72nd Seaforth Highlanders of Canada - Electric Scotland

SEAFORTH HIGHLANDERS OF CANADA
The men, therefore, settled themselves in one of the long
freight sheds to await its arrival. The hours wore on, and
still ithere was no sign of the train. At about 1 a.m., a
faint,
almost imperceptible sound, gradually increasing till
it seemed to cut like a knife through the moonlit air, gal
vanized all ranks into attent alertness. To those who were
at Amiens it brought back a similar experience during a
night-march near Rosieres. To all except the newly-arrived,
it was fraught with menace. Clearly now through the
autumn night came the rising and falling drone of doubleengined
enemy bombing planes. To be shelled in action is
a thing which can be endured by seasoned men with a cool
ness approaching equanimity. But to be bombed while
waiting and quiescent is quite another matter.
Perhaps Fritz was going over to more distant targets.
Perhaps crash ! the end of the shed seemed to be bathed
in a sheet of vicious yellow flame, followed by the over
Bomb after bomb followed,
powering roar of the explosion.
as the Boche pilots, high in the starlit night, emptied their
bomb-racks onto the maze of tracks below. Fortunately
these last bombs fell in ithe railway yard away from the
sheds. But the damage had been done. The tense, lowvoiced
order, "stretcher-bearers on the double," sounded
through the shed. Many of the 38 casualties sustained by
the Battalion had been caused by falling debris, and there
was great difficulty in liberating some of the sufferers.
Entrainment was postponed till the morning, and during
the remainder of that fateful night the troops took shelter
in the lurking shadows of the streets adjoining the station
in anticipation of a second visit of the hostile planes.
At about 8 a.m. on the following day, the Battalion en
trained and proceeded to Bullecourt, arriving at noon.
From this point it marched to its billeting area at Riencourt,
where the men were finally equipped with the thou
sand and one things necessary for an attack. A final cate
chising of the officers by the C. 0., Lieut.-Col. G. H. Kirk-
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