PRIVATE SILL ACTS
ON the night of September 15, 1915, the brigade of which the 26th
Battalion was a unit crossed from Folkstone to Boulogne without
accident. All the ranks were in the highest spirits, fondly imagining
that the dull routine of training was dead forever and that the practice
of actual warfare was as entertaining as dangerous.
The brigade moved up by way of the fine old city of Saint Omer and the
big Flemish town of Hazebrouck. By the fourth day after landing in
France the whole brigade was established in the forward area of
operations, along with the other brigades of the new division. On the
night of the 19th the battalion marched up and went into hutments and
billets close behind the Kemmel front. That night, from the hill above
their huts, the men from New Brunswick beheld for the first time that
fixed, fire-pulsing line beyond which lay the menace of Germany.
The battalion went in under cover of darkness, and by midnight had taken
over from the former defenders the headquarters of companies, the
dugouts in the support trenches and the sentry posts in the fire trench.
There were Dick Starkley and his comrades holding back the Huns from the
throat of civilization. It was an amazing and inspiring position to be
in for the first time. In front of them, just beneath and behind the
soaring and falling star shells and Very lights, crouched the most
ruthless and powerful armies of the world.
To the right and left, every now and then, machine guns broke forth in
swift, rapping fire. When the fire was from the positions opposite, the
bullets snapped in the air like the crackings of a whip. The white stars
went up and down. Great guns thumped occasionally; now and then a high
shell whined overhead; now and then the burst of an exploding shell
sounded before or behind. It was a quiet night; but to the new battalion
it was full of thrills. The sentries never took their eyes from the
mysterious region beyond their wire. Every blob of blackness beyond
their defenses set their pulses racing and sent their hands to their
weapons.
Dick Starkley and Frank Sacobie stood shoulder to shoulder on the fire
step for hours, staring with all their eyes and listening with all their
ears. Hiram Sill sat at their feet and talked about how he felt on this
very particular occasion. His friends paid no attention to him.
"This is the proudest moment of my life," he said. "We are historic
figures, boys--and that's a thing I never hoped to be. In my humble way,
I stand for more than George Washington did. This is a bigger war than
George ever dreamed of, and I have a bigger and better reason for
fighting the Huns than Gen. Washington ever had for fighting the fool
Britishers."
"Did you see that?" asked Dick of Sacobie. "Over in the edge of their
wire. There! Look quick now! Is it a man?"
"Looks like a man, but it's been there right along and ain't moved yet,"
said Frank. "Maybe it's a stump."
Just then Lieut. Scammell came along. He got up on the fire step and,
directed by Dick, trained his glass on the black thing in the edge of
the enemy's wire. A German star shell gave him light.
"That's a German--a dead one," he said. "I've been told about him. There
was a bit of a scrap over there three nights ago, and that is one of the
scrappers."
Hiram forgot about Gen. Washington and mounted the fire step to have a
look. He borrowed the officer's glass for the purpose.
"Do his friends intend to leave him out there much longer, sir?" he
asked. "If they do, it's a sure sign of weakness. They're scart."
"They are scart, right enough--but I bet they wouldn't be if they knew
this bit of trench was being held now by a green battalion," replied Mr.
Scammell. "They'd be over for identifications if they knew."
"Let them come!" exclaimed Private Sill. "I bet a dollar they wouldn't
stay to breakfast--except a few who wouldn't want any."
At that moment a rifle cracked to the right of them, evidently from
their own trench and not more than one hundred yards away. It was
followed close by a spatter of shots, then the smashing bursts of
grenades, more musketry and the _rat-tat-tat_ of several machine guns.
Bullets snapped in the air. Lights trailed up from both lines. Dull
thumps sounded far away, and then came the whining songs of high-flying
shells. Flashes of fire astonished the eye, and crashing reports stunned
the ear.
"They're at us!" exclaimed the lieutenant. "Open fire on the parapet
opposite, unless you see a better target, and don't leave your posts.
Keep low. Better use the loopholes."
He left the fire step and ran along the duck boards toward the heart of
the row.
Dick and Frank Sacobie and Hiram Sill, firing rapidly through the
loopholes, added what they could to the disturbance. Now and again a
bullet rang against the steel plate of a loophole. One or another of
them took frequent observations through a periscope, for at that time
the Canadian troops were not yet supplied with shrapnel helmets. Dave
Hammer, breathless with excitement, joined them for a few seconds.
"They tried to jump us,--must have learned we're a green relief,--but
we've chewed them up for fair!" he gasped. "Must have been near a
hundred of 'em--but not one got through our wire. Keep yer heads down
for a while, boys; they're traversing our top with emmagees."
