Show 1 4 I f Dy F E j-i j Copyright 1918 1 i Continued from Yesterday CHAPTER ABOUT ABOUT TURN rn TRE HE next evening we were relieved by the th th Brigade and once again returned to rest billets Upon arri arriving arring ng ngat J- J at these billets we were given twenty-four twenty hours in which to clean up I had just finished getting the mud from my uniform when the Orderly Sergeant informed me that my name was in orders for leave and that I was to report to the Orderly Roo Room Roon n in the morn morning ng for or orders ers transportation an and rations I I i nearly had a fit hustled about packing lacking uP P filling tilling m my pack with souvenirs souvenirs sou sou- such as shell heads dud bombs and Prussian Prussian Prussian nose caps shrapnel balls alls and a sian guard guardsman's mans man's helmet In fact before before be he- fore I turned in that night I had everYthing everYthing everything every everY- thing ready to report at the order orderly room at 9 tho next morning I was th onvy envy of the whole section swanking around telling o of the good time I was wis going to have hae the places I would visit visa and the real old English beer I intended to guzzle Sort of or rubbed It into thorn thom because the they all an ando do it an and now that it was m my turn I took pains to get m my own back At 9 I reported to the captain re receiving receiving re- re In my travel order and pass He lie asked me how much mon money y I wanted to draw I glibly answered Three hundred hun hun- tired dred francs sir he ho just as handed mo me ono one hundred Reporting at brigade headquarters I with m my rack r-ack weighing a ton 1 I waited with forty or y others othel's for the adjutant to inspect us After Arter an hours hour's wait walt he came out must have been sore b because causo he hc wasn't going with us The quartermaster ser sergeant issued us Ul two to days days' rations in a little white while canvas canvas can can- vas ration bag hag which we tied to our belts Then two motor lorries came caine alon along and we piled In in l laughing u joking and andIn andin in ill the bC best t of or spirits We Ve even loved love the Germans we were wro feeling so gO happy Our lourn Journey to seven da days days' s bliss in flighty Blighty had commenced The ride rifle in tho tIle lorr lorry lasted about two hours hour b by this time we were wele covered covered cov coy ered erect with fine white while dust from the theroa roa road but didn't mind even If we were were nearly jearly hokins At the railroad station at F F- F we reported to an officer who had a t white baIrd around hl his arm arm which read Ri RP R Of Officer leer 1 P. P 0 O. Royal Roal Transportation To us this officer was Saut Sant The sergeant in charge showed d him OUr ur orders ho lie glanced through them and nd said Bald Make lako yourselves comfortable on n the platform and dont don't leave the train rain is liable to bo be along in five minutes min utes utes-or utes or five hours It came In five hours a string of oC eleven match boxes on big high wheels drawn by a dink dinky little engine with the lie I con These match boxes were cattle cars on the tho sides shIes of or which were painted paint paint- paint paint-I e ed tho ho old familiar sign Hommes 40 aux Chevaux S. S The R It T. T O O. stuck us all Into one ono car Ve We e didn't care It was as as good as a Pullman to us Two days f we spent on that train bumping jerking ahead and sometimes sliding hack back At three stations stations stations sta sta- we stopped long enough h to make I some tea but were unable to wa wash h. h so 80 when wo we arrived at B B- B where wo we were to embark for tor Blighty we wo were as black as Turcos and with our un unshaven unshaven unshaven un- un shaven fades faces wo we looked liko like a lot of tramps Though tired out out we were happy We c had packed up preparatory to detraining when a R R. T. T 0 O. held up his hand for us to stop w re we were and I came over This is what he said Boys Doys Im I'm sorry but orders have havo Just been been received canceling all lc vc If you had been three hours earlier you ou would have gotten otten aWa away Just sta stay In that train as ns it Is going back Rations nations will Le Lc Issued to you OU for your our return journey to your respective stations Beastly rotten I know Then he lie left Ie-H. A dead silence resulted Then men started to curse threw their rifles on the floor Joor of the car others said nothing noth lug IllS seemed to be he stupefied while some had the tears running down lown their cheeks It was was' a bitter hitter disappointment to all JIo How we e blinded at at the thc engineer of of that train it was all his fault so sc we reasoned h why hadn't ho lie speeded up IP a little or been on time