atted him and he crept up
close beside me. Every muscle in his body was quivering. I wanted to
console him in his own language. But I knew very little French, and I
should have had to shout into his ear at the top of my voice to have made
myself heard. When we marched on I lost him. And I never saw him again.

There was a further march of two and a half miles over open country, the
scene of the great battle. The ground was a maze of abandoned trenches
and was pitted with shell holes. The clay was so slippery and we were so
heavily loaded that we fell down at every step. Some of the boys told me
afterward that I cursed like blue blazes all the way up. I was not
conscious of this, but I can readily understand that it may have been
true. At any rate, as a result of that march, I lost what reputation I
had for being temperate in the use of profanity.

We crossed what had been the first line of British trenches, which marked
the starting-point of the advance, and from there the ground was covered
with the bodies of our comrades, men who had "done their bit," as Tommy
says, and would never go home again. Some were huddled in pathetic little
groups of two or three as they might have crept together for
companionship before they died. Some were lying face downward just as
they had fallen. Others in attitudes revealing dreadful suffering. Many
were hanging upon the tangles of German barbed wire which the heaviest of
bombardments never completely destroys. We saw them only by the light of
distant trench rockets and stumbled on them and over them when the
darkness returned.

It is an unpleasant experience, marching under fire, on top of the
ground, even though it is dark and the enemy is shelling haphazardly. We
machine gunners were always heavily loaded. In addition to the usual
infantryman's burden, we had our machine guns to carry, and our
ammunition, water supply, tools and instruments. We were very eager to
get under cover, but we had to go slowly. By the time we reached our
trench we were nearly exhausted.

The men whom we were to relieve were packed up, ready to move out, when
we arrived. We threw our rifles and equipment on the parapet and stood
close to the side of the trench to allow them to pass. They were cased in
mud. Their faces, which I saw by the glow of matches or lighted
cigarettes, were haggard and worn. A week's growth of beard gave them a
wild and barbaric appearance. They talked eagerly. They were hysterica