tationed were
exactly like the rest of the surrounding country--merely enlarged
shell-holes with, perhaps, a fragment of a sand-bag parapet. No lights
could be shown, they did not even dare use "Very lights," as our
"star-lights" are known. They were not in any regular formation but at
irregular intervals along what had been a very crooked line.
Fortunately, we had a "natural born" guide on our first trip in and we
found them all. After that we managed to "carry on" but not without
many slips. It was nothing unusual for a relief party suddenly to find
themselves in the German lines and have to work their way out as best
they could. If caught out after dawn one had to lie low in a
shell-hole all day, probably under heavy artillery fire, until
darkness came and made it possible to return unseen. This trouble was
not confined to our side and it was by no means an uncommon occurrence
for parties of the enemy to get lost in the same way. Sometimes
these adventures resulted in rather sharp bombing engagements. One
night a whole platoon of about forty Germans went through a gap in our
line and bumped into a strong supporting party of ours at Shelley Farm
where they were all captured. They had been looking for one of the
craters whose garrison they were to relieve. Individual prisoners were
taken nearly every night.

[Illustration: Canadian Machine Gunners Digging Themselves Into
Shell-Holes]

Under the prevailing conditions, it was impossible to take machine
guns up, so we depended entirely upon Lewis guns. Fortunately no
determined attack was made on us during this time as it is extremely
doubtful if we could have held them there. We would, of course, have
stopped them a few hundred yards back, at our support line, and I must
confess that I had at times a sneaking desire to see them come over
and get into that mud so we could move back to comparatively
comfortable quarters.

As we no longer had any trenches, we abandoned the old letter method
of designation and simply numbered the various positions. On the
first morning in, the gun and crew at No. 14 were blown up by a shell.
This was an unlucky position as the same thing had happened there to a
crew from the Twentieth Battalion. We then moved that position some
fifty yards to one side and had no further trouble.

We alternated with other battalions of the division, going in and out,
holding that line and gradually improving it, until, on the twenty-second
day of May, w