eved and sent back on rest.

After a few days they sent us back to Lens, and there was something
doing every minute there this time. Our artillery was steadily
bombarding the enemy's lines, and our boys were putting on raids almost
every night. When a raid was being made our guns would throw bombs on
either side of the sector attacked to prevent reinforcements coming up
from the sides, then our artillery would put up a barrage behind the
front line to keep back help from the supports, thus hemming them in on
three sides with shell fire while our infantry attacked from the front.
A great many prisoners were taken in this way, but our losses were very
light. Not long after this, on August the 18th, the 1st Division of
Canadians made their big attack on Hill 70. At the same time our boys
made an attack on the outskirts of Lens. The attack was a complete
success, though afterwards the Germans made five successive
counter-attacks and our losses were heavy. The slaughter in these
counter-attacks was awful. I was in the reserve trenches at the time
watching the prisoners and the wounded streaming past. Half of our
Stokes gun battery was in reserve, and the other half in the
firing-line. About noon the day after the first attack was made, word
came out that one of our crew had caught it and asking for help and
stretchers to carry out the wounded. So we made our way in through a
perfect inferno and we found the crew--an officer and six men--all
lying wounded in a dugout. We got busy and carried them out, and poor
beggars, they got some awful bumps as we stumbled along through the
darkness, over dead bodies and through shell holes. We had just passed
safely through the barrage when gas shells came over and we had to put
masks on the wounded as well as on ourselves. We got them all to the
dressing-station, but one of the boys died just after we got them in.
Poor Roy Taylor--he was marked for leave the next day.

The following night we went in again with our guns and our boys were
billed for another attack. The gun I had charge of was supporting the
29th Battalion, while behind us in the trenches lay the 28th. My
orders were to open fire at the same time that the artillery did, about
4 A.M., and my job was to blow out a blocked trench that led up to the
German lines. This was to enable our boys to advance without losing
many men. After doing this I was to keep on firing well in advance of
our troops till I reached