OVER THE TOP
The long-delayed and long-expected crisis in the affairs of the
Stonewalls came at last about midday, and they were moved up into the
front line, into the battered trench held by the remains of another
battalion.
This line ran curving and zigzagging some fifty to a hundred yards
beyond the shattered and shell-smitten fragments of a group of houses
which stood on the grass-and weed-grown remains of a road. What was
now the British front line of trench had been at one time a German
communication trench in part of its length, and apparently some sort of
support trench in another part. But throughout its whole length it had
been so battered and wrecked, rent and riven asunder by shell fire, by
light and heavy bombs of every sort and description, that it was all
of much the same pattern--a comparatively wide ditch, filled up and
choked to half its depth in some places by fallen walls and scattered
sandbags, in other parts no more than a line of big and little
shell-craters linked up by a shallow ditch, with a tangle of barbed
wire flung out in coils and loops in front of the trench, with here and
there a few strands run out and staked down during the night.
The face of the trench was no longer a perpendicular wall with a
proper fire step, as all regularly constructed trenches are made when
possible; the walls had crumbled down under the explosions of shell and
bomb, and although some attempt had been made to improve the defenses,
actually these improvements had been of the slightest description, and
in many cases were destroyed again as fast as they were made; so for
the most part the men of the battalion holding the trench picked little
angles and corners individually for themselves, did their best to pile
sandbags for head cover, lay sprawling on or against the sloping trench
wall, and fired over the parapet.
At the point occupied by the Stonewalls the opposing lines were
too far apart for the throwing of hand grenades, but the line was
still suffering a fairly heavy and uncomfortably accurate artillery
bombardment. The trench was strewn along its length with a débris of
torn sandbags, of packs and equipments stripped from the wounded, of
rifles and bayonets, mess-tins, and trenching tools, and caps and boots
and water-bottles. Collected here and there in odd corners were many
dead, because scattered along the whole length of line there were still
many wounded, and until these had been safely removed there could, of
course, be no time or consideration spared for attention to the dead.
The Stonewalls passed in single file along the broken trench behind the
men who still held the position and lay and fired over their parapet.
There were many remarks from these men, caustic inquiries as to where
the Stonewalls had been, and why they had taken so long to come up;
expressions of relief that they had come; inquiries as to whether there
was to be another attack, or whether they were to be relieved by the
Stonewalls, and allowed to go back. The Stonewalls, of course, could
give no information as to what would happen, because of that they
themselves had not the faintest idea. They were pushed along the trench
and halted in a much closer and stronger line than the widely spaced
men of the defending force which had held it.
Larry remarked on this to Pug and Kentucky, when at last the little
group of which they were a part was told by their Sergeant to halt.
“I suppose,” said Kentucky, “we’re thicker along this line because
there’s more of us. Whether the same reason will hold good by this time
to-morrow is another proposition.”
“I’m goin’ to ’ave a peep out,” said Pug, and scrambled up the sloping
face of the trench to beside a man lying there.
“Hello, chum!” said this man, turning his head to look at Pug. “Welcome
to our ’ome, as the text says, and you’ll be a bloomin’ sight more
welcome if you’re takin’ over, and lettin’ us go back. I’ve ’ad quite
enough of this picnic for one turn.”
“’As it bin pretty ’ot here?” asked Pug.
The man slid his rifle-barrel over a sandbag, raised his head and took
hasty aim, fired, and ducked quickly down again. “’Ot!” he repeated. “I
tell yer ’ell’s a bloomin’ ice cream barrow compared to wot this trench
’as been since we come in it. ’Ot? My blanky oath!”
Pug raised his head cautiously, and peered out over the parapet.
“I s’pose that’s their trench acrost there,” he said doubtfully, “but
it’s a rummy lookin’ mix up. Wot range are yer shootin’ at?”
“Pretty well point blank,” said the private. “It’s about 200 to 250
they tell me.”
“’Oo’s trench is that along there to the left?” asked Pug. “It seems to
run both ways.”
“I’m not sure,” said the other man, “but I expect it’s an old
communication trench. This bit opposite us they reckon is a kind of
redoubt; you’ll notice it sticks out to a point that their trenches
slope back from on both sides.”
