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Page 9
The effort in progress was to straighten out our line so as to get it
level with Ypres, and the whole position all around was a very perilous
one. We were short of men--very short--and had practically no reserves.
Almost every available man had to do the work and duty of three. For a
month or so almost all the heavy work fell upon the line regiments, we
doing the wiring, digging, and the usual work of the Royal Engineers,
the number of these being relatively scanty indeed.
There was also some shortage of shells and ammunition for guns and
rifles, while of trench mortars a division had but few. We had to make
our own bombs out of jam tins. These were charged and stuck down, a
detonator being inserted, and we crawled out with them at night and
heaved them into the German trenches. We had to time each heave with the
most extreme accuracy, for the fraction of a moment too late meant the
bursting of the bomb in our hands. The game we played with the Huns
(keeping up a continuous fire all night, for instance) was one of pure
bluff. They were massed in, we estimated, four army corps, and could
have walked through us--if they had only known.
As my illustrations do not follow all the movements of my detachment, I
will say here that from Armenti�res we were shifted to Houplines, about
4-1/2 to 5 miles north-east, where we made an advance of a hundred yards
or so to straighten up. From Houplines we were moved south to La Bass�e,
and from La Bass�e to Neuve Chapelle (where our 3rd Battalion was almost
wiped out in the indecisive victory that proved much and won little),
and then back to Armenti�res, whence we were sent north to St. Eloi,
after making a short advance in the vicinity of Messines. From St. Eloi
we were ordered to Hill 60, taking part in the now historic battle
there. After Hill 60, Ypres, where shrapnel and poison gas put an end to
my soldiering days--I am afraid for ever.
To come back to our first arrival at Armenti�res, our position was in
touch with a small village not marked on the map, in the direction of
Houplines. This village, which became almost wholly destroyed, had
been knocked about by the enemy fire, but the tall chimney of a
distillery had been spared, no doubt because the Germans wanted it
themselves, intact. However much they wished, and often and hard as they
tried, to take it--especially as from it could be conned not only our
lines but the lay of the surrounding country--they never did take it,
and it never fell, though it was hit in two places and cracked.
At 10.30 one morning I crawled over the parapet--that is, the
sandbags--of our trench to sketch the picture of which this distillery
shaft is the central feature. The trench also near the middle we had dug
overnight for communication purposes. The enemy were to the left of the
buildings shown, and our own men were occupying the position to the
right of the chimney at a range of 250 yards.
[Illustration: OUTSKIRTS OF A VILLAGE.]
Our boys in the trenches could never understand a bright light which in
daytime issued from the garden adjoining the farm-buildings on the
British side. But one day a spy, who did work disguised as a farmhand,
was discovered. He used a tin bowl as a reflector to send the enemy
signals. The rascal was duly attended to.
FETCHING WATER.
[Illustration: MY FIRST SNIPING PLACE.]
Here is a little view of the outskirts of the same village, made a few
days later, when I was told off with two others to go to the house on
the right of the sketch to get water from the pump, exposed to the
enemy's fire. While pencilling the sketch I saw the wide gap made in the
tree's branches, as shown by a shell passing through it, which burst on
the road some fifteen yards away from us. This was an indication the
enemy had spotted figures moving in the direction of the house. However,
having got the water, we all reached "home" safely, though we ran a
further risk in rummaging in the orchard, where we found some beds
of lettuces, of which welcome vegetables we brought back with us enough
to supply the whole section.
The house on the left of the shelled tree was the position from which I
and two others were ordered to snipe. We climbed the ricketty building
and fired from the eaves and from the cover of the chimney. The building
was in a state of almost total ruin, but we took our places on the
shaken beams and considered we made a quite successful bag, for we could
guarantee that at least five or six occupants of the enemy's trenches
would give us no more trouble. This in the course of one morning.
Finally the enemy saw us and we had to vacate our position, as both the
building and the barricade across the road were being rapidly hit.
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