Prev | Current Page 193 | Next

Grant, Reginald

"S.O.S. Stand to!"

Two of
the fellows were immediately ahead of me, Dinghy and Graham, and
Graham's footwork was so slow that I jumped up on the parapet of the
trench to get past him, and over the top I skedaddled toward our 30-foot
dugout, which had formerly been the home of the Germans; like most of
their quarters it was large, roomy and comfortable. To get to the dugout
we had to go through a German gun pit which was then being used by us as
a cookhouse. Just before I reached my destination a shell had landed
squarely in this gun pit, where a number of the men were lined up
waiting for supper. The effect of this shell was not only deadly in the
extreme, but very peculiar in its action. At the right hand side corner
of the gun pit was the dugout for the left section, and the right
section occupied the dugout on the left hand side corner. The shell
struck the edge of the right section dugout in which four men at the
bottom were having a card game; the fuse tore its way down the steps,
knocking large chunks of the steps off in its course, and down into the
center of the card game, scattering the money in every direction and not
injuring a single member of the party.


Pages:
181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205