the line. The casualties bore their +wounds to the station with absolute cheerfulness. This one had 'got it' +in the second line of trenches; that one had seen the attack launched on +the third trench; another had heard we had taken the third in our stride +and were pushing on hard. The regiment had had a hammering, but they +were going good; the battalion had lost the O.C. and a heap of officers, +but they were 'in wi' the bayonet' at last. So the story ran for a full +two hours. It was borne back by men with limbs and bodies hacked and +broken and battered, but with lips smiling and babbling words of triumph. +There were some who would never walk, would never stand upright again, +who had nothing before them but the grim life of a helpless cripple. +There were others who could hardly hope to see the morrow's sun rise, and +others again grey-faced with pain and with white-knuckled hands clenched +to the stretcher-edges. But all, slightly wounded, or 'serious,' or +'dangerous,' seemed to have forgotten their own bitter lot, to have no +thought but to bear back the good word that 'we're winning.' + +Late in the afternoon the weary doctors sensed a slackening in the +flowing tide of casualties. They were still coming in, being attended to +and passed out in a steady stream, but somehow there seemed less rush, +less urgency, less haste on the part of the bearers to be back for a +fresh load. And--ominous sign--there were many more of the bearers +themselves coming back as casualties. The reason for these things took +little finding. The fighting line was now well advanced, and every yard +of advance meant additional time and risk in the bearing back of the +wounded. + +One of the regimental stretcher-bearers put the facts bluntly and briefly +to the doctors: 'The open ground an' the communication trenches is fair +hummin' wi' shells an' bullets. We're just about losin' two bearers for +every one casualty we bring out. Now we're leavin' 'em lie there snug as +we can till dark.' + +A chaplain came in and asked permission to stay there. 'One of my +regiments has gone up, he said, 'and they'll bring the casualties in +here. I won't get in your way, and I may be able to help a little. Here +is one of my men now.' + +A stretcher was carried in and laid with its burden under the doctor's +hands. The man was covered with wounds from head to foot. He lay still +while the doctors cut the clothing off him and adjusted bandages, but +just before they gave him morphia he spoke. 'Don't let me die, doctor,' +he said; 'for Christ's sake, don't let me die. Don't say I'm going to +die.' His eye met the chaplain's, and the grey head stooped near to the +young one. 'I'm the only one left, padre,' he said. 'My old +mother. . . . Don't let me die, padre. You know how--it is, back home. +Don't--let me--die--too.' + +But the lad was past saving. He died there on the table under their +hands. + +'God help his mother!' said the chaplain softly. 'It was her the boy was +thinking of--not himself. His father was killed yesterday--old Jim +Doherty, twenty-three years' service; batman to the O.C.; would come out +again with young Jim and Walt. Been with the Regiment all his life; and +the Regiment has taken him and his two boys, and left the mother to her +old age without husband or chick or child.' + +The two doctors were lighting cigarettes and inhaling the smoke deeply, +with the enjoyment that comes after hours without tobacco. + +Another man was borne in. He was grimed with dust and dirt, and smeared +with blood. The sweats of agony beaded his forehead, but he grinned a +twisted grin at the doctors and chaplain. 'An' 'ere we are again, as the +song says,' he said, as the stretcher was laid down. 'This makes the +third time wounded in this war--twice 'ome an' out again. But this is +like to be the last trip I'm thinkin'. Wot about it, sir? Will I be +losin' 'em both?' And he looked down at his smashed legs. 'Ah, I +thought so,' he went on. 'I'm a market gardener, but I dunno 'ow I'm +goin' to market-garden without legs. Four kids too, the eldest six +years, an' an ailin' wife. But she'll 'ave me, or wot's left o' me; an' +that's more'n a many'll 'ave.' + +'That'll be all right, my lad,' said the chaplain. 'You'll have a +pension. The country will look after you.' + +'Ah, padre--I didn't see you, sir. The country? Arst my brother Joe +about the country. Wounded in South Africa 'e was, an' never done a +day's work since. An' the pension 'as been barely enough to starve on +decently. It'll be the same again arter all this is over I don't doubt. +Any'ow that's 'ow we all feels about it. No, sir, I don't feel no great +pain to speak of. Sort of numb-like below there just.' + +He went on talking quite rationally and composedly until he was taken +away. + +After that there was another pause, and the ambulances, for the first +time that day, were able to get the station cleared before a fresh lot +came in. The dusk was closing in, but there was still no abatement of +the sounds of battle. + +'There must be crowds of men lying out in front there wanting attention,' +said the captain, reaching for his coat and putting it on quietly. 'You +might stay here, Dewar, and I'll have a look out and see if there's a +chance of getting forward to give a hand.' + +The other doctor offered to go if the other would wait, but his offer was +quietly put aside. 'I'll get back in an hour or two,' the captain said, +and went off. Dewar and the chaplain stood in the door and watched him +go. A couple of heavy shells crashed down on the parapet of the +communication trench he was moving towards, and for a minute his figure +was hidden by the swirling black smoke and yellow dust. But they saw him +a moment later as he reached the trench, turned and waved a hand to them, +and disappeared. + +'His name's Macgillivray,' said the doctor, in answer to a question from +the chaplain. 'One of the finest fellows I've ever met, and one of the +cleverest surgeons in Great Britain. He is recognised as one of the best +already, and he's only beginning. Did you notice him at work? The most +perfect hands, and an eye as quick and keen as an eagle's. He misses +nothing--sees little things in a flash where twenty men might pass them. +He's a wonder.' + +And Macgillivray was moving slowly along the communication trench that +led to the forward fire trench. It was a dangerous passage, because the +enemy's guns had the position and range exactly and were keeping a +constant fire on the trench, knowing the probability of the supports +using it. In fact the supports moving up had actually abandoned the use +of the approach trenches and were hurrying across the open for the most +part. Macgillivray, reluctant at first to abandon the cover of the +trench, was driven at last to doing so by a fact forced upon him at every +step that the place was a regular shell-trap. Sections of it were blown +to shapeless ruins, and pits and mounds of earth and the deep +shell-craters gaped in it and to either side for all its length. Even +where the high-explosive shells had not fallen the shrapnel had swept and +the clouds of flies that swarmed at every step told of the blood-soaked +ground, even where the torn fragments of limbs and bodies had not been +left, as they were in many places. + +So Macgillivray left the trench and scurried across the open with bullets +hissing and buzzing about his ears and shells roaring overhead. He +reached the forward fire trench at last and halted there to recover his +breath. The battered trench was filled with the men who had been moved +up in support, and there were many wounded amongst them. He busied +himself for half an hour amongst them, and then prepared to move on +across the open to what had been the enemy's front-line trench. It was +dusk now and shadowy figures could be seen coming back towards the +British lines. At one point, a dip in the ground and an old ditch gave +some cover from the flying bullets. Towards this point along what had +been the face and was now the back of the enemy front trench, and then in +along the line of the hollow, a constant procession of wounded moved +slowly. It was easy to distinguish them, and even to pick out in most +cases where they were wounded, because in the dusk the bandages of the +first field dressing showed up startlingly white and clear on the shadowy +forms against the shadowy background. Some, with the white patches on +heads, arms, hands, and upper bodies, were walking; others, with the +white on feet and legs, limped and hobbled painfully, leaning on the +parapet or using their rifles