World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, Canadian
days here, and during this time our guns were put into position in
pits, in No Man's Land. These pits were covered with wire netting
woven in and out with grass to hide us from the observation balloons.
Our artillery were keeping up a ceaseless bombardment of the enemy's
lines, destroying and obliterating the German trenches. At the same
time our long-distance guns were firing night and day on all roads,
towns, and ammunition dumps that lay near the enemy's lines, while our
aeroplanes were over the Germans all the time. But our aircraft was
having hard luck, for the Huns had just brought out a new lot of planes
and these were lighter and faster than ours. It was heart-breaking to
see our air men being shot down. I have seen six or seven of our
planes come down in one day. Up to this time our planes had reigned
supreme, and the hostile airmen scarcely dared to show themselves; and
even now the Hun's triumph was short-lived. Our Colonel insisted that
the newest planes be brought over, and when they came we had the
satisfaction of seeing the Huns cleaned up. Well, after a week in the
trenches we were taken out and given a real rest. We were allowed to
lie around pretty much all the time, while the boys in the trenches
kept the Germans on the jump. Every night they would go over and
destroy the enemy's dugouts and bring back a bunch of prisoners; from
these prisoners they got a lot of valuable information.
All this time the roads leading to our lines were packed night and day
with men, transports, guns, ammunition, limbers, and everything that is
needed for a big charge. Our eighteen-pound guns were in long lines,
wheel to wheel. Behind them were long lines of heavier guns and back
of these a line of long range naval guns. These last fired six- and
twelve-inch shells to a distance of fifteen miles at targets given them
by aeroplanes. The enemy artillery shelled our roads a little, but
whenever they started, our guns would redouble their efforts and the
ground was shaking with their roar day and night.
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