the shells which would burst quite close to us. In fact they got a
few of our boys on the way up. But one has to be there to realize how
callous a person appears to shell fire. By that I do not mean to say
that he holds it in contempt for he doesn't He has a mighty regard for
it. But you always want to show that you are as brave as your next
door neighbour. Sometimes they came a little too close and one of the
boys would sing out "Say let's make a move, for I don't mind getting
Blightie but the way that one burst it will be France" or some other
such remark. When we arrived at Headquarters it was in a large sunken
road which our boys had captured a few days before. We hear quite a
lot of ---- and here were quite a lot of wounded Germans who had been
taken prisoners that day calling out for water, and although we were
going in and we did not know when we were coming out, some of the boys
gave them some of theirs. I hope they will do the same. We waited here
for a while and then we started out for the trench. We had some night.
We would go to one trench and then to another; our guides did not know
where to take us. About 4 o'clock in the morning we started wandering
around No Man's Land. At 7 o'clock, broad daylight, (we were laying
down in the grass at the time), some of the boys saw somebody moving
and as we saw that they were our own boys we made a rush and got into
what was known as the Subsidiary trench. That is how "C" Co. relieved
the 14th Battalion on the Somme. There was quite a chain-work of
trenches here. What we held was named "Subsidiary Line." It really was
not a trench but a system of outposts. In front of us were the famed
"Kenora" and "Regina." Their names will always linger in the memory of
the Canadians, for we did some very hard fighting around here. There
were also a lot of trenches in rear of us held by some of our other
companies. On our left were the 24th and C.M.R. I really do not know
who were on our right. As I said what we were holding was only a
system of strongpoints. There were five of them altogether and as I
had three Lewis guns I put one on each flank and one in the centre.
About 9 o'clock the same morning we saw somebody waving to us from out
of No Man's Land. When we saw that he was one of our own lads, Lieut.
Alexander, Corp. McEarley, (these two were both killed four days
later) and myself, took a rubber sheet and doubled out and got him,
expecting to be fired on at any time by Fritz. B