East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1918-03-06

continued from MondayJ

At Euuid he quite unaNaillng Tor me
| tn attempt to describe these drill SER
geants. The British drill sergeant is
| an institution which can be understood
only through personal ana close CON
! tact and Is about as cordial as loose
electricity. If he thinks Il major gem
| eral Is wrong he'll tell him 50 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 Marne,
and they had all been wounded. They
We're 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 l 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 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. ''DIy God think of
it! Well, I'm off to tell 'em I'll go"
1 told him I 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
us. They heard about it first. That
was the spirit of the Canadians. 1t
was about this time that 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 Il 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 [ were not accepted; our
volunteers went at once, and we were
re-enf0rced 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 rife 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 big trans
port, escorted all the way by destroy
ers. As we landed we got our first
sight of the harvest of war. \ 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 $50 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.
RI. In the Front Trenches.
We got into Poperinghe at Z a. m,
and the scouts had led us into the
front trenches at 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,
the Germans were able to drop what
seemed tolcrably large proportion of
the output Of the Krupp works on this
particular spot whenever they wanted
to. Our high command had concluded
that it was untenable, and so we. on
one side of il and the British, on the
other had to just keep it secuted and
protect Our separate flanks. Another
name they had for that position was
the bird cage" That was because
the first fellows who moved into II
made thensciyes nice and comfy and
put up wire nettings to prevent any
one from tossing bombs in on them.
Thus, when the Germans stirred up
the spot with an accurate shower OF
"whiz bangs and "coat boxes" the
same being thirteen Founders and six
inch shells that wire netting presented
u spectacle Of utter inadequacy which
hasn't been oqualed in this war. /.
They called the position which We
were assigned to defend the grave