Seeing that he needed immediate assistance, and wishing to get him back
to our lines for information purposes, I crawled back to my chums and
told them to come back with me to the wounded German. When we reached
him I told one of them to go down to the bridge and watch in case the
Germans would return. The first thing I did was to kick the German's
rifle out of the way, in case he wanted to use it when our backs were
turned, and then proceeded to bandage his wounds. Then walking down
to the bridge, I told my chum that everything was ready to carry the
prisoner back, and after stumbling and carrying him for over a thousand
yards, we reached our lines, and then handed him over to the stretcher
bearers, who took him to the dressing station.
After a few weeks at Ploegstreet, we were again shifted to
Passchendale, and as the winter was now on, things were much worse
than on our previous visit. The first time we went to the front line
we experienced on this occasion something new. Previously, in the
trenches, we always had ration parties go back to the rear at night for
supplies, and always received rations daily and a lot of rum in the
morning.
The shell-fire being so bad made it too costly at Passchendale to send
men back every night, so before we went up the line, we were served
with three days' rations and a gasoline can full of water. In addition
to this, every man had to carry 250 rounds of ammunition, several
bombs, gas mask, trench coat and waterproof sheet, rifle, bayonet and
grubber, sand bags, trench helmet and a shovel. I shall never forget
the six miles march up to the front line with all the equipment. The
shovel which I had tied to the middle of my back kept banging against
my legs, and I was always scared of losing my can of water. Several
men, while crossing the duck-boards fell off, and went up to their
necks in mud, and if curses would have killed the Kaiser, he would have
died that night.
At last we reached the front line and relieved the Devons, who had been
up there three days--three days in a shell-hole, half full of water,
bully beef, biscuits and cold water, tainted with gasoline for our
rations, shell-fire continuously and occasionally a cloud of gas.
I do not think it possible for a person who has never experienced it
to have the slightest imagination what suffering and torture we had to
undergo on the Passchendale front. Many a wounded man, while staggering
back over the duck-board, slipped off and was drowned, not having the
strength to pull himself out of the mud.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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