At last the enemy's artillery fire slackened and died. Ours drubbed away
cheerily for another fifteen minutes, then ceased as quick and clean as
the snap of a finger. The rifle fire and machine-gun fire dwindled and
ceased. Even the up-spurting of the white and watchful stars diminished
by half; but now and again one of them from the hostile lines, curving
far forward in its downward flight, illuminated a dozen or more
motionless black shapes in and in front of our rusty wire. Except for
those motionless figures No Man's Land was again deserted. The big rats
ran there undisturbed.
Sacobie looked over the parapet; Hiram Sill and Dick sat on the fire
step at the Malecite's feet. They felt as tired as if they had been
wrestling with strong men for half an hour. Dave Hammer came along the
trench and halted before them.
"Those Huns or Fritzes or whatever you call them are crazy," he said.
"Did you ever hear of such a fool thing as that? They've left a dozen
dead out in front, besides what they carried home along with their
wounded--and all they did to us was wound three of our fellows with that
first bomb they threw, and two more with machine-gun fire."
"Their officers must be boneheads, for sure," said Hiram. "War's a
business,--and a mighty swift one,--and you can't succeed in business
without knowing something about psychology. Yes, gentlemen, psychology,
queer as it may sound."
"Sounds mighty queer to me!" muttered Sacobie, glancing down.
"You must study men," continued Private Sill, not at all abashed, "their
souls and hearts and minds--if you want to make a success at anything
except bee farming. Now, take this fool raid of the Huns. They were
smart enough to find out that a bunch of greenhorns took over this
trench to-night. So they thought they'd surprise us. Now, if they'd
known anything about psychology, they'd have known that just because we
were new and green we'd all be on our toes to-night, with our eyes
sticking out a yard and our ears buttoned right back. Sure! Every man of
us was on sentry duty to-night!"
"I guess you've got the right idea, Old Psychology," said the sergeant.
The 26th spent five days in the line on that tour. With the exception of
one day and night of rain they had fine weather. They mended their wire
and did a fair amount of business in No Man's Land. The enemy attempted
no further raids; his last effort had evidently given him more
information concerning the quality of the new battalion than he could
digest in a week. At any rate he kept very quiet.
At the end of the tour the battalion went back a little way to huts on
the bushy flanks of Scherpenberg, where they "rested" by performing
squad, platoon and company drill and innumerable fatigues. The time
remaining at their disposal was devoted to football and base-ball and
investigations of villages and farmsteads in the neighborhood.
Their second tour in was more lively and less comfortable than the
first. Under the drench of rain and the gnawing of dank and chilly mists
their trenches and all the surrounding landscape were changed from dry
earth to mud. Everything in the front line, including their persons,
became caked with mud. The duck boards became a chain of slippery traps;
and in low trenches they floated like rafts. The parapets slid in and
required constant attention; and what the water left undone in the way
of destruction the guns across the way tried to finish.
It was hard on the spirit of new troops; they were toughened to severe
work and rough living, but not to the deadening mud of a front-line
trench in low ground. So their officers planned excitement for them, to
keep the fire of interest alive in their hearts. That excitement was
obtained in several ways, but always by a move of some sort against the
enemy or his defenses. Patrol work was the most popular form of relief
from muddy inaction. Lieut. Scammell quickly developed a skill in that
and an appetite for it that soon drew the colonel's attention to himself
and his followers.
* * * * *
By the end of September, even the medical officers of New Brunswick had
to admit that Corp. Peter Starkley was fully recovered from his wound.
As for Peter himself, he affirmed that he had not felt anything of it
for the past two months. He had worked at the haying and the harvesting
on Beaver Dam and his own place without so much as a twinge of pain.
Peter returned to his military duties eagerly, but inspired only by his
sense of duty. His heart was more than ever in his own countryside; but
despite his natural modesty he knew that he was useful to his king and
country as a noncommissioned officer, and with that knowledge he
fortified his heart. He tried to tell Vivia Hammond something of what he
felt. His words were stumbling and inadequate, but she understood him.
And at the last he said:
"Vivia, don't forget me, for I shall be thinking of you always--more
than of anyone or anything in the world." And then, not trusting his
voice for more, he kissed her hastily.
Vivia wept and made no attempt to hide her tears or the reason for them.
Shortly before Peter's return to the army he had received a letter from
Capt. Starkley-Davenport, telling of the reunion of the cousins in
London and virtually offering him a commission in the writer's old
regiment. Peter had also heard something of the plan from Dick a few
days before. He answered the captain's letter promptly and frankly, to
the effect that he had no military ambition beyond that of doing his
duty to the full extent of his power against Germany, and that a
commission in an English regiment was an honor he could accept only if
it should come to him unavoidably, in the day's work.
