n nearly every case, he will
commence shooting blindly toward our lines: the contagion will spread
and, the first thing you know, he will have wasted about a million
rounds.

[Illustration: A Light Vickers Gun in Action]

Here, as in most parts of the line, except during an engagement,
cooking was done right in the front trenches. The method is to use a
brazier made from an old iron bucket, punched full of holes, in which
charcoal or coke is burned. As we seldom had charcoal, it was
necessary to start the fire before daylight, using wood to ignite
the coke which made no smoke but, with careful nursing, could be made
to burn all day. The presence of smoke always drew the fire of rifle
grenades, trench-mortar shells and even artillery. It was one of our
favorite forms of amusement to locate a cook house and shoot it up;
and when a shell made a direct hit, if, among the pots and pans flying
through the air, we could distinguish a German cap or something that
looked like a part of a boche, there was much rejoicing in our lines.
Of course it was a game at which two could play and we were not immune
by any means.

These little things helped to keep up the interest and break the
monotony of the work. About this time the famous Lahore Battery, from
the Indian city of that name, was added to the artillery behind our
sector; and they appeared not to be restricted in the number of rounds
per day which they were permitted to fire. I remember the first time
they did any shooting over our heads. It was the day after they had
"registered in" that a large working party was discovered on
Piccadilly Farm, directly opposite our left. When the F. O. O.
(forward observing officer) was informed of it, he had a good look
through his periscope binoculars and then called up the Lahore Battery
and, without any preliminary ranging shots, ordered "forty rounds per
gun." As they had six guns, they poured in the shells at the rate of
about one hundred a minute and they certainly did make things fly in
and about that farm.

CHAPTER IX

HUNTING HUNS

During October the casualties in the Machine Gun Section were only
three wounded, McNab, Redpath and Jack Lee all getting hit on the same
day. They were sent back to England. At that time it was not
considered the proper thing for a man to go back if he could, by any
means, "carry on" and these three were all bitterly disappointed when
they found that they would have to leave the section.