Short Stories of the New America: Interpreting the America of this age to high school boys and girls
General
Short Stories of the New America: Interpreting the America of this age to high school boys and girls
Short stories; World War, 1914-1918 -- Fiction
From the recruiting depot Lloyd was taken, with many others, in charge
of a sergeant, to the training depot at Aldershot, where he was given an
outfit of khaki, and drew his other equipment. He made a fine-looking
soldier, except for the slight shrinking in his shoulders, and the
hunted look in his eyes.
At the training depot it does not take long to find out a man’s
character, and Lloyd was promptly dubbed “Windy.” In the English Army,
“windy” means cowardly.
The smallest recruit in the barracks looked on him with contempt, and
was not slow to show it in many ways.
Lloyd was a good soldier, learned quickly, obeyed every order promptly,
never groused at the hardest fatigues. He was afraid to. He lived in
deadly fear of the officers and “Non-Coms” over him. They also despised
him.
One morning about three months after his enlistment, Lloyd’s company was
paraded, and the names picked for the next draft to France were read.
When his name was called, he did not step out smartly, two paces to the
front, and answer cheerfully, “Here, sir,” as the others did. He just
fainted in ranks, and was carried to barracks amid the sneers of the
rest.
That night was an agony of misery to him. He could not sleep. Just cried
and whimpered in his bunk, because on the morrow the draft was to sail
for France, where he would see death on all sides, and perhaps be killed
himself. On the steamer, crossing the Channel, he would have jumped
overboard to escape, but was afraid of drowning.
Arriving in France, he and the rest were huddled into cattle cars. On
the side of each appeared in white letters, “Chevaux 8, Hommes 40.”
After hours of bumping over the uneven French roadbeds they arrived at
the training base of Rouen.
At this place they were put through a week’s rigid training in trench
warfare. On the morning of the eighth day, they paraded at ten o’clock,
and were inspected and passed by General H——, then were marched to the
Quartermaster’s, to draw their gas helmets and trench equipment.
At four in the afternoon, they were again hustled into cattle cars. This
time, the journey lasted two days. They disembarked at the town of
Frévent, and could hear a distant dull booming. With knees shaking,
Lloyd asked the Sergeant what the noise was, and nearly dropped when the
Sergeant replied in a somewhat bored tone:
“Oh, them’s the guns up the line. We’ll be up there in a couple o’ days
or so. Don’t worry, my laddie, you’ll see more of ’em than you want
before you get ’ome to Blighty again, that is, if you’re lucky enough to
get back. Now lend a hand there unloadin’ them cars, and quit that
everlastin’ shakin’. I believe yer scared.” The last with a contemptuous
sneer.
They marched ten kilos, full pack, to a little dilapidated village, and
the sound of the guns grew louder, constantly louder.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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