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SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
 ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 
 
 LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
 MELBOURNE 
 
 THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 
 
 TORONTO 
 
SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 \/ BY 
 
 CAPTAIN G.'^B. McKEAN, V.C., M.C., M.M. 
 
 14th Battalion Canadian Infantry 
 
 WITH FOREWORD BY 
 LIEUT.-GEN. SIE R. E. W. TURNER 
 
 V.C., K.C.B., K.C.M.G., D.S.O. 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 1919 
 
 All rights reserved 
 

 COPTMOHT, 1919, 
 
 bt the macmillan company. 
 
 Set up and electrotyped. Published May, 1919. 
 
 mi i^!9iy 
 
 Notinooli ^trss 
 
 J. S. Cushing Co. — Berwick A Smith Co. 
 
 Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 
 
 ©CI.A525447 
 
FOEEWORD 
 
 By Lieut.-Gen. Sir R. E. W. Turner, V.C, 
 K.C.B., K.C.M.G., D.S.O. Chief op Gen- 
 eral Staff, Canadian Forces 
 
 rpHE initiative, and individual bravery 
 -■■ of the Battalion Scouts have been 
 outstanding in the Canadian Army since the 
 beginning of the Campaign. 
 
 It can be truthfully said, the Canadians on 
 their front owned " No Man's Land." 
 
 This ascendancy over the Boche was 
 gained not by reckless bravery, but by the 
 superior intellect and resourcefulness of our 
 men, developed by studied training. 
 
 The lessons gained on their dangerous 
 patrols in the face of an enemy, by our gal- 
 lant scouts will be invaluable in helping the 
 Scout movement so happily revived in Can- 
 ada by H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught 
 during his term as Governor General. 
 
vi FOREWORD 
 
 This book, written by a Scout officer who 
 has gained the most coveted decoration of 
 the British Army in the execution of his 
 duty, depicts in simple language the neces- 
 sity for Scouts to at all times live up to their 
 motto '^ Be prepared. '* 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 FoHEWORD BY Lieut.-Gen. Sie R. E. W. Turner, 
 
 V.C, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., D.S.O. 
 Introductory 
 
 I. An Ambuscade 
 II. A Find . 
 
 III. Exploding a Mine 
 
 IV. Raid Reconnaissances 
 V. Pulling the String 
 
 VI. Hun Raids 
 VII. The Mysterious Tunnel 
 VIII. Lost in No Man's Land 
 IX. Winning a V.C. 
 X. The Warning Whistle . 
 XI. A Bayonet Charge 
 XII. Capturing a Village 
 
 V 
 
 1 
 11 
 
 28 
 
 45 
 
 61 
 
 78 
 
 95 
 
 120 
 
 140 
 
 155 
 
 181 
 
 197 
 
 216 
 
 vM 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 THE purpose of this book is to set forth, 
 in as attractive a form as possible, the 
 interesting and important work performed 
 by scouts in the Great War, now happily 
 brought to a successful and triumphant 
 conclusion. It is necessarily limited to 
 personal experiences, but, as similar ex- 
 periences were common to the work of. all 
 scouts, it is really more than a personal 
 narrative. It is not written to instruct in 
 methods of scouting, for doubtless, to the 
 highly trained, expert scout, many of the 
 things we did in carrying out our duties 
 would appear to be clumsy and inex- 
 perienced—methods to be avoided, not 
 copied. The stories are written to enter- 
 tain and possibly to thrill, but certainly 
 not to instruct. To the boy who loves 
 stories of adventure (and what boy is there 
 who does not?) this book will, I trust, 
 make an appeal. The stories are plain, 
 unvarnished, truthful records of incidents 
 
2 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 that actually happened. There are no 
 fictitious characters introduced; I have 
 not even attempted to camouflage names. 
 In doing this, I sincerely hope that I have 
 not given offence to any one, that those 
 who unexpectedly find themselves figuring 
 in these stories will pardon me for having, 
 without their consent, introduced them into 
 print. 
 
 For more than four years we have been 
 entertained, thrilled, and instructed by 
 highly coloured accounts, written by war 
 correspondents, of the important decisive 
 actions of the war. They were continu- 
 ously on the fringe of the battle and ex- 
 cellently placed for giving a broad, general 
 description of events as they were happen- 
 ing. It is the privilege of humble partici- 
 pants, such as myself, to give the more 
 intimate account of these same historic 
 events. I have attempted to do this from 
 the scouts' standpoint, for I think it can 
 safely be claimed that of all the partici- 
 pants in the war, there were none who en- 
 joyed more unique opportunities for viewing 
 it from, as it were, ' a front seat,' than did 
 the scout. We were forever scraping up a 
 lively acquaintance with the Hun. We 
 
INTRODUCTORY 3 
 
 found, as I hope these stories prove, that 
 he was woefully lacking in the spirit of 
 adventure. Our mastery over No Man's 
 Land was very seldom challenged, and on 
 behalf of all scouts, I do not hesitate to 
 claim our overwhelming superiority over 
 the Hun in this interesting and adventurous 
 work. 
 
 It was pure love of adventure that 
 attracted me to scouting, a love which, if 
 not exactly born in me, was at least de- 
 veloped in me, through my association with 
 the Boy Scout movement; and it was the 
 principles of this organisation which, more 
 than anything else, underlay all our train- 
 ing. I remember very vividly, when I was 
 acting as an instructor at a school for 
 training scouts that, at the beginning of 
 each class, we were addressed by a colonel 
 under whose supervision we worked. His 
 first question to the class was : — 
 
 * Now, boys, what is it most important 
 that a scout should have?' The replies 
 were many and varied, but seldom correct. 
 ' Good eyesight '; ' good hearing '; ' good 
 physique ' ; ' be a good shot ' ; 'a knowl- 
 edge of map reading ' ; were some of the 
 many replies. 
 
4 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 * No, you are all wrong/ the colonel 
 would reply; ' a scout's honour is the most 
 important thing of all. If a scout isn't to 
 be trusted then he's no good to me, and 
 he will be no good to his commanding 
 officer. ' 
 
 It was to develop this sense of honour 
 that was the chief end and aim of our 
 training. For no matter how clever and 
 expert a scout might be, if he could not 
 be trusted to carry out his commission, then 
 he was no good as a scout. The scouts 
 worked alone, it was seldom any check 
 could be kept on their work; they either 
 said they had carried out an order and had; 
 or else they said they had carried out an 
 order and hadn't. The importance of having 
 scouts who, no matter what difficulties or 
 dangers were involved, would carry out 
 orders and return with the information 
 required, can easily be understood. 
 
 The work of the scout in France was full 
 of interest, excitement and danger. Each 
 patrol was an adventure. That narrow 
 strip of land separating armies and known 
 as No Man's Land was our hunting ground. 
 It was a strangely lonely place, friendless 
 and menacing, a land of darkness and 
 
INTRODUCTORY 5 
 
 mystery, but possessing a fascination all 
 its own. The object of our patrols was 
 to obtain information about the enemy — 
 to locate definitely his outposts, to report 
 upon his defences, such as the condition of 
 his wire, et cetera. 
 
 Our work was chiefly done under the 
 cover of darkness — the time when we could 
 best approach his defences without being 
 observed. Occasionally, during the last 
 few months of the war, when attacks were 
 an almost daily occurrence and the situa- 
 tion was frequently obscure, daylight patrols 
 were sent out. But a daylight patrol, un- 
 less the conditions were favourable to it 
 (such as, for example, working along an 
 old trench), was never very satisfactory. 
 The difficulties of approaching closely to 
 the enemy positions were usually too great 
 to be successfully overcome. 
 
 Associated with the scouts were observers 
 and snipers, the three sections being grouped 
 together and known generally as the In- 
 telligence section. This was a separate 
 unit in a battalion, and was under the 
 command of an Intelligence Officer who, 
 in most battalions, had associated with him 
 in his work a Scout Officer. All members 
 
6 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 of this unit were known as specialists, 
 and did special training during the period 
 when the battalion was resting. They 
 were billeted together, messed together, 
 and generally were a very happy, sociable 
 family of about thirty men. During the 
 training periods the scouts were instructed 
 in map-reading; the use of the prismatic 
 compass; marching on compass bearings 
 by day and by night; sketching and 
 making reports ; signalling (semaphore and 
 Morse) ; methods of crawling ; practice in 
 bomb-throwing, and revolver practice. The 
 two latter were probably the most popular 
 branches of training. We were usually 
 most happy when we could get in amongst 
 some old trenches and practise bombing 
 raids, using live bombs. Eight or ten of 
 us would throw bombs together and make a 
 most terrific noise. We once got hold 
 of a box of salvaged German bombs, which 
 had a much louder detonation than ours, 
 but were not nearly so dangerous. We 
 thought it a good idea to get used to 
 German bombs exploding within a few 
 yards of us, so gaily scattered salvos of 
 them around, to the great alarm of the 
 inhabitants of an adjoining village who, 
 
INTRODUCTORY 7 
 
 hearing these loud explosions and finding 
 that the windows of their houses rattled 
 and shook, rushed out of their houses in 
 dismay, thinking that the hated Boche was 
 bombing them! By an unhappy coin- 
 cidence, on our very first night in the line 
 following this, we made an altogether too 
 intimate acquaintance with German bombs 
 and one of the most popular members of 
 our section was killed/ These practices did 
 not lack the element of danger; on two 
 occasions we had scouts wounded. In 
 addition to the work of patrolling, there 
 was the work of guiding reliefs in and out 
 of the line. This demanded an intimate 
 acquaintance with all the routes in the 
 back and forward areas, which could only 
 be obtained by diligent and painstaking 
 reconnaissance work. 
 
 The above gives a fairly detailed account 
 of the different duties of the scout in France. 
 It will perhaps serve to give an added in- 
 terest to the stories that follow. 
 
 I joined the Intelligence section first as 
 a sniper but, a few days later, I was made 
 an observer, and a few weeks later still, 
 
 ^ The incident is described in the story Lost in No Man's 
 Land. 
 
8 SCOUTING THEILLS 
 
 became a scout. I afterwards became scout 
 corporal, and finally scout officer. 
 
 The sequence of the stories is exactly as 
 they happened. Between the first and 
 second there is a gap of some months. The 
 scene of the first is in the Ypres salient, and 
 that of the second is Vimy Ridge. During 
 the interval between, we took part in what 
 was, as far as my experience goes, the 
 bloodiest fighting of the whole war. I refer 
 to the Battle of the Sonmae in 1916. The 
 memories of it are too gruesome for me ever 
 to include any incident of my experiences 
 in a book of, I trust, fairly cheerful war 
 stories. It was a period which, to me, was 
 entirely lacking in the glamour and romance 
 which we all associate with the war. The 
 last two stories are not scouting stories, but 
 I trust the interest in them will not be 
 lefssened on that account. Apart from con- 
 veying some idea of the conditions prevail- 
 ing in the final stages of the war, and the 
 new and changed conditions under which 
 scouts were working, they describe two that 
 were (to me at any rate) rather thrilling 
 incidents, and so should be of interest to all 
 readers. 
 
 Although the book is written primarily 
 
INTRODUCTORY 9 
 
 for boys, I trust that the stories will prove 
 of sufficient interest to entertain ' grown- 
 ups ' also. 
 
 Some of the characters in this book have 
 paid the supreme sacrifice. Truer com- 
 rades, or braver soldiers, it would be difficult 
 to find. I count it a privilege to give public 
 expression to my unbounded and warmly 
 affectionate admiration of their sterling 
 worth as soldiers and men — the type that 
 has brought immortal fame and glory to 
 Canada's citizen army. To have fought 
 with them side by side will be for ever a 
 proud memory. The example of patriotism 
 and sacrifice which they have set — ^these 
 scouts of the Great War — should be copied 
 and practised by every boy who belongs to 
 the great Boy Scout organisation. 
 
AN AMBUSCADE 
 
 THIS is not going to be a story about my- 
 self, tbough I might come into it 
 occasionally. It is about the boys who 
 taught me scouting, particularly about one 
 boy known familiarly as Tommy. He 
 was scout sergeant when I first made his 
 acquaintance, and afterwards became scout 
 officer at the time when I was a corporal in 
 the scout section. 
 
 My acquaintance began from the moment 
 when I joined the battalion in the spring 
 of 1916. My imagination had been well 
 fed at the Base upon stories of hair-raising 
 escapes and ghastly mutilation, so it was 
 with very mixed feelings that I looked 
 forward to my participation in the Great 
 War. My interest in scouting led me to 
 seek out the boys engaged in this adven- 
 turous work, and it was then that I met 
 Tommy. 
 
 11 
 
12 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 The battalion was out for a few days' 
 rest in a camp of tents in a grove of trees 
 in Flanders. As I approached the tent, 
 sounds of revelry came from it, music and 
 voices singing. I pulled the flap over the 
 opening to one side and entered. Tommy 
 was seated on a little box pulling away at 
 an old melodeon. He was playing the 
 music of many popular songs, the rest of 
 the boys in the tent were all singing lustily. 
 It was a happy, hilarious gathering. There 
 was many a night afterwards when I made 
 one of similar merry gatherings, times 
 too when there were, through casualties, 
 occasional blanks in our choruses. Hard- 
 ships and dangers and longings were quickly 
 and completely forgotten under the spell 
 of the music from Tommy's old melodeon. 
 
 During the two or three days the battalion 
 was resting after I joined it, I cultivated the 
 companionship of the scouts and was always 
 eager to hear the stories of their adventures. 
 When we went up the line I went up ' in 
 the company,' which means that I was just 
 one of the common or garden type of 
 Tommy, doing sentry duty and working- 
 parties and cultivating an eye for a 'Minnie. '^ 
 
 1' Minnie,' a German minenwerfer shell, corresponding to 
 our trench mortar shell. 
 
AN AMBUSCADE 13 
 
 I shall not forget the first night when I 
 looked out over the parapet into that land 
 of mystery and wonder — No Man's Land. 
 Somewhere out there was the enemy! 
 Occasionally I saw the flash of a rifle as 
 a German sentry fired, and heard the sing 
 of the bullet. Merely to look out over 
 there seemed to me an act of courage! I 
 tingled with the excitement of my new ex- 
 perience. At last I was in the war, not 
 merely dressed up as a soldier, but actually 
 facing the enemy — not more than a hundred 
 yards away ! And it was that little strip of 
 land bestrewn with wire and obstacles, 
 that unknown disputed piece of ground 
 called ' No Man's Land ' — that most readily 
 and quickly appealed to my imagination. 
 I looked out into it and pondered over 
 its mystery. As if in answer to my unspoken 
 question an N.C.O. hopped on to the firing 
 step alongside of me and asked : 
 
 ' Did you hear anybody in the wire ? ' 
 As a matter of fact I had been doing 
 nothing else but hearing and seeing things ! 
 Like every land of mystery it seemed to be 
 peopled with shadowy forms. 
 
 * Yes,' I whispered back earnestly, ' I 
 think I saw somebody too. ' 
 
 * Where ? ' he asked. 
 
14 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 * There,' I replied, indicating the direc- 
 tion. 
 
 After a few moments the N.C.O. turned to 
 me. 
 
 ' Did you ever see a fence post I ' he 
 asked. 
 
 ^ Scores of them, ' I replied. 
 
 ^ Well, you must have forgotten what 
 they look like, for that's what your man is 
 out there — a fence post. ' 
 
 It was rather discouraging and humili- 
 ating, but it taught me a lesson — that a little 
 imagination on a dark night is a very 
 dangerous thing. 
 
 * Keep a good look out,' said the N.C.O. 
 as he left me ; ' A fellow a little further 
 along the trench swears he heard some one 
 in the wire. ' 
 
 A few minutes later I felt a tug on my 
 arm — it was the N.C.O. back again. 
 
 * A patrol is going out on the left — 
 five scouts ; they '11 be out for about two 
 hours. If you see or hear anybody out 
 there, be sure to challenge before you 
 shoot.' 
 
 Five scouts going out into No Man's 
 Land! My imagination immediately got 
 busy — ^five scouts roaming around out there 
 
AN AMBUSCADE 15 
 
 in that land of mystery and darkness! 
 My imaginings were interrupted by the 
 relief coming along to take my place, but 
 my curiosity was not lessened, and I was 
 glad and relieved when I heard the word 
 being passed along that ^ the patrol was in.' 
 A few minutes later they passed along the 
 trench. The next morning when off duty 
 I went down to headquarters and sought 
 out the scouts. Tommy, at my request, 
 gave me an account of the patrol of the 
 previous night. I was full of curiosity. 
 One scout had been fired at, the bullet 
 passing through his cap. When he had 
 finished, I asked : 
 
 * Do you think I could get into your 
 section?/ 
 
 ^ * Yes, sure ; next time you are out of the 
 line, ask to be transferred. ' 
 
 I did so and was transferred. As I had 
 some knowledge of map reading I went 
 into the line as an observer and not as a 
 scout. My duty as an observer was to sit 
 in a specially constructed Observation Post 
 from which a good view of a particular 
 section of the German trench was available. 
 The O.P. (as it was popularly called) was 
 equipped with a telescope and a map. I 
 
16 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 shan't ever forget the excitement and shock 
 of seeing my first German. The telescope 
 was a good one and the German trench a bare 
 hundred yards away. It was a sunny 
 morning and I was sitting with my eye 
 glued to the telescope when the top of a 
 German service cap (the soft peakless kind) 
 came into my field of view. Very slowly 
 it moved upwards, then I saw a pair of 
 eyebrows, then the eyes underneath these, 
 and finally the fat, full face of a German I 
 He was stealing a look across No Man's 
 Land! But this was nothing to the ex- 
 citement of the following morning when, 
 about two thousand yards behind the 
 German front line, there appeared a party 
 of about fifty Germans — carrying picks and 
 shovels. I watched them until they halted, 
 then spread out and commenced digging. 
 Rapidly I figured out just about where they 
 would be on the map, and making a note 
 of the location, rushed back to headquarters 
 and reported it. I was told the artillery 
 would fire a few rounds into them so rushed 
 back to the O.P. to see what would happen. 
 In a few minutes I heard the scream of 
 shells passing overhead. I saw a few white 
 puffs not many feet above the heads of 
 
AN AMBUSCADE 17 
 
 the working-party: it was shrapnel. Im- 
 mediately there was the wildest confusion 
 — picks and shovels were thrown down and 
 men ran wildly in all directions! I was 
 fairly dancing with excitement and satis- 
 faction ! After some minutes they returned 
 in one's and two's; those who had been hit 
 were carried away; picks and shovels were 
 collected and the party straggled back, leav- 
 ing the work unfinished. But, interesting as 
 all this was, my chief longing was to go out 
 on patrol, and, that night, I went to where 
 the scouts were staying. 
 
 ^ Hullo, ' said Tommy, ^ how do you like 
 observing'? ' 
 
 * Fine,' I replied, and proceeded to give 
 him an account of the discomfiture of the 
 Huns. When I had finished I remarked : 
 
 * I suppose you are going out to-night? ' 
 
 * Yes ; two or three of us. ' 
 
 * What are the chances of going out with 
 you? ' 
 
 * Why, d'you want to come? ' 
 
 * Yes, I'm very keen.' 
 
 * All right, come along about nine o'clock, 
 we'll get a revolver for you. ' 
 
 ' Thanks very much,' I said, ^ I'll be along 
 at nine.' 
 
18 SCOUTING THEILLS 
 
 I was there before nine. 
 
 * Before you go out, ' Tommy remarked to 
 me, ' you must take all your badges off and 
 leave all letters and papers behind. ' 
 
 'Why is that? ' I asked. 
 
 ' Well, in case you were taken prisoner or 
 were killed and had to be left out there. 
 If they found letters and papers on you 
 they would secure identification. Also the 
 badges show up bright when a flare light is 
 shot up, and would perhaps give away our 
 position at the time.' 
 
 So I very seriously and soberly began to 
 remove all badges and letters. These pre- 
 cautions impressed me with the seriousness 
 of this game of scouting. A few minutes 
 afterwards the Scout Officer came in and 
 we went up to the front line. It was a very 
 dark night, but quite mild and dry. We 
 moved up and down the trench warning 
 the sentries. At last we came to the place 
 where it had been decided we should go out. 
 The officer was not going — Tommy, another 
 scout, and myself were to make up the 
 patrol. The place where it had been decided 
 we should go out at was one of our Listening 
 Posts. Now, of all the unpopular duties 
 that fell to the lot of the suffering Tommy, 
 
AN AMBUSCADE 19 
 
 that of Listening Post was perhaps the 
 most detestable. It was usually made up 
 of two men who, as an extra defensive 
 precaution, were sent out in front of the 
 front line trench. The distance out from 
 our trench varied, sometimes not more than 
 twenty yards, sometimes fifty to seventy-five 
 yards. The men usually established them- 
 selves in some commodious shell-hole and 
 were in communication with the front 
 line trench by means of a wire. One pull 
 on the wire signified O.K., two pulls (from 
 the trench) was a signal to the men in the 
 Listening Post that some one (probably 
 the relief) was coming out from the trench, 
 three pulls (from the Listening Post) was 
 a call for the N.C.O., four pulls (from the 
 Listening Post) was an alarm, five pulls 
 (from the trench) was the signal to the men 
 in the Listening Post to return to the 
 trench. It was a dirty, dangerous job, and 
 thoroughly disliked. The miseries of it on 
 a cold wet night can easily be imagined, often 
 lying in a shell-hole half filled with water. 
 Sometimes a little wire was strung out in 
 front as protection against attack, but 
 more often the post was unprotected. 
 Occasionally there was a tragedy out there : 
 
20 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 a rifle fired or a bomb thrown, and frantic 
 signals out to the Listening Post unanswered. 
 A party goes out to find maybe one man 
 lying dead and one missing, or perhaps both 
 missing. The Listening Post we passed 
 was perhaps twenty to thirty yards out 
 from our trench, just inside of our wire. 
 After a few whispered words to the two 
 men in it, we crawled through our wire and 
 out into the land of my imaginative wonder- 
 ings — No Man's Land! Tommy led the 
 way while I brought up the rear. Just as 
 I was in the act of raising myself over a 
 twisted wire stake, a flare light was shot 
 up from the German trench. 
 
 * Stay where you are, ' came back the sharp 
 whispered command from Tommy. 
 
 As the light broke and fell I felt myself 
 to be assuming gigantic proportions; I felt 
 as if the eyes of the whole German army 
 were being riveted upon me and a thou- 
 sand rifles were levelled at me ! It was my 
 first experience of being in the lime-light of 
 No Man's Land. The light flickered and 
 slowly died out, and the darkness seemed 
 more intense than ever. With a sigh of 
 relief and thankfulness, I completed my 
 progress over the obstacle and followed on 
 
AN AMBUSCADE 21 
 
 the heels of the scout in front of me. After 
 crawling along for some time the heels 
 suddenly disappeared. With palpitating 
 heart I continued to crawl and came to the 
 edge of a huge shell-hole. I looked down 
 into it but failed to distinguish anything, 
 then I heard somebody whisper : 
 ' Come on down into this shell-hole. ' 
 I did so, and found Tommy and the other 
 scout contentedly sitting in the bottom of it. 
 We did not stop to examine it closely, but 
 crawled out of it and forward into another 
 one not quite so large. Tommy came along- 
 side of me. 
 
 * Can you see the German wire ? ' 
 
 I looked and saw a shadowy mass not 
 many yards in front of me. We lay listening 
 for some time. 
 
 * I'm going to wake 'em up,' whispered 
 Tommy. 
 
 * What are you going to do V I asked. 
 
 ^ Throw a bomb into his trench if I 
 can.' 
 
 I thrilled with anticipation. This was 
 the real thing, I thought. Tommy stood 
 up in the bottom of the shell-hole, grasped 
 the bomb in his hand, pulled the pin and 
 stood ready to throw it. I trembled with 
 
22 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 the excitement of the moment. At last I 
 heard the click of the released lever as the 
 bomb flew over my head. A few seconds 
 later there is a flash and a crash as the bomb 
 explodes. Instantly three flare lights are 
 shot up, breaking ahnost simultaneously, 
 and the bullets from a machine gun swish 
 over our heads. More lights go up — the Ger- 
 man parapet is easily visible. We stay 
 there perfectly still. After a few minutes 
 the excitement dies down and we start back 
 for our own trench. My first impulse was to 
 get up and walk, but I recognised that cau- 
 tion in returning was every bit as necessary 
 as caution in going out. The amazing thing 
 to me was the directness with which Tommy, 
 despite the black darkness, went out and 
 came back in again. Not many minutes 
 after we had started on our return journey 
 I heard voices in front of me — it was Tommy 
 talking to the men in the Listening Post. A 
 few minutes afterwards we were back in the 
 protection and friendliness of our own 
 trench. I was filled with a feeling of ex- 
 hilaration. No Man's Land became more 
 fascinating than ever to me — it was a place 
 of thrills and adventure ! 
 
 The next morning I was on duty in the 
 
AN AMBUSCADE 23 
 
 O.P. — in fact most of the day was spent 
 there. That night I was feeling too tired 
 to try another midnight excursion between 
 the lines. However, I went along to see the 
 scouts before they went out. 
 
 * Did you notice that big hole we were in 
 last night,' Tommy asked. 
 
 ^ All I noticed was that it was a pretty big 
 one,' I answered. 
 
 * I intended having another look at it 
 when we were coming back, but missed it,' 
 continued Tommy. ' It seemed to me to 
 be smooth, as though it was being used as 
 a Listening Post or something of the sort. 
 I intend having another look at it to- 
 night. ' 
 
 I stayed till they had gone, then went 
 along to my own bit of a shelter, rolled 
 myself up in my greatcoat, and was soon 
 fast asleep. At daylight I was again sitting 
 in the O.P. scanning the German trenches 
 for signs of movement or new work. I had 
 not been there long before I saw a German 
 periscope pushed up, the interesting thing 
 about it being that, as I could plainly see the 
 glass reflector, I could also see the face of the 
 German sentry who occasionally looked into 
 it. He looked frankly bored with the war 
 
24 SCOUTING THEILLS 
 
 and his particular part in it. I had 
 an inspiration. I climbed out of the O.P. 
 and went along the trench until I found one 
 of our snipers. We went back to the O.P. 
 and I pointed out to him the periscope. We 
 then went along to a sniping post from which 
 a view of the periscope was obtainable. I 
 left him there, asking him to wait a couple 
 of minutes until I could get back into the 
 O.P. to see the fun. The Hun sentry was 
 looking into the periscope when I got my 
 glass on to it again. I had only a few seconds 
 to wait when a bullet went right into the 
 centre of the reflector, smashing it to smith- 
 ereens. I was satisfied that we had brought 
 the war home to the Hun in a very e:ffective 
 way. A few minutes afterwards I was 
 joined by the sniper. I congratulated him 
 on his shooting. 
 
 * Oh, by the way,' he said, * did you hear 
 about the scouts having a big scrap in No 
 Man's Land last night? ' 
 
 * No, ' I replied, ' what happened ? ' 
 
 * Oh, they got into a German Listening 
 Post or something of the sort. ' 
 
 * I must find out about this when I go 
 back. ' 
 
 In the afternoon when off duty for an 
 
AN AMBUSCADE 25 
 
 hour or two I went along to the scouts' 
 dug-out. 
 
 * Hullo, Tommy, ' I said. ^ Heard you 
 had a fight out on patrol last night. ' 
 
 * Yes,' he answered; ' sit down and I'll 
 tell you about it. You remember that big 
 hole we were in the night before last ? ' 
 
 * Yes,' I replied. 
 
 * "Well, that was the place where we had 
 all the fun. Pour of us went out at the same 
 place— the Listening Post. We passed that 
 shell-hole, so I thought we would examine it 
 when coming back. We crawled around for 
 a while, getting close up to the German wire. 
 In coming back we went into that shell-hole 
 — it was even bigger than I thought it was. 
 In examining it I found a big hole in the side 
 nearest to the German trench. Covering 
 this hole or entrance were four thick, rough 
 boards laid loosely against it. While I was 
 looking at these I heard the click of a rifle 
 bolt just inside the entrance. Keeping an 
 eye on the entrance, I motioned a scout to 
 take up a position in a clump of bushes on 
 top of the opposite side of the shell-hole, 
 another one to lie on top of the entrance 
 looking down into it, while the other one 
 came alongside of me. When we were all 
 
26 SCOUTING THBILLS 
 
 in position I pushed my revolver in tlie 
 crack between two of the loose boards, and 
 fired. Immediately there was a rush and the 
 boards were sent flying in all directions. A 
 bayonet flashed past my ear and a Hun 
 almost fell on top of me. I pulled the 
 trigger and he collapsed. Inside the en- 
 trance was a crowd of struggling, shrieking 
 Huns. Three of us, including the scout 
 lying on top of the entrance, emptied our 
 revolvers into them and then scattered. A 
 few seconds afterwards bombs were thrown 
 from the shell-hole, but we were well clear of 
 it by then — at least I was. We got separated 
 and returned singly into the trench.' 
 
 * Say, but you were lucky to get out of 
 it so easily. But what were the Huns doing 
 packed in there ? ' 
 
 ' We 've been talking it over. It was 
 likely that they heard us there the night 
 before last and then, hearing us pass there 
 again last night, they had decided to get a 
 big party together to cut us off so that we 
 couldn't get back to our own trench. That 
 was a tunnel they were packed in, which con- 
 nected the Listening Post with the German 
 trench. They were evidently all ready in 
 there to come out when we slipped down into 
 
AN AMBUSCADE 27 
 
 the hole. In other words, we got there ahead 
 of them. ' 
 
 ' Well, you certainly spoiled their little 
 game, didn't you 1 ' 
 
 ^ Yes, we certainly did, and I guess we 
 messed up a few of them too. ' 
 
 A few days later we were all singing 
 lustily again to the tune of Tommy's old 
 melodeon, the perils and thrills of No Man's 
 Land forgotten. It was hard to tell in 
 which Tommy excelled most, his intrepidity 
 as a scout or his skill as a musician. After 
 being scout officer with us for some months 
 he was selected, on account of his special 
 qualities of daring and initiative, to be one 
 of a secret mission sent to the East. But we 
 shall meet with Tommy again. 
 
II 
 
 A FIND 
 
 WE sat coughing and spluttering over 
 a smouldering wood fire which 
 Sharkum, the Russian, claimed the credit 
 for lighting. 
 
 ' You ought to be shot at dawn for calling 
 this bunch of smoke a fire, Sharkum,' 
 coughed Louis. 
 
 ^ Dat's a good fire,' responded Sharkum; 
 
 * you are lazy, want other peoples mak a 
 fire while you do noding else but sit over 
 it so that other peoples can't get near.' 
 
