LEAVING FOR FRANCE
Our work was harder now than ever; not a moment was lost in whipping
us into shape for the Great Game and our nerves were becoming more
tense each day. The final event before leaving was a review of the
men in the presence of the King and Queen, Earl Kitchener, and other
distinguished guests, as well as our kin-folk from all parts of Great
Britain and Ireland and the Dominions beyond the seas.
Morning broke with the usual drizzle of rain, which happily stopped
later on, giving us instead a very fine day. We filed out to the
parade ground, a distance of about two miles. The Highlanders had
arrived before us and a splendid sight they made. Standing at ease
on the slope of a gently rising hill, their khaki aprons having been
discarded for the occasion, they made a wonderful splash of color on
the dull landscape. Tall, lithe fellows for the most part, they
looked the beau ideal of the British soldier. There seemed to be an
air of dashing gallantry about them that was irresistible. Making
the air hideous with their terrific skirling, the pipes droned and
squealed their defiance of everything non-Scotch. The pipes were
decorated with long colored streamers of the same pattern as the
kilts and plaids of their owners. The pipers themselves were men of
unusually fine physique, and surely Scotland and Canada would have
felt proud to have seen the brave sight.
In spite of our dislike for the pipes there was an indescribable lilt
to the music that seemed to get into our feet, and shoulders were
thrown back and two thousand feet swung as one. In this fashion we
arrived on the ground allotted to us for the parade. After the usual
movement for placing troops in review order we stood in ranks in
platoon formation, two by two, one behind the other.
The royal party not having arrived we stood at ease and had time to
take in our surroundings. As far as the eye could see, line after
line of infantry stretched up the gently sloping hill. A massed band
at our immediate rear did much to give one a curious feeling of
elation. I shall never forget the sight. The huge Union Jack
directly to our front surmounting the reviewing platform streamed
grandly out in the breeze that was steadily blowing across the plain.
A curious contrast between the dull drab of the ordinary infantry and
the gay attire of the Highlanders struck me most forcibly. To our
right the artillery in perfect formation seemed to stand like figures
of adamant; there seemed something sinister and threatening in the
dull color and lean appearance of the guns.
Immediately to their rear, reminding us of the wrath to come, stood
the stretcher bearers of the medical service.
At last the puffing of a train was heard and we knew that our royal
visitors had arrived. The King, Lord Kitchener, and other prominent
soldiers and statesmen stepped off the train. The band crashed out
the first bars of the national anthem, a quick command to us,
"Present arms," a movement, and all was still except for the rolling
of the anthem across the plain, and then silence once more.
The King shook hands with the officers and the inspection began.
This was the second time I had seen his majesty, but in spite of the
fact that I am a loyal Britisher, I was much more interested in the
martial figure by his side; this was the man who at that time held
the defense of Britain's military forces in the hollow of his hand.
I had read that Lord Kitchener was an inscrutable man, never known to
smile; it was a fiction; he smiled genially at us all. But those
keen, dark eyes did not miss one single detail of the men in front of
him. My sensation as he passed in front of me was that he was
looking straight through me into the man at my rear. No word of
approval or otherwise did the renowned soldier utter, but I think he
was pleased by the stalwart physique and the soldierly bearing of the
boys. After they had duly inspected our ranks, they took their
places on the saluting platform and the march past began, every arm
of the service being represented in its order. At the word, the
artillery sprang into life and thundering down the slope at a mad
gallop, they slowed gradually down and the horses walked, as proudly
as horses ever did, past the saluting base.
Next the cavalry, the men with their swords at the carry, trotted by.
A gallant sight they made with their Stetson hats and long yellow
cloaks. The coats of horses perfectly groomed shone in the sun like
satin and made a picture that was never surpassed by anything of the
kind in the days when "Knighthood was in Flower."
Then came the first battalion of infantry and before I could notice
more we, ourselves, had started to march past. The band struck up a
martial air and four thousand feet, keeping perfect time, made the
ground echo with their tread. My own battalion swung past the royal
party with a lilt in its step that thrilled one through and through,
and at the order "Eyes right" every head turned like clockwork. The
old Fifth certainly made a gallant showing that day.
