Stretcher Bearers at the Double - ElectricCanadian.com

Our First Men Qo On Leave
"SUNNY FRANCE 91
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On January 8th orders were received that leave was open
two men a week and one officer every third week. This was good
news to those whose names fell within the first few letters of the
alphabet but not such great news to those down around the Ws.
However, away went the first lucky devils, while the rest of us
wondered if our turns would ever come.
Leave, especially in later days,
used to come like a miracle.
To a man up the Line or about to go into a battle or closer danger
it was like a reprieve from the ever-present imminence of death.
It was like another life, almost - - something he wouldn t believe
and couldn t conceive of until he was actually far away from the
theatre of war. And when he got back up the Line his recent
leave seemed like -
something he had dreamed - a few days lived
in an obsolescent world.
Colonel Farmer was first to go on leave from La Clytte and
when he returned we hardly recognized him. He came back
sporting a black-ribboned monocle, a goatee, and a completely
new uniform of decidedly English cut and texture. To see him
walking about the old schoolhouse dressing station was a sight
indeed. He would be screwing his mouth into all sorts of out
landish shapes, in trying to hold the elusive monocle to his eye.
On his feet were a pair of great clattering Flemish sabots, and.
in the early morning or very late at night, he usually discarded
his uniform and donned a suit of vivid red pyjamas. Over these
he wore a bright crimson dressing-robe and the ensemble was
more terrifying than Fritz himself.
of anti-aircraft batteries announced
When the pompomming
the overhead presence of enemy aircraft, the colonel would grab
a rifle and rush into the backyard court and blaze away merrily
at the high-flying Boche. How many rounds of futile "rapidfire"
he sent skywards Heaven only knows.
One day Colonel Farmer and some of our fellows were follow
from a battle
ing the movements of a British plane as it emerged
over the Line. The machine was obviously out of control as it
made its way erratically towards the rear. Suddenly,
it went into
a sickening spiral dive. Colonel Farmer ordered an ambulance
and set out to where the machine had crashed. The dead pilot,
Captain Saunders, M.C., a Britisher, was brought to the dressing