THE TRICK THAT DIDN'T TRICK US.
[Illustration: "THE BLACK HOLE."]
Returning to the "group system," the three following sketches in
juxtaposition relate to one and the same happening--our taking of a
distillery (on the outskirts of Armentières) of which the Germans had
been in possession for about three weeks, and within the boundaries of
which they set a big trap that didn't catch us. The air was poisoned
with the stench of dead animals as we arrived within smell of the block
of buildings I show first--and, with thoughts in the minds of some of us
of what we had read of the ill-savour of the Black Hole of Calcutta,
"the Black Hole" was an ejaculation before it was a designation. The
enemy occupied the portion of yard shown in the foreground and used
the front of the buildings and the gateway for cover. The British
advanced to a position within twenty yards of the gateway in front of
it, and, after several nights' work, erected a barricade of twigs,
grass, and earth, rapidly collected and thrown into place. By one of
their clever tricks the Germans had made the buildings look as though
entirely deserted. They had been careful not to shell them when they
took them from the French, and it was their intention to draw us on
into the yard unsuspectingly and so get us at their mercy. For the
surrounding buildings contained machine guns, though we did not then
know the fact, and so quiet was everything that I was able to make my
sketches undisturbed. The yard could have accommodated quite 3,000 of
our men, who, if the enemy had had their way, would have been riddled
with shot. However, we naturally proceeded with military caution. Scouts
advanced first, and were somewhat deceived because the Germans had
artfully left a caretaker and his wife in the building seen adjoining
the central arch. These people, doubtless under orders, passed out milk
through the window to the scouts at night to give the idea that the
buildings were still peacefully occupied, though, as a matter of fact,
they contained, not only the enemy soldiers, but their machine guns as
well. Really we might have been drawn into the trap but for one lucky
incident. The enemy were foolish enough to do some secret signalling
with a light at night from the tower above the gateway. This was
immediately observed by the scouts, and the game was up.
"JAM-TIN ARTILLERY PARTY."
When the scouts gave the warning that the enemy were in the buildings,
volunteers were called for to make up a bombing party to blow up the
tower where the signalling had been observed. We had no idea how many
Germans the tower contained, but later found traces of only one. There
were evidences that he had been there for some time, and he had stores
of milk and food for a longer stay; they were not wasted, but he had
no part in their consumption. The volunteers were known as the "Jam-tin
Artillery Party," from the fact that their bombs were made of jam-tins
filled with gun-cotton, cordite, etc. The party had to do all the
"sticky work," and this was a very sticky job. The plan was to lay a
trail with a fuse to bombs, which we placed under the floor at the top
of the stairs leading to the upper storey of this old and disused
gateway. We crept up these stairs silently for three nights running
before we were successful. One hitch and the whole show would have been
given away. However, we managed to place the bombs, light the fuse, blow
up the floor, and blow off the top of the tower as well, the German
signaller being blown up with it. Then we waited. Still the enemy showed
no sign of moving, and word was sent back to our artillery to shell the
building, which it did to great effect. We were then ordered to advance
with fixed bayonets, in platoons, to take various buildings. The place
when we captured it was found to be fitted up like a fortress inside,
with machine guns trained on the yard to mow our men down as they came
through the gate, if the enemy's plan had succeeded; but it entirely
failed. We found but little resistance. Inside were a number of dead
Germans killed by our artillery fire, a very scientific signalling
apparatus, and a complete telephone system to the army corps which was
intended to have wiped us out. It was solely due to our scouts and the
"Jam-tin Artillery Party" that we were not all killed.
[Illustration: THE BLACK TOWER.]
The sketch entitled "The Black Tower" exhibits the other side of the
gateway, and shows the road with the caretaker's house, and our
barricades to the right.
DILAPIDATED QUARTERS.
[Illustration: WHERE THE TRAP WAS SET.]
The part of the distillery buildings standing in its yard interior,
where we blew up the tower and the spy, and into which the enemy had
hoped to entice us to our destruction, was very old, very dirty, and
very dilapidated--in fact, had apparently not been used for years. We
had to sleep in it for several nights, and made the acquaintance of
thousands of rats and other pests. There was only one staircase, by
which some hundreds of troops had to find access and egress. A curious
fact was that the fumes of the spirit had eaten so into the woodwork,
which was generally worm-eaten and rotten, that to strike a light near
it was to incur the danger of igniting it and burning the building down.
But our boys found a walled-in yard in the background covered by a
tarred roof which had no windows, and this they converted into a
smoke-room. Roominess and a covering offered a welcome change from the
mud, dirt, and rain of the trenches, and Tommy's spirits kept up, in
spite of all shortcomings. Our musical evenings continued as before, and
we thoroughly enjoyed being able to stretch our legs. In fact, we had
become quite reconciled as well as quite used to our surroundings by the
time we were called away. Afterwards we looked back with pleasure to
our stay in the distillery, for we were much worse off in the next place
at which we were stationed. We were moved from here into one of the most
dangerous positions in the line at Ypres.