ning" by shell fire-A slice out of the front-The task of the infantryman-The dawn before the attack-Fi

occupied part of a schoolhouse. In place of exercises in geography and lithographs of natural history objects, on the schoolroom walls hung charts of the German Order of Battle, as built up through many sources of information, which the Br

lan of attack with reference to broad colored lines which denoted

eft, pound the center with our ar

rman trench line into the British which seemed to invite "pinching," and this was to be the pivot of the British movement. The French who were on both sides of the Somme were to swing in from their southern flank of attack near

mation from Thiepval to Longueval, which would start them on the way to the consummation of their siege hammering. It was to be a battle by inches; the begi

ritish for about fifteen and the French for about ten. The soldierly informant at "Intelligence" reminded the listener, too, that battalions which might be squeezed or might run into unexpected obstacles would suffer f

a standardized system, only one dealt with corps and the other with battalions. A trip to Auchonvillers at any time during the previ

times. Perhaps the Germans were about to put a barrage on the road. Perhaps they were going to start their guns in earnest. Happily, they have always been most considerate where I was concerned and they were only throwing in a few shells in the course of artillery routine, which happened also on our return from

corner of our gun-pit and got two men. That's all." His eyes were shining; he was in the elation of battle. Casualties we

s in an artillery duel. Then we stepped into the winding communication trench with its system of wires fast to the wall

gular promoted from the ranks who had been "spotting" shells since the war began

urity of observation for these eyes of the guns. The officer was as proud of his O.P. as any battalion commander of his trench or a bat

ch gave a wide sweep of vision. A commonplace enough mise-en-scène on average days, now significant because of the s

ew walls were standing. It was difficult to tell where the débris of Beaumont-Hamel began and that of the German trench ended. Dust was mixed with the black bursts of smoke rising from t

ded its last kernel of grain? Wasn't it merely pounding the graves of a garrison? Other villages, equally p

tening them," s

rts. Softening! It personified the enemy as something hard and tough which would grow pu

d into balls, beaten back into the earth and exhumed again, leaving only a welt of crater-spotted ground

l doing these last few days. Turning our attention mostly to the second line, now. That's our lot,

epair their wire a

r machine gun fire. Any Boches w

could ascertain. As well might the observer with his glasses or an aeroplane looking down try t

ise of British and German trenches-a slice out of the front, as it were. Speaking over the telephone to the blind guns, he was interested only in the control of gunfire in this sector. The charge to him was lines on the map parallel with the trenches which

he purpose were to take possession of the dugouts and "breach" them of prisoners and disarm all other Germans, lest they fire into the backs of those who carried the charge farther on to the final stage of the objective. What awaited them they would know only when they climbed over the parapet and became silhouettes of vulnerable flesh in

er points was mooted; for the spectator had to choose his seat for the panorama. T

me at the door when I left the hotel

lley shut out their roar a divine hush lay over the world. On either side of the main road was the peace of the hour before the dawn which would send the peasants from their beds to the fi

were visible being pushed out of their sheds; the hum of propellers being tried out was faintly heard. The birds of battle were testing their wings before flight

d to the chauffeur as we swept u

parterre box. Light was just breaking and we were in a field of young beets on the crest of a rise, with no higher ground beyond us all the way to Thiepval, which was in the day's objective, and t

he mighty volume of smoke from bursting shells. As it was not seven o'clock the sun might yet realize its duty in July

n was now firing, all stretching their powers to the maximum. The mist and smoke over the positions seemed to tremble with the blasts. Near-by shells, especially German, broke brilliantly against a background so thick that it swallowed up the flashes of more distant shells in its garishly

e no aid; they only made the fog thicker. Had we been in the first-line British trenches we could hardly have seen the men who left them through this wall of smoke

against the background of a soft and domeless sky, flying with the precision of wild geese. We knew that the German guns were responding now, for the

to the task? What would be the answer to skeptics who said that the London cockneys and the Manchester factory hands and all the others without military training coul

ar to another above the sawdust ring, or the "leap of death" of the movies; and here we were in the presence of a multitude who were running a far greater risk in an untried effort,

to the banks of the Somme and beyond, had left their parapets. I knew the men who were going into that charge too well to have any apprehension that any battalion would falter. The thing was to be done and they were to do it. Now they were out in No Man's Land; now they were facing the reception prepared for them. Thousands might already be down. We c

ggling back through the curtains of artillery fire and the sweep of machine gun fire. As the sun came out without clearing away the mist and shell-smoke over the field we had glimpses of som

asions when views of attacks were more intimate. Yet I would not change th