World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, Canadian
As I pondered over the past history of what I knew of this man, it all
came vividly back to my mind. His smile as he saluted and passed along
to the right to get his entrenching tool and the manner that he had
said "enemy of ours" in the dining-room in Montreal. Suddenly on our
right flank the Germans began to send up some red rockets and then a
few golden sprays. Word was passed along to send up our S.O.S. I asked
who had sent the message. The man to my right said he did not know. I
then jumped out of the trench and walked along the parados. I found
that five men from my right had received this message and the sixth man
was Wagner, and the man next to him did not know anything about it. We
act quickly at the front; we take no chances. I interrogated Wagner,
but he disclaimed any knowledge of the message.
I was not satisfied with this answer. Although I had known him so
long, the various little incidents which had transpired during our
association now firmly convinced me that he was a German. I immediately
placed him under arrest with a strong guard over him, although I may
say that I felt like killing him on the spot.
If we had sent up our S.O.S. signal our artillery would have placed
an intense bombardment on the German trenches along our sector of
the line. While our artillery were busy shelling in this locality,
the Germans would have attacked another point, where they would have
encountered less opposition of artillery and in all probability broken
through our line. It was a well-arranged scheme; but it failed, thank
God.
As soon as we stood down I had Wagner brought to my company commander.
I made out a written report, detailing the whole circumstances of the
affair. Wagner was searched and in the heel of a boot that he was
wearing was found some very thin tissue paper, neatly folded. It did
not appear to have any writing on it, but as we laid the paper on a
small box in the company headquarters dugout, a candle was burning
brightly, so we held it close to the light. We could make out a drawing
of our trench. Apparently invisible ink had been used. As we continued
to hold the paper before the candle, German writing gradually came to
view.
Judging from the expression on Wagner's face you would not have thought
that his life was at stake. He appeared to be quite resigned to the
fate that awaited him.
It is customary for the army to have carrier pigeons. The pigeons are
kept at certain points some distance in the back area of the trenches,
where they are kept in large cotes until required by any particular
unit. It sometimes happens that a company commander may require two
pigeons to take with him into the trenches in order to send messages
back to the rear. The message is fastened to the leg of the pigeon,
and when the pigeon arrives at the cotes the message is taken off its
leg and handed over to the signallers, who transmit the message to the
proper authorities by wire or motor despatch riders.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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