Our Jack Goes West: A Commemorative Novelette

By Susan Raby-Dunne

Our Jack Goes West: A Commemorative Novelette by military historian, Susan Raby-Dunne is the fictionalized story of the last days and hours of Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae beginning at No.3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill) and ending at the No.14 British Officers Hos

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bonfire Pictures
• Release date: Jan 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9780969334330

Susan Raby-Dunne

Susan Raby-Dunne is an author, military historian and battlefield guide who specialized in telling war stories through the eyes and experience of those who were there. She also guides people in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, following in the footsteps of family members who served, or just telling the stories of soldiers and air crew in both WWI and WWII.

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Our Jack Goes West

A Commemorative Novelette

January 28, 1918 - January 28th, 2018

Susan Raby-Dunne

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Susan Raby-Dunne

copyright ©2018    ISBN 978-0-9693343-2-3

Published by Bonfire Pictures

P.O. Box 237

Longview, Alberta, CANADA

www.susanrabydunne.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form, by any process; electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright holder and Bonfire Pictures.

Lieutenant-Colonel Jack McCrae blows out the lantern and settles into his cot for the night. An asthma attack is trying to build up momentum in his chest and he prays that sleep will overtake him before it can get started. His old enemy hasn’t plagued him much over the summer but as fall comes on, here on the French coast with its bone-chilling damp, he knows it will return as always, with a vengeance.

  As a last thing, he drops his hand down beside the bed and feels for the top of the dog’s head.

Good-night, Bonneau.

  The spaniel’s stub of a tail wiggles as McCrae pats him but he doesn’t raise his head. Time for quiet and sleep now finally after an exhausting day. Between following Jack through the wards of Number 3 Canadian General Hospital - McGill, on morning and evening rounds, he’d played ‘fetch’ with two Australian soldiers who never tired of it. One had a crutch and a shattered ankle and the other merely the ‘walking pneumonia.’

  McCrae on the other hand has spent much of the day treating a continuing flood of casualties from the 3rd Ypres offensive or Passchendaele, as the Canadians call it. The staff were told in advance to evacuate as many patients as possible to make room for the onslaught. He dreads the thought of the damaged men that he knows are coming. Some say it will be worse than the Somme. How could it be worse? He will soon find out as the worst rains in 75 years descend on the low, flat Flanders farmlands.

  He didn’t even have time for Bonfire today, for his usual evening ride on the big red horse that has been with him since Valcartier, Quebec in 1914, three years ago. The Chestnut Gentleman, as he calls him, has been with him through everything including the terrible battle beside the canal north of Ypres where Lex was killed and where he wrote that indelible poem amidst the carnage and the blood-red poppies.