d park made an
excellent watering-place for horses. The wonderful paintings and
tapestries in the library on the Chateau had been destroyed. As I
wandered among the ruins, filming various scenes of our engineers at
work sorting out the debris, I noticed many things which must have been
of inestimable value. Every statue and ornamentation about the grounds
was wilfully smashed to atoms; the flower-pots which lined the edges of
the once beautiful floral walks had been deliberately crushed--in fact a
more complete specimen of purposeless, wanton destruction it would be
impossible to find.

I filmed the most interesting sections; then continued my way through
Bouvais on to see the General of a Division. This Division was working
near the French left. After a very interesting conversation this officer
recommended me to call on a Brigadier-General.

"He is stationed at ----," he said. "I will ring him up and tell him you
are on the way. He will give you all the map references of the O.P.'s in
the neighbourhood. Anyway, you can make your own arrangements, I
suppose, about views?"

"Oh, yes, sir, certainly, so long as I can get very near to the place."

"Right. You go into all these details with General ----."

Thanking him I hurried away. I found the mines which Bosche had exploded
at all cross-roads very troublesome, and on one occasion, in
endeavouring to cross by way of the field alongside, I got badly stuck;
so I had to borrow a couple of horses to get me out on to the road
again.

I duly arrived and reported to Brigadier H.Q. It was the cellar of a
once decent house by the appearance of the garden. I went down six steps
into a chamber reeking with dampness about six feet high by ten feet
square; a candle was burning in a bottle on a roughly made table, and,
sitting at it, was the General closely studying details on a map.

He looked up as I entered.

"Are you the Kinema man?" he enquired. "General ---- told me you were
coming; what do you want?"

"Well, sir," I said, "I want to obtain films of all the operations in
connection with the taking of St. Quentin; if you have an
observation-post from which I can obtain a good view it will suit me
admirably."

"I am sure we can fix you up all right. But we are just going to have a
meal; sit down and join us. We can then go into details."

Lunch was served in primitive fashion, which was unavoidable under such
conditions--but we fared sumptuously, although on a rough