 ' Never mind, Sharkum, ' interrupted Jack 
 the scout sergeant, ' you can stay in to- 
 night and look after your fire. Louis can 
 go with us on patrol. Try and have some 
 warm tea ready for us when we get back. ' 
 
 * That's right, Sharkum,' I chipped in, 
 
 * you keep the home fires burning while we 
 go and look for one of those terrible Huns. 
 Be sure to have the sheets aired for us when 
 
 28 
 
A FIND 29 
 
 we get back and sprinkle them well with 
 Keatings'. I love the taste of Keatings' 
 when I wake up in the morning. ' 
 
 * Yes, Sharkum/ said the irrepressible 
 Louis, ^ you see, that's what we keep you 
 in the section for while we men go out and 
 do the work.' (Sharkimi would easily have 
 made two of Louis.) ' Besides, it's safer 
 in the dug-out, and you can keep your feet 
 warm down here. ' 
 
 Sharkum's eyes began to gleam angrily; 
 he was neither a coward nor a slacker. Then 
 he saw Louis wasn't in earnest, so began to 
 help us into our crawling suits. Only 
 three of us were going out. The trenches 
 were close, and it was inadvisable to 
 send out large patrols. Clouds were 
 drifting across a bright moon. We waited 
 for the clouds to hide it, for Fritz was only 
 seventy-five yards away. Jack crawled 
 carefully over the parapet and through the 
 wire, and I followed. I was lying partly 
 suspended over the parapet, when a cloud 
 hurried past the moon and it shone down 
 clear and bright. There was nothing to do 
 but wait for the next cloud, and, suspended 
 there, it seemed like an eternity before 
 another cloud came along. Louis followed 
 
30 SCOUTING THKILLS 
 
 a few mimites later. We were now out in 
 the land of mine craters ; huge holes, some 
 of them forty and fifty feet deep in the 
 centre and from fifty to a hundred yards 
 across, with probably a post of ours on the 
 lip, and, immediately opposite, a post of 
 the Germans. The possession of these mine 
 craters was often fiercely disputed, and 
 every night at the slightest suspicion of a 
 noise bombs would be dropped into these 
 yawning holes. No Man's Land on Vimy 
 Ridge was pitted with them — large and 
 small; and our patrols consisted chiefly 
 in crawling into and around them, trying 
 to establish definitely the location of the 
 German posts. At day-time the mine 
 craters were very lightly held; but at 
 night-time, as soon as men could move 
 around unseen, they came crawling out to 
 the different points of vantage on the lip — 
 bombers and machine gunners all deter- 
 mined to hang on grimly to their particular 
 piece of crater! And so, facing each other 
 across that yawning hole were perhaps a 
 score or more of men. We never entered the 
 mine crater from any of our posts on 
 the lip; that would give away, if seen, the 
 location of our own posts ; and also, if seen, 
 
A FIND 31 
 
 the wily Hun would wait until we had got 
 well down into the crater. Then over 
 would come his bombs, exploding with a 
 deafening reverberating crash. So, knowing 
 all this, we usually crawled out into No 
 Man's Land and approached these craters 
 in about the centre part. Our own men, if 
 they saw us, knew who we were, for they 
 had been warned to expect to see us there. 
 In our patrol of the night of this story we 
 had planned to go into one of these craters, 
 intending, as usual, to approach it in the 
 centre. So we crawled on towards it, know- 
 ing it to be some fifty to sixty yards from 
 where we had left our trench. It was 
 while we were crawling towards it that I 
 had the greatest fright I ever had. I had 
 moved forward a few yards and lay listen- 
 ing, when what appeared to me to be a 
 huge dark object moved swiftly across my 
 face about an inch from my nose. My 
 heart gave a great bound and I partly 
 sprang to my feet, when I saw, moving 
 swiftly away from me, a huge rat! Ever 
 after that, when on patrol, I always kept 
 one eye on the look-out for rats straying 
 around. A few minutes later we reached 
 the mine crater and lay looking down into 
 
32 SCOUTING THEILLS 
 
 it. Even in the moonlight the bottom of 
 it was not discernible. After listening for 
 some time, Jack and myself crawled quietly 
 down into it, leaving Louis on the look-out 
 on top. We crawled up to have a look at 
 everything that appeared suspicious. A 
 German sentry coughed and we looked up. 
 We could see the top of his steel helmet 
 glistening in the moonlight. We spent 
 nearly an hour crawling around in that 
 weird place without anything eventful hap- 
 pening. I went back for Louis, and the 
 three of us then crawled out at the other 
 side. It was a relief to get out of that 
 dismal hole. After resting for a few min- 
 utes (for crawling is hard, tiring work) 
 we made off in the direction of the German 
 trench. We carefully wriggled our way 
 into the German wire and lay there listening. 
 In the trench, not many yards to our right, 
 we could plainly hear a German working 
 party. We could hear a succession of dull 
 thuds as they knocked some timbers into 
 the ground, apparently repairing a trench. 
 We carefully noted the location, so that, 
 as soon as we returned to our trench, we 
 could notify the trench mortar men, and 
 they would lob a few rounds over, to the 
 
A FIND 33 
 
 discomfiture of the working party. We 
 wriggled out of the wire and continued our 
 wanderings. We were nearing another mine 
 crater when Jack — who was in front — ^made 
 a warning signal with his foot. Then 
 another signal — I crawled alongside of him. 
 He indicated a trench in front of him 
 running out from the German front line 
 (we were then about forty yards from the 
 German trench). We crawled forward un- 
 til we were looking down into it. It was a 
 good trench, and, despite the mud prevailing 
 everywhere, was clean and in good condition. 
 Jack dropped down into it. After a few 
 moments he looked up. 
 
 ' Somebody has been in here, Mac,' he 
 said. ' You watch for any one coming 
 from that direction (indicating the German 
 lines) while I have a look down here.' 
 
 He went off in the direction of our own 
 lines, while I lay with my revolver pointing 
 in the direction of the German lines. In a 
 very few moments he returned. 
 
 ' Just come along here, Mac, and have a 
 look at this, ' he said. 
 
 I followed him a few yards along the 
 trench. At the end of it there was a little 
 shelter reaching almost to the top. Piled 
 
34 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 carefully into this shelter, in neat rows, 
 were about a score of German minenwerfer 
 shells! These were of medium size and 
 must have been placed there recently. 
 What was the idea ? 
 
 ' What do you think it is. Jack; some 
 kind of a trap where, if you touch one, the 
 whole thing goes up *? ' I suggested. 
 
 * No, I don't think so,' he replied. ' Shall 
 we take one of them back with us ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, we might as well.' 
 
 I watched him as he reached to get one, 
 not having entirely got rid of my idea that 
 it was some kind of a trap, and half expect- 
 ing the whole thing to go up. But nothing 
 happened. He handed the shell to me: it 
 weighed about sixty pounds. 
 
 ^ Not much chance to do any crawling with 
 this in your arms, ' I remarked. 
 
 * No, we can't crawl with it; it's a case of 
 getting up and walking.' 
 
 ' How far do you think we are from our 
 nearest post ? ' 
 
 ' Probably fifty to sixty yards. ' 
 
 ' Could you go to it in a straight line from 
 here? ' 
 
 * Yes, easily.' 
 
 ' All right, you start off. Get into that 
 
A FIND 35 
 
 post and I'll follow behind with this ' 
 (lovingly hugging the Minnie). 
 
 * Righto,' he said, climbed out of the 
 trench and made off in the direction of our 
 post. When he had got about half way I 
 laid the Minnie shell carefully on the outside 
 of the trench (we weren't sure whether or 
 not it was detonated), climbed out, picked 
 up the shell, and followed in the direction 
 Jack was going. The shell was heavy and 
 the mud knee-deep and indescribably sticky. 
 I had intended to go quickly but struggled 
 along, experiencing that nice creeping night- 
 mare feeling where, try as you will, you 
 cannot escape from the horrible fate over- 
 taking you. I reached our post. Jack 
 was standing waiting for me, and I handed 
 him the shell before jumping down into the 
 trench. The two or three men in the post 
 crowded around to see what we had got. 
 
 * A Minnie shell that we found out there, ' 
 explained Jack ; * there 's a small dug-out 
 full of them piled neatly up in rows.' 
 
 ' Is it detonated? ' queried one interested 
 youth. 
 
 ' Don't know,' answered Jack. * I expect 
 it is.' 
 
 * Punch it on the nose with the butt of 
 
36 SCOUTING THEILLS 
 
 your rifle,' suggested Louis, ' that 's the 
 best way to find out. If it explodes, it is 
 detonated— if it doesn't, it isn't detonated. 
 Quite simple.' 
 
 But nobody showed any enthusiasm for 
 Louis' method. 
 
 * I '11 carry it part of the way, Jack,' I 
 offered. 
 
 'AH right, Mac, 'he replied, 'we'll spell each 
 other off; it's a pretty heavy thing to carry.' 
 
 I hoisted the shell on to my shoulder, but, 
 as it had been raining recently and the duck- 
 boards were wet and slippery, I stumbled 
 forward. There was a rush — half a 
 dozen pairs of hands seized hold of me 
 to steady me! Nobody seemed disposed 
 to take a chance with that shell. It 
 might not be detonated, and then again it 
 might! Preceded by Jack and followed by 
 Louis, I staggered along on my adventurous 
 journey back to headquarters. Every time 
 I slipped, Louis rushed alongside of me. 
 We came to a narrow part of the trench 
 where it was impossible for two men to 
 pass. Our passage was stubbornly dis- 
 puted by two husky Canucks. 
 
 ' Gangway there,' shouted Jack, ' make 
 way for a party. ' 
 
A FIND 37 
 
 * Gangway yourself, we were here before 
 you chaps,' came back the quick reply. 
 
 * Whoever goes back, we don't,' an- 
 nounced Jack, and started pushing his way 
 past. 
 
 I followed, staggering along under the 
 burden of the Minnie shell. But our two 
 friends were as determined as we were, and 
 so we all got jammed tight in the trench. 
 My hold upon the Minnie shell became 
 loosened — it wobbled dangerously around on 
 my shoulder. 
 
 * For God's sake watch that you don't 
 drop that shell, Mac, ' spoke up Louis, the 
 diplomat, from behind; ' if that nose-cap 
 hits the ground it will blow us all to blazes 
 for sure.' 
 
 ' What d'you mean? ' asked one of the 
 men, ' what shell is this ? ' 
 
 * The shell right in front of your nose 
 there,' replied Louis; * it's a German 
 Minnie shell we found in a dug-out in No 
 Man's Land. The fuse is so instantaneous 
 that if you stroke the nose-cap with a 
 feather the whole crowd of us would be 
 blown sky-high.' 
 
 ' Is that right? ' 
 
 * Sure thing,' chorused the three of us. 
 
38 SCOUTINa THRILLS 
 
 ' Just a minute, fellows; we '11 go back 
 and make way for you/ one of them 
 earnestly and genially assured us. 
 
 * Thanks,' said Louis, ' we want to get 
 rid of this thing as soon as we can. ' 
 
 We passed on without any further trouble. 
 Our next obstacle was a working party 
 cleaning out the trench where it had been 
 almost levelled during the day by Minnies. 
 
 ' Gangway, ' called out Jack. 
 
 But the man swinging the pick failed to 
 take any notice. 
 
 ' Gangway for a party,' called out Jack 
 again. 
 
 The man stopped and looked up. Like 
 most members of a working party, he wasn't 
 a bit inclined to be genial and obliging. 
 
 * What party ? ' he growled. 
 
 * Scouts.' 
 
 ' Well, you can wait ; we 'd be here all 
 night if we let everybody pass that comes 
 along. Wait until a crowd collects and then 
 we let you pass. ' 
 
 * Yes, but I can't wait,' I called out. 
 
 ' Why can't you? — afraid you '11 be late 
 for the second house or something ? ' 
 
 ' Well, I don't feel like dangling this 
 Minnie on my shoulder much longer, and 
 
A FIND 39 
 
 if I drop the cursed thing it will blow us all 
 to kingdom come.' 
 
 * What fairy tale is this about a Minnie ? ' 
 ' No fairy tale at all. We found a dug- 
 out full of Minnie shells out in No Man's 
 Land and brought one in to be examined. 
 Now, if you don't get out of the way I '11 
 throw the thing at you. ' 
 
 * Gangway for a carrying party,' he 
 yelled. 
 
 The cry was taken up and passed on, and 
 we soon were clear of the working party. 
 Nothing further eventful happened until we 
 reached headquarters. Jack, who was 
 carrying the shell now, staggered into head- 
 quarters, while I remained discreetly on the 
 outside of the blanket screening the C.O.'s 
 compartment. 
 
 * Well, Jackson,' I heard the CO. genially 
 remark, * and what 's this you 've got with 
 you.' 
 
 * A Minnie shell, sir, ' replied Jack. 
 
 * A Minnie shell ! ' inquired the CO. with 
 interest, ' where on earth did you get it 
 from? ' 
 
 ' Found it in No Man's Land, sir,' replied 
 Jack, and then proceeded to give him the 
 history of our discovery. 
 
40 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 ^ Um : most interesting, most interesting. ' 
 And then, suspiciously, ' Is it detonated ? ' 
 
 ' Don't know, sir,' replied Jack. 
 
 'What's that — you don't know I ' he 
 roared; ' then how dare you bring that 
 cursed thing in here ! take it out ! take it out 
 at once ! ' 
 
 I heard Jack getting ready to obey, then 
 the CO. again : 
 
 * I suppose you 're cold and wet, Jackson, ' 
 he said relentingly. 
 
 ' Yes, sir,' said Jack, ' it's wet and muddy 
 out to-night. ' 
 
 ' Well, you 'd better have a drink of some- 
 thing warm, and then take that thing 
 to somebody who knows something about it. ' 
 
 I listened enviously as Jack rather noisily 
 (for my benefit) partook of the C.O.'s hos- 
 pitality. He came out, still carrying the 
 Minnie. 
 
 * The CO. doesn't want it,' he remarked 
 tome. 
 
 ' So I understood from his remarks,' I 
 replied. ' Where are we going to take it 
 now? ' 
 
 ' I think we had better find the heavy 
 trench mortar people; they might know 
 something about it. ' 
 
A FIND 41 
 
 * Yes, but do you know where they are ? ' 
 ' I know where the signallers' dug-out is 
 
 at,' he replied. 
 
 ' All right, let Louis carry it now; ' so it 
 was passed on to Louis. 
 
 A few minutes later I felt my way down 
 the steps of the dug-out mentioned. 
 
 * This the heavy trench mortars ? ' 
 
 * Yes, anything you want 1 ' 
 
 * Do you know anything about Minnie 
 shells?' 
 
 'Yes, a little.' 
 
 * Well, we have one here that we found 
 in a dug-out in No Man's Land. There 
 were about a score of them neatly piled in 
 rows. We want to find out if it is detonated. 
 Can you help us out 1 ' 
 
 Just then Louis lurched in, and was pre- 
 paring to drop the shell on to the ground 
 when a corporal hastily interrupted : 
 
 ' Go easy, we have no desire to hit the 
 roof in a hurry, ' he said. 
 
 So Louis carefully deposited the shell on 
 a bench in the dug-out. 
 
 Nobody present had seen a similar shell, 
 and there was a very marked lack of 
 curiosity about it. We began to feel un- 
 comfortable; it was apparent that, for an 
 
42 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 obvious reason, we were not particularly 
 wanted. Personally I was beginning to 
 bate tbe sigbt of that shell; we bad been 
 carrying it around for nearly two hours. 
 Then I had a bright idea. 
 
 ^ I suppose you fellows would like to keep 
 this shell to examine it in your spare time. 
 Besides, brigade will want a report on it 
 and we can refer them to you. ' 
 
 ' Oh no, we don't know anything about 
 Boche Minnie shells; we think you had 
 better take it away. We 're busy and the 
 dug-out is crowded. ' 
 
 Then we began to get stubborn. 
 
 ' Look here,' said Louis, * we don't deal 
 in these things and we were told to bring it 
 to you. Now you 've got it, we '11 be getting 
 on back to our headquarters.' 
 
 * No; I '11 tell you what to do with it,' 
 began one smooth-tongued youth, * take 
 it over to the ofi&cer, he knows all about these 
 things. ' 
 
 ' We don't know where the officer is at,' 
 interrupted Jack, ' and we are not going to 
 look for him either. ' 
 
 ' That 's all right,' continued the youth, 
 * I '11 take you over there.' 
 
 We were defeated; there was nothing 
 
A FIND 43 
 
 else for it but to pick up our shell and go ! 
 Eager willing hands assisted me to get it 
 on to my shoulder. The cold unfriendly 
 atmosphere of the dug-out vanished, it be- 
 came permeated with a genial warmth and 
 good fellowship! A man preceded me up 
 the steps with a light and two more followed 
 close behind, in case I stumbled and fell. 
 Once outside the dug-out we followed in the 
 wake of our guide. 
 
 ' Look here, ' began Louis, ' let 's throw 
 the cursed thing away. Nobody wants it, 
 and we 're * all in ' with carrying it around.' 
 
 'We can't do that,' argued Jack, 'the 
 CO. will send us out to get another if we 
 throw this one away.' 
 [/ After some minutes we arrived at the 
 officer's dug-out, which our guide indicated 
 and then vanished. Jack went in to inter- 
 view him, and soon reappeared bringing the 
 officer with him. 
 
 ' That 's all right, boys; just throw the 
 shell down outside and come on in, you must 
 be cold and wet. ' 
 
 What a relief it was to find some one who 
 really said ' throw the shell down and leave 
 it there ! ' We did so. 
 
 As we were disappearing into the dug-out, 
 
44 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 I heard Louis saying — ^partly to himself, 
 ' Well, I don't care what it is we find in 
 No Man's Land again, if it weighs more than 
 four ounces it stays right where it is at. 
 I 've had enough of carting munitions 
 around to-night to satisfy me for the rest 
 of the war. ' 
 
Ill 
 
 EXPLODING A MINE 
 
 *LJALLO, old man, what are you look- 
 '■' -'■ ing so serious about — aren't you 
 getting enough fun out of the war ? ' 
 
 * Keep quiet, I 'm listening. ' 
 
 ' Listening ! really, you are almost at the 
 point of making a joke! Of all the faults 
 to be found with the war the lack of noise 
 isn't one of them. ' 
 
 * Keep quiet, you fool, I think I can hear 
 tapping. ' 
 
 ' Oh ! ' then I became serious, too. 
 
 * There 's no doubt about it, he 's mining 
 under here. ' 
 
 * How thrilling! I hope he gives me time 
 to clear out before he explodes it.' 
 
 ' Oh, it 's not a new discovery by any 
 means. It has been reported before, and 
 we 've been warned to expect a mine to go 
 up here.' 
 
 This is typical of the days when the * war 
 
 45 
 
46 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 of movement ' was upwards instead of 
 onwards. Of all the weird and hair-raising 
 experiences, the exploding of a mine had 
 them all beaten. Suspense is said to be the 
 most terrible and distressing of all human 
 emotions, and the suspense of daily and 
 hourly expecting a mine to go up could 
 very properly be spelt with a big capital S. 
 The winter of 1916 was a very active period 
 for mining and counter-mining. Any one 
 caring to look up the British Of&cial reports 
 for that period will frequently come across 
 the words: ' The enemy exploded a mine 
 last night in the Ypres sector, our troops 
 hold the crater ' ; or * We exploded a mine 
 last night in the Hulluch sector, causing 
 considerable damage to the enemy trenches ; 
 during the night we repulsed three enemy 
 attempts to seize the crater.' 
 
 As soon as it was definitely established 
 that the enemy were mining under a par- 
 ticular sector of trench, then a counter- 
 mine was promptly started, and it was 
 usually a race as to who could get ready 
 first. Often the mere fact of a counter- 
 mine underneath the Boche mine galleries 
 was sufficient to discourage the Boche and 
 compel him to quit. Sometimes a tunnel 
 
EXPLODING A MINE 47 
 
 was bored into the Boche galleries, and 
 some strange and thrilling stories are told. 
 But this could not beat the thrill (often 
 accompanied by a chill!) that the garrison 
 holding the sector of trench under which 
 the mining was going on, usually experi- 
 enced. The anxious moments came when 
 all sounds of working stopped, then it was 
 a fair guess that the Boche had all ready to 
 explode his mine. Elaborate plans were 
 made for seizing the crater in case the mine 
 should be exploded. What were known as 
 ' crater parties ' were detailed. As soon as 
 the mine was exploded these parties would 
 rush forward and fight for the crater. The 
 trench that was mined would be very lightly 
 garrisoned, and the job of the garrison was a 
 most hated and unenviable one. Did the 
 mine go up they inevitably went with it. 
 At other times the trench would be evacu- 
 ated and ' flying sentries ' (men, usually in 
 pairs) patrolled that piece of trench. Mining 
 was really a most hateful and diabolical 
 thing. Every new crater promptly received 
 a name—' The Duke,' ' The Prince,' ' The 
 Twins,' and, most appropriate of all, ' The 
 Surprise ' crater. Their name was literally 
 legion— they were named after towns, indi- 
 viduals, and regiments. 
 
48 SCOUTING THEILLS 
 
 This particular story deals with the ex- 
 ploding of one of these diabolical mines, 
 and the sequel to it. 
 
 It was in the winter of '16-17 on the fa- 
 mous Vimy Ridge. It was touch and go as 
 to whether the Hun or ourselves got his mine 
 finished first. The whole ridge was mined 
 and counter-mined, but the chief interest 
 for the moment was centred upon the sector 
 we were holding. Each night, when on 
 patrol, we received several rude jars as we 
 crawled around on our stomachs. There 
 would be a thud underneath us and the 
 sensation that some one had given us a punch 
 in the stomach. It was the miners blasting 
 — whose, we could not say. The first time 
 I felt it I thought it was the preliminary 
 to the upheaval of earth, and my heart gave 
 a great bound. I had a lightning vision of 
 a rapid ascent, and bumping my head 
 against the stars. But nothing sensa- 
 tional followed. In the present instance 
 our miners guaranteed us an easy first. 
 However, I had a decided dislike to ' stick- 
 ing around ' that piece of trench, under- 
 neath which we could distinctly hear the 
 mining activities going on. At last definite 
 rumours began to circulate. 
 
EXPLODING A MINE 49 
 
 ^ Did you hear they were going to put up 
 a mine to-morrow night *? ' was whispered 
 around. Of course, everything had to 
 happen the following day to give it a claim 
 to our interest. Two or three days passed, 
 so that the rumour became thoroughly dis- 
 credited. Then it became more than a 
 rumour; it became a certainty. Men were 
 detailed to mysterious parties known by 
 letters A, B, C, and so on. Headquarters 
 buzzed with excitement, and large quan- 
 tities of wire, picks, and shovels began to 
 arrive. 
 
 * The mine was ready! ' everybody swore 
 to that. ' To-morrow night,' became the 
 popular rumour again, and this time it 
 proved to be correct. The exact time was 
 now the mystery. To-morrow came and 
 with it bits of information — real genuine 
 information — began to leak out. One party 
 had been detailed to rush and hold the 
 crater ; another party was to string out wire 
 from the lip of the crater back to our 
 front line trench; other parties were to 
 clear away the debris that would fall into 
 the trenches; others were to rush up with 
 bombs and ammunition to the crater party. 
 The scouts were not allotted any definite 
 
50 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 task in the scheme of things : ' ours not to 
 do or die,' but simply to await for what 
 might turn up. Rumours as to the amazing 
 quantities of explosive carefully packed in 
 the mine began to float around. The size 
 of the crater was speculated upon. Then 
 information of a raid by the battalion on 
 our right, which was to co-ordinate with the 
 exploding of the mine, reached our ears. We 
 were all properly worked up, and excite- 
 ment ran high. There was prevailing 
 satisfaction and jubilation that our mine 
 was ready first, and that the Hun was going 
 to get the mauling. There was many a fer- 
 vently expressed hope that it would blow 
 them all sky-high out of the trenches. 
 Scores of men swarmed around that after- 
 noon, and everything was ready for the big 
 show. At last the exact time was whispered 
 around ' Three minutes to ten ! ' The mine, 
 of course, was to be exploded by electricity ; 
 some one would touch a button, then up 
 would go the Hun and several thousand tons 
 of Vimy Ridge would be propelled into the 
 air. It appealed to the imagination. Down 
 in the scouts' dug-out we discussed and re- 
 discussed the matter. 
 
 ^ I suppose the old Hun will think 
 
EXPLODING A MINE 51 
 
 it 's the end of the world,' commented 
 Louis. 
 
 * I schould tink so,' said Sharkmn the 
 Russian, ' his peoples won't know where to 
 look for him. ' 
 
 It was a quiet, clear night, and the war 
 went on as usual. Soon after dark rations 
 came up, and we sat around and read the 
 letters that arrived. There was a paper two 
 days old, and there was a scramble for the 
 latest news of the war. Our own ' big show ' 
 suffered a temporary eclipse; it appeared 
 so relatively insignificant alongside of the 
 many big things reported. But it soon came 
 back into its own. We talked of the 
 time when a mine had unexpectedly gone 
 up and we sat, wild-eyed and startled, until 
 the dug-out ceased its swaying motion. 
 
 About a quarter to ten Jack said, ' Who 's 
 going outside to see the fun ? ' 
 
 * I am, ' I replied. 
 
 So we went outside and waited. We 
 could picture the boys waiting back in the 
 support and communication trenches, ready 
 to rush forward on the separate jobs. We 
 speculated who would get there first, the 
 Hun's crater party or ours — we were willing 
 to bet on our boys. The front line trenches 
 
52 SCOUTING THEILLS 
 
 had, of course, been cleared of men, the 
 danger from falling debris being almost as 
 great as that from exploding shells and 
 ' Minnies. ' For an hour it would probably 
 be touch and go as to who held the crater. 
 The exploding of the mine wasn't the fun: 
 it was what would happen afterwards, and it 
 was in this that we got the comforting 
 thought that we would get a chance to do 
 our bit. 
 
 We looked at our watches — ^it wanted only 
 a minute! In sixty seconds from now the 
 ground would rock and shake as if in the 
 throes of a violent earthquake ! We strain 
 our eyes in the direction where the fun is 
 going to take place. Somewhere there is a 
 man standing with his finger on an electric 
 button, watch in his hand ; the second hand 
 steals around — forty — thirty — twenty — ten 
 — five seconds ! Then he presses the button. 
 Standing there we see the result. There is 
 a great blinding flash, a muffled noise, and 
 the ground sways and trembles beneath our 
 feet. 
 
 ' There it goes ! ' we whisper breathlessly. 
 A pause, and then our shells come scream- 
 ing over our heads — it is our artillery. To 
 add to the dismay, confusion, and panic in 
 
EXPLODING A MINE 53 
 
 the Boche lines, we send, crashing over, 
 shrapnel and high explosive. It will give 
 our men an advantage. We can picture 
 them struggling forward in the darkness 
 over the debris. They reached the lip of the 
 crater and string themselves out on each 
 side of it. They are there first and they are 
 going to hold on. 
 
 In the darkness of No Man's Land on our 
 right, men are stumbling forward to surprise 
 the Hun in his trench. It is a night of sur- 
 prises for him. Right and left of the crater 
 the Hun signals frantically for his artillery. 
 Shells come shrieking over, exploding 
 with a deafening roar. We have to side- 
 step once or twice as they come crashing 
 alongside. He pours them over into 
 Zouave Valley just behind us. The noise 
 is deafening, terrific! To the right we 
 see an immense blinding flash. 
 
 ^ What can it be ? ' we ask. It is for all 
 the world like the explosion of another mine. 
 Later on we find that a Boche shell landed 
 in the midst of nearly two score of our 
 trench-mortar shells and exploded them 
 all. 
 
 After a time things quieten down and we 
 return to our dug-out. 
 
54 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 * Well, Louis, did you feel anything down 
 here"? ' I asked. 
 
 * Feel anything ! I should say so — almost 
 pushed in the side of the dug-out. ' 
 
 ' The old Hun didn't take it all lying 
 down. His artillery must have had their 
 sleeves rolled up for a few minutes; he 
 bounced a few shells pretty close to us. ' 
 
 ' I guess the mine also bounced a few of 
 the Huns, ' said Louis ; ' some of them would 
 get the shock of their lives to-night ! ' And 
 so we carried on the conversation for 
 another half hour, occasionally calling 
 Sharkum's attention to the smoky, smoul- 
 dering fire, to which he good-naturedly 
 replied. 
 
 ' Well, if there's any peoples here can do 
 better let him haf a try. ' 
 
 We were speculating upon our chances of 
 getting a look at the new mine crater, when 
 * Toromy ' (now our officer) came into the 
 dug-out. He was excited. 
 
 * That was a good show to-night! We 
 are holding the crater and have already 
 beaten off one Hun attempt. They gave 
 them an awful beating up. I 've been out 
 a little way. It is a huge crater, bigger 
 than any around here. It has blown up 
 
EXPLODINa A MINE 55 
 
 part of the Hun front line. We could hear 
 some of them trying to dig themselves out 
 of a dug-out. Let everybody get ready and 
 we '11 go up at once and wait for them 
 coming out.' 
 
 Immediately there was a hustle and 
 bustle as we dived into our crawling suits, 
 loaded our revolvers, and got a couple of 
 bombs each. Soon afterwards we were 
 hurrying up to the front line. We met 
 a prisoner coming down; he had been 
 blown up into the air when the mine ex- 
 ploded, and when he came down he had 
 got twisted in his direction. He had been 
 seen wandering around just outside of our 
 wire, and some good-natured Tommy went 
 out and led him in by the hand. He was 
 dazed and trembling, as he had every reason 
 to be. 
 
 We arrived at the crater, on the lip of 
 which two or three posts had already been 
 established. Looking down into the crater 
 we could only see a yawning black hole, 
 but the lips, several feet high, showed up 
 white and distinct — the chalky earth of 
 Vimy Ridge. 
 
 WTiile Tommy had been away there had 
 been another attempt to rush the crater, 
 
56 SCOUTING THEILLS 
 
 and after a sharp fight with rifle and bomb, 
 the Hun had again been beaten off. Seven 
 of us started off on a patrol, crawling along 
 the right side of the lip of the crater. We 
 hoped, first of all, to get around to the Hun 
 side to see what was happening there, and 
 then to visit the entombed Huns, to see how 
 they were getting on with their digging. 
 Three of us went abreast — Tommy nearest 
 the crater, Jack in the centre, and myself 
 on the outside. Behind us came four other 
 scouts. We could only move very slowly, 
 for the Hun kept the place alight with 
 flares. We had crawled forward to a point 
 almost level with the Hun front line trench 
 on our right. The trench which should 
 have been there on our left had been blown 
 up. We lay listening to the weird muffled 
 knockings and scrapings that came from 
 the imprisoned Huns, who were working 
 hard to get out of their dug-out. Then we 
 heard other significant sounds on our right, 
 the squish! squish! of men dragging their 
 feet through soft mud. It was the sound 
 of Huns coming along their front line 
 towards the crater! I moved over to Jack 
 and touched his arm. 
 
 ' Did you hear that. Jack ? ' 
 
EXPLODING A MINE 57 
 
 ^ Yes, Mac, I heard ; just stay quiet and 
 watcli. ' 
 
 Almost opposite the point where we were 
 lying there was another trench — a com- 
 munication trench, leading into the front 
 line and at right angles to it. Huns were 
 also moving up along this. The sounds 
 became more distinct, and presently we 
 could see the steel helmets of the Huns. 
 
 While we lay breathless watching them, 
 the leading man stopped at the junction of 
 the communication trench with the front 
 line. The others following him closed up, 
 until there was an interval of no more than 
 two feet between them. Then very de- 
 liberately (for I was not more than twenty 
 yards from the nearest Hun, and therefore 
 could plainly see them by the frequent 
 flickering lights of the flares) each man 
 carefully raised his rifle, and sighted it in 
 our direction! A queer, creepy sensation 
 ran through me — it was for all the world 
 like facing a firing squad ! 
 
 * Throw your bombs! ' rang out Tommy's 
 voice. 
 
 The scouts in the rear promptly threw 
 their bombs, while I let blaze with my 
 revolver. Almost simultaneously nearly 
 
58 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 thirty rifles rang out and the bullets pinged 
 in around us. Then four bombs viciously 
 exploded amongst and around the Huns, 
 one bomb neatly dropping into the trench 
 amongst them. The Huns disappeared 
 from view, and then bobbed up again. 
 Several of them promptly threw bombs 
 back at us. I felt a rap on the head as if 
 a mule had kicked me, and then the warm 
 blood began trickling down the side of my 
 face and into my right eye. I blinked and 
 pulled the trigger of my revolver again. 
 Then more of our bombs came singing over 
 my head and burst amongst the Huns. 
 This time it was too mucli for them. Again 
 they disappeared and remained out of sight. 
 I was lying there, dazed and stunned, when 
 I felt Jack crawl up alongside of me. 
 
 ^ We 'd better be getting back in, Mac, 
 the rest of them have gone back for more 
 bombs.' 
 
 ' All right, ' I replied, ' you lead the way ; 
 I 'm hit and feel a bit shaky. ' 
 
 * All right, Mac, when I give the word get 
 up and run for the crater and roll into that.' 
 
 I waited a few seconds and then heard 
 Jack whisper, ^ Come on, Mac, run for it! ' 
 
 I scrambled to my feet, swayed a little 
 
EXPLODING A MINE 59 
 
 from dizziness, and then started oH after 
 Jack. Then, horror of horrors, a flare light 
 was shot up from a few yards behind us. 
 It broke into a bright white light — as bright 
 as noon-day. There was nothing for it but 
 to keep on heading for the crater, which was 
 only a few strides away. 
 
 Ping! ping! came the bullets after us. 
 I saw Jack disappear in front of me, as he 
 tumbled headlong into the crater. I dived 
 after him, and down I went into the black- 
 ness, it seemed ages before I hit the bottom 
 with a terrible crash. Jack was imme- 
 diately alongside of me helping me to 
 my feet. 
 
 * How d'you feel, Mac? ' he asked. 
 
 * Oh ! just a bit dizzy, thanks ; rather close 
 shave, eh? ' 
 
 * Yes, it was. I didn't realise for a minute 
 or two that we were out there alone, 
 though I heard Tommy giving the word 
 to go back for more bombs. ' 
 
 The blood continued to run down my face, 
 almost blinding me. 
 
 * Oh, I wouldn't half like to take a crack 
 at the Hun that did this,' I said, as we 
 proceeded to climb out of the crater. 
 When we climbed out Tommy was there. 
 
60 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 He at once ordered me to report to the 
 dressing station and sent a scout back with 
 me. 
 
 Twelve hours later I was at the casualty 
 clearing station. The M.O. came around 
 to the cot I was in. 
 
 ^ Hello ! you one of the boys wounded at 
 the ridge last night ? ' 
 
 ^ Yes, sir, I was there.' 
 
 * You must have got an awful jar when 
 the mine went up ? ' 
 
 * Oh, it wasn't too bad, sir.' 
 
 ^ Well, it nearly shook the windows out 
 here, and this is twenty miles back. ' 
 
 So that was another of the rumours come 
 true: there had been a lot of explosives in 
 that mine. I rather thought so myself 
 when I tumbled into the hole it made ! 
 