crutch-wise; and others lay on the +stretchers that moved with desperate slowness towards safety. The line +appeared unending; the dim figures could be seen trickling along the +parapets as far as the eye could distinguish them; the white dots of the +bandages were visible moving as far along the parapet as the sight could +could reach. + +Macgillivray moved out from the broken trench and hurried across the +open. There were not more than fifty yards to cross, but in that narrow +space the bodies lay huddled singly and heaped in little clumps. They +reminded one exactly of the loafers who sprawl asleep and sunning +themselves in the Park on a Sunday afternoon. Only the dead lay in that +narrow strip; the living had been moved or had moved themselves long +since. Macgillivray pushed on into the trench, along it to a +communication trench, and up and down one alley after another, until he +reached the most advanced trench which the British held. Here a +pandemonium of fighting was still in progress, but to this Macgillivray +after the first couple of minutes paid no heed. A private with a bullet +through his throat staggered back from his loophole and collapsed in the +doctor's arms and after that Macgillivray had his hands too full with +casualties to concern himself with the fighting. Several dug-outs had +been filled with wounded, and the doctor crawled about amongst these and +along the trench, applying dressings and bandages as fast as he could +work, seeing the men placed on stretchers or sent back as quickly as +possible towards the rear. He stayed there until a message reached him +by one of the stretcher-bearers who had been back to the dressing station +that he was badly needed there, and that Mr. Dewar hoped he would get +back soon to help them. + +Certainly the dressing station was having a busy time. The darkness had +made it possible to get back hundreds of casualties from places whence +they dare not be moved by day. They were pouring into the station +through the doctors' hands--three of them were hard at work there by this +time--and out again to the ambulances as rapidly as they could be +handled. Despite the open, shell-wrecked end and the broken roof, the +cottage was stiflingly close and sultry, the heavy scent of blood hung +sickeningly in the stagnant air, and the whole place swarmed with +pestering flies. There was no time to do much for the patients. All had +been more or less efficiently bandaged by the regimental +stretcher-bearers who picked them up. The doctors did little more than +examine the bandagings, loosening these and tightening those, making +injections to ward off tetanus, performing an operation or an amputation +now and again in urgent cases, sorting out occasionally a hopeless +casualty where a wound was plainly mortal, and setting him aside to leave +room in the ambulances for those the hospitals below might yet save. + +One of these mortal cases was a young lieutenant. He knew himself that +there was little or no hope for him, but he smoked a cigarette and spoke +with composure, or simulated composure, to the doctor and the chaplain. + +'Hello, padre,' he said, 'looks like a wash-out for me this time. You'll +have to break it to the pater, you know. Afraid he'll take it rather +hard too. Rough luck, isn't it, doc.? But then . . .' His face +twitched with pain, but he covered the break in his voice by blowing a +long cloud of smoke. '. . . After all, it's all in the game, y' know.' +'All in the game,' the chaplain said when he had gone; 'a cruel game, but +gallantly played out. And he's the fourth son to go in this war--and the +last male of his line except his father, the old earl. A family that has +made its mark on a good few history pages--and this is the end of it. +You think it's quite hopeless for him, doctor?' + +The doctor looked up in surprise from the fresh slightly wounded case he +was overhauling. 'Hopeless? Why, it's not even---- Oh! him? Yes, I'm +afraid so. . . . I wish Macgillivray would come back,' he went on +irritably. 'He's worth the three of us here put together. Where we have +to fiddle and probe and peer he would just look--just half-shut those +hawk eyes of his and look, and he'd know exactly what to do and what not +to do. . . . That'll do, sergeant; take him off. . . . Where's that +bottle of mine? What's this? Hand? Bandage not hurting you? All +right. Pass him over there for the anti-tetanus. Now, then! . . .' + +A burly private, with the flesh of his thigh showing clear white where +the grimy khaki had been cut clear and hung flapping, limped in and +pushed forward a neatly bandaged limb for inspection. 'A doctor did that +up in the trenches,' he remarked. 'Said to tell you 'e did it an' it was +all right, an' I only needed the anti-tempus an' a ticket for 'ome.' + +'That's Macgillivray, I'll bet,' said young Dewar. 'Where was this?' + +'Fourth German trench, sir,' said the man cheerfully. 'You know we got +four? Four trenches took! We're winnin' this time orright. Fairly got +'em goin', I b'lieve. It'll be Glorious Vict'ry in the 'eadlines +to-morrow.' + +'Things like this, you know, must be,' quoted the chaplain softly, as +another badly wounded man was brought in. 'I wonder what the victory is +costing us?' + +'Never mind. It's costing t'other side more, sir,' said the casualty +grimly, and then shut lips and teeth tight on the agony that followed. + +'I wish Macgillivray would come,' said Dewar when that was finished. 'He +could have done it so much better. It's just the sort of case he's at +his best on--and his best is something the medical journals write columns +about. I wish he'd come.' + +And then, soon after, he did come--came on a stretcher with a bandage +about his head and over his eyes. 'Macgillivray!' cried the young +doctor, and stood a moment staring, with his jaw dropped. + +'Yes,' said Macgillivray with lips tight drawn. 'It's me. That's Dewar, +isn't it? No need to undo the bandage, Dewar. It's my eyes--both +gone--a bullet through them both. And I'll never hold a scalpel again. +You can give me some morphia, Dewar--and send me on to the ambulance out +of the way. I'm no good here now--or anywhere else, now or ever. I +won't die, I know, but----' + +They gave him the morphia, and before he slid off into unconsciousness he +spoke a last word to the chaplain: 'You were right, padre. You +remember . . . it's the women pay the hardest. . . . I'm thinking . . . +of . . . my wife.' + +The chaplain's thoughts went back to the wife and mother of the Dohertys, +to the legless market-gardener and his ailing wife, to the boy lieutenant +who was the last of his line, and a score more he knew, and his eyes +followed as the stretcher bore out the hulk that had been a man who had +done much to relieve pain and might have done so much more. + +The voice of another new-arriving casualty broke his thoughts. 'We're +winnin', doctor,' it was saying exultantly. 'All along the line we're +winnin' this time. The Jocks has got right away for'ard, an' the +Ghurkies is in wid their killin' knives on our left. An' the Irish is in +front av all. Glory be! 'Tis a big foight this time, an' it's winnin' +we are. Me good arm's gone I know, but I'd rather be here wid wan arm +than annywhere else wid two. An' what's an arm or a man more or less in +the world? We're winnin', I tell ye--we're winnin'!' + + + + +A SMOKER'S COMPANION + +Except for the address, 'No. 1, Park-lane,' marked with a muddy +forefinger on the hanging waterproof sheet which served as a door, +there was nothing pretentious about the erection--it could not be +called a building--which was for the time being the residence of three +drivers of the Royal Field Artillery. But the shelter, ingeniously +constructed of hop-poles and straw thatch, was more or less rain-proof, +and had the advantage of being so close to the horse-lines that half a +dozen strides brought the drivers alongside their 'long-nosed chums.' +It was early evening; but the horses having been watered and fed, the +labours of their day were over, and the Wheel and Lead Drivers were +luxuriating in bootless feet while they entertained the Gunner who had +called in from his own billet in the farm's barn. + +The Gunner was holding forth on Tobacco Gifts. 'It's like this, see,' +he said. 'An' I knows it's so 'cos I read it myself in the paper. +First you cuts a coo-pon out o' the paper wi' your name an' address on +it. . . .' + +'But, 'ere, 'old on,' put in the Wheel Driver. ''Ow does my name get +on it?' + +'You write it there, fat'ead. Didjer think it growed there? You +writes your name same as the paper tells, see; an' you cuts out the +coo-pon an' you sends sixpence for one packet o' 'baccy. . . .' + +'Wot sorter yarn you givin' us now?' said the Wheel Driver. 