A Soldiers Sketches Under Fire | Page 7

were charged and stuck down, a
detonator being inserted, and we crawled out with them at night and
heaved them into the German trenches. We had to time each heave with
the most extreme accuracy, for the fraction of a moment too late meant
the bursting of the bomb in our hands. The game we played with the
Huns (keeping up a continuous fire all night, for instance) was one of
pure bluff. They were massed in, we estimated, four army corps, and
could have walked through us--if they had only known.
As my illustrations do not follow all the movements of my detachment,
I will say here that from Armentières we were shifted to Houplines,
about 4-1/2 to 5 miles north-east, where we made an advance of a
hundred yards or so to straighten up. From Houplines we were moved
south to La Bassée, and from La Bassée to Neuve Chapelle (where our
3rd Battalion was almost wiped out in the indecisive victory that
proved much and won little), and then back to Armentières, whence we
were sent north to St. Eloi, after making a short advance in the vicinity
of Messines. From St. Eloi we were ordered to Hill 60, taking part in

the now historic battle there. After Hill 60, Ypres, where shrapnel and
poison gas put an end to my soldiering days--I am afraid for ever.
To come back to our first arrival at Armentières, our position was in
touch with a small village not marked on the map, in the direction of
Houplines. This village, which became almost wholly destroyed, had
been knocked about by the enemy fire, but the tall chimney of a
distillery had been spared, no doubt because the Germans wanted it
themselves, intact. However much they wished, and often and hard as
they tried, to take it--especially as from it could be conned not only our
lines but the lay of the surrounding country--they never did take it, and
it never fell, though it was hit in two places and cracked.
At 10.30 one morning I crawled over the parapet--that is, the
sandbags--of our trench to sketch the picture of which this distillery
shaft is the central feature. The trench also near the middle we had dug
overnight for communication purposes. The enemy were to the left of
the buildings shown, and our own men were occupying the position to
the right of the chimney at a range of 250 yards.
[Illustration: OUTSKIRTS OF A VILLAGE.]
Our boys in the trenches could never understand a bright light which in
daytime issued from the garden adjoining the farm-buildings on the
British side. But one day a spy, who did work disguised as a farmhand,
was discovered. He used a tin bowl as a reflector to send the enemy
signals. The rascal was duly attended to.
FETCHING WATER.
[Illustration: MY FIRST SNIPING PLACE.]
Here is a little view of the outskirts of the same village, made a few
days later, when I was told off with two others to go to the house on the
right of the sketch to get water from the pump, exposed to the enemy's
fire. While pencilling the sketch I saw the wide gap made in the tree's
branches, as shown by a shell passing through it, which burst on the
road some fifteen yards away from us. This was an indication the

enemy had spotted figures moving in the direction of the house.
However, having got the water, we all reached "home" safely, though
we ran a further risk in rummaging in the orchard, where we found
some beds of lettuces, of which welcome vegetables we brought back
with us enough to supply the whole section.
The house on the left of the shelled tree was the position from which I
and two others were ordered to snipe. We climbed the ricketty building
and fired from the eaves and from the cover of the chimney. The
building was in a state of almost total ruin, but we took our places on
the shaken beams and considered we made a quite successful bag, for
we could guarantee that at least five or six occupants of the enemy's
trenches would give us no more trouble. This in the course of one
morning. Finally the enemy saw us and we had to vacate our position,
as both the building and the barricade across the road were being
rapidly hit.
CAPTURE OF A GERMAN TRENCH.
[Illustration: CAPTURED GERMAN TRENCH.]
Without their coveted observation post the German gunners got the
range of the town beyond the village so completely that one day they
poured a continuous stream of shells over our heads from 4.30 in the
morning till mid-day. It was, I remember, at day-break next morning
that under cover of our own artillery,