THE DAY’S BUSINESS
A couple of mornings later, I was pulled out of bed by the telephonist
on duty. As usual he had my heartfelt curses, and as usual I bowed to
circumstances and sat up.
The night was fine and clear and sharp; and quite silent if one forgot
the roll of musketry. No shells passed over to the sea. Standing in the
dark and pulling on my clothes, and lastly picking up the overcoat which
had been a blanket, I rubbed my eyes wider open and greeted again my old
friend the night. There was the bay with many a craft light on its bosom,
some winking and winking on for ever; there and there rose up and fell
away the folded hills. And the sky was like a giant’s blue punch-bowl,
picked out from rim to centre with points of golden light. It was an
Eastern night; a night for dreams and mysteries and happenings of the
long ago.
And yet it was a deucedly cold night too! I fastened the coat collar
round my ears, and pulled the woollen cap down to meet it. Over a
shoulder went the bandolier, and over that a rifle. With tucker bag at
waist I was ready.
Two figures I had noticed moving near the observing station, and,
climbing to them, they became Mr. Cliffe and Wilkinson. Wilkinson was
loaded up with telephones and tucker bag. The white bag stared through
the dark. His head was hidden in a muffler; but he gave me a nod. Both
must have been waiting for me, for Mr. Cliffe whispered: “Are you ready,
Lake?” and we set off at once. For a space we had to pick a careful
way through dug-outs, where sleepers were rolled from head to foot in
blankets or rugs, and blocked the road, and snorted at us and groaned.
Past all this the advance over the broken hillside was not easy, until we
picked up a track leading us up the valley. It seemed some shepherd track
made in happier days. Once on the path we went forward at best pace, for
dawn was due in half an hour, and by then the trenches must be reached.
The valley held snipers, and after daybreak was searched from head to
foot by enemy shrapnel. It was no place for mass meetings.
Yes, it was deucedly cold! I stuffed my hands into my pockets, and the
others did the same. We marched in Indian file, for the path itself was
narrow and full of ups and downs, and we went always at the same hard
pace. The road seemed ever rising. Little we said, unless the direction
became uncertain, and for the most part our footsteps were all the sounds
made.
In the open I had got used to the dark, but down here in the valleys
it was quite impossible to make out anything farther than a yard or two
away. The country went up on either side steep and rugged, that much
could be seen; and it was covered plentifully with low scrubby bushes,
enough to hide an army corps of snipers. The path wound about and about
and was much broken in places; and either rain had fallen lately or
mountain streams crept down this way, for at one time frequently we
splashed through heavy mud or even pools, or were set jumping from
tussock to tussock to keep dry shod. As we got higher, matters grew a bit
better; and next it seemed we were losing ourselves among the hills.
Mr. Cliffe guided: I was the last of the three. I saw Cliffe dimly four
or five yards ahead, a rather small figure moving this way and that among
the bushes, putting a hand out sometimes to push aside the branches, more
often shouldering the way forward. Then followed Wilkinson on his heels,
taller, narrower, and loaded up like a packhorse. Neither the one nor the
other ever turned a head, except once when passing a strange object where
the path broadened to a road—a mule curled round as if asleep. I wager
that mule took a long time waking.
Three or four hundred yards beyond here came suddenly to us the
whisperings of a number of voices, voices undecided and even timid. Next
moment we were into the tail of a score of men—more there may have been,
one could only guess—they formed an uncertain line along the track, and
were in full marching order, with their packs up. Either they were coming
from or going to the firing line. I poked my head forward to see better,
and recognised them as a party of marines who had arrived to reinforce us
last evening. They filled the path, obliging us to halt. From the hurried
whispers I gathered they had lost the way, and a sergeant was bustling up
and down in an attempt to keep all together. They stared at us curiously.
As there was no room we stepped off the path, and pushed through the
bushes for a little distance until we were ahead of them. Somebody
appeared to be in charge at this end, and Cliffe and he started in
muffled conversation. In a few moments I heard Cliffe say: “You’d better
hurry, for the place is well dosed with shrapnel at daybreak.” Then we
went on again.