“I notice there’s a ’eap of wire all round it,” said Pug, and bobbed
his head down hastily at the whizz of a couple of bullets. “And that’s
blinkin’ well enough to notice,” he continued, “until I ’as to look out
an’ notice some more whether I likes it or not.”
He slipped down again into the trench bottom, and described such of
the situation as he had seen, as well as he could. He found the others
discussing a new rumor, which had just arrived by way of the Sergeant.
The tale ran that they were to attack the trenches opposite; that there
was to be an intense artillery bombardment first, that the assault was
to be launched after an hour or two of this.
“I ’ear there’s a battalion of the Jocks joined up to our left in this
trench,” said the Sergeant, “and there’s some Fusilier crowd packin’
in on our right.”
“That looks like business,” said Larry; “but is it true, do you think,
Sergeant? Where did you get it from?”
“There’s a ’tillery forward officer a little piece along the trench
there, and I was ’avin’ a chat with ’is signaler. They told me about
the attack, and told me their Battery was goin’ to cut the wire out in
front of us.”
Kentucky, who was always full of curiosity and interest in unusual
proceedings, decided to go along and see the Forward Officer at work.
He told the others he would be back in a few minutes, and, scrambling
along the trench, found the Artillery Subaltern and two signalers.
The signalers had a portable telephone connected up with the trailing
wire, and over this the Subaltern was talking when Kentucky arrived. He
handed the receiver to one of his signalers, and crossing the trench
took up a position where by raising his head he could see over the
parapet.
“Number One gun, fire,” he said, and the signaler repeated the words
over the telephone, and a moment later called sharply: “No. 1 fired,
sir.”
Kentucky waited expectantly with his eye on the Forward Officer,
waited so many long seconds for any sound of the arriving shell or any
sign of the Officer’s movement that he was beginning to think he had
misunderstood the method by which the game was played; but at that
moment he heard a sudden and savage rush of air close overhead, saw the
Forward Officer straighten up and stare anxiously out over the parapet,
heard the sharp crash of the bursting shell out in front. The Officer
stooped his head again and called something about dropping twenty-five
and repeating. The signaler gave his message word for word over the
’phone, and a minute later reported again: “No. 1 fired, sir.”
Kentucky, not knowing the technicalities of gunners’ lingo, was unable
to follow the meaning of the orders as they were passed back from the
officer to the signaler, from the signaler to the Battery. There was
talk of adding and dropping, of so many minutes right or left, of
lengthening and shortening, and of “correctors”; but although he could
not understand all this, the message was clear enough when the officer
remarked briefly:
“Target No. 1; register that,” and proceeded to call for No. 2 gun,
and to repeat the complicated directions of ranges and deflection.
Presently No. 2 found its target also, and the Forward Officer went on
with three and the remaining guns in turn. For the first few shots from
each he stood up to look over the parapet, but after that viewed the
proceedings through a periscope.
Kentucky, establishing himself near the signaler, who was for the
moment disengaged, talked with him, and acquired some of the simpler
mysteries of registering a target, and of wire cutting. “He stands up
at first,” explained the signaler, in answer to an inquiry, “because
he pitches the first shell well over to be on the safe side. He has to
catch the burst as soon as it goes, and he mightn’t have his periscope
aimed at the right spot. After he corrects the lay, and knows just
where the round is going to land, he can keep his periscope looking
there and waiting for it. It’s not such a risky game then, but we gets
a heap of F.O.O.’s casualtied doing those first peeps over the parapet.”
After the Forward Officer had got all his guns correctly laid, the
Battery opened a rapid and sustained fire, and the shells, pouring in a
rushing stream so close over the trench that the wind of their passing
could be felt, burst in a running series of reports out in front.
Kentucky made his way back to his own portion of the trench, and
borrowing a pocket looking-glass periscope, clipped it to his bayonet
and watched for some time with absorbed interest the tongues of flame
that licked out from the bursting shells, and the puffing clouds of
smoke that rolled along the ground in front of the German parapet.
