He crept out of the trench and up a steep incline and over the other
side, and was apparently being peppered by machine-gun fire all the
way. We had little hope of him ever getting there. About a couple of
hours later another Cockney cried: "Blimey! He's coming back!"
We could see him now, crawling towards us. He got within a dozen yards
of our trench, and then a Jerry "coal-box" arrived. It knocked us into
the mud at the bottom of our trench and seemed to blow Gordon, together
with a ton or so of earth, twenty feet in the air, and he came down in
the trench.
"That's done the poor blighter in," said the other Cockney as we rushed
to him. To our surprise Gordon spoke:
"Well, he ain't done in--see!"
He had got the message to the other platoon, and was little the worse
for his experience of being blown skyward. I think that brave fellow's
deed was one of many that had to go unrewarded.--_H. Nachbaur (late 7th
Suffolks), 4 Burnham Road, St. Albans, Herts._
"Baby's Fell Aht er Bed!"
The day before our division (38th Welch) captured Mametz Wood on the
Somme, in July 1916, our platoon occupied a recently captured German
trench. We were examining in a very deep dug-out some of Jerry's
black bread when a heavy shell landed almost at the entrance with a
tremendous crash. Earth, filled sandbags, etc., came thundering down
the steps, and my thoughts were of being buried alive about forty feet
underground. But amid all the din, Sam (from Walworth) amused us with
his cry: "Muvver! Baby's fell aht er bed!"--_P. Carter (late 1st London
Welch), 6 Amhurst Terrace, Hackney, E.8._