After this the going became very much stiffer, and though the path still
existed, one climbed rather than walked. In a minute or two I forgot to
feel cold, in five minutes I was ready to hang my coat on the nearest
bush. I was not alone in this: I heard the others labouring. All the time
we had been passing marines in groups of threes and fours. They must
have been one body moving to the trenches, though now much broken up. In
the end we left them all behind, for we travelled quickly in spite of
the incline. For already dawn was near: I could not turn to it and say,
“Look!”—it was a suggestion rather than a change. But dawn was coming.
We arrived at a spot high up on the hill where the path turned abruptly
to the left. Here we halted a few moments and I was very glad. I sat down
on the bank and threw open my coat collar. I became aware that a faint
greyness had stolen over the world. The change was little, infinitely
little; but it was there. On either hand were vague bushes, and the
country revealed itself full of shallow trenches and funk-holes, which
yawned like endless graves. I grew aware of many men sleeping in the
shelter of these, and of tins of beef and bags of biscuit near them, and
the ashes of yesterday’s fires. I wondered what the men were doing here
behind the firing line.
Cliffe sat cross-legged on a tussock, his chin in his hands. He was quite
still. All of a sudden he looked round and began to speak.
“Look at these fellows,” he said. “I can’t make out how it is allowed to
go on. Every man there ought to be in the firing line. Instead of that
they skulk here all day with plenty of tucker: I’m pretty sure most of
them have never seen the trenches at all.”
“Why is nothing done?” I asked.
“I believe they are starting to do something, but things have been in a
muddle, the battalions mixed up, and no one knows who is dead and who
alive. That’s the excuse, I suppose. Last evening I was coming down here
after that poor Mr. Byers was shot. I spoke to one lot with a fire going,
who were filling themselves with bully beef and jam, and asked them what
they were doing. The fellow I spoke to seemed ready to give cheek, so
I pulled out my revolver and he climbed down at once. Later on I met an
officer who had lost his way and his men and everything else. He came to
me and asked if I could direct him and was nearly incoherent. There was
some shrapnel about at the time, and as each shell burst he dived under
cover and refused to come out. I spoke to him roughly in the end, though
he was senior to me, and finally he started to cry. I left him.”
Wilkinson was crouched up on the bank. When Cliffe stopped he began to
talk in his rapid way, telling his disgust. As he finished Cliffe got up.
“We had better make another start,” he said. “It isn’t far.”
Even now there was no trace of dawn in the sky; but the greyness I had
noticed was more marked and I could make out the leaves on the bushes.
It was quite possible to see what was underfoot, and to avoid the
numerous trenches zig-zagging about here. We struck the firm path again a
little farther on, and from that point the road climbed quickly. We had
marched perhaps five minutes, and objects were growing quite clear, when
something moved through the sky—there was a bang and a mighty pattering
and rustling in the bushes some way behind us, and overhead floated a
delicate puff of smoke. The concert had opened. “There goes the first!”
Wilkinson cried. “Aye,” I said, and Cliffe nodded his head.
We had little breath for remarks and went on as quickly as we could. The
half light had penetrated everywhere, although still there were no signs
in the sky. But the shrapnel had clapped over our heads, and this was the
clock to follow. We turned to the left, we pushed up a fierce bit beside
a fresh grave marked by pebbles and a rough cross; we took a half turn
to the right, and then I found myself entering a tunnel with no top. The
walls sloped down as we went on, until they were no more than four foot
from the ground. “Duck,” Cliffe said, and set the example, and we ducked
for a yard or two, moving at a half run. Again the walls rose high, and
soon we could stand upright. I looked about me and found we were in the
trenches.
It was now quite light: one could make out everything. This trench seemed
seven, perhaps eight foot deep, and must have been a spot of especial
importance, as it was well widened out, and farther on it narrowed again
to the width of the passage by which we entered. There it took a sharp
turn, and one could see no farther.
