Chapter 12

August 18, 1918

We leave Proven at 9 a.m. on the light railway train and go to Brandhoek, where the first platoon of the company is stationed. It is only a short distance from Ypres, and we can plainly see Kemmel Hill. Our division has taken over the sector formerly held by the 33rd English division. We are quartered in wooden billets formerly used by the British engineers, two squads of eight men each occupying a billet, with a corporal in charge. The sergeants have billets to themselves near the kitchen. The company office supply officer kitchen, and sergeants mess is all in one building. In the afternoon we look for cots to sleep on. Everything is quiet at night.

August 19, 1918

When we get up in the morning, we find that we are not the only occupants of the billets. We feel something bite occasionally and when we look for the offender he is gone. We finally locate him and it does not take us long to learn that we will have to contend with the trench cootie. We had heard of them before but this is our first meeting. We work from 7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., in some support trenches doing some repair work. We put in some new duck-boards and make several other improvements that are needed. We ride the same train to the ammunition dump that we did while stationed in the dugouts near Toronto Junction. From the ammunition dump we walk the rest of the way to our job. The company is excused from all duties in the afternoon. Three of us fellows go to some old deserted billets about a kilometer’s distance and get two cots, one single and one double. The guns fire very little during the night.

August 20, 1918

We work in the trenches from 7:30 a.m., to 11:30 p.m. at the same place. Fritz sends a few shells over that hit pretty close to where we are working, one of the fellows barely escaping getting hit by a large piece of shell. As we are leaving the trenches a gas shell falls near and we soon get our gas-masks on. It is the first time we have ever been forced to put our masks on account of real gas. We wear them for several minutes before taking them off. We are forced to cross a large field on our way to the ammunition dump as Fritz is shelling the roads. We are excused from all duties in the afternoon. I stroll about the village that we are stationed in and note the destruction that has been done by the Germans. All the large trees along the main road are dead, having been killed by German shell fire and bombs.

August 21, 1918

We work in another section of the trenches laying sandbags and duck-boards. We are in a reserve trench and there are only a few soldiers in it. About 10 a.m. we take cover under some small tress so that German observation ’planes coming over cannot see us. anti-aircraft guns and the appearance of British ’planes makes the Germans soon go back across their own lines. They make other attempts during the morning to fly over and observe, but are driven away every time. We are giving the afternoon off. German ’planes fly over at night.

August 22, 1918

Seven a. m. finds us on our way to our work at the same place laying sand-bags and duck-boards. We work until 12:30 p.m. and then return to Brandhoek. At night Fritz sends over several shells, but they all burst a safe distance from our billets. German ’planes attempt to bomb the towns nearby, but they meet with a warm reception by the anti-aircraft and machine guns. The search-lights are on the job searching for the raiders until they have left.

August 23, 1918

We work several hundred yards down the same trench that we have been working in sand-bagging. About 10:30 a. m. we stop work for a few minutes and watch an air battle between German and British ’planes. We count 10 ’planes in the battle, but there are others behind the clouds. We work as usual until 12:30 p. m., and then return to Brandhoek. Fritz shells pretty close to where we are billeted at night, but fails to hit either one of the billets.

August 24, 1918

Our work is in an old reserve trench, about three kilometers from Brandhoek. We walk to and from our work, working until 11 a. m. We repair parts of the trenches that have been washed out by recent rains. In the morning about 2 a. m., Fritz shells Brandhoek and the railway tracks that run into this place, doing only minor damage. After dinner, as I have nothing else to do, I stroll about the surrounding country and view some of the destruction wrought by the Germans. I meet some Canadian soldiers (“Canucks”) that are repairing the light railroad tracks, and chat with several of them for a while. We confine our talk chiefly to the States, where it seems nearly half of them are from. They are all anxious to return home and forget the war. Further down the same track I meet some English soldiers (“Tommies”) doing the same work and I find that they are also anxious to return home to “Blighty” (England). They both seem satisfied that the war will be over in a few months. They think one side or the other will win a great battle that will end the war.

