Over The Top

t companies. The boys in the Brigade had nicknamed this general Old Pepper, and he certai

epairing roads for the Frenchies, dr

d that we were going up the

ng the sound of the guns nearer and nearer. At night, way off in the dist

numerous observation balloons o

of my platoon informed us that it was a German aeroplane and I wondered how he could tell from such a distance because the plane deemed like a little black speck in the sky. I expressed my doubt as to whether it was English, French, or German. With a look of contempt he further informed us that the allied anti-aircraft shells when exploding emitted white

hucking my weight abo

e were marching along, laughing, and s

t to g

to go

o go to the tr

and whizz-ban

a, where the Allema

don't wa

to go h

of four German five-nine's, or "coal- boxes. " A sharp whistle blast, immediately followed by two short ones, rang out from the head of our column. This was to take up "artillery formation." We divided into small squads and went into the fields on the

d into columns of fours,

village of H--, and I got my first sight of t

ters in shell-proof cellars (shell proof until hit by a shell). Shells were constan

h their overcoats over their faces. I did not. In the middle of the night I woke up in terror. The cold, clammy feet of a

inches deep with mud. This trench was called "Whiskey Street." On our way up to the front line an occasional flare of bursting

"typewriter" or machine gun. The bullet

without a word. A piece of shell had gone throug

with its silvery light. I was trembling all over, and felt very lonely and afraid. All orders were given in whispers. The company we relieved filed p

s in "No Man's Land." In this trench there were only two dugouts, and these were used by Lewis and Vickers, machine gunners, so it was the fire step for ours. Pretty soon it started to rain. We put on our "macks,

led bodies and put new life into us. Then from the communication trenches came dixies or iron pots, filled with steaming tea, which had two wooden stakes through their hand

ront-line trench on the Western Front, and