ch as being better. All who serve in the front line at
a time like this are equally entitled to credit. At times, when it is
necessary to go out and search for breaks and repair them, the work of
the signalers is "extra hazardous," just as is that of the
stretcher-bearers when obliged to expose themselves to succor the
wounded, or the machine gunner when it is necessary to mount his gun
on top of the parapet, within plain sight of the enemy, or the
riflemen, bombers and scouts in advancing to the attack. There can be
no fair distinction--they all, taken as a unit, are in a class
separated by a wide gulf from those back in supporting or reserve or
artillery positions, who, in turn, are separated from the transport
and ambulance drivers, who, while occasionally under shell fire, are
in the zone of comparative safety, where "people" still live and farm
and run stores and estaminets. I would not have you think that I am
minimizing the value of the services of these men. Their work is of
vital importance to the success of the fighting forces and _must_ be
done; and I can truly say that in all my experience I have never known
them to fail in the performance of their duties.

In this war, as in most others, it is the infantryman who stands the
brunt of the fighting. True, he is disguised under many other names,
such as rifleman, bomber, automatic rifleman, rifle-grenadier, scout,
signaler, sniper, runner or machine gunner but, when you get right
down to the bottom of the whole business, he is the fellow who travels
on his two feet and actually "goes over and gets 'em." Trenches can be
battered to pieces by artillery but they can not be actually "taken"
and held by any one but the plodding, patient, long-suffering
"doughboy" or "web-foot" as he is called by the men of the other
branches.

At one time, during this period, Sergeant H. Norton-Taylor and four
men from our section, held one of the craters for five days, against
numerous attacks, and even captured prisoners. They had no food, water
or ammunition other than that which they could get from the bodies of
dead soldiers in the immediate vicinity. We sent many detachments to
relieve them but were unable to locate their position and it was only
by accident that they were discovered and relieved by a scouting party
of the Nineteenth Battalion which was over on our left. But for this,
they might be there now, as they were not the quitting kind.

Norton-Taylor was commission