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 59
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[Page 59]
line, as to what was being done, & better still, gave the time when each could be expected. Needless to say the first man was quickly discovered and halted, by the men on the look-out, in the regulation way & the order to do so was given so loudly that all the others were found to be on the "alert" & the man was quickly "discovered" much to the satisfaction of an officer who apparently "accidently" loomed up over the back of the trench just about the time. Needless to say he was mounted & had left the Camp in just sufficient time to observe how the "ruse" worked.
The second man was not due till an hour or two after midnight & although a very keen watch was kept by those immediately opposite the place where he was to come, the light was so bad that the man was able to approach to within about 50 yards of the wire without being detected, and as he was getting a bit anxious himself to be "seen", he thoughtfully decided to make his presence known by "coughing".
Immediately a loud challenge rang our, the man being duly halted at the same time many a sleepy sentry was "unduly awakened" till the "enemy" had reached the trench through one of the "gates" in the wire.
When the second man was chaffingly asked why he coughed he replied "Bli-me! I was getting too close! If I had gone closer one of you "drowsy" sentries, waking suddenly, might have "potted" me so I decided to wake you, while I was at a safe distance".
We all guessed, right, that the Officer was snugly asleep before this.
Prior to this occurrence some of our men had interviewed the Light Horsemen and learned that there was not a Turk within 50 miles of us.
The life at this place was almost unbearable, we had a wave of intensely hot weather & our allowance