r military autocracy shall be the predominating factor in the
governments of the peoples of the earth.

INTRODUCTORY

The devastating rush of the gray-clad hordes of Huns into the
peace-loving lands of Belgium and France has demonstrated conclusively
that to win this or any other war the one thing necessary is superiority
in artillery. Without this, an enemy sufficiently strong in numbers and
other equipment, can drive ahead, overcoming and crushing all obstacles.

The average lay reader is too apt to lose sight of the supreme
importance of this arm of the service, to which all other movements are
subsidiary; the dash of the charge by the infantry over the top,
magnificent in its appeal, submerges to a degree the real factor upon
which success or failure of the charge depends, i.e., the blazing of the
trail by the guns. Little thought is devoted to the man who, with hell
bursting on and around him, has to get his shell home in a certain
number of seconds so that the charge can be made.

Neither is it generally known that the percentage of loss in units is
greater in the unit known as the sacrifice battery than in any other
branch of the fighting machine.

Therefore, I may be pardoned if I feel a certain human pride in the fact
that it was my honorable lot to serve in this unit nearly a score of
times during my work over there, and I can account for my failure to be
seriously injured (a dislocation or a little gassing is comparatively
trivial) to nothing other than, as my Major emphatically expressed it,
"Damned horseshoe luck!"

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. CAN'T KILL ME 1

II. THE FIRST NIGHT 17

III. YPRES 30

IV. MY HORSE SHOE WORKING 48

V. HUN HELPERS 58

VI. BITS OF BATTLE 87

VII. SANCTUARY WOODS 101

VIII. A BATH UNDER DIFFICULTIES 129

IX. HAM BONE DAVIS 143

X. BEES, HONEY AND HELL 157

XI. SCOTTY COMES BACK AT THE SOMME 170

XII. BEHEMOTH 185

XIII. THE FAMILY LUCK 203

XIV. THE DEAD SHELL 210

XV. SATAN'S SHELLS AND SCENTED GAS 235

XVI. BEFORE VIMY 262

XVII. VIMY 275

XVIII. BACK TO GOD'S C