The destruction of the wire was plain to see, and easy to watch. The
shells burst one after another over and amongst it, and against the
background of smoke that drifted over the ground the tangle of wire
stood up clearly, and could be seen dissolving and vanishing under the
streams of shrapnel bullets. As time passed the thick hedge of wire
that had been there at first was broken down and torn away; the stakes
that held it were knocked down or splintered to pieces or torn up and
flung whirling from the shell bursts. Other batteries had come into
play along the same stretch of front, and were hard at work destroying
in the same fashion the obstacle to the advance of the infantry. The
meaning of the wire cutting must have been perfectly plain to the
Germans; clearly it signified an attack; clearly that signified the
forward trenches being filled with a strong attacking force; and
clearly again that meant a good target for the German guns, a target
upon which they proceeded to play with savage intensity.
The forward and support lines were subjected to a tornado of high
explosive and shrapnel fire, and again the Stonewalls were driven to
crouching in their trench while the big shells pounded down, round, and
over and amongst them. They were all very sick of these repeated series
of hammerings from the German guns, and Pug voiced the idea of a good
many, when at the end of a couple of hours the message came along that
they were to attack with the bayonet in fifteen minutes.
“I don’t s’pose the attack will be any picnic,” he said, “but blow me
if I wouldn’t rather be up there with a chance of gettin’ my own back,
than stickin’ in this stinkin’ trench and gettin’ blown to sausage meat
without a chance of crookin’ my finger to save myself.”
For two hours past the British guns had been giving as good as they
were getting, and a little bit better to boot; but now for the fifteen
minutes previous to the assault their fire worked up to a rate and
intensity that must have been positively appalling to the German
defenders of the ground opposite, and especially of the point which was
supposed to be a redoubt. The air shook to the rumble and yell and roar
of the heavy shells, vibrated to the quicker and closer rush of the
field guns’ shrapnel. The artillery fire for the time being dominated
the field, and brought the rifle fire from the opposing trenches
practically to silence, so that it was possible with some degree of
safety for the Stonewalls to look over their parapet and watch with a
mixture of awe and delight the spectacle of leaping whirlwinds of fire
and billowing smoke, the spouting débris that splashed upwards, through
them; to listen to the deep rolling detonations and shattering boom of
the heavy shells that poured without ceasing on the trenches in front
of them.
“If there’s any bloomin’ Germans left on that ground,” said Pug
cheerfully, “I’d like to know ’ow they do it. Seems to me a perishin’
black-beetle in a ’ole could not ’ave come through that shell fire if
’e ’ad as many lives as a cat.”
It almost looked as if he was right, and that the defense had been
obliterated by the artillery preparation, for when the order came along
and the British Infantry began to scramble hurriedly over the parapet,
to make their way out through the wire, and to form up quickly and
roughly on the open ground beyond it, hardly a shot was fired at them,
and there was no sound or sign of life in the German trenches except
the whirling smoke clouds starred with quick flashes of fire from the
shells that still streamed overhead and battered and hammered down on
the opposite lines.
The infantry lay down in the wet grass and mud for another two or three
minutes, and then, suddenly and simultaneously, as if all the guns
had worked together on the pulling of a string, the shells, without
ceasing for an instant to roar past overhead, ceased to flame and crash
on the forward lines, but began to pound down in a belt of smoke and
fire some hundreds of yards beyond. Along the length of the British
line whistle after whistle trilled and shrieked; a few figures could
be seen leaping to their feet and beginning to run forward; and then
with a heave and a jumble of bobbing heads and shoulders the whole
line rose and swung forward in a long, uneven, but almost solid wave.
At the same instant the German trenches came to life, a ragged volley
of rifle fire crackled out, grew closer and quicker, swelled into
one tumultuous roll with the machine guns hammering and rapping and
clattering sharply and distinctly through the uproar. About the ears of
the running infantry could be heard the sharp hiss and zipp and whistle
and whine of passing bullets; from the ground amongst their feet came
the cracking and snapping of bullets striking and the spurts of mud
thrown up by them. At first these sounds were insignificant, and hardly
noticed in the greater and more terrifying clamor of the guns’ reports,
the shriek and whoop of the passing shells, the crashing bursts of
their explosions. But the meaning and significance of the hissing
bullet sounds were made swiftly plain as the rifle and machine-gun
fire grew, and the riflemen and machine gunners steadied to their aim
and task. The bullet storm swept down on the charging line, and the
line withered and melted and shredded away under it. It still advanced
steadily, but the ground behind it was dotted thicker and closer and
more and more quickly with the bodies of men who fell and lay still,
or crawled back towards their parapet or to the shelter of the nearest
shell crater. The line went on, but half-way across the open ground it
began to show ragged and uneven with great gaps sliced out of it at
intervals. The wet ground was heavy going, and the fierceness of the
fire and the numbers struck down by it began to make it look a doubtful
question whether a sufficient weight of men could reach their goal to
carry the charge home with any effect. From one cause or another the
pace slowed sensibly, although the men themselves were probably unaware
of the slowing.
