FOOTING IT

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 101, 22 January 1918, Page 6

FOOTING IT

NIGHT TREK OF TWO INVALIDS HOW THEY REACHED THE FRONT LINE (By Patrick Mac Gill, Author of "The Great Push.") "Callin' this a march, and it only 15 miles oil a level road, with a rest of two hours when the journey was midway finished 1" said Gingor Gahey, Irishman ant! D.C.M., in tones of superior disdain, as he fixed a killing glance on the boy who had ventured to say that the march, to billets noiv at an end, was a long and weary one. "A march! Mother iv God, if yo had seen a rale march, such as I've seen ! more than once!" Gahey looked round the crowded barn in which his platoon was quartered. Tho men, just back from the battlo area, had boon on the road since early . morning. . . i "There's marchin' and marchin',•' ho said, philosophically, still looking at . the bov, a youth of 19, newly out. from England. "There's marchin' with a sore heel and marchin' with a light i heart, and there's some as well march with a light heart no matter how much tho If ye set ycrself to do it, ye'll do it, and it doesn't matter what's before ye. Now at Mons— I was at Mons, ye know—wo were on the road, goin' back, with our bay'net towards the Hun for a good number iv days. How many days it was I misremember, but one thing I do mind and that is this, that at the end iv that retreat—l was in the Guards then —every one iv my mates that wasn t killed or wounded had his full kit, his • rifle, and his iron rations, and when it was time to chase the Jerrys back we could pass muster afore a brigadier as fit and all-found as if we were on a parade ground at home. Ah! the old Reculars, 'twas them that was the buckos! . "And I know what marching is. The ono that I had up to the line from hospital a while back was something not to be forgotten. I was in hospital back at M . ton miles from the front linp. and it was trench feet that I was sufforin' from—not a bad attack, \ but it was as well to have a rest, for j if I didn't who knows what tho unsliot i would be, and big doin's ahead? I, might miss it when the hoys went over the top with the bay'net and bomb. I didn't want to be out iv it, so I went | into hospital for a rest when things t were quiet, and done my best to get better. That wasn't a slow job, for my flesh was healthy, and a bit iv aiso wasn't long in settin' mo all right, and ready for things again. But what cured me quicker than anything was the word that came to mo that my regimcntwas goin' to have a hand in big doin s. Thoy were in for the high jump, tils crossin' iv the bags, and I didn't want fa be out iv the bit iv fun. I went to tho M.O. It- was in the mornin', and my mates were goin' to cross tho top at dawn on the day to come. " 'I'm all right, sir,' I says to tho M.O. , , . ' " 'Feelin' cmite fit?' he asks mo. " 'As fit as a two-year-old,' I inswers. 'I want to get away at once, if ye please, sir.' "■'l. sunoose ye're want-in' to be in the push?' says" he. 'Ye Irishmen are always for it when there's a bit iv fightin' in be done.' "And there and then he marked mo fit, and I got my full kit and got into it. It was then that T met Sammy, a Somerset man, who had got a crack in the head. " 'Wh<re are ye for?' lie puts to me. " 'To the front line,' says I. < 'Thero are big doin's ahead, and 1 don t want to miss them.' " 'Well. I'm with ye.' says he. 'I m sick iv tliis place. I'll try and get oui iv it.' "And he went to the doctor, and the idoctor says: 'Very well; ye're lookin' fit enough, so I'll mark ye for the trenches.' "B it poor Sanrnv was nearly copped, for when he put his equipment cn he turned faint a little, and the M.O. saw him. "'Wait a moment,' says the M.O. 'I want to examins ye again after a bit when I get a job that I'm engaged on done.' "The M.O. went into a near ward, and Sammy turns to me. 'We'll hook it,' says he, 'for I may be kept hero after another examination.'

Blind Gropin' in the Rain,

"And the two iv us hooked it, and on the road to the trenches we went as hard as we could pelt. As far as we could judge our regiments were in a village near the trenches. We could see the village away in the distance, and we made for it, footin' it like laddybueks. "It was raining entrenching tools all the way, and that village seemed to be tieel to a string, and it was getting pulled sway the nearer we came to it. Sammy was itat as well as he let on to be, and .several times he had to sic down and rest be the roadside. Jlut give it up? No fear! Ho was hot on tile job, and nothing coukl turn him back. And my feet weren't as ' easy as they might he, heel unci too weren't in a good humour when under full marching order. "Well, we came to the village in the afternoon, about 4 o'clock, and as it was late October, the lights wero showin' behind the window panes, and the night was falling over the streets. But the village, when we came to it, was empty iv' khaki. Our regiments, both iv them were in the village to the left three miles away. Nothin' to he done, but make for it, and wo made for it. It was pitch black when we got there, and the rain was still fallin'. And this village was empty iv our follows, too. A regiment, new in, was billeted there, and our men had gone off to the trenches two hours afore. "We followed them up the road, our teeth set and our beads down against! the storm. 'Twas blind gropm' all the way, with a German barrage sweepin' across us from time to time, and the road riddled with shell-holes. First it would be Sammy who would get into a hole, and I could see him m tho water and muck, splashin 1 at all round him. " 'Gi'nio a hand,' lie would call out. 'I'm bogged.' , " 'Hung on to mc nno tnoti, # J. would su.V) stretching it out to him, and he would cling to it for grim death while I got purchase iv my feet on the bank to" haul him out. | "I would be the next to flounder, and then lie. would help me out. And so on, wo made our way to the firin

"Now and again ivo met the stret-cher-bearers comili' back carryin' a burden. 'Are we near B r tliev would ask. " 'Gettin' there,' we would answer, givin' them as much consolation as wo could. B was the last village that we had left, and it seemed to ke years since we wore there. On the Diich-Boarfis. "We came to the communication trenches, but it was impossible to get through them, for they were filled to the lip almost with water. Wo had to cross the open on greasy duck-boarda that seemed as thin as a hair, l alk about rope-walkin' 'Twasn't in it when compared with travelling under full pack across them duck-boards. One minute ye were walkin' all right, and the next minute ye were having a mudbath. When it wasn't him that was in the cart it was me, and when it wasn't nie it was him. Arid all the time the shells were flyin' all round us,.

There was dirty work on the duck boards that night.

"We met a man coinin' down. 'Are we near the trejiAles?' we put to him. " 'Yo're gettin' in that way,' iie says. 'Gettin' near the Canadian lines.' " 'And where are our men?' we asks him, liamin' our mob. 'Well on the right,' says he. i'Alother iv Heaven! we had to go along through the fields, past the sheilholcu, and into them, over the scattered wire and through it, into deserted trenches and out iv them! Talk about bein' in the cart I We were in it right to the eyebrows. Why we weren't blown to blazes Heaven Almighty knows, for all the, dirt that the Jerrys could throw about was all over the world all that night. Thero were ijaa shells, plum puddin's, rum jars, trenohraortars, pip-squeaks, whizz-bangs, and bullets flying round our heads all the time. " 'If I go into hospital again, I'll never leave it,' says Somerset. " 'Same here, old man,' says I. "But we got to our trenches in tho early mornin' just in time to cross tho bags. Somerset and me went over together, and Somerset was a great fighter, a handy mail with the bay'net and a ready bucko with the bombs. Although he "wasn't with his own mob, ho was ready to fight with ours. 'It's ihe same enemy all the way along,' says he, when an officer advised him to go and look for his own battalion. "But that was a march," Gahey concluded. "I wouldn't like to attempt footin' it in tho same way again. At least not for fun; but when there's a bit iv a light at the end iv it it's a c.ifferent matter."