IN THE WESTERN TRENCHES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 35, 8 September 1916, Page 7

IN THE WESTERN TRENCHES.

.'■■ young officer in the trendies (an old Stratford District High School ■-:,■■;) writes from "Somewhere in ■•'ranee" at the end of Juno:—My dear peonies,-"lt's a win ie four ..■ock/ since I wrote my last serial riispter. That was in the trenches, was-u't it? Lots of things have happened sine* then, things that have kept me pretty busy. Let me see. did 1 toll vou anything '-out nnr trenches ! don't think did. Well, .supposing I start off from the Lin.' we kn-i went in the trendies, Tina. •u/the £ Jrti Hay. 1 went in. dur■u'.< the jtternoon to tike over be bombing stuff, the battalion t0110w- ..:,. in the evening. All changes are efrV-cted during the darkness of course. l T i»fortunately, Fritz appeared to get ft iiid of the changing of the garrison, aial peppered our bey.-; with whisatar.gs and shrapnel while they were win* up to tins iiead of the communication trenches, but no damage was done bevond cur Battalion Order- ;■ .Konra Sergeant (about the last man one would expect to be hit) stopping \ lump of shrapnel with his knee—reult, stiff knee for life. Once in the trenches, it took very little time to iange 'over, everything being done i.aiotlv and ozderly. I ' -Next d\vy, i made a complete tour 'of the trenches in our sector. Still in fairiv dangerous condition, but far Ibetter than when Tommies occupied lit. Tilings were very much lively, Loo, for our artillery and trench mortal's bad set out to worry Fritz, unci he seemed very anxious to pay US back in kind. T\e following day two fairly big strafei came over .0 our tec iches, one of my bombers being badly he died next 1. 'g. The'second strafe (in the afternoon) killed another man., wounded cue. and very seriously smashed one of "D" Company's sergeants. It was that day 1 saw some of the hard realities of'war. Saw one man bleed to death-he was too far gone before ' could get to him to dress his shattered leg. Poor Sergeant Gordon rae also in a frightful state— three huge ■.,'ounds, through one of which I could V;par him breathing And the struggi: we had to get Wn» through the ecnr municiti 0 the uresang statio • A long twisting I V q UC < in length and so disgl. ■'■ •« "V- Alj'how, all OUi ..s in vain, for ths po( . ; « £eri in got to the :io:-.v .. "Too ~,xi two days were fo«-lv quiet—no determined bombards., but only a few >vhizz-bangs sver -H tervn-ls. All tho Bosch heavy stuli was landing to the rear of us into a nil go, searching for batteries. It z reailj a great experience to liear tht .vhistle of these, big fellows (.the boys have nick-named them "Express," because tiiey come hurtling over from the direction of with a sound as of a train going at top speed), then after a few fractions of ft second, you see the huge burst, the cloud of dust from a crumbling wall, and then comes the boom of the explosion. This goes on fairly regularly, practically all day and every day.

"( Everything '.vent along quietly until the 20th. That v/i he birthday of our Oattalion, and, whether by coincidence or chance, I know not, we celebrated the occasion by a glorious strafe. At ,"3 p.m. exactly, the artillery and the trench mortars started a fearful fire on the Bosch trenches. TliEt was one of the most exciting and glorious five minutes of my life. I'd brought up my rifle grenade batteries, but not having received sufii'eient notice, I'd not had time to em- ! place them properly, so just plopped ! them do - .™ in the open. At the first shot from tli9 rear I began, and for live perspiring rushing minutes piled grenade after grenade into the Hun trench. My boys were busy detonating the grenades under cover of the par.'.pet as hard as they could lick—the position of the battery was rather exposed and dangerous, so I wouldn't allow them to serve it. It was not long before Fritz began to reply with whizz-bangs, shrapnel, high-explosive and mortars (Minnenwerfers), but luckily it all missed our position and

