H. D. Trounce

“ We always felt the shakes in the ground even back in our dugouts at Aux Rietz, over a mile away; while in the forward trenches we had all the excitement of a regular earthquake. All dugouts would shake badly, timbers would be loosened and many men buried in other dugouts and shelters, while sleeping. The firing of mines at night or just about dawn was a favorite practice. Just about the time you have turned in on the floor of your dugout to get an hour's badly needed rest, the earth is shaken by a heavy mine explosion. ”

“ I would not depreciate for a minute the value to the country of those men in the rear of the lines who are a necessary and vital part of the machinery of war, but I am jealous for the men who suffer most and endure almost unbearable hardships in the real trenches.
No officer who has served in this campaign has anything but the most unstinted praise for the men in the ranks—the real workers and the real fighting men. ”

“ A few months pass—a short time in an ordinary life, but a time so crowded with different sensations to the man in the trenches that it seems an eternity—he develops into a seasoned and confident soldier, and, while showing at all necessary times the strength and courage of the real fighting man in not fearing to make or face any attack, he meanwhile sensibly takes advantage of all possible cover available in the hope that he may not become a casualty before he has been of some real service to his country. ”

“ The unknown always presents the most fearsome aspect. A known and experienced danger invariably results in a much-increased confidence in one's will and powers of self-control.
The attitude of men in trench warfare is an illustration. For the first week or two they are "jumpy" and take very good care not to expose themselves needlessly; their imagination runs away with them to some extent, and they conjure up in their minds visions of themselves wounded, maimed, or even blown to pieces. ”

“ The "blowing" of a crater in No Man's Land at night and the immediate occupation and consolidation of it by the infantry and engineers is a wonderfully stirring affair. The strain on the morale of the infantry occupying sectors which are known to be mined is a terrible one, especially if they have no engineers to combat the stealthy attack. For the hundreds who are killed, buried, or injured from enemy mines there are thousands who suffer a mental strain from the mere suspicion of their existence. ”

“ Fortunate men like myself live to write or talk of them, but in doing so feel almost contemptible to themselves when they compare their lot with those of the men who have given their lives and their all in the great sacrifice for the cause of humanity. However, we have taken our chance and now we are only too glad of an opportunity to tell of the bravery and cheerfulness of our comrades in the trenches. ”

“ Often we delay the laying of our charges of high explosive until we are within two or three feet of the enemy gallery and can even hear the enemy miners talking. On three occasions I have heard them talking very plainly, and listened for hours to them working on, quite unconscious of their danger. It was always a source of annoyance to me that I could understand so little German. At other times, and this has happened more than once in the clay soil of Flanders, we have broken into enemy galleries and fought them with automatic pistols, bombs, and portable charges of high explosives. ”

“ THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FEAR From a prolonged and varied experience under shell-fire, machine-gun, rifle, trench-mortar fire, etc., and from an intimate and close association with men of all kinds in times of deadly peril, it seems evident to me that personal courage is very largely a matter of physical condition and general health, and that, provided a man be healthy and his nerves in good condition, it is natural for him to be brave. ”

“ The mind of the man of intelligence is so much more active, sees so much further, and his observation and experience so plainly tell him certain possible and eventual consequences, that it is only by the exercise of very strong will-power that he succeeds in subduing the apprehensions into which his superior mentality carries him and in rising above them.
As a matter of actual fact, every one, educated and uneducated alike in different degree, experiences some distressing reflections on the eve of an attack, especially of an infantry attack. ”

“ The rats and beetles in the trenches were large and active and did not add to our pleasure. At night the rats come into their own, and when times were quiet we would pull off some interesting rat hunts and incidentally get some good revolver practice.
Our dugouts in the Vimy Ridge were fairly safe, and after we had been below for a short time, and especially when there was a heavy trench-mortar "strafe" directed in the trenches above, it was not much fun coming out of them. Your heart would be in your mouth as you came up the steps and emerged into the blackness of the trench above. ”

“ Once he is started in the actual forward movement and has work to do, his mind is occupied nearly always to the complete exclusion of everything but the matter in hand; the excitement drives the emotion of natural fear from his mind; only in the lulls in the action is he conscious of any unpleasant moments, and it is just for such moments as these that our strenuous military training is largely intended. ”

“ A lady said to me recently: "Why, the engineers are in no danger, they don't go into the trenches, do they?" I hope that my account of an engineer's life at the front will do something to dismiss such ideas.
Every man and woman who plays his or her full part in this great struggle is justly accorded honor, and the greater the sacrifice the greater the honor. ”

“ These things happen every day in the trenches, and the engineer soldier would be at a serious disadvantage if he had not been trained in the use of rifle, bomb, and bayonet. No one has a stronger admiration for the infantry than I have, and every one must take off his hat to these "pucca" (real) fighting men, but the fact remains that the sappers who have continual trench duty are subject to the same constant trench fire as the infantry are every day—the only real difference is that they seldom get a chance to "hit" back. ”

“ The infantryman is the man who undergoes most of the dangers and risks, the real fighting man, and the man too who experiences the greatest hardships and discomforts. Find out if you can where a man has served, whether it was in the trenches or in a more or less comfortable billet in a village far from the lines and appreciate him accordingly. When successful actions occur in which the infantry, as usual, are the main heroes, don't forget the work of the engineer which made much of the success possible. ”

“ A camouflet is a small mine explosion which does not form a crater, and is calculated to destroy underground workings. One does not always have pleasant reflections after some of these operations, but we all stand the same chance. If the enemy fires first, we go up, and vice versa. So the game of wits below ground goes on. Sometimes we score, and sometimes Fritz outplays us.
One night a runner brought down the news to us at our dugout at Aux-Rietz that the Boches had fired a camouflet in our "H" mine on the extreme right of our sector. ”

“ The above remarks refer to the sensations of the soldier about to enter upon an attack; every-day trench warfare is rather different. During quiet intervals, when the enemy are not raining missiles in his immediate vicinity, only his subconscious mind asserts itself, and the nervous strain, although existent, does not usually evidence itself in any outward form. However, when troops are being shelled badly, or, I should say, being "strafed," a worried and reflective look can be seen in the eyes of most men, which is usually accompanied by perspiration as a physical sign. ”

“ On breaking into any of these galleries the officer in charge usually enlarges the holes in the clay until he can put his arm through; feels around until he finds any wires, and promptly cuts them with his pliers. Such operations of necessity must be done in darkness and without sound, and one's heart is working like a pump-handle. ”

“ At the crossroads entering Hébuterne from Sailly, a particularly hot place, and one that I know very well, having been billeted in a cellar within a hundred yards from it during two winter months I have known as many as seventy casualties from one shell-bursting. Every day one either sees or hears of large or small parties being blotted out by enemy shelling. ”