ture was for me the only
reality. Even the scenes through which I had passed in the months I was
at the front took on the semblance of a dream--sometimes a nightmare;
but it seemed to me that it was not I--the St. Dunstan's student--who
had endured cold and wet and forced marches, who had felt the shock of
high-explosive shells, the stinging threat of machine-gun and rifle
bullets, who had taken part in wild charges over the top, but some other
being. However, in the stillness of the night, one incident I had
experienced, one scene I had witnessed, kept constantly recurring to my
mind with a vividness that kept the World War and my humble part in it a
stern reality for me. The affair in question occurred on April 19th,
1917.

Ten days before, on Easter Monday--a red-letter day for the Canadians,
but a day black as night for the Germans--the troops from the Dominion
had in one swift forward movement swept the enemy from positions which
he had thought impregnable along Vimy Ridge. For days after that, we
wallowed around in the mud, gaining a village here, a trench there, and
driving him from hills and wood fastnesses. All the time we were
expecting that he would come back in force to make a mighty effort to
regain the territory he had held for over two years against the British
and the French. He had apparently proved his right to it, and since
September 15th, 1916, had been resting at his ease in his underground
dug-outs and capacious caverns.

On the night of the 19th, the battalion to which I belonged had just
ended a tour of duty in the front line. We were to be relieved by
another battalion of the 3rd Division of the Canadian Corps. There was
but one road out, a road which at that time was considered a
masterpiece of road-building. Three days had been allotted for its
construction. The Imperial engineers contended that the task was an
impossible one, but G.H.Q. said it would have to be done, and the
Canadian engineers were assigned the work. To their credit, it was
completed in the stipulated time.

To retire from the side of the ridge facing the German position, it was
necessary to take this road, and, as the crest of it was under almost
continuous shell-fire, for safety we were sent over in sections of ten
men at a time. This territory had all been in Fritzie's hands, and he
knew every inch of it. The road was a vital spot, and more shells were
dropped on it than upon any other place of the same area on the West