Peter reached England in the third week of October and with three
hundred companions fresh from Canada was attached to a reserve battalion
on St. Martin's Plain for duty and instruction. Peter was given the
acting rank of sergeant. Early in December he crossed to France and
reached his battalion without accident. He found that the 26th had
experienced its full share of the fortunes and misfortunes of war.
Scores of familiar faces were gone. His old platoon had suffered many
changes since he had left it in St. John a year ago. Its commander, a
Lieut. Smith, was an entire stranger to him, and he had known the
platoon sergeant as a private. Mr. Scammell was now scout officer and
expecting his third star at any moment. Dave Hammer, still a sergeant,
and Dick, Sacobie and Hiram Sill also were scouts. Dick, was a corporal
now and had never been touched by shot, shell or sickness. Sacobie had
been slightly wounded and had been away at a field ambulance for a week.
Peter rejoined his old platoon and, as it was largely composed at this
time of new troops, was permitted to retain his acting rank of sergeant.
He performed his duties so satisfactorily that he was confirmed in his
rank after his first tour in the trenches.
On the third night of Peter's second tour in the front line, Dave
Hammer, Dick and Frank Sacobie took him out to show him about. All
carried bombs, and Sergt. Hammer had a pistol as well. They were hoping
to surprise a party of Germans at work mending their wire.
Hammer slipped over the parapet. Peter followed him. Dick and Sacobie
went over together, quick as the wink of an eye. Their faces and hands
were black. With Dave Hammer in the lead, Peter at the very soles of his
spiked boots and Dick and Sacobie elbow to elbow behind Peter, they
crawled out through their own wire by the way of an intricate channel.
When a star shell went up in front, near enough to light that particular
area, they lay motionless. They went forward during the brief periods of
darkness and half light.
At last they got near enough to the German wire to see it plainly, and
the leader changed his course to the left. When they lay perfectly still
they could hear many faint, vague sounds in every direction: far, dull
thuds before and behind them, spatters of rifle fire far off to the
right and left, the bang of a Very pistol somewhere behind a parapet and
now and then the crash of a bursting shell.
A few minutes later Dave twisted about and laid a hand on Peter's
shoulder. He gave it a gentle pull. Peter crawled up abreast of him.
Dave put his lips to Peter's ear and whispered:
"There they are."
A twisty movement of his right foot had already signaled the same
information to the veterans in the rear. Peter stared at the blotches of
darkness that Dave had indicated. They did not move often or quickly and
kept close to the ground. Sometimes, when a light was up, they became
motionless and instantly melted from view, merging into the shadows of
the night and the tangled wire. Now and then Peter heard some faint
sound of their labor, as they worked at the wire.
"Only five of them," whispered the scout sergeant. "They are scared
blue. Bet their skunks of officers had to kick them out of the trench.
Let's sheer off a few yards and give 'em something to be scared about."
Just then Dick and Frank squirmed up beside them.
"Some more straight ahead of us," breathed the Indian. "Three or four."
Hammer used his glass and saw that Sacobie's eyes had not fooled him. He
touched each of his companions to assure himself of their attention,
then twisted sharp to the left, back toward their own line, and crawled
away. They followed. After he had covered about ten yards, Dave turned
end for end in his muddy trail, and the others came up to him and turned
beside him. They saw that the wiring party and the patrol had joined.
"Spread a bit," whispered Dave. "I'll chuck one at 'em, and when it
busts you fellows let fly and then beat it back for the hole in our
wire. Take cover if the emmagees get busy. I'll be right behind you."
They moved a few paces to the right and left. Peter's lips felt dry, and
he wanted to sneeze. He took a plump, cold, heavy little grenade in his
muddy right hand. A few breathless, slow seconds passed and then
_smash!_ went Dave's bomb over against the Hun wire. Then Peter stood up
and threw--and three bombs exploded like one.
Turning, Peter slithered along on all fours after Dick and Sacobie. The
startled Huns lighted up their front as if for a national fête; but
Peter chanced it and kept on going. A shrapnel shell exploded overhead
with a terrific sound, and the fat bullets spattered in the mud all
round him. He came to another and larger crater and was about to skirt
it when a familiar voice exclaimed:
"Come in here, you idiot!"
There was Dick and Frank Sacobie standing hip-deep in the mud and water
at the bottom of the hole. Peter joined them with a few bushels of mud.
A whiz-bang whizzed and banged red near-by, and the three ducked and
knocked their heads together. The water was bitterly cold.
"Did you think you were on your way to the barns to milk?" asked Dick.
"Don't you know the machine guns are combing the ground?"
"I'll remember," said Peter. "New work to me, and I guess I was a bit
flustered. I wonder where Dave Hammer has got himself to."
