The Trenches Read Online Free Page B

feet wide, its stinking clay walls held back by anything that was available: bits of timber, strands of wire, pieces of corrugated iron, sandbags.
    Wooden duckboards formed a kind of walkway along the trench, but they were slippery with mud, and in many places they’d broken and sunk under the water. As we made our way along the trench, doing our best to keep our footing, we passed soldiers covered with mud. The holes were filled with freezing cold and stinking water.
    â€œMore lambs for the slaughter!” commented one mud-covered soldier as we passed him.
    The other soldiers laughed, but their laughter was cut short with a shout from their Sergeant Major, who hollered, “Shut up in the ranks, you lot, or I’ll have you all shot for treasonous talk!”
    The Royal Engineers were among the first to be dispersed. There were a dozen of us, including Charlie and me, and as we stumbled down the rickety wooden steps into what appeared to be a hole in the ground lit by smoky kerosene lamps, a cheer went up from the grimy soldiers inside the hole.
    â€œLook, lads! Relief is here!” chuckled one.
    Charlie looked round at the wet clay walls held up by shafts of timber.
    â€œYou’d need to be a rabbit to be able to live here,” he said.
    â€œThink yourself lucky we’ve got somewhere like this,” said one of the grimy soldiers. “It’s only because we’re Engineers. The fighting units don’t even have this luxury!”
    â€œTheir officers do, Paddy,” commented another soldier. “Caves with proper chairs and tables in them. I’ve seen them.”
    â€œDon’t mind him, he’s just jealous,” grinned the soldier called Paddy. “He can’t get used to sleeping in muddy water. Anyway, let’s get you lot sorted out. Believe me, you’re going to be busy!”
    Paddy was right. During those first weeks I was busier than I’d ever been in my life.
    At the Front there was a complicated system of trenches. Each Infantry trench had two others behind it: a support trench, and then a reserve trench behind that. They were all connected by a communications trench, along which supplies and relief operations were carried out. The telegraph cables were laid along the reserve trench, so the Infantry wouldn’t get caught up in them when they went over the top. The whole thing was a bit like a maze, except made out of mud.
    Most of our work consisted of repairing lengths of telegraph cables that had been broken during German artillery attacks. The cables were supposed to have been buried at least 6 feet below ground level so they didn’t get broken when bombs came down, but the shells the Hun had been using of late were so big they were churning up holes in the mud 10 feet deep. There was only one way to repair a smashed cable when that happened and that was to run new lengths and join them on to the last good bit.
    We went out on repair missions and worked in teams of two. My team was Charlie and me. Ginger and Wally were a team, and Danny and Alf were the third. The work was tough. You had to cut through the damaged cable, which was hard because it was covered in steel, lead or brass for added protection, and then make the connections. And all the time you were knee-deep in mud, sometimes waist-deep, and waiting for the Hun to launch another artillery attack, or send over a wave of troops armed with guns with bayonets.
    The cables were vital for HQ to keep in contact with the troops at the Front. They’d tried using wireless, but it only really worked between aeroplanes and a ground station. Here in the trenches it was almost impossible. Our side had tried it. There was a thing called the British Field Trench Set, which you were supposed to be able to carry about and pick up and transmit messages. The trouble was it needed at least three men to carry it, and another six to carry the batteries needed to work it.
    The Engineers had also