72nd Seaforth Highlanders of Canada - Electric Scotland

SEAFORTH HIGHLANDERS OF CANADA
had a remarkable object-lesson as to the abandoned im
pedimenta of a beaten army. They had seen evidences of
this accompaniment of defeat on their way. Disabled
traction engines, field-kitchens, ambulances and staff-cars
-the latter bearing the eagle crest of Germany had been
seen in various places. But at Fleurus, in the railway
yards, there were mountains of destruction. There had
evidently been about five long trains loaded with every
imaginable kind of war munitions, standing on the tracks
ready for transportation to Germany. Surprised by the
armistice, the Huns had wrecked the trains, and the ex
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ploding ammunition had wrought terrific havoc. The
greater part of all the trains lay in long lines of twisted
and partially fused steel, among which were the craters
made by exploding shells. Unexploded shells lay every
where. The wrecked trains had apparently contained a
great variety of war material. Rifles, bombs, steel helmets,
gas respirators, stoves, machine guns, sewing machines,
everything had been piled into the cars. On a separate
siding stood an untouched train containing a complete
aerodrome :
planes, hangars, and all their appurtenances.
And this was but one example of the hundreds of such
stores, many of which the enemy had failed to destroy
with the thoroughness that marked this one.
A stay of one day in Fleurus was enough to leave an
uneffaceable impression of the inevitable and immense losses
incurred by a beaten army in modern w r ar, and the
Battalion moved on again and spent the night of Decem
ber 16th in the tiny farm village of Grand Leez. The
name implied the existence of a still smaller Leez. The
members of the 72nd who settled into their cramped quar
ters for the night were, however, doubtful on this point.
At any rate they had no wish for anything more restricted.
The following day the Battalion marched eight miles to
Opprebais, south of Louvain. Here, on account of the
scarcity of accommodation, the billeting had to
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be divided