My little friend Philo had been stolen on our march, so his place was
taken now by a brindle bull terrier which had been born in Albert. I
called her "Alberta" and as time went on she became a well-known
figure in the First Division. She often accompanied me on my walks to
the trenches, and one day was out in No Man's Land when a minnenwerfer
burst. Alberta did not wait for the bits to come down, but made one
dive into the trench, to the amusement of the men, who said she knew
the use of the trenches. She was my constant companion till her
untimely end in 1918.
The country round about Camblain l'Abbe was very peaceful and pretty,
and the road to the left from the Chateau gave one a fine view of the
towers of Mont St. Eloi, which were not then damaged by shells. The
two towers and the front wall of the old abbey were a striking (p. 150)
object against the horizon, and could be seen for miles around. They
made a beautiful picture in the distance when seen at sunset from the
trenches beyond Arras. Those two towers must stand out in the foreground
of all the memories which Canadians have of that region which was so
long their war-home. As far as I could learn, Mont St. Eloi had been
the site of an old monastery which had been destroyed in the French
Revolution, the towers and the walls of the church alone surviving.
The farms of the monastery had passed to secular ownership, but were
rich and well cultivated. A spiral stone staircase led up to an
observation post at the top of one of the towers. The place was visible
from the German lines, and till we had taken Vimy Ridge no one was
allowed to climb the tower unless on duty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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