August 25, 1918

We move further down the same trench and work, stopping for the day at 11 a. m. A squad of us fellows are given a task sand-bagging a short switch-trench. Three different times in the morning German ’planes attempt to make observations of the trenches we are working in. Each time they come over we sit still so they cannot tell that there is any soldiers in these trenches. When allied ’planes come upon the scene the German ’planes fly back over their own lines. About 10 a. m. German artillerymen begin shelling an ammunition dump that is not very far from us, and soon a loud explosion is heard the concussion of the exploding shells being felt by us all. A large piece of shell falls within a few yards of where we are working. The Germans are admittedly good gunners and this proved they were. The observation ’planes had located the dump and reported to the artillery.

August 26, 1918

It rains all day but we work just the same. We work until 11 a. m. and then return to our billets, where we remain the rest of the day, being unable to go elsewhere on account of the rain. The lieutenant says for us to clean our rifles and bayonets and see that our masks are in good condition. The fellows spend the most of the time in the afternoon fighting cooties though. We take off our undershirts and “skin” them good to be sure that none of them escape. But look as long as we may there will still be cooties to bite and cause us to miss some sleep at night, for no sooner than we had “turned in” they would start their counter-offensive. As one of the fellows put in “the more you kill the more they come.” They are little but can often be felt.

August 27, 1918

We work from 4 to 11 a. m. at the same place. Late in the afternoon men from the second and fourth platoons are formed into a gas details to help send over several carloads of gas. Sun-down finds them on their way to the trenches, followed soon by several cars of gas, nearly 60 of them altogether. About midnight, this gas is sent over to Fritz as a souvenir from the American soldiers on the Ypres front. Two platoon suffer 16 casualties in doing this; three being killed, two dying later from the effects of the gas, and 11 others being gassed, some of them pretty bad. The first man killed belonged to the fourth platoon.

August 28, 1918

The detail returns at 3 o’clock in the morning from the trenches. We are off all day, so we who did not get to go on the “midnight party to No Man’s Land” ask lots of questions of the fellows that did. I help carry one of the fellows from his billet to the first aid station that had been gassed while sending over the gas. This first aid station is in Brandhoek in an old deserted building. Major General Lewis, our divisional commander, plays a visit to our billets and questions several of the fellows who went on the gas detail about the method used in sending the gas over and in regard to how the fellows that got killed met their death. The general questions the sergeant that as in charge of the detail for several minutes.

August 29, 1918

All of the fellows that went up with the gas detail are excused from work while those of us who did not go work from 4 to 11 a. m. In the afternoon I go to an estaminent and spend the time talking with the fellows that come in. Fritz shells the roads at night and makes things pretty lively.

August 30, 1918

We work from 4 to 11 a.m. in the trenches. We are off in the afternoon and I walk over to the graveyard that the three fellows that were killed are buried in. British soldiers are buried in the graveyard also, the Americans having a little plot off to themselves. Leaving the graveyard I go to an English camp and join in one of their favorite games. It is 11 p. m. before I start back to my billet. Fritz is shelling the roads and it makes me feel a little uneasy, but I reach my billet without any trouble through. The fellows are still awake when I come in, talking about the war and cooties. It is midnight before the discussion is stopped and the fellows go to sleep.

August 31, 1918

We work in the trenches sand-bagging, from 4 to 11 a. m. After 11 a. m. we return to our billets and are excused from all duties in the afternoon. German ’planes come over at night, and bomb the roads, the anti-aircraft and machine guns making it pretty hot for them all the time. They soon fly back over their own lines, but return later in the night and bomb again. The bursting of bombs does not sound so good to us as we do not know what minute the Germans will drop a few over our way. It looked at one time that they were going to bomb us, but we are spared. We feel able to sleep after they have recrossed their own lines for the last time during the night.