“We’ll have to get through—for objects big and little; that the professor may find his girls and his inheritance and,” and here Ned’s lips set a little grimly, “that we may help to bring back freedom to the earth.”
“There may be an attack all right, if Foch, Pershing and the other generals think it’s a good time for it,” said Jerry. “But as for having it postponed until our arrival, well, you boys have some ideas of your ability.” 83
“Oh, I didn’t mean that!” cried Bob. “I meant that maybe we’d be in the big battle.”
“I hope we are,” said Ned. “We want to do our share.”
This opportunity soon came to the boys. As soon as they reached their headquarters—a series of ruined buildings in which they had passed the night—they were told to get ready to go up and take their places in the trenches. But first they were given a little talk by one of the officers, who explained the necessity of donning gas masks at the first alarm. Other instructions were given, and then, when it was seen that every man had everything he needed, from the first-aid kit to the grotesque-looking gas mask, the trip to the first-line trenches was begun.
So much has been written about the World War that it seems needless to explain anything about the trenches. As all know, they were a series of ditches, about six feet deep, dug along in front of similar ditches constructed by the enemy. The distance between the two lines of trenches varied from a few hundred feet to several thousand.
The ditches, or trenches, were not in straight rows. They zig-zagged to make attacks on them more difficult. There were several rows of trenches on both sides of No Man’s Land. This was so that in the event of an attack the men could fall back from one line of trenches to the 84 other, fighting meanwhile to drive off the enemy.
The trenches were narrow, about wide enough for one man, though two might pass by squeezing. At intervals, however, were wider places where food or wound-dressing emergency stations could be established. At other places there were large excavations where dugouts were constructed, and there relief parties rested and slept if they could between periods of duty.
The bottoms of some of the trenches were covered with “duck boards,” or short planks, with spaces between to let the water run out, and in certain parts of France it seemed to some of the boys to rain about three hundred out of the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year.
The trenches were sometimes braced with boards and cross pieces of wood, such as is often used when a sewer is dug through the streets, and again wicker-work, or jute bagging, might be used to hold the earth firm.