'I didn't +send no sixpence, or cut out a cow-pen. I gets this 'baccy for +nothin'. The Quarter tole me so.' + +'Course you gets it,' said the Gunner impatiently. 'But somebody must +'a' paid the sixpence. . . .' + +'You said I paid it--an' I never did,' retorted the Wheel Driver. + +''E means,' explained the Lead Driver, 'if you was sendin' a packet of +'baccy you'd send sixpence.' + +'Where's the sense in that?' said the Wheel Driver. 'Why should I sen' +sixpence when I can get this 'baccy for nothin'? I got this for +nothin'. It's not a issue neither. It's a Gif'. Quartermaster tole +me so.' + +'We know that,' said the Gunner; 'but if you wanted to you could send +sixpence. . . .' + +'I could not,' said the Wheel Driver emphatically. 'I 'aven't seed a +sixpence since we lef 'ome. They even pays us in bloomin' French bank +notes. An' how I'm goin' to tell, after this war's over, whether my +pay's in credit----' + +'Oh, shut it!' interrupted the Lead Driver. 'Let's 'ear 'ow this Gift +thing's worked. Go on, chum.' + +'It's this way, see,' the Gunner took up his tale anew. 'S'pose you +wants to send a gift . . . or mebbe you'll unnerstan' this way better. +S'pose your best gel wants to sen' you a gift. . . .' + +'I ain't got no bes' gel,' objected the Wheel Driver. 'I'm a married +man, an' you knows it too.' + +The Gunner took a deep breath and looked hard at the objector. 'Well,' +he said, with studied calm, 'we'll s'pose your missis at 'ome there +wants to sen' you out some smokes. . . .' + +'An s'pose she _does_ want to?' said the Wheel Driver truculently. +'Wot's it got to do wi' you, anyway?' + +With lips pursed tight and in stony silence the Gunner glared at him, +and then, turning his shoulder, addressed himself deliberately to the +Lead Driver. + +'S'pose _your_ missis . . .' he began, but got no further. + +'He ain't got no missis; leastways, 'e ain't supposed to 'ave,' the +Wheel Driver interjected triumphantly. + +That fact was well known to the Gunner, but had been forgotten by him +in the stress of the moment. He ignored the interruption, and +proceeded smoothly. 'S'pose your missis, if you 'ad one, w'ich you +'aven't, as I well knows, seein' me 'n' you walked out two sisters at +Woolwich up to the larst night we was there. . . .' + +The Wheel Driver chuckled. + +'Thought you was on guard the las' night we was in Woolwich,' he said. + +'Will you shut your 'ead an' speak when you're spoke to?' said the +Gunner angrily. + +'Never mind 'im, chum. Wot about this Gif' business?' + +'Well,' said the Gunner, picking his words carefully. 'If a man's wife +_or_ gel _or_ sister _or_ friend wants to send 'im some smokes they +cuts this coo-pon, same's I've said, an' sends it up to the paper, wi' +sixpence an' the reg'mental number an' name of the man the gift's to go +to. An' the paper buys the 'baccy, gettin' it cheap becos o' buyin' +tons an' tons, an' sends a packet out wi the chap's number an' name and +reg'ment wrote on it. So 'e gets it. An' that's all.' + +The Wheel Driver could contain himself no longer. 'An' how d'you +reckon I got this packet, an' no name or number on it--'cept a pos'card +wi' a name an' address wrote on as I never 'eard before?' + +'Becos some good-'earted bloke in Blighty[1] that doesn't 'ave no pal +particular out 'ere asks the paper to send 'is packet o' 'baccy to the +O.C. to pass on to some pore 'ard-up orphin Tommy that ain't got no +'baccy nor no fren's to send 'im like, an' 'e issues it to you.' + +'It ain't a issue,' persisted the Wheel Driver. 'It's a Gif. The +Quarter sed so 'isself.' + +Splashing and squelching footsteps were heard outside, the door-curtain +swung aside, and the Centre Driver ducked in, took off a soaking cap, +and jerked a glistening spray off it into the darkness. + +'Another fair _soor_ of a night,' he remarked cheerfully, slipping out +of his mackintosh and hanging the streaming garment in the door. 'Bust +me if I know where all the rain comes from.' + +'Any luck?' asked the Lead Driver, leaning over to rearrange the strip +of cloth which, stuck in a jam-tin of fat, provided what--with some +imagination--might be called a light. + +'Five packets--twenty-five fags,' said the Centre Driver. 'There was +two or three wantin' to swap the 'baccy in their packets for the fags +in the other chaps', so I done pretty well to get five packets for +mine.' + +''Twould 'a' paid you better to 'ave kep' your 'baccy and made fags out +o' it wi' cig'rette papers,' said the Wheel Driver. + +'Mebbe,' agreed the Centre Driver. 'An' p'raps you'll tell me--not +being a Maskelyne an' Cook conjurer meself--'ow I'm to produce the +fag-papers.' + +The Gunner chuckled softly. + +'You should 'a' done like old Pint-o'-Bass did, time we was on the +Aisne,' he said. 'Bass is one of them fag-fiends that can't live +without a cigarette, and wouldn't die happy if he wasn't smokin' one. +'E breathes more smoke than 'e does air, an' 'e ought to 'ave a +permanent chimney-sweep detailed to clear the soot out of 'is lungs an' +breathin' toobs. But if Pint-o'-Bass does smoke more'n is good for 'im +or any other respectable factory chimney, I'll admit the smoke 'asn't +sooted up 'is intelleck none, an' 'e can wriggle 'is way out of a hole +where a double-jointed snake 'ud stick. An' durin' the Retreat, when, +as you knows, cigarettes in the Expeditionary Force was scarcer'n +snowballs in 'ell, ole Pint-o'-Bass managed to carry on, an' wasn't +never seen without 'is fag, excep' at meal-times, an' sleep-times, an' +they bein' so infrequent an' sketchy-like, them days, wasn't 'ardly +worth countin'. 'Twas like this, see, that 'e managed it. You'll +remember that, when we mobilised, some Lost Dogs' 'Ome or Society for +Preventin' Christian Knowledge, or something, rushes up a issue o' +pocket Testaments an' dishes out one to everybody in the Battery. +Bound in a khaki cover they was, an', comin' in remarkable 'andy as a +nice sentimental sort o' keepsake, most of 'em stayed be'ind wi' +sweet'earts an' wives. Them as didn't must 'ave gone into "Base kit," +cos any'ow there wasn't one to be raked out o' the Battery later on +excep' the one that Pint-o'-Bass was carryin'. Bein' pocket +Testaments, they was made o' the thinnest kind o' paper an' Bass tole +me the size worked out exackly right at two fags to the page. 'E +started on the Creation just about the time o' Mons, an' by the time +we'd got back to the Aisne 'e was near through Genesis. All the time +we was workin' up thro' France again Bass's smokes were workin' down +through Exodus, an' 'e begun to worry about whether the Testament would +carry 'im through the campaign. The other fellers that 'ad their +tongues 'anging out for a fag uster go'n borrow a leaf off o' Bass +whenever they could raise a bit o' baccy, but at last Bass shut down on +these loans. "Where's your own Testament?" he'd say. "You was served +out one same as me, wasn't you? Lot o' irreligious wasters! Get a +Bible give you an' can't take the trouble to carry it. You'd ha' sold +them Testaments at a sixpence a sack in Woolwich if there'd been buyers +at that price--which there weren't. An' now you comes beggin' a page +o' mine. I ain't goin' to give no more. Encouragin' thriftlessness, +as the Adjutant 'ud call it; an', besides, 'ow do I know 'ow long this +war's goin' to last or when I'll see a fag or a fag-paper again? I'll +be smoking Deuteronomy an' Kings long afore we're over the Rhine, an' +mebbe," he sez, turnin' over the pages with 'is thumb an' tearin' out +the Children of Israel careful by the roots, "mebbe I'll be reduced to +smokin' the inscription, 'To our Dear Soldier Friend,' on the fly-leaf +afore I gets a chance to loot some 'baccy shop in Berlin. No," 'e sez. +"No. You go'n smoke a corner o' the _Pet-it Journal_, an' good enough +for you, unprovident sacriligeous blighters, you--givin' away your own +good Testaments." + +'Young Soapy, o' the Centre Section, 'im that was struck off the +strength at Wipers later through stoppin' a Coal-Box, tried to come the +artful, an' 'ad the front to 'alt the Division padre one day an' ask +'im if 'e'd any spares o' pocket Testaments in store, makin' out 'e'd +lost 'is through lendin' it to 'is Number One, who had gone "Missin'." +Soapy made out 'e couldn't sleep in 'is bed at night--which wasn't +sayin' much, seein' we mostly slep' in our seats or saddles them +nights--becos 'e hadn't read a chapter o' the