A day in the life

The Battle of Amiens was our first big do after Vimy Ridge. Just before the barrage was to open, I turned and looked backwards. It was some sight to see, it was still dark. The guns all opened at once for a long stretch and we heard the shells whizzing overhead. I had other business to do then. So there was about 30 Frenchmen all crouched down. They were on the right side of the road and we were on the left. But there was a swamp and the bridge was blown out, and our battalion went over on the French side. The engineers laid a cross way of faggots in the stream for us to walk on. I wondered why these Frenchmen were there but I realized the machine gun had caught them when the barrage opened and they were all dead in a row. They’d been crouched there till just you thought they were still alive. There was not a great deal of opposition for quite a ways that morning. Eventually we come to a big German gun and they threw their hands up as soon as we appeared. We had a fellow called Dooly from Nova Scotia who was, had a temper and was as unpredictable as the weather in March. He took after one of these fellows, he was going to stick him with a bayonet. Well the German, he took off galloping. Dooly and him went tearing downhill. Dooly finally stuck the gun out and picked him in the bum and just like a car changing gears he changed in another gear, that German, and that was the end of that race. Dooly come back, the officer give him a chewing out but he might as well have saved his wind as far as Dooly was concerned. That was a real successful do, the Battle of Amiens, as far as we were concerned.