h battle that had ever been filmed which I
took at Beaumont Hamel on July 1st, 1916.

Weary in body, but very much alive mentally, we returned via
Villers-Carbonel to our car.

On my way back I wondered how the cat and her kittens were getting on.

The black cat had certainly brought me luck.

CHAPTER XXVII

THE GERMANS IN RETREAT

The Enemy Destroy Everything as They Go--Clearing Away the
Debris of the Battlefield--And Repairing the Damage Done by
the Huns--An Enormous Mine Crater--A Reception by French
Peasants--"Les Anglais! Les Anglais!" Stuck on the Road to
Bovincourt.

To keep in touch with all the happenings on that section of the front
for which I was responsible, and to obtain a comprehensive record of
events, it was necessary to keep very wide awake. Movements, definite
and indefinite, were taking place in scores of different places at the
same moment. To keep in touch with the enemy, to work with our forward
patrols, to enter upon the heels of our advance guard into the evacuated
villages--and, if possible, to get there first and film their triumphal
entry, film our advance infantry and guns taking up new positions, the
engineers at work remaking the roads, building new bridges over the
Somme, laying down new railways and repairing old ones--the hundred and
one different organisations that were working and straining every muscle
and nerve for the common cause. Only the favoured few have the remotest
idea of the enormous amount of work to be done under such conditions.

The road (which was No Man's Land yesterday morning) to the village of
Villers-Carbonel was now swarming with men clearing away the accumulated
debris of the battlefield. Tree trunks were moved off the road,
shell-holes were being filled up with bricks and branches, trenches,
which crossed the road, were being filled in, a Tank trap at the
entrance to the village, the shape of a broad, deep ditch, about thirty
by twenty feet wide by fifteen feet deep, was being loaded with tree
trunks and earth. I filmed these scenes; then hurried as fast as
possible in the direction of Brie to cover the advanced work on the
Somme, and then to cross to the other side and get in touch with our
cavalry patrols.

What an extraordinary change in the place! Yesterday a ghostly silence
reigned; now men and material and transport were swarming everywhere. I
reached the river. The engineers had thrown up light, temporary
bri