Over The Top

With no time to waste, you scramble towards the smouldering crater of the machine-gun post and clear away the bodies.  The machine-gun, you notice, is still operational and it is only a matter of seconds before you set it up and begin firing at the advancing enemy.

The carnage is tremendous as the German dead and wounded begin to pile up in front of the wire entanglement.  The attack is relentless and it seems as if the entire outcome of the battle now hangs upon your ability to maintain a continuous fire.

Just then, a massive, earth-shattering explosion out in No Man’s Land sends tons of earth and dozens of bodies flying into the air. You are knocked backwards momentarily from the blast and covered in mounds of chalk. Shaking yourself off, you realize that, somehow, Corporal Hunter must have detonated the mountain of explosives stashed inside the tunnel.

As you look out across the field, the effect of the blast in No Man’s Land is devastating. It is as if all of it had been picked up, turned upside down and dumped back into place. With the smoke now clearing from the battlefield, you notice the Germans retreating, pell-mell, towards their own trenches. The explosion has all but snuffed out the German advance and, before long, all that remains is a corpse-ridden, pock-marked landscape.

No sooner is the battle over than another, more terrifying, sound can be heard: the moans and whimpering of countless men, either wounded or dying in the trenches and in No Man’s Land. You know full well that most of them will never be rescued and that, soon after they are dead, the whole area will reek of rotting corpses. That alone is enough to drive a man out of his mind.

You stumble, half numb, back towards your own dugout. All around you, bandaged men are being led to the rear lines to receive medical treatment while the dead are covered with ground-sheets and blankets to be buried later. Just outside the dugout, you come across two stretcher bearers who carry away an agonizing Lieutenant Jarvis.  A quick glance his way tells you that he has lost both legs. If he survives, he’ll eventually be shipped back to Canada. It is strange to think that in order to return home, one must either be crippled or dead.

You enter your dugout with no intention other than getting some sleep. Without bothering to take off your boots, you flop onto your sand covered cot and close your eyes.

What day is it today? Who cares? It is hard to believe that in just a few days, you’ve been repeatedly shelled, subjected to a gas attack and shot at a number of times. By your count, you’ve come close at least a dozen times to being killed.

But, through it all, you’ve managed to survive. There is no doubt you’ve been lucky, but how long can your good luck last? It might be just a matter of days before you are again ordered to go over the top!

THE END

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