72nd Seaforth Highlanders of Canada - waughfamily.ca

Thus iting divisions,A BEATEN FOE.was that the Division, in common with its flankwas able to proceed in great depth with butone or two battalions in the actual assault, and the remainder strung out at stated distances and coming inexorably forward. In this way unnecessary casualties wereavoided, and what was of primary importance, fresh troopswere always available, on account of the frequent reliefswhich were thus possible.About noon on October 18th the Battalion arrived atAubencheul-au-bac. All ranks, primed by countless warnings from harrassed engineer officers, were on the sharplook-out for "booby-traps." For the benefit of the uninitiated it may be said that this term describes a trick ofmodern war, practised exclusively by a retiring army. Itconsists in connecting the firing mechanism of a land-minewith any harmless-looking thing, such as a loose telephone wire, the handle of a door or any such commonobject. In consequence, when the wire is carelessly kickedaside, or the door opened, the mine explodes, the resultsvarying with the size of the mine. The only trap discovered in this particular village was detected by the acting 0. C., Major J. Hamilton. It was but a mediocre arrangement of a few hand-grenades of rthe "stick"type,and a considerable length of wire, attached to the firingbuttonof one of them, but it served to raise the ardourof the search toalmost fever heat.Late in the afternoon of the 19th, the Battalion wasordered to move to Bugnicourt, but just as they arrivedfurther instractions were received to the effect that owingto the speed of the advance they were to continue to FosseSt. Roch, some two miles further on, which involved marching at night over unfamiliar ground. It was here thatthe men of the 72nd got their first sight of the pitifulchaos prevailing in any spot from which civilians havebeen forced to fly, drawn onward by the undertow of a165