What a gem of a site. It is an amazing listing of the men of the 6th Brigade Canadian Machine Gun Company & 2nd Battalion Canadian Machine Gun Corps.
Many of the names have stories posted with them:
>>>Donald Fraser recounts the following incident in his diary (The Journal of Private Fraser, ed. Reginald H. Roy, publ. 1998, CEF Books), while the company was based in trenches in the Bajolle-Souchez Sector, at the northern end of Vimy Ridge: "Monday, 25 December 1916 - A very amusing incident occurred during this lively bombardment when two of our gun crew tried to escape the shelling which very nearly got them. They occupied one of the dug-outs adjoining the communication trench about twenty-five yards away. A shell exploded within fifteen feet of them, throwing a fountain of earth up in the air to fall on top of their dug-out. We said to each other, watch Aimoe and McCormick get out of the dug-out in a hurry, but there was not a stir. In a few minutes another one came over and just missed them. In a flash McCormick rushed out of the dug-out, down the trench towards us and turning sharply into the short trench leading to the emplacement, threw himself into it. He was immediately followed by Aimoe who had his tunic on his arm, his braces streaming in the wind and he was in such a hurry to get round the bend in the trench that he did a perfect Charlie Chaplin on one foot. No sooner did he land in the emplacement when a third shell exploded right in front of it wrecking the emplacement and tossing the gun out of the way and scattering corruption all over them. It was a scream to see them, consternation and fright written all over their features. Scrambling from the emplacement they literally flew up the trench a couple of hundred yards away, finally taking refuge in a deep dug-out in the battalion's quarters. They did not put in an appearance for quite a while afterwards. Although it was a serious situation and their plight desperate, it was impossible to refrain from laughter."<<<
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That book, The Journal of Private Fraser, looks really intersting and I'm gonna see if I can find a copy for my library! <img src="/metal/html/smile.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt="
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