A Soldiers Sketches Under Fire | Page 6

at the Huns.
On arrival at Etaples, after a rest of two hours or so in the station yard
and street adjoining same, we marched in full pack and kit, including

blankets and our waterproof sheets, to a fishing village, where we
struck a camp and turned in for the night. We were under canvas for
four days--the only four days under canvas during the whole time I was
in France. The Colonel gave orders that all the men's heads were to be
shaved, as we were proceeding to the trenches.
LADY ANGELA FORBES'S SOLDIERS' HOME AT ETAPLES.
[Illustration: LADY ANGELA FORBES'S SOLDIERS' HOME AT
ETAPLES.]
A never fading recollection of Etaples will be that of the kindness and
hospitality we received at the hands of Lady Angela Forbes and the
"very gallant gentlewomen" who assisted her in the management of her
Soldiers' Home there. The warmest of welcomes and the best of cheer
awaited every soldier who crossed its threshold. Nothing that
thoughtfulness could suggest and liberality could provide was lacking.
Tact and an understanding sympathy characterised the administration
of every department. We left behind us blessings and thanks we could
not express in words.
ON THE ROAD TO THE TRENCHES.
We had a three days' march (most of the way on cobble stones) from
camp to Armentières, via Aire, Hazebruck and Bailleul, things getting
hotter and hotter. In the course of the first day the enemy's aircraft
dropped bombs on our route. We scattered in the hedges and ditches,
lying flat and getting what cover we could. We had several men
wounded by the splinters of the bombs, but fortunately nothing serious
occurred, and all went well that day.
[Illustration: ROAD TO THE TRENCHES.]
The third day we reached a village and were billeted in some barns. We
had just "got down to it comfortable" when a shell took the roofs off,
and a loud cheer went up as it was realised that the enemy had missed
the mark. They put about twelve of these huge shells in the place, but
they all went high. After three hours the order was given to creep out

and get into some cottages further down the road. These cottages were
inhabited, and the terrified people made us welcome indeed--had not
we come to protect them from the Germans? We had a short rest here
and then had to push on and make the most of the darkness.
As the firing grew heavier we made a circular route over fields, etc., to
the trenches, for the rest of the way. The enemy made an attack on our
second night in them--and their loss was pretty heavy.

PART II.
AT THE FRONT.

CHAPTER IV.
SOME SAMPLE EXCITEMENTS OF LIFE IN THE TRENCHES.
[Illustration: MY SKETCH BOOK.]
I don't think I'm a bit sentimental in the matter of souvenirs, and
anyway I can't need anything to remind me of the unforgettable, but all
the same there's one souvenir of my experiences in the trenches and the
firing line that I shall never part with--and that's the little notebook
(measuring 5-1/2 ins. by 3-1/2 ins., bought in Armentières) which I
carried with me through everything, and in which are the originals of
the sketches here collected, taken "under fire," either literally or in the
sense that they were taken within the zone of fire. In the nature of
things I might have been finished myself by shot or shell before I could
have finished any one of them. Sketched in circumstances that certainly
had their own disadvantages as well as their special advantages, I
present these drawings only for what they are. There were many
happenings--repulsions of sudden attacks, temporary retirements,
charges, and things of that sort--that would have made capital subjects,
but of which my notebook holds no "pictured presentment," because I

was taking part in them.
AT ARMENTIÈRES.
[Illustration: Map: La Bassée-St. Julien]
We reached Armentières (relieving the Leinster Regiment and the 9th
Lancers in the first line trenches, distant from the first line German
trenches 30 yards) at a critical time.
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