FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   >>  
t you stop the War? We want to get home to our wives these beautiful days, and so do you, so why do you go on fighting?" The sudden beauty of the spring and the sun has made it all glaringly incongruous, and every one feels it. One badly wounded officer got it going out of his dug-out to attend to a man of his company who was hit by a sniper in an exposed place, one of his subalterns told me. His own account, of course, was a rambling story leaving that part entirely out. This next shows how the Germans had left nothing to chance. They have about twelve machine-guns to every battalion, and are said to have had 12,000 when the War began. Passing through villages they pack ten of them into an innocent-looking cart with a false bottom. We captured some of these empty carts, and some time afterwards found them full of machine-guns! Gold hats and red hats have been dropping in all day. They do on Sundays especially after Church Parade. _Saturday, April 24th._--We were watching hundreds of men pass by to-day, whistling and singing, on their way to the trenches. News came to us this morning of the Germans having broken through the trench lines north of Ypres and shelled Poperinghe, which was out of range up to now, but it is not official. The guns are very loud to-night; I hope they're keeping the Germans busy; something is sure to be done to draw them off the Ypres line. _Sunday, April 25th._--The plum-pudding was "something to write home about!" and the Quartermaster sent us a tin of honey to-day, the first I've seen for nine months. A General came round this morning. He said the Canadians and another regiment had given the Germans what for for this gas-fumes business north of Ypres, got the ground back and recovered the four guns. The beasts of Germans laid out a whole trench full of Zouaves with chlorine gas (which besides being poisonous is one of the most loathsome smells). Of course every one is busy finding out how we can go one better now. But this afternoon the medical staffs of both these divisions have been trying experiments in a barn with chlorine gas, with and without different kinds of masks soaked with some antidote, such as lime. All were busy coughing and choking when they found the A.D.M.S. of the ---- Division getting blue and suffocated; he'd had too much chlorine, and was brought here, looking very bad, and for an hour we had to give him fumes of ammonia till he could breathe properl
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   >>  



Top keywords:
Germans
 

chlorine

 

machine

 
morning
 

trench

 

regiment

 

business

 

Canadians

 

Quartermaster

 

Sunday


keeping

 
pudding
 

months

 
General
 
ground
 

Division

 

choking

 

coughing

 

antidote

 

suffocated


ammonia

 

properl

 

breathe

 

brought

 

soaked

 
poisonous
 

loathsome

 

smells

 

finding

 

Zouaves


recovered

 

beasts

 
experiments
 

divisions

 

afternoon

 

medical

 

staffs

 

watching

 

subalterns

 

exposed


sniper
 
company
 

account

 

rambling

 

leaving

 
attend
 

beautiful

 
fighting
 
sudden
 

beauty