"No Road To Glory" by A.R. Thompson

     "Although many tons of wire were used...,and hundreds of miles of entanglements constructed, little was heard about the men who, night after night, toiled away at a job which, though dangerous enough, was not in the least spectular, and did not lead along the paths of glory.  Like many another useful branches of the Service, wiring parties were not concerned with matters of attack; their activities were confined to the construction and repair of barb-wire entanglements.
[...]
     "During the Summer of 1917, the 1st Brigade boasted a wiring party, consisting of two officers and forty men who were detailed for discipline and rations to the 1st Field Company, Canadian Engineers.  Their duty was to look after the entanglements on the Brigade front under the supervision of the Engineer Officer Commanding.
     "The standard obstruction was the South African double apron fence.  Iron stakes with corkscrew points were screwed into the ground by inserting the handle of an entrenching tool through a loop at the top end of the stake, and turning, as one would, a fence auger. [The author includes a detailed description of the entanglement.]
     "On fronts badly pitted with shell holes, or on ground where it was not practical to erect the standard type, frame works were woven in the trenches, or in craters, and rolled into position at intervals where they were secured by short stakes and connected up by a number of loose strands of wire which were fastened from one frame to the other.  This method was often used when working in close to an enemy position, as it was possible to do most of the work by crawling around on the belly, and so avoid, to some extent, the hazard of noise and the movement of ducking for flares.  If a flare broke before a man got down, his only chance was to stand stock-still and pray to be mistaken for a blasted tree stump.
     "At Hill 70, the Brigade wiring-party wired up a gap on the left flank of the 2nd Battalion which had been left in the air by a neighbouring unit.  It was a diagonal stretch of about 100 yards, and at the nearest point not more than fifty yards from the German front line trench.  This chore was finished without a casualty, but had to be done all over again next night.  Heinie had knocked everything to pieces;  wiring was like that -- at times it was damned annoying."

~ Excerpt from "No Road To Glory" by Major A.R. Thompson, son of Colonel Andrew T. Thompson.  Major Thompson served overseas with the famous 4th Battalion, C.E.F. and was for a time brigade wiring officer of the First Brigade.

[Note:  In order to read the excerpts chronologically, begin with Tuesday, November 4 post.]