Kitchener's Mob: Adventures of an American in the British Army

OVIN

we was a-go'n' to a Sunday-school picnic." The roads were filled with endless processions of singing, shouting soldiers. Seen from a distance the long columns gave the appearance of imposing strength. One thought of them as battalions, brigades, divisions, cohesive parts

pening elsewhere. We were anticipating the exciting times just at hand. Mac, who was blo

't it be

t it be

xcess of animal spirits. Three rollicking lads, all of whom we buried during the week in the same s

w till now ho

w how muddy

er his shoulder, and munched army biscuit with all the relish of an old campaigner. Several days later he said good-bye to us, and made the journey

lads killed, wounded, and missing. Marching four abreast, a column of casualties miles in length. I see them plodding light-heartedly through the mud as they did

was in a ta

arkin'! We're in for i

ng to the m

re a-go'n' to see a scrap presently, an' it ain'

leavin' me razor to 'is Maje

sergeant! You g

t to go 'ome.' Get 'im

r mouth-org

e it weepy no

t to g

to go

oal-boxes, and s

o go in the tr

across

llemand can

don't wa

to go

ack-Johnsons and coal-boxes are two greatly dreaded types of high

till we reach the end o' this 'ere march! You'll be a-

ot sufficient accommodation for all of us. With a dozen of my comrades I slept on the floor in the kitchen of a miner's cottage, and listened, far into the n

to put these, still wet, into our packs, for at dusk we fell in, in column of route, along the village street, whe

trenches are full of dead. Those who are left are worn out with the strain, and they need sleep. They won't care to stop long after you come in, so you must not expect much information from them. You will have to find out things for yourselves. But I know you well enough to feel certain that yo

ake way for long files of ambulances which moved as rapidly as the darkness and the awful condition of the roads would permit. I counted twenty of them during one halt, and then stopped, thinking of the pain of the poor fellows inside, their wounds wrenched and torn by the constant pitching and jolting. We had vivid glimpses of them by the light from flashing guns, and of the Red Cross attendants at the rear of

munition supply and battalion transport wagons, the horses rearing and plunging in the darkness. We approached a crossroad and halted to make way for some batteries of field pieces movin

getting into that despondent, despairing frame of mind which often follows great physical weariness, when I remembered a bit of wisdom out of a book by William James which I had read several years before. He had said, in effect, that men have layers of energy, reserves of nervous force, which they are rarely called upon to use,

h a fascinating, bizarre effect. By their light, I saw men lying with their heads thrown back over their pack-sacks, their rifles leaning across their bodies; others standing in attitudes of suspended animation. The noise was deafening. One was thrown entirely upon his own resources for comfort and companionship, for it was impossible to converse. While we were waiting for t

lay was so slippery and we were so heavily loaded that we fell down at every step. Some of the boys told me afterward that I cursed like blue blazes all the way up. I was not conscio

o home again. Some were huddled in pathetic little groups of two or three as they might have crept together for companionship before they died. Some were lying face downward just as they had fallen. Others in attitudes revealing dreadful suff

gunners were always heavily loaded. In addition to the usual infantryman's burden, we had our machine guns to carry, and our ammunition, water suppl

ow of matches or lighted cigarettes, were haggard and worn. A week's growth of beard gave them a wild and barbaric appearance. They talked eagerly. They were hysterically cheerful; voluble from sheer nervous reaction. They had the prospect of getting away

f a week yo

week, son; it's

me in just w'en you did. We

got to go

s so much traffic along that trench. Go down Stanley Road about five 'unnerd yards, turn off to y

in the mornin': three o'clock at the latest. They's thousa

is pick 'em up: 'elmets, revolvers, rifles, German

st line o' Frit

e been a-'oldin' on. My Gawd! It's been awful! They calmed down

y section. You'll see some of 'e

y approximately the direction of the living enemy and the dead spoke to us only

ench, and we judged from this that we were holding what had been the enemy's last line, and that the British artillery were shelling the line along which they would dig themselves in anew. We felt more certain of this later in the night when

e were holding and had advanced up the opposite slope, nearly a mile farther on. There they started to dig themselves in, but an unfortunate delay in getting forward had given the enemy time to collect a strong force of local reserves behind his second line, which was several hundred yards beyond. So heavy a fire had been concentrated upon them that the British troops had been forced to retire to the line we were then occupying. They had met with he

spectacular display, of a motion-picture battle.

ular lines to the attack. They were exposed to a pitiless infantry fire. I could follow the curve of our trenches on the left by the almost solid sheet of flame issuing from the rifles of our comrades

striking distance. There was a sharp crescendo of deafening sound, then, gradually, the firing ceased, and word came down the line, "Counter-attack against the -- Guards; and jolly well beaten off too." Anothe