IV 
 EAID RECONNAISSANCES 
 
 "171^ E were all excited and indignant. 
 ^ ^ News had just arrived that the 
 Hun had plucked up enough courage to raid 
 the battalion on our right and had got a 
 prisoner. Of course he had not had things all 
 his own way. After killing some and wound- 
 ing the remainder of a Lewis gun team, he 
 had made off with the gun, only to be chased 
 across No Man's Land and compelled to drop 
 the gun and run to safety. He had got his 
 prisoner by his favourite trick of speaking 
 in English. A German officer and two men 
 had got into a quiet part of the trench which 
 had been evacuated owing to the severity 
 of the meinenwerfer fire in that sector. 
 They had waylaid a sergeant coming along 
 this part and had taken him off his guard 
 by speaking a few words of good English. 
 He realised — too late — ^who they were, but 
 
 61 
 
62 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 in time enougli to fire his Verry light pistol 
 in the face of one of his would-be cajjtors, 
 thereby greatly damaging the Hun's fea- 
 tures and bringing his life to a sudden and 
 untimely end. (This German's body was 
 found in the trench the following morning.) 
 The sergeant was, however, taken prisoner. 
 
 I was corporal in charge of the scouts at 
 that time, and, as the officer and scout ser- 
 geant were away, the CO. sent for me. 
 
 ' I have a nice little job for you to-night, 
 corporal,' he said when I reported at head- 
 quarters. ' I suppose you have heard what 
 happened last night.' 
 
 ' Yes, sir, ' I replied. 
 
 ' Well, just come and look over this latest 
 map of No Man 's Land which has arrived 
 from brigade, and I '11 show you what I want 
 your scouts to do to-night.' 
 
 I did so, and he jjointed out to me a place 
 on the map where a German listening jjost 
 had been definitely located. 
 
 ^ Now, I want you to find out to-night if 
 you can get through his wire and into that 
 j)Ost. Don't go in yourself; just report to 
 me the chances of getting in and we '11 ar- 
 range details later on. We want to do 
 some little stunt in retaliation for what he 
 
EAID EECONNAISSANCES 63 
 
 did last night to the battalion on our 
 right. ' 
 
 ' We '11 do the best we can, sir/ I replied, 
 saluted and left headquarters. I went back 
 to our dug-out, and explained to the rest of 
 the scouts what the night's work was to be. 
 Everybody was whole-heartedly glad that 
 something was to be done in retaliation for 
 the temerity of the Hun on the previous 
 night. 
 
 About ten o'clock that night six of us left 
 our trench, crawled through the maze of 
 wire in front of it, and made off in the 
 direction of the unsuspecting German listen- 
 ing-post. It had been raining heavily 
 recently and the ground was wet and muddy. 
 It was cold and very disagreeable and 
 * Heinie ' was nervous ; he kept the place 
 continually alight with numerous Yerry 
 lights. His machine-guns were active and 
 constantly swept across No Man's Land — 
 the bullets whizzing over our heads or 
 plunking into the ground near to us. In 
 approaching the listening-post we had to 
 crawl down a slight dip in the ground im- 
 mediately in front of it. His usual tactics 
 in providing ample protection for his out- 
 posts was never better exemplified than in 
 
64 SCOUTING THEILLS 
 
 the present instance. Three machine guns 
 alternately swept the ground in front of his 
 listening-post, and I can tell you that we 
 had enough thrills in half an hour then to 
 satisfy any one for a lifetime. It was plunk ! 
 plunk! all the time. He simply sprinkled 
 the ground with machine-gun bullets. We 
 got up to his wire, and could distinctly hear 
 the sentry in the listening-post. He was 
 in a bit of a trench leading out from the 
 front line, and we could hear him stamping 
 his feet and clapping his hands together to 
 keep himself warm. He was protected by 
 a mass of wire at least forty feet in depth, 
 and the prospect of ever getting near enough 
 to grab him was very remote. We carefully 
 withdrew and returned into our own trench 
 and back to headquarters. I immediately 
 reported to the CO. and gave him a full ac- 
 count of what we had both seen and 
 heard. 
 
 ' Well, that doesn't look very promising, 
 corporal ; we '11 have to think out some- 
 thing better for to-morrow night. ' 
 
 I returned to the scouts' dug-out, rolled 
 into my blanket, and was soon fast asleep. 
 A few hours later I was awakened by one of 
 the scouts. 
 
RAID RECONNAISSANCES 65 
 
 ^ Say, corp, did you hear the latest ? ' 
 ^ No, haven't heard anything for several 
 
 hours; what is the latest? ' I inquired 
 
 sleepily. 
 
 * Heinie grabbed one of our listening- 
 posts last night, and got away with two of 
 our men. ' 
 
 I was wide awake now. This was adding 
 insult to injury. 
 
 ' How on earth did he do it ?' I asked. 
 
 * Made a raid just before daybreak.' 
 
 * What post did he get ? ' 
 
 ^ The one nearest to the Double Crassier.'^ 
 
 * Well, we must go up and find out all 
 we can about it. If I know anything, 
 ^ Heinie ' has let himself in for a lot of 
 trouble this time. ' 
 
 But before we were ready to go a runner 
 came with a message for me to report to 
 headquarters at once. When I arrived 
 there I found the CO. in a towering 
 rage. 
 
 * The blighters put one over on us last 
 night, corporal, and we are going to make 
 him pay for it.' He emphasised this with 
 a resounding whack on the table. There 
 
 1 Two slag-heaps made famous by the fierce fighting for them 
 at the battle of Loos. 
 
66 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 was no mistaking Ms feelings about the 
 matter. 
 
 ^ This time we are going to organise 
 something big. The Hun has got to be 
 taught a lesson for this. I '11 have plenty 
 of work for you and your scouts to do to- 
 night. In the meantime you had better go 
 up to the front line and get all the particu- 
 lars you can, and report to me as soon as you 
 get back.' 
 
 I replied that I was just about to go up 
 to the front line for this purpose when he 
 had sent for me. I then left headquarters 
 and soon afterwards, in the company of 
 another scout, I went up to the front line 
 to find out all that I could about the raid. 
 We had posts on the Double Grassier — so 
 had the Hun, his nearest being about thirty 
 yards from ours. From our posts we had 
 a splendid view of No Man's Land and of 
 his trenches. It appeared that in the dim 
 light of dawn there had been a sharp and 
 heavy bombardment which had isolated the 
 listening-post; then a party of what was 
 roughly estimated to be about thirty Huns 
 had rushed it. There had been a sharp 
 skirmish, a few rifle shots, and the Huns 
 then disappeared. By the time assistance 
 
EAID EECONNAISSANCES 67 
 
 had been sent to the listening-post, the 
 raiders had gone. One of the sentry group 
 had been killed, one wounded and two (one 
 of them wounded) had been taken prisoners. 
 From the Grassier we could see tapes 
 stretching from the German trench to within 
 a few yards of the listening-post. Probably 
 one or two men had laid the tapes an hour 
 or two previous to the raid, and the raiding 
 party had crawled along them, concealing 
 themselves in shell holes several minutes 
 before the bombardment started. If, in 
 our patrol of the previous night, we had 
 gone about a hundred yards further north 
 we should have probably met these tape- 
 layers. We felt like kicking ourselves when 
 we thought of it. Soon after we had re- 
 turned to headquarters the CO. sent for 
 me. He had been to brigade, and there 
 a definite and quite ambitious plan for a 
 raid had been evolved. A party from the 
 battalion on our right, who had lost the 
 sergeant, and a party from our battalion, 
 were going to raid the German trenches. 
 The artillery had already received orders to 
 cut the wire on a fairly large frontage. 
 
 * Your work,' said the CO. to me, * will 
 be to go out each night and examine the 
 
68 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 enemy wire for gaps, reporting on what has 
 been accomplished by the artillery in their 
 wire-cutting operations. The artillery have 
 already started this afternoon, and before 
 taking your patrol out to-night you will 
 report to me and I will show you on the 
 map where I want you to go.' 
 
 I went back to my dug-out, had a bit of 
 supper, and waited for the mail to arrive. 
 After the excitement of receiving letters had 
 died down, six of us got ready for our patrol. 
 I reported at headquarters, received my in- 
 structions, and, as the trenches were knee- 
 deep in mud, we went overland to the front 
 line. After warning the sentries that a 
 patrol was going out, we climbed out of our 
 trench and over the exceedingly thick wire 
 in front of it and out into No Man's Land. 
 As was our custom, we lay quiet for several 
 minutes listening. Except for an occasional 
 shell whistling overhead, everything was 
 perfectly quiet. The wire we had to ex- 
 amine was about three hundred yards from 
 our trench, so we pushed on fairly rapidly, 
 for we knew what a slow and difficult job 
 it was to crawl around amongst the enemy 
 wire. We were making good progress, and 
 had reached to within about thirty yards of 
 
EAID RECONNAISSANCES 69 
 
 the German wire when some one caught his 
 foot in some old wire. The sound was un- 
 mistakable—so also was the Huns' reply to 
 it. Cutting wire invariably means one thing 
 —a raid, and the German, if never very 
 brave, was always exceedingly wise. The 
 volley of bombs that fell into the wire on 
 our left told us that our coming was neither 
 unexpected nor unprepared for. Immedi- 
 ately his S.O.S. lights went up— beautifully 
 coloured, significant lights. His artillery 
 replied with amazing and disconcerting 
 promptitude, and soon we were in the 
 midst of screaming, bursting shells.' We 
 began to withdraw out of range of the Boche 
 artillery fire, when the battalion on our 
 right, apparently thinking that the Boche 
 had serious intentions of attempting to re- 
 peat his former successes, sent up a call for 
 our artillery, and our artillery were no 
 slackers. They promptly came down with 
 a bang. Imagine how happy we were! 
 Shells in front of us, shells behind us, shells 
 all around us ! A screaming, deafening din 
 and noise! We crawled into a shell-hole 
 
 1 A protective barrage, such as the S.O.S. signal calls for, was 
 usually laid down about one hundred yardsin front of the first- 
 line trench. 
 
70 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 and waited. We splendidly illustrated 
 Bairnsfather's picture: 'If you can find 
 a better 'ole, go to it! ' Tlie sky was a 
 blaze of light; S.O.S.'s were going up along 
 the whole front. We could see them spread- 
 ing to the right as far as Vimy, and to the 
 left as far as Loos. On the whole length of 
 this front both our own and the Boche 
 artillery blazed away, and all because 
 a scout had caught his foot in some 
 wire ! 
 
 In the meantime our own position was 
 most unenviable — it was useless to move, 
 and all we could do was to crouch in a shell- 
 hole. Ten times in a minute we ducked; 
 figuratively speaking we died several hun- 
 dred deaths that night, for each screaming 
 shell passing so closely overhead had the 
 menace of death in it. After half an hour's 
 deafening din things began to quieten down 
 and we began to breathe more freely. At 
 last there was perfect stiUness. Not one of 
 us hit! It was useless to continue our 
 reconnaissance for an hour or two, so we 
 returned to our own trench. Everybody 
 was amazed to see us all returning with a 
 whole skin. They had heard the bombing 
 and, of course, the subsequent artillery fire, 
 
RAID RECONNAISANCES 71 
 
 with scores of shells exploding in No Man's 
 Land. 
 
 After resting for a while we started out 
 again, moving cautiously and quietly until 
 we got up to the German wire. We moved 
 along the outside of it, frequently stopping 
 and waiting for a flare light to give us an 
 opportunity for a good look at the wire. It 
 was damaged, but there were no gaps. It 
 was almost daylight when we got back into 
 our own trench, and quite daylight by the 
 time we got to headquarters. I reported 
 at once to the CO., told him of the diffi- 
 culties we had had, and the information we 
 had eventually secured. 
 
 * We '11 try to get more artillery on to that 
 wire to-day, my boy ; you '11 find some gaps 
 in it to-night, I hope. I want a writ- 
 ten report of your patrol at once, I 
 want to send a copy of it to brigade — ^it 
 will induce them to get more artillery on 
 to that wire.' 
 
 I went back to my dug-out, wrote the 
 report, handed it in to headquarters, and 
 then had some breakfast, followed by three 
 to four hours' sleep. In the afternoon we 
 went up to our best O.P., and from there 
 watched the artillery and trench-mortar 
 
72 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 shells bursting in the German wire. They 
 were ripping it up beautifully, gaily blowing 
 it sky-high in places. 
 
 The orders for the patrol were the same 
 as the previous night. The artillery had 
 concentrated on one gap, the location of 
 which the; CO. gave me. We were going 
 to see if,ithere was a clean road through. 
 We worked slowly and cautiously, reached 
 the Boche wire, saw a good clean gap 
 several yards wide, crawled up through it 
 and back out again. The patrol was a 
 laborious and satisfying one: it lasted for 
 several hours. I reported back to the CO. 
 
 ' There is a good clean gap for the party 
 on the right, sir.' 
 
 ' Good, we '11 have the other one attended 
 to to-day. ' 
 
 We were dog-tired. We had crawled for 
 hours over wet, muddy ground, and it was 
 a cold night. The next afternoon we again 
 watched the shells dropping into the German 
 wire, and at night went out to examine the 
 gap for the left party. We again worked 
 slowly and with the most extreme caution. 
 The wire here had been a good deal thicker 
 and heavier, and while a gap had been made 
 there were several fairly large bundles of 
 
RAID RECONNAISSANCES 73 
 
 wire lying around, blown clean out of the 
 ground. It was awfully difficult to work 
 up through the gap, the bundles of wire in 
 front of us that were obstacles to our prog- 
 ress, having to be carefully moved over to 
 one side. I had almost got through the gap, 
 but a big roll of loose wire lay in front of 
 me. Slowly and patiently I 'pushed it to 
 one side, and was passing it when my foot 
 caught it, making a very slight noise. Not 
 more than twelve feet away I could see, 
 quite distinctly, the parapet of the German 
 trench. I moved forward a few feet into 
 the protection of a shell-hole, and waited. 
 Had I been heard? I did not wait long in 
 suspense. I heard sounds of movement 
 in the trench in front of me, and soon after- 
 wards the head and shoulders of a German 
 appeared. He paused a moment to listen. 
 He had in his hand what appeared to me 
 to be a pistol. He raised it carefully and 
 fired! There was a blinding flash — a loud 
 report — it was a flare light! As it broke 
 into a bright white light, I felt as though 
 a hundred searchlights were being concen- 
 trated upon me. I had ample time to study 
 the typical German face of the flare- 
 pistol man. It was smooth, fat and round, 
 
74 SCOUTING THEILLS 
 
 the roundness being emphasised by the 
 small peakless cloth cap he was wearing. 
 He would be a man close upon forty years 
 of age. He looked apprehensively around. 
 I felt an almost irrepressible desire to say 
 Boo! I am sure he would have fainted! 
 The light slowly flickered out and he dis- 
 appeared into the trench. I backed out 
 through the gap, and when clear of the 
 German wire, we got up and walked back 
 across No Man's Land into our own trench. 
 Another tedious patrol of several hours was 
 finished. We were cold and shivering when 
 we dropped into our own trench. When 
 we got back to headquarters I wrote my 
 report and sent it in to the CO. A few 
 hours later he sent for me. 
 
 * You are quite sure those gaps are there, 
 corporal, and that the parties will have no 
 trouble getting through them ? ' 
 
 * Quite sure, sir, we have been through 
 both of them. ' 
 
 * Very good, then. Now the zero hour 
 for this raid is two o'clock to-morrow 
 morning. I have a lot of work for your 
 scouts which must be done to-night. You 
 will report here at six o 'clock, and you will 
 be supplied with wire-cutters — to cut gaps 
 
RAID EECONNAISSANCES 75 
 
 through our own wire — and with rolls of 
 white tape which you will take out to the 
 assembly positions before the parties go out. 
 It will act as a guide to them. Then at the 
 zero hour two scouts with each party will 
 go forward with the tapes as far as the 
 German trench, being closely followed by the 
 raiding party. However, you will get fuller 
 written instructions later on.' 
 
 When I left headquarters, I called at the 
 dressing station to see if I could get some- 
 thing from the medical officer to take away 
 the wretched dizzy feeling I was suffering 
 from. A medical orderly took my tempera- 
 ture and found it to be 102°. The M.O. gave 
 me some tablets, and I was hoping I 
 would be feeling a little fitter for the 
 night's work. At night we got our wire- 
 cutters and cut the necessary * lanes ' in 
 the wire, cutting them in zig-zag fashion. 
 We also went out on a quick patrol to see if 
 the Germans were working to repair the 
 damage done to the wire. We found every- 
 thing quiet. I was feeling wretchedly ill 
 and feverish when I reported back to head- 
 quarters. I stood waiting while the second- 
 in-command (and CO. of the raid) read 
 over to me the operation order for the raid, 
 
76 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 before giving me a copy for the information 
 of the scouts. The heat added the final 
 touch to my physical exhaustion. Just as 
 I reached out to take my copy of the opera- 
 tion order, I felt myself reeling, everything 
 became a blank, and when I woke up again, 
 I was lying on the floor with several people 
 solicitously attending to me. To my bitter 
 disappointment the CO. forbade my taking 
 any further part in the operations. I was 
 taken to the dressing-station, wrapped up 
 in a blanket, and told to go to sleep. About 
 3.30 the following morning one of the boys 
 woke me up to tell me of the success of the 
 raid. 
 
 A thick mist had come up about midnight 
 which had proved of great advantage to the 
 raiding parties. They had been able to 
 assemble without having been seen or 
 heard. Our artillery barrage had been 
 perfect. The scouts had gone forward with 
 the tapes, followed by the raiders, who had 
 got into the enemy trench without meeting 
 with much opposition. The speed of the 
 raiders had completely taken the Boche by 
 surprise. They were in and out of his 
 trench in five minutes, and brought back 
 twelve husky prisoners. The mist had pre- 
 
RAID RECONNAISSANCES 77 
 
 vented the German artillery observers from 
 seeing the S.O.S. lights sent up, and the 
 raid was over and every one back in our 
 trenches before a shell came over. 
 
 We were all delighted with the results. 
 The scouts received special mention in 
 orders for the work they did, and we went 
 back to the rest billets with the satisfied 
 feeling that the Hun had been taught his 
 lesson. 
 
PULLING THE STRING 
 
 n^HIS story is written chiefly to show 
 '- the humour that was frequently in- 
 troduced into the game of making war. It 
 made the life not only bearable but hugely 
 enjoyable. Many a joke was practised on 
 the Hun to test his sense of humour, in 
 which, by the way, he was found wanting. 
 One could never picture him with the cheer- 
 ful, spontaneous grin of the Tommy — ^he 
 was either servile or surly. It was this 
 well-known lack of a sense of humour that 
 made a joke practised upon him all the more 
 enjoyable — ^his discomfiture was guaranteed 
 beforehand. 
 
 Though this incident was actually the 
 work of the scouts, it is not a scouting 
 episode. It emphasises the co-operation 
 between the scouts and observers. The 
 observer collected his information in the 
 
 78 
 
PULLING THE STRING 79 
 
 daylight, while the scout collected his in- 
 formation in the dark. Frequently, the 
 scout was sent out to confirm the report 
 of the observer, and often our patrols were 
 decided upon after the observers had handed 
 in their reports. 
 
 They enjoyed, from their specially sited 
 and constructed O.P.'s, unique opportuni- 
 ties for studying the movements and habits 
 of the Boche. Wonderful and ingenious sub- 
 terfuges were employed to spy out the 
 movements of the ever-active Hun, the 
 most popular of which was the dummy tree. 
 A tree, standing so that, from its branches 
 (if it was lucky enough to have any), one 
 commanded an extensive view of the enemy 
 lines, would be carefully sketched in its 
 every detail. A few days later an exact 
 replica of it would arrive. At night the 
 real tree would be dug out and the dummy, 
 having inside of its innocent looking bark 
 a steel frame, supporting a seat for an 
 observer and a ladder leading up to it, 
 would take its place. 
 
 The Hun never guessed what a faithful 
 history of his every movement was being 
 daily sent up to our Intelligence Staff. 
 Ruined buildings were a godsend to the 
 
80 SCOUTING THEILLS 
 
 energetic observer. From these places the 
 comings in and goings out of the Hun were 
 daily taken note of, to his eventual discom- 
 fort and sorrow. A road was known to be 
 in frequent and continual use, and a re- 
 port would come in : 
 
 ' Much individual movement along the 
 Lens-Douai Road. ' 
 
 This information would finally reach 
 artillery headquarters, and harassing fire 
 (a few rounds eyevj fifteen minutes or so) 
 would be directed on that road at night — 
 for a road used by a few men during the 
 day would be used by scores of men at 
 night. Carrying parties, ration parties, 
 transport, reliefs coming in and going 
 out, all would find this attention both demor- 
 alising and destructive. 
 
 Then again, 
 
 * An overland route is in use from Pots- 
 dam Trench to HohenzoUern Redoubt.' 
 
 The machine gunners would have this 
 information turned over to them, and would 
 fire bursts at intervals — disconcerting to the 
 night-travelling Hun. 
 
 The camouflaged O.P. was always a 
 powerful factor in the successful waging of 
 war. To see your enemy is one of the most 
 
PULLING THE STRING 81 
 
 interesting and thrilling of all war experi- 
 ences. To be able to sit and calmly watch 
 his movements was always an enjoyable 
 way of spending a few hours. 
 
 The incident of this story happened in the 
 winter time when the snow — deep, crisp, 
 and hard — ^lay on the ground. At such 
 times patrolling was next to impossible, 
 especially when, as in the present instance, 
 the nights were brilliantly moonlight. 
 Occasionally white crawling suits would be 
 used to tone with the surrounding white- 
 ness. There is at least one instance where 
 an enterprising battalion clothed its raiding 
 party in white and completely surprised the 
 Boche. But patrolling, unless for very 
 special reasons, was very seldom done on 
 a moonlight night with the snow on the 
 ground. 
 
 Two nights before the incident of this 
 story we had had a rather exciting time. 
 An artillery officer, anxious to have a piece 
 of Boche wire for a souvenir, had appealed 
 to Tommy, and Tommy had arranged to 
 take him out to get it. In all, four of us 
 went out. It was bitterly cold, and the 
 snow glistened in the brilliancy of the 
 moonlight. The Boche wire was nearly 
 
82 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 two hundred and fifty yards away. We 
 walked for some considerable distance and 
 then approached the wire more cautiously. 
 Tommy whispered to me : 
 
 ' Stay here while the artillery officer and 
 myself go forward.' 
 
 So two of us remained behind, waiting. 
 Several minutes passed. I got impatient 
 and announced my intention to go in search 
 of Tommy. I crawled forward and came 
 up to them lying close to the German wire. 
 The artillery officer had had his wish 
 realised, for he had broken off a piece of 
 Hun wire. I crawled up to where Tommy 
 was lying. He touched my arm. 
 
 ' Do you see the Boche listening-post, just 
 inside of that wire ? ' 
 
 I looked in the direction indicated, and 
 there was the Boche — thirty yards away — 
 his steel helmet glistening in the moonlight. 
 He was moving his head from side to side, 
 I could also hear him alternately stamping 
 his right and then his left foot as he en- 
 deavored to keep warm. Tommy touched 
 my arm again. 
 
 ^ Do you see that bent iron stake? I 'm 
 going to break that off and take it back 
 with me. ' 
 
PULLING THE STRING 83 
 
 * Why n asked. 
 
 ' Oh, only for the fun of the thing. ' 
 He crawled over to it, grasped hold of it 
 and tried to break it off. He didn't succeed, 
 so stood up to do it. He bent his whole 
 weight to it but it still resisted. He be- 
 came still more energetic and wrestled with 
 the thing. I became alarmed. The Hun 
 sentry had heard, the movement of his 
 head had stopped. Tommy made a final 
 desperate eifort, lost his balance, swung 
 round, and went crashing into the Hun 
 wire! Away went the Hun sentry patter- 
 ing down the duck-boards in a mighty 
 haste to give the alarm. Tommy quickly 
 disentangled himself. 
 
 * Quick, ' he said, * run for it before he can 
 give the alarm. ' 
 
 I got up and ran, and had only gone a few 
 yards when I went crashing into some 
 loose wire, getting myself hopelessly en- 
 tangled. Tommy and the artillery officer 
 were speeding away ahead of me. I 
 obtained my release at the expense of a 
 perfectly good pair of slacks, and went 
 racing after them. I had almost reached 
 them when they both went crashing down 
 in front of me. I had no time to pull up, 
 
84 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 so piled in on top of them. We were all 
 quickly on our feet, and a few yards further 
 on the black mass of our wire showed up. 
 It was thick and heavy ; ' over the top ' 
 was the best way to negotiate this, so 
 giving a whoop we made a spring at it. 
 Some got over and some didn't; I didn't! 
 I landed on top of it! More ripping of 
 good clothes and then I tumbled into our 
 trench. It was a most amusing time, and 
 we were all laughing heartily when the Hun, 
 now thoroughly alarmed, opened up with 
 three machine guns — sweeping across No 
 Man's Land. 
 
 The next day the observers handed in a 
 report : 
 
 ' A beaten path observed across the snow 
 leading from the German support line to 
 the Double Grassier.' That was the advan- 
 tage of a snowfall; it yielded information 
 of the enemy routes. (He, of course, got 
 the same information about us.) Aeroplane 
 photographs, taken while the snow was on 
 the ground, yielded a mass of information. 
 
 We pondered over the observers' report, 
 and decided, instead of a patrol, to go up 
 and find out if anything was to be seen from 
 the Double Grassier. The Double Grassier 
 
PULLING THE STEING 85 
 
 was a twin slag-heap, part of which, at 
 that time, was held by us and part by the 
 Boche. It provided excellent observation, 
 and for that reason was usually a most 
 unhealthy spot. Twenty-five yards from 
 our most forward post was a Boche bomb- 
 ing-post; it was an occasional early morn- 
 ing form of recreation for these bombing- 
 posts to exchange bombs. The Boche had a 
 very ingenious device for protecting his 
 bombing-post. Over the top of it he had 
 spread ordinary chicken wire so that bombs, 
 dropping on top of this, bounced off and 
 rolled to one side before exploding. He had 
 one small opening through which he could 
 throw his bombs, but too small for even 
 an expert thrower, at that distance, and 
 under these conditions, to even hope to 
 drop a bomb through. A small trench, 
 dug into the side of the Grassier, led up 
 to this post. At the bottom of the Grassier 
 he had another post, a night post. The 
 one on the Grassier was both a day and 
 night post. 
 
 Shortly after the Vimy Ridge attack, 
 when our line was carried forward several 
 thousand yards, I got an opportunity to 
 examine this Grassier post of his. Deep 
 
86 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 down into the slag-heap he had dug a 
 tunnel, fairly commodious, so that his 
 men could comfortably man the post and 
 have good protection in case of a heavy 
 bombardment. 
 
 We arrived at the Grassier shortly before 
 eight o'clock that night — it was brilliantly 
 moonlight. We spoke to the sentry on duty 
 in our bombing-post. 
 
 * Have you seen any Huns moving about 
 down there? ' indicating the Boche lines at 
 the bottom of the Grassier. 
 
 ' Yes,' he answered eagerly, * we noticed 
 them last night for the first time. About 
 every two hours seven of them (we counted 
 them) came overland from a trench ; three 
 of them got down into the trench at the 
 bottom of the Grassier, while four of them 
 went on towards the Grassier. We lost 
 sight of them, but soon afterwards saw four 
 Huns coming away from there; they 
 were then joined by three Huns who 
 climbed out of the trench and the seven of 
 them, in single file, went back to the support 
 trench. ' 
 
 ' Well,' said Jack, * this certainly sounds 
 interesting; we '11 stick around and see 
 if the same thing happens to-night. ' 
 
PULLING THE STRING 87 
 
 We waited for a few minutes, and then 
 Jack whispered excitedly: 
 
 * Here they are, Mac, you can see them 
 easily. They are coming towards the 
 Grassier. ' 
 
 I looked, and had no difficulty in seeing 
 them. They came unconcernedly on until 
 they reached their front line. The first 
 three dropped into the trench, while the 
 remainder went on — disappearing into the 
 trench that led up to the Grassier post. 
 A few minutes later four of them appeared 
 coming from the Grassier; they were joined 
 by three from the trench, and the seven con- 
 tinued their journey back to the support 
 line. It was all exactly as the sentry 
 described it. 
 
 * What time is it, Mac ^ ' asked Jack. 
 
 * Nearly ten minutes past eight,' I re- 
 plied. 
 
 * Well, we '11 wait here for a couple of 
 hours or so to see if the same thing happens 
 again. There 's no doubt about what it 
 is ; it is the relief for his two outposts. I '11 
 bet anything this kind of thing is going on 
 all night. ' 
 
 * No doubt about it, ' I agreed. 
 
 * If we could only get some machine guns 
 
88 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 on to him. we couldn't half give him a 
 lively time, ' said J ack. 
 
 ' Yes, but I don't suppose we could use 
 any of the guns around here. ' 
 
 * No,' said Jack, ' they don't want to fire 
 except in the case of a raid or an attack. If 
 he spots their emplacements he '11 drop 
 
 * Minnies ' into them. But I '11 see Tommy 
 and we '11 try to work out some scheme for 
 giving these blighters a warm time. ' 
 
 The Hun very thoughtfully enlivened 
 our period of waiting by planting three 
 
 * Minnies ' so close to us that we ahnost 
 got underneath them. When the excite- 
 ment and noise had died down Jack turned 
 to me: 
 
 ' What 's the time now, Mac? ' he asked. 
 
 * Ten minutes to ten. ' 
 
 ' They '11 be bringing along another relief 
 soon. ' 
 
 Promptly at ten (for the Hun loved to be 
 methodical) seven men reappeared, coming 
 overland towards the Grassier. The same 
 proceeding followed as took place two hours 
 earlier. 
 
 Jack turned to the sentry. 
 
 * Will you tell whoever relieves you to 
 watch out for these reliefs so that we can 
 
PULLING THE STRING 89 
 
 find out if this kind of thing goes on all 
 night? ' 
 
 The sentry promised to do so, so we went 
 back to headquarters. 
 
 ' If we can fix up something, Mac,' said 
 Jack as we were returning, ' we can give 
 them a warm time to-morrow night.' 
 
 Tommy, upon learning from Jack the 
 details of the Hun activity, waxed enthusi- 
 astic over the possibilities of giving the Hun 
 * a warm time. ' 
 
 A scheme was outlined, and Jack gave 
 me the details of it in the early hours of the 
 morning. 
 
 ' Well, Mac,' he said, * if this little game 
 works, we are going to see some fun. 
 Tommy is going to arrange for the assist- 
 ance of the brigade machine gunners, who 
 have gun emplacements in that slag-heap 
 about five hundred yards behind our front 
 line. We are going to fix up a signalling 
 lamp near the foot of the Grassier. This 
 lamp will be sited so as to face the machine 
 gunners. A signaller will be on duty at 
 the lamp, and he will have a scout with him 
 who will have one end of a long piece of sig- 
 nalling wire in his hand. The other end 
 will be in the bombing-post on the 
 
90 SCOUTING THEILLS 
 
 Grassier, and we will have that. One pull 
 on the wire is the signal to the man at the 
 lamp to flash his lamp once. This is the 
 signal to the machine gunners to open up 
 (they know where to fire) with their guns. 
 Two pulls (two flashes) is the signal to 
 elevate (we shall be able to see how they 
 are shooting) ; three pulls — the signal to 
 depress; four pulls — "cease fire." What 
 do you think about it ? ' 
 
 ' Sounds good to me — if only the machine 
 gunners don't shoot all over the place.' 
 
 * Oh, I don't think that will happen. The 
 machine-gun ofiicer is coming along to-day 
 and they will work the thing out exactly ; in 
 any case, we should, by our signals, soon get 
 them on to the target. ' 
 
 * I don't suppose the Hun will stop 
 coming after his first fright ? ' I queried. 
 
 * I guess not; he 's likely been using that 
 route for ages. He '11 stick to it for a little 
 while anyway. ' 
 
 We had a busy time the next day getting 
 our apparatus in working order. We found 
 that we should have to relay our signals 
 back to avoid any possibility of the wire 
 getting caught and failing to act. No time 
 must be lost if we wanted our scheme to 
 
PULLING THE STRING 91 
 
 be a success, for our target was only visible 
 for two or three minutes. So, half-way 
 down from the bombing-post to the lamp 
 we decided to place Sharkum. He would 
 get our signal and pass it on to the scout 
 on duty with the signaller. When we had 
 our apparatus set up we tested it and found 
 it worked smoothly, the machine gunners 
 being easily able, even in the daylight, to 
 see the flash of the Lucas lamp. 
 
 At 7.30 that night. Jack, Louis, and my- 
 self were standing in our bombing-post 
 impatiently waiting for eight o'clock to 
 arrive. Jack and I were to watch, and 
 Louis was to do the signalling. Eight 
 o'clock found Jack and myself straining our 
 eyes to catch a glimpse of the Huns. 
 
