Brewster 'A Glimpse of War through a Private's Eyes', a retrospective account of experiences in World War I, 1915-1917 / John James Brewster - Page 495
You are here
Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 495]
Everything showed the effect of the terrible shell fire. Loss & desolation every where. While wending their way through this depressing scene, the men were agreeably surprised to see a wonderfully beautiful glass Summer house still standing intact not a single piece of the beautifully colored & decorative glass being broken. This pretty little house looked particularly inviting amidst such dreary surroundings & falling snow. Under its protection the whole front could have been watched in great comfort. But almost as soon as seen instead of even going near let alone occupy it, the men made a wide detour at greater risk than before, because the batteries had opened fire again.
When passing this Summer house at 3 oclock the next day not a piece of glass was left, the size of a mans hand. The place had been left as a trap but our men did not fall into it, the Huns merely wasted their shells on it.
After making the detour to avoid the the little glass Summer house the men approaching the front edge of the wood saw what they at once called another trap.
The Huns had built a stage in the Sunken road with the object of removing the largest logs of timber for use, but when nearing this place it was seen that 9 or 10 of these large logs had been innocently left behind. A space had been left between each log and a sufficient quantity of chips to enable a man to lie down in comfort, thus being out of the wet & mud.
After examining the details the men quietly smiled & looking towards the distant ridge said Oh no! Mr Cunning Hun!, You are not going to get us to walk straight into such a nice trap as that, tempting as it might look!, and another detour was made eventually the sunken road was reached and a start made to "dig in".
Just so soon as the men commenced their work, the close "cracking" and "pinging" of passing bullets made things so hot that it was simply impossible to stay there, however a