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The Ypres Times.
could boast of and in these holes complicated barrage tables had to be worked out by the
light of a single guttering candle. Some batteries were fortunate enough to secure German
pill-boxes," but they were few. These concrete structures, the positions of which
were, of course, well-known to the enemy, rocked like ships when shells fell near them,
but gave protection under a heavy bombardment.
On some days the Germans absolutely rained shells over the gun positions and drenched
the whole area with gas, which would hang about for days, compelling the gun detachments
well-nigh to live permanently in their masks. But the men took their gruel with the
customary stolid courage of the British soldier, consoling themselves with the fact that
for every shell the enemy was sending over they were returning two or three. They
might wallow in mire and filth and face privation and death, but the enemy over the
way should do the same, and go on doing so until he gave in. It was merely a question
as to who could stick it out longestand they had no shadow of doubt in their minds
who that would be.
One night two batteries of the 4th Divisional Artillery came under a special bombard
ment from the German guns. The fire was so sudden, fierce and sustained, and covered
such a wide area that there was no way of avoiding it. The officers' shelters were hit
almost at once, and all the officers killed or wounded. Men fell where they stood or died
in their shelters. It was raining and dark and almost impossible to see in the gas-masks,
which had to be worn and many a man removing his mask in devoted anxiety to see if
his officer was still living, was overcome by gas, and so succumbed. As casualties occurred
they were cleared, and more men fell in the act of helping their comrades. By the morning
there were hardly a dozen men in the two batteries who could stand up. In the 134th
Battery, R.F.A., there remained only Acting-Bombardier Fisher and Gunner Houchin.
These two men had cleared away the wounded, sorted out the ammunition and squared up
the wrecked position to the best of their ability, warning orders having come in during the
night, before the bombardment started, that a barrage was to be fired, instructions for
which would be sent later. At dawn they were alone in their glory, except for the dead—
they were the battery they had inherited its traditions, and meant to be worthy of their
regimentthey would carry out their portion of the barrage as far as two men with one
gun could do so. They took the barrage orders, set their sights, and at the appointed hour
opened fire. The news had reached the wagon lines an officer and a few gunners
hurried up to the gun-lines but it was not until the battery came into being once more
that the indomitable Fisher gave in and was carried away, gassed.
The enemy's shell-fire was by no means the only form of death that had to be faced
on the Steenbeek. Throughout the great Battle of Flanders the enemy's aircraft were
extremely active, and inflicted heavy losses, especially in horses. In two minutes on one
occasion 42 magnificent heavy-draught horses in one battery were killed outright and
many wounded. The German planes dropped bombs bown a road on which was a column
bringing up ammunition, and in a few moments a hundred men and a hundred horses had
paid toll, whole teams, with their drivers, being blown to fragments but those that were
left delivered their ammunition.
At times these planes came in numbers and, flying low, attacked the firing batteries
with bombs and machine guns, making three or four visits in a day and three or four during
the night. Wagon-lines were a favourite targetand some divisions found it necessary
to send their horses eight miles to the rear, so as to give men and horses essential rest,
there being none obtainable in the pandemonium in front. At first it was possible to send
officers and men back to the wagon-lines in regular reliefs, but towards the latter end of
the battle, when reinforcements could not keep pace with the losses, the gunners had often
to remain continuously in the gun-line.
The drivers spent the greater part of the twenty-four hours, weeks and even months on
end, in taking up ammunition. For an attack on a single Corps front, quite apart from
heavy artillery, there were on many occasions over 300 field guns in the line. Each
