On the Fringe of the Great FightNasmith, George Gallie
History
On the Fringe of the Great Fight
Nasmith, George Gallie
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, English
Other gas attacks launched by the Germans the same night failed to
achieve any results; and in one section they managed to gas themselves
badly. We reported the gas to be chlorine, and the post mortems of
gassed soldiers carried out by Major Rankin, blood tests by myself to
exclude other possibilities, and evidence obtained elsewhere, all
indicated that the gas employed had been chlorine.
The New Zealand division which had come into our area, held the line
in front of Armentieres. A small epidemic of suspected dysentery in
that division took us through that town frequently, and we found it
almost completely deserted. The Huns shelled it almost daily and had
made the place almost untenable for civilians, though, as usual, a
number of them hung on and did a fairly good business.
The staff of our laboratory had been reduced from three officers to
two, and after a good deal of discussion, Major Rankin dropped out at
his own earnest request and was detailed to the Canadian Corps to
train for the position of D.A.D.M.S. To celebrate the occasion he gave
us a little dinner, and invested heavily in nectarines, strawberries
and peaches from the graperies. The occasion was only slightly marred
by the popping cork of a champagne bottle crashing through a skylight
and bringing down a shower of glass on the Cap.'s head, which bled
profusely.
One evening after dinner as we sat with French windows opened wide to
the warm evening air of late spring, puffing idly at our cigars, a
most beautiful bird song burst upon our ears--a song that made us
stare at one another in amazement; we had never heard its like before.
It might be described as a bird fantasia--the notes covered a wide
range of sounds and the effect was beautiful. Captain Ellis walked
quietly down the garden path and got close to the cherry tree from
which the trills and lilts continued to pour, but could see nothing.
Mlle. C---- said it was a chantresse (songster) but that did not give
us much idea of what it was like.
Every morning and evening after that, this indefatigable songster
made music for us (or rather for his mate, probably sitting on her
eggs) in the cherry tree on the other side of the wall. How we enjoyed
listening to it! Many a time we tried to locate the singer in his
leafy home, but in vain; the nearest we ever came to it was once when
we saw a branch shake as the bird hopped to another limb.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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