72nd Seaforth Highlanders of Canada - waughfamily.ca

SEAFOBTH HIGHLANDERS OF CANADAwhich was holding the line at this point, went out andmet them. They expressed their intention to carry our deadhalf way across No Man s Land in order that we mightbury them in our own ground. An informal armistice wasarranged all along the front concerned in the raid of March1st and on the llth Brigade front to the right where theheaviest losses occurred, many bodies were brought acrossin this way.Lieuts. Barrie and Mackie crossed over to theGerman line opposite the 72nd Battalion front, where theymet a German N. C. 0. and a party of men. They endeavoured to make arrangements to recover our dead whowere lying behind the German lines, but the Germanwarned them that the time was up and they would needto get back to their own lines as quickly as possible.Among the many instances of courage and devotion ofwhich the gas raid was so productive, none rank higherthan that in which Ptes. Black and Debouchier figured.Separated from and left behind by the ebb of the raiders, these two men found themselves, in company with aseverely-wounded comrade, in a shell-hole between theGerman support trenches some 600 yards behind the German front line. Steadfastly refusing to leave their wounded friend, and unable to carry him back, for it was nowbroad daylight, and the swarming Germans were sweepingback into the positions from which they had been summarily driven, the two men lay in their cramped andmuddy shell-hole all through the long day of the firstof March. As it wore to a close the wounded man beganto sink rapidly, and his two gallant companions decidedthat rather than give themselves up, one of them shouldmake an attempt to reach the Canadian lines that nightand bring back assistance, a plan, the audacity of whichmay be conceived. The wounded man would have to becarried. They were completely hemmed in by the enemy,and though the Huns were ignorant of the presence ofthese Canadians, they were everywhere on qui vive after42