Testament first. An' the +old sky-pilot was a little bit surprised--he'd 'a bin more surprised if +'e knew Soapy as well as I did--an' a heap pleased, and most of all +bowed down wi' grief becos 'e 'adn't no Testament that was supernumary +to War Establishment, and so couldn't issue one to Soapy. But two days +later 'e comes 'unting for Soapy, as pleased as a dog wi' two tails, +an' smilin' as glad as if 'e'd just converted the Kaiser; an' 'e lugs +out a big Bible 'e'd bought in a village we'd just passed through, an' +writes Soapy's name on the fly-leaf an' presents it to 'im, and tells +'im 'e'll come an' 'ave a chat any time 'e's near the Battery. The +Bible was none o' your fiddlin' pocket things, but a good substantial +one, wi' pitchers o' Moses in the bulrushes an' Abraham scarifyin' 'is +son, an' such like. An' the leaves was that thick that Soapy might as +well 'ave smoked brown paper or the _Pet-it Journal_. But that wasn't +the worst of it. Soapy chucked it over the first 'edge soon as the +padre 'ad gone, but next day the padre rolls up and tells Soapy a +Sapper 'ad picked it up and brought it to 'im--'im 'avin' signed 'is +name an' rank after "Presented by----" on the fly-leaf. An' 'e warns +Soapy to be more careful, and 'elps 'im stow it in 'is 'aversack, where +it took up most the room an' weighed a ton, an' left Soapy to +distribute 'is bully beef an' biscuits an' cheese an' spare socks and +cetera in all the pockets 'e 'ad. An even then poor Soapy wasn't +finished, for every time the padre got a chance 'e'd 'op round an' 'ave +a chat, as 'e called it, wi' Soapy, the chat being a cross-examination +worse'n a Court-Martial on what chapter Soapy 'ad been readin,' an' +full explanations of same. Soapy was drove at last to readin' a +chapter, so 'e could make out 'e savvied something of it.' + +The Gunner tapped out his pipe on the heel of his boot and began to +re-fill it. + +'If you'll believe me,' he said, 'that padre got poor Soapy pinned down +so he was readin' near a chapter a day--which shows the 'orrible +results that can come o' a little bit of simple deception.' + +'An' how is Pint-o'-Bass goin' on wi' his Testament?' asked the Lead +Driver. + +''E don't need to smoke it, now we're in these fixed positions an' +getting liberal supplies from these people that sends up to the papers' +Tobacco Funds. But 'e's savin' up the rest of it. Reckons that when +we get the Germans on the run again the movin' will be at the trot +canter an' gallop, same's before; an' the cigarette supplies won't be +able to keep up the pace. An' besides, 'e sez, 'e reckons it's only a +fair thing to smoke a cig'rette made wi' the larst chapter down the +'Igh Street o' Berlin the day Peace is declared.' + + + +[1] England. + + + + +THE JOB OF THE AM. COL. + +The wide door of the barn creaked open and admitted a swirl of sleety +snow, a gust of bitter cold wind, and the Bombardier. A little group of +men round a guttering candle-lamp looked up. + +'Hello, Father Christmas,' said the Centre Driver. 'You're a bit late +for your proper day, but we'll let you off that if you fill our stockin's +up proper.' + +'Wipe yer feet careful on the mat,' said the Lead Driver, 'an' put yer +umbrella in the 'all stand.' + +''Ere, don't go shakin' that snow all over the straw,' said the Wheel +Driver indignantly. 'I'm goin' to sleep there presently an' the straw's +damp enough as it is.' + +'Glad you're so sure about sleepin' there,' the Bombardier said, +divesting himself of his bandolier and struggling out of his snow-covered +coat. 'By the look o' things, it's quite on the cards you get turned out +presently an' have to take up some pills to the guns.' + +'Pretty busy to-night, ain't they?' said the Centre Driver. 'We heard +'em bumpin' away good-oh.' + +'You don't 'ear the 'alf of it back 'ere,' said the Bombardier. 'Wind's +blowin' most o' the row away. They're goin' it hot an' strong. Now +where's my mess-tin got to? 'Aven't 'ad no tea yet, an' it's near eight +o'clock. I'm just about froze through too.' + +'Here y'are,' said the Centre Driver, throwing a mess-tin over. 'An' the +cook kep' tea hot for you an' the rest that was out.' + +'Pull that door shut be'ind you,' said the Wheel Driver. 'This barn's +cold as a ice-'ouse already, an' the roof leaks like a broke sieve. +Billet! Strewth, it ain't 'arf a billet!' + +The Bombardier returned presently with a mess-tin of 'raw' (milkless and +sugarless) tea and proceeded to make a meal off that, some stone-hard +biscuits and the scrapings of a pot of jam. + +'What sort o' trip did you 'ave?' asked the Centre Driver. 'Anyways +peaceful, or was you dodgin' the Coal-Boxes this time?' + +'Not a Coal-Box, or any other box,' said the Bombardier, hammering a +biscuit to fragments with a rifle-butt. 'An' I 'aven't 'ad a shell drop +near me for a week.' + +'If we keeps on like this,' said the Centre Driver, 'we'll get fancyin' +we're back on Long Valley man-oovers.' + +'Wot you grousin' about anyway?' remarked the Wheel Driver. 'This is a +Ammunition Column, ain't it? Or d'you s'pose it's an Am. Col.'s bizness +to go chasin' after bombardments an' shell-fire. If you ain't satisfied +you'd better try'n get transferred to the trenches.' + +'Or if that's too peaceful for you,' put in the Lead Driver, 'you might +apply to be sent to England where the war's ragin' an' the Zeppelins is +killin' wimmin an' window-panes.' + +'Talkin' o' transferring to the trenches,' said the Bombardier putting +down his empty mess-tin and producing his pipe. 'Reminds me o' a +Left'nant we 'ad join us a month or two back. It was the time you chaps +was away attached to that other Division, so you didn't know 'im. 'E'd +bin with a Battery right through, but 'e got a leave an' when 'e come +back from England 'e was sent to us. 'Is batman[1] tole me 'e was a bit +upset at first about bein' cut adrift from 'is pals in the Battery but 'e +perked up an' reckoned 'e was goin' to 'ave things nice an' cushy for a +bit. An' 'e as much as says so himself to me the first time 'e was +takin' ammunition up an' I was along with 'im. I'd been doin' orderly at +the Battery an' brought down the requisition for so many rounds, an' it +bein' the Left'nant's first trip up, an' not knowin' the road 'e 'as me +up in front with 'im to show the way. It was an unusual fine mornin' I +remember, 'avin' stopped rainin' for almost an hour, an' just as we +started somethin' that might 'ave been a sun tried 'is 'ardest to shine. +Soon as we was on the road the Left'nant gives the word to march at ease, +an' lights up a cig'rette 'imself. + +'"Great mornin' ain't it, Bombardier?" 'e sez. "Not more'n a foot or two +o' mud on the roads, an' the temperature almost above freezin'-point. +I'm just about beginnin' to like this job on the Am. Col. 'Ave you bin +with a Battery out 'ere?" + +'I tole 'im yes an' came to the Column after bein' slightly wounded. + +'"Well," 'e sez, "you knows 'ow much better off you are 'ere. You don't +'ave no standin' to the gun 'arf the night in the rain, an' live all the +rest o' the nights an' all the days in a dirty, muddy, stuffy funk-'ole. +That's the one thing I'm most glad to be out of," 'e sez. "Livin' under +the ground, like a rabbit in a burrow with every chance of 'avin' 'is +'ead blowed off if 'e looks up over the edge. I've 'ad enough o' +dug-outs an' observin' from the trenches, an' Coal-Box dodgin' to last me +a bit, an' it's a pleasant change to be ridin' a decent 'orse on a most +indecent apology for a road, an' not a Jack Johnson in sight, even if +they are in 'earing." + +''E made several more remarks like that durin' the mornin', an' of course +I agreed with 'im. I mostly does agree with an officer an' most especial +a young 'un. If you don't, 'e always thinks 'e's right an' you're just +that much big a fool not to know it. An' the younger 'e is, the more +right 'e is, an' the bigger fool you or anyone else is. + +'Well, the Left'nant's enthoosy-ism cools off a bit when it begins to +rain again like as if some one had turned on the tap o' a waterfall, but +he tried to cheer himself remarkin' that most likely 'is Battery was +bein' flooded out of their dug-outs. But I could see he was beginnin' to +doubt whether the Am. Col.'s job was as cushy as he'd reckoned when the +off-lead o' Number One wagon tries a cross-Channel-swim act in one of +them four-foot deep ditches. The wagons 'ad to pull aside to let some +transport motor-lorries past an' One's off-lead that was a new 'orse just +come to the Column from Base Remounts an' had some objections to +motor-lorries hootin' in his ear an' scrapin' past a eighth of an inch +from his nose--'e side-slipped into the ditch. 