YPRES AS IT WAS.
The Ypres Times.
73
i -
Ypres to-day is indeed a City of the Dead. At the present date (June, 1917) it is
the centre of a salient, there being only two roads in and out of what was once a lovely
city.
The whole place is in absolute ruins. In once beautiful churches (curiously in nearly
every case I noticed) nothing is intact except the Crucifix over the Altar. The splendid
Cathedral and the celebrated Cloth Hall are amongst the sights of the city.
We arrived here on May 21st and were billeted in the Belgian Magazine (where the
walls are six feet thick) with the 179th Siege Battery until our gun positions were made.
Our position was at the village of St. Jean, about three kilometres from the city.
Going out every morning and returning every evening we had to pass the Menin
Gate, which Fritz shelled day and night, knowing full well all traffic had to
pass that way. It was wonderful what escapes we had, as not only had we to dodge
shells and shrapnel, but so man}'- buildings being in ruins we had to dodge bricks as
well.
Our position was ready by June 1st, when we took up our quarters there, and thankful
we were to leave the city behind us This position (St. Jean) was under two thousand
yards from the trenches in fact our battery was the most advanced one. Enemy
aircraft were constantly over us when we took the best cover we could we also had to
contend with his sausage balloons, which faced us on all three sides.
Our guns were in a field by the side of the road, and a little way (50 yards or so)
further down a small stream ran under it. A brick culvert allowed the stream to run
underneath, and in this culvert we took shelter whenever possible.
By putting duck boards down in the water to stand on, and the roof being arched,
it made a very decent shelter, as well as being practically safe, because in the centre of
most Belgian roads stone paving is put down to take the heavy traffic.
To show you how near we were to the enemy I might tell you that the second day
we were there one of our fellows was wounded in the arm with a machine-gun bullet,
whilst doing guard over the guns. This we learnt was a trick of Fritz's as he used
machine guns from aircraft on all likely roads by night.
Things were fairly quiet until the strafe in the early morning of June 7th, Fritz
occasionally sending over some shells to keep us lively, and at night he sent a number
of gas shells which did not improve matters, as we hardly dared to sleep, having to put
on our respirators fairly often. At 3.10 on the morning of June 7th Hill 60 was blown
up, twenty-five tons of our highest explosive being used for the purpose, so you can
guess the culvert where I was sheltering fairly rocked.
This was the signal for the attack, and we and dozens of other batteries opened fire
at 3.11 and continued firing until 9.30. We evidently took Fritz by surprise, and
when I tell you we had three hundred extra aeroplanes sent up for the day you can guess
the sky was black with them. Fritz tried to send over a plane or two, but gave
up the game when he found so many of ours waiting for him.
On June 8th our guns were firing when Fritz found us and started shelling us
with armour piercing shells, the first shell falling between our first two guns and others
all around them. He must have sent at least two hundred and fifty and you never saw
such a mess as he made of things in all your life. Trees were lying across the road
and our dug outs were scattered to the winds with most of our kit. We, of course, ran
for our lives to some other dug-outs across the fields.
