True Stories of the Great War, Volume 5 (of 6): Tales of Adventure--Heroic Deeds--Exploits Told by the Soldiers, Officers, Nurses, Diplomats, Eye Witnesses
History
True Stories of the Great War, Volume 5 (of 6): Tales of Adventure--Heroic Deeds--Exploits Told by the Soldiers, Officers, Nurses, Diplomats, Eye Witnesses
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
On another occasion our way took us through a town which is absolutely
razed to the ground and is still under shell fire. There I saw two
soldiers busy with spades, and I asked what kind of fortification they
were putting up, to which, with a broad grin, one replied that they
were looking for souvenirs. He was kind enough to give me a complete
German cartridge case, for which he refused to take any remuneration.
Going on a little farther in this town, we went down some steps and
found ourselves in an underground club full of soldiers, who were
having a hot meal, were reading papers and playing games, everything
being presided over by perhaps the most magnetic person I met on my
travels, a young Chaplain to the Forces, who would not wish his name
to be mentioned, though there is probably no one out at the Front who
will not know to whom I refer. When we went from this place towards the
more advanced trenches, I was taken along a road which looked perfectly
harmless, when suddenly a stalwart Scotchman told my companion and
myself that we must get off it at once as it was a favourite target
for German Maxims. Never was a General more obediently submitted to than
was this, I believe, private soldier. It was on this occasion that we
had tea in the dugout of the Colonel, who bears a name distinguished
in English naval, military and sporting life. A characteristic of the
German trenches which I noticed on this and other occasions, was that
their sandbags seemed to be generally white in colour, at any rate in
those of the first line. Leaving the trench on this particular day, we
had to go through an almost alarming thunderstorm, which in the course
of half an hour made a sea of mud of the place which had been quite
dry before. It was curious to notice how petty the sound of the guns
appeared as compared with the artillery of heaven.
Pathetic incidents occur and touching scenes are visible on these
journeys to the Front. One looked in the trenches upon little mounds
and crosses, marking the resting-places of men who had been hurriedly,
but reverently, buried. There they are side by side with their living
comrades, who are doing their work whilst their brothers sleep. Dotted
all about the country are little cemeteries, which tell of devotion
unto death, and which remind one of all the sorrow this war has
caused. It is strange to see how religious emblems appear to have been
strong against shell. Constantly you would see a church almost totally
destroyed and yet the crucifix untouched, and who will ever forget that
sight which can be seen for miles around, of the tower which has been
almost shattered to pieces and yet the statue of the Virgin and Child,
which was near the top of it, though bent over completely at right
angles, still remains, as it were blessing and protecting the whole
neighbourhood.
IV--"SEE GOD THRO' CLOUD OF SMOKE"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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