Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1918-04-03
CHAPTER XVI.
Battery . 238.


glad tidings that I would occupy the
machine gunners' dugout right near
the advanced artillery observation
post. This dugOut was a rOOmy affair,
dry as finder, and real cots in it.
These cots had been made by the
r. Els who had previously occupied
the dugOut. / was the first to enter
and promptly made a signboard with
my name and number on it and sus-
pended it from the foot of the most
comfortable cot therein.
In the trenches it is always "first
come, first served" and this is lived
up to by all.
Two r. T. A. men (Royal Field ar
tillery) from the nearby observation
post were allowed the privilege of
stopping in this dugout when off duty.
One of these men, Bombardier Will
son by name, who belonged to Bat
terry D 23S, seemed to take q liking
to me, and I returned this feeling.
In two days time we were pretty
chummy, and he told me how his bat
terry in the early days of the war had
put over a stunt on Old Pepper, and
had gotten away with it.
I will endeaver to give the story as
far as memory will permit in his own
words:
81 came out with the first expedi-
tionary force, and, like all the rest,
thought we would have the enemy
licked in Jig time, and be able to eat
Christmas dinner at home. Well, so
far, I have eaten two Christmas din
ners in the trenches, and am liable to
eat two more, the way things are
pointing. That is, if Fritz don't drop
Withholding on me, and send me to
Blighty. Sometimes I wish I would
get hit, because it's no great picnic
out here, and twenty-five months of it
makes you fed up.
"Its fairly cushy now compared to
what it used to be, although I admit
this trench is a trif1e rough. Now,
we send over five shells to their one
We are getting our own back, but in
the early days it was different. Then
you had to take everything without
reply. In fact, we would get twenty
shells in return for every one we sent
over. Fritz seemed to enjoy it, but
we British didn't; we were the suf-
ferers. Just one casualty after an
other. Sometimes whole platoons
would disappear, especially when a
Jack Johnson plunked into their
middle. 1t got so bad that a fellow,
when writing home, wouldn't ask for
any cigarettes to be sent out, because
he was afraid he wouldn't be there to
receive them.
"After the drive to Paris was turned
back, trench warfare started. Our
general grabbed a map, drew q pencil
across it, and said, Dig here Then
he went back to his tea, and Tommy
armed himself with pick and shovel
and started digging. He's been dig
g1ng. ever since.
"Of course we dug those trenches at
night, but it was hot work, what with
the rifle and machine-gun fire. The
stretcher bearers worked harder than
the diggers.
"ThOSe trenches, blOOmin' bitches, I
call them, were nightmares They were
only about five feet deep, and you used
to get the backache from bending
down. 1t wasn't exactly safe to stand
upright, either, because as soon as
your napper showed over the top
bullet would bounce off it, or else come
SO close it would make your hair stand.
owe used to fill sandbags and stick
them on top of the parapet to make it
higher, but no use; they would be
there about an hour and then Fritz
would turn loose and blow them to
bits. My neck used to be sore from
ducking shells and bullets.
"Where my battery was stationed a
hasty trench had been dug, which
the boys nicknamed Suicide ditch
and, believe me, Yank, this was the
original Suicide ditch All the others
are limitations.