om you mean," answered a private of the R.A.M.C. "He got it
that bombing-stunt a few months ago. It was bloody awful too--the worst
thing I've ever been in. I was standing next to him when the first one
exploded. He flopped down and lay flat on the ground, but I rushed away
into the fields with a lot of others. When it was all over we went back
and heard the wounded crying out in a way that was dreadful to hear.
This fellow was still lying on the ground by the duckboards, trembling
all over and paralysed with fear. We went to help the wounded, but he
was in such a state that he could not come with us, so we left him
behind. There was an inquiry afterwards and _we_ got into a frightful
row for running away. He got the M.M. for sticking to his post!"

VII

THE GERMAN PUSH

"What madness there is in this arithmetic that counts men by the
millions like grains of corn in a bushel.... A newspaper has just
written about an encounter with the enemy: 'Our losses were
insignificant, one dead and five wounded.' It would be interesting
to know for whom these losses are insignificant? For the one who
was killed?... If he were to rise from his grave, would he think
the loss 'insignificant'? If only he could think of everything from
the very beginning, of his childhood, his family, his beloved wife,
and how he went to the war and how, seized by the most conflicting
thoughts and emotions, he felt afraid, and how it all ended in
death and horror.... But they try to convince us that 'our losses
are insignificant.' Think of it, godless writer! Go to your master
the Devil with your clever arithmetic.... How this man revolts
me--may the Devil take him!"

(ANDREYEFF.)

Throughout the winter one question above all others was discussed by the
few who took an interest in the war: "What were the Germans going to
do?" It was clear that they had been able to withdraw many divisions
from their Eastern Front. Would they be numerically equal or superior to
the Allies on the Western Front?

On the whole we were of opinion that, whatever happened, our positions
would prove impregnable, although we observed with some astonishment
that there were no extensive trench systems or fortified places behind
our lines. I doubted whether the Germans would even attempt to break
through--I thought they would merely hold the Western Front and throw
the Allies out of Macedonia