WE stayed on the Kim-mel front from September 15th until sometime i n February. We were never in anything big here for it was winter time and we had all our work cut out in repairing and rebuilding trenches. Now I have

made mention of the fact that we came out for a rest, but that does not mean to say that we didn't work, for whilst we were resting we figured in many working parties. We all learned to believe that

Our section was the best in the Platoon
Our Platoon the best in the Company,
Our Company the best in the Battalion,
Our Battalion the best in the Brigade,
Our Brigade the best in the Division,
Our Division the best in the Corps,
Our Corps the best in the Army,
And that the British were the best in the world.

Our old Colonel would have concerts and lectures arranged for us when we went to rest, and on Christ-man day we had quite a big dinner, thanks to the people at home who helped by sending us quite a lot of nice things.

As you might know we had quite a lot of Cape Breton boys. They were needed to do some mining and they were splendid at that work. The miners work is as follows; first they sink a shaft so many feet down, and then when they get down deep enough they start sapping forward, putting up timbers as they go. They have to work very quietly as Fritz also does some sapping and if too much noise is made the miners themselves are liable to go up in the air and come down in pieces, and I do not think that anybody would relish that idea. Mining is done now on a very large scale. So you see this war is carried on underneath the earth as well as underneath the water.

I will remember a certain officer who got the creeps after the October affair and would always go around wearing armored body plates, and every time he heard a rat scratch he thought it was a mine. He heard a noise in his dugout and he cleared all the men out of his trench and had the miners up. They dug down and found that his place must have been over an old dugout and that there were quite a number of rats running around having a good time all to themselves. Certainly, I must admit that I was no hero myself. When our front trenches started to cave in we had to get out in front into No Man's Land and dig a new trench and what earth we excavated we had to throw up against our own front line trench, and although at the present time I would think nothing of it I was sure some scared. But after you are there awhile you do not mind it at all. The first winter Bill Cameron, along with his scouts used to live in No Man's Land. They thought nothing of doing that. They used to be planning to do all sorts of things, but the opportunity only seldom came for them to do anything

MAJOR MACRAE OFFICER COMMANDING "A" CO.. 25th BATT.

out of the way, except it was to go over No Man's Land searching for dead bodies and curios, and those chaps were game enough for anything.

The whole time we were on this front everything went very smoothly, for we had one great man at the head of our Battalion. We were great friends with the French-Canadian Battalion, but there was another Battalion in our Brigade with whom we did not pull at all, and there was always a certain amount of jealousy between us, which was a good thing as we were always trying to outdo the other. Their Commanding Officer thought that they were the best battalion that ever left Canada, and Hilli-am, the bulldog that he was, would not stand for that; so there was always a certain amount of rivalry between us.

On one occasion there were a few Canadians guarding a road where people were not supposed to travel by night unless they had a pass, and a "Twenty-fifth" man who had been having a good time was coming home. "Halt," cried the sentry, "who goes there?" Answer "25th," "Pass 25th all is well," so the 25 th man went on his way home. Along came another belated traveller. The same performance was gone thru and he gave the number of his battalion which was not the 25 th. The answer came back from the sentry, "Turn out the guard," and they put this poor soldier into the guard room. It was all due to their petty notions as to what they should not do. But still it always works out well; a little jealousy between the battalions always makes one try to outdo the other. But thanks to our Commanding Officer we never took second place to any battalion in France.

Shortly after we were ordered to move up to the M. and N. trenches where we relieved some of the 4th Brigade for a time. There was a trench in this locality named the "International" because of it's changing hands so often. Well, about a month before this the Germans had made an attack on the Scotties and they were just relieving and were not prepared for the Huns. But they fought until they saw that they would have to plan a surprise attack to get it back. The Scottish Division then went out for a rest and left Fritz master of the trench. But the canny Scot was not giving in so easily. When they had been reorganized they came back with one intention and that was to take back the "International" trench and they did.

Well here we were in the Vierstrutt trench, and we held it for a week. Our artillery would open up every couple of hours and we could look over our parapets and watch them pounding Cain out of Fritz's trench—it was wonderful. We kept this up for about four or five days so that Fritz could not have much of a trench left. The idea of the heavy bombardment was to give him the notion that we were going to make an attack at this point. On the morning that the Scotties were to take back the trench Bill Cameron, George Roberts, together with Canning, and some of the other boys, played quite a trick on Fritz. They got a couple of very long steam pipes and filled them up with explosives; carried them across and put them underneath Fritz's barb wire. There was a long fuse attached.

Now to describe it:—The hour is 4 a. m. Everybody is anxiously waiting for the bombardment to take place. We never gave a thought to the possibility of Fritz bombarding us. The attack starts, but we do not leave our trench, but set fire to the fuse. That fuse did all sorts of fancy turns and twists travelling across No Man's Land, and then the explosion! Fritz's wires are all blown to pieces. He was sure then that we are making the attack and sends up all sorts of S. 0. S. signals that look very pretty. His artillery opens up, but it seems there is something the matter with his range for he cannot reach us at all. But what is taking place on the right of us? The Scotties, without firing a shot, walk over No Man's Land, jump into Fritz's trench and bomb the dugouts, capturing quite a few prisoners, and once more the "International" is ours and has not changed hands since.