Rise

August 16, 1917.

We had received orders to begin making our way to Ypres, we were to take a ridge and cut off the supply line of the German 4th army. We've been traveling for a while, I think since April or May, I don't remember. I wonder if I'll see that man again. I doubt it though.

We're held up in the trenches, relatively close to some remote village called Passchendaele. We're dug in at Langemarck, we have plans to begin our attack tomorrow. We don't know when it will end but we will find out soon enough. We're to start early in the morning, around five A.M. I've heard. We're told to rest so we're able to be ready to attack in the morning.

I had been awake for about thirty minutes already, gathering my gear together and finishing my breakfast. The night sky was still clear, the moon shining bright overhead. I checked my watch, it said four thirty-two A.M.

"We will be advancing soon, so be prepared, we're going to start with a creeping barrage so make sure not to move too far up so that you don't get turned into mince meat, understood?" Captain Davies stated, elaborating on our orders and our plan of attack.

We all nodded, and went to join the rest of the 169th Brigade. We had been transferred for the battle, and we had gotten to know some of the other men. Captain Davies convened with the brigade commander before the battle to get a better understanding of what was going to happen.

After waiting about eleven minutes, the commander came up to me.

"Alright lad, retreat back to the artillery batteries and tell them to begin the barrage, then return here to join the advance," he commanded.

I nodded and saluted him, and did as I was told. I jogged through the trench line back to the artillery batteries, and found one of the artillery crews, seeing as if one started firing then all the others would follow suit.

"The commander says to start the barrage," I told them.

They nodded and begin readying the shells to fire. I jogged back to the charge line, crouched down behind the trench. I checked my watch, reading four forty-five A.M. I made sure my bayonet was fixed properly and prepared to advance. Then it began.

The artillery began firing, it was quite a distance in front of us, but close enough to provide us a sort of cover with the ditches. We all came out of the trench in droves, and began running across the battlefield. I joined my squad mates in a shell ditch, and waited for the barrage to move up again.

"Remember, move ditch to ditch, don't stay out in the open for very long," Captain Davies reminded us.

I moved my helmet into a more comfortable position on my head. It was a heavily wooded field in front of us, all the trees missing leaves, but standing tall and intimidating nevertheless.

The barrage crept forward again and we came out of our ditch and went to the second row of ditches. By now the German flares were fired and brightened the blackened sky. We prepared ourselves for any imminent German barrages ahead. The barrage fired the third row of ditches into existence and we ran into the third row. By now we were in the densely wooded area, the trees providing us cover everywhere we went.

The barrage began creeping farther and farther in increments. The distance between rows was so large we were at the point where we just had to run across the battlefield. I jumped over fallen logs and slid under fallen branches and trees. I came to a large log about half my height, placing my hand on it, keeping my other gripping the front grip of my rifle and swinging my feet over it and kept running. Mud came into view ahead, but it appeared to be very little.

Gunfire began to rain down on us from the trench in front, but it did not hinder our advance. We pushed off through the hailing bullets through the dead forest and through the mud. The area I was in began to receive heavy machine gun fire, forcing me to take cover behind a dead tree, as well as my squad mates.