Several star shells went up

We had been up putting barbed wire entanglements between the front line support trenches because there was threatening to be a breakthrough on the Lens front at that time. And we just finished our working party around 4 o’clock in the morning and it was still pitch dark and we were going to Nissen huts on the Pimple at Souchez on Vimy Ridge. And we were marching back there, and as we went the boys were picking up bits and pieces of fire wood to keep their fires burning in these kind of Quebec heaters that we had in the huts. And one of our officers was carrying four rifles on each shoulder so that the boys could be free to pick up these chunks of wood that were parts of buildings that had been levelled by shell fire. All of a sudden, several star shells went up and it was just as bright as day. And when that happens, you stand still, you don’t even move and eyelash, otherwise you’re a sitting duck for a target. But if you stopped still, you seemed to blend in with the surrounding terrain, and they wouldn’t know if you weren’t a brick wall or something like that when a bunch of you are standing together. And right at the head of the column, there was a chap carrying a great big piece of wood in the shape of a cross. Everything was a still as a mouse. There wasn’t a sound. There were no guns firing and this bright light and all of the sudden this fella was standing up there with a cross over his shoulder. It was rather an eerie sensation. It’s remained with me all my life.