then lien wo c would have gotten off before tho the order ordel arrived arrived ar ar- ar- ar rived Now it was no Blighty for Cor us That return Journey journe was misery to tous tous us I just cant can't describe Ithen It When hen vo 0 vo got back hack to rest billets we found that th our brigade was in the tho trenches another a agreeable surprise and anti that an attack was contemplated Seventeen of ot tho lie one forty will never ne get et another chance to go on leave they were killed In the attack J I Just t think If It that train had been heen on time those seventeen would still be bt alive I hate halo to tell you YOli how I was kidded b by the boys when I got ol back but It was good and plenty Our machine gun un company took look over oer I their part of the line at 7 o'clock the night after I returned from my mr near near I leave eave I At tho the following morning three waves wont vont over and captured the first and ani second German trenches The machine machine machine ma ma- chine gunners went wont over with the lie fourth wave woo to consolidate the tIle captured line lint or 01 dig in iii as Tommy Tomm calls It Crossing Crossin No Xo Mans Man's Land hand without clicking any casualties we came caine to the tho German trench and mounted our guns gunson on the arados of oC same I never v na such a mess In my life life life- Lunches of tC twisted barbed wire lying about shell sheH holes everywhere trench all bashed hashed in parapets gone and lead doad bodies why that ditch was full tuH of ot them theirs and ours It w was U a r regular ular morgue mors Some SonIc were mangled horribly from our shell holl fire while others were wholly or partly burled buried In tho the mud the result of ot shell explosions caving in the walls of the trench Ono One dead German was lying on his hiM back with a n rifle sticking straight up in tho the air all the lie I bayonet of lC which was wali buried to the tho hilt In hii his chest Across his feet teet la lay a dead ad En English soldier with a bullet bullet holo hole In I IEn his hit forehead This Tommy must have been heen killed Just as he ran his Ills bayonet I through the tho Gorman German Rifles nines and equipment were scattered about anti and occasionally a steel helmet helmot could bo ho seen sticking out ot of the mud I At one point just In the entrance I to a communication trench was a stretcher On this stretcher a German was J lying hying ln with a white bandage e around his hla knee near to him lay one of the tho I stretcher bearers the red cro cross s a on his I arm covered with mud and his helmet filled with blood and l I. rains Close b by I sitting up tip a against the wall of ot the lie trench with AVith head resting jesting on his cheat was as the other stretcher bearr lie TIe seemed t Iff tr be bc alive alie the posture was wa wasso so natural and easy but when I i got s-ot closer I could see a large Jarge jagged jas-ged hole hoJe In his temple The three must have been killed by the lie same sh shell The dugouts were all smash smashed cd in and knocked big square cut timbers limbers splintered Into bits walls caved In In and entrances choked Tom Tommy after atel taking a trench learns to libs sorrow that the hardest part of df the tho work Is to hold It In our case this pro e proved 1 to b be so The rue German artillery and machine guns had us taped ra ranged for fair faix It was worth your our life to expose yourself an instant Dont Don't think for a minute that the Germans were the on only 1 sufferers we were clicking clicking- casualties so o fast that you needed d an adding machine to J keep track of ot them Did you rou ever see one or of the shovels ho at work worl on the lie Panama canal Well VeIl It would look like a hen scratchIng scratching scratch- scratch In Ing aJon alongside of ot a Tommy digging In iii while under fire firc you ou couldn't see ace daylight daylight day dar H light ht ugh through the clouds of or dirt from his shovel After losing three out of oC six men of our crew we managed to set up our machine gun One of the lie legs of the tripod W was lEi resting on the chest of or a hurled halt bod body When time the gun was firing It gave ae the impression that the hod body was breathing tillS this was caused t Ly ty he excessive e vibration Three or four feet down dOn the thc trench about three feet from the ground round a afoot foot Coot was protruding ing from the tho earth we ve know knew it was tas a G German b by the black leather boot huot One of oC our crow crew used that lint toot foot t to han hang extra bandoliers bandolEers of ammunition on This man man always was wasa a c. hand handy bandy fellow made mad use of little points that the ordinary person would oven overlook ook The Germans marie made three