CHAPTER XI

OVER THE TOP

In my second trip to the trenches our officer was making his rounds of
inspection, and we received the cheerful news that at four in the
morning we were to go over the top and take the German front-line
trench. My heart turned to lead. Then the officer carried on with his
instructions. To the best of my memory I recall them as follows: "At
eleven a wiring party will go out in front and cut lanes through our
barbed wire for the passage of troops in the morning. At two o'clock
our artillery will open up with an intense bombardment which will last
until four. Upon the lifting of the barrage, the first of the three
waves will go over." Then he left. Some of the Tommies, first getting
permission from the Sergeant, went into the machine-gunners' dugout,
and wrote letters home, saying that in the morning, they were going
over the top, and also that if the letters reached their destination
it would mean that the writer had been killed.

These letters were turned over to the captain with instructions to
mail same in the event of the writer's being killed. Some of the men
made out their wills in their pay book, under the caption, "will and
last testament."

Then the nerve-racking wait commenced. Every now and then I would
glance at the dial of my wrist-watch and was surprised to see how fast
the minutes passed by. About five minutes to two I got nervous waiting
for our guns to open up. I could not take my eyes from my watch. I