BATTLE STORIES.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16308, 4 September 1918, Page 8

BATTLE STORIES.

OUT OF THE TRENCHES. (Bt Captain- H. B. C. Pollard.) TWe were in the line for nearly a month," said a wounded officer who had arrived that morning from the front, "and during that period our position completely changed its character. The line runs about a mile in front of the point where the Germans achieved) their greatest depth of thrust. Our counter-attacks pushed them bajk about a mile and a half, and when we took over the position it was just the finish of the battle. 1 Our people were holding a perfectly open lino—not oven a shell-hole line, but dependent on natural cover, a few fortified cottages and farms, and the undulations of the farm land, which was all under crops. "Xo-Man's-Land just th>re was about twelve hundred yards broad, and both sides had pushed out defensive patrols and light machine-guns to keep in touch with the enemy. There was not much fighting going on, and our instructions were to dig in and improve the position as rapidly as pcssible. One could not do much in daytime, and the nights wpre all too short, but it was wonderful the wa.v the line grew. First of all it was just little cover pits, then, bit by bit, we linked these up into a proper trench, throwing up the earth and sand-bagging it iu order to make, a half breastwork. _ "The supnort lines ran just behind a village which lay between us and the firing tronch. The place had been pretty well knocked about by shell-firo and was getting worse daily, but there mere any amount of corpses there that had to be buried. Lots of Bodies killed in our counter-attacks, horses and cows killed bv shell-fire on the farms, and even a few civilians who had stayed till too late, instead of obeying the orders to evacuate. From a sanitary point of view, burial is an essential duty, hut its is a rotten job at any time. Fritz kept sending over occasional shell, and every nifrht the whole sky was a coronal of red flame from houses or farms burning behind his lino or ours. Sometimes the l'ght of the flames was so vivid that I wo had to withdraw our working parties, who would otherwise have been a clear target lor the enemy. •v. l"' 1 ? k.v night wc worked at the job of clearing up the back aroa and improving tho trenches. In a week they had taken shape as good cover, there i\as moderately thick apron wire in tront or all weak spots, arid the gun emplacements were air sited.' At the end of three weeks we had finished all the bays revetted tho slopes and fire steps, and begun some of the communication trenches to the support line, front liife aS Wcll fll)ishcd as the "At the end of the month the whole Fpnm* Pl ' o , Per,y Wired ' and *' hen came away only a few dug-outs and pleW DlCat, ° n trenches M&ed t£E . the line was open and unnroprepared Onco Properlv prepared as a position five hunrWd can" see re hoi w ? ro re 9""ed, so v OU evenam* di SS''4 m is, aftbrds to +L i v ho P r °tection it aitords to the defending troops jVenrlv everywhere along the* NoMan s-Land is twice or threo times as secifritc- us ? d . to h* 3 ", This makes for security and is much better for the ?1o"d 6 oF °fi , i ai ?i a f t '\ Ck - IWS to crOES BUch "The No-Man r s-Land is just fields of J™; some roots, and occasional pastures, so there is no cover. Our scouts are simply marvellous, and seem to get anywhere by day and night. They report every yard of work that the enemy accomplishes, and one of our rellows went to infinite trouble to bring in a poor devil of a tortoiseshell cat that was hauntinga ruined farm in iMo-Man s-Land. When he went out every night he tried to feed it with biiily-beef, for it was so wild and inghtened that it would not let anyone come iiear it at first. Naturally a man who lias to crawl every inch of the way on his stomach runs little chance or catching a nimble cat —particularly as one incautious move would expose him to the risk of a bullet. At last he took a tin of sardines, and pnssy decided that there was really one deCent human boing left. She got within reach, and next thing wo had her back as an indignant and noisy bundle m a sand-hag. As it was no use letting her out again here, we sent her down to the transport, where she has become a fat and lazy mascot. The she will have nothing to do with is the man who saved her—but then she's a cat, and a lady at that!" Another officer whoso pet interest in life was sniping, explained another virtuo of the new lines. "Life in the old times had got too complicated altogether," said he. "Both sides knew the habits of the others so well that there was very little left to individual enterprise, but here, on perfectly new ground, it is simply wonderful. "In three days I got eight Boches— that is, eight for certain, mind you. And another three doubtfuls—though they dropped. We had several lovely fields of corn for cover, and I had all the battalion snipors hard at it. We haven't had snch a series of successes for years. It was too good to last though, I suppose I got careless, but they put a rifle grenade down about fifteen yards awav, and I got a bit in tho legs; bits T should soy rather than bit —I have got fourteen distinct wounds, but it shows what a trifling thing grenades are. If any one of those holes had been made by a rifle bullet I should have lost my log, as it is I shall be fit in about six weeks."

There is, however, another side to the medal, as another wounded officer pointed out: —"It's this bloodthirsty sniping business that makes my job troublesome," said he. "I am responsible for Brigade Intelligence, and these blooming-snipers are so keen on killing every Hun that shows his nose, that it makes our work twice as hard. What I want is live Huns—deserters, and this spirit of frightfulness is troublesome. This is what happens. Fritz, Johann, and Adalbert decide to desert, toss up for who is to go first, and we will say Fritz gets it. Half-way across No-Man's-Land one of these impetuous snipers plugs Fritz. "Do Johann and Adalbert take a chance? Not on your oath they don't. They stay there cursing the Hohenzollerns and the British, and- I have to rely on a three-days-old corpse for up to date news of what enemy are opposite."

"Never you mind, old chap," said the sniper. "Your Huns are only good Huns till the end of the war—my Huns are good Hnns for ever."

Chorus of approval from the rest of the ward.