Immediately after the review, line after line of infantry arranged
itself on each side of the track, and as the train bearing our
distinguished visitors steamed through, a roar of cheering echoed and
re-echoed away over the plain.
From then until our departure for the front each day's work was an
unusually strenuous course of bayonet practice. Day after day we
systematically stabbed and parried at sacks lying in trenches and
hung up on poles till we saw nothing but bayonets in our waking hours
and dreamt of nothing else in our sleep. One encouraging thing our
instructors used to tell us when they would fluently express their
disgust at our poor showing was, "Well, never mind, two-thirds of you
will never get up far enough to use them blinkin' baynits."
One sunny afternoon in early February, we received the order to leave
behind all surplus baggage and to burn all refuse and waste matter
and leave the camp in perfectly sanitary condition. This done we
paraded for miles in full marching order, loaded like mules.
Hardened as we were by our recent workouts, the strain was terrible,
even when we were standing, while the Old Man inspected us.
At last the order to march was given and we knew that this time we
were really going into the game. A grueling tramp of about an hour
and we reached Amesbury. Again the rain was coming down and we were
soaked as we stood waiting for the train.
At this point an unusual difficulty confronted the keeper of one of
our soldiers, a recruit named Private Billy. Billy in his early days
had jumped from crag to crag of the Rocky Mountains, had been brought
down to Valcartier and, in spite of having very prominent veins in
his legs, he passed the doctor, and he was the only one of our
battalion who ever appeared on parade without being punished for not
shaving. Billy had duly marched as was his wont in front of the
battalion, when, to the consternation of the boys, the Colonel swore,
as is the divine right of a colonel, that the goat must be left
behind. Here was a real difficulty. We could not part with Billy;
the boys argued that we could easily get another colonel but it was
too far to the Rocky Mountains to get another goat.
The difficulty was solved by buying a huge crate of oranges from an
old woman who was doing a brisk trade with the boys. The oranges
sold like hot cakes and in a jiffy the orange box was converted into
a crate and Billy was shanghaied into the crate and smuggled on board
the train. Poor Billy! for three days and nights he simply existed
in that horrible crate on board train and on transport ship.
Billy, the goat, is still going strong and it is the boast of the
Fifth that Kaiser Wilhelm has not yet "got their goat." Bill is a
goat to be proud of. When the battalion was drawn up in review order
and strictly at attention, no soldier ever stood more erect. He
would stand with the transport, all four legs firmly braced on the
ground, his head held high, without a flicker or a movement. His
only weakness was a fondness for canteen beer that was unequaled by
our most seasoned toper. Luckily for him, beer was hard to get. The
boys were so amused at his side-splitting antics when in his "cups"
that they were forever treating him.
Billy, however, like most ne'er-do-wells, was a valiant soldier, and
greatly distinguished himself at Ypres. In that immortal death
struggle, Bill remained with his friends clear through. He was
seriously wounded and I think the wound was in his back. The old
fellow was tenderly nursed and eventually returned to duty with the
rank of sergeant.
He was reduced to the ranks in a few days for when on duty near
brigade headquarters he casually walked in and chewed up the nominal
roll.
Promotion soon came his way again, and Bill, today, a veteran of a
dozen mighty battles, worthily upholds the traditions of the Fifth,
while his name is entered on the roll as Sergeant Bill.
The story of Billy, the goat, may be read in detail by anyone who
cares to send for _Canada in Khaki_, a book published in England on
the doings of Canadians in Flanders.
Our departure was typical of the grim times--no band playing, no fond
farewell, just a stealing away in the night. Our own relatives did
not know we had arrived in France until they received their first
letters from us.
We arrived in the early morning, still dark, at the seaport town of
A---- in the Bristol channel. Next day we steamed out, passing
Land's End, still southwards, and in a curve up through the Bay of
Biscay and dropped anchor in the bay of a certain port in Brittany.
During this trip our attachment to the fiends that take refuge in the
seams of a man's shirt was closer than ever. We slept where we could
and passed the days huddled together on the lower deck of the old
cattle barge, for she was nothing else. Mighty games of poker whiled
away the time. The boys already imbued with the fatalistic spirit of
the true British soldier, argued that fate was so uncertain that
while they lived and had money, why not risk it, and the chief
gamblers went the limit with all their worldly wealth.