It was full of men in dull green uniforms, who sat and lay in scooped-out
recesses, or stood and blocked the narrow passage. The rifles rested
along the trench walls, some with bayonets fixed, some without. It was
the first time for a long while I had seen so many Englishmen together,
and their faces struck me as kindlier than the Australian face and more
simple too. They looked at us with interest when we came in and marched
across to the corner reserved for artillery observation. A lieutenant
with a brown woollen cap on his head, which made him look like a stage
smuggler, leaned from a funk-hole perched rather higher than the others,
and asked our business; but beyond that nobody spoke at all.
“Who are you?” the lieutenant asked, leaning round.
“We’ve come here to observe for the artillery. This is the place we use,”
Cliffe answered without turning his head. “You must have relieved our
fellows in the night.”
“Oh, you’re Australians! Yes; we arrived last night.” And that was all
that was said.
We settled ourselves. Wilkinson connected one of the telephones and
attached himself to it, and he gave a second one to a rather knock-kneed
person who appeared from nowhere. Cliffe began to prepare his lookout
a couple of yards away. As for myself, I found the easiest seat I
could—there was no work for me until the wire along the valley was cut
by shrapnel or spies. A third telephonist joined to Z—Ak, the infantry
brigade, lay on his back in a funk-hole beside me. This made the lot of
us.
The trenches were topped with a sandbag rampart, and the observer needed
to peer through a loophole in them, a risky proceeding. Where we were
the rampart was very low, and not more than a foot above our heads, even
when we sat down. The sandbags had been dumped on one another and placed
a double thickness, and Cliffe and I started to pull them all ways,
finishing by leaving several cracks, through one or other of which the
whole landscape might be viewed. I took a look through and saw a stretch
of desolate country sloping towards some hills. In the grey light it
seemed covered with patches of heath and low bushes; and here and there
flowers were springing. Not one living Turk could be seen; but the enemy
trenches ran parallel with our own at no great distance, and were made
out easily by the sandbagged parapets and mounds of newly turned earth.
There was no Turk visible, but in many places appeared the swift movement
of a shovel above the parapet, or a heap of earth falling over the bank.
The enemy were digging for their lives.
Now that our climbing was over, it grew quite cold again, and I kept on
my coat. Cliffe and Wilkinson were of hardier mould, and after a good
deal of turning round and thumping and scratching, they made their coats
into arm-chair beds, and in this way sought to defeat the uncharitable
ground. I settled back in my funk-hole and took stock of things. The
musketry on both sides was brisk and loud and continuous; and frequently
a machine gun rattled away for a few minutes, ending as abruptly as it
began. Near the trench entrance, where the parapet was lowest, bullets
plumped over into our opposite bank, and sent up tiny fountains of dust.
By now many a shrapnel shell was coming over too, but happily the valley
was their target, for they searched it with care from top to bottom.
On the opposite bank, not so far from me, was the grave of one of our
fellows. An upright bayonet had been pushed into the ground, and from it
hung a soldier’s belt. Below was placed a soldier’s hat. There were no
words of farewell, there were no stones to mark a square of earth; but
at long intervals an odd bullet splashed down there and beat an honest
tattoo. “My friend,” said I; “I vouch there have been bitterer graves
than yours.”
It was a chilly business and no mistake, sitting up here while the sun
climbed tardily from bed. In the end he came over a hill, but the trench
walls cut away his beams. The men sat very still, talking in low tones or
dozing, and for the present the telephonists were unoccupied, and lay on
their sides in a bored manner. To pass the time I decided on a breakfast
of jam and biscuits to be washed down with a draught of stale water.
Cliffe was taking a peep through one of his holes every now and then;
but there were too many stray bullets to make the occupation healthy. He
sought the puff of enemy guns.
Without troubling to get up, I unhitched my tucker bag and pushed a hand
inside. There was a tin of bully beef, a tin of plum jam, and a lot of
the little hard biscuits we had been given before landing. There was
nothing interesting, but I started away. I left the beef for later on,
and dipped the biscuits into the jam, taking care to bring out more jam
than biscuit. I could hear the Englishmen talking among themselves in
rather depressed tones. They spoke with a broad accent, and I gathered
they were from somewhere up north. “’Tis a bitter place this, choom,” I
heard one say; and another grunted answer. Thereupon I cocked round my
eye and put in a word. “You won’t be saying that in a few hours’ time,” I
said. “It’s as hot as blazes here.”
