Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 53 A Mi’kmaq Tunneller's Story - Sgt Sam Glode, DCM continued ... them and went to the dugout of our C/0, Major McCormick. It was a big dugout with blankets across the doorway and a table and chairs inside. I brushed the blankets aside and went in, but I didn't salute, I forgot, and for a minute I couldn't talk. He was studying a map of the tunnel, and he looked up and stared at me. He said, "My God, is it you, Glode?" I said, "Yes, sir. I come for the rum ration. We got to have it." He called an orderly and got one of those army rum jars that were marked S.R.D., and he poured into the water bottles enough for a double ration for the twenty of us. Then he took a mug and poured a stiff swig for me, extra. I could talk better, then. I said, "By God, that's good." The Major said, "Can the boys walk?" I said, "Yes, I think so, when they've had a drink." He said, "Well, give them a drink all round and then take them back to camp. You've all had enough of this game for a while." We weren't long getting that rum inside us and walking back to the camp, I tell you. We had a long rest before we were put to work again. The old tunnel was abandoned, and we were shifted to a new place well to the right. This time we dug a shaft 180 feet straight down before we began the tunnel towards the German lines. It was a careful job, so the Germans didn't catch on. There were other tunneling companies doing the same, boring deep towards the Messines Ridge. We used to work 6 days in the tunnel and 4 days out at La Clyte for a rest. The whole job took about a year. We finished that tunnel sometime in the early summer of 1917. We then worked for 20 days, carrying explosives in metal boxes that must have weighed about 50 pounds each. When that job was done, we all got a short leave out to Saint-Omer. We knew when the tunnels were to be blown. When the time came, we were all watching from the top of a little hill near La Clyte. At 2.30 in the morning, there was a kind of thud. Then the ground shook to and fro like it was shivering. Then we saw flames shoot up high in the dark over the ridge. Then the guns opened up. Hundreds of guns. That was some noise, I tell you. Along towards daylight, the infantry went over no-man’s land and up the ridge. I guess they didn't find many Germans in any shape to fight because they took the ridge easy. Tunnel explosion near Messines Ridge 1917
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