nd next night we were back again. The shelling was
dreadful when we were going in and we had to keep on the run all the
way up--and carrying guns, that was no joke. Every road we crossed had
a heavy barrage put on it and we had a lively time. We had almost
reached the front lines when one of our officers got hit in the face by
a piece of "whiz-bang." Well, finally we got in and we spent all the
next day sniping Germans as they tried to run across the open to get to
another trench. One Hun got lost and walked almost up to our section
of the trench before he found out his mistake; he tried to go back, but
a bullet chipped by him and he came in and gave himself up. Tommy and
I were on lookout when we were surprised to see a German crawl to the
edge of our trench. I was just going to fire, when Tommy said, "Wait a
minute," and he danced around and stuck his bayonet up under the
German's nose; up went the hands, and we hauled the wretch in. He was
wounded in the leg; we gave him a drink though water was very scarce,
we only had one bottle among three; then we gave him a kick and sent
him on his way rejoicing back to his lines.

The third night we were relieved--shelling had been heavy all day and
all the approaches to our lines were blotted out--the barrages had made
them impassable during the day. I was sent out to act as guide to the
relieving party, and I found them sitting down under a heavy barrage.
They had been shelled all the way from Vimy and were so "all in" that
they didn't care what happened. After much persuasion I got them to
come along, and finally we reached our line, and we went out leaving
them in possession of the trench. We were scarcely out of sight when
the Germans counter-attacked, and the crew we had just left were wiped
out. Three times the German penetrated parts of the line and three
times they were thrown back. Our casualty list was very heavy.
Fresnoy fell into their hands again in spite of the fierce resistance
our boys put up.

In the meantime we got through the barrage all right, though we lost
some of our men. A shell dropped just ahead and blew the man in front
of me to pieces; I got his body all over me and I was blood and dirt
from head to foot. But we kept on going till some one ran out of the
darkness shouting, "You cannot get past the railway, Fritzie has been
throwing over gas shells and the gas is thick in the valley, all our
artillery is gassed." We put on our masks,