e sending
much back."

"I don't think much, sir," he replied.

I hardly think we believed each other. Looking up out of the trench
beyond him, I saw huge, black columns of smoke and _debris_ rising up
from our communication trench. Then, suddenly, there was a blinding
"crash" just by us. We were covered in mud which flopped out of the
trench, and the evil-smelling fumes of lyddite. The cry for
stretcher-bearers was passed hurriedly up the line again. Followed
"crash" after "crash," and the pinging of shrapnel which flicked into
the top of the trench, the purring noise of flying nose-caps and soft
thudding sounds as they fell into the parapet.

It was difficult to hear one another talking. Sergeant S----l was
still full of the "get at 'em" spirit. So were we all. The men were
behaving splendidly. I passed along the word to "Fix swords."

We could not see properly over the top of the trench, but smoke was
going over. The attack was about to begin--it was beginning. I passed
word round the corner of the traverse, asking whether they could see
if the second wave was starting. It was just past 7.30 A.M. The third
wave, of which my platoon formed a part, was due to start at 7.30 plus
45 seconds--at the same time as the second wave in my part of the
line. The corporal got up, so I realised that the second wave was
assembling on the top to go over. The ladders had been smashed or used
as stretchers long ago. Scrambling out of a battered part of the
trench, I arrived on top, looked down my line of men, swung my rifle
forward as a signal, and started off at the prearranged walk.

A continuous hissing noise all around one, like a railway engine
letting off steam, signified that the German machine-gunners had
become aware of our advance. I nearly trod on a motionless form. It
lay in a natural position, but the ashen face and fixed, fearful eyes
told me that the man had just fallen. I did not recognise him then. I
remember him now. He was one of my own platoon.

To go back for a minute. The scene that met my eyes as I stood on the
parapet of our trench for that one second is almost indescribable.
Just in front the ground was pitted by innumerable shell-holes. More
holes opened suddenly every now and then. Here and there a few bodies
lay about. Farther away, before our front line and in No Man's Land,
lay more. In the smoke one could distinguish the second line
advancing. One man after another fell down in a seemingly natural