t in your Battalion. If you will give
me the map-location of the place where you think the Germans are (p. 250)
congregating, I will take it back with me to the liaison officer at
Battalion Headquarters." He was very pleased with my offer, because at
this time we were daily expecting a big attack upon our lines. To get
back we had to crawl down a steep place in the trench, which was in
view of the Germans, until at last we reached the cellar of a ruined
house which the O.C. of the company used as a billet. He got out his
maps and gave me the exact location of the road and trenches where the
Germans had been seen to pass, and where apparently they were massing.
I got him to write down the map-location carefully on a piece of
paper, and then, armed with this and feeling very important, I started
back, this time avoiding the trench and going up the Fampoux road on
the side of which there was some torn and broken camouflage. I came
across a steel helmet by the wayside with part of a man's head in it,
and the road had been pretty well battered by shells, but I felt
exceedingly proud at being able to do something which might possibly
avert an attack upon our men. I went on till at last I saw in the
hillside the beginning of a trench, and made my way up this to Pudding
lane and found Battalion Headquarters. The Artillery officer had been
having a quiet time and was delighted at the prospect of ordering a
"shoot." At once he telephoned back to the brigade, and not long
after, when the quiet sun was setting in the West, a most terrific
bombardment of artillery, both field and heavy, smashed the German
trenches on the hill opposite. The headquarters men and I looked over
the valley and saw the line of bursting shells. Much to their
amusement, I told them that this was my music, that I had ordered the
shoot. I felt like the fly on the axle of a cart, who said to his
companion fly, "Look at the dust we are making."

On another occasion, I was filled with almost equal pride, when,
meeting on the roadside a company of men who were going into the
trenches for the first time and were waiting for a guide, I offered my
services and actually led the company of young heroes into the
trenches myself. The humour of the situation was so palpable that the
men felt as if they were going to a picnic.

The trenches on the Feuchy side of the Scarpe were well made, and led
up to the higher ground to the east of Arras, where they joined the
line