NO MAN’S LAND
The following day we took over the line just before Monchy. The
quartermaster, transport officer and I had a nice little mess at
Berneville, near Arras. I was billeted with the curé of Berneville and
he proved a friendly old man. His old sister was housekeeper for him.
She was very kind, and George received many cups of hot coffee.
It did not happen very often that battalion headquarters were in the
front line trench; yet it so happened when we were at Monchy. Indeed,
the first night, on going up to the trenches, I actually walked through
No Man’s Land in order to reach headquarters’ dugout. It was a part of
the line that we had retaken from the Germans, and for this reason the
opening of the shaft leading down to the dugout faced the German front
instead of our own back area.
The second night I spent in the line at Monchy I was awakened suddenly
by a terrific bombardment by the Germans. The dugout was shaking from
the concussion of the shells bursting on the ground above us. I had
been sleeping fully dressed and with my trench coat on; for although
it was July it was very cold underground. My bed was a berth of
meshed wire stretched between rough scantling--nothing else, not even
a blanket; my pillow was my haversack. When I awoke I was trembling
violently, I was not sure whether through cold or fear. Yet after I
stood up and walked up and down a little while talking to the officers,
I ceased to tremble.
The Germans were putting on a box barrage, that is, they were
bombarding us in such a way that the shells were dropping behind us,
and to our left and right, so that we could not retreat and no troops
could come to our aid. The only way open to approach us was from the
German trenches opposite, by way of No Man’s Land. This was the way the
Germans would be coming presently, either to order us up or to throw
bombs or tubes of amenol down to blow us into minutest fragments. We
talked quietly as we waited there at bay; but we were all a little
nervous. I shall never forget those minutes we spent there, caught like
rats in a trap.
We waited and waited; the very atmosphere of the dugout seemed heavy
and sickening. Then suddenly the bombarding ceased. Surely, Fritz
had not changed his mind; yet it was always under cover of his own
artillery fire that he made his advances or raids. We became a little
cheerful. Finally, after half an hour of quiet we concluded that for
some unknown reason Fritz had decided not to come. Then, our hearts
filled with relief, we sat about the candle-lit dugout chatting like
happy boys on their way home for vacation.
The following morning, with God’s beautiful sunlight over all the land,
I stepped out into No Man’s Land with Colonel Peck and we took a little
walk. Beautiful red flowers resembling in size and shape the sweet pea,
only they were short-stemmed and in clusters, grew near an old pile of
stones. It was the first time I had ever seen flowers growing in “No
Man’s Land,” and I began to pick a few. The colonel, however, told me
to hurry. Indeed, it was no place to loiter, for although No Man’s Land
was very wide here, one could see the parapets of the German trenches.