 * Here they come, Mac,' whispered Jack. 
 
 ^ One pull, Louis,' I whispered back. 
 Louis put his back into it — I'm sure he must 
 have pulled Sharkum off his feet! The 
 Huns came sauntering forward, while 
 we fairly danced with excitement and glee. 
 Had the gunners got the signal? When 
 would they fire? It seemed ages, though 
 in reality it was only a few seconds, be- 
 fore we heard the rattle of the machine 
 gun. 
 
92 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 Down went the Huns! Had we got 
 them all? Surely not! The machine gun 
 finished its burst. A pause, and up jumped 
 seven lively Huns ! 
 
 ^ Too high/ whispered Jack in disgust. 
 
 ^ Three pulls, Louis,' I whispered back. 
 On came the Huns in a most unseemly 
 haste that gave us the greatest enjoyment. 
 They were going to reach the trench! 
 They just finished a wild successful rush 
 towards it when the machine gun rattled 
 out again. The disappointment of it! 
 Ten seconds sooner and we would have 
 got some of them. Jack growled out his 
 disgust. 
 
 * Four pulls, Louis, ' I murmured. * Cheer 
 up. Jack,' I said, ' the night is young and 
 the fun is only beginning.' 
 
 Five minutes passed and the Hun, on the 
 return trip, reappeared. 
 
 ' One pull, Louis! ' I almost shouted. 
 
 The reply was prompt; the machine gun 
 rattled out and claimed the last Hun as a 
 victim. He fell, then got up and limped 
 back into the trench. The six ahead con- 
 tinued their wild stampede. Then the Hun 
 became vicious and ugly and began to 
 bounce the * Minnies ' around us, but we 
 
PULLING THE STRING 93 
 
 stuck it out for the next reappearance of the 
 relief. 
 
 * There 's one way they could fool us, 
 Mac,' said Jack, * if only they had wits 
 enough. ' 
 
 * How's that r 
 
 * If they came over singly, at intervals.' 
 
 ' Yes, they could do that, but even then 
 we could give them a few thrills. What 
 they are likely to do is to use the trench.' 
 
 But promptly at ten o'clock they re- 
 appeared, and even more promptly and 
 vigorously Louis gave a pull on the wire; 
 the result proved most disconcerting to 
 the Huns — ^they scattered and dropped into 
 shell-holes. 
 
 * Don't alter the elevation, Jack,' I 
 whispered, * let them keep on firing ; ' and 
 then we watched the antics of the in- 
 dividual Huns until we simply rocked with 
 laughter. First one would cautiously and 
 hesitatingly get up and make a wild dash 
 forward — a burst of fire from the machine 
 gun, and he would disappear, head and 
 heels, into the nearest shell-hole. This 
 would be repeated by every Hun in the 
 party. A journey of three minutes occupied 
 fully fifteen minutes. The wild scrambles 
 
94 SCOUTINGl THRILLS 
 
 and frantic dashes forward were hugely 
 amusing to us. The same thing happened on 
 the return journey — every man for himself. 
 We were simply weak with laughing, when 
 the last of them disappeared. 
 
 ' Do you think they '11 come back again, 
 Mac ? ' asked Jack. 
 
 * No, I don't; I 'd like to bet any money 
 they don't.' 
 
 Midnight came, but no Huns; fifteen 
 minutes after midnight, and still no Huns ! 
 Thirty minutes after, and still no Huns ! 
 
 * I think we may as well pack up and go,' 
 said Jack. 
 
 * Yes, the Hun has got wise at last. ' 
 
 So we packed up and went back to head- 
 quarters. But we had had a very merry 
 demonstration of the old saying : — * Pull the 
 string and the figure will move ! ' 
 
VI 
 HUN EAIDS 
 
 T T was our first trip in the line after tEe 
 ^ severe fighting — under indescribably 
 ghastly conditions — at Paaschendaele. We 
 were in the Lens sector, and part of the line 
 we took over ran through the village of 
 Avion. 
 
 Two days before we went in I was with 
 a party of officers who were ' looking over ' 
 the line preparatory to the battalion going 
 in. I got into touch with the scout officer. 
 
 * Well, what kind of a tour are you having 
 — anything exciting happening ? ' 
 
 ' Nothing much, though he seems to be 
 particularly lively with his " Minnies " — 
 got a party of fifteen last night — knocked 
 the whole crowd out with one shell. ' 
 
 ' Have you got a " line " on any of them 
 yet? ' 
 
 * Well, it 's so hard to do anything of 
 
 95 
 
96 SCOUTING THEILLS 
 
 the kind. He seems to have all his ' ' Minnie ' ' 
 gun emplacements behind the railroad em- 
 bankment. Probably he has a truck and 
 runs them up, firing a few roimds each time 
 from different locations. ' 
 
 * How about patrols, anything much 
 doing? ' 
 
 * No, nothing exciting.' 
 
 * Well, I '11 go up and have a look around. ' 
 
 * I '11 go with you, if you like.' 
 
 '■ No, thanks,' I replied, ' I have a scout 
 with me, and we '11 go around together; we 
 can find our way around all right. ' 
 
 We reached the front line — ^to find it 
 absolutely levelled in places. There was 
 no mistaking the Hun's malicious interest 
 in the place! We had not been there 
 long before our necks were getting stiff 
 watching for the ' Minnie ' shells as they 
 came hurtling through the air; then came 
 the swift hissing noise, followed by the 
 tremendous explosion that fairly shook 
 your teeth loose, apart from the horrible 
 jar it gave your heart ! 
 
 ' Say, this is no picnic around here, is it ? ' 
 I remarked to the scout who was with 
 me. 
 
 * No, sir,' he replied; ' unless you really 
 
HUN RAIDS 97 
 
 want to stay to watch the fun, I think we 
 might as well go. ' 
 
 'Fun! I don't call this fun! and I think 
 your advice is about the best I 've heard to- 
 day, so let us get/ And we ' got.' 
 
 The line we took over was most peculiar. 
 The right sector was at right angles to the 
 left. No Man's Land on the left was 
 simply a mass of ruined houses, and the 
 German trench was about a hundred and 
 fifty yards from ours. On the extreme 
 right, No Man's Land was as much as eight 
 hundred yards across, and all open country. 
 I decided, for the first night, to take a stroll 
 across the open country and, with such a 
 wide No Man's Land, decided to take out a 
 fairly large patrol. 
 
 The light was good when nine of us, 
 making up the patrol, climbed out of our 
 trench and started on our way across to the 
 German lines. 
 
 * I think we might as well walk for two 
 or three hundred yards, corporal, don't 
 you? ' 
 
 * Yes, sir,' he replied. ' Our patrol is a 
 fairly strong one, and we can afford to take 
 a few risks. Besides, the grass is very wet 
 from the rain we had to-night; we would 
 
98 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 soon be soaking wet if we got down at 
 all/ 
 
 So, keeping formation, we continued to 
 walk slowly forward, pausing occasionally, 
 getting down on one knee and listening. 
 The wet grass made me loathe to do any 
 crawling until absolutely necessary, so that 
 we had really gone some hundreds of yards 
 when Pete came up to me and touched my 
 shoulder. 
 
 * The German wire is only about fifty 
 yards in front of us, sir,' he whispered. 
 
 I immediately gave the signal to get 
 down and looked hard in front of me. Pete 
 was right — it was as he had said. I waited 
 for a few moments and then began to crawl 
 forward, the corporal being alongside of me. 
 When about ten yards from the wire I indi- 
 cated to the corporal a gap in the Hun wire. 
 
 * Wait here,' I whispered, * while I crawl 
 forward into that gap.' 
 
 I reached the gap and was pushing my 
 way through it when something hit my foot 
 — a piece of mud. I turned around in 
 time to see the corporal making frantic 
 signals for me to return. I lost no time 
 in crawling back. Pete was with the 
 corporal, his eyes shining with excitement. 
 
HUN RAIDS 99 
 
 ' What is it, corporal 1 ' I whispered. 
 
 Pete answered. ' A bunch of Fritzes, 
 sir; can't you see them inside the 
 wire. ' 
 
 I looked, and sure enough there were 
 several shadowy forms almost opposite the 
 gap — a Hun wire patrol! If I had con- 
 tinued crawling — as I most likely would 
 have done but for the warning, my view 
 being strictly limited to what lay imme- 
 diately ahead of me — the Huns would 
 probably have almost walked over me! 
 It might be asked, why didn't we throw 
 our bombs or use our rifles'? The reasons 
 were excellent ones. In the first place we 
 were several hundreds of yards from our 
 own trench. If there had been retaliation 
 and we had suffered casualties the diffi- 
 culties of getting them back were really 
 enormous. Then we were new to the 
 ground; should one or two men become 
 separated from the party there would be 
 the danger of their getting lost and maybe 
 captured. With the information we now 
 had we could return to this place and lie 
 in wait for them. This was our intention 
 when we left there, but subsequent exciting 
 events caused us to quite forget these wire 
 
100 SCOUTINa THRILLS 
 
 patrollers. We returned to our trench 
 about three o'clock in the morning. The 
 moon disappeared about five o'clock and 
 there was an hour of darkness before 
 daylight. That was the hour chosen by 
 the Hun to raid our trenches. He had 
 assembled two parties in shell-holes in No 
 Man's Land, parties (we afterwards dis- 
 covered) of twenty-five men each. 
 
 Shortly before dawn, following a period 
 unusually quiet, there was a sharp, sudden, 
 heavy bombardment; a score of big 
 ' Minnies ' came crashing over, uprooting 
 the earth and levelling the trenches. Those 
 of the garrison who were not killed or 
 wounded, were left dazed by the noise 
 and concussion. This was followed by 
 two separate attempts to force an entry 
 into our trenches, but these were gallantly 
 beaten off by what was left of the garrison. 
 The Hun raid had failed. 
 
 As soon as the news of the raid reached 
 us we went up to get all particulars. The 
 Hun was viciously lobbing his ' Minnies ' 
 over, and the front line trench was in an 
 indescribable condition. The garrison, worn 
 out with their weary vigil and trying ex- 
 periences of the previous night, were un- 
 
HUN RAIDS 101 
 
 able to snatch even an hour's sleep amidst 
 the deafening noise and destruction of the 
 bombardment. There was one particular 
 post which was, as we thought, being 
 significantly left alone. On either side the 
 big ' Minnies ' burst with distressing and 
 disturbing regularity. After several hair- 
 raising escapes we reached this post. Just 
 as we reached it a ' Minnie ' crashed into the 
 wire in front of it, blowing the entangle- 
 ments sky-high. 
 
 ^ Well, that just about clinches the 
 matter, corporal,' I remarked to the scout 
 corporal who was with me. 
 
 * No doubt about it, sir, he 's going to try 
 his luck at this post to-night. ' 
 
 The signs all pointed to it, and they were 
 confirmed by the company commander's 
 report to headquarters, in which he said 
 he strongly suspected a raid on what was 
 known as No. 7 Post. Accordingly, all 
 defensive precautions were taken. A con- 
 ference at headquarters resulted in a req- 
 uisition for the necessary amount of 
 artillery retaliation and machine-gun fire. 
 The signal for this retaliation was to be a 
 green flare fired from the front line. When 
 this signal went up; crash would come down 
 
102 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 our artillery and the machine guns would 
 rattle out, swishing across No Man's Land, 
 making any venturesome Hun keep as close 
 to Mother Earth as he could. When I 
 heard of all these defensive arrangements 
 I decided that the scouts could very use- 
 fully take a hand in them. I went along 
 to the scouts' dug-out. 
 
 * What about making up a little reception 
 committee for the Huns to-night, boys ? ' 
 
 The proposal was favourably received, 
 so I expounded my idea to them. 
 
 * We '11 go out between four and five 
 o'clock in the morning, and lie in wait for 
 the Hun some distance in front of the post 
 we believe he is going to attack. He's 
 bound to assemble somewhere, and if we 
 can catch him assembling we can spoil his 
 party. ' 
 
 So we made our plans for the part we 
 intended to play in this little drama. See- 
 ing that we might probably have a lively 
 early-morning encounter, we abandoned all 
 previous plans for patrols that night. 
 
 Shortly after four o'clock nine shadowy 
 figures might have been seen stealing out 
 of our trench and across No Man's Land. 
 In order not to confuse the garrisons of 
 
HUN EAIDS 103 
 
 other posts to the left of the one in front 
 of which we proposed to assemble (No. 7 
 Post), we agreed not, under any circum- 
 stances, to go to the left of this post. This 
 left the garrisons of the two posts attacked 
 the previous morning (Nos. 9 and 10 Posts) 
 free to deal with any one seen out in No 
 Man's Land. 
 
 I took my patrol out about seventy-five 
 yards in front of No. 7 Post, and, by the 
 time we had got into a good defensive 
 position, the moon had disappeared. About 
 a hundred yards in front of us was the Ger- 
 man trench. There was the distinct 
 sound of something metallic striking against 
 the Hun wire. 
 
 ' Did you hear that, corporal*? ' I whis- 
 pered. 
 
 * Yes, sir, somebody in the wire,' he 
 replied. 
 
 ' I think it is a little to the left, don't you ?' 
 
 * Yes, it is over in that direction, sir. ' 
 
 * He may be taking another crack at 
 No. 10 Post. Perhaps he was only trying 
 to bluff us when he began isolating No. 7 
 Post? ' 
 
 ' Yes, he may; he's a tricky old devil.' 
 ' Well, in any case he '11 get a hot re- 
 
104 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 ception if lie goes back there again. The 
 boys are right on their toes waiting for 
 him.' 
 
 The minutes dragged wearily on, and 
 there was not another sound to arouse our 
 suspicions. It was the lack of sound now 
 that made us suspicious. Not a shell was 
 coming over, not a flare was going up. 
 
 ' There '11 be something doing soon, 
 corporal,' I whispered. 
 
 * Yes, sir, I feel like that too,' he replied. 
 
 It was uncanny, for though we could 
 neither hear nor see any one, we knew that 
 men were moving around, and that soon 
 some one would be locked in a death-grip 
 with them. Were they out there in front 
 of usf We strained our eyes into the 
 darkness until they ached. Breathless we 
 listened, with bombs ready to throw at 
 the first sign of an attacking Hun. They 
 were moments of tense excitement. 
 
 ^ Look, sir,' whispered the corporal, 
 tugging excitedly at my arm. 
 
 I looked up. There were eight of them 
 — flaming-tailed * Minnies.' They were all 
 a little to our left. There was a tremendous 
 crash and concussion as they hit the ground 
 almost simultaneously. A few seconds later 
 
HUN RAIDS 105 
 
 we watclied the flight of eight more. Then 
 another eight. Our hearts were beating 
 wildly with excitement. Then from the 
 German trench in front of us a green flare 
 shot up — the signal to the raiding party to 
 rush our posts! By a marvellous co- 
 incidence it was the same signal as our 
 local S.O.S. — the signal for our artillery and 
 machine guns to open up. And they did! 
 A perfect hail of machine-gun bullets 
 swished over our heads, making even us 
 bite the grass! And the raiders? Well, 
 they were caught in the storm. From 
 several directions we heard the cries and 
 moans of wounded and dying men. We 
 also heard the rattle of one of our Lewis 
 guns from the direction of No. 10 Post. 
 Our shells were crashing into the Boche 
 wire and making the return trip of the 
 raiders decidedly warm and unhealthy. I 
 was filled with an overpowering desire to 
 go off in the direction the cries came from 
 — a wounded prisoner was always worth 
 bagging — but could not move, as all the 
 cries were coming from our left and I had 
 arranged to keep away from there so as to 
 give the garrison a free field. If we had 
 gone over there and had been seen, then 
 
106 SCOUTINa THRILLS 
 
 we should have been shot up too. The noise 
 and din was indescribable, and those agon- 
 ised cries of wounded men made the whole 
 experience inexpressibly weird. 
 
 ^ They 've had another try after No. 10 
 Post, corporal,' I whispered; ^ as soon as 
 we can get back we '11 go along and find 
 out.' 
 
 A few minutes later we were back in our 
 own trench. 
 
 ' Send the rest of the patrol back to head- 
 quarters, corporal, and you come along 
 with me.' 
 
 We were soon rushing along our trench 
 in the direction of No. 10 Post. We passed 
 a prisoner who had been found, a few 
 minutes after the raid, trying to get through 
 our wire. He was one of the ' sturm- 
 truppen ' or ' storm troops,' who, having 
 lost all sense of direction, thought he had 
 arrived back at his own trench. He was 
 soon disillusioned. A husky stretcher- 
 bearer, hearing the noise, climbed out of the 
 trench and found him struggling in the wire. 
 At first he began jabbering in German, but 
 was rudely interrupted by the stretcher- 
 bearer, who seized him by the collar and 
 conferred upon him the noble Order of the 
 
HUN RAIDS 107 
 
 Boot — ^landing him squarely into our trench. 
 For a * storm-trooper ' he was a bit of a 
 paradox, his height being barely five feet, 
 and he was very slim and weakly-looking. 
 He wore the ribbon of the Iron Cross. 
 After giving him the * once over,' we 
 arrived at No. 10 Post. We did not wait 
 to make any inquiries, but hopped over 
 the parapet. Not many yards away there 
 was a wounded German crying out loudly 
 in his agony. Two of our officers were lying 
 in a shell-hole just outside our trench. I 
 spoke to them. 
 
 ^ You must have been punishing the Hun 
 to-night,' I said. 
 
 * Yes, ' replied one of them, ' one of our 
 Lewis guns caught them just as they got 
 to our wire. ' 
 
 * I'm going out to have a look at the 
 Hun raising the noise; perhaps we can 
 get him in. Come on, corporal,' I said. 
 * We'll see what 's wrong with him.' 
 
 We crossed over our wire, and a few 
 yards beyond it we found the wounded 
 German. He was making a most unearthly 
 noise. ' Beine ! Beine ! ' he was shouting. 
 I took that to mean his leg, so bent down 
 and got hold of his right leg. It was hang- 
 
108 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 ing by the skin, having practically been 
 severed by machine gun fire. Upon further 
 examination we found him to have several 
 wounds in the stomach and head. He was 
 well-equipped for a fight — strapped across 
 his chest and under the armpits was what 
 was known as an apron for carrying bombs. 
 In this he was carrying six bombs of the 
 type popularly known amongst us as 
 * potato-mashers ' — because of the resem- 
 blance to one. His pockets were filled 
 with cartridge clips for his rifle, and dan- 
 gling on his belt was an evil-looking dagger. 
 We unstrapped his bomb-apron and took 
 off his equipment. During all this time 
 he was groaning and shouting in pain. 
 We endeavored to get him out of the 
 shell-hole, but he was a big, heavy man, and 
 moving him seemed to cause intense pain. 
 We were joined by one of our officers, 
 and just as the three of us were pre- 
 paring to move him he died. We took 
 the papers, including letters and postcards, 
 from his pockets, and then had a look 
 around. We saw a tape stretching across 
 No Man's Land and leading into a gap in 
 our wire. We followed the tape in the 
 direction of our own trench, and came to 
 
HUN RAIDS 109 
 
 a shell-hole in which were lying three dead 
 Huns. The leader, a sergeant-major, was 
 clutching one end of the tape in his hand. 
 His revolver lay on the side of the shell- 
 hole nearest our trench. He had apparently 
 just raised himself preparatory to jumping 
 out of the shell-hole and making a dash 
 for our trench, when a burst from the 
 Lewis gun caught him square in the face. 
 The other two had also been hit in the 
 head, and killed instantly. We were full 
 of praise for the boy at the gun; he had 
 been wonderfully cool and brave. After 
 removing all papers and valuables from 
 the pockets of the dead Huns we returned 
 into our own trench. It was then ahnost 
 dawn. The prisoner taken had, upon ex- 
 amination, told us of the intention of the 
 German staff to carry out raids until they 
 had secured a prisoner. The specially 
 trained troops known as ' sturm-truppen, ' 
 had been given orders to raid each night 
 until they were successful, so it seemed 
 likely that we could expect more attempts. 
 Two unsuccessful attempts had now been 
 made on No. 10 Post. The post to the 
 left of that (about one hundred yards of 
 trench between these posts had been evacu- 
 
110 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 ated owing to the heavy meinenwerfer fire) 
 had been attacked once, so we decided to 
 patrol in front of it. The trenches were 
 closer here, so it was not necessary to have 
 quite as large a patrol, and only five of us 
 went out. After getting clear of our wire, 
 we crawled forward (it was moonlight) in 
 the direction of the nearest German post, 
 about seventy-five yards away. During 
 our progress towards it we found several 
 indications of the presence of the raiders 
 there two nights ago. ' Potato-mashers ^ 
 were lying scattered around in different 
 shell-holes. Meeting with opposition, the 
 raiders had doubtless scurried off in various 
 directions. I crawled down into a shell- 
 hole filled with wire. There was also wire 
 running back from it towards the German 
 lines. I made several futile attempts to 
 get underneath the wire to see what lay 
 beyond, but the strands were cunningly 
 woven, and I had to give it up. I crawled 
 out of the shell-hole and was moving over 
 the left, when bang went a rifle not more 
 than thirty or forty yards away, and a 
 bullet plunked into the ground a few inches 
 from my head. The four scouts were 
 scattered around in shell-holes close be- 
 
HUN RAIDS 111 
 
 hind me. One of them, a few yards away 
 from me, beckoned to me, and I lost no 
 time in getting into the protection of the 
 shell-hole. Shortly afterwards two Huns 
 stood up (head and shoulders showing) at 
 a point about twenty yards from the wire 
 I had attempted to get through. Pete, 
 who was in a shell-hole on my right, saw 
 them, and having a rifle, promptly fired and 
 got one of them. Apparently frantic 
 signals were sent back for reinforcements 
 for, not more than a couple of minutes 
 later, we saw five Huns, about seventy- 
 five yards away, climb out of one trench 
 and drop in quick succession into another 
 leading out to the advanced post. We 
 lay waiting and watching for several 
 minutes, but nothing further happened. 
 We continued with our patrol, remaining 
 out until almost dawn. For one night at 
 least, the Hun * sturm-truppen ' had a 
 rest. 
 
 The following night, shortly after dark, 
 and while we were eating dinner, the noise of 
 a terrific bombardment reached us. We 
 rushed up the dug-out steps, and the scream 
 of our own shells passing overhead was 
 what we heard most. Upon inquiry from 
 
112 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 the sentry on duty we found that the 
 green flare, our local S.O.S., had gone up. 
 I rushed along to the scouts ' dug-out. 
 
 ' Come on, boys, everybody ready at 
 once; there 's something doing up the 
 line. ' 
 
 A few minutes later we were tearing up 
 the communication trench to the front 
 line. By the time we reached there things 
 had almost quietened down. I met an 
 officer on duty. 
 
 ' What 's the trouble now ? ' I enquired. 
 
 ^ Oh, Heinie has another crack at No. 10 
 Post, ' he replied. 
 
 * Did he get into it f ' I asked. 
 
 ' No, he was easily beaten off, but we have 
 had a good many casualties from his 
 Minnies. ' 
 
 We went along to No. 10 Post and got the 
 story from the corporal in charge. 
 
 * It was soon after dark, sir. He threw 
 over a bunch of ''Minnies" but none of them 
 came very close to us. We saw one man get 
 up, run forward and throw a bomb, 
 which landed on the outside of the parapet. 
 I fired my rifle and one of the men in the post 
 threw a bomb. That was all that hap- 
 pened, sir.' 
 
HUN RAIDS 113 
 
 * You Ve apparently got them pretty well 
 scared, corporal; they don't seem to have 
 much heart for their work. Point out where 
 you saw the man that threw the bomb, and 
 we '11 go out to have a look around. ' 
 
 The corporal did so, and taking four 
 scouts with me, I started out on patrol. 
 The moon was just rising when we went 
 out. We got through the wire and crawled 
 along the outside of it until we came to the 
 tape we had seen there after the last attempt. 
 We found it pinned into the ground with a 
 pair of large Boche wire-cutters. I followed 
 the tape along until I came to a huge shell- 
 hole at the end of a piece of shallow, dis- 
 used trench. It was smooth with use, and 
 had no doubt been used for assembling the 
 main body of the raiders ; it was not more 
 than forty-five yards from our trench. I 
 crawled into this and beckoned to the 
 corporal to follow me. 
 
 ' No doubt about this, is there? ' I 
 whispered. 
 
 * No, sir, this is the place where they have 
 assembled. They must have been here pretty 
 often. ' 
 
 * You can also see the path they have come 
 along. ' 
 
114 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 In the moonliglit it was uiunistakable, 
 standing out like a bright broad ribbon 
 stretched across No Man's Land. After in- 
 dicating it to the corporal, I told him to 
 wait there while I followed it along to the 
 Boche trench. Owing to the bright moon- 
 light it was unwise for more than one man 
 to move along it; so, keeping a little to one 
 side of it, I crawled fairly quickly until I 
 came to the Boche wire fifty yards further 
 on. Looking up, I could even see the 
 smooth part of the parapet, the particular 
 place where the raiders were accustomed to 
 crawl out over. It was all most interesting. 
 Party after party, patrol after patrol, must 
 have moved along this pathway. There 
 was no doubt about thorough preparation, 
 and it would explain the repeated efforts 
 to enter No. 10 Post — despite the many 
 failures. Fritz had really set his heart 
 upon this undertaking. I returned to the 
 corporal. 
 
 ' There must have been crowds of men 
 coming and going along this pathway,' I 
 remarked when I got back into the shell- 
 hole with him. 
 
 * Yes, sir, they certainly intended to make 
 a success of their raid. ' 
 
HUN RAIDS 115 
 
 * Well, I only hope lie returns to-morrow 
 night, he '11 probably find us waiting for 
 him/ 
 
 As the moon was up now until dawn, 
 there was very little probability of another 
 attempt being made, so we returned to 
 headquarters. 
 
 The next morning I went along to the 
 scouts' dug-out and we talked things over. 
 The result was that we decided to take out 
 a fighting patrol, including a Lewis gun and 
 crew, and wait for the raiders near their 
 assembly position. I went to the CO. and 
 explained what we intended to do. 
 
 ' That seems a very good plan, M'Kean,' 
 he said, * you ought to take him by surprise 
 if he makes another attempt to-night. ' 
 
 ^ Yes, sir,' I replied, ' we rather hope he 
 will come back to-night. ' 
 
 * How long do you intend to remain out 
 there "? ' 
 
 ' Until the moon comes up, sir; we '11 be 
 out between two and three hours. ' 
 
 * Pretty cold job for your scouts, M'Kean. ' 
 ' Yes, sir, it will be, but they are all very 
 
 keen about it. ' 
 
 ' You want a Lewis gun crew to report to 
 you at 4.30?' 
 
116 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 *■ Yes, sir ; we 'd like men who are keen on 
 this kind of thing. ' 
 
 ' All right, I '11 see you get good men. ' 
 
 The patrol was to consist of nine scouts 
 and four Lewis gunners with their gun. 
 
 Shortly before dark we arrived at No. 10 
 Post. The Lewis gun team was there, and 
 I explained what they would have to do. 
 
 ' Now, corporal,' I said to the N.C.O. in 
 charge of the gun, ' I am going to place you 
 in position a few yards in the rear of and 
 to the left of the scouts, so that if the Huns 
 come into their old assembly position you 
 will be able to fire into them from the flank 
 — but don't fire until you get the word from 
 myself or the scout corporal. If they come, 
 we are going to throw bombs into them and 
 then rush them, and get as many prisoners 
 as we can. Now, you understand, don't 
 you? ' 
 
 * Yes, sir, ' replied the corporal. 
 
 As soon as it was dark we went out, mov- 
 ing quietly and cautiously until we were 
 all in position, which took several minutes. 
 I left two of the scouts with the Lewis gun, 
 the other seven I took forward with myself. 
 About twenty yards from, and overlooking 
 the Hun raiders' assembly position, were 
 
HUN RAIDS 117 
 
 three fairly large shell-holes. Three of the 
 scouts, including the corporal, remained 
 with me in the centre shell-hole ; two scouts 
 were in the one on the left, and two in that on 
 the right. We all had bombs ready to 
 throw. In a couple of seconds seven Mills' 
 bombs could be dropped in amongst the 
 Huns. 
 
 It was a very dark night, misty, wet and 
 cold. We strained our eyes into the dark- 
 ness, every man being eager to catch the 
 first glimpse of the Huns. More than once 
 I felt a light touch on my arm — it was a 
 scout ready to swear he had seen something 
 move. We would all concentrate on the 
 suspected object, sometimes hearts beating 
 high with hope, but we always had finally 
 to admit that it couldn't have been a Hun. 
 We were looking right into the huge shell- 
 hole that the Huns had previously used for 
 assembling, so a man moving into that 
 could not possibly escape us. We listened 
 as intently as we looked, and so the minutes 
 dragged on into hours. I could feel the 
 scouts next to me trembling with the cold, 
 and I was trembling with it also. It was a 
 wearying, exhausting vigil, yet all the time 
 we were keyed up to the highest pitch of ex- 
 
118 SCOUTING THEILLS 
 
 pectation and excitement. The conduct of 
 the scouts was admirable ; not a man moved 
 though I knew their feet, like mine, must 
 have been as cold as lead, and the longing 
 to knock them together to bring a little 
 warmth into them was well-nigh irresistible. 
 I looked at my watch — ^we had been lying 
 there two hours and a half. There was a 
 perceptible brightening; objects that had 
 looked shadowy and blurred became dis- 
 tinct — the moon was coming up. Fifteen 
 minutes more and it was quite bright. No 
 use waiting any longer — the Huns would 
 not come now. I turned to the corporal. 
 
 * Tell the men to crawl back in, corporal. 
 I '11 wait here until they are all clear of the 
 wire. ' 
 
 This took a few minutes, and when the 
 corporal came back to me I got up, cold 
 and stiffened, and walked back into our 
 trench. It was then that I realised just how 
 cold I was. My teeth chattered so that I 
 simply could not speak. 
 
 The following night we were relieved. 
 The relief came in as soon as it was dark. 
 In order to discourage the Hun in any idea 
 he might have of raiding, we had machine- 
 guns fire * bursts ' into the gap in his wire 
 
HUN EAIDS 119 
 
 tlirougli whicli he came out into No Man's 
 Land. Also the corporal and myself, before 
 coming in the previous night, picked up the 
 end of the tape and took it out into No Man's 
 Land, so that if he followed the tape he 
 would move in a semicircle and carry out a 
 successful raid upon his own trench 1 
 
VII 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS TUNNEL 
 
 ' T^ ID you hear the strange story of the 
 -*~^ mysterious tunnel in No Man's 
 Land in the sector we have just taken 
 over? ' the brigade intelligence officer asked 
 when I called in at brigade headquarters for 
 some maps. 
 
 ' No,' I replied. ' What is the story? ' 
 * Well, if you will just come over here and 
 have a look at this map I will point out to 
 you the location of the tunnel. You see 
 there — that in No Man's Land is a big rail- 
 way siding in front of Lens. There is 
 apparently a cutting of ten to fifteen feet 
 deep. In the side of this cutting, about a 
 hundred and fifty yards out from our trench, 
 there is this tunnel which I have marked on 
 the map. You will see that these sidings 
 run diagonally across our front, and that 
 they cut through the extreme right flank of 
 
 120 
 
THE MYSTERIOUS TUNNEL 121 
 
 the right battalion. The right battalion 
 have a post which looks down the sidings. 
 It was from this post that an officer of one 
 of the battalions of the brigade we have 
 just relieved went out, with a sergeant and 
 another man, to have a look around. They 
 were going cautiously along, being anxious 
 to see what was in an apparently old log 
 building, when they were stopped dead by 
 the sound of a cough coming from a few 
 yards in front of them. They hugged the 
 ground closely and waited. A few minutes 
 later they heard men talking, and soon 
 afterwards some one came around from be- 
 hind this log building. It was a Grerman 
 soldier, carrying a rifle. He stood and 
 looked around for a while, and then dis- 
 appeared around the corner of the old build- 
 ing. This small party then returned to 
 their own trench. The following night one 
 of our battalions relieved them, and the 
 officer who had seen all this took the scout 
 officer of our relieving battalion out for a 
 short distance and pointed out to him the 
 location of the place. ' 
 
 ' It does seem rather mysterious,' I said 
 when he had finished his story, ' for this 
 location marked on the map is quite as far 
 
122 SCOUTINa THRILLS 
 
 from the Hun lines as it is from ours. I 
 cannot think for a moment what on earth 
 he is doing with men so far out ; it isn't usual 
 for him to do anything like this. ' 
 
 ' No, that is what makes it so mysterious. 
 The Hun is not in the habit of roaming so 
 far from home. ' 
 
 ' Are there any theories at all about it, 
 any explanations for this unusual conduct ? ' 
 
 ' Division have one. It is well known 
 that in Lens and the Green Grassier not one 
 hundred yards from this tunnel or whatever 
 it is, there is a perfect labyrinth of tunnels,^ 
 and it is thought that there is probably a 
 tunnel running under the railway from the 
 Green Grassier. With such a tunnel he 
 could easily assemble troops along the 
 cutting for a raid or for a local attack upon 
 our line. ' 
 
 * What action do Division wish to have 
 taken against it ? ' 
 
 ' At present the orders are to make a 
 thorough and complete reconnaissance of 
 the place, and to report upon the possibility 
 of being able to destroy it. ' 
 
 ^ This was quite true. Even from the very best observation 
 posts giving direct observation into Lens it was very seldom 
 that you would see a single soldier moving about, though there 
 were scores of German troops in the place. 
 