Everybody looked at me and one or two grinned, but nobody spoke. They
seemed to regard the Australians as curious and rather interesting; and
they admired us too. It seemed our name as fighters was made when we
took the place. I fixed on the nearest fellow. “What part of the old
country d’you come from?” “Manchester.” And that was all he said. The
others hailed from round that part, or from Lancashire at any rate;
but conversation was at a discount, and before long I went back to the
biscuits and jam.
As time went on, and it drew may be towards seven o’clock, more
liveliness came into affairs. The men brightened up and moved about
more and cracked heavy jokes. But I yet remained colder than charity,
and kept on looking for the sun to climb up and send a little warmth
over the parapet. Since our appearance on the scene a man or two had
worked away with pick or shovel deepening the trench, and in desperation
finally I got up from my funk-hole and took a hand at the work myself.
I worked hard and fast until out of breath. I had just given the tools
back when the word “Colonel” passed from mouth to mouth, and a party of
officers came into the trench on a tour of inspection. The colonel was a
middle-aged, middle-sized man in a woollen cap, and he led the way. He
had not the least look of a soldier, but all the air of a business man
who had never attempted anything more exciting than catching his tram
after breakfast. He made several remarks, all of disapproval.
“Why isn’t this trench deeper? It was exactly like this when we took
over. That’s not the way to shovel, man: give me the spade: there, do it
like that. Now start, men, start. Don’t stand there idling.”
The lieutenant was leaning out of his funk-hole with an anxious face.
The colonel looked up at him without overmuch kindness in the eye. “A
Company is along here, isn’t it?” he demanded. “Yes, sir. Straight along.
You must keep well down; the trenches are very shallow.” “I’m going
along there now. Keep these men digging. Don’t let them slack. There’s
been nothing done to-day!” And on the colonel went, bending down and
scrambling out at the farther end, his retinue following in silence.
There was no doubt there was a good deal of the amateur in these men.
Among other atrocities they had rigged a machine gun in some bushes on
top of the parapet to our right hand. The situation was murderous—for us,
not the enemy. There was no cover, and to fire the gun meant crouching
among the bushes, a sure target for any bullets straying this way. A
sergeant was in charge of the gun, and lay on his stomach up there
observing the enemy’s movements, and sending down reports every few
minutes. For some reason the lieutenant in charge made no effort to keep
the gun secret, but at frequent intervals ordered fifteen or twenty
rounds rapid fire, so that our corner attracted a growing interest from
the enemy. A conversation went on after this manner.
“Are you still there, sergeant?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Is anything to be seen?”
“No, sir. Nothing important. There is a good deal of digging going on in
one place: the men aren’t showing; but a lot of dirt goes up.”
“Well, give ’em a burst there, it’ll keep their heads down; a short
burst, not more than twenty, with traversing movement.”
A silence followed, and then bang-bang, bang-bang went the gun.
“Any results, sergeant?”
“I’m not sure, sir: I think they’ve stopped digging.”
A few minutes later.
“Anything to be seen, sergeant?”
“Nothing special, sir. I saw a man look over the parapet just now.”
“Well, give him a burst. Five or six will do.”
Bang-bang, bang-bang, bang-bang went the damned gun again.
Cliffe proved something of a sportsman, and, being so far unoccupied, he
had borrowed my rifle and sniped away at intervals through his loophole.