"Some hole or other, sure," said Sacobie. "Don't worry 'bout Dave. He
put three bombs into them. I counted the busts. Fritz will quiet down in
a few minutes, I guess, and let us out of here--if our fellows don't get
gay and start all the artillery shootin' off."
Our fellows did not get gay, our artillery refrained from shooting off,
and soon the enemy ceased his frenzied musketry and machine gunning and
bombing of his own wire and the harmless mud beyond. So Peter and Dick
and Sacobie left their wet retreat and crawled for home. They found
Sergt. Hammer waiting for them at the hole in the wire. He had already
given the word to the sentry; and so they made the passage of the wire
and popped into the trench. Hammer reported to Mr. Scammell, who was all
ready to go out with another patrol; and then the four went back to
their dugout in the support trench, devoured a mess of potatoes and
onions, drank a few mugs of tea and retired to their blankets, mud and
putties and all.
That was the night of the 3d of December. In the battalion's summary of
intelligence to the brigade it read like this:
"Night of 23d-24th, our patrols active. Small patrol of four, under
106254 Sgt. D. Hammer, encountered ten of the enemy in front of the
German wire. Bombs were exchanged and six of the enemy were killed or
wounded. Our patrol returned. 2.30 A. M. Lieut. Scammell placed tube in
hostile wire which exploded successfully. No casualties."
The next day passed quietly, with a pale glimmer of sunshine now and
then, and between glimmers a flurry of moist snow. The Germans shouted
friendly messages across No Man's Land and suggested a complete
cessation of hostilities for the day and the morrow. The Canadians
replied that the next Fritz who cut any "love-your-enemy" capers on the
parapet would get what he deserved.
"Peace on earth!" exclaimed the colonel of the 26th. "They are the
people to ask for it, the murderers! No, this is a war with a
reason--and we shoot on Christmas Eve just as quick as on any other
day."
The day passed quietly. Soon after sunset Mr. Scammell sent two of his
scouts out to watch the gap in the German wire that he had blown with
his explosive tube. They returned at ten o'clock and reported that the
enemy had made no attempt to mend the gap. The night was misty and the
enemy's illumination a little above normal.
At eleven o'clock Lieut. Scammell went out himself, accompanied by
Lieut. Harvey and nine men. They reached the gap in the enemy wire
without being discovered, and there they separated. Mr. Harvey and two
others moved along the front of the wire to the left, and a sergeant and
one man went to the right. Mr. Scammell and his five men passed through
the wire and extended a few yards to the left, close under the hostile
parapet.
The officer stood up, close against the wet sandbags. Dave Hammer, Dick,
Peter, Hiram Sill and Sacobie followed his example.
Then, all together, they tossed six bombs into the trench. The
shattering bangs of six more blended with the bangs of the first volley.
From right and left along the trench sounded other explosions.
Obeying their officer's instructions, Scammell's men made the return
journey through the wire and struck out for home at top speed, trusting
to the mist to hide their movements from the foe.
Scammell rid himself of three more bombs and then followed his party.
The white mist swallowed them. The bombers ran, stumbled and ran again,
eager to reach the shelter of their own parapet before the shaken enemy
should recover and begin sweeping the ground with his machine guns.
Sacobie and Dick were the first to get into the trench. Then came Sergt.
Hammer and Lieut. Scammell, followed close by Lieut. Harvey and his
party. By that time the German machine guns were going full blast.
"Are Sergt. Starkley and Private Sill here?"
"Don't see either of 'em, sir," Sergt. Hammer said in reply to Mr.
Scammell's question.
"Perhaps they got here before any of us and beat it for their dugout,"
said Mr. Scammell. "Dick, you go along the trench and have a look for
them. If they aren't in, come back and report to me. Wait right here for
me, mind you--on _this_ side of the parapet. Get that?"
Then the officer spoke a few hurried words to Sergt. Hammer, a few to
the sentry, and went over the sandbags like a snake. Hammer went out of
the trench at the same moment; and Frank Sacobie took one glance at the
sentry and followed Hammer like a shadow. The mist lay close and cold
and almost as wet as rain over that puddled waste.
Mr. Scammell found Peter and Hiram about ten yards in front of the gap
in our wire; the private was unhurt and the sergeant unconscious. Sill
had his tall friend on his back and was crawling laboriously homeward.
"Whiz-bang," he informed Mr. Scammell. "It got Pete bad, in the leg. I
heard him grunt and soon found him."
They regained the trench, picking up Hammer on the way, and sent Peter
out on a stretcher. Sacobie came in at their heels; and no one knew that
he had gone out to the rescue.
That happened on Christmas morning. Before night the doctors cut off
what little had been left below the knee of Peter's right leg.