Light Vickers Gun in Action Against Aircraft 34 French Using an Ordinary Wine Barrel on Which a Wagon Wheel Is Mounted to Facilitate the Revolving Movement to any Desired Direction 45 French Paper War-Money, Issued by the Various Municipalities. Every Town Has its Bank of Issue. There are Practically no Coins in Circulation 56 Canadians with Machine Gun Taking Up New Positions 65 Wytschaete Map 85 Highlanders with a Maxim Gun 97 A Light Vickers Gun in Action 108 Canadian Machine Gun Section Getting Their Guns into Action 118 Canadian Soldiers in Action with Colt Machine Guns 128 British Machine Gun Squad Using Gas Masks 137 German Aeroplane Trophy--Jules Vedrine Examining the Machine Gun 145 St. Eloi Map 153 Lewis Gun in Action in Front-Line Trench 166 Canadian Machine Gunners Digging Themselves into Shell-Holes 177 A Shell Exploding in Front of a Dug-in Machine Gun 189 Hollebeke Map 195 Lewis Machine Gun Squad Observing with Periscope at Hill 60 203 Removing the German Wounded from Mont St. Eloi 212 THE EMMA GEES CHAPTER I HEADED FOR THE KAISER The following somewhat disjointed narrative, written at the solicitation of numerous friends, follows the general course of my experience as a member of the Machine Gun Section of the Twenty-first Canadian Infantry Battalion. Compiled from letters written from the front, supplemented by notes and maps and an occasional short dissertation covering some phase of present-day warfare and its weapons and methods, it is offered in the hope that, despite its utter lack of literary merit, it may prove of interest to those who are about to engage in the "great adventure" or who have relatives and friends "over there." The only virtue claimed for the story is that it is all literally true: every place, name and date being authentic. The maps shown are exact reproductions of front-line trench maps made from airplane photographs. They have never before been published in this country. I am sorry I can not truthfully say that the early reports of German atrocities, or the news of Belgium's wanton invasion impelled me to fly to Canada to enlist and offer my life in the cause of humanity.