Over The Top

g kind that results from clean sheets and soft pillows, but

ubbed the mud from my face, and an awful sight met my gaze -- his head was smashed to a pulp, and his steel helmet was full of brains and blood. A German "Minnie" (trench mortar) had exploded in the next traverse. Men were digging into the soft mass of mud in a frenzy of haste. Stretcher-bearers came up the trench on the double. After a f

t their names. They

y a shovel was pushed into my hands

your head down, and look out for snipers. One of the Frit

were dragged to my rear by the other men, and the work of rebuilding the parapet was on. Th

he mud on the bashed-in parapet. At each crack I would duck and shield my fac

ed, -- you never hear the one that wings you. Always remember t

ime, and from then on, I adopted his motto,

afterwards that some of my mates dubbed me,

nervousness left me, and I was l

came up in the form o

The man on my left noticed this, and told the Corporal, dishing out the rations, to put my

another maxim

te their share, but still I was hungry, so I filled in with bully beef and biscuits. Then I drained my water bottle. Later on I learned another maxim of the front line, -- "Go sparingly with

h our heads over the top, peering out into No Man's Land. It was nervous work

cked my head below the parapet. A soft chuckle from my mate brought

ing a promenade along the sa

star shell from his flare pistol. The "plop" would give me a start of

's Land waiting for it to burst. In its lurid light the barbed wire and stake

e sandbagged parapet. I reached for it, and was taking aim to fire, when my mate grasped my arm, and wh

bloomin' idiot; do you want u

led to pass it down the trench. An officer had overheard our challenge and the reply, and immediately put the offending sentry under arrest. The

ours a day for twenty-one days, regardless of the weather. During t

word down the trench when so ordered. In view of the offence, the above punishment was very light, in that failing to pas