The 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles - ElectricCanadian.com

74 4TH CANADIAN MOUNTED RIFLESOct It was still a very unwholesome place, and a new menace,1917 even more harrowing than shelling, was gathering momentum and making life in the towns behind the lines lesssafe and less bearable. This new form of terrorism wasbombing. Organized aerial raids at night became a mostdemoralizing factor, darkness no longer bringing consolation. Every night, and especially on moonlight nights,the drone of enemy planes could be heard as they crossedoverhead. Their great height gave the feeling that theywere hovering directly above, searching out and preyingon the individual. It was hard to remove the delusionthat one was being singled out by an invisible demon inthe sky. Few things were more trying to the morale.As soon as the men had detrained and formed up, theymarched out of the town about two miles north-eastthrough the celebrated village of St. Jean to where thehamlet Wieltje used to be. It was daytime when theypassed Salvation Corner to their new billets and they sawagain the activity that goes with a great battle. Itwas aboutreminded them somewhat of the Somme, itthe same time of the year, the weather was similar andas the Somme, so at Passchendaele the offensive had beenin progress for some months when the Battalion arrived.The one great difference between the two places was thecountry over which they were fighting. They were now inthe lowlands of Flanders, the ground rarely being more thanthirty feet above the sea. Again they were tossed intothe maelstrom of a huge offensive. They became partof the great whirlpool of traffic. The rapidly changingscenery, the movement, the animation gave a thrill andfascination only experienced in these colossal combats.The roads leading to and from Ypres were jammed withall kinds of vehicles, from bicycles to gigantic caterpillardrawnhowitzers. The steady stream of men and animalsnever ceased; field-kitchens, limbers, G.S. waggons andpack-ponies nose-to-tail made an endless chain. Troopsfrom every quarter of the globe passed and repassed;black and yellow labour-corps worked unnoticed in thecosmopolitan medley of fighting and non-combatanttroops.