World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, British
Then the Right Group had another raid and borrowed us again. The
white house and the orchard which we had used before were unoccupied.
I decided to squeeze up a bit and get all six guns in. The night of
the move was a colossal undertaking. The teams were late, and the
Hun chose to drop a gas barrage round us. More than that, in the
afternoon I had judged my time and dodged in between two bombardments
to visit the left section. They were absolutely done in, so tired
that they could hardly keep their eyes open. The others were little
better, having been doing all the shooting for days. However, I
ordered them to vacate the left section and come along to me at
Battery Headquarters for a rest before the night’s work. They dragged
themselves there, and fell asleep in heaps in the orchard in the
wet. The subaltern and the sergeant came into the building, drank a
cup of tea each and filled the place with their snores. So I sent
for another sergeant and suggested that he and his men, who had had
a brief rest that day, should go and get the left section guns out
while these people handled his as best they could. He jumped at it
and swore he’d get the guns out, begging me to keep my teams well to
the side of the road. If he had to canter they were coming out, and
he was going to ride the lead horse himself,--splendid fellow.
Then I collected the subalterns and detailed them for the plan of
campaign. The left section man said he was going with his guns. So I
detailed the junior to see the guns into the new positions, and send
me back the ammunition wagons as he emptied them. The third I kept
with the centre section. The corporal clerk was to look after the
headquarters. I was to function between the lot.
The teams should have been up at 9 p.m. They didn’t arrive till ten,
by which time the gas hung about thick, and people were sneezing
right and left. Then they hung up again because of a heavy shelling
at the corner on the way to the left section. However, they got
through at last, and after an endless wait, that excellent sergeant
came trotting back with both guns intact. We had, meanwhile yanked
out the centre section and sent them back. The forward guns came
back all right from the trenches, but no ammunition wagons or G.S.
returned from the position, although filled by us ages before and
sent off.
So I got on a bicycle and rode along to see what the trouble was. It
was a poisonous road, pitch dark, very wet and full of shell holes.
I got there to find a column of vehicles standing waiting all mixed
up, jerked the bicycle into a hedge and went downstairs to find the
subaltern.
There was the Major! Was I pleased?--I felt years younger. However,
this was his night off. I was running the show. “Carry on, Old
Thing,” said he.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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