'E stood there wi' the +water up to 'is shoulder an' the lead driver lookin' down on 'im an' +repeatin' rapid-fire prayers over 'im. I may say it took the best bit o' +half an hour to get that blighter on to the road again an' the Left'nant +prancin' round an' sayin' things a parrot would blush to repeat. But 'e +did more than say things, an' I'm willin' to admit it. 'E got down off +his horse an' did 'is best to coax the off-lead out wi' kind words an' a +ridin' cane. An' when they missed fire an' we got a drag-rope round the +silly brute the Left'nant laid 'old an' muddied himself up wi' the rest. +We 'ad to dig down the bank a bit at last an' hook a team on the +drag-rope, an' we pulled that 'orse out o' the mud like pullin' a cork +from a bottle. It was rainin' in tons all this time an' I fancy the +Left'nant's opinion o' the Am. Col.'s job had reined back another pace or +two, especially as he'd slipped an' come down full length in the mud when +haulin' on the drag-rope, an' had also slid one leg in the ditch well +over the boot-top in reachin' out for a good swipe wi' the cane. + +'We plods off again at last, an' presently we begins to get abreast o' +some position where one o' our big siege guns was beltin' away. A bit +further on, the road took a turn an' the siege gun's shells were roarin' +along over our heads like an express train goin' through a tunnel; an' +the Left'nant kept cockin' a worried eye round every time she banged an' +presently 'e sez sharp-like to the drivers to walk out their teams and +get clear of the line of fire. + +'"If a German battery starts trying to out that feller," he sez to me, +"we just about stand a healthy chance of meetin' an odd shell or two +that's tryin' for the range." + +'We had to pass through a bit of a town called Palloo,[2] an' just before +we comes to it we met some teams from one of the Column's other sections +comin' back. Their officer was in front an' as we passed he called to +the Left'nant that Palloo had been shelled that mornin' an' the +Headquarter Staff near blotted out. + +'I could just see the Left'nant chewin' this over as we went on, an' +presently he asks me if it's anyways a frequent thing for us to come +under fire takin' ammunition up. I told 'im about a few o' the times I'd +seen it happen myself, an' also about how we had the airmen an' the +German guns makin' a dead set at the Column durin' the Retreat an' +shellin' us out o' one place after the other. + +'Before I finished it we hears the whoop o' a big shell an' a crash in +the town, an' the drivers begins to look round at each other. Bang-bang +another couple o' shells drops in poor old Palloo, an' the drivers begins +to look at the Left'nant an' to finger their reins. He kep' on, an' of +course I follows 'im an' the teams follows us. + +'"I see there's a church tower in the town, Bombardier," he sez. "Does +our road run near it?" + +'I told him we 'ad to go through the square where the church stood. + +'"Then we come pretty near walkin' through the bull's-eye o' their +target," he sez; "for I'll bet they're reckonin' on an observation post +bein' in the tower, an' they're tyin' to out it." + +'We got into Palloo an' it was like goin' through it at midnight, only +wi' daylight instead of lamp-light. There wasn't an inhabitant to be +seen, except one man peepin' up from a cellar gratin', an' one woman +runnin' after a toddlin' kid that 'ad strayed out. She was shriekin' +quick-fire French at it an' when she grabbed it up an' started back the +kid opened 'is lungs an' near yelled the roof off. The woman ran into a +house an' the door slammed an' shut off the shriekin' like liftin' the +needle off a gramaphone disc. An' it left the main street most awful +empty an' still wi' the jingle o' the teams' harness an' clatter o' the +wagon wheels the only sounds. Another few shells came in an' one hit a +house down the street in front of us. We saw the slates an' the chimney +pots fair jump in the air an' the 'ole 'ouse sort of collapsed in a heap +an' a billowin' cloud o' white smoke an' dust. There was some of our +troops hookin' a few wounded civilians out as we passed and the road was +cluttered up wi' bricks an' half a door an' broken bits o' chairs an' +tables an' crockery. Fair blew the inside out o' the house, that shell +did. + +'When we come clear o' the town there was a long stretch o' clear road to +cover, an' we was ploddin' down this when we hears the hum o' an +airyplane. The Left'nant squints up an' "It's a Tawb," he sez. + +'"Beggin' your pardon sir," I told 'im, "but it's a German. No mistakin' +them bird-shaped wings an' tail. He's a German, sure enough." + +'"That's what I just said, Bombardier," he sez, which it wasn't but I +knew it was no use sayin' so. + +'The airyplane swoops round an' comes flyin' straight to us an' passed +about our heads an' circles round to have a good look at us. The +Left'nant was fair riled. + +'"Dash 'is impidence," he sez. "If he'd only come a bit lower we might +fetch him a smack"; an' he tells the gunners to get their rifles out. +But the German knew too much to come close down though he flew right over +us once or twice. + +'"Why in thunder don't some of our guns have a whale at 'im,'" the +Left'nant says angry-like, "'or our airmen get up an' shoot some holes in +'im. He'll be droppin' a clothes-basketful o' bombs on my wagons +presently, like as not. An' I can't even loose off a rifle at the +bounder. Good Lord, that ever I should live to walk along a road like a +tame sheep an' let a mouldy German chuck parcels o' bombs at me without +me being able to do more'n shake my fist at 'im. . . ." 'An he swore +most vicious. The airyplane flew off at last but even then the Left'nant +wasn't satisfied. "He'll be off back 'ome to report this Ammunition +Column on this particular spot on the road," he sez, "if he's not tickin' +off the glad tidings on a wireless to 'is batteries now. An' presently I +suppose they'll start starring this road wi' high-explosive shell. Did +ever you know a wagon full to the brim wi' lyddite being hit by a +high-explosive, Bombardier, or hear how 'twould affect the Column's +health?" + +'"I knew of a German column that one of our airyplanes dropped a bomb on, +at the Aisne, sir," I sez. "I passed the place on the road myself soon +after." + +'"An' what happened?" he asks, an' I told 'im it seemed the bomb exploded +the wagon it hit an' the wagons exploded each other. "That Ammunition +Column," I sez, "went off like a packet o' crackers, one wagon after the +other. An' when we came up, all that was left o' that column was a reek +o' sulphur an' a hole in the road." + +'"That's cheerful," sez the Left'nant. "With us loaded down to the +gunn'l wi' lyddite, an' the prospect o' being a target for every German +gun within range o' this road." He fidgeted in his saddle a bit, an' +then, "I suppose," he sez, "they'll calculate our pace an' the distance +we've moved since this airman saw us, an' they'll shell the section o' +road just ahead of us now to glory. I'd halt for a bit just to cheat +'em, for they'll shoot by the map without seein' us. But that +requisition for lyddite was urgent, wasn't it?" + +'I told him it was so, an' the Battery captain had told me to get it in +quick to the column. + +'"Then we'll just have to push on an' chance it," sez the Left'nant, +"though I must own I do hate being made a helpless runnin'-deer target to +every German gunner that likes to coco-nut shy at me. . . . Like a +packet o' crackers. . . . Good Lord!" + +'We plodded on, the Left'nant spurrin' his horse on and reinin' him back, +an' cockin' his ear for the first shell bumpin' on the road. Nothin' +happened for quite a bit after that, an' I was just about beginnin' to +feel satisfied that the Germ bird 'ad run into a streak o' air that our +anti-aircraft guns kept strickly preserved an' that they'd served a +Trespassers-will-be-Spiflicated notice on 'im an' had punctured him an' +his wings. But just as we rounded a curve an' came into a long straight +piece o' the road, I hears a high-risin' swoosh an' before it finished +an' before the bang o' the burst reached us, spout goes a cloud o' black +smoke 'way far down the road.' + +'"This," says the Left'nant, "is goin' to be highly interestin', not to +say excitin', presently. I figure that's either a four-point-two or a +five-point-nine-inch high-explosive Hun. An' there's another o' the dose +from the same bottle, an' about a hundred yards this way along the road. +I dunno how their high-explosive will mix wi' ours, but if they get one +direct hit on a wagon we'll know all about it pretty quick. A Brock's +Crystal Palace firework show won't be in it wi' the ensooin' performance. +An' that remark o' yours, bombardier, about a packet o' crackers recurs +to my min' wi' most disquietin' persistency. 