Realists and Romanticists lived side by side in the traveling trench.
"My Little Gray Home in the West" was the modest legend over one
apartment. The "Ritz Carlton" was next door to "The Rats' Retreat,"
with "Vermin Villa" next door but one. "The Suicide Club" was the
suburban residence of some members of the bombing squad. I remarked
that the bombers seemed to take rather a pessimistic view of their
profession, whereupon Shorty told me that if there were any men slated
for the Order of the Wooden Cross, the bombers were those unfortunate
ones. In an assault they were first at the enemy's position. They had
dangerous work to do even on the quietest of days. But theirs was a
post of honor, and no one of them but was proud of his membership in
the Suicide Club.
The officers' quarters were on a much more generous and elaborate
scale than those of the men. This I gathered from Shorty's description
of them, for I saw only the exteriors as we passed along the trench.
Those for platoon and company commanders were built along the traveling
trench. The colonel, major, and adjutant lived in a luxurious palace,
about fifty yards down a communication trench. Near it was the
officers' mess, a café de luxe with glass panels in the door, a cooking
stove, a long wooden table, chairs,--everything, in fact, but hot and
cold running water.
"You know," said Shorty, "the officers thinks they 'as to rough it, but
they got it soft, I'm tellin' you! Wooden bunks to sleep in, batmen
to bring 'em 'ot water fer shavin' in the mornin', all the fags they
wants,----Blimy, I wonder wot they calls livin' 'igh?"
I agreed that in so far as living quarters are concerned, they were
roughing it under very pleasant circumstances. However, they were not
always so fortunate, as later experience proved. Here there had been
little serious fighting for months and the trenches were at their best.
Elsewhere the officers' dugouts were often but little better than those
of the men.
The first-line trenches were connected with two lines of support or
reserve trenches built in precisely the same fashion, and each heavily
wired. The communication trenches which joined them were from seven to
eight feet deep and wide enough to permit the convenient passage of
incoming and outgoing troops, and the transport of the wounded back to
the field dressing stations. From the last reserve line they wound on
backward through the fields until troops might leave them well out of
range of rifle fire. Under Shorty's guidance I saw the field dressing
stations, the dugouts for the reserve ammunition supply and the stores
of bombs and hand grenades, battalion and brigade trench headquarters.
We wandered from one part of the line to another through trenches, all
of which were kept amazingly neat and clean. The walls were stayed with
fine-mesh wire to hold the earth in place. The floors were covered with
board walks carefully laid over the drains, which ran along the center
of the trench and emptied into deep wells, built in recesses in the
walls. I felt very much encouraged when I saw the careful provision for
sanitation and drainage. On a fine June morning it seemed probable that
living in ditches was not to be so unpleasant as I had imagined it.
Shorty listened to my comments with a smile.
"Don't pat yerself on the back yet a w'ile, mate," he said. "They looks
right enough now, but wite till you've seen 'em arter a 'eavy rain."
I had this opportunity many times during the summer and autumn. A more
wretched existence than that of soldiering in wet weather could hardly
be imagined. The walls of the trenches caved in in great masses. The
drains filled to overflowing, and the trench walks were covered deep in
mud. After a few hours of rain, dry and comfortable trenches became a
quagmire, and we were kept busy for days afterward repairing the damage.
As a machine gunner I was particularly interested in the construction
of the machine-gun emplacements. The covered battle positions were
very solidly built. The roofs were supported with immense logs or
steel girders covered over with many layers of sandbags. There were
two carefully concealed loopholes looking out to a flank, but none for
frontal fire, as this dangerous little weapon best enjoys catching
troops in enfilade owing to the rapidity and the narrow cone of its
fire. Its own front is protected by the guns on its right and left. At
each emplacement there was a range chart giving the ranges to all parts
of the enemy's trenches, and to every prominent object both in front of
and behind them, within its field of fire. When not in use the gun was
kept mounted and ready for action in the battle position.
"But remember this," said Shorty, "you never fires from your battle
position except in case of attack. W'en you goes out at night to 'ave
a little go at Fritzie, you always tykes yer gun sommers else. If you
don't, you'll 'ave Minnie an' Busy Bertha an' all the rest o' the Krupp
childern comin' over to see w'ere you live."
This was a wise precaution, as we were soon to learn from experience.
Machine guns are objects of special interest to the artillery, and the
locality from which they are fired becomes very unhealthy for some
little time thereafter.