We of the front line would charge and take our
trench. We would get there and not a German to be seen! He would be beating
it down his communication trenches, or what was left of them, as hard as he
could go. We were supposed to stay in the front trench of the enemy. Well,
it was simply against human nature, against the human nature of the First
Canadian boys at any rate. We may have been out there for months and not
had a chance to see a German. And had been wishing and waiting for this
very opportunity. We would see Fritz disappear round a traverse and we
simply could not stand still and let him go, or let the other fellow get
him. We were bound to go after him. This was really our traditional
weakness. Often-times we went too far in our eagerness to capture the Hun,
and were unable to hold all that we got.
In the early days, too, we charged in open formation. Certainly we lost, in
the first instance, fewer men by that method, but when we reached the enemy
trench, took it, and had established ourselves therein, we were rarely
strong enough in numbers to repulse the almost certain counter-attacks that
came a few minutes or even an hour or so later.
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