Neither is it generally known that the percentage of loss in units is greater in the unit known as the sacrifice battery than in any other branch of the fighting machine. Therefore, I may be pardoned if I feel a certain human pride in the fact that it was my honorable lot to serve in this unit nearly a score of times during my work over there, and I can account for my failure to be seriously injured (a dislocation or a little gassing is comparatively trivial) to nothing other than, as my Major emphatically expressed it, "Damned horseshoe luck!" CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. CAN'T KILL ME 1 II. THE FIRST NIGHT 17 III. YPRES 30 IV. MY HORSE SHOE WORKING 48 V. HUN HELPERS 58 VI. BITS OF BATTLE 87 VII. SANCTUARY WOODS 101 VIII. A BATH UNDER DIFFICULTIES 129 IX. HAM BONE DAVIS 143 X. BEES, HONEY AND HELL 157 XI. SCOTTY COMES BACK AT THE SOMME 170 XII. BEHEMOTH 185 XIII. THE FAMILY LUCK 203 XIV. THE DEAD SHELL 210 XV. SATAN'S SHELLS AND SCENTED GAS 235 XVI. BEFORE VIMY 262 XVII. VIMY 275 XVIII. BACK TO GOD'S COUNTRY 284 S.O.S. STAND TO! CHAPTER I CAN'T KILL ME "Hello, Central, give me Queen 4000. Is that you, Burt? You are going, aren't you?" Burt Young was one of my pals and I had just learned from the morning paper that enlistments for Canada's first overseas contingent were being taken that day and I had called up to inquire if he were going. "Sure, I am going. Where will I meet you?" We arranged to meet at the exhibition ground and, taking French leave of the office, I hastened to the camp where the recruiting was going on, picking up Burt on the way. It was as if a baseball championship series were on; the crowd good-naturedly swayed and jammed as each man struggled to get to the door and signed up before the quota was full. With only the loss of a hat and some slight disarrangement of my collar and tie, I was one of the lucky ones. And we were lucky! Although visions of lands to be seen and adventures to be had flitted rapidly through my mind, and although I believe none of us on that day dreamed of what we were getting into, yet, looking back over it all, I would not have missed my place in Canada's First Division for anything I ever hope to have on earth. In two hours I was in khaki and in another hour I had bade the folks farewell and was standing on the station platform waiting for the train that would take us to Valcartier, the greatest gathering place of soldiers that Canada has ever known.