I don’t know what he saw to shoot at any more than I could discover where
all the rifle fire came from. All of a sudden Cliffe called out to me in
an excited whisper: “D’you want a shot, Lake? There’s an old Turk here
poking his head up?” I jumped up, scrambled across to him and took hold
of the rifle. Cliffe was staring through a loophole. “Look through here
after me,” he said. “He’s right ahead, about six hundred yards off.” I
took a long look, but could not pick him up. “D’you see the dead fellow
in blue trousers.” I picked up the dead Turk all right, lying spread
out in a little patch of flowers; and then, thirty yards or more to the
right, I did see something move. True enough it was a man. “I’ve got
him,” I said. I lifted my head over the parapet to level the rifle; but I
had been too long and friend Turk disappeared. I stayed ready some time
in case he came back; but he never showed again. Instead the cold morning
breeze drifted against my forehead, and climbed about my hair, and I knew
a strange feeling looking across that waste to watch our bullets strike
the opposite trenches, telling myself the while at any moment Death might
stalk from over there and bow to me. “Don’t keep your head up too long,
Lake,” Cliffe said presently. “It isn’t over healthy.” I took his advice,
but settled down where I was in case of fun later on.
Time went along very, very slowly. There was absolutely nothing doing.
I tried to talk to Wilkinson and then to Cliffe; but there was nothing
to talk about. The Englishmen became more depressed, and finally nobody
spoke at all. Yes—I forget the lieutenant—who never lost interest in
his gun, and who also called out directions now and then to the men
shovelling in the passage way.
The rifle fire continued all the while, and many a bullet knocked up
the dust on the opposite bank three or four yards off. The fire had not
ceased from the hour of our landing, only up here the noise was sharp and
fierce and close at hand.
The enemy shrapnel passed constantly over our heads, though I don’t think
it did much harm, for it fell in the valley, which was generally empty,
except of skulkers, who knew how to look after themselves. Our own guns
remained silent. I sat and shivered and felt bored beyond belief.
At last matters mended somewhat.
“You’re wanted on the ’phone, sir,” Wilkinson said. “Who wants me?” “The
colonel, sir.”
Cliffe crept the two or three paces towards the ’phone, and put it to his
mouth. “Hullo! Hullo there! Yes, Cliffe speaking.” A long pause. “Yes,
I’ve got it. C target. Three o’clock right of false ridge. Straight away.
Righto, sir.”
Back went Cliffe to his peepholes to stare through one of them. “They
seem to have woken up down below at last,” he said. “The old balloon has
spotted some guns in action three o’clock right of the false ridge up
there. There’s one of them now!” We waited a minute or two, crouching
down below the parapet, then Wilkinson, who had the ’phone strapped to
his head, said, “Fired, sir.”
The voice of a gun travelled from the valley foot, and the same moment
a shell swept over our heads and burst in a puff of smoke many hundred
yards beyond us. I was staring through one of the cracks. The shot was
over the target and rather to the left. “One degree three-ough minutes
more right! Shorten corrector four! Drop two-ough-ough! Repeat!”
Wilkinson echoed the words: a silence followed. The gun boomed below,
and a shell whistled overhead. This time the burst was better. “Drop
five-ough! Repeat!” Cliffe called out.
I moved away presently, and tried again to talk with the Englishmen.
Nearly all were young, and none seemed overbright. By the time we had
exchanged all news, the morning was wearing on; and finally the sun
tossed his beams into the trench in a threatening manner.
These were still optimistic days, when we expected the British and French
down south to join up with us at any moment. We were always believing to
hear their guns, and daily reports came through that they were arriving
at such and such an hour. To-day it was to be five o’clock in the
afternoon. The village of Krithia had been taken, and Heaven knows what
else besides, and at any instant now they ought to come pouring over the
top of Achi Baba. The fall of Constantinople was only a matter of days.
The marines were as confident as we Australians, and the belief that the
whole affair would be over in a week or two was, I believe, the one thing
that bore them up. But they were a homesick lot at best.
Our guns soon quieted down—shortage of ammunition, no doubt—and Cliffe
left his post and came across where the trench was deeper to stretch his
legs. The English lieutenant was sitting just above, and the two men
drifted into conversation.
