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Grant, Reginald

"S.O.S. Stand to!"

What I call a fair morning's work!
Now, as I have heretofore said, the objects most easily seen by an
airplane are white and black and the surface of the earth being covered
with a mantle of snow, naturally the things that the keen-sighted
airbirds would first look for would be dark-colored.
The snow around our battery by this time had been thoroughly melted by
the heat from our guns--as a matter of fact, the guns were steaming--and
one of our Sergeants, knowing how easily discernible our pieces would be
to the enemy airbirds, began gathering snow and spreading it all over
the places where it had melted. He was working hard throwing the snow
immediately in front of my gun when another "Stand to!" came. Let me
repeat, if I have not already made it entirely clear, that when this
most imperative order is sounded, there is only one thought in the mind
of every man of the battery, to get our message off as quickly as human
power can send it; and throughout every stage of the world's work that
we are doing over there, there is no time when the bodies of men are
entirely free of bruises received in collision with one another in the
absorbing endeavor of every man to respond.


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