now, but our men suffered badly from shell-fire. On
several occasions I noticed men run and take temporary cover in the
shell-holes, but their ranks were being terribly thinned.

Still more went over, and still a stream of men were making for the mine
crater; they then disappeared in the smoke. The noise was terrific. It
was as if the earth were lifting bodily, and crashing against some
immovable object. The very heavens seemed to be falling. Thousands of
things were happening at the same moment. The mind could not begin to
grasp the barest margin of it.

The German shells were crashing all round me. Dirt was being flung in my
face, cutting it like whipcord. My only thought was whether any of it
had struck my lens and made it dirty, for this would have spoiled my
film. I gave a quick glance at it. It was quite all right.

Fearful fighting was taking place in the German trenches. The heavy
rattle of machine-guns, the terrible din of exploding bombs, could be
heard above the pandemonium. Our men had ceased to flow from our
trenches. I crept to the top of the parapet, and looked towards the left
of the village of Beaumont Hamel. Our guns were bursting on the other
side of the village, but I could distinguish nothing else as to how
things were going.

I asked an officer who was standing close by.

"God knows," he replied. "Everything over there is so mixed up. The
General said this was the hardest part of the line to get through, and
my word it seems like it, to look at our poor lads."

I could see them strewn all over the ground, swept down by the accursed
machine-gun fire.

A quick succession of shell-bursts attracted my attention. Back to my
camera position. Another lot of our men were going over the top. I began
exposing, keeping them in my camera view all the time, as they were
crossing, by revolving my tripod head.

Shell after shell crashed in the middle of them, leaving ghastly gaps,
but other men quickly filled them up, passing through the smoke, and
over the bodies of their comrades, as if there were no such thing as a
shell in all the world. Another spool ran out, making the fourth since
the attack started. I gave it in charge of my man, with the same
instructions as before. I loaded again, and had just started exposing.
Something attracted my attention on the extreme left. What it was I
don't know. I ceased turning, but still holding the handle, I veered
round the front of my camera. The next moment, w