I had the luck to find a _Penny Magazine_ with a very sentimental love
story inside. I carried it to my funk-hole, and made a comfortable bed,
and read until the springs of romance welled in me. I fell asleep to
dream of governesses and dukes, and incidentally of heiresses who smiled
encouragement on broken gunners. When I woke up it must have been midday,
as the sun was not far from the centre of the sky, and there was not a
foot of shade. I opened a hopeless eye and looked round. All was the
same. The men sat in the same places and talked with effort. Cliffe spoke
to Wilkinson, and the sergeant lay beside his gun. I yawned and sat up,
flapped at the flies and swore.
But why go on? Through endless afternoon things were the same. At times
our guns opened and Cliffe observed for them; at times I peeped over the
parapet, hoping to snipe a Turk. At times the machine gun rattled away.
There was little movement on either side. The armies rested after the
big attack. I don’t know who was best pleased when the light grew dim and
orders came through to return to headquarters.
I met the marines once again. It was on the following afternoon. I had
guided Major Felix to the trench; and there we found Sands observing,
with Hawkins and Eaves for his telephonists. “Saida,” I said to Hawkins,
and leaned against the wall beside him.
The same men were in the same places, and digging was going forward as
before. The trench had been improved in the night, and was deeper and
more secure. But on the other hand I noticed the rifle fire was very
heavy, and enemy shells would burst unpleasantly close. Major Felix
and I had one or two uneasy moments coming up the valley, so it was
disappointing to find we were not to be left alone here.
Eaves sprawled on his back with the receiver strapped to his ear.
“’Ullo,” he called out lustily when he saw me. “Wot are you doin’ ’ere?”
I nodded to him and climbed nearer to Hawkins, who sat higher up than
Eaves, and more under the lee of the bank.
“How are things?” I said, settling down.
“It’s been pretty hot all day,” he answered, putting down the transmitter
and taking out a cigarette. “This morning they lobbed two or three
percussion shells on to the wall over there. They’re after the machine
gun. It’s these fools: they never leave the thing alone for five
minutes.” He tried to borrow a match and failed. Getting one elsewhere,
he went on. “The gun ought to be taken out of the place: they’ll have us
blown out of the hole in the end.”
We yarned away a long time, and I don’t know what happened to Major
Felix: he disappeared. I stayed on, having no orders to return, and the
longer I stayed, the hotter grew the rifle fire. Our own guns in the
valley were active, and kept Sands fully occupied peering through his
peep-holes, and giving contradictory orders to the telephonists. The
Turkish guns were more aggressive than our own. Frequent shells came our
way, bursting about fifty yards behind us and dismembering the bushes.
Presently while we sat in silence, for the noise made talking hard, and
dreamed of no particular evil, word came down the line that the enemy was
massing on our right. This woke the trench up. Two officers of marines
were present at the time. One—the lieutenant of yesterday—sat in his
favourite seat, the funk-hole commanding this corner of the trench, the
other had been giving instructions about the digging. They exchanged
excited glances. “Where did the message come from? Who passed the message
down?” they demanded in one voice. Someone answered, “The message came
by mouth down the trench, sir.” “Is that the whole message? Was there
anything more? Is anything to be seen?” “I don’t know, sir.”
The officer in the funk-hole leaned out and looked up towards the machine
gun.
“Are you there, sergeant?”
“No, sir,” was the answer. “I’m here instead.”
“Well, can you see anything? Can you see any special movement?”
There was no reply for a while. Then I heard: “No, sir, I can’t see
anything particular.”
Sands was called into consultation, and his verdict, given in
disinterested voice, bore out what the sergeant said. But all the while
the fire from both sides was increasing. Bullets plumped time after time
into our opposite bank, and a multitude of shells travelled forwards and
backwards across the sky. I began to feel warlike. Rapid conversation
went on between the officers; but as nothing further happened, excitement
died a natural death. We were settling comfortably into our places again
when a second message came along. “Enemy massing heavily on our right.
Attack expected.”
This settled matters. The place buzzed like a beehive. Sands was
appealed to again. “Can you see no movements at all from where you are?”
“Absolutely nothing,” Sands answered in the blandest manner without
turning round. A moment afterwards he called to me over his shoulder,
“Climb up by the machine gun, Lake, and try to observe the next two
shots. I can’t pick them up from here. I should try not to get killed if
I were you. You probably will be up there.”
