Curious situations abound. Behold me sitting in Lieut. Dickenson's
chair by Lieut. Dickenson's fire in the midst of Lieut. Dickenson's
deserted patience (a game unknown to me: five rows and aces out) Lieut.
D. having gone forth to the Regimental Aid Post on our L. Front to see
a man afflicted suddenly with peritonitis. We are a party forming an
Advance Dressing Station here at ----. We have just sent our first case
(Sergeant shot through chin, tongue and neck--quite conscious--hit at
three, remained in trench till seven, left us 8.15--in Hospital by now)
into ---- together with a request for two pounds of soda for the Bat.
M.O. on our R. Front. (Thus our Motor Ambulances fetch and carry). I am
waiting up to take the soda when it arrives up to the M.O. at his aid
post behind the trenches. Why soda in the middle of the night? _Gas_,
my dear. Les Bosches are now throwing chunks of gas at us. Nasty smelly
trick, isn't it? We are replying in our nice clean British way with
soda--at least so I thought at first, but the truth is that partially
asphyxiated Tommies thrive on Sodium _Bi_--not the washing variety. I
am going to rouse out Fisher (now sleeping peacefully in the billet
in spite of a battery) to walk up with me when the stuff arrives.
Lieut. Dickenson won't let me go alone. It is a lovely night--high
moon almost full and a low mist over the firing line through which
star shells (otherwise rockets) twinkle up occasionally. The battery
near here "bings" out a shell every ten minutes or so. It is a noisy
brute but some naval guns over a mile away are quite deafening even at
that distance. The expression "tearing the atmosphere" really applies
to the scream of their shells as they pass overhead. They do sound
like tearing silk heard through a stethoscope. The prettiest sound of
the night is a machine-gun a mile or so to our right firing short tap
tap tap tap taps like an over-grown woodpecker. Understand that these
sounds are only occasional only the scattered rifle fire being anything
like continuous, and that so scattered that it is a mere background.
Bing! from the near battery--five minutes elapse--tap tap tap tap,
another four or five--tap tap tap again--a slight increase in the rifle
fire--_Bahang Wheeeee!_ from the naval gun--ten minutes perfect calm
but for rifles very faint and intermittent, tap tap tap--tap tap tap.
This time from further off: the woodpecker's mate. Sh Sh Sh--Sh--Sh a
German shell coming to _look for_ our Battery. Sh Sh Sh! Whap! Missed
it by about half a mile--five or six minutes peace. Bing from ours.
Bing again after a minute and two more bings rapid. Peace once more,
the rifles a trifle fainter, one crack a trifle louder. Tap tap tap tap
tap----
That's half an hour not taken down of course but typified. I am looking
forward to the walk.