THE MYSTEEIOUS TUNNEL 123 
 
 ^ Well, I suppose the battalion in the line 
 are doing that now? ' 
 
 ' Yes, they were out last night. They 
 did not actually get up to the place, so have 
 nothing new to report. ' 
 
 The next morning I received instruc- 
 tions to report to the headquarters of the 
 battalion in the line (we were in support) 
 with a view to relieving them the following 
 day. When I arrived there I immediately 
 got into touch with the scout officer, an old 
 friend of mine. 
 
 * What's this yarn about a tunnel in No 
 Man's Land? ' I asked. He laughed. 
 
 * I guess it is something of the kind, 
 though we haven't seen any one there yet. 
 We got fairly close to it last night, and some 
 of the boys swore they heard voices. ' 
 
 ^ Have you seen the entrance yet ? ' 
 
 ^ No, we are going to try to get a look at 
 that to-night. ' 
 
 ' What about the log building I heard 
 about — do you think they use that at 
 night? ' 
 
 ' I don't know; I'm not sure whether that 
 is a log building. We expect to settle all 
 these things to-night. When are you 
 going to relieve us ? ' 
 
124 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 ' To-morrow night. We didn't expect it 
 would be so soon, but tbe rumour is that 
 the division will be out of the line for 
 Christmas; suppose that accounts for it. 
 Are you too busy or too tired to take me 
 over the line 1 ' 
 
 ' No, not a bit. I want you to see where 
 this log building is ; probably you '11 have to 
 worry over this thing. ' 
 
 We left headquarters and went up to the 
 front line, arriving just in time to be greeted 
 with a salvo of ' pine-apples ' (a cross be- 
 tween a rifle grenade and a meinenwerfer 
 shell) . We safely weathered this storm and 
 looked over the different posts. At last we 
 arrived at the extreme right flank. We 
 moved a little to the right of the last bomb- 
 ing-post, stood up and looked over across at 
 the German line. We couldn't see the log 
 building because of its being in the cutting, 
 but my companion indicated a crooked 
 telegraph pole. 
 
 ^ Do you see the shell-shocked telegraph 
 pole over there? ' 
 
 ^ Yes, I know the one you mean. ' 
 
 ' Well, that is right alongside of this so- 
 called log building. ' 
 
 ' How do you get out to it ? ' 
 
THE MYSTERIOUS TUNNEL 125 
 
 ' We go out from this post here, get 
 through the wire — it isn't very heavy — 
 slide down the side of the cutting and go 
 along the railway, hugging the side of the 
 cutting pretty much the whole of the way. 
 It 's rather a rotten way to go, for there is 
 a fence along the top of the cutting, and 
 any Hun patrol that might happen to be 
 up there have you entirely at their mercy. 
 They could roll bombs down on top of you. 
 But to-night I am taking a couple of extra 
 men to move along the top of the cutting 
 at the same time as we go along the track. ' 
 
 * Well, I hope you have good luck to-night 
 and find out all there is to know. ' 
 
 The next day the CO. sent for me. 
 
 * You '11 have to go up a little earlier to- 
 night than was arranged ; brigade have sent 
 a message to say that the scout officer of the 
 battalion in the line will take you out 
 to look at this dug-out or tunnel or what- 
 ever it is. It seems that they have a scheme 
 on to blow the whole thing up, and it will 
 be up to us to carry the scheme out. You 
 had better get up there in plenty of time to 
 get a good look around.' 
 
 I saluted and went out. Shortly before 
 dark I reported at the headquarters of the 
 
126 scouTme thrills 
 
 battalion we were relieving, and was soon 
 chatting with the scout officer. 
 
 ' Well, I 'm to take you out to look at 
 our little wooden hut to-night, I under- 
 stand? ' 
 
 * Yes, I believe we are supposed to do a 
 patrol together to-night. I have two of 
 my scouts here who will go out with us. Did 
 you find out much about the mystery last 
 night? ' 
 
 * Yes, a little more. There is apparently 
 somebody in what looks like a dug-out 
 entrance. We didn't see any one, though 
 we waited around for fully fifteen minutes. ' 
 
 * Did you hear anything ? ' 
 
 * Well, that is rather doubtful. Some of 
 the boys with me thought they heard sounds 
 coming from the dug-out, and I also thought 
 I heard something of the kind, though I 
 would not like to swear to it. ' 
 
 ' Well, if you will take me out and show 
 me the jolly old hut, I '11 carry on the good 
 work of investigation. ' 
 
 ' Yes, we '11 go in a few minutes ; it 's a 
 long walk up to the front line, and, as the 
 relief will be coming in, we shall find it slow 
 going.' 
 
 We did find it slow going, and it was after 
 
THE MYSTERIOUS TUNNEL 127 
 eleven o'clock before we got out. As we 
 could only be seen from one post, and we 
 were m a hurry, we warned only the men in 
 this post. We also asked them if they could 
 spare us a couple of bombs. They handed 
 them to us and we quickly disappeared 
 into the darkness of No Man's Land. We 
 clunbed over the wire and slid down the 
 steep cutting. After travelling for about 
 a hundred yards I saw the log building (as 
 it was then understood to be) about fifty 
 yards away. Leaving the two men in a shell- 
 hole we pushed on to within twenty 
 yards of it. We waited for a few minutes, 
 listening intently. There were unmistak- 
 able sounds of movement on the side of 
 the building farthest away from us. We 
 waited a few minutes longer, but no one 
 appeared, so we rejoined the two men and 
 made our way back towards our own 
 trench. After a great deal of difficulty we 
 climbed up the cutting and were stepping 
 carefully over our wire when a peremptory 
 Halt, who goes there?' made us pause 
 suddenly and look up in surprise. To ex- 
 plain this unexpected challenge I must go 
 back to the time when we left our outpost. 
 we had paused there for a few seconds, 
 
128 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 merely to say we were going out on a patrol 
 and would be back in a little over an hour. 
 Apparently we bad not been sufficiently 
 lucid for the two men in the post, wbo were 
 comparatively new to trench warfare. We 
 had walked overland to the outpost, which 
 was in a bit of a trench running out from 
 the front line. The two men, having been 
 in the post only a few minutes, had a very 
 hazy idea of where we had come from, but 
 they made up for this by vivid and active 
 imaginations. This was the story they told 
 the officer who visited them a few minutes 
 later. A party of four men dressed as 
 Canadians had visited the outposts, and 
 asked them a lot of questions about the 
 different machine-gun and bombing-posts 
 in the vicinity, and also the whereabouts of 
 company headquarters (I myself had asked 
 them a few casual questions), and had then 
 disappeared in the direction of the German 
 lines. The officer naturally became highly 
 suspicious, brought up reinforcements, in- 
 cluding a Lewis gun, and it was his voice 
 that I recognised calling out the challenge. 
 I disentangled myself from the wire and 
 sauntered over in the direction of the post. 
 Again that sharp challenge. 
 
THE MYSTEEIOUS TUNNEL 129 
 
 * It 's all right,' I shouted back jokingly, 
 ' don't riddle me with bullets or begin 
 planting bombs at my feet.' But he didn't 
 think it was a joke. 
 
 * Halt ! ' he yelled back ; ' advance one 
 and give the pass-word.' Then I was woe- 
 fully at fault! I knew it was the name of 
 some bird or other. 
 
 * Sparrow! ' I yelled, but no response. 
 * Crane '; no reply. I thought furiously, 
 and then joyfully shouted, 
 
 ^Lark! ' That did it! 
 
 * Come on in, Mac, you old reprobate, ' he 
 shouted. '■ You haven 't half put the wind up 
 us to-night. ' 
 
 I advanced, and was rather shocked to 
 see one Lewis gun and four rifles pointed at 
 me and behind them two men standing with 
 bombs ready to throw! We dropped into 
 the trench and went back to company 
 headquarters. The officer who had taken 
 me out was anxious to rejoin his battalion, so 
 left us here. His parting words were : 
 
 * Hope you blow Heinie sky-high out of 
 the tunnel. ' 
 
 Enticing smells of cooking were coming 
 up from the dug-out, and I gratefully and 
 promptly responded to the invitation to have 
 
130 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 a meal. I asked if it included the scout wlio 
 had remained with me, and he said it did, so 
 we were soon enjoying a hot appetising meal 
 in a dug-out that went partly beyond our 
 own front line out underneath No Man's 
 Land. 
 
 ' Where 's your box respirator, Mac*? ' 
 some one asked me. 
 
 I looked at the place on my chest where it 
 should have been. It wasn't there! My 
 horrible absent-mindedness again. 
 
 ' It would be a rotten joke on me if they 
 put gas over to-night,' I said. Soon after- 
 wards I left and went along the front line, 
 visiting the outposts as was our custom the 
 first night in the line. I was with two men 
 in a listening post about thirty yards out 
 from the front-line trench. I lay alongside 
 of them talking to them in whispers and 
 asking a few questions, when a series of 
 pops from the German lines followed by 
 the sight of several flaming-tailed ^ Minnies, ' 
 making a rapid descent upon our trenches, 
 took up the whole of our attention. 
 
 In place of the crashing explosions we 
 expected to hear there were several signifi- 
 cant muffled noises. * Gas ! ' we whispered 
 simultaneously. I hurried back to the front 
 
THE MYSTERIOUS TUNNEL 131 
 
 line in time to hear the word ' gas ' passed 
 along. Men hurriedly dived into their 
 respirators. The smell of gas was unmis- 
 takable! Another salvo of Minnies filled 
 with gas dropped just behind the front-line 
 trench. What a delightful position I was 
 in ! The nearest dug-out with a gas blanket 
 on the entrance was about a hundred yards 
 down the trench. With my hand pressed 
 tightly over my mouth and nose, I made a 
 wild rush along the trench, bumping into 
 weird-looking, groping figures who gave out 
 muffled peculiar sounds, indicating their dis- 
 approval of the rough knocks I gave them 
 as I passed. I dare not laugh in case I 
 opened my mouth, and for the same reason 
 I could not stop to apologise. At last I 
 reached the dug-out and made a wild dash 
 through the entrance. Only my heels touched 
 the top step. I shot down the twenty odd 
 steps with the velocity of a 5.9, landing at the 
 bottom with a bang and a clatter, over- 
 turning the cook's brazier (and also the cook, 
 who sat at the bottom of the steps and who 
 immediately set up a gurgling protestation 
 as he struggled to express himself in the 
 limitations of a gas respirator), and his 
 collection of pots, pans, and dishes. In the 
 
132 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 dim light of the flickering candles I saw 
 several solemn-looking figures in various 
 attitudes, all wearing their strange-looking 
 gas masks. The dug-out was as silent as 
 the grave. 
 
 ^ Anybody got a spare respirator? ' I 
 shouted. 
 
 They turned their owl-like eye-pieces in 
 my direction and let it go at that. I re- 
 peated my question. A man removed his 
 mouth-piece long enough to shout a muffled 
 ' No, sir,' and then hurriedly replaced it. 
 I hunted around and found a dirty old 
 P.H. helmet, and soon became the weirdest 
 looking figure in that solemn throng ! After 
 a few minutes the taste of that old P.H. 
 became infinitely more detestable than any 
 amount of gas. If I had to be poisoned I 
 preferred pure gas poisoning, so I took off 
 the helmet. There was only a very faint 
 smell of gas, and soon afterwards the gas 
 sentry reported, ' All clear. ' A fairly strong 
 breeze was blowing, and the gas didn't hang 
 around long. I hopped up out of the dug- 
 out as soon as I saw the cook taking off his 
 respirator, and went back to headquarters, 
 firmly resolved that I wouldn't again forget 
 my respirator. 
 
THE MYSTERIOUS TUNNEL 133 
 
 The following day I discussed the ' tunnel 
 mystery ' with the scouts, and we decided 
 that four of us would go out that night and 
 get into that entrance if possible ; also that 
 we would see what was in the reported log 
 building. Before going out that night a 
 message came from Division to report on 
 the possibilities of blowing up the entrance 
 to the tunnel. We were all most eager for 
 this patrol, but did not forget to carefully 
 warn all the outposts that we were going out. 
 I for one did not wish to be received back 
 into our own trench with quite as much 
 ceremony as on the previous night. 
 
 It was a clear starlight night when we left 
 our trench. Two of us slid quietly down the 
 side of the cutting, the other two remaining 
 on top as a protection to us. Crouching 
 close to the side of the cutting, we moved 
 quietly along to within thirty yards of the 
 supposed log building, and dropped into a 
 huge shell-hole in the centre of the railway 
 track. We waited here for a few minutes, 
 listening intently for sounds of movement. 
 We then crawled forward on our stomachs 
 towards the log building. It was rough and 
 difficult ground to crawl over, with broken 
 rails and uprooted ' ties ' lying around. 
 
134 SCOUTING THEILLS 
 
 The least clink on the metal would have 
 given the game away had any one been 
 within hearing distance. With my heart 
 beating a little faster than usual, I reached 
 the rough walls of the frequently mentioned 
 log building, crawled along the side farthest 
 from the cutting, cautiously poked my head 
 around the corner, and found myself looking 
 into the entrance of this tunnel or dug- 
 out. I listened for a few seconds, not 
 even breathing during the time. Not 
 a sound. I crawled over to the entrance, 
 then stood up to look at the building — 
 which wasn't a building after all. It 
 was a rough palisade of logs let into the 
 ground and bound together with wrought 
 iron bands. They formed three sides of a 
 square, the side of the cutting forming the 
 fourth. The whole thing, which was filled in 
 with ballast, formed a square of roughly 
 about twelve feet, the height of it being a 
 little over five feet ; and standing behind it 
 you had an excellent view along the railway 
 in the direction of our lines. I then pro- 
 ceeded cautiously to descend the steps of the 
 tunnel entrance. They were in good repair 
 and there were signs that some one had been 
 there quite recently. I had got down as far 
 
THE MYSTERIOUS TUNNEL 135 
 
 as the fifth step when I clearly heard sounds 
 of movement below. If the night is at all 
 bright any one coming down the steps of a 
 dug-out is clearly visible to those at the bot- 
 tom. Such being the case, I would pre- 
 sent an excellent target, and I therefore 
 * backed up,' reached the entrance and 
 stood at one side of it. The sounds of 
 movement continued; I also distinctly 
 heard voices. They were coming up the 
 steps. I slipped around the side of the 
 barricade and dropped into a shell-hole 
 alongside of the scout who had accompanied 
 me. Soon afterwards three Germans 
 appeared, two of them carrying rifles. 
 They talked in low tones for a while, looked 
 around, and went back. It would have 
 been quite easy to throw a bomb and get 
 the three of them, but we should never have 
 got near that entrance again without a fight 
 for it. Whatever the Hun was premeditat- 
 ing, it would spoil his plans if we could only 
 blow up that entrance. After this we re- 
 turned to our own lines. Soon after my 
 report had gone in, a message came from 
 brigade saying that Division wished to 
 have this entrance blown up without any 
 further delay. It also stated that a twenty 
 
136 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 pound mobile charge would reach head- 
 quarters that night to be used for this pur- 
 pose. It arrived shortly after six o'clock, 
 while I was having dinner. Two men from 
 the engineers had brought it, but, apparently 
 thinking that we knew all there was to know 
 about mobile charges, they had not left any 
 instructions about exploding it, and to ex- 
 periment for such information was a rather 
 dangerous pastime. I had seen heaps of 
 mobile charges — long tin cylinders filled 
 with ammonal, with a small tin handle at- 
 tached which enabled you to carry them as 
 you would a suit case, but I had very hazy 
 ideas as to how they should be handled. 
 There was a prompt chorus of disapproval 
 and protest from the other occupants of the 
 dug-out when I suggested that we should look 
 at the thing and see how it worked. I sent 
 for the bombing sergeant; he had not seen 
 one just like it before, but was confident he 
 could quickly find out how it worked. We 
 were proceeding with our investigations 
 when I became aware of the very noticeable 
 and unusual silence in the dug-out. I 
 looked around — everybody had quietly 
 slipped out. In a few minutes we had 
 everything adjusted, cutting down the fuse 
 
THE MYSTEEIOUS TUNNEL 137 
 
 to a thirty second one. I understood ex- 
 actly how to work the patent fuse lighter. 
 
 I had arranged that six of us should go 
 out, two along the top of the cutting and 
 four along the railway track. Before going 
 out we explained to all the sentries what we 
 proposed doing, and warned them to be pre- 
 pared for a lively time if the Hun be- 
 came alarmed and annoyed. A slight fall 
 of snow promised to add to our difficulties. 
 We went out the usual way. I went ahead, 
 and one of the scouts carrying the mobile 
 charge followed close behind. I confess I 
 was in a constant state of trepidation about 
 that mobile charge. I thought, ' If a 
 machine-gun bullet hits it, will it explode ? ' 
 If so, then I had a disturbing vision of the 
 swift disintegration of my humble self ! 
 
 * Whatever you do,' I whispered to the 
 scout carrying it, ' if anything starts up, 
 throw that thing as far away from you as 
 you can.' 
 
 ' Yes, sir,' he replied, and I knew by the 
 tone of his voice that he was every bit as 
 anxious about it as I was. We reached the 
 big shell-hole about thirty yards from the 
 barricade. I signalled to the scouts on the 
 top of the cutting to remain where they 
 
138 SCOUTING THEILLS 
 
 were at, left two men in the shell-hole, and, 
 accompanied by the scout carrying the 
 mobile charge, started crawling towards the 
 barricade. A delicious thrill of anticipation 
 shot through me as I pushed my head around 
 the corner of the barricade and looked into 
 the entrance of the tunnel. The snow 
 around the entrance was disturbed: some 
 one had been up again ! I got up, tip-toed to 
 the entrance and listened. There was no 
 mistaking it, there were men down there. 
 I signalled to the scout — ^he handed me the 
 mobile charge. I removed the lid and 
 pulled the pin of the patent lighter. It 
 made a sound as loud as the report of a 
 revolver. I heaved the long cylinder down 
 the steps and promptly ran. We reached 
 the big shell-hole where the two scouts we 
 had left behind had remained, and waited 
 for developments. We hadn't long to wait. 
 There was a muffled explosion, and we could 
 feel the ground underneath us distinctly 
 tremble — our mobile charge had been a 
 success! A few seconds later a dozen flare 
 lights shot up from the German lines, and 
 there was some desultory bombing and 
 machine-gun fire. They were evidently 
 puzzled as to what had happened. We 
 
THE MYSTERIOUS TUNNEL 139 
 
 waited a few minutes, then started to steal 
 back homewards, feeling considerably elated 
 over our success. A single rifle shot rang 
 out, and the bullet plunked into the side of 
 the cutting a few feet behind us. We were 
 spotted! The light snow covering on the 
 side of the cutting — which was our back- 
 ground — ^had brought into relief our dark 
 figures. A burst of machine-gun bullets hit 
 the rails — we flopped. Again the flare 
 lights shot up, and one machine gun 
 viciously swept up and down the track. 
 We got up again and the same thing 
 happened. It was a slow and exciting 
 trip back, a fifteen-minute journey was 
 lengthened out into one of an hour and a 
 half. We were very thankful to find our- 
 selves at last in the protection of our own 
 trench. We were satisfied to know that the 
 troublesome entrance had at least been ef- 
 fectively closed. I have never been able to 
 account for the activity of the Hun around 
 that entrance. There was no doubt but what 
 he was contemplating some mischief. If so, 
 then the scouts had the satisfaction of frus- 
 trating him. 
 
VIII 
 
 LOST IN NO MAN'S LAND 
 
 * "1^7' HAT about a raid this tour/ was 
 ' ' one of the queries of the cheery 
 Scout Officer of the battalion we were re- 
 lieving. 
 
 * Oh, I guess we '11 do the odd one,' I 
 replied, * seeing that it is now the order of 
 the day, and most especially the order of 
 the night. What have you been doing in 
 that line this trip ? ' I asked. 
 
 * Oh, we 've done nothing this time; the 
 battalion in support are putting on one to- 
 night, though.' 
 
 ' Many in it ? ' 
 
 * No, only a small party.' 
 ' A stealth raid? ' 
 
 * Yes, they expect to grab the odd sentry. 
 But stay and have dinner with us to-night. ' 
 
 * Righto ! I expected to dine with you to- 
 night. I 'm staying up until the battalion 
 arrives to relieve you to-morrow night. I 
 
 140 
 
LOST IN NO MAN'S LAND 141 
 
 hope there 's a corner in your dug-out un- 
 occupied/ 
 
 ' Sure, we '11 find a place for you to crawl 
 in.' 
 
 The dug-out was a crowded but cheery 
 place. 
 
 ' Come in,' called out the CO., and pretty 
 soon I was feeling quite at home. A sig- 
 naller brought in a message which he handed 
 to the adjutant, who in turn passed it on to 
 the CO. 
 
 ' Zero hour for the raid to-night is eight 
 o'clock,' he announced casually; ' good luck 
 to them ! Hope they bag a prisoner— it will 
 save other people a lot of trouble if they 
 do.' 
 
 But they didn't. Just as they were 
 cautiously approaching the gap the artillery 
 had made in the wire they were spotted ! 
 ' Heinie ' was standing-to waiting for them, 
 machine guns spat viciously, bombs began 
 to fly promiscuously around, and the party, 
 owing to casualties, was forced to withdraw. 
 The CO. commented on this information, 
 which reached us about ten o'clock. 
 
 ' Was just a bit afraid that was what 
 would happen to-night. You cannot blow 
 gaps into his wire without putting him wise 
 
142 SCOUTINO THEILLS 
 
 to what you intend doing, and you cannot 
 possibly get into his trench unless you do 
 blow his wire up — ^he has a regular forest of 
 It in front of his line. ' He then turned and 
 addressed his remarks to me. 
 
 * I suppose it will be up to you people to 
 put on a raid now ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, sir,' I replied, ^ I understand we 
 are doing something in that line this tour 
 in.' 
 
 The next day I spent several hours look- 
 ing over the line, visiting every O.P. around, 
 trying to get a view of that gap in the Hun 
 wire from every angle. I had already de- 
 cided to see for myself just what kind of a 
 gap it was, and if we could possibly use it 
 for forcing an entry into the German 
 trenches. 
 
 All the arrangements were complete for 
 the relief, and soon after dusk elements of 
 our battalion began to arrive. It was very 
 dark and the relief was rather slow. After 
 headquarters had arrived the CO. sent for 
 me. 
 
 ' What do you propose doing with your 
 scouts to-night, M'Kean? ' 
 
 ' I should like to look at that gap in the 
 German wire, sir. ' 
 
LOST IN NO MAN'S LAND 143 
 
 * Which gap is this, M'Kean?' 
 
 * The one the raiding party tried to get 
 through into the German trench last night, 
 
 sir.' 
 
 ' Why? Do you think it will be of any 
 use to us ? ' 
 
 * It may, sir — if it is a good one ; and I 
 want to see for myself if it is any good. ' 
 
 * All right, M'Kean; report to me as 
 soon as you get back. ' 
 
 ' Very good, sir, ' I said, saluted, and went 
 to my own corner of the dug-out and pre- 
 pared to go out. I examined my Webley, 
 saw that it was in good order; made sure 
 that I had my compass with me; carefully 
 studied my map; and then went out to 
 collect my scouts. It was intensely dark 
 as I stumbled along the duck-boards to 
 where their dug-out was at. Arrived there, I 
 found them waiting for me. 
 
 * Everybody ready, sergeant ? ' 
 
 ^ Yes, sir ; could you give us the pass- word 
 before we go ? ' 
 
 * Oh, yes, I 'd almost forgotten. GiN" is 
 the pass- word to-night. ' 
 
 ' Hope it will be Rum when we come back, 
 sir ! ' called out Billie, one of the boys, and 
 everybody laughed. 
 
144 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 It was quite a long walk up to the front 
 line, and the trenches were a little crowded, 
 for the relief wasn't quite completed. I 
 was anxious to get out as soon as possible, 
 for it would be bright moonlight at one 
 o'clock, and it was now nearly eleven. At 
 last we got into the front line. The com- 
 munication trench we had just come up hit 
 the front line about three hundred yards 
 to the right of the place where I had decided 
 to go out at. I had my prismatic compass 
 already set at a bearing that would take us 
 in a fairly direct line for the gap I was so 
 curious about, so decided to move along the 
 trench to the left until I came to that par- 
 ticular spot. Then I started to do what I 
 was always most particular about — to give 
 complete information to every sentry as to 
 the strength of the patrol; where we were 
 going out at; the direction we would be 
 going in, and approximately the time we 
 intended to return. 
 
 To-night this was done rather hurriedly, 
 for I wanted to get to the gap before the 
 moon came up. I hadn't gone many yards 
 along the trench when I met one of our 
 officers. 
 
 ^ Say, old man, would you mind warning 
 
LOST IN NO MAN'S LAND 145 
 
 the sentries to the right of that C.T. ? I 'm 
 in a bit of a hurry to get out. ' 
 
 ^ Righto ! ' he replied. Unfortunately he 
 was wounded shortly after I left him, and 
 with consequences to us that made our re- 
 turn altogether too exciting and difficult 
 for our comfort. 
 
 As I went along the trench I climbed up 
 on to the firing step and whispered into the 
 ear of each sentry : 
 
 ' A patrol of nine men is going out in a few 
 minutes. It will move straight out towards 
 the German line and will be back in about 
 two hours.' 
 
 We arrived at the place I had marked on 
 the map and prepared to go out, replacing 
 our steel helmets with woollen 'Bacaclavas' 
 C Old Bill' headgear). 
 
 ^ You and the corporal will keep close be- 
 hind me, sergeant. We '11 move out in the 
 inverted V formation.' 
 
 * Very good, sir, ' replied the sergeant. 
 
 I then climbed up on to the parapet and 
 got close to the ground to look at the wire. 
 I spotted a place where it was a little thin, 
 and in a few minutes was outside of our own 
 wire and sitting comfortably in a huge 
 shell-hole. I could hear the rest of the 
 
146 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 patrol cautiously following, and one by one 
 they crawled quietly into the shell-hole after 
 me. It was rather cold, and the ground was 
 frozen a little, sufficient to make it difficult 
 to move quietly. When we were all 
 assembled in the shell-hole, and I had 
 set my compass so that the luminous patch 
 on the cover pointed out to me the direction 
 we had planned to go, we moved forward 
 in the formation agreed upon. The ground 
 was new to us and simply pitted with shell- 
 holes, some of them immense ones; this, 
 added to the darkness, made our progress 
 slow. I knew the distance between the 
 lines at this point to be about two hundred 
 and fifty yards, and that about one hun- 
 dred yards out there was a disused trench 
 running diagonally across our front. It was 
 no joke trying to keep direction across that 
 rough ground, and equally difficult to keep 
 in your head an accurate idea of the dis- 
 tance you had travelled. As I wriggled 
 along towards the German line I looked up 
 and saw what I could have sworn were the 
 heads of five Germans, about thirty yards 
 in front of me. ' An enemy patrol,' I 
 thought; 'what luck!' A few whispered 
 instructions, and the men in the rear came 
 
LOST IN NO MAN'S LAND 147 
 
 up on either side and began to move for- 
 ward, the whole of the patrol converging 
 on the suspected enemy patrol. They were 
 still there, and I was enjoying a nice thrill 
 of excitement, when a horrible suspicion 
 gripped me — I got up quickly and ran for- 
 ward. It was as I suspected — ^five baulks 
 of round timber which, upon examination, 
 proved to be some of the remains of a de- 
 stroyed emplacement in the disused trench 
 we were looking for ! We silently reformed 
 and pushed on again for another seventy- 
 five yards. I then went forward with three 
 men, leaving the remainder behind to cover 
 our approach to the gap we expected to 
 find. It was noticeably brighter than when 
 we first started out — the moon was coming 
 up. We crawled quietly forward, and in 
 the dim light of the rising moon we could 
 faintly discern the outlines of the German 
 wire entanglements. 
 
 We continued to move cautiously forward 
 from shell-hole to shell-hole until only a few 
 yards from the German wire. The four of 
 us were in an especially large shell-hole, and 
 I had decided to wait for a few moments in 
 the hope of a flare-light going up and giving 
 us an opportunity to get a good view of the 
 
148 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 German wire, when I thouglit I heard 
 sounds of movement on the right. Billy, 
 the boy on my right, also apparently heard 
 and raised himself to have a look. I 
 reached out my hand to pull him down, 
 but too late! At the same moment a 
 hand-grenade landed and exploded at the 
 edge of the shell-hole and about a foot from 
 his head. He gave a gasp and rolled back 
 dead. A fusilade of bombs followed, and 
 machine guns spat viciously. Myriads of 
 lights went up, making the night as bright 
 as day. I could see a party of Germans 
 just inside of our own wire; they had 
 apparently been expecting another attempt 
 to raid. It became frightfully warm, and 
 the noise was deafening. To get back the 
 dead body of our comrade was, for the time 
 being, out of the question. Bombs were 
 exploding on all sides. I was expecting one 
 to drop in amongst us at any moment. I 
 whispered to the other two to follow me, and 
 we made a dash back out of the range of the 
 bombs and rejoined the rest of the party. 
 In a few minutes things began to quieten 
 down. Not one of us ever dreamed of 
 leaving our dead comrade out there; a 
 scout always brings back the dead and 
 
LOST IN NO MAN'S LAND 149 
 
 wounded — it is a code of honour. Then it 
 was Billy, one of the most popular boys in 
 our section, always willing, always bright 
 and cheery, the star player in our battalion 
 base-ball team. We had scores of senti- 
 mental reasons for getting his body and, 
 added to this, there was an important 
 military reason. It was ten to one that, 
 if left alone for a few minutes, the Hun 
 would be out to search his body and would 
 obtain identification. Their Intelligence 
 Staff would consider this most important 
 and satisfactory information, while ours 
 would be correspondingly annoyed. 
 
 * I want two volunteers to go back with 
 me to bring in Billy,' I whispered. Every- 
 body was most eager to go with me. I 
 picked two and gave instructions to the re- 
 mainder. ^ Three will go to that shell-hole 
 to the left, and cover us with your rifles; 
 the other two will stay here and be ready to 
 move forward if we get into a scrap. ' When 
 the three had moved over to the shell-hole 
 and were in position, we went forward ; but 
 we were seen, and the row started again. 
 But we persisted ; our first difficulty was to 
 find the shell-hole we had been in when 
 Billy was killed. This was no easy matter, 
 
150 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 for they all looked alike. Every time we 
 got up to go from one shell-hole to another 
 the machine guns rattled and the bullets 
 whizzed around. I decided to search for 
 it myself, trying each shell-hole close at 
 hand and returning each time to the two 
 boys with me. It was rather bewildering and 
 nerve-racking, and I heaved a big sigh of 
 relief when at last I found the place we 
 had been in. I placed Billy's body in such 
 a position that we could quickly seize it 
 and carry it away. Then I crawled back 
 to the two boys. 
 