'An' still they come,' as +the poet remarks." + +'They was comin' too, an' no fatal error. No hurry about 'em, but a most +alarmin' regularity. They was all pitchin' plumb on that road, an' each +one about fifty to a hundred yards nearer our procession, an' us walkin' +straight into the shower too. The swoosh-bang o' each one kep' gettin' +louder an' louder, an' not a single one was missin' the road. I tell +you, I could feel the flesh creepin' on my bones an' a feelin' in the pit +o' my stomach like I'd swallowed a tuppenny ice-cream whole. There was +no way o' dodgin', remember. We'd a ditch lippin' full o' water along +both sides o' the road an' we knew without lookin'--though the Left'nant +did 'ave one squint--that they was the usual brand o' ditch hereabouts, +anythin' down to six foot deep an' sides cut down as straight as a cellar +wall. It was no use trottin' 'cos we might just be hurryin' up to be in +time to arrive on the right spot to meet one. An' it was no use haltin' +for exactly the same reason. The Left'nant reins back beside the leadin' +team, an' believe me there wasn't one pair o' eyes in all that outfit +that wasn't glued on 'im nor a pair o' ears that wasn't waitin' anxious +for some order to come, an' I'm includin' my own eyes an' ears in the +catalogue. There was nothin' to be done an' nothin' to be said, an' we +all knew it, but at the same time we was ready to jump to any order the +Left'nant passed out. The shells was droppin' at about ten to fifteen +seconds' interval, an' we could see it was goin' to be a matter o' blind +luck whether one pitched short or over or fair a-top o' us. They were +closer spaced, too, as they come nearer, an' I reckon there wasn't more'n +fifty or sixty yards atween the last two or three bursts. An' we was +still walkin' on, every man wi' his reins short an' feelin' 'is 'orse's +mouth, an' his knees grippin' the saddle hard. + +'"Bang!" one hits the road about one-fifty to two hundred yards short an' +we heard chips o' it whizz an' hum past us. The Left'nant looks, round. +"When I say 'trot' you'll trot," he shouts, "an' no man is to stop or +slow up to pick up anyone hit." + +'Next second, "Crash!" comes another about a hundred yards off, an' +before the lumps of it sung past, "Ter-r-rot!" yells the Left'nant. Now +some people might call the en-sooin' movement a trot, an' some might call +it a warm canter an' first cousin to a gallop. We sees the game in a +wink--to get past the spot the next crump was due to arrive on afore it +did arrive. We did it too--handsome an' wi' some to spare, though when I +heard the roarin' swoosh of it comin' down I thought we was for it an' a +direck hit was due. But it went well over an' none of the splinters +touched. + +'"Steady there, steady," shouts the Left'nant "but keep goin'. They'll +repeat the series if they've any sense." We could hear the blighters +crumpin' away back down the road behind us, an' believe me we kep' goin' +all right. But the Boshe didn't repeat the series; he went on a new game +an' just afore we came to the end o' the straight stretch four crumps +pitched down astride the road ahead of us about two hundred yards. One +hit the edge o' the road an' the others in the fields on both sides an' +one of these was a dud an' didn't burst. But we knew that the fellers +that did go off would make a highly unhealthy circle around an' the +prospect o' being there or thereabouts when the next boo-kay landed +wasn't none too allurin'. The Left'nant yells to come on, an' we came, +oh, take it from me, we came a-humpin'. There was some fancy driving +past them crump holes in the road, but we might have been at Olympia the +way them drivers shaved past at the canter. We was just past the last +spot the four landed when I heard the whistle o' another bunch comin' an' +my hair near lifted my cap off. Them wagons o' ours isn't built for any +speed records but I fancy they covered more ground in the next few +seconds than ever they've done before. But goin' our best, there was no +hope o' clearin' the blast o' the explosions if they explosioned on the +same target, an' we all made ourselves as small as we could on our +horses' backs an' felt we was as big as a barn all the time the rush was +gettin' louder an' louder. Then thud-thud-thud an' crash! three of 'em +dropped blind an' only the one exploded; an' it bein' in the ditch didn't +do any harm beyond sendin' up a spout o' water about a mile high. Three +duds out o' four--if that wasn't a miracle I want to know. But we wasn't +countin' too much on it bein' miracle day an' we kept the wheels goin' +round with the whistle over-'ead an' the crashes behind to discourage any +loiterin' to gather flowers by the way. + +'An' when we was well past an' slowed down again I heard the Left'nant +draw a deep breath an' say soft-like ". . . a packet o' Chinese crackers." + +'But 'e said something stronger that same night. He'd just crawled back +to the Column wi' his empty wagons leavin' me as orderly at the Battery, +an' me havin' a pressin' message to take back for more shells I trotted +out an' got back soon after he did. I took my message to the old farm +where the officers was billeted an' the mess-man takes my note in. I got +a glimpse o' the Left'nant wi' his jacket an' boots off an' his breeches +followin' suit. "I'd a rotten day," he was sayin', "but one good point +about this Am. Col. job--an' the only one I see--is that you get the +night in bed wi' your breeches off." + +'But if you'd only 'eard 'im when he found he was for the road again at +once an' would spend 'is night in the rain an' dark instead of in +bed--well, I couldn't repeat 'is language, not 'aving the talent to 'is +extent. + +''E was transferred to a battery soon after an' I 'eard that when he got +the orders all 'e 'ad to say was, "Thank 'Eaven. I'll mebbe get shelled +oftener in a battery, but at least I'll 'ave the satisfaction o' shellin' +back--an' _I may_ 'ave a funk-hole handy to duck in when it's extry hot, +instead o' ridin' on the road an' expectin' to go off like a packet 'o +crackers." + +'Mebbe he was right,' concluded the Bombardier reflectively. 'But I +s'pose it's entirely a matter o' taste, an' how a man likes bein' killed +off.' + + + +[1] Servant. + +[2] The identity of the town is very effectually placed beyond +recognition by the Bombardier's pronunciation. + + + + +THE SIGNALLER'S DAY + +The gun detachment were curled up and dozing on the damp straw of their +dug-out behind the gun when the mail arrived. The men had had an early +turn-out that morning, had been busy serving or standing by the gun all +day, and had been under a heavy shell fire off and on for a dozen hours +past. As a result they were fairly tired--the strain and excitement of +being under fire are even more physically exhausting somehow than hard +bodily labour--and might have been hard to rouse. But the magic words +'The mail' woke them quicker than a round of gun-fire, and they sat up +and rubbed the sleep from their eyes and clustered eagerly round the +Number One (sergeant in charge of the detachment) who was 'dishing out' +the letters. Thereafter a deep silence fell on the dug-out, the +recipients of letters crowding with bent heads round the guttering +candle, the disappointed ones watching them with envious eyes. + +An exclamation of deep disgust from the Signaller brought no comment +until the last letter was read, but then the Limber Gunner remembered +and remarked on it. + +'What was that you was rearin' up an' snortin' over, Signals?' he +asked, carefully retrieving a cigarette stump from behind his ear and +lighting up. + +The Signaller snorted again. 'Just 'ark at this,' he said, unfolding +his letter again. 'I'll just read this bit, an' then I'll tell you the +sort of merry dance I've 'ad to-day. This is from an uncle o' mine in +London. 'E grouses a bit about the inconvenience o' the dark streets, +an' then 'e goes on, "Everyone at 'ome is wonderin' why you fellows +don't get a move on an' do somethin'. The official despatches keeps on +sayin' 'no movement,' or 'nothin' to report,' or 'all quiet,' till it +looks as if you was all asleep. Why don't you get up an' go for 'em?"' + +The Signaller paused and looked up. 