I did as he told me, and lay flat on my stomach beside the machine gun.
There was absolutely no cover, so that I flattened out to the last inch.
I looked across the wilderness of yesterday. Our bullets knocked up the
dust along the Turkish line, and our shells broke in delicate white
clouds about the sky. One thing I could not see, that was a living Turk.
I had not much opportunity to look about, as I had to watch closely the
square of ground on which one of our guns was trained. I saw the puff at
last and called out the direction, and Sands answered he had picked it up
too. The next shot Sands observed as well.
While I was flattened out there calculating how soon a bullet would come
that way, a very young lieutenant walked over. “I say, keep down as much
as you can,” he said, lifting up his face to me, “or you will draw fire
on us.”
“You blighted ass, what am I doing now?” I thought. “Yes, sir,” I said.
The time was about four o’clock, and the men expected to be relieved by
another company. In spite of the turn affairs had taken, the men made
ready for departure, and quite soon the relieving company arrived and
tried to find a way in. They, too, carried fixed bayonets and looked like
business. The trench was quite choked up, and I took the hint and climbed
into a funk-hole out of the way. Perhaps I was lucky. Officers of the old
party were hunting their men out, and confusion was general, when a loud
and dull explosion took place quite near, stones and a cloud of dust shot
up—and then came silence. A percussion shell had come into the trench.
The senior officer was beside me, and he craned his neck forward, and
called out in a sharp voice to know who was hurt. “Forbes killed, sir,
and two others hit.” “Get them away to the doctor, get them out at once:
don’t block up the way!”
The soldiers pushed themselves against the walls, and the procession went
by. The dead man came last. I peered from my funk-hole and looked him in
the face. I do not think he was quite dead; but I heard someone say in a
stage whisper his back was broken. His face was yellow, and his mouth a
little open. Death had not stamped him with nobility.
Yet there was a moment when I forgot the trenches and instead saw another
scene. Grey walls were there crossing purple moorland; and in the valley
stood slated cottages about an aged church. From there at daybreak the
labourers went abroad, and at even the herds came home; and ever there
the old men dawdled, and women gossiped by their doors. Year by year the
same faces looked on the same faces, but not again would one familiar
face be seen.
The new company squeezed against the trench sides, and the old one
filed away. The firing from both sides was overwhelming, and our trench
bristled with bayonets. For my own part I had seen nothing threatening in
the movements of the enemy when up by the gun; but excitement ran high
and I caught it. Matters began to look really interesting when a call
came for reinforcements on the right. Amid enquiries and commands, a
sergeant was sent off at express speed with a party to find out details,
and at the same time the trench began to fill up again with the men who
had been relieved. Next an officer pushed his way along, revolver in
hand. Indecision seemed so great that I began to doubt, in the event of
a rush, whether we should hold the trench; and thus I made ready for
the worst, fixed a bayonet to my rifle, and prepared to die as becomes
an honest gunner. In five minutes back came the sergeant. “They want no
reinforcements, sir. There’s nothing out of the way doing. They made a
demonstration on the right, sir, and attacked our left.”
“Hum,” thought I.
On the way back to headquarters, we found the top of the valley lined
with men upon their bellies, rifles in hand and bayonets fixed.
* * * * *
Another tragedy that corner of the trench showed me.
The marines were relieved next day by an Australian battalion. I was in
the trench in the afternoon, and was making the first step on the way
home when a shell came in. I swung round towards the uproar, and that
moment something struck me on the foot. I looked down and saw a lump of
quivering flesh. A captain of infantry had had his neck blown away.
I returned down the valley, sick to death. Shrapnel was spattering in
the bushes, and at the cross roads waited three dead and still bleeding
mules. I hurried along; but I could not escape that red lump of meat. I
could not eat that night: though thirsty I threw away the tea. I rolled
into my blankets; but still that lump of flesh was there. Darkness and
the cool of night had no power to banish it.
Beastly! Ah, beastly! Ah, very, very beastly!