Kentucky, Larry, and Pug kept throughout within arm’s length of one
another. They had set out under the same bargain to keep close and
help one another if need arose; but Kentucky at least confesses that
any thoughts of a bargain, any memory of an arranged program, had
completely left him, and very probably his thoughts ran in much the
same direction as three-fourths of the charging line. His whole mind,
without any conscious effort of reasoning, was centered on getting
over the open as quickly as possible, of coming to hand grips with
the Germans, of getting down into their trench out of reach of the
sleeting bullets that swept the open. He arrived at the conclusion
that in the open he was no more than a mere helpless running target
for shells and bullets; that once in the German trench he would be
out of reach of these; that if the trench were held and it came to
hand-to-hand fighting, at least he would stand an equal chance, and
at least his hand could guard his head. How many men he might have to
meet, what odds would be against him, whether the attackers would be
thinned out to a hopeless outnumbering, he hardly troubled to think.
That need could be met as it arose, and in the meantime the first and
more imperative need was to get across the open, to escape the bullets
that pelted about them. He ran on quite unconscious of whether the rest
of the line was still advancing, or whether it had been exterminated.
Arrived at the wrecked entanglements of wire he did look round, to find
Larry and Pug close beside him, and all three plunged into the remains
of the entanglement almost side by side, and began to kick and tear
a way over and through the remaining strands and the little chopped
fragments that strewed the ground.
Kentucky was suddenly aware of a machine-gun embrasure almost in front
of them, placed in an angle of the trench so as to sweep the open
ground in enfilade. From the blackness of the embrasure mouth flashed
a spitting stream of fire, and it came to him with a jerk that on
the path he was taking he would have to cross that stream, that the
bullets pouring from it must inevitably cut down his two companions and
himself. He turned and shouted hoarsely at them, swerved to one side,
and slanted in to the trench so as to escape the streaming fire; but,
looking round, he saw that the other two had not heard or heeded him,
that they were still plowing straight on through the broken wires, that
another few paces must bring them directly in the path of the bullets’
sweep. He yelled again hoarsely, but realized as he did so that his
voice was lost and drowned in the clamor of the battle. But at that
instant--and this was the first instant that he became aware of others
beside the three of them having come so far--a man plunged past him,
halted abruptly, and hurled something straight at the black hole of the
embrasure. The bomb went true to its mark, the embrasure flamed out a
broad gush of fire, a loud report boomed thunderously and hollowly from
it--and the spitting fire stream stopped abruptly.
Kentucky ran on, leaped at the low parapet, scrambled on top of it,
swung the point of his bayonet down, and poised himself for the leap.
Below him he saw three faces staring upward, three rifle muzzles swing
towards him and hang, as it seemed, for an eternity pointed straight at
his face.
His mind was so full of that overpowering thought it had carried all
the way across the open, the desperate desire to get down into the
trench, that, confronted by the rifle muzzles and the urgent need to
do something to escape them, he could not for the moment readjust his
thoughts or rearrange his actions. The instant’s hesitation might
easily have been fatal, and it is probable he owed his life to another
man who at that moment leaped on the broken parapet and jostled him
roughly just as two of the rifles below flamed and banged. As he half
reeled aside from that jolting elbow he felt a puff of wind in his
face, was conscious of a tremendous blow and violent upward leaping
sensation somewhere about his head, a rush of cold air on his scalp.
