Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-11-16
CHAPTER vi.
Bomb Throwing Perilous Work.


T SOON found the reason for Tom
my's absence, for as SOC as 1 left
the car and started out on foot 1
was continually being stopped and ask
ed who l was, what I was, where did
I come from, what was I doing and
what was / going to do. Being on
special duty. l had a pass in my pos
session which bore the French stamp
as well as the British. This pass
would take me anywhere In France or
Belgium, and a flash of it., coupled
with the words special duty" permit
ted me to go where 1 pleased. Had ]
been without 1t 1 would have been ar
rested about every ten minutes.
The defenses In Paris against hostile
me. I never saw anything more
thorough I'm my life. Any of the more
venturesome Germans who care to
make an attempt against Paris are in
for a hot reception.
Two days after my arrival the officer
whom l was to take back to tie front
said he was ready to start and to pre-
PURE tnG dI-1O InO lClo1A JO0AACJ Oh
the morrow. The ride back was un-
eventful, but when we arrived we
found that the headquarters were 60
ing to be moved north across the Bel
gian frontier the next day. We We're
to take over the job of holding the
town of Poperinghe, which the French
had been occupying. We were then
~4xA khn1 mr. had
been holding previously.
At this time the roads were in a ter
rible condition. They are made of cob
blestones in the middle, but either side
is nothing but mud, so after a few
days rain If one slips off the stones he
finds himself in a regular quagmire
and will sink in over the axle.
We took Poperinghe from the French,
and while we were moving in they
were moving out, and the,two lines of
transport, each going ove the same
road, resulted in some fine mixups.
Eventually we arrived all right and
found that this place was much better
than Hazebrouck, which we had left.
Hazebrouck was the junction of seven
railroad lines and consequently aspopu-
lar target for German aircraft.
There was every facility for quarter
ing the men and horses, good offices
for the staff, and we were much nearer
the firing line at Poperinghe. In my
car / have made the run from our
trenches to P~operinghe in less than
twenty minutes, so you can see that we
were not very far behind the actual
fighting.
The people in Poperinghe. while they
had seen British troops before, had
never had them in the town for any
length of time, and they seemed to be
very glad to see is. We had several
Scotch regiments In our corps, and
when they came out of the trenches the
first time they created a great sensa-
ton In the town. Their kits were a
never failing source of establishment to
the Belgians. The woman In the house
where I was billeted thought that it
was cruel to make them wear the Tit
tie dresses In the cold weather. She
wanted to know what they wore un-
derneath them, and when I told her
that they wore nothing she wouldn't
believe me. l explained to her that 1t
was against orders for them to wear
trousers under the kilt, but still she re-
fused to believe.
At this time bomb throwing was be-
coming more and more popular, and
besides using the hand bombs we were
using larger ones, which were thrown
by a catapault arrangement. They
could be thrown a long distance and
In many cases proved to be very eff
fective. Bomb and grenade schools for
every division were opened, and the
men were trained to throw bombs
scientifically.
In some places we started using the
slingshot arrangement with which the
French throw bombs. but 1t didn't turn