 * Get ready to rush forward with me,' I 
 whispered. At a whispered word we all got 
 up, ran quickly forward, seized hold of 
 Billy's body, and ran back to the protection 
 of a shell-hole. By a miracle the three of 
 us escaped the hail of machine-gun bullets. 
 Eventually we reached the two boys we 
 had left behind and were soon rejoined by 
 the three scouts who had been detailed as a 
 covering party. By this time the sky had 
 become clouded, and there was a fairly heavy 
 ground mist. We rested until things had 
 become quiet again, and then started 
 back. We were naturally more or less ex- 
 cited, and travelled for some distance before 
 
LOST IN NO MAN'S LAND 151 
 
 giving the proper amount of thought to the 
 direction in which we were going. It 
 seemed to all of us that we had been travel- 
 ling long enough to reach our own wire. I 
 consulted my compass. We were travelling 
 almost due south, and we should have been 
 travelling west; in other words we had 
 been moving parallel to our own line and 
 had probably got ofl the front our battalion 
 was holding. I knew that, further south, 
 the line zig-zagged a little and No Man's 
 Land narrowed down to seventy-five and 
 one hundred yards in places. The ground 
 mist had thickened, and we were simply 
 groping around stumbling from shell-hole to 
 shell-hole. The situation was full of peril, 
 for even our friends might prove to be our 
 foes. We stumbled on for another half 
 hour, hoping each moment that we should 
 come to our own wire. But never a sign of 
 it did we see. We longed to hear a 
 friendly Canadian voice, longed for a flare- 
 light, longed for something to happen ! But 
 no; just a threatening, menacing silence. 
 We were lost in No Man's Land! All this 
 time we were carrying Billy's body with us; 
 two of us went crouching ahead, fingers on 
 the triggers of our revolvers, ready and ex- 
 
152 SCOUTINa THEILLS 
 
 pectant; then four of them carrying Billy; 
 then the remaining two to watch the rear; 
 and so we stumbled on for what seemed like 
 hours — in that thick fog, slipping and fall- 
 ing, expecting each moment to be confronted 
 with enemies. My foot caught in something. 
 I stumbled and hit the ground with a crash. 
 But at the same time I gave a great gulp 
 of relief. I had fallen amongst some wire 
 entanglements. But whose? We had been 
 wandering around so long in that impene- 
 trable darkness that we couldn't swear to 
 anything. It was just as likely that it was 
 German wire as that it was British. Bold- 
 ness was the only method of solving the 
 difficulty. To approach it cautiously was to 
 court disaster. There was a strong likeli- 
 hood of it being our own trench, and if they 
 spotted us crawling up to it we would never 
 get into it alive. The fact that we would 
 speak in English would make them doubly 
 suspicious. Scores of Germans spoke Eng- 
 lish; it was a favourite German trick for 
 springing a surprise on our sentries. No, 
 to approach boldly would be the best. So 
 I decided to try this method alone, but one 
 of the boys insisted on coming with me. 
 We got up and started climbing over the 
 
LOST IN NO MAN 'S LAND 153 
 
 wire. Then we heard a little pop, such as 
 accompanies the discharge of a rifle grenade, 
 followed by a significant whine. We flopped. 
 Just in time! A rifle grenade exploded at 
 our heels. I got up — ' Hello, Gin/ I yelled 
 at the top of my voice. Bang! — a bullet 
 whizzed past my cheek. * Gin^ Gin^ all 
 right Gin ! ' Bang ! another bullet whizzed 
 past me. I ducked, and at the same 
 time a rifle grenade exploded behind us 
 and perilously close to the boys we had 
 left behind in the shell-hole. What could 
 I do? I knew it was our own trench for 
 they were Mills' grenades that were explod- 
 ing. I must get into that trench. I jumped 
 up again. ' Gin,' I yelled, ' for God's sake 
 stop your firing.' Bang again, and another 
 bullet whizzed past, but I kept on climbing 
 over the wire. 
 
 ' Hello, ' a voice shouted, ' who is that "? ' 
 * The battalion scouts; didn't you know 
 we were out ? ' I replied. 
 
 ' No, we hadn't been told about it.' 
 I had hit the extreme right flank of our 
 battalion, and about six hundred yards 
 south of the point where I had gone out. 
 The officer who had undertaken to warn 
 the sentries had been wounded soon after 
 
154 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 I left him, so my message had. never reached 
 them. We returned to the boys in the shell- 
 hole. 
 
 ^ It 's all right, boys, we 're home at last. ' 
 
 ' Very glad, sir ; it 's been rather a rough 
 night. ' 
 
 ^ Yes, it has ; everybody seems to have a 
 spite against us to-night. ' 
 
 We got a stretcher and carried Billy back 
 to headquarters. It was breaking daylight 
 when I said, ' Turn in and have a sleep, boys, 
 you must be tired,' and left them. When 
 I arrived at headquarters, the CO. was 
 resting, so I wrote out my report — inter- 
 rupted by many brief naps. I thankfully 
 crawled into my bunk and was soon sleeping 
 soundly and dreamlessly. It was my first 
 and last experience of being lost in No Man's 
 Land. 
 
IX 
 
 WINNING A y.C. 
 
 TT was in the critical days of April, 1918. 
 -*■ The Boche thought he was winning, 
 while we more or less disagreed with him. 
 He had the advantage though, for he was the 
 attacking party, and kept us more or less 
 guessing as to his intentions — one of the 
 chief disadvantages of being on the de- 
 fensive. What the staff craved for was in- 
 formation; and the best means to find out 
 what was happening behind the Boche line 
 was to get hold of some one who had been 
 there quite recently, in other words — to grab 
 a prisoner or two. He had started out gaily 
 one day in March for a triumphant entry 
 into the suffering city of Arras, but had been 
 sent staggering back. He was now licking 
 his sores, and we wondered if he was going to 
 have another try. 
 
 We had been out for a few days' rest, and 
 the following day were due to go back into 
 
 155 
 
156 SCOUTING THEILLS 
 
 the line. The CO. held a conference at 
 headquarters, and, being Scout Officer, I 
 had been notified to attend. The CO. at 
 once took us all into his confidence. 
 
 ' The army intelligence people are very 
 anxious to get a prisoner. Recently a few 
 stealth raids, using small parties of men, 
 have been attempted, but without any great 
 success. We have received orders to put on 
 something big, and something that wiU 
 guarantee success from the beginning. We 
 are to co-operate with a battalion that will 
 be on our left. This is merely a preliminary 
 announcement of our intention and must 
 be kept secret. This raid will be carried out 
 during our tour in the line. ' 
 
 This was a welcome announcement, for 
 it promised something exciting, especially 
 for the scouts. Previous experience of raids 
 warned us to be prepared for some especially 
 hard work. 
 
 The following night we carried out our 
 relief, and about midnight were settling 
 down to the routine of a trench tour. Being 
 on the defensive, special precautions were 
 taken against surprise. When the head- 
 quarters of the battalion we relieved had 
 gone, the CO. sent for me. 
 
WINNING A V.C. 157 
 
 * Now, then, M'Kean,' he said, ' I want 
 you to start at once to locate definitely all 
 the German outposts on our front, and to 
 find out the condition of the German wire. 
 We must have this information before we 
 can make our plans for this raid. You can 
 find out about this in your own way — you 
 know more or less what is wanted. ' 
 
 Now, if there was one kind of a job we pre- 
 ferred above all others, it was the job of 
 locating enemy posts. We got into real 
 touch with the Boche, and usually exchanged 
 compliments in the shape of bombs. I took 
 my map and went along to the scouts' dug- 
 out, and we talked over the most likely 
 place to go to get quick results. Running 
 out from our front line to the Boche line 
 were several old communication trenches, 
 and we decided to try our luck along one of 
 these. It was very probable that the Boche 
 had an outpost in this trench, and it 
 was fairly safe to presume that it would 
 be well protected, for he never took a 
 chance. 
 
 Pointing to this trench marked on the 
 map, I remarked to the sergeant : 
 
 * I think we should find somebody at home 
 along here, don't you? ' 
 
158 SCOUTINa THRILLS 
 
 ^ Yes, sir,' he replied, ' it seems a most 
 likely place.' 
 
 ' All right, we '11 go there. Hurry the 
 boys up and be sure to bring along a fairly 
 good supply of bombs — they 're useful 
 things to use in a trench. ' 
 
 About an hour later we reached the front 
 line. It was a dark night and the Boche 
 was, as usual, very generously supplying all 
 the artificial light for No Man's Land. We 
 had decided to go out on the extreme right 
 flank, so warned all the sentries as we went 
 along that we were going out on patrol. 
 We reached the place we were going out 
 from. It was an outpost along the com- 
 munication trench about twenty yards out 
 from our front line. In the trench in front 
 of the post was a mass of loose barbed wire, 
 forming a ' block.' It was fairly well pro- 
 tected on the surface. A corporal was in 
 charge of the post. 
 
 * Anything stirring around here, corpo- 
 ral? ' I asked. 
 
 * Yes, sir, he 's bothering us with machine- 
 gun fire — sweeps right over the top. 
 '' Shorty " there' (he indicated a tall, 
 lanky youth) ' has just had a hole knocked 
 into his steel Hd. ' 
 
WINNING A V.C. 159 
 
 His words were quite true. At that very 
 moment a hail of machine-gun bullets swept 
 over our heads. 
 
 ' He 's been doing that every few minutes, 
 sir, ' the corporal remarked. 
 
 * Well, we 're going out to see if we can 
 wake up a Heinie. Five of us are going out 
 along this old C.T., expect to be back in a 
 couple of hours.' We took off our steel 
 hehnets, and put on our woollen caps. I then 
 waited for a few moments, for the old 
 Boche was always methodical, and I knew 
 we were about due for another ration of 
 those machine-gun bullets. They came. 
 Immediately afterwards, followed by the 
 four scouts, I climbed out of the trench, 
 over the wire, and dropped into the trench 
 again on the other side of our ' block.' I 
 was soon joined by the scouts with me. 
 
 * Now, I want two of you to keep a special 
 look-out along the top,' I whispered; * we 
 don't want any Hun patrol to get in behind 
 us and cut us off.' Then taking out my 
 revolver from its holster, I stepped quietly 
 along the trench, pressing each foot firmly 
 into the ground before moving forward, and 
 so eliminating the possibility of kicking any 
 loose stones lying around. The trench ' zig- 
 
160 SCOUTINe THEILLS 
 
 zagged ' a little, and I could never see more 
 than two or three yards ahead of me. We 
 had gone about a hundred yards, and I was 
 standing perfectly still — listening. I heard 
 the rattle of a few loose stones only a few 
 yards ahead of me. I quietly slipped back 
 the revolver into my holster, and took out 
 a bomb from my pocket. I grasped it in 
 a manner so that I could quickly pull the 
 pin and throw it. A revolver was always 
 a useful weapon when once at close quarters, 
 but a bomb was more useful for the pre- 
 liminary sparring. I pushed on a few yards 
 around a bit of a curve. About twenty 
 yards from me I saw two Huns standing in 
 the trench, and three others lay on top, 
 looking towards me. A Hun patrol! I 
 pulled the pin out of my bomb and got ready 
 to throw it, when one of them saw me and 
 gave the alarm. They all scampered away 
 just as I let fly with the bomb. As soon 
 as the bomb exploded I pulled out my 
 revolver and ran along the trench in the 
 direction in which the Huns had disap- 
 peared. I had only gone a few yards when I 
 ran bang into a wire ' block ' strongly con- 
 structed. I was just collecting myself when 
 I heard a significant whine, and a bomb ex- 
 
WINNING A V.C. 161 
 
 ploded outside the trench. A moment later 
 there was another deafening explosion as one 
 burst just behind me. It was most un- 
 healthy, and I took to my heels until well 
 out of range. There was a series of ex- 
 plosions as the bombs came bouncing over. 
 We returned to our trench, and I was able 
 to report the definite location of one German 
 bombing-post. 
 
 The next morning we decided to try a 
 daylight patrol along another old com- 
 munication trench. I took Pete with me, 
 a sturdy boy and an old, experienced scout, 
 who loved fighting as much as a duck loves 
 water. The difficulty was in getting out of 
 our trench and through our wire without 
 being seen, for unseen glasses and telescopes 
 were constantly searching along the out- 
 lines of our front line for any signs of move- 
 ment. After several minutes of squeezing 
 and wriggling, and without raising our 
 bodies an inch from the ground, we 
 finally succeeded in getting to the other 
 side of our wire ' block.' We were pretty 
 much out of breath though when we got 
 there, so sat down and had a rest. Then, 
 with revolver firmly clasped in my hand, 
 and followed by Pete carrying a bomb (Pete 
 
162 SCOUTING THEILLS 
 
 was the most wonderful bomb-thrower I 
 ever saw), we proceeded with our recon- 
 naissance. Owing to the zig-zag line of the 
 trench I could never see more than a few 
 yards ahead of me, so that I experienced 
 a succession of delightful thrills of anticipa- 
 tion, expecting any moment to see or meet 
 with something interesting. At last I came 
 to some fairly new barbed wire, loosely 
 strewn in the trench as a kind of rough 
 obstacle. I turned round and whispered to 
 Pete: 
 
 ' I think we 're getting warm, Pete. ' 
 ' Yes, sir. I don't think his post is far 
 from here. ' 
 
 We climbed carefully over this wire, and 
 a few feet further along came to a strong, 
 impassable, well-constructed wire block. I 
 tried several different methods to enable 
 me to get through it, but in vain. I tried 
 to wriggle underneath ; to get past it side- 
 ways; for I was most anxious to have a 
 look over that barricade of new sandbags a 
 few feet further on. I was contemplating 
 climbing over the top of it, when the head 
 and shoulders of a Hun abruptly appeared, 
 looking at me over the sandbag block re- 
 ferred to. We looked each other square in 
 
wiNNiJsra A v.c. les 
 
 the eye, and the surprise was mutual. I 
 had stuck my revolver in my holster, and 
 so was unprepared to become suddenly 
 aggressive. But good old Pete was right 
 there. I heard the click of the released 
 lever as a bomb flew over my head and 
 dropped neatly on the other side of that 
 block. There was an explosion, followed 
 by a shriek of pain. We were satisfied with 
 our information, so lost no time in getting 
 back into our own trench. 
 
 "When I got back to headquarters the CO. 
 sent for me. 
 
 ' I want you to come with me to the head- 
 quarters of the battalion that is putting on 
 this raid with us; we are going to have a 
 conference there to arrange preliminary de- 
 tails. ' 
 
 We arrived there about an hour later. As 
 a result of the conference, it was arranged 
 to have a joint patrol to carry out an ex- 
 tensive reconnaissance over practically the 
 whole of the front on which the raid would 
 take place. This was on a frontage of about 
 six hundred yards. It was to be really a 
 frontal attack on a wide stretch of trench, 
 with one or two small parties working up 
 some old communication trenches. The 
 
164 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 large parties for the frontal attack were to 
 be assembled in No Man's Land, and one 
 of the purposes of the patrol was to select 
 assembly positions for these parties. No 
 Man's Land, opposite the front to be raided, 
 was from three to five hundred yards across, 
 so we expected to be able to find good 
 assembly positions a considerable distance 
 out from our own front line. At midnight 
 (the time agreed upon) the captain in charge 
 of our raiding parties, the scout sergeant, 
 and myself, met two officers and a sergeant 
 from this other battalion. The sentries had 
 already been warned, so we went out im- 
 mediately. It was a brilliant moonlight 
 night, and we moved around quickly and 
 undisturbed. Nothing eventful happened 
 until we reached the track of a light railway 
 which ran directly across No Man's Land 
 at right angles to our front line. We were 
 then roughly about one hundred yards from 
 the Boche front line. We knew, from a 
 recent aeroplane photograph, that he was 
 digging a new trench about fifty yards out 
 from his present front line, so we were then 
 only about fifty yards from this partly dug 
 trench. The captain from the other bat- 
 talion turned round to me and whispered: 
 
WINNING A V.C. 165 
 
 * I think you and I will go up this track 
 towards this new trench; the remainder 
 can stay here in this shell-hole. ' 
 
 * Righto, ' I replied, ' lead on. ' 
 
 So we started crawling up on the outside 
 of the track until about twenty yards from 
 the new trench. We could distinctly hear 
 sounds of men working with picks and 
 shovels, and lay listening for some time, 
 when suddenly and startlingly two Huns 
 popped up, apparently out of the ground in 
 front of us. We hadn't realised we were 
 quite so close to that trench. It seemed 
 impossible for them not to see us lying 
 there, so bright was the moonlight. They 
 stood for a few moments looking down the 
 track, then crossed over it and dropped into 
 the trench on the other side. We rejoined 
 the rest of the party and carried on with 
 our patrol. 
 
 Although No Man's Land was so ex- 
 ceptionally wide opposite our trench, there 
 was one place where the Huns had been seen 
 manning a post only forty yards from one 
 of ours. It was in one of the old com- 
 munication trenches. In behind this post 
 they had a machine-gun post. The bomb- 
 ing-post was at least two hundred yards out 
 
166 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 from their main trench line, and the ma- 
 chine-gun post about thirty yards in the rear 
 of it. The machine-gun post promised to be 
 very troublesome, for it could enfilade the 
 ground over which the main body of the raid- 
 ing party had to cross. I had asked to be 
 given the command of one of the raiding 
 parties, so the CO. gave me command of 
 the party detailed to attack this bombing- 
 post and the machine-gun post in the rear 
 of it. As the scouts were to be distributed 
 amongst the five separate raiding parties, I 
 selected Pete to go with me. Pete was full 
 of enthusiasm and fight, his dark eyes glow- 
 ing as we talked over different plans for 
 attacking these posts. 
 
 I reported to the CO. the results of our 
 joint patrol; he made notes and told me to 
 be ready to attend a conference of officers 
 in charge of raiding parties some time in 
 the afternoon. I attended this conference, 
 and it was arranged that I should take these 
 different officers to the assembly positions 
 selected for their parties. A meeting-place 
 was arranged and a time fixed upon. The 
 hour was late enough to give Pete and my- 
 self sufficient time to investigate the locality 
 we were most interested in. I sent for Pete. 
 
WINNING A V.C. 167 
 
 * Wliat about a patrol as soon as it gets 
 dark, Pete? I want you to come with me 
 to see if we can locate definitely where this 
 bombing-post is that we have to tackle. ' 
 
 * Yes, sir, the sooner we find out exactly 
 where they are the better. ' 
 
 ^ All right ; come back in a couple of hours ' 
 time and we '11 go out. ' 
 
 It was just dark when Pete and I crawled 
 out from our outpost. We crawled past our 
 block and dropped into the communication 
 trench. A few feet further on we came 
 to the Hun block, strongly constructed of 
 wire. To approach the post by that direc- 
 tion was out of the question. We climbed 
 out of the trench, got down into a big shell- 
 hole and held a whispered consultation. 
 
 ^ Don't you think we should go straight 
 ahead, sir *? ' suggested Pete ; ' we can keep 
 fairly close to this trench. ' 
 
 * Yes, I think we '11 push on ahead. ' 
 
 We crawled out of the shell-hole into 
 another adjoining it. From this we saw a 
 mass of barbed wire, and proceeded to crawl 
 up a slight rise towards it. We worked our 
 way cautiously into it at a place where it 
 was a little thin. It was moonlight, but 
 there was a clouded sky, and it was raining 
 
168 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 a little. After crawling partly througli the 
 wire, we lay side by side, looking and 
 listening. Pete had wonderfully quick eye- 
 sight and saw, about seventy-five yards 
 away, the shadowy outlines of three Ger- 
 mans — apparently digging. In a whisper 
 he called my attention to them. We were 
 busily engaged watching them when there 
 was a loud report, and a flare light shot up 
 about thirty yards in front of us. It was 
 rather startling and unexpected. But we 
 saw something even more startling and 
 unexpected. Pete clutched my arm ex- 
 citedly. 
 
 ' Do you see him, sir, right there in front 
 of us?' 
 
 It would have been impossible not to see 
 him, the ' him ' being a German sentry not 
 more than fifteen yards away, head and 
 shoulders showing above the outline of a 
 trench. In speaking, Pete had turned his 
 head towards me. We were seen! The 
 sentry brought his rifle quickly to his 
 shoulder, there was a loud report, a blinding 
 flash, and the thud of a bullet into the 
 ground underneath my chin (we were on a 
 slight rise in the ground). A few seconds 
 later another report and flash and the thud 
 
WINNING A V.C. 169 
 
 of a bullet to the left, and just under- 
 neath Pete. He had missed us both ! 
 
 * Get out of the wire as quick as you can, 
 Pete, before he has time to throw a bomb.' 
 I wriggled out myself in time to help Pete. 
 We got up and ran back. Only just in 
 time — a bomb dropped and exploded just 
 about where we had been lying. A machine 
 gun just behind this post fired a burst, the 
 bullets passing over our heads. 
 
 ' The son of a gun, Pete,' I said laughing, 
 ' he really dares to show fight. He 's in for 
 a beautiful time if he 's in the same place 
 to-morrow night.' 
 
 Pete was stuttering with rage. 
 
 * Let me go back and throw these bombs, 
 sir.' 
 
 ' No, we don't want to alarm him, to find 
 that the bird has flown when we get there to- 
 morrow night. You can go back to head- 
 quarters. I 'm going to take these officers 
 out to their assembly positions. ' 
 
 It was daylight when I got back to head- 
 quarters. I turned in for a few hours ' sleep. 
 Early in the afternoon, accompanied by 
 Pete, I went to talk over our plans with the 
 party of men detailed to me for our little 
 stunt. They clustered around me while I 
 
170 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 showed them some maps and sketches of the 
 trench we were interested in. 
 
 * Right here, ' I said, pointing to the map, 
 * is our own post, about thirty yards along 
 this C.T. out from our front line. There is 
 a block here which we shall have to crawl 
 over. About forty yards further along this 
 C.T. you see marked the German bombing- 
 post : we know exactly where this is for we 
 saw the German sentry there last night. 
 In front of this post is a strong wire block 
 about twenty yards long. Now, we are 
 going to assemble in shell-holes on each side 
 of this trench. Six men, under Pete, will 
 rush this first post — three men, with Pete, 
 will be on this side of the trench, while the 
 other three will be on the other side. Four 
 rifle grenades will be fired into this machine- 
 gun post marked here — about thirty yards 
 in rear of the bombing-post. This will be 
 the signal to rush the first post. Then six 
 more, under myself, will follow quickly be- 
 hind and rush the machine-gun post. One 
 man will look after the mobile charges, for 
 there are two dug-outs to blow up. Now, 
 speed is to be the essential thing ; pile right 
 in on top of them — don't give them time to 
 guess what is happening. If you drop your 
 
WINNING A V.C. 171 
 
 rifle, fight with your fists. The zero hour 
 is one o 'clock in the morning, and we '11 try 
 to get into position about quarter to one. 
 At the zero hour a heavy artillery barrage 
 will come down on the German trenches, 
 but, because these posts we are tackling are 
 so close to our own, the artillery will not be 
 able to deal with them, so we must be pre- 
 pared for a fight. It is most important 
 that we should get this machine-gun post, 
 for he can enfilade the other parties crossing 
 the open.' 
 
 * Do we start in as soon as the barrage 
 comes down, sir I ' asked one of the men. 
 
 * No, we wait ten minutes and go forward 
 at the same time as the other parties. Now, 
 Pete and I are going to take you up to the 
 front line to show you where these posts 
 are. The first one is actually in a British 
 military cemetery: you can easily see the 
 little wooden crosses. Have you any ques- 
 tions you want to ask ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, sir,' asked one serious-looking 
 Canadian soldier, ' do we get any rum be- 
 fore the show starts? ' They all clustered 
 round eagerly to hear the reply. 
 
 ' No, not until it is over ; we are going to 
 assemble within twenty yards of the German 
 
172 SCOUTING THEILLS 
 
 post, and if we give you rum some of you 
 will start chattering and give the whole 
 game away.' 
 
 * Hard luck if we go under,' murmured 
 one of the group. 
 
 * Never mind about that ; it will always 
 be a drop more to go round,' spoke up one 
 cheery youth. 
 
 * Now, don't forget what I said about 
 speed — ^pile right in on top of them. ' 
 
 To this last remark was added a picturr 
 esque emphasis from Pete. 
 
 We took them out to our bombing-posts 
 in twos and pointed out to them the 
 locations of the two posts. 
 
 * Now, then,' I said to the three N.C.O.'s 
 of the party, ' remain in this post (our 
 bombing-post) for a few minutes. Pete 
 and I are going out, and if you watch us 
 you will see where we are going to assemble, 
 and also the direction to go to get right on 
 top of the Huns. ' 
 
 We were both anxious to see in daylight 
 the place we had been in last night. We 
 found the body of a dead German, and re- 
 membered how we had both crawled over 
 him the night before. We were taking 
 chances to be out there in daylight, but 
 
WINNING A V.C. 173 
 
 we both felt it was worth it. This place 
 would be familiar to us now in the dark. 
 We crawled up towards the wire in front of 
 the Hun post, but were soon seen, and had 
 to scramble back quickly out of range of the 
 bombs that began to come over. 
 
 When we got back to the N.C.O.'s I re- 
 marked to the sergeant in charge : 
 
 * Pete will go back with you and tell you 
 anything you want to know; he will ^tlso 
 give you a few wrinkles on blacking faces 
 and equipment. Bring a party to head- 
 quarters at five o'clock to draw all the 
 equipment and extra bombs and ammuni- 
 tion that we shall require. Have the party 
 in the front line by eleven o'clock, and I 
 will meet you there.' Turning to Pete I 
 said, ' Come along to my dug-out at 
 eight o'clock, Pete; I '11 be ready by 
 then. ' 
 
 Promptly at eight o'clock Pete reported 
 to me, his face literally coal black. 
 
 * How on earth did you get your face as 
 black as that, Pete ? ' I asked. 
 
 ^ Burnt cork, sir; nothing finer.' 
 
 ' Can you make my face as black as that 1 
 
 1 'm afraid mine looks very patchy at 
 
 present.' 
 
174 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 In a few minutes Pete had made me look 
 as undesirable as himself. 
 
 ' What are you doing with the two haver- 
 sacks? ' 
 
 * Bombs, sir, ten in each.' 
 
 * You must be expecting a real battle to- 
 night, Pete. ' 
 
 ' It will be if I can make it one, sir. ' 
 ' Well, we had better get a move on, Pete ; 
 we don't want to keep the boys waiting.' 
 
 We found them all there ready and wait- 
 ing. I checked over each man's equipment. 
 
 * You take the first two men out to that 
 shell-hole, Pete, and I '11 bring the re- 
 mainder out to you— two at a time. ' 
 
 Pete at once started out, accompanied by 
 the two men, and a few minutes later I took 
 the next two along. It was slow and diffi- 
 cult work. After passing our block we 
 crawled on our stomachs for the twenty 
 yards or so we had to go. We were then 
 in a huge shell-hole only a few feet from the 
 German wire. The last three men I took 
 out into a shell-hole on the left side of the 
 communication trench. I then rejoined the 
 twelve men on the right side, and pro- 
 ceeded to get all ready for shooting the rifle 
 grenades. It was ten minutes to one when 
 
WINNING A V.C. 175 
 
 all was in readiness, and I crawled over to 
 Pete and whispered : 
 
 ' A good night for the show, Pete.' (It 
 was not too dark and there was a slight 
 drizzle.) 
 
 'Yes, sir; I believe we shall surprise 
 them to-night. Shall we have another look 
 at the fellow who fired at us last night ? ' 
 
 * Yes, we can see if he is still there. ' 
 
 "We crawled up into the wire. He was 
 there, head and shoulders showing above 
 the outline of the trench. We chuckled 
 at the thought of the surprise he was going 
 to get, when apparently he heard us and 
 fired; but not at us. No doubt to reassure 
 himself, I thought. I laid my hand on 
 Pete's arm, the signal to remain perfectly 
 still. For two or three minutes we scarcely 
 breathed, and then quietly wriggled out of 
 the wire and rejoined our party. 
 ^ A perfect stillness reigned; it was the 
 time when the activities of opposing armies 
 are at their lowest. But for an occasional 
 flare-light, no one would have guessed that 
 legions of armed men were facing each 
 other across that narrow strip of land known 
 as No Man's Land. It was chiUy, and we 
 shivered a little with the cold. The boys 
 
176 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 lay there very quiet — scarcely breathing. I 
 looked at my watch — it was time ! 
 
 Suddenly and without warning, the eerie 
 menacing stillness was violently broken with 
 the screaming sounds of hundreds of shells. 
 It was deafening, tremendous! Our bom- 
 bardment had begun. Shrapnel was burst- 
 ing low and just in front of us; we could 
 hear the whang of the shrapnel bullets and 
 the deafening roar of bursting high ex- 
 plosives. Myriads of coloured lights — all 
 flashing back their messages — ^were sent up 
 from the enemy lines, illuminating the sky. 
 To the uninitiated it was terrifying, nerve- 
 racking. I knew some of the boys were new 
 to this kind of thing so crawled round 
 amongst them. 
 
 * Don't worry, boys, it's all our stuff. It 
 won't half put the wind up him; he '11 be 
 scared stiff when he sees us piling in on 
 top of him.' 
 
 I then went over to Pete, who sat on the 
 edge of the shell-hole, his eyes shining in 
 the darkness with excitement, his fingers 
 nervously clasping his revolver. 
 
 ' Is it time yet, sir ? ' he whispered. 
 
 ' Not yet, Pete, another couple of 
 minutes. ' 
 
WINNING A V.C. 177 
 
 At last the luminous figures on my watch 
 tell me the time is up. 
 
 * All right, Pete, get ready.' Then turn- 
 ing to the boys behind, I called : 
 
 * Fire your rifle grenades! ' They did. 
 ' Come on, Pete, I 'm going with you! 
 Come on, boys! ' I shouted. Pete and I 
 sprang up together. We saw them lined 
 up waiting for us as we stumbled forward 
 entangled in the wire. Suddenly there 
 were several blinding explosions at our 
 very feet and the wicked rasping noise of 
 the machine gun in front of us. 
 
 Pete clutched my arm and cried : 
 ' I 'm hit, sir, ' and fell, mortally wounded. 
 I reached down and grasped his hand. 
 
 * Hit badly, Pete, boy? ' But he did not 
 answer, he was already dead. 
 
 All about me there was a succession of 
 blinding explosions and men were crying 
 out in pain. That mass of wire on each 
 side of the block was proving to be an 
 impenetrable barrier. I ran a little to the 
 right. I braced myself up, ran forward and 
 took a flying leap over the wire. I just 
 cleared it, staggered forward a few steps, 
 and then hurled myself head first on top of 
 a Hun who was just levelling his rifle at me. 
 
178 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 I crashed to the bottom of a trench seven 
 feet deep, with a startled Hun underneath 
 me. In crashing into the Hun my steel 
 helmet came down bang on to my face, and 
 took away the tip of my nose. At the same 
 time I saw myriads of dancing lights. The 
 strap of my helmet had been at the back 
 of my head, so the helmet was now dan- 
 gling in front of my face. I lay breathing 
 heavily with my right elbow sticking in the 
 stomach of the Hun underneath me, who lay 
 gasping — for I had knocked the wind 
 clean out of him. I still retained a firm 
 grip on my revolver, my finger on the 
 trigger. I peeped over the rim of my 
 dangling steel helmet and saw the figure 
 of a big Hun gaily advancing upon me, the 
 point of his bayonet about two feet from 
 my throat. I promptly pulled the trigger; 
 he gave a gurgling sound and sank down in 
 a heap, his rifle and bayonet clattering to 
 the bottom of the trench. The man under- 
 neath me, no doubt desperately startled by 
 the exploding revolver, violently came to 
 life and started throwing his arms around. 
 It was no time for polite argument, so I 
 pressed the muzzle of my revolver into him 
 and pulled the trigger. I scrambled to my 
 
WINNING A V.C. 179 
 
 feet and adjusted my helmet just as another 
 Hun came rushing along towards me. I 
 let go with my revolver; he gave a howl 
 of pain, turned around and ran. Being a 
 great believer in the demoralising effect of 
 noise I ran yelling after him. There were 
 quite a few Huns in that trench, and soon 
 the bombs began to fly about. I had a 
 couple with me so let fly with mine. More 
 bombs came over; and I had to back up a 
 little to get out of range. I was beginning 
 to feel a little lonely and worried — for that 
 machine gun was still firing — when at last 
 one of my men came up to me. 
 
 ' Give me your bombs, quick, ' I said, ' and 
 go back for some more.' 
 
 He handed me three bombs. I ran for- 
 ward and threw them, forcing the Huns 
 back along the trench. Back they came 
 again, following the bombs with a mad rush 
 towards me. I used my revolver with effect 
 and they scampered back again, just as the 
 man I had sent came rushing up with bombs. 
 I grabbed two — ran forward and threw 
 them, following close up with my revolver. I 
 ran into six Huns, shot two of them, when 
 the remainder turned round and threw up 
 their hands. A few yards beyond I saw them 
 
180 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 pulling down the machine gun. I called 
 upon the man behind me to look after the 
 prisoners, pushed my way past them in time 
 to see the men with the machine gun disap- 
 pear into a dug-out. I called back for 
 a mobile charge and waited. It was two 
 or three minutes before a man came 
 staggering along with one — pulled the pin 
 and threw it down the dug-out. A few 
 seconds later the air was filled with flying 
 debris. I leave to the imagination what 
 happened to the Huns and the machine 
 gun. Looking back, I saw the red flares — 
 the recall signal — burning. I got back to 
 find that Pete's body had been carried into 
 our trench. The next day, and for two 
 succeeding days, I suffered from what is 
 popularly known as ' a stiff neck,' which 
 will explain why it was the Hun lay winded 
 underneath me. 
 
 Some weeks later the CO. sent for me. 
 
 * M'Kean,' he said, ' I wish to congratu- 
 late you heartily on being awarded the 
 Victoria Cross.' 
 
 I felt rather staggered and bewildered. 
 
 ' Thank you, sir, ' I replied — and that was 
 all I could say. 
 
THE WARNING WHISTLE 
 
 "1^7" E all felt it was the beginning of the 
 ^ * end, though none of us guessed 
 just how near the end was. After participa- 
 ting in a record advance, we were hustled 
 north to deliver another of those * hammer 
 blows ' that brought fame and final victory 
 to the British Army. We were not lucky 
 enough to get in at the beginning. The 
 show had been going a full twenty-four 
 hours before the shells began to shake 
 themselves out around us, and we were 
 tired, too, with long night-marches and 
 very little rest during the day-time. The 
 last day of our move was spent in train and 
 bus, to be followed by another night-march. 
 Seeing that the day's train journey was pre- 
 ceded by a night-march, this combination of 
 activities found us pretty tired at the end 
 of them all. 
 
