was comparatively safe. Only once did Fritz blow
in the entrance with a trench mortar, and then we had to dig ourselves
out. After about two weeks longer the whole division went out on rest.
At least, they called it "rest," but our time was kept so filled up
with drilling, inspections, etc., that we got "fed up" and wished we
were back in the lines. We had about a month of this, and then we went
in and took over our new positions at the Labyrinth to the right of the
Ridge. The Labyrinth was a perfect maze of trenches, built by the
Germans, and taken from them by the French, at the time of the British
attack at Loos. The gun crew we relieved was carried out in sandbags,
having been blown to pieces by a premature shell--that is, a shell
exploding in the gun. This made us pretty nervous, and we didn't fire
any more till all our stock of ammunition had been inspected. After
our second trip in on this line, we went out and commenced our training
for the Battle of Vimy Ridge. We were taken back to a piece of country
that was much like the district we would have to fight on. It was all
blocked off with different-coloured tapes representing towns, trenches,
and various other landmarks, and for two weeks we had to go over this
ground, in the time and manner of a real attack. I, being a Stokes
gunner, had to go with my gun and crew, and we had four guns behind
each battalion. Our work was to set up our gun as quickly as possible
and drop bombs on any machine gun that happened to be holding up the
infantry. The infantry went over in waves--one wave would take a
trench and hold it till the next wave went over their heads, and the
next wave went over them again, and so on. After a couple of weeks of
this we went into the trenches at the spot from which our advance would
start; this was to make us familiar with the ground. We spent seven
days here, and during this time our guns were put into position in
pits, in No Man's Land. These pits were covered with wire netting
woven in and out with grass to hide us from the observation balloons.
Our artillery were keeping up a ceaseless bombardment of the enemy's
lines, destroying and obliterating the German trenches. At the same
time our long-distance guns were firing night and day on all roads,
towns, and ammunition dumps that lay near the enemy's lines, while our
aeroplanes were over the Germans all the time. But our aircraft was
having hard luck, for the Huns had just broug