The Snowflake herald., 1917-11-23

ty men-and drop into exhausted sleep,
only to turn out at 3 a. m. to give
sudden and exact imitation OF what
we would do to the Germans if they
sneaked up on us before breakfast IN
six inches of mud. Toward the last,
when we thought we had been driven
to the limit, they told US that we were
To have a period of real, intensive train
ing to harden us for actual fighting.
They sent us four imperial drill ser
geants from the British grenadier
guards, the senior foot regiment of the
British army and the one with which
we were affiliated.
It would be quite unavailing for me
to attempt to describe these drill SER
geants. The British drill sergeant is
an institution which can be understood
only through personal and close con-
tact and is about as cordial as loose
electricity. If he thinks a major gen.
eral is wrong he'll tell him so on the
spot in the most emphatic way, but
without ever violating a single sacred
tradition of the service. The sergeants
who took us in charge to put on the
real polish to our training had all seen
from twenty to twenty-five years of
service. They had all been through
the battles Of Mons and the Marine,
and they had all been wounded. They
were perfect examples of type. One
of them ordered all of our commission
ed officers, from the colonel down, to
turn out for rifle drill one day and put
them through the manual of arms
while the soldiers of the battalion stood
around looking on.
Gentlemen" said he very politely
in the midst Of the drill, "when / see
you handle your rifles l feel like fall
ing on my knees and thanking God
that we've got navy"
A Call for Volunteers.
On June 2, after the third battle of
Ypres, while Mcfarland and l were
sitting wearily on our hunks during
a strange hour in the afternoon when
nobody had thought of anything for
us to do, soldier came in with a
message from headquarters which put
a sudden stop to the discussion we
were having about the possibility of
getting leave to go up to London. The
message was that the First, Second
and Third divisions of the Canadians
had lost 40 per cent of their men in the
third fight at Ypres and that 800 volun-
teers were wanted from each of our
battalions to fill up the gaps.
''Forty per cent" said Mcfarland,
getting up quickly. "My God, think Of
it! Well, I'm off to tell 'em I'll go."
told him l was with him, and we
started for headquarters, expecting to
be received with applause and pointed
out as heroic examples. We couldn't
even get up to give in our names. The
whole battalion had gone up ahead of
u.s. They heard about it first That
was the spirit Of the Canadians. 1t
was about this time that a story went
round concerning an English colonel
who had been called upon to furnish
volunteers from his outfit to replace
casualties. He backed his regiment up
against a barrack wall and said:
Now, all who don't want to volun-
teer step three PAGES to the rear"
In our battalion sergeants and even
officers offered to go as privates. Nc
Farland and I were not accepted; our
volunteers went at once, and we were
re-enforced up to strength by drafts
from the Fifth Canadian division,
which was then forming in England.
In July, when we were being kept
on the rifle ranges most of the time,
all leave was stopped and we were
ordered to hold ourselves in readiness
to go overseas. In the latter part of
the month we started. We sailed from
Southampton to Havre on a big trans
port, escorted all the way by destroy
ers. AS we landed we got our first
sight of the harvest Of war. A big hos
pital on the quay was filed with
wounded men. We had twenty-fOur
hours in what they called a "rest
camp" We slept on cobblestones in
shacks which were so utterly comfort
less that it would be an insult to a
Kentucky thoroughbred to call them
stables. Then we were on the way to
the Belgian town of Poperinghe, which
is 80 miles from Havre and was at
that time the rail head of the Ypres
salient. We made the trip in box cars
which were marked in French, 'Eight
horses or forty men," and we had to
draw straws to decide who should lie
down.
In the Front Trenches.
We got into Poperinghe at z a. M,
and the scouts had led us into the
front trenches at 2 the next morning
Our position was to the left of st. Eloi
and was known as "the island,'' be-
cause it had no support on either flank.
On the left were the User canal and
the bluff which forms its bank. On
the right were 800 yards of battered
down trenches which had been rebuilt
twice and blown in again each time
by the German guns. For some rea-
son, which I never quite understood,
n