 181 
 
182 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 Very soon after daylight, after not more 
 tlian three hours' sleep, I was given in- 
 structions to proceed forward with my 
 scouts for a reconnaissance of the area we 
 were to move up to that night. It was 
 ground captured only the previous day. 
 When we arrived there we were well on the 
 fringe of the battle raging in front of us. 
 The long string of ambulances and walking 
 wounded testified to the severity of the 
 fight; and the columns of bedraggled 
 though smiling and happy prisoners also 
 testified to the success we had gained. 
 
 We found the area allotted to us, and 
 studied the best route, having respect both 
 to its shortness and safety (for the shortest 
 way was very seldom the safest). With 
 seven or eight hundred men to bring along 
 we had to give a good deal of thought to the 
 route to be used. 
 
 We arrived back only in time to get a bite 
 to eat and start off again as guides. It was 
 dark and raining, and all the routes were 
 jammed with traffic — ammunition columns 
 dashing up with shells for the guns; more 
 guns going forward; engineers and in- 
 fantry all packed in along the roads. With 
 motor lorries, ambulances, empty ammuni- 
 
THE WARNING WHISTLE 183 
 
 tion wagons, all coming back, it was really 
 marvellous how anybody ever got any- 
 where. The rain came down pitilessly. 
 Our accommodation in the trenches was 
 very limited, and more than half of the 
 boys had no shelter from the rain. 
 
 Early the following morning the CO. sent 
 for me. 
 
 ' We are expecting to go into the line to- 
 night, M'Kean. You had better take a 
 couple of your scouts and go forward to the 
 headquarters of the brigade in the line. 
 They may be able to give you some in- 
 formation about the relief. Here is a new 
 map that has just arrived ; you can take this 
 with you and mark on it any information 
 you can get up there. ' 
 
 I got two scouts and went up forward. 
 They were shelling heavily all the routes of 
 approach, for most of them were jammed 
 with guns galloping forward to new posi- 
 tions. Arrived at brigade headquarters, I 
 found a small dug-out crammed full of 
 people on the same job as myself, the quest 
 for information. I squeezed myself in and 
 had the good fortune to catch the eye of the 
 brigade-major. 
 
 ' Come on in, M'Kean, ' he called out. 
 
184 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 I went forward very willingly. 
 
 ' Now, what is it you want to know *? ' 
 
 I explained. 
 
 * Yes, we have had notification that your 
 brigade will relieve us to-night, but we 
 cannot give you any information regarding 
 the probable positions of the battalions, for 
 we are attacking at 12.30 to-day.' (It was 
 then just after eleven). ' If all the objec- 
 tives are gained at the stated time we shall 
 have pretty complete information for you. 
 The best thing you can do, though, is to wait 
 here and see how things go. ' 
 
 So I waited. I looked outside and saw the 
 artillery galloping up and getting into po- 
 sition for putting over the barrage for 
 the attack at 12.30. Ammunition was also 
 being rushed up to the guns. In brigade 
 headquarters everything was bustle and 
 hurry. Promptly at 12.30 every gun around 
 the place opened up with a bang. About 
 two thousand yards ahead we could see the 
 white puffs of the exploding shrapnel. 
 From the little hillock we stood on we could 
 also see our infantry climb out of the trench 
 and go forward — ^being lost to view in the 
 smoke of the Hun barrage. The battle was 
 on! Around us the gunners worked fever- 
 
THE WARNING WHISTLE 185 
 
 ishly to feed the smoking guns. In brigade 
 headquarters there was tense excitement 
 and much speculation. The Hun was stub- 
 bornly resisting at this point, and scores of 
 machine guns swept the ground over which 
 our men had to advance. Conflicting re- 
 ports from observers began to arrive, at 
 one moment raising our hopes high, at the 
 next dashing them to the ground. At three 
 o 'clock no authentic news of the progress of 
 the attack had arrived. I could not wait 
 any longer. The battalion was nearly four 
 miles away, and I must get back to it, for 
 it had to be brought up that night to relieve 
 the attacking battalions. 
 
 When the head of the battalion arrived at 
 brigade headquarters, one hour before 
 midnight, information from the front line 
 was both scanty and contradictory. There 
 had been heavy fighting and severe casual- 
 ties; one battalion had lost all its officers 
 excepting the medical officer, and he was in 
 command of the battalion. Messages 
 had been sent out to the attacking battalions 
 asking them to have guides report to take 
 in the relief, but at midnight no guides had 
 arrived. The CO. decided to go forward. 
 
 Somewhere in front of the village we 
 
186 SCOUTINe THRILLS 
 
 would pass through we expected to find 
 what remained of the attacking battalions. 
 With scouts in front, the battalion moved 
 off in quest of the units it was to relieve. 
 In less than an hour we came to the support- 
 ing battalion, the officers of which, as far 
 as their information went, believed them- 
 selves to be in the front line. Upon in- 
 quiring for the whereabouts of the two 
 battalions we were to relieve, we were 
 informed that all they knew about them 
 was that they had attacked that afternoon 
 and that nothing had been heard of them 
 since. It seemed inconceivable that two 
 whole battalions had been literally wiped 
 out. Some one must be out there in front. 
 The CO. gave orders for us to relieve this 
 battalion. When this was completed I got 
 hold of the scout corporal, and we started 
 off in search of the missing battalions. 
 After stumbling around in the darkness for 
 half-an-hour we found three men in a shell- 
 hole roughly organised for defence. Two 
 belonged to one of the units we were to re- 
 lieve and one to the other unit. 
 
 ' What has happened, boys, that you are 
 separated from your battalions, ' I asked. 
 
 ' The machine-gun fire was so bad, sir,' 
 
THE WAENING WHISTLE 187 
 
 one of them answered, ' that we were 
 forced back, and all our officers have been 
 killed or wounded. ' 
 
 ' Where are the rest of your battalions 1 ' 
 * Scattered around in shell-holes, sir. ' 
 
 * I suppose you Ve had a lot of casualties ?' 
 
 * Yes, sir, there are not many of us left.' 
 
 * Well, you can wait here. As soon as 
 we find the whereabouts of the remainder 
 of your battalions we '11 bring some men 
 along to relieve you. ' 
 
 This last piece of information seemed to 
 give great satisfaction, and they readily 
 indicated the direction where we might find 
 the survivors of the battle. And so we 
 continued our search, finding a couple of 
 men in one shell-hole and half a dozen in 
 another. 
 
 I went back to our reserve company, ex- 
 plained the matter to the company com- 
 mander, and he agreed to bring his company 
 forward to relieve the men out in front. 
 
 It was almost daylight before this was 
 completed. When daylight came it was 
 found that our left flank was * up in the 
 air ' — in other words we were not in touch 
 with the battalion on our left, which left a 
 gap (how wide we could not tell) between us. 
 
188 SCOUTING THKILLS 
 
 I started out alone to find the where- 
 abouts of this battalion. After many 
 narrow escapes from being ' winged,' due 
 to the attentions of Boche snipers, and also 
 after travelling almost eight hundred yards, 
 I finally * made connection.' Now that 
 the gap was known to both battalions we 
 could arrange to have it looked after. The 
 problem now was — how far away was the 
 Boche ? Once again it was the work of the 
 scouts to find out, so, losing no time, I took 
 a scout with me and started of£ in the 
 direction of the Boche line. An old 
 trench ran out in this direction, and we 
 went out along this. It was shallow and 
 we always had a good view on both sides 
 of it. We expected to go two or three 
 hundred yards before encountering any 
 Boche, but this distance was passed and 
 we had gone quite six hundred yards be- 
 fore a single rifle shot rang out from a point 
 about three hundred yards in front of us. 
 
 * Well,' I remarked to the scout, ' I don't 
 see the sense of us holding a line nearly 
 a thousand yards from the Boche. If we 
 don't push forward lie soon will, at least as 
 soon as he finds out how far we are away 
 from him. ' 
 
THE WARNING WHISTLE 189 
 
 Just then we were attracted by a loud 
 wMrring noise overhead, and a camouflaged 
 aeroplane with the markings of the Maltese 
 cross on it swooped down to within a hun- 
 dred feet of us. It was a German single- 
 seater scout. The pilot looked out over the 
 side, circled round once, and then headed 
 oH in the direction of Hun-land. 
 
 ' There he goes, ' I said ; * he 's seen us 
 and thinks we are holding this ground. I 
 don't see why we shouldn't be holding it, do 
 you? ' 
 
 * No, sir; it will make a good jumping-of£ 
 place for the next attack. ' 
 
 ' Yes, exactly. I think we had better hurry 
 back now and recommend pushing out 
 some outposts to hold the ground. ' 
 
 So we returned to headquarters and re- 
 ported the situation. The CO. sent in- 
 structions to the forward companies to 
 push out outposts, and in this way our line 
 was advanced six hundred yards without a 
 casualty ! 
 
 In the afternoon we received information 
 that the British troops on our right were 
 going to attack to clear out a village and 
 seize some high ground. We were also in- 
 formed that one of our brigades would 
 
190 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 attack through us at daybreak on the 
 following day, assembling for the attack 
 at our newly-established outpost line. 
 
 About four o'clock in the afternoon a 
 heavy bombardment on our right brought 
 us up out of our dug-out to watch the 
 progress of the attack on our right. The 
 village to be attacked was simply smothered 
 with shells. It was two or three hours later 
 that we heard of the complete success 
 of the operation. The attack had been 
 pushed home and an advance made be- 
 yond the objectives, thus leaving the Huns 
 in front of us in a narrow and dangerous 
 salient. 
 
 ' Would the Huns wait for our attack ? ' 
 was the question worrying the staff. It 
 seemed feasible that they would not. If 
 not, then an attack on the grand scale 
 would be a mistake. If they had evacuated 
 the trenches they were holding then we 
 could quietly take possession of them and 
 so avoid a useless expenditure of ammuni- 
 tion, and, possibly, many precious human 
 lives. Now, who was to find out if the Hun 
 was still holding on"? — the scout, of course 
 — so it came as no surprise to us when about 
 eleven o'clock that night instructions came 
 
THE WARNING WHISTLE 191 
 
 to ' send out scouts to ascertain if the 
 enemy is still holding the trenches (naming 
 them) opposite you.' 
 
 Another prospective night's rest vanished. 
 A few minutes after receiving this message 
 I was out, in the blackest night imaginable, 
 on my way to interview the Huns, with five 
 scouts stumbling along after me. Our 
 progress forward was helped considerably 
 by the fitful glare from a burning village 
 behind the Hun lines. Occasionally it 
 flared up, showing up objects around us 
 with startling and disturbing distinctness. 
 We reached the line of our deserted out- 
 posts, which had been withdrawn so as not 
 to interfere with the assembling of the 
 attacking battalions. A shallow trench ran 
 out in the direction of the Hun lines. Re- 
 volver in hand, I led the way along the 
 trench. The dull red glow of the burning 
 village acted as our guide. Prom what we 
 had seen in our daylight patrol I knew that 
 the Hun, if he was still holding on, was 
 somewhere not very far in front of us. 
 Wherever he was, we must startle him into 
 life : it was the old business of making con- 
 tact. Cautiously and with every sense 
 keenly alert, I pushed along the shallow 
 
192 SCOUTING THEILLS 
 
 trench followed by four faithful fighting 
 scouts. The trench, after about two hun- 
 dred yards, became deeper and showed 
 signs of recent use. This was significant. 
 Then the glare from the burning village 
 died away and we were left to grope our 
 way along in the black darkness. So dark 
 was it that I had to feel my way forward 
 along the side of the trench. There was no 
 sound save the occasional shriek and whine 
 of a shell passing overhead. Then some- 
 thing seemed to hit my knees and I fell 
 headlong into the trench. I was upon my 
 feet instantly; but only just in time to 
 prevent a scout from following headlong 
 after me. Stretched tightly across the 
 trench were two plain wires, the first about 
 twelve inches from the bottom of the trench 
 and the second about nine inches above the 
 first. 
 
 ' Step over the wires, ' I whispered back. 
 
 I now went forward feeling with both 
 hands and feet. About ten yards further 
 along I came to another plain single wire 
 about three feet from the bottom of the 
 trench. 
 
 * Get underneath the wire,' I whispered 
 to the scout behind me. 
 
THE WARNING WHISTLE 193 
 
 Another ten yards and I ran into two 
 more wires, one about two feet from the bot- 
 tom of the trench and the other a foot above 
 it. We safely negotiated these and con- 
 tinued along the trench for a few more 
 yards. I stopped suddenly. I could have 
 sworn I heard a faint whistle. I listened 
 intently for a few minutes but no other 
 sound reached me. A few more yards and 
 again a whistle — a little more distinct this 
 time. I turned to the scout behind me. 
 
 * Did you hear that ? ' I asked. 
 
 * Yes, sir, somebody whistled. ' 
 
 * So I thought. Did you hear it before ? ' 
 
 * Yes, a few minutes ago I thought I 
 heard it. ' 
 
 I went silently and cautiously forward a 
 few more yards, having, owing to the in- 
 tense darkness, to feel my way along. I 
 had the misfortune to touch some loose 
 earth on the side of the trench. It only 
 made a very slight noise, but promptly that 
 warning whistle — ^much more distinct and 
 closer — ^rang out again. Just then flames 
 burst forth from the smouldering village, 
 and I saw clearly outlined in front of me a 
 huge mound of earth. 
 
 * Wait here,' I whispered back, and then. 
 
194 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 croucMng close to the side of the trench, 
 I moved along until this mound towered 
 above me. Another huge flame shot up 
 from the village. I remained there, statu- 
 esque. Then that whistle again, loud, clear, 
 and distinct — sounding almost at my elbow. 
 Breathless, I waited for something to 
 happen. There was a blinding flash a few 
 yards from my face and a flare light shot 
 up ; it broke, throwing a bright white light 
 over everything. I remained standing, but 
 with an almost overpowering desire to turn 
 and run. It seemed an eternity before I 
 was once again enshrouded in darkness. 
 I quietly withdrew until I rejoined the 
 scouts. 
 
 * A few more yards, ' I said, ' and I would 
 have walked on top of them. They must 
 be blind if they didn't see me. I 'm a bit 
 suspicious of them. We '11 have to go back 
 just as carefully as we came out.' 
 
 So, passing the scouts, I led the way back. 
 It was nearly two o'clock when I got back 
 to headquarters. I immediately wired the 
 result of my patrol to brigade, using, of 
 course, the camouflage language which the 
 circumstances demanded. 
 
 The attack would be proceeded with at 
 
THE WARNING WHISTLE 195 
 
 4.40 that morning. I was curious about the 
 defenders of that mound and was not at all 
 loath to carry out the instructions I re- 
 ceived about seven o'clock that morning to 
 proceed ahead of a company sent up to 
 support the attacking battalion. 
 
 The going forward was not to be without 
 incident, for no sooner had I started ahead 
 with my scouts than a swarm of Fokkers, 
 not less than twenty-five in number, came 
 circling overhead. They opened up with 
 their machine guns and the noise was 
 terrific. Bullets began to patter around 
 us, but we plodded steadily ahead across the 
 open, not a man being hit. We at last 
 reached the protection of the trench where 
 we had to remain to await further orders. 
 In crossing over I had noticed the mound 
 of my previous adventure. It was now a 
 few yards behind the trench we were in. I 
 moved over towards it. Around it were the 
 evidences of a fierce fight — I counted twelve 
 dead Huns, including an officer. Just then 
 a sergeant of the attacking battalion came 
 came along. 
 
 * Looks as if you met with opposition here, 
 sergeant, ' I remarked. 
 
 * We certainly did, sir ; my platoon lost 
 
196 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 eighteen good men taking this nest here. 
 We captured eight machine guns and eigh- 
 teen prisoners, besides what you see lying 
 around dead, sir.' 
 
 So these were the people who had almost 
 had me as a visitor a few hours before. I 'm 
 afraid if there had been any argument they 
 would almost have had the best of it ! 
 
XI 
 
 A BAYONET CHARGE 
 
 THE incident of this story follows quickly 
 upon the episode of ' The Warning 
 Whistle.' 
 
 At this time each day was so crowded with 
 excitement and activity that it is difficult to 
 select any particular incident which stands 
 out strikingly above all others. They were 
 days of hurried movement and ceaseless 
 activity; attacks were conceived and 
 launched successfully in the space of a few 
 hours. The thorough and methodical 
 gathering in of information, which gave 
 such scope and variety to the activities of 
 the scout, was abandoned. Attack followed 
 upon attack with breathless rapidity ; every 
 success was exploited to the utmost, and 
 every local reverse was speedily overcome 
 by the immediate launching of a new and 
 successful attack. 
 
 197 
 
198 SCOUTIXa THRILLS 
 
 We were for ever on the move, and as 
 all movement of bodies of troops was 
 carried out in the night, it was the work 
 of the scouts to * spy out the land ' in the 
 daytime, and to guide the troops forward 
 in the night. The word ' relief ' had become 
 a nightmare to us, and it gave me no 
 particular emotions of joy and pleasure 
 when the CO. sent for me and informed me 
 that there would be a relief that night; I 
 was to report to X headquarters to arrange 
 details and take my scouts forward to re- 
 connoitre routes. It was a dirty business, 
 for the forward area was being heavily 
 shelled, and before we returned two of my 
 scouts were wounded, one of them rather 
 badly. 
 
 I reported to X headquarters and found a 
 colonel in charge of the relief arrange- 
 ments. 
 
 * Now, my boy,' he said, ' you will find 
 things rather mixed up, and your unit will 
 have to relieve elements of three battalions. 
 There was severe fighting this morning, and 
 we have not yet got complete information 
 of the exact whereabouts of all units. ' 
 
 Things were mixed up, and the prospects 
 of a smooth and speedy relief looked very 
 
A BAYONET CHARGE 199 
 
 remote. However, on paper, things looked 
 fair, and with a bit of luck we might pull 
 through successfully. I felt slightly opti- 
 mistic when I returned to headquarters. I 
 was, however, quite unprepared for the 
 drastic alterations in the arrangements. 
 
 * More alterations, M'Kean,' the CO. in- 
 formed me as soon as I reported; * only 
 one company will go into the front line 
 instead of the two you have already 
 arranged for.' 
 
 * But what about the other one, sir? 
 I have already arranged for guides to meet 
 them. ' 
 
 * Oh, you '11 have to find a place for them 
 to-night; put them a few yards behind the 
 front line company. In any case they will 
 have to go up in support, for we are attack- 
 ing at five o'clock in the morning.' 
 
 * Attacking at five o'clock in the morning, 
 sir! ' 
 
 * Yes, a local attack to establish a ' jump- 
 ing-off ' place for the big attack on the fol- 
 lowing day.' 
 
 The CO. then pointed out to me on a map 
 the plan for the attack. The Huns 
 were stubbornly holding on to a high 
 dominating hillock known as the * Crows' 
 
200 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 Nest.' This was to be cleared, and the at- 
 tack pushed beyond it. 
 
 * What about our arrangements for to- 
 night, sir? It is too late to alter them 
 now.' 
 
 * You '11 have to go ahead yourself, 
 M'Kean, and get them in the best way you 
 can. We must be in position to attack 
 before five o'clock.' 
 
 It promised to be a most interesting night. 
 Shortly before midnight I arrived at the 
 rendezvous where the guides from the front 
 line battalions were to meet us-^the junction 
 of a road and trench. The guides were to 
 be there at eleven o'clock, but none were in 
 sight when I arrived. At any moment I 
 expected to see the first company of our 
 battalion arrive, and I had but the vaguest 
 idea of where they had to go. Who would 
 arrive first, the guides or the battalion? 
 To keep a battalion on that road was to ask 
 for casualties, for already the road had been 
 heavily shelled. But the guides appeared 
 first — about half an hour after midnight. 
 I found the of&cer in charge of the 
 guides. 
 
 * How long will it take to get to the front 
 line from here ? ' I asked. 
 
A BAYONET CHARGE 201 
 
 * Not less than an hour. ' 
 
 ' The arrangements have been changed, 
 and only one company goes into the line. ' 
 
 * Where does the other company go ? ' 
 
 ^ They '11 have to get into shell-holes be- 
 hind the front line; we are attacking at 
 fiYQ o'clock.' 
 
 ' Attacking ! well, you 've certainly got 
 to hustle to get into position. ' 
 
 * I know we have ; the only thing for it 
 is for the second company to keep touch with 
 the first. ' 
 
 * Yes, that 's what you '11 have to do.' 
 The prospect of two companies, in single 
 
 file, having to keep in touch, was a most 
 distressing one. One o'clock arrived and 
 still no sign of the battalion. Just then a 
 salvo of shells came bouncing around us 
 and we had to scuttle for cover. It was 
 exactly 1.45 a.m. before the head of the 
 battalion arrived at the rendezvous. The 
 guides joined them, and they continued on 
 to the front line. The second company 
 followed closely behind. I saw the com- 
 pany commander. 
 
 ' You '11 have to keep touch with the com- 
 pany in front; there are no guides for 
 you.' 
 
202 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 * All right, Mac, we '11 see to that.' 
 
 I then hurried on to the head of the 
 battalion and came up alongside of the 
 company commander. 
 
 * Did you see the runners, Pat, with the 
 operation orders for the attack ? ' I asked. 
 
 * No, we didn't see them.' 
 
 * That 's unfortunate, for they are not 
 likely to arrive in time now; they 've 
 missed you, I guess. Did you hear the 
 news? ' 
 
 * I heard that we are attacking at five 
 o'clock in the morning. Do you know any 
 of the details'? ' 
 
 ^ I have a general idea. We advance 
 about fifteen hundred yards and dig in. 
 It is a creeping barrage, but I don't know 
 how fast it moves — about one hundred 
 yards in three minutes, I should think. 
 Just as soon as the barrage drops down we 
 hop over.' 
 
 Just then our conversation was inter- 
 rupted by the cry, * lost connection in the 
 rear.' 
 
 The company commander halted and 
 called back, ' Pass the word when every- 
 body is closed up.' We resimied our con- 
 versation. 
 
A BAYONET CHARGE 203 
 
 * Have you any idea of the direction we 
 go, Mac ? ' asked Pat. 
 
 * Roughly due east,' I answered. ' We 
 skirt along on the north side of the Crows' 
 Nest and, as far as I can remember, we cross 
 two trenches which the Hun is holding. ' 
 
 * I suppose this is only a kind of local 
 attack?' 
 
 * Yes, the Crows' Nest has changed hands 
 twice already. This time we intend to go 
 well beyond it to establish a jumping-off 
 place. ' 
 
 Just then the word was passed along. 
 * All closed up, ' so we moved forward again. 
 It was a rough, slow journey. In places 
 the trench was blown in and we had to 
 climb out and back in again. Then we 
 came to a road running through the trench. 
 The guide halted. 
 
 ' A machine gun sweeps this road, sir, ' he 
 said to the company commander, * we must 
 hurry across.' 
 
 * All right,' answered the company com- 
 mander, * lead on.' Then he turned to the 
 man behind him, ' Pass the word back to 
 hurry across the road. ' 
 
 The next obstacle was an old shelter in 
 the trench. We had to climb first of all 
 
204 SCOUTINa THRILLS 
 
 through a window and then out through a 
 door in the other end. Lightly equipped 
 as we were, it was no easy job to get through 
 that window; for the men it was ahnost 
 impossible. After getting through we went 
 forward some distance and halted. I looked 
 at my watch. It was three o 'clock. 
 
 * I say, Pat, we 've got to do a big hustle 
 to get that relief completed and in position 
 by five o 'clock ! ' 
 
 * Yes, we have, Mac, but we can't go 
 ahead and leave half of the men behind. ' 
 
 We moved forward again and at last 
 reached the front line. 
 
 ' Wait here,' said the guide, * and I '11 
 bring our company commander along. ' 
 
 He returned soon afterwards, bringing the 
 company commander with him. 
 
 ' Glad you have arrived,' said the com- 
 pany commander; ' we '11 be darned glad 
 to get out. Just let your men lead on. I 
 have a sergeant here who will go ahead. 
 Come round here and I '11 tell you all I know 
 about things.' We followed him. ' I sup- 
 pose you know we are attacking at five 
 o 'clock *? ' I inquired . 
 
 * No ! that 's the first I 've heard about it. 
 We attacked up here yesterday. ' 
 
A BAYONET CHARGE 205 
 
 ' Did the Boche put up a fight ? ' 
 ' Not much of a one here : we cleared the 
 whole of this trench out, took sixty prisoners 
 and only had three casualties. ' 
 ' Well, that sounds cheering anyway.' 
 ' We 've just taken six prisoners,' con- 
 tinued the company commander. ' A party 
 of them came out- to establish a post ; one 
 of my officers saw them, took a few men 
 with him and attacked them. They killed 
 three, took six prisoners, and the rest of 
 the crowd scattered. The prisoners haven't 
 come along yet, but they should be here 
 soon. We '11 detain a couple of them and 
 question them; we might get some useful 
 information for you fellows.' 
 
 * Thanks,' said Pat. ' Could you point 
 out the Crows' Nest from here ? ' 
 
 ^ Sure, easily,' replied the company com- 
 mander. ' Do you see where those ' heavies ' 
 have just landed ? ' 
 
 * Yes, over to the right,' said Pat. 
 
 * Well, that 's the Crows' Nest; they 've 
 simply smothered that place to-night; been 
 dropping '* heavies " into it for the last 
 five or six hours. I don't think there '11 
 be any one left alive over there to give you 
 any trouble.' 
 
206 SCOUTING THEILLS 
 
 A few minutes later two prisoners arrived, 
 one wounded, who was being carried on the 
 back of the unwounded prisoner. They 
 both were mere boys. They were Alsa- 
 tians and spoke French. 
 
 ' I have a sergeant here, a French- 
 Canadian, who speaks French, ' said Pat ; 
 ' he '11 ask him all the questions we wish to 
 have answered.' 
 
 ' Righto,' said the company commander, 
 * ask him first of all what division he belongs 
 to, and how old he is 1 ' 
 
 The sergeant put these questions to the 
 unwounded prisoner. 
 
 ' The 123rd Division, sir; he is eighteen 
 years of age. ' 
 
 * Does he like the Germans ? ' 
 
 ' No, sir, he hates them, and says he 's glad 
 he 's a prisoner. He says the Germans hate 
 the Alsatians. ' 
 
 * How long has he been in the German 
 army? ' 
 
 * Six months, sir.' 
 
 * What were they doing out there to-night 
 when we attacked them ? ' 
 
 * They came out under an officer to estab- 
 lish an outpost, sir; they didn't know that 
 we were so close to them. ' 
 
A BAYONET CHAEGE 207 
 
 * Are they expecting an attack ? ' 
 
 * Yes, sir, he says they 're always expect- 
 ing an attack now. He also says that they 
 received orders to attack us at eleven o 'clock 
 last night, but the order was cancelled, as 
 they had no bombs, and very little ammuni- 
 tion. ' 
 
 * Are they getting enough to eat ? ' 
 
 ^ No, sir, he says that they Ve had no 
 rations or water for two days. The ration 
 parties go out but never return. Our shell- 
 ing of the back areas is causing heavy 
 casualties and they are unable to get up 
 supplies. ' 
 
 * Have they been having many casualties ? ' 
 ' Yes, sir, he says his company have been 
 
 in the line three days and have lost eighty 
 men out of one hundred and ten.' 
 
 The company commander turned to Pat: 
 * I think that 's about all we want to know. 
 Is there anything else you would like to ask 
 him? ' 
 
 * Yes ; ask him if the two trenches 
 opposite are heavily manned. ' 
 
 * Yes, sir, ' said the sergeant, ' he says they 
 have quite a lot of machine guns in them.' 
 
 * All right,' said Pat, ' I'm satisfied with 
 that information. ' 
 
208 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 The two prisoners then continued their 
 way out. The company that had been re- 
 lieved started to file past us. Our second 
 company then came along, went along the 
 front line, then climbed out of the trench 
 and went back a few yards into shell-holes. 
 Pat and myself then went along the front 
 line. 
 
 * Can you give me a job, Pat? ' I asked, 
 ' for I intended to go over in some capacity 
 or other. ' 
 
 * All right, Mac ; one of my platoons hasn't 
 an officer, and I 'd be glad if you would 
 take it over. ' 
 
 ^ Righto, lead me to it. By the way, we 
 haven't much time to waste, Pat; it 's 4.30 
 now — only half an hour before we go over. ' 
 
 I found the platoon sergeant of the 
 platoon I was attached to. 
 
 ' Take me round amongst the boys in the 
 platoon, sergeant; I want to have a little 
 chat with them, for I 'm going over with 
 you.' 
 
 ' All right, come this way, sir. ' 
 
 I found that about half a dozen of them 
 had only joined the battalion that night, and 
 it was their first experience of warfare. 
 Rather a rough introduction I thought. 
 
A BAYONET CHARGE 209 
 
 ' Now, boys,' I said, ' as soon as our 
 barrage drops down I '11 bop over tbe top, 
 and I want every man- jack of you to follow. 
 You '11 feel a bit shaky when our barrage 
 drops down, for there '11 be such an ungodly 
 noise; but just watch it — keep close behind 
 the bursting shells, but don't get underneath 
 them. It will be nothing but a walk over 
 if you do this. ' 
 
 The boys were now only impatient for the 
 fun to commence. At ten minutes to five 
 the faint grey light of dawn appeared, the 
 last that many a brave lad was to see. But 
 I am sure that no such thoughts saddened 
 or daunted the brave hearts of the boys 
 around me. We laughed and joked and 
 lighted our cigarettes. I was alternately 
 climbing up and down from the firing step. 
 At three minutes to five the dim outline of 
 the Crows' Nest became visible. Our 
 heavies were still crashing into it, and a 
 pall of smoke hung about it. I pulled out my 
 revolver, passed the word along to get 
 ready, and then sat on the parapet waiting. 
 Then it came, that fiendishly destructive, 
 but friendly barrage of ours! The shells 
 screamed and shrieked overhead and burst 
 into flame in front of us. I jumped up. 
 
210 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 * Come on, boys,' I yelled, and started 
 forward. 
 
 The light was still very faint. Behind 
 me I saw the dim shadowy figures of men 
 following me; in front of me, that wall of 
 flame and iron. The German barrage now 
 came down, mingling with ours. The noise 
 was deafening, but above it all rang out 
 the voices of our boys, yelling and cheering 
 as they came straggling forward. The more 
 enthusiastic and adventurous rushed past 
 me. 
 
 * Come back,' I yell after them; * do you 
 want to get into the barrage? ' They 
 hesitate, then come back; but one party, 
 more adventurous than the rest, turned back 
 too late. One of our own shells bursts in 
 amongst them, and when the smoke clears 
 away only two of them. come limping back. 
 We wait a minute for the barrage to lift; 
 the boys continue to shout and cheer, and 
 we move forward upon a wave of excite- 
 ment. During a pause one boy rushed up to 
 me: 
 
 * Have a cigarette, sir ? ' 
 
 * Yes, thanks, I will. Have you a 
 match? ' 
 
 * Yes, sir, light up.' 
 
A BAYONET CHAEGE 211 
 
 The barrage lifts and we surge forward 
 again in the semi-darkness. The white out- 
 line of a trench shows up a few yards in 
 front; the barrage has just lifted from it. 
 
 * Come on, boys,' I shout, and there is a 
 wild rush forward. We clamber over the 
 wire and meet the Huns climbing out of the 
 trench. * Kamerad! Kamerad ! ' they 
 shout hysterically. Laughingly some of 
 the boys give them a poke with their 
 bayonets, and the Huns scurry wildly past 
 us. We jump the trench and follow the 
 barrage. Everybody is shouting encourage- 
 ment to the other fellow. The light is 
 getting better. Through the smoke of the 
 barrage I see the outline of a second trench. 
 As we move up closer I see several round 
 significant objects lying on the parapet — 
 machine guns! If they get only one of 
 them into action the result will be catas- 
 trophe ! Just then one of our ofi&cers came 
 up. Although yelling at the top of his 
 voice I barely heard him say : 
 
 * What about a bayonet charge ? ' 
 
 ^ Yes,' I shouted back, ' the very thing.' 
 
 * All right, I have a whistle here ; when I 
 blow it we '11 all rush forward. ' 
 
 * Righto, we '11 be with you.' 
 
212 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 ' A bayonet charge, ' I yelled, ' everybody 
 for a bayonet charge. ^ 
 
 ' A bayonet charge ! a bayonet charge ! ' 
 was the cry everj^where around me. Some 
 of the boys laughingly felt the points of their 
 bayonets. 
 
 * All ready, ' I shouted. 
 
 * Yes, sir, ' came back the reply. 
 