counterattacks counter counter- attacks s which we repulsed hut but n nOt l without hea heavy loss loss on our side Ih j also suffered severely from froni our shell and machine gun fire Tho rho ground was spotted with their dead and dying The next da day somewhat quieter but not quiet quiet enough enough to bury bun the deade dead We e l rl ate and anti slept in that thai trench with the thc unburied dead for fOI six days das It was awful to watch their fae faces s become become be be- come conic swollen and discolored Towards Toward th the tho last the Uie stench was sas fierce What Yh t got ot on omi m my nerves the most was that foot sticking out of the dirt It II seemed to me mc at night nis in the moonlight moonlight moon moon- light to 0 h be lIe trying to twist t around Several l tires tines this Impression was so strong that I went to it and grasped ItIn it itIn itin In both to see If I could feel a movement I told this to the lie man who ho had hind used it for Cor a hatrack just before I lay down clown for foi a little nap as things were quiet and I needed a re rest t pretty When 1 I wol woke e up LIP the tho foot was gone He lie had cut it or off with our chain saw out of or orthe the spare parts' parts box and had plastered plastered plastered plas plas- the th f stump tump or over with mud During luring the next two or three da days before we were relieved I missed that foot dreadfully s seemed as if IC I ha had 1 suddenly sud sod denly denh lost a n chum churn I think the worst thing tiling of all was vas to watch the thC rats rat at al night an and sometimes sometimes some Rome times in in inthe the lie day run over o and play about among amonS' the dead Near our gun un ri right across the tile parapet parapet para para- pet could be the bo body of oLa a German German German Ger Ger- man lieutenant the head and arms arm of which were wore hanging inS Into our trench The man manlio who lio had cut ut off ore the foot used to sit and arid calr carry on a 0 sided one conversation conversation conver conver- sallon with this officer used to argue and point out why Germany was In tho lie wrong During all of or this Iris monologue monologue mon mon- I never cr heard him say a anything out of the tha wa way say anything that would have hav hurt the tho officers officers' feelings B had he hc boon been alive e He lie was vas square all an allright allright right wouldn't t oven tal take e R advantage of ofa ofa ofa a dead man nuan In III an argument To civilians this must seem Heem dreadful hut but out omit here one one gets so 50 used to awful aw ai ful sigh sights ts that it mal makes es no sion zion In passing a butcher shop you OU are riot not shocked by br seeing a dead cad turkey turkey tur tur- ke key hanging from a hook we well in l' l France rance a dead bod body is looked upon from Crom the tho mine Fame an angle le But nut nevertheless when our six da days rH were wore up wo were tickled to o death to tobe tobe be bc relieved ed Our Ou Our machine m gun company lost seventeen seventeen sev sev- enteen killed and thirty one wounded in that thal little Jo local o al affair of ot str straightening straight cuing ening the line linie while the lie other com com companies panics clicked It worse orse than wo we did After Arter the attack we went Into reserve re- re r serve lIm billets 9 for for six x days das and an on tho the seventh once n again aln wo we were wore In rest bilI bil bil- bil I lets Jets 0 t S. S c c c I CHAPTER En anti anil l Gun Stunts OON aCtor aitor my lily al in France in S SOON SOO fact from my mt enlistment I ha hall had l found that in itt the time British arm army discipline dis lIs- is ver very strict On One has hajoS to b bel be ho bevery el VOlT very careful In order to stay on tho the narrow path lath of government virtue e. e There are aro about t Wa ways of or breaking the kings king's regulations to keep one ono ou 1 have hav to break breal another Tho Thu worst Olst punishment Is It death b. b by a firing tiring squad or up imp against the will wall wallas as ns Tomm Tommy calls it This is 18 f for r desertion cowardice mutiny mutiny mu mu- tiny Uny giving Information to the enemy destroying or ur willfully wasting ammunition ammunition ammu ammu- looting hooting rape robbing the de dead d. forcing a safeguard striking a superior su su- su pence etc Then comet comes of ot sixty sixty- four da- da dava tia's daIn in the the- front line Une trench without relief During Durl this time you have li to tu in till nil raids working parties n n No Mans Man's Land and every evey hazardous undertaking that conies comos along If It you 0 live Jive through the sixty sixty- tour four days tIar you OU u are alQ Indeed luck lucky This punishment la Is awarded cd where whelo |