cigarette papers and slit trenches

grampa was a sapper (combat engineer) in ww2; he went overseas with the 1st canadian infantry division in 1940. while in italy he and some other sappers were leaving thier headquarters to go to the front line when they were told to guide a group of replacement infantry men up to thier new unit. the new troops were young and cocky; as they neared the front they passed an aid station with a large pile of bodies "stacked up like cordwood". one of the young guys asked grampa if they were all germans; grampa said "cripes man, they're all canadians; your life isn't worth a cigarette paper up here!" while in england before the invasion of sicily the sappers had to build fortifications and mine the beaches and other work to prepare the island in case of invasion. while fortifying an airstrip the engineers would be called upon to help clear damaged or destroyed planes from the runway.  it was terrible to see the bombers coming back all shot up and the injuries to the air crews. some of the bombers had to be hosed out because of the carnage inside. grampa said it " made him glad he was in the army because; those poor guys just had to fly right into it; they had nowhere to go; at least i could dig a slit trench; if you had a good hole you had a chance." the shovel as valuable as the rifle maybe?......bomber comand had the highest casualty rate of canadians during ww2.