'See?' he said sarcastically. +'Everyone at 'ome is wonderin', an' doesn't like this "all quiet" +business. I wish everyone at 'ome, including this uncle o' mine, 'ad +been up in the trenches to-day.' + +'Have a lively time?' asked the Number One. 'We had some warmish +spells back here. They had the range to a dot, and plastered us +enthusiastic with six- an' eight-inch Johnsons an' H.E. shrapnel. We'd +three wounded an' lucky to get off so light.' + +'Lively time's the right word for my performance,' said the Signaller. +'Nothin' of the "all quiet" touch in my little lot to-day. It started +when we was goin' up at daybreak--me an' the other telephonist wi' the +Forward Officer. You know that open stretch of road that takes you up +to the openin' o' the communication trenches? Well, we're just nicely +out in the middle o' that when Fizz comes a shell an' Bang just over +our 'eads, an' the shrapnel rips down on the road just behind us. Then +Bang-Bang-Bang they come along in a reg'lar string down the road. They +couldn't see us, an' I suppose they was just shooting on the map in the +hopes o' catching any reliefs o' the infantry on the road. Most o' the +shells was percussion, after the first go, an' they was slam-bangin' +down in the road an' the fields alongside an' flinging dirt and gravel +in showers over us. "Come on," sez the Forward Officer; "this locality +is lookin' unhealthy," an' we picked up our feet an' ran for it. Why +we wasn't all killed about ten times each I'll never understand; but we +wasn't, an' we got to the end o' the communication trench an' dived +into it as thankful as any rabbit that ever reached 'is burrow with a +terrier at 'is tail. After we got a bit o' breath back we ploughed +along the trench--it was about ankle deep in bits--to the Infantry +Headquarters, an' the F.O. goes inside. After a bit 'e comes out an' +tells me to come on wi' him up to the Observation Post. This was about +eight ac emma [A.M.], an' just gettin' light enough to see. You know +what that Observin' Post of ours is. The F.O. 'as a fond de-looshun +that the Germs can't see you when you leave the support trench an' +dodge up the wreckage of that hedge to the old house; but I 'ave my own +opinions about it. Anyway I've never been up yet without a most +un-natural lot o' bullets chippin' twigs off the hedge an' smackin' +into the ditch. But we got into the house all right an' I unslings my +Telephone--Portable--D Mark III., an' connects up with the Battery +while the F. O. crawls up into the top storey. 'E hadn't been there +three minutes when smack . . . smack, I hears two bullets hit the tiles +or the walls. The F. O. comes down again in about ten minutes an' has +a talk to the Major at the Battery. He reports fairly quiet except +some Germ Pip-Squeak shells droppin' out on our right, an' a good deal +o' sniping rifle fire between the trenches in front of us. As a +general thing I've no serious objection to the trenches snipin' each +other, if only the Germs 'ud aim more careful. But mostly they aims +shockin' an' anything that comes high for our trench just has the right +elevation for our post. There's a broken window on the ground floor +too, lookin' out of the room we uses straight at the Boshies, an' the +F.O. wouldn't have me block this up at no price. "Concealment," sez +he, "is better than protection. An' if they see that window sandbagged +up it's a straight tip to them this is a Post of some sort, an' a +hearty invitation to them to plunk a shell or two in on us." Maybe 'e +was right, but you can't well conceal a whole house or even the four +walls o' one, so I should 'ave voted for the protection myself. +Anyhow, 'e said I could build a barricade at the foot o' the stairs, +where I'd hear him call 'is orders down, an' I'd be behind some cover. +This motion was seconded by a bullet comin' in the window an' puttin' a +hole in the eye o' a life-size enlargement photo of an old lady in a +poke-bonnet hangin' on the wall opposite. The row of the splinterin' +glass made me think a Jack Johnson had arrived an' I didn't waste time +gettin' to work on my barricade. I got a arm-chair an' the half of a +sofa an' a broken-legged table, an' made that the foundation; an' up +against the outside of them I stacked a lot o' table linen an' books +an' loose bricks an' bottles an' somebody's Sunday clothes an' a fender +an' fire-irons an' anything else I thought any good to turn a bullet. +I finished up by prizin' up a hearthstone from the fireplace an' +proppin' it up against the back o' the arm-chair an' sittin' down most +luxurious in the chair an' lighting up my pipe. That's a long ways the +most comfortable chair I've ever sat in--deep soft springy seat an' +padded arms an' covered in red velvet--an' I was just thinkin' what a +treat it was when I hears the rifle fire out in front beginnin' to +brisk up, an' the Forward Officer calls down to me to warn the Battery +to stand by because o' some excitement in the trenches. "Major says +would you like him to give them a few rounds, sir," I shouts up, an' +the F.O. says, "Yes--three rounds gun-fire, on the lines the guns are +laid." So off goes your three rounds, an' I could hear your shells +whoopin' along over our heads. + +'"Number One gun add twenty-five yards," calls down the F.O., an' then +gives some more corrections an' calls for one round battery fire. By +this time the rifle fire out in front was pretty thick and the bullets +was hissin' an' whinin' past us an' crackin' on the walls. Another one +came through the window an' perforated the old lady's poke-bonnet, but +none o' them was comin' near me, an' I was just about happily +concludin' I wasn't in the direct line o' fire an' was well covered +from strays. So I was snuggin' down in my big easy chair with the D +Mark III. on my knee, puffin' my pipe an' repeatin' the F.O.'s orders +as pleasant as you please when crack! a bullet comes with an almighty +smack through the back o' the arm-chair, bare inches off my ear. +Comfort or no comfort, thinks I, this is where I resign the chair, an' +I slides out an' squats well down on the wet floor. It's surprisin' +too the amount o' wet an ordinary carpet can hold, an' the chap that +designed the pattern o' this one might 'ave worked in some water lilies +an' duckweed instead o' red roses an' pink leaves if he'd known 'ow it +would come to be used. This 'ouse 'as been rather a swagger one, +judgin' by the style o' the furniture, but one end an' the roof 'aving +gone west with the shellin' the whole show ain't what it might be. An' +when the missus as it belongs to returns to 'er 'appy 'ome there's +going to be some fervent remarks passed about the Germs an' the war +generally. + +'But to get on wi' the drill--the row in the trenches got hotter an' +hotter, an' our house might 'ave been a high-power magnet for bullets, +the way they was comin' in, through that open window special. The old +lady lost another eye an' half an' ear, an' 'er Sunday gown an' a big +gold brooch was shot to ribbons. A bullet cut the cord at last, an' +the old girl came down bump. But I'd been watchin' 'er so long I felt +she oughtn't to be disgraced lyin' there on 'er face before the German +fire. So I crawled out an' propped 'er up against the wall with 'er +face to the window. I 'ope she'd be glad to know 'er photo went down +with flyin' poke-bonnet.' + +'It was shortly after this our wire was first cut--about ten ac emma +[A.M.] that would be. I sings out to the F.O. that I was disc[1], but +what wi' the bullets smackin' into the walls, the shells passin' over +us, the Coal-Boxes bursting around, an' the trenches belting off at +their hardest, the F.O. didn't 'ear me an' I 'ad to crawl up the stairs +to 'im. Just as I got to the top a shrap burst, an' the bullets came +smashin' an' tearin' down thro' the tiles an' rafters. The bullets up +there was whistlin' an' whinin' past an' over like the wind in a ship's +riggin', an' every now an' then _whack!_ one would hit a tile, sending +the dust an' splinters jumpin'. The F.O. was crouched up in one corner +where a handful o' tiles was still clingin', an' he was peepin' out +through these with 'is field glasses. "Keep down," 'e sez when 'e saw +me. "There's a brace o' blanky snipers been tryin' for a cold +'alf-hour to bull's-eye on to me. There they go again----," an' _crack +. . . smack_ two bullets comes, one knockin' another loose tile off, a +foot over 'is 'ead, an' t'other puttin' a china ornament on the +mantel-piece on the casualty list. + +'I reported the wire cut an' the F.O. sez he'd come along wi' me an' +locate the break. "We'll have to hurry," he says, "cos it looks to me +as if a real fight was breezin' up." So we crawled out along the ditch +an' down the trench, followin' the wire. We found the break--there was +three cuts--along that bit o' road that runs from the Rollin' River +Trench down past the Bomb Store, an' I don't ever want a more highly +excitin' job than we had mendin' it. The shells was fair rainin' down +that road, an' the air was just hummin' like a harpstring wi' bullets +an' rickos.