Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XX. Trench Life
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
322 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
there without being discovered by the French ? That is the
question. He hugs the earth still closer and moves still niore
slowly and cautiously. Now he only has twenty metres left,
now ten. The parapet is clearly defined in the moonlight, it
is but a step or two that separates him from his goal, and yet
this step seems like a mile, for just here the danger is at its
greatest, and it is on this point that the French sharpshooters
and pickets have their attention riveted. He knows that
the furrow in the ground beneath him is two metres deep and
one metre wide and full of alert, wakeful men, but not a
sound is heard, no sign of life is seen, not even the faintest
flicker from a puny fire. Not even the scent of a cigarette
strikes his nostrils, though perhaps there may be other odours
that reveal the nearness of human beings. Now he has but
a metre left, there is no sign of life from the French, and he
slips noiselessly and softly like a cat over the edge and is
safe. Thereupon one of his comrades down below rises from
his shelter and creeps back with the same caution to the
ramparts behind the trenches, where he gets hot soup and
sinks into a deep and well-merited sleep.
The new-comer has forty-eight solid hours before him. At
night or in a fog he and his comrades must keep wide-awake,
for then the danger of assault is greatest. Here and there a
man may be allowed to doze off for a moment, but if a man
sleeps when on duty his life is not worth much. In daytime
most of the men are allowed to rest in their " dug-outs " under
the parapet, but even then special look-outs are always posted
along the trench. They all have their own little section of
the battlefield to answer for. Within that section no life must
stir but that they are aware of it. It is chiefly movement
along the ground or the outline of some figure silhouetted
against an indistinct background that reveals to the look-out
the presence of the enemy. Clumsiness in real war is tanta-
mount to a death warrant. The Germans disappear like field-
mice in the inequalities of the ground. But the French, in
return, are gifted with keen eyesight.
In the trench wall nearest to the enemy bowl-shaped niches
or dug-outs are excavated in the soil, providing effective pro-
tection against overhead bursts and not infrequently against
direct hits. But it is not impossible for a shell to pitch in the
wall, and in that case even the occupants of the dug-outs are
doomed. To provide against this the men often dig out a
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
