72nd Seaforth Highlanders of Canada - Electric Scotland

BAPTISM OF FIRE.
sion of mingled feelings and recognitions, a slight variety
in the routine to which the Seaforths were now becoming
accustomed.
Another phase that will be remembered about these early
days at the Somme is connected with the working parties
that went out each night, in weather the reverse of cheering,
to engage in the necessary but uninviting work of digging
and repairing trenches and other works. It was a case of
four to six miles there and four to six miles back, the inter
val between being filled with exhaustive labour with the pick
and shovel. There was not the excitement of a charge, nor
did the music of the pipes cast a glamour over a job that
was about as cheerful as grave digging. Among the tests
to which the loyalty and endurance of the men were put,
these working parties must certainly be allowed their place.
To gain an idea of the difficulties of "carrying on" in
that wilderness of shell-churned countryside in the Somme
area in general, and in particular
in that stretch of deso
lation astride the Albert-Bapaume road, one must realize
one or two special considerations. The country between
Albert and Bapaume consists of a series of long, low
ridges running approximately N. W. and S. E. Over these
ridges runs at right angles the straight ribbon .of the
before-mentioned main road. These ridges terminate in
the largest of them all, the Bapaume Ridge, on which the
German plan of defence in this area was based. The bit
ter fighting which surged over the crests of all
these ridges
in turn, combined with the bad weather, had reduced the
ground into a quagmire through which any progress, ex
cept by the road, was almost impossible. Bear in mind
that this main road led into the heart of the British de
fence in this area, and it will be readily understood that
it became the perpetual target of the Boche guns.
In October, when the 72nd Battalion made its debut
into the Somme country, the enemy held the line of Regina
trench, that battered slash in the earth to the north
27