[2] We joined up an' tapped in an' found we was through all +right, so we hustled back to the Post. That 'ouse never was a real +'ealth resort, but today it was suthin' wicked. They must 'ave +suspicioned there was a Post there, an' they kep' on pastin' shells at +us. How they missed us so often, Heaven an' that German gunner only +knows. They couldn't get a direct with solid, but I must admit they +made goodish shootin' wi' shrapnel, an' they've made that 'ouse look +like a second-'and pepper-caster. The F.O. was 'avin' a most unhappy +time with shrapnel an' rifle bullets, but 'e 'ad 'is guns in action, so +'e just 'ad to stick it out an' go on observin', till the wires was cut +again. This time the F.O. sez to look back as far as the wire ran in +the trench, an' if I didn't find the break up to there come back an' +report to 'im. But I found the break in the hedge jus' outside, an' +mended it an' went back, the bullets still zipping down an' me breakin' +all the hands-an'-knees records for the fifty yards. I found the F.O. +'ad reined back a bit from 'is corner an' was busy wi' the bedroom +poker breakin' out a loophole through the bricks of the gable-end wall. +'E came down an' told the Major about it. It was getting too hot, 'e +said, an' the two snipers must 'ave 'im located wi' field-glasses. One +bullet 'ad nearly blinded 'im wi' broken-tile dust, an' another 'ad +tore a hole across the side of 'is "British warm"[3]; so he was goin' +to try observin' through a couple of loopholes. Then 'e went up an' +finished 'is chippin' an' brought the guns into action again. Just in +the middle o' a series I feels a most unholy crash, an' the whole house +rocked on its toe an' heel. The brickdust an' plaster came rattlin' +down, an' when the dust cleared a bit an' I got my sense an' my +eyesight back, I could see a splintered hole in the far corner of my +ceilin'. I made sure the F.O. upstairs was blotted out, 'cos it was +that corner upstairs where 'is loophole was; but next minute 'e sings +out an' asks was I all right. I never felt less all right in my life, +but I told 'im I was still alive, far as knew. I crawled up to see +what 'ad 'appened, an' there was 'im in one corner at 'is peep-'ole, +an' the floor blowed to splinters behind 'im an' a big gap bust in the +gable wall at the other corner. A shell had made a fair hit just about +on 'is one loophole, while he was lookin' thro' the other. "I believe +we'll 'ave to leave this," he sez, "an' move along to our other post. +It's a pity, 'cos I can't see near as well." + +'"If we don't leave this 'ouse, sir," I sez, "seems to me it'll leave +us--an' in ha'penny numbers at that." + +'So he reports to the Major, an' I packs up, an' we cleared. The +shelling had slacked off a bit, though the trenches was still slingin' +lead hard as ever. + +'"We must hurry," sez the F.O. "They're going to bombard a trench for +ten minutes at noon, and I must be in touch by then." + +'We scurried round to the other post, and just got fixed up before the +shoot commenced. And in the middle of it--phutt goes first one wire +an' then the other. The F.O. said things out loud when I told him. +"Come along," he finished up; "we must mend it at once. The infantry +assault a trench at the end of the ten minutes. There they go now," +and we heard the roar of the rifles swell up again. He took a long +stare out through his glasses and then we doubled out. The Germs must +have thought there was a big assault on, and their gunners were putting +a zone of fire behind the trenches to stop supports coming up. An' we +had to go through that same zone, if you please. 'Strewth, it was hot. +There was big shells an' little shells an' middle-sized shells, roarin' +an' shrieking up and bursting H.E. shrapnel or smashing into the +ground. If there was one threw dirt over us there was a dozen. One +buzzed close past and burst about twenty feet in front of the F.O., and +either the windage or the explosion lifted him off his feet and clean +rolled him over. I thought he was a goner again, but when I came up to +him he was picking himself up, an' spittin' dirt an' language out +between his teeth, an' none the worse except for the shakin'. We +couldn't find that break. We had to tap in all along the wire to +locate it and all the time it was a race between us finding the break +and a shell finding us. At last we got it, where we'd run the wire +over a broke-up shed. The F.O. was burnin' to talk to the Battery, +knowing they'd be anxious about their shoot, so he picked a spot in the +lee of a wall an' told me to tap in on the wire there. Just as he +began talkin' to the Battery a Coal-Box soars up an' bumps down about +twenty yards away and beyond us. The F.O. looks up, but goes on +talkin'; but when another shell, an' then another, drops almost on the +exact same spot, he lifted the 'phone closer in to the wall and stoops +well down to it. I needn't tell you I was down as close to the ground +as I could get without digging. "I think we're all right here," sez +the F.O., when another shell bust right on the old spot an' the +splinters went singin' over us. "They look like keepin' on the same +spot, and we must be out of the line the splinters take." + +'It looked like he was right, for about three more fell without +touchin' us, and I was feeling a shade easier in my mind. There was +some infantry comin' up on their way to the support trenches, an' they +filed along by the wall that was coverin' us. Just as they was passin' +another shell dropped. It was on the same spot as all the others, but +blow me if it didn't get three of them infantry. They fell squirmin' +right on top o' us an' the instrument, so I concluded that spot wasn't +as safe as the F.O. had reckoned, an' there was a flaw in 'is argument +somewheres that the Coal-Box 'ad found out. The F.O. saw that too, an' +we shifted out quick-time. After that things quietened down a bit, an' +the short hairs on the back o' my neck had time to lie down. They +stood on end again once or twice in the afternoon, when we'd some more +repairin' under fire to do; an' then to wind up the day they turned a +maxim on just as we was comin' away from the post, an' we had to flop +on our faces with the bullets zizz-izz-ipping just over us. We took a +trench, I hear; an' the Jocks in front of us had thirty casualties, and +the Guards on our left 'ad some more, 'cos I seed 'em comin' back to +the ambulance. + +'On the 'ole, it's been about the most unpleasantest day I've spent for +a spell. What wi' wadin' to the knees in the trench mud, getting +soaked through wi' rain, not 'aving a decent meal all day, crawlin' +about in mud an' muck, an' gettin' chivvied an' chased all over the +landscape wi' shells an' shrapnel an' machine-guns an' rifles, I've +just about 'ad enough o' this King an' Country game.' + +The Signaller paused a moment. But his gaze fell on the letter he +still held in his hand, and he tapped it with a scornful finger and +burst out again violently: 'King an' Country--huh! An' a bald-'eaded +blighter sittin' warm an' dry an' comfortable by 'is fireside at 'ome +writes out an' tells me what the Country's thinkin'. I come in 'ere +after a day that's enough to turn the 'air of a 'earse-'orse grey, an' +I'm told about my pals bein' casualtied; an' to top it all I gets a +letter from 'ome--"why don't you do somethin'? Why don't you get up +an' go for 'em?" Ar-r-rh!!' + +''Ome,' remarked the Limber Gunner. ''Ome don't know nuthin' about it.' + +'They don't,' agreed the Signaller. 'But what I wants to know--an' +there's a many 'ere like me--is why don't somebody let 'em know about +it; let 'em really know.' + + + +[1] Disconnected. + +[2] Ricochets. + +[3] Overcoat. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Between the Lines, by Boyd Cable + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BETWEEN THE LINES *** + +***** This file should be named 25076-8.txt or 25076-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/0/7/25076/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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