A Yankee in the Trenches

ol work in general, because for some reaso

, not more than twenty feet away, would be your barbed-wire entanglements, a thick network of wire stretched on iron posts nearly waist high, and perhaps twelve or fifteen feet across. Then there would

erhaps not that. Daylight movements in No Man's Land are somehow disconcerting. Once I was in a trench where a leg-a booted German leg, stuck up stark and stiff out of the mud not twenty yards in fro

res, nor behind them. And yet you know that over yonder ther

ut like hunted animals and prowl in the black

to get as close to the enemy lines as possible and find out if they are repairing their wire or if any of thei

he faint "scrape, scrape" that means a German mining party is down there, getting ready to plant

three Mills bombs and a pistol, but not for use except in extreme emergency. Also a per

ust avoid being seen. When a Very light goes up, he lies still. If he happens to be standing, he s

ss it is one he has seen before and is acquainted with. Because sometimes the man is

nless you are near enough to get in one good lick with the persuader. He will retreat slowly himself, and yo

so that they form a V, like a flock of geese. Now if you follow up the lead man when he retreats, you are baited into a trap and find yourself s

se in point which I witnessed and which is far enough in the past so that it can be

a Canadian battalion holding the next trench to us, and another farther down. He was from the farther one. We lay in the m

ent that dawn was near. I was a couple of hundred yards down from our battalion, and my man and I made for the trenches opposite where we were. As w

t getting lighter, and presently a pair of Lewises started to rattle a hundred yards or so away down the line. Then came a sudden com

corporal. "There's been no barrage. There's no

orporal and I climbed out of the trench at the rear, over the parados, and ran ac

ng was more like a T than a cross. It was made of planks, perhaps two by five, and the man was spiked on by his hands and feet. Across the abdomen he was riddled with bullets and again with another row a little higher up near his chest. The man was the sergeant I had talked to earlier in the night. What had happened was this. He had, no doubt, been taken by a German patrol. Probably he had ref

estion the man had been crucified alive. Also it

to keep silent, which I did. It was feared that if the affair got about the men would be "wind

r without orders. But they were not punished

a Heinie. I was lying down at the time. A flock of lights went up and showed this fellow standing about ten feet from me. He had froz

n it, leaving the weapon dangling by the leather loop on my wrist. He had struck at me with his automatic, which I think he must have dropped, though I'm not sure of that. A

chin, forcing his head back. His breath smelled of beer and onions. I was choking him when he br

s I did. I felt somehow that he was glad. So was I. We stood for a minute, and I heard hi

cest way out of the situatio

from the Quarries and the

to the Quarries and taking the place of Number 9 in support. While lyi

o those of the Germans, and on to Lens. Spies, either in the army itself or in the villa

ne had to go down there and fish for bottles twice nightly. I took this patrol alone. The lines were rather

rass was rank and high, sometimes nearly up to my chin, and the ground was slimy and treacherou

n sight. The river was not over ten feet wide and there was

neighborhood. I reached down and groped in the grass and brought up a human rib. The place was full of them, and skulls. Stooping, I could see them, grinning up out of the dusk, hun

to the edge of the grass, I peeped out. I was opposite the bottle trap. I could dimly make out the forms of two men standing on the nearer end of the plank bridge. They were, I should judge

erman. I searched him for papers, foun

it warren. This was on the lower side and to the left end of Vimy Ridge, and was extra dangerous. It did seem as though each

ream of "pip-squeaks", "whiz-bangs", and "minnies." The "pip-squeak" is a shell that starts

cock partridge, and goes off on contact with a tremendous

in a high arc and is concentrated death and destruction when it lands. It has one virtue-y

hese man-killers in the Warren and kept us ducking

are the men whose duty it is to run mines under No Man's Land and plant huge quantities of exp

go us one better and go still deeper. Some of the mines went down and under hundreds of feet. The result of all this

German lines and deep under the hill when we heard them digging below us. An engineer officer came in and listened for an hour and decided that they were getting in explos

Sixty men were selected, a few from each company, and placed where they were supposedly safe, but where they could get up fast. This is the most dangerous duty an infantryman has to do, because both sides

ne long, deep sigh of relief, put my hand inside my tunic and patted

ration party to go out each night and get up the grub. This party had to go over the duck walk and was under fire

ailed me to the "wangler's" duty. I "grous

'ere or there. If ye clicks, I'll draw yer fags fro

e. He was doing me a fa

d yards from the base of the Pimple, a dead silence fell on the German side of the line. There wasn't a gun nor a mortar nor even a rifle in action for a mile in either direction. There was, t

literally in hundreds, illuminating the top of the ridge and the sky behind with a thin greenish white flare. Then came a deep rumble that

world-wrecking, soul-paralyzing crash. A murky red glare lit up the smoke screen, and against it a mass of tossed-up deb

by the gigantic impact of the explosion. A shower of eart

s had exploded, and the whole side of the Pimple had been torn away. Half of our rushing party were killed and we had sixty casualties from s

by falling stones. Inasmuch as he was where I would have been, I con