This was "taped out" as our boys say, by some hidden sniper. Already
the parados was lined with newly-made firing positions, that gave the
sentry view of the German trench some forty or fifty yards in front.
All there was very quiet now but our men were making every preparation
for a counter attack. The Engineers had already placed some barbed
wire down; they had been hard at it the night before; I could see the
hastily driven piles, the loosely flung intricate lines of wire flung
down anyhow. The whole work was part of what is known as
"consolidation of our position."
Many long hours of labour had yet to be expended on the trench (p. 208)
before a soldier could sleep at ease in it. Now that the fighting had
ceased for a moment the men had to bend their backs to interminable
fatigues. The war, as far as I have seen it is waged for the most part
with big guns and picks and shovels. The history of the war is a
history of sandbags and shells.
CHAPTER XV (p. 209)
THE REACTION
We are marching back from the battle,
Where we've all left mates behind,
And our officers are gloomy,
And the N.C.O.'s are kind,
When a Jew's harp breaks the silence,
Purring out an old refrain;
And we thunder through the village
Roaring "Here we are again."
Four days later we were relieved by the Canadians. They came in about
nine o'clock in the evening when we stood to-arms in the trenches in
full marching order under a sky where colour wrestled with colour in a
blazing flare of star-shells.
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