FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39  
40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   >>   >|  
t of all. Well, after we got everything loaded up, we went back to camp, and there we found the boys as busy as bees--we were telling them about Sandy when suddenly we heard a humming sound--every one gazed skyward, and across the camp flew one of the British dirigibles. What a sight it was to us! The big cigar-shaped, silver-coloured airship dipped and climbed, and finally came down so low that we could plainly see the men in it. You should have heard the cheer we gave them. We watched it till it disappeared out across the sea. After awhile we got used to seeing airships of all kinds and we took no notice of them, but at first they were very interesting. Another thing that happened on our first day in camp (by the way, we were quartered in Shorncliffe, right on the seacoast)--a few of us were standing looking across the Channel to France, and wondering what was happening there, when _boom-boom-boom_! we heard the guns in Belgium. We could hardly believe our ears. I don't know about the other fellows, but it sent a queer feeling through me to know that only fifty or sixty miles away our boys were fighting and dying. Before this the war had seemed very unreal, but the sound of the guns made me realize that it was a grim reality, and I wondered how I would face it when the time came. Well, the next few days saw us settled in camp and then our training commenced in real earnest. We thought the six months' training in Canada had made us hard, but what we went through for the next two months made us like nails. We had shooting, skirmishing, night marches, trench-digging, besides all the special courses. Three other battalions were in the same camp--the 27th from Winnipeg, 31st from Calgary, and the 29th from Vancouver--and the four of us were formed into what was called the "Sixth Brigade"; after the Battle of St. Eloi they were known as the "Iron Sixth." The only thing we objected to in the training was the length of time it took. It seemed as hard to get to France as it had been to get to England. We didn't eat from tables as we had in Canada, but each of us was provided with exactly the same equipment as they have in France,--namely, a mess tin. When the meal was called we would all line up, and meat and potatoes and everything would be dished into our can; then we would hike off to our tents and eat it sitting on the ground. Each day an orderly officer went the rounds to ask if there were any complaint
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39  
40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

training

 

France

 

called

 
months
 
Canada
 

Winnipeg

 
shooting
 

battalions

 

settled

 

commenced


earnest
 

thought

 

trench

 

digging

 

courses

 
marches
 

special

 

skirmishing

 

dished

 
potatoes

sitting

 
complaint
 

rounds

 

officer

 

ground

 

orderly

 

Battle

 
Brigade
 

formed

 

Calgary


Vancouver

 

objected

 

provided

 

equipment

 

tables

 

length

 

England

 

plainly

 

airship

 

dipped


climbed

 

finally

 

awhile

 

disappeared

 

watched

 

coloured

 
silver
 

telling

 

suddenly

 

humming