 I signalled to the other officer — ^he blew 
 his whistle and we made a wild rush for- 
 ward, uttering the most weird, blood-curd- 
 ling cries. A solitary machine gun spat out 
 for a few seconds, and two or three bombs 
 were thrown from the trench, and then we 
 were on top of them! The Huns made a 
 brief effort at resistance, but it was short- 
 lived. Then they shrieked for mercy — but it 
 was too late! We collected eight machine 
 guns, enough, if bravely handled, to wipe out 
 a whole battalion. Then we continued our 
 triumphant progress. It was almost day- 
 light now. We followed up our barrage 
 until it ceased to move forward and became 
 protective. 
 
 * Come on; string out everybody and 
 dig in,' I yelled. 
 
 Pat came along. 
 
 * Hullo, Pat, how 's it going ? ' 
 
A BAYONET CHARGE 213 
 
 * Fine, but we 've got to dig in now/ 
 
 ' Yes, we '11 soon have everybody working 
 
 bard. ' 
 
 A few minutes later I looked over to tbe 
 left, where a Boche machine-gun nest was 
 still in action. As the boys closed in on 
 them they began to waver. Then I saw a 
 Boche officer do a characteristically dirty 
 German trick. Only one gun was firing 
 spasmodically; our men were working 
 their way forward, running from shell-hole 
 to shell-hole. I watched it all from a flank 
 from where I could plainly see everything 
 that happened. I saw men manning three 
 other guns, though they were not firing a 
 shot. The reason for this soon became 
 evident. The Boche officer seized hold of a 
 man and pushed him out in front of the 
 trench. The man seemed most unwilling 
 to go. The officer then threatened him 
 with a revolver. Then the meaning of all 
 this by-play flashed upon me as the Hun 
 came stumbling forward with his hands over 
 his head. At the same time two Huns got 
 out of the trench and ran back. It was a 
 bluff— a trap! I held my breath as I 
 watched events develop. Would our men 
 get up and go forward believing that the 
 
214 SCOUTINa THRILLS 
 
 Huns had given up the fight? If so, then 
 those three guns would all open up on them. 
 I watched and waited in breathless sus- 
 pense, and then I gave a shout of joy as 
 several rifles spurted fire, and the surrender- 
 ing Hun toppled over dead. The ruse had 
 failed ! 
 
 Our shell-fire was now diminishing, and 
 we were all busy digging in. The position 
 was a most unenviable one. We were being 
 enfiladed with machine guns from a flank. 
 Moving from shell-hole to shell-hole was 
 dangerous business. I saw Pat go down 
 with a bullet wound in the leg, and an 
 officer with me received a bullet through the 
 head. Then a Hun plane came over and 
 provided us with a thrill. He saucily 
 circled overhead, swooping down until his 
 machine ahnost touched the ground. He 
 outstayed his welcome, though. One of our 
 Lewis gunners fired a short burst and Mr. 
 Hun came crashing to earth to the accom- 
 paniment of wild cheers from the troops. 
 
 Then the Fokker * circus' devoted their 
 attention to us in a rather mean fashion. 
 About twenty-five of them came circling 
 overhead at a height of about five hundred 
 feet and cahnly unloaded their baggage of 
 
A BAYONET CHARGE 215 
 
 bombs upon us. For the space of a few 
 minutes we were all extremely uncomfort- 
 able. The last and most exciting incident in 
 a day of incidents was when a runner, fol- 
 lowing behind me as I ran from shell-hole to 
 shell-hole, had the few bristles on his upper 
 lip (which he designated by the rather ambi- 
 tiously descriptive term of a moustache) 
 very cleanly shot off by a machine-gun bul- 
 let ! It was literally the closest shave that I 
 had ever seen — either inside or outside of a 
 barber's shop ! Later in the day I was back 
 in headquarters, eating a meal that had been 
 postponed for twenty-four hours, reciting, 
 with very great satisfaction, the details of 
 our hurricane and successful bayonet 
 charge. 
 
XII 
 CAPTUEING A VILLAGE 
 
 /^N the night of the day of the bayonet 
 ^^ charge, instructions came through 
 for the big attack of the following day. It 
 was an attack ambitiously planned. 
 
 First of all, the famous Wotan Switch was 
 to be broken through, and then we were to 
 sweep forward, over-running several vil- 
 lages and trench systems, until we finally 
 reached the Canal Du Nord. Battalion was 
 to ' leap-frog ' battalion ; brigade to ' leap- 
 frog ' brigade, and finally division was to 
 * leap-frog ' division ! At the end of the day 
 the first attacking wave would be left miles 
 behind! Behind the attacking infantry 
 were legions of cavalry and swarms of 
 motor machine guns, which were to add 
 the final touch to the discomifiture of the 
 Hun. Tanks were to attack with the in- 
 fantry; low-flying aeroplanes would also 
 
 216 
 
CAPTUKING A VILLAGE 217 
 
 be there to assist. Before our gaze would 
 be spread the whole panorama of battle: 
 the might of the British Army would irre- 
 sistibly sweep forward, driving the Hun 
 before it, recapturing the soil of glorious, 
 suffering France! 
 
 A spirit of confidence prevailed every- 
 where. Victory was as certain twelve hours 
 before the attack as it was twelve hours after 
 it. 
 
 Our battalion was to leap-frog another 
 battalion in our brigade who were to start 
 the ball rolling. The ' kick-off ' was to be 
 shortly after five o'clock, and we came into 
 the game at eight o'clock. The CO. ex- 
 plained the details of the attack to me. We 
 were to attack through a fairly large village, 
 and then sweep on through a wood just be- 
 yond it. The depth of the advance was to 
 be a little over two miles. 
 
 ' You will take your scouts up with you, 
 M'Kean,' the CO. concluded. ' After we 
 get through the village and into the open 
 I want your scouts to push ahead of the 
 battalion, the same way as practised for 
 open fighting. Here are a number of 
 message maps on which they will send back 
 reports. Distribute these amongst them 
 
218 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 before the attack starts. Impress upon 
 them all the necessity of frequent reports. 
 We want to know exactly what the situation 
 is in front.' 
 
 I saw the scouts, distributed the maps, 
 and explained the details of the attack to 
 them. 
 
 At six o'clock the next morning, almost 
 an hour after the attack had started, I left 
 headquarters at the head of ten scouts — 
 moving forward in single file. As far as the 
 eye could see were (what we called) little 
 * blobs ' of men moving forward. Spread 
 out in this fashion, they lessened the risks 
 of sustaining heavy casualties, a single 
 shell rarely claiming more than half a 
 dozen victims. Already, behind us we 
 could see some of the artillery limbering 
 up ready to move forward. The smoke of 
 bursting shells ahead indicated our barrage. 
 Coming back out of the battle were many 
 cheery walking wounded, and swarms of 
 prisoners, many of them without escort, 
 came trooping past. It was a scene of 
 animated movement, and it showed that all 
 our confidence had been justified — for the 
 famous Wotan Switch was battered, broken, 
 and lost for ever to the Germans. As we ap- 
 
CAPTURING A VILLAGE 219 
 
 proached it, we were amazed at the masses 
 of wire protecting it: three distinct 
 belts averaging forty feet in depth, be- 
 fore the first trench was reached! In 
 other words, there were one hundred and 
 twenty feet of dense wire entanglements 
 between us and their front line trench, and 
 our men went through it ! The trench was 
 a first class one, deep and well constructed, 
 with immense dug-outs, and an abundance 
 of concrete machine-gun emplacements. It 
 was the dug-outs that had been Fritz's 
 undoing — he had stayed down in them until 
 invited by our men to come out and sur- 
 render. If he had ever shown the same 
 bravery in fighting as he showed alacrity 
 in surrendering, the war would not yet have 
 been won. Here and there we saw a dead 
 German — but very few. The bulk of them 
 preferred shameless surrender to heroic 
 dying. 
 
 In between his front and support line was 
 another continuous mass of wire, flattened 
 out in places by our tanks — some of which 
 we saw moving leisurely around ahead of 
 us. As we watched their unconcerned 
 rambling movements it gave a touch of 
 unreality to the whole scene. It seemed 
 
220 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 impossible to realise that a tremendous 
 decisive battle was being fought. The 
 realism was soon disturbingly evident to 
 us all again though, as his heavy ' crumps ' 
 began to bounce around us. 
 
 We at last arrived at the Hun support 
 line, where our battalion was assembling 
 to carry on the attack. In front of this 
 line was a protective barrage of ^ heavies,' 
 most of them falling in the village we had 
 to attack, which lay in a hollow about three 
 hundred yards in front of us. Leading 
 down to the village was a sunken road. I 
 got into the trench at a point where this 
 road cut through it. A few men belonging 
 to the battalion which had led off the attack 
 were sitting around having a smoke. I 
 inquired if any of them had seen men of 
 my own battalion around. 
 
 ' Yes, sir, they 're gone. ' 
 
 * Gone! gone where? ' 
 
 * They are carrying on with the attack, 
 sir; they left here more than five minutes 
 ago.' 
 
 I looked at my watch — ten minutes to 
 eight and the attack was not to take place 
 until eight. 
 
 * Come on, boys,' I said to the scouts, 
 
CAPTURING A VILLAGE 221 
 
 * the battalion is out in front somewhere. 
 I 'm pretty sure they are not in that vil- 
 lage; if they are, they are having a warm 
 time.' 
 
 We climbed out of the trench and went 
 a few yards down the road when, looking 
 to my left, I saw one of our company com- 
 manders, with a few men, sitting in a shell- 
 hole. I at once hurried over to him. 
 
 ^ Hullo, John,' I said, ' where 's your 
 company? ' 
 
 * Scattered around somewhere, Mac. We 
 started too soon and got into our own 
 barrage. I thought we were too soon, but 
 I saw them moving forward on the right so 
 I went ahead, thinking that my watch 
 might be wrong. ' 
 
 ' No, it 's only ten minutes to eight now, 
 and that barrage of heavies doesn't lift from 
 the village until eight o'clock.' 
 
 ^ Yes, that 's what the operation order 
 says.' 
 
 * How many of your company have you 
 around here ? ' 
 
 ^ Only headquarters — about twenty all 
 told, including the headquarters' Lewis gim 
 section. ' 
 
 * Well, I have ten scouts with me; I don't 
 
222 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 see why we can't have a shot at taking 
 that village as soon as the barrage lifts. If 
 we can only get in there right afterwards I 
 don't think there '11 be much opposition.' 
 
 ' Righto, Mac, I 'm game. As soon as it 
 is eight o'clock we '11 push off.' 
 
 In the meantime our position was any- 
 thing but an enviable one. The Boche, 
 angry at losing his valuable and supposedly 
 impregnable system of defences known as 
 the Wotan Switch, was viciously pounding 
 them with 5.9 's. More than one came 
 perilously close to us, in fact several just 
 missed us by a matter of a few yards. 
 
 * I don't mind how soon eight o'clock 
 comes around, John, do you ? ' 
 
 ' Not at all, Mac, there are surely more 
 peaceful places in Prance than this particu- 
 lar spot here.' 
 
 ' Well, it only wants three minutes ; 
 what do you say if we gather the men 
 together from the shell-holes and so be 
 ready to move off prompt ? ' 
 
 ' All right, we had better do that. ' 
 
 A couple of minutes later between fifteen 
 and twenty of us were standing together, 
 when one unlucky 5.9 landed square in 
 amongst us. I felt something hot, for all 
 
CAPTURINa A VILLAGE 223 
 
 the world like a liot cinder, go into my leg, 
 and knew I was hit. The scout corporal 
 who was with me fell on his face, killed 
 instantly. When the smoke cleared away 
 only two or three were left standing. John 
 lay stretched out, hit in two places, while 
 most of my scouts were casualties. I 
 limped over to John. 
 
 * Badly hit ? ' I inquired. 
 
 * Only two chunks in me, I can't walk 
 though. Not a very nice beginning for our 
 attack. ' 
 
 ^ No, but it 's eight o'clock and we must 
 push off. I 'm hit in the leg but I can carry 
 on for a little while.' 
 
 * Well, good luck, Mac' 
 
 ' Thanks,' I replied, ^ don't worry about 
 us ; we '11 get on all right. ' 
 
 I then detailed some men to bandage up 
 the wounded and to see that they were all 
 got out ; collected the remnant, amounting to 
 eight men and a Lewis gun, and went down 
 the road to attack the village. As far 
 as I could see we were the only ones 
 moving, though I knew it would only be 
 a question of minutes before reinforcements 
 followed up. We had not gone far before 
 we found some work to do. About one 
 
224 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 hundred yards down the sunken road lead- 
 ing into the village we came to our first dug- 
 out. I shouted down and there was in- 
 stantly a chorus of ' Kamerads ' from the 
 depths of it. I trifled with my German : 
 
 * Kommen Sie up hier or we '11 shoot you 
 verdamtt quick.' 
 
 * Ya ! Ya ! ' came back a chorus of agree- 
 ment, which was very gratifying to the pride 
 I felt in the fluency of my German. 
 
 In a few seconds a German appeared 
 scrambling up the dug-out steps, trying 
 his best to get a footing on the broken wood- 
 work and at the same time to keep his hands 
 above his head in the approved style of the 
 * Kamerading ' German. There was the 
 bang of a rifle at my elbow and the Hun 
 toppled backwards, and a chorus of shouts, 
 shrieks, and moans came from the assembled 
 Huns below. I turned and saw a scout 
 standing with a smoking rifle in his hand and 
 a broad, expansive smile on his face. 
 
 ^ Now you Ve done it,' I exclaimed 
 angrily, * we'll never get those Huns out 
 of that dug-out in a blue moon now. You 
 can stay here and persuade them to come 
 out, but you '11 not have to use such harsh 
 methods.' 
 
CAPTURING A VILLAGE 225 
 
 So, leaving another man with him, I went 
 along to the next dug-out. After some little 
 persuasion seven trembling Huns, with the 
 fear of death in their eyes, trooped up and 
 accepted with alacrity our invitation to 
 hustle back along the road in the direction 
 of our lines. 
 
 There were three more dug-outs to be 
 * mopped up ' before we reached the village, 
 so, being anxious to get into the village as 
 quickly as possible, I left four men there 
 to do the ' mopping up,' and pushed on, 
 with a corporal and a scout, into the 
 village. 
 
 Believing it to be unwise to follow the road 
 directly into it, we branched off to the left, 
 skirted round the back of a house, 
 passed through an orchard, climbed over 
 the debris of a broken-down wall, and found 
 ourselves in the village square — with the 
 village church opposite. 
 
 What happened now seems incredible. 
 Looking out of the doors and windows of 
 the houses facing on to the square were 
 scores of scared-looking Huns! I gave a 
 gasp of astonishment. This was certainly 
 walking into trouble, I thought. For a 
 moment I was dumbfounded, momentarily 
 
226 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 expecting the Huns to open up on us — for 
 we were frightfully outnumbered. For a 
 few seconds we stood there and stared at 
 one another. Then I started waving my 
 arm wildly as though encouraging scores of 
 men on my right and left to come for- 
 ward. 
 
 ' Come on, the old Fourteenth, ' I shouted, 
 ^ walk into them ! Come on, you 're the 
 boys that can do it! ' About fifty yards in 
 front of me were two husky Huns watching 
 me through the paneless windows of a 
 fairly large house. One of them was a tall 
 fellow, well over six feet, wearing a heavy 
 black moustache and carrying his full load 
 of equipment. Still shouting and waving 
 my revolver over my head, I made a wild 
 rush at him. He promptly turned, dropped 
 his rifle, and ran for his life ! This was the 
 deciding act, the cue to the rest of the Huns. 
 Their rifles clattered noisily, as they threw 
 them as far from them as they could, then 
 scrambled out of the houses and * footed ' 
 it for all they were worth! I was soon in 
 the midst of a mob of fleeing Huns, running 
 as hard as they were, and keeping my eye on 
 my particular quarry. Hampered as he 
 was with his huge papk I soon caught up 
 
CAPTURING A VILLAGE 227 
 
 to him, pulled him over, and stood flourish- 
 ing my revolver over him. 
 
 ^Kamerad! Kamerad!' he yelled pite- 
 ously. I gave him a couple of healthy 
 kicks, assisted him to his feet, gave him a 
 parting kick and sent him scurrying back 
 in the direction of our lines. 
 
 Once again with the Huns it was a case of 
 
 * follow my leader.' Seeing the tall one 
 of the black moustache running wildly back 
 towards our lines, the majority of them 
 promptly turned round and followed him, 
 while we stood by and calmly looked on. 
 At least fifty Huns went past us. Looking 
 around I could see, at a distance, scores more 
 of them making frantic efforts to get 
 away. 
 
 * Come on, boys,' I called to the two with 
 me, * let us cut them off.' We ran down a 
 street leading out from the square for a 
 distance of about seventy-five yards until 
 we came to a main road running through the 
 village. Turning to the left along this, we 
 had only gone a few yards when we met a 
 crowd of frightened looking Huns making 
 a wild dash for freedom. We simply 
 
 * shooed ' them back, and they ran as 
 madly in the other direction. We kept 
 
228 SCOUTING THEILLS 
 
 running up and down this road, meeting 
 Huns endeavoring to escape down the side 
 streets leading on to the road. In every 
 direction we could see fleeing Huns, and it 
 was a case of simply directing the traffic. 
 Not one of them offered any opposition. 
 Once we saw several dash round opposite 
 sides of a house, and meet violently and un- 
 expectedly. They scrambled to their 
 feet and dashed off again in different 
 directions. Panic wasn't the word for it! 
 We couldn't believe it was a war — it was 
 more like a pantomime! I couldn't help 
 it, I just leaned up against a house and 
 laughed — it was all so comical. 
 
 We had now a mob of running Huns be- 
 hind us — at least two hundred, I calculated 
 — and a mob fleeing in front of us. With 
 many of them it was a toss up which way 
 they ran, and with many others they seemed 
 to have no idea of which way they were 
 running; merely to be running seemed to 
 satisfy them. 
 I remarked to the scout with me : 
 ' Look here, none of our battalion have 
 showed up yet, and we have a mob of Huns 
 behind us. If they get wise to things, they 
 may turn back and take us along with them ! 
 
CAPTURINa A VILLAGE 229 
 
 I think we had better wait here until some 
 one turns up.' 
 
 I had scarcely finished speaking when I 
 saw the scout who had attempted to dis- 
 courage the Huns from surrendering 
 approaching. 
 
 * Hullo,' I called out, * are any of the bat- 
 talion coming up ? ' 
 
 * Yes, sir, ' he answered. 
 
 ^ Well, go back and hustle them along.' 
 Soon afterwards we saw about a score of 
 our men approaching, so we hurried on 
 down the road through the village. But I 
 must describe an incident that happened 
 while we were waiting on that road. 
 
 A German officer came from a side street 
 about seventy-five yards to the left of 
 where we were standing. He glanced back 
 at us and then continued his dignified walk. 
 
 * Take a crack at him with your rifle,' I 
 said to the corporal. He did. The bullet 
 missed, but the Hun officer gave a quick 
 glance backward and perceptibly increased 
 his pace, while endeavouring to maintain 
 his dignity. 
 
 * Take another one,' I said. 
 
 This time it caught him in the arm and 
 bowled him over. He scrambled to his feet, 
 
230 SCOUTINa THRILLS 
 
 gave one wild glance backwards, abandoned 
 his dignity, and disappeared down the road 
 as fast as his legs could carry him ! 
 
 We followed on down this road until we 
 came to the outskirts of the village. About 
 five hundred yards away we could see the 
 wood we had to go through. Running 
 wildly towards its protection were at least 
 three hundred Huns. 
 
 * Go back and bring a Lewis gun along, ' I 
 said. 
 
 Soon afterwards it arrived and kicked up 
 the dust at the heels of the retreating Huns. 
 There was many a wild glance backwards, 
 and no one attempted to stay behind with 
 those who were hit. 
 
 About one hundred yards farther along 
 there was a bend in the road. I had seen 
 scores of Huns disappear round this bend, 
 and had wondered where they had all gone 
 to. Leaving the Lewis gunners to do their 
 execution, I ran down towards the bend in 
 the road, followed by a scout. It ran into a 
 cutting with sides about twelve feet high. 
 Standing at the entrance to a dug-out was 
 a little German captain, holding a map in 
 his hand. I ran forward, rather breathless, 
 seized his map and stood looking at him. 
 
CAPTURINa A VILLAGE 231 
 
 He smiled genially and pointed down the 
 dug-out entrance. I looked down. It was 
 too dark down there to see anything, but 
 I heard the murmur of many excited voices. 
 I motioned to the captain to bring them up. 
 He assented with a smile, and very soon 
 afterwards the Huns started trooping out. 
 As each one came out I pointed up the road 
 and gave them a good healthy kick, which 
 none of them waited to have repeated. I 
 had expected ten or twelve Huns to come 
 up, but the number ahnost reached forty 
 before the captain made a sign that they 
 were all gone. He pointed to another dug- 
 out a few yards further on. 
 
 * All right,' I said, ' shoot 'em up.' 
 He called down the dug-out, and very soon 
 more Huns appeared. They all received 
 the same impartial treatment. Some of 
 them made a grimace, and many of them 
 forgot, for a moment, to hold their 
 hands above their heads in the approved 
 * Kamerad ' style. 
 
 Included amongst the prisoners were 
 two officers who, in the excitement and 
 exuberance of the moment, received the 
 same undignified treatment. This dug-out 
 yielded thirty more prisoners. The captain 
 
232 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 then indicated a third dug-out, smiling 
 broadly all the time. 
 
 * What, some more ! ' I exclaimed. * Why, 
 you have enough men here to hold half a 
 dozen villages if you only knew how to 
 fight. If your gang is an example of a mili- 
 tary nation may the Lord always preserve 
 us from being one! ' 
 
 But nothing could take the smile off the 
 Grerman captain's face. He proceeded to 
 persuade the occupants of the third dug-out 
 to come out, and over forty of them filed past 
 us. Despite the fact that I only had one leg 
 in working order I still proceeded to dole 
 out my particular brand of an affectionate 
 farewell. Altogether we collected well over 
 one hundred prisoners from those three 
 large dug-outs. When the last German had 
 gone we walked a few yards down the road 
 until clear of the cutting. On the left of the 
 road, about two hundred yards away, we saw 
 German artillerymen getting ready to aban- 
 don their guns. Giving a whoop, the two of 
 us started running towards them. The Ger- 
 man gunners fled precipitately, and we were 
 soon scratching the number 14 on two 
 smoking 5.9 's. 
 
 Just then I was on the point of collapsing. 
 
CAPTURING A VILLAGE 233 
 
 I had had no bandage on my wound yet and 
 had lost a lot of blood, but even now there 
 was to be no rest. 
 
 The left flank had not come up, and some 
 German field guns, not more than six hun- 
 dred yards on our left, were switched on 
 to us, firing at us over open sights. We 
 were forced back to take shelter, and re- 
 joined the rest of the battalion, which was 
 now swarming through the village. I sat 
 down, bandaged up my leg and then, leaning 
 on the arm of the scout, started back up the 
 road. When we came to the three dug-outs 
 I was amazed and furious to see the little 
 German captain standing there. 
 
 * What the devil are you doing here,' I 
 cried angrily, ' I sent you out ages ago.' ^ 
 
 But nothing could repress that ingratiat- 
 ing smile of his. He rushed over to me and 
 got hold of my arm. - 
 
 ' Ah, monsieur blesse ? ' and motioned me 
 into the dug-out. I was feeling a bit faint, 
 so went in. 
 
 The Hun artillery was now turned on to 
 the village, and houses were toppling over. 
 Just as we were starting back a tank came 
 ambling up the road; the door opened and 
 the tank officer stepped out. 
 
234 SCOUTING THRILLS 
 
 ^ Hullo, good morning,' he said, * is this ' 
 (naming a village) ? 
 
 * No, but you see that place about a mile 
 over to the left ? ' 
 
 * Yes,' he replied. 
 
 * Well, that 's the spot you want.' 
 
 He climbed back into his tank and started 
 off for the village. The tank offered an 
 excellent target for the anti-tank guns, and 
 it was not long before they put it out of ac- 
 tion. Skirting the village, I followed for 
 some distance in the wake of the tank, but 
 the Hun machine gunners got their eye on 
 me and, though wounded and limping along 
 with the aid of a stick and the arm of a scout, 
 they did their best to get me, and we had to 
 scamper as best we could from shell-hole to 
 shell-hole. 
 
 When we got back out of range we saw 
 thrilling sights. Everything was moving 
 forward — tanks, artillery and infantry — to 
 carry on the attack. It was a most inspiring 
 spectacle, an example of that calm splendid 
 confidence in our ability to beat the 
 Hun. 
 
 It was my last battle. I limped painfully 
 out of the war with the feeling that a trium- 
 phant ending was fast approaching. 
 
CAPTURING A VILLAGE 235 
 
 A few weeks later, to use a descriptive 
 American phrase, the Hun * quit cold.' 
 Despite all that I have seen written about 
 the bravery of the German soldiers, I saw 
 very little of it that day, and the most satis- 
 fying memory of all is that of my last day in 
 the war, when I booted so many scores into 
 captivity I 
 
 THE END 
 
 Printed in the United States of America. 
 
The following pages contain advertisements of a 
 few of the Macmillan books on kindred subjects. 
 
Ambulance 464. Encore des Blesses 
 
 Illustrated by Many Photographs 
 
 Cloth, izmo, $1.50 
 
 "The writer was 17 and a freshman at Princeton, but these are not merits in 
 themselves. The gift of his youth is that he saw and told everything frankly without 
 any of the acquired literary or temperamental pose. His view is as direct and healthy 
 as the vision of a child, and his spirits are as sound as a cheerful schoolboy's. . . . 
 It needs an intimately personal character, boyish and yet vivid and wide-awake, like 
 this one, to show us what the war means to the lads and how little it dashes their 
 fresh spirits." — The New York Sun. 
 
 "An account of the war as youth sees it, written in a studied, unsophisticated 
 way that is most appealing. . . . The most moving of war books, unpretentious, 
 vivid. So matter of fact is it in its simple telling of what soon appeared the natural 
 thing in life to its writer, that the great impression given by the book is continually 
 intensified and heightened." — The Princeton Alumni Weekly. 
 
 With the Flying Squadron 
 
 Illustrated, cloth, izmo, $1.25 
 
 "A stirring narrative of adventure which gives the reader many a thrill and which 
 shows an entirely new side of the war — distinctly new in that this is the first great 
 conflict in which the aeroplane has played an important part. One does not see the 
 horror of warfare in Mr. Rosher's writing, as the air-pilot is apparently further re- 
 moved from scenes of bloodshed and carnage than other officers in the service ; it is 
 largely a feeling of exhilaration, of breathless daring which he experiences, and these 
 characteristics are well imparted to the reader in Mr. Rosher's sketches." — Phil- 
 adelphia Press. 
 
 "There is perhaps no book in the entire round of warlike publications which gives 
 to the civilian so strong a sense of the utter recklessness of the assured certainty of 
 the aviator's eventual fate. . . . There has been heretofore published no such 
 ample, convincing portrayal of the life of an air-fighter as is disclosed in these letters. 
 . . . Lieutenant Rosher's terse, dramatic letters vividly foreshadow the new period 
 and method of warlike adventure." 
 
 "One of the most fascinating documents which the war has produced." 
 
 — Churchman. 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 PnblisherB 64-66 Fifth Ayenue Hew York 
 
The Flaming Crucible 
 
 By ANDRE FRIBOURG 
 
 Translated by A. B. Maurice 
 
 ti.50 
 
 Under the title Croire, this autobiography of a French infantryman was published 
 in Paris in 1917. It is a revelation of the French spirit. It is rather a biography of 
 the spirit, than an account of the amazing experiences M. Fribourg encountered, 
 from rgii at Agadir, through the fighting on the Meuse, and part of the campaign in 
 Flanders. The descriptions are memorable for their beautiful style, their pathos or 
 their elevation. There is a definite climax toward the end where M. Fribourg 
 returns to a hospital in Paris, broken and dulled, his faith momentarily befogged. 
 Gradually he readapts himself, regains and confirms his faith in the human 
 spirit that was so vivid when he lived with his fellow soldiers. 
 
 "All this, with sanity, simplicity and sincerity and in a language of almost classical 
 restraint, as a rule, but engagingly piquant and picturesque and fantastic even upon 
 occasions." — Boston Evening Transcript. 
 
 A War Nurse's Diary 
 
 By M. E. CLARK 
 
 Illustrated, cloth, $1.25 
 
 "Unlike most volumes which have dealt with this subject, the nurse gives some 
 delightful reminiscences which are more closely identified with impressions recorded 
 in her heart than with conventional entries in a diary. The inspired recollections of 
 the author constitute an important contribution to war Uterature." 
 
 — Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger. 
 
 "To say that 'A War Nurse's Diary' is an unusual book, the only one of its 
 kind, would be putting the matter much too mildly. In fact, it seems nothing short 
 of a miracle that any woman should be willing to enlist for such service as the author 
 of this volume, and, having enlisted, that she should survive to write about it." 
 
 — Chicago Evening Post. 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 Fabliihars 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 
 
Under Orders : The Story of Tim and 
 " The Club " 
 
 By HAROLD S. LATHAM 
 Illustrated by E. C. Caswell 
 
 Cloth, izmo, $1.50 
 
 " Under Orders : The Story of Tim and the Club is a story that boys and grown-ups 
 of all ages will enjoy without a doubt ; a story that belongs to the American boy of the 
 present day. It is a story that is really valuable. Through the adventures and 
 experiences of Tim, the lad of today may get many pointers on how to be an effective 
 American." — New York Sun. 
 
 "The story is thoroughly entertaining. Boys will find it as fascinating as the 
 proverbial Indian tale or detective yarn. It is also elevating — we do not mean that 
 word in its banal misuse, but rather as a synonym for instructive, inspiring and 
 whatnot, all in one; and it is that in a deft, tactful, unobtrusive way, teaching by 
 engaging example rather than by prosy precept. Mr. Latham evidently has a 
 knowledge of boy nature which is at once keen, discriminating and sympathetic, and 
 he has written a book which boys will love to read and which their elders will heartUy 
 approve their reading." — The New York Tribune. 
 
 The Year at Lincoln High 
 
 By JOSEPH GOLLOMB 
 With illustrations by E. C. Caswell 
 
 Cloth, izmo, $1.50 
 
 "A fine story of public school life in a big city. The story abounds in hotly 
 contested athletic meets, ball games and secret society initiations. It is vivid, ex- 
 citing and gives a good idea of the democratizing process going on in our public 
 schools today." — San Francisco Chronicle. 
 
 "Mr. GoUomb has told his story exceedingly well." — Evening Post. 
 
 "This is one of the best stories of life in a big boys' public school we have ever 
 seen. The author has the unusual knack of being able to write for boys and about 
 boys without writing down to boys. There are in the story action, fun, and char- 
 acter." — The Outlook. 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 FublisherB 61-66 Fifth Avenue Kew Tork 
 
Jim : The Story of a Backwoods Police Dog 
 
 By major CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 
 Author of "The Backwoodsmen," "Kings in Exile," etc. 
 
 Cloth, ismo, $1.50 
 
 Here we have a new dog hero, "Jim," enUsted in the service of 
 the backwoods police. Out of his experiences, Major Roberts has 
 made a most entertaining — and frequently thrilling — book. Few 
 writers know animal nature as does Major Roberts, stiU fewer are 
 able to write as sympathetically and intelligently of their ways. Jim 
 wiU undoubtedly be welcomed into the company of dog heroes, for he 
 is a real dog and a thoroughly likeable one. In addition to the story 
 of Jim, which comprises the bulk of the book, there are three other 
 animal stories, all in Mr. Roberts' best vein : Stripes, The Un- 
 concerned ; The Mule, and The Eagle. 
 
 The present work shows the author at his best; it is a pleasing 
 addition to his series of outdoor tales. 
 
 The Pirate of Jasper Peak 
 
 By ADAIR ALDON 
 Author of "The Island of Appledore" 
 
 Illustrated, cloth, i2mo, $1.50 
 "Almost any boy will enjoy 'The Pirate of Jasper Peak.' It is a 
 regular boys' story of the Montana forest region and contains many 
 of those adventures so clear to the boyish heart. The sole object of 
 the book is to entertain, and it succeeds in its mission. ... It is 
 just an entertaining book written in careful, and plain diction. . . . 
 The average boy will pick this book up and keep reading it until he 
 finally reaches the end and learns how the power of the pirate was 
 broken." — The Springfield Union. 
 
 "When we chance upon a worthy juvenile like 'The Pirate of 
 Jasper Peak ' we feel gleeful. It is within a boy's understanding ; it 
 touches his interests ; the incidents are probable ; there is no gush, 
 and no newsboy gets to be a millionaire. Instead we have the story 
 of a boy's experience in northern Minnesota, a region which is well 
 described. The Swedish immigrants of that region are pictured in a 
 notable way and our hero assists one of them to prove his land claim 
 against the persecutions of a half-breed Indian neighbor. It is a 
 compact narrative told with humor." — Chicago Evening Post. 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
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