seemed 1 ' 1 rlrst in front and in. iV 0 i . • I was too busy to think about Fritz's shells-all the time a m feet inferno of shells war landing in his trench, masses «T sand bags and barbed wire and dugouts were going high in the air. the when, place appeared to be a livid mass o' shooting* dame and billows of heavy black and grey si - I <i"-ite realbed during that :< that provid* amm has :,>methmg lo and th.uk about he'll stand almost anything and never count the rbbn At the end of live minutes ev< thing stopped as .uddenlv as it begun. But .prang rather a u ■ a one on to Fritz [waited for quarter of an hour am then pushed two more grenade, real into his trench, hoping that by tlm ; mo he'd have come out of his luukholes- to view the damage. Rotten Seme, this war! It's rather hard to believe but do you know mat «i spit; of the heavy st.ate that camo back in reply f rom Fritz, only one of our men was hit—and that only shghti> . lt », .-eally incredible the huge amounv of'lead it takes to wound a man -That evening orders came out that Fritz was to be worried on every possible occasion. So next day 1 began operations and bred over a few gjnX* in the afternoon. Result, r-ntz tried to oust me out of my position with wWbangs, but f or himfhe tried to get me whcie 1 wasn't. At 9 p.m. I sent bun ovei .ome more souvenirs, time he didn't deign to reply. Willing .'the name given to the shells 0 the -German 77 cm. gun-its the German equivalent to the French ,a , m They are very high velocity, and Hvc no warning like a slower well. Ihev really explode before you imu | them. H -nu hear them at all, it J | :, 0 use ducking, for they've Ijassed | VoU „merely whizz! bang! Hca-t ; the name. . , j "Next dav, Fritz was suspicu.usl, q uiet, despite our spasmodic light .v-l qiorvfiri-: .nrrng the day. ky.fi \ w " u i- ; trench movt-r bombs r by our people just by , f ; him up a• ee bit. And ' , bit ahighl—chaos for abo Result, one m«> wr slightly! Marvellous, wu 1 it? «. sev i ; dav F- ; .k's quietness »a m " h '-he'd been saving.' fct i 1 1, •■....-, . ir I he mr.de up for n.m. ha I I—aiiu1 — aii u '"• »'• - lost time ' was the hottest • tunc ,e'd had to u ,s Our «D» Company 2nd in Comma- n '. ptain Chr.sto- „ , ->fi' u-jij killed phers. a Samoa' • ■ 1, • • . • ,+i« rraw ' --Uis?t married oelnstantly veiy • --.• .■ -■■ l ■ ore we '-'it New Zealand too. Altowther we bad 13 casualties that day. '(■hom-hi I was going to be one 0. them too. During a lull in the storm I began to make my way up a comnflmieatioE 'b with a stock 0 ',., u dage« lical stol ' es w c v/ays cmrv •» me, but the fun began again, an: 1 1 was caught like a , at in 1- trao half-way. I can till you von couldn't have inserted a leal of beaten gold between me and the side of the trench for about ten minutes. Beyond a good deal of dust and wee bits of fragment* nothing came nwr the closest '■ ' was ui " teen' yards away- about nine feet wide and four six deep—

quite a. respectable size. Rather a funny feeling wondering how close the next one is goin . land! "That evening ; - excitement was caused by one of our big baloons breaking loose and determinedly setting out for the German lines. Out hopped the two observers in parachutes, and they too, were neatly wafted towards the waiting arms of Herr Fritz. Closer and closer they floated in a long downward angle. All'glasses were anxiously turned on them—could they laud in time? One, swaying in a most nauseating fashion landed just behind the lines—the other had still some feet to fall. At last he, too, disappeared behind the trees which intruded between us and his probable landing plaee. To us he appeared to land about in "No Man's Land" welcomed by terrific fusilados by machine-guns and rifles from the Bosch. In the meantime, on floated the huge balloon serenely indifferent to the hundreds of anti-aircraft shells that burst all round her. lining gradually and gently, not deigning even to falter under the strafe of the shells, both British and German, she disappeared in the g-.thering gloom, lost to both hides. As to the observers, we learnt next day that both had landed in our lines safely, and that all the notes and cameras etc.. had been safely destroyed before they lelb the balloon, we came out alright. "Next day was spent in the everlasting, heartbreaking task of mending shell-nv ' trenches. Everyone right thrc" it the Battalion was *oe!hig \ snly the loss of poor Chris. admitted the straight est mi o st us—neither ?moked, nor d :c, nor swore; never lost his te.un never known to say v >.<>.i wo- vryenc. Very popular with the -i, beloved ...y "is office-com-rades, i wondf rhy such a man shouid taken ard. others who usiseek .. deeo-vt the protection of Provid> Co should b- loft. Poor old Oris i "Next evenii '-"'t of the trendies and .tu ompleteiy foozled Fritz, >or not a single shot was fired. Very glad to get bad; into billets and live in more or less relief from the mental strain that haunts one all the time in the trenches. Besides which, ... real bed, a real pillow, and really- 4 sheets are most wel- .! e aftei for ten days without ever !: ... bad one's clothes off. "Next day. had a good old laze, except lor church parade in the morning and conducting a working party out to the trenches in the evening. Lunch is ready—"tofa" for ar: hour or so. Keel very n . nore content with some cold bee.' : . '.: 'd walnuts, bread and butter, ' a. mug oi tea in my confectionery department."