MAGED

ving the wreckage of human bodies. Never before had death revealed itself so terribly to us. Many of the men had been literally blown to pieces, and it was necessary to gather the fragm

for living quarters as it is possible for such earthworks to be. The ground here was unusually favorable. Under a clayish surface soil, there was a stratum of solid chalk. Advantage of this had been taken by the German engineers who must have planned and supervised the work. Many of the shell-proof dugouts were fifteen and even twenty feet below the surface of the gr

and quite palaces compared to the wretched little "funk-holes" to which we had been accustomed. They were roofed with logs a foot or more in diameter placed close together and one on top of the other in tiers of three, with a covering of

these underground palaces at the end of a blind alley leading off from the main trench. It was at least fifteen feet underground, with two stairways leading down to it, so that if escape was cut off in one direction, it was still possible to get out on the other side. We im

of frontage. Rifles, intrenching tools, haversacks, canteens, greatcoats, bayonets were scattered everywhere. All of this material was of the very best. Canteens, water-bottles, and small frying-pans were made of aluminu

erein. Bring'

ver writes inscriptions of a religious nature over the doorway of his

alled the "Krieg-Zeitung," published at Lille for the soldiers in the field, and f

circumstance saves or destroys. Mac came into the half-ruined dugout where

minutes, will you? I've lost my water-bottle. It's

r; and it is possible to judge the direction and the probable place of their fall. Two of us stood by the machine gun. We heard at the same time the sound which we knew meant danger, possibly death. It was the awful whistling roar of a h

one arm. The other arm was terribly crushed and one

! Look wot th

stop the flow of blood. He was a fine, healthy lad. A moment before he had been telling us what he was going to do when we went h

ion where there was none. The ground rocked like so much pasteboard. I heard frantic cries for "Picks and shovels!" "Stretcher-bear

English lads were not cowards. Orders or no orders, they came out to the rescue of their comrades. They worked without a thought of their own danger

so terribly mangled that we did not know until later who he was. Preston was lying on his back with a great jagged, blood-stained hole through his tunic. Bert Powel was so badly hurt that we exhausted our supply of field dressings in bandag

er. We quickly uncovered Walter, a lad who had kept us laughing at his drollery on ma

e said weakly; "I

ried him again, and it seemed a lifetime before we were able to rem

eel anything below me waist.

ror. Fortunately, he lost consciousness while we were trying to disentangle him from the fallen timbers, and he died on the way to the field dressing-station. Of the se

of the bombardment which took place that autumn morning. The dispatches, I believe, described it with the usu

ery action. We demolished some earthworks in the vicinity

launched a counter-attack immediately after the bombardment, we should have had difficulty in holding the position. But it was only what Tommy called "a big 'ap'orth o' 'ate." No attempt

o have never lived through experiences of this sort cannot possibly know the horror of them. It is not in the heat of battle that men lose their reason. Battle frenzy is, perhaps, a temporary madness. The real danger comes when the strain is relaxed. Men look about them and see the bodies of their com

ere the dead. Worse even than the sight of dead men were the groans and entreaties of

you get me back to the ambulance? Ain't th

ong to wite. They'll be some of the

to come off? Maybe they could save it if I could get to 'ospital in time

o ride back in a stretcher presently. Ke

th danger and death, many of my gross misjudgments of character were made clear to me. Men whom no one had credited with heroic qualities revealed them. Others failed rather pitiably to live up to one's expectations. It seem

ade one's blood run cold. Then he sat down and started crying and moaning. He was taken back to the rear, one of the saddest of casualties in a war of inconceivable horrors. I heard of many instances of nerv

OLES AND

could bury our dead comrades. A fine drenching rain was falling. We sat with our waterproof sheets thrown over our shoulders and our knees drawn up to our chins, that we might conserve the damp warmth of our bodies. No one spoke. No reference was made to our dead comrades who were lying there so close that we cou

aring but faintly the sighing of the wind and the sound of the rain beating against the window. It is hardly to be wondered at that soldie

hearted?"-a growling chorus a

ES

there would be more dead bodies and more graves to dig, and the day after, the same duty, and the day after that, the same. Week after week we should be living l

was not the man to waste his time in gloomy reflection. With a dozen mouldy potatoes which he had procured Heaven knows where, four tins of corned beef, and a canteen lid filled with bacon grease for raw materials, he had set to work with the enthusiasm of the born artist, the result being rissoles, bro

ssoles an' 'ot tea, an' it ain't 'arf

uesome surroundings. Dead men were lying about us, both in the trenches and outsid

e had finished. The serg

at it, boys

s in Tommy's grave-strewn garden. It bore t

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id thei

the trench and piled our pick

gan 'andy, Nobby?

'andy. Wot'll

at Tony.' That's a p

are! Sing

Tommy's favorite

lk Hat

n and I

y broke, bu

ge of my

shing th

I am gay a

the Wes

ee me th

rlingto

he Old

ony! I

es no diff'r

haven't a

is sati

Piccadill