His first foolish thought was that the top of his head had been blown
away, and he half dropped to his knees, clutching with one hand at
his bare head, from which the shot had whirled his helmet. And as he
dropped he saw beside him on the parapet the man who had jostled him,
saw the swift downward fling of his hand as he hurled something into
the trench and instantly flung himself to ground. Kentucky realized
what the bomber was doing just in time to duck backwards. A yell from
the trench below was cut short by a crashing report, a spout of flame
and smoke shot up, and the parapet trembled and shuddered. The bomber
leaped to his feet and without a word to Kentucky leaped across the
trench and ran along its further side, swinging another bomb by its
stick-handle. He carried a lot more of these hanging and dangling about
his body. They jerked as he ran, and it flashed across Kentucky’s mind
to wonder if there was no possibility of two of them by some mischance
striking and detonating one another, or the safety pins jolting out,
when he saw the man crumple suddenly and fall sprawling and lie still
where he fell. Reminded abruptly of his exposed position and of those
significant whiskings and swishings through the air about him, Kentucky
jumped to his feet, glanced over into the trench, and jumped down into
it. At the moment he could see no other British soldier to either side
of him, but in the trench bottom lay the three bodies of the men killed
by the bomb. A sudden wild and nervous doubt shot into his mind--could
he be the only man who had safely reached the trench? But on the same
instant he heard cries, the rush of feet, and two or three men leaped
over and down into the trench beside him, and he caught a glimpse of
others doing the same further along.
“Seen any of ’em?” gasped one of the newcomers, and without waiting
an answer, “Come along, men; work along the trench and look out for
dug-outs.”
Kentucky recognized them as men of another company of the Stonewalls,
saw that they, too, were loaded with bombs, and because he was not
at all sure what he ought to do himself, he followed them along the
trench. The bombers stopped at the dark entrance to a dug-out, and
the officer leading them halted and shouted down it. In reply a rifle
banged and a bullet hissed out past the officer’s head. The men swore,
stepped hurriedly aside, and one of them swung forward a bomb with long
cloth streamers dangling from it. “Not that,” said the officer quickly.
“It’ll explode on the stairs. Give ’em two or three Mills’ grenades.”
The men pulled the pins from the grenades and flung them down the
stairway and the rifle banged angrily again. “That’s about your last
shot,” said one of the men grimly, and next instant a hollow triple
report boomed out from deep below. “Roll another couple down to make
sure,” said the officer, “and come along.”
Kentucky remembered the episode of the double entrance to the dug-out
in the other trench. “There may be another stair entrance further
along,” he said quickly. “Come on,” said the officer abruptly, “we’ll
see. You’d better come with us and have your bayonet ready. I’ve lost
my bayonet men.” He led the way himself with a long “trench dagger” in
his hand--a murderous looking long knife with rings set along the haft
for his fingers to thrust through and grip. Kentucky heard a shout of
“C Company. Rally along here, C.”
“I’d better go, hadn’t I?” he asked. “I’m C, and they’re shouting for
C.”
“All right,” said the officer, “push off. Pick up that rifle, one of
you. It’s a German, but it’ll do for bayonet work if we need it.”
Kentucky had no idea where “C” Company was calling from, and down in
the trench he could see nothing. For a moment he was half inclined
to stay where he was with the others, but the shout came again, “C
Company. Along here, C.” He scrambled up the broken rear wall of the
trench, saw a group of men gathering along to the right, heard another
call from them, and climbed out to run stooping across and join them.
“Hello, Kentucky,” he heard, “where you bin? Thought you was a
wash-out.”
“I’m all hunkadory, Pug,” he answered joyfully. “I missed you coming
across just after that bomber slung one in on the machine gun. Lucky
thing for you he did, too.”
“Hey?” said Pug vaguely, “wot bomber, an’ wot machine gun?”
“Well, I didn’t think you could have missed seeing that,” said Kentucky
in astonishment. “You and Larry were running right across its muzzle.
But where’s Larry?”
“Dunno,” said Pug anxiously. “I thought ’im an’ you would be together.
He was with me not more’n a minute or two afore we got in. Hope ’e
’asn’t been an’ stopped one.”
“Do you remember where you got in?” said Kentucky. “I believe I could
find where that machine gun was. If he was hit it must have been there
or in the trench here. I think we ought to go and hunt for him.”
But their officer and sergeant had other and more imperative ideas as
to their immediate program. “Pick up any of those picks and spades you
see lying about,” ordered the sergeant, “and try’n get this trench into
shape a bit. The rest of you get on to those sandbags and pile ’em up
for a parapet. Sharp, now, every man there. You, Pug, get along with
it, bear a hand. That arm of yours all right? If it isn’t you’d best
shove along back to the rear.”