These native troops had what was to us a very unpleasant habit of carrying everything on their heads. We did not object to this procedure back of the line, but when they carried all the mine timbers and other supplies right to the fire-trenches in this manner we thought it wise to stop the practice before the Huns blotted us all out. Fritz would observe these little parties very easily by reason of the fact that the timber would invariably show above the top of the trench as they came up and would make us the target for a little more T.M. practice. I used to cut ahead across the top and jump down into a trench they would have to pass, and there make every man take his piece of timber from the top of his head and tuck it under his arm. These fellows did not like the T.M.'s any more than our boys did, but after a time treated them in the same casual, cheerful way as the others. I heard an infantryman once refer to these native troops, in the hearing of one of their British officers, in rather a disrespectful way. The way that officer lectured the offender was good evidence of the friendly relations existing between the British officers and their native troops. The latter, in turn, think a great deal of their British officers, and look after them with an almost fatherly solicitude. They had their own native officers also, many of them being sons of rajahs or native princes of India, educated for the most part in the big English public schools and colleges. The cavalry "brasshats" (as the British call all senior officers) of these units visited them often in the trenches. They were all in the trenches for the first time, and much interested in everything. So many of them called at our dugouts, and in company with us inspected our work and the trenches generally, that we felt like regular Cook's tourist guides. They were all mighty fine fellows and without exception aching to get a chance at the Hun, and chafing a great deal at their forced inactivity. They had hopes then of getting in a real charge in the possible open fighting of the coming Somme offensive.
CHAPTER VII
AROUND THE VIMY RIDGE
All this time the fighting around us was fiercely waged. The Vimy Ridge was even then noted as being one of the "hottest" parts of the line, and the mining activity all along these sectors, especially where the trenches were very close together, was much in evidence.
The tunnelling company who were on our immediate left had a very arduous time. One night they lost every single man then on duty in the front lines, all being captured. This happened at a time when the Boche raided their trenches in force and caught them below ground. Whenever the Germans made a raid in any large numbers it went hard with our fellows, because the number of infantry holding the advance posts were reduced to a minimum. However, our boys knew pretty well how to take care of themselves, and to put up as good a fight as the infantry. Well they might, since they had been recruited from the infantry to organize our tunnelling companies. Nearly fifty of our men had been in active service since Mons in 1914, and most of the others had been "over the top" on numerous occasions with their old infantry battalions. In addition many were old regular soldiers of long service in India and elsewhere. Nearly all of them had been wounded several times and looked with more or less scorn on the fellows who at the front wore the gold stripe for wounds. They were a tough crowd, no doubt, but certainly some of the finest fellows under the sun, and they would follow their officers through hell itself. Back in our rest-billets we had our troubles with them, but never anything serious. As long as I live I'll take off my hat to those lads of the 181st R.E.
Our advanced billet at Aux-Rietz was not exactly a health resort. Our own artillery was scattered all around, and we came in for a lot of enemy fire directed evidently at counter-battery positions. Our men in the large cavern were all right as long as they stayed below, but you can't keep men below all the time, so we had our share of hits. In our officers' dugout we were fairly safe, too; that is, it was proof against everything but direct hits with heavy shells. Though they plastered the ground all round us, fortunately none landed directly on it—much to our satisfaction. Fritz bombarded us often with lachrymatory shells, the tear-inducing variety, and this was most unpleasant, but nothing more. Later we had our share of gas-shells containing hydrocyanic acid and other gases.
Opposite our cavern at the crossroads was the ruin of an old estaminet which had been used for storing an immense quantity of French bombs, and the latter had never been removed. As this crossroad was a favorite target for the Hun we would often speculate on the size of the crater it would make when hit.
In the spring of 1916 we received the glad news of the Russians having captured 100,000 of the enemy on the eastern front. Hope springs eternal, etc.—many of us thought that six months would finish things up, and were willing to bet on it.
A new division came up about this time to relieve our old friends of the Highland Division. It was the Sixtieth (London) Division, just arrived from England after a year's training there. Very interesting it was to us to compare this division with the last. They certainly made good. By this time, also, I fear that most of these lads have joined the others who are resting below the pitiful little wooden crosses so common in France.
At that time they exhibited all the common characteristics of new troops going into the trenches for the first time. Naturally enough they were jumpy at first, and well inclined to follow their first instructions of feeling out the enemy and not starting anything unless friend Heiny got busy first. This quiet state of affairs, however, did not really please them, and nobody was much surprised or grieved when their colonel, from the depths of a dugout in the support line, telephoned in evident exasperation to the various company officers: "For God's sake, let's get on with the war."
As we knew the trenches well, they would come to us often for advice and information. With regard to mining alarms, our orders were not to alarm the infantry or withdraw them from dangerous posts until absolutely necessary. Many questions were asked us as to the state of affairs below ground, but we were guarded in our replies. A couple of weeks later three of their Lewis gunners, occupying a rather isolated advanced post, were captured by a small enemy raiding-party. This naturally made them angry and they strafed the Hun fairly consistently for some time afterward. As time went on and they became more confident, they staged a number of very successful little raids, seldom returning without a prisoner.