Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

 

 

 

Chapter Nine

Into the Valley of Death

Instead of continuing on the main road, as we had expected, our leading column was turned off abruptly in another direction. Over to our left we could see, in the heavy darkness, a number of our boys putting over a hell of a barrage on the German lines. Above us the very heavens were ablaze with thousands of flares and lights, hundreds of guns were firing, while great flashlights flashed and played across the sky in search of hostile aircraft. It was a wonderful and fascinating sight, yet deep down in our hearts it all meant death and destruction! For miles we marched steadily on through ravines and over roads winding in every direction. Still the sky was wonderfully illuminated, and yet we heard the sound of the enemy's guns roaring in the distance! On the road ahead of us, driven by our boys, a big gasoline tractor was popping away with an awful racket. To guide it, a soldier was marching ahead, flashing an electric torch. As we followed it around a curve in the road, "The Dead Man's Curve," suddenly came the whizzing sound of a shell, bursting just a few yards from us. Falling flat to the ground we dug and clawed into the dirt with hands, heads and helmets. We could not tell where the next would hit. Three more followed instantly on a line with us, wounding four of our boys. These were moments of great anxiety when one is put to the test of being made a target - not for shot or bullets, but for instantaneous high explosive cannon shell. We soon fell in line again and continued our hike through the darkest regions, traveling the best we could through almost impenetrable woods and jammed up against a continuous stream of heavy traffic of motor trucks, gun carts and horses. About midnight we arrived at a small bunch of shack buildings and dugouts, which a short time before, had been occupied by German troops. Here we managed to crawl each into a small dugout for a few hours of rest. Suddenly the gas alarm was given by the clanging of two metals - a steel bayonet and an empty shell. Great excitement prevailed, followed by a feeling of uneasiness, as we scrambled in the dark for our masks. It got me for a few seconds while six of our men were carried off. On the following day we were put to work on dugouts. In some places we had to work through solid rock with hammers and chisels. We worked steadily, our hands getting almost raw from blisters. At evening, completely exhausted from a hard day's work, wet and chilled from the drizzling rains, we partook of our ration of bread and salmon, unrolled our packs, and, scattering in bunches on the hillside soon fell fast asleep. It was scarcely dawn when the report of an exploding shell that had been sent across the hillside awoke us! Half stupefied, stunned, filled with amazement, I was greatly horrified to find it had burst but a short distance from the spot on which I slept. A bunch of our boys, who had bunked together to keep warm, had "gone West". It was a supreme sacrifice of eight of our heroes and the gassing and wounding of forty. I gazed on those poor, lifeless young forms, with masses of their limbs, flesh and blood scattered in every direction, it was a sight that called madly for vengeance - a crime for which we should notch thrice on our guns for that valiant blood spilled by the Huns. One by one, we carefully bore our heroes away and laid them in one big common grave.

 

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