A Soldiers Sketches Under Fire | Page 2

FIRST SNIPING-PLACE
CAPTURED GERMAN TRENCH
THE WOODCUTTER'S HUT
TYPICAL FIGURES AND FIGURE-HEADS
"HAMMERSMITH BRIDGE"
"DIRTY DICK'S"
"ENTRENCHING" THE PIANO
"SEVENTY-FIVE HOTEL"
CHICKEN FARM
A FRENCH COMRADE-COMEDIAN
A TRENCH SNIPER, RESTING
A TRAVERSE
THE BIRTH-PLACE OF A SONG
TRENCH PERISCOPE IN USE
"THE WHITE FARM"
A GERMAN SNIPER'S NEST
"SUICIDE BRIDGE"
"SUICIDE SIGNAL BOX"
A GHASTLY PROMENADE
THE HOLE IN THE WALL
A VIOLATED CONVENT
WHERE GERMANS RAPED AND MURDERED
"THE BLACK HOLE"
THE BLACK TOWER
WHERE THE TRAP WAS SET
"GOLGOTHA"

PART I.
ON THE WAY TO THE FRONT.

A SOLDIER'S SKETCHES UNDER FIRE.
INTRODUCTORY.
ON THE WAY TO THE FRONT.

CHAPTER I.
FROM SOUTHAMPTON TO MALTA.
[Illustration]
On the outbreak of the war I joined the Royal Fusiliers, uninfluenced
by the appeal of wall-posters or the blandishments of a recruiting
sergeant. My former experience as a trooper in the Hertfordshire
Yeomanry being accounted unto me for military righteousness, I sailed
with my regiment from Southampton on September 3rd, 1914. We
thought we were bound for France direct, and only discovered on the
passage that we were to be landed, first, at Malta.
I think I know the reason why the short trip across Channel was
avoided, but, as it behoves me to be very careful about what I say on
certain points, I don't state it.
I show the fore part of the boat, the bows being visible in the distance.
The doorways on the right are those of the horse boxes, specially
erected on the deck. In fact, the whole liner, with the most creditable
completeness and celerity, had been specially fitted up for the use of
the troops, still retaining its crew of Lascars, who did the swabbing
down and rough work required.
My sketch shows a crane bringing up bales of fodder for the horses
from the hold, with two officers standing by to give orders.
[Illustration: ABOARD THE TRANSPORT.]
We experienced some exciting incidents on the way out; for instance,
in the Bay we ran into a fog, and the order was given for all to stand by.
For the next two or three hours all were in doubt as to what might
happen--of course there was fear of torpedoes.
We heard in the distance several shots fired, presumably by the
battle-cruiser which was our escort. When the fog lifted, we could just
see the smoke lifting on the horizon of some enemy craft, which had

been chased off by our own warship. We again steamed ahead towards
our destination and were soon sailing into smooth and calm waters, the
temperature becoming quite genial and warm as we approached the
Straits of Gibraltar. As we passed through the Straits the message was
signalled that those two notorious vessels, the "Goeben" and the
"Breslau," were roaming loose in the Mediterranean.
AT MALTA.
On arrival at Malta, I and others were put through our firing course, and
the regiment took over the charge of prisoners and interned Germans,
of whom, together, there were on the island--so soon after the
beginning of hostilities--no fewer than 8,000. One of the first sketches I
made was of our Bivouac.
[Illustration: BIVOUAC AT MALTA.]
MALTA AND THE PIRATES.
Malta, which has been called "the master key of the Mediterranean and
the Levant," "the stepping-stone to Egypt and the Dardanelles," and
"the connecting link between England and India," is one of our
Empire's most valuable possessions, and its physical formation has
made it for generations past of great maritime value. The island is, in
itself, a rock, and all its earth and mould has been imported. In the days
when there were no submarines or warships, it was the headquarters of
pirates roaming at large in the Mediterranean. These pirate crews, after
capturing their prey, used to bring their captures into one of the
entrances of the island, now called the Grand Harbour. At the base of
the harbour is the town of Valetta, which was catacombed in those
early times, and tunnels were made through the island rock. When
pirates had brought a ship under cover of the natural harbour to these
tunnels, they took all the merchandise ashore and then broke up the
vessel, so as to leave no trace of the incident. The crew were usually
massacred to a man, and when chase was given, no trace whatever
could be found of either the pirates or their captures, and later on their
ill-gotten gains would be shipped off from the other end of the tunnel in
another part of the island.

Looking through between the trees in my sketch of the Casement
Gardens, under the Barracks of Floriana, which stand on an eminence
overlooking the spot, a portion of the harbour is seen which commands
the back moorings, and the water where the P. & O. liners lay up.
Beyond