[The following relates the experience of the British and Canadians taking over lines of trenches that were formerly occupied by the Germans on the Western Front.]
These too were incorporated into British defensive systems after their capture, although the process was rarely a pleasant one, as Huntly Gordon, an artillery observation officer, discovered on Westhoek Ridge, outside Ypres, in 1917.
All was well when we reached here, but at 9 a.m. we were strafed [by enemy aircraft] for half an hour. I have a nasty feeling that the arrival of an officer and a telephonist may have been noticed by more than that sniper. We had to retire inside the concrete underground blockhouse that adjoins our little suntrap. It is without exception that most horrible place I have ever been in. It was constructed by the Boche [Nickname: Germans] to face the other way, and now the entrance is in front. Steps lead down to a central passage with two rooms on each side, about 10ft square.
The rooms are more than half-filled with stagnant water, and we have to crouch down on planks supported at water level on a heap of corpses underneath. The stench really was awful, and we all had to smoke continuously to keep it down. It must have been full of Boches when our chaps lobbed some bombs in a few days ago. Now frequent bubbles break the surface of the oily scum. We were careful not to stir it up. Thank God, we didn’t have to be in there for very long or I would have tried my luck in the open [No Man’s Land].
Source:
Holmes, Richard. "Earth and Wire." Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front, 1914-1918. London: HarperCollins, 2004. 261-62. Print.
Original Source Listed:
Gordon Unreturning Army p. 90.
Further Reading:
Battle of Passchendaele / Third Battle of Ypres / Flandernschlacht / Deuxième Bataille des Flandres
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