As it dropped it appeared to be coming straight down into the trench
and every man had an uncomfortable feeling that the thing was going to
fall directly on him. Actually it fell short and well out in front of
the trench and only a few splinters and a shower of earth whizzed over
harmlessly high.

The third was another 'over' and the fourth another 'short' and the
Asterisks, unaware of the significance of the closing-in 'bracket'
began to feel relief and a trifle of contempt for this clumsy
slow-moving and visible missile. Their relief and contempt vanished
for ever when the fifth bomb fell exactly in the trench, burst with a
nerve-shattering roar, and filled the air with whistling fragments and
dense choking, blinding smoke and stench.

Having got their range and angle accurately, the Germans proceeded to
hurl bomb after bomb with the most horrible exactness and persistency.
For two hundred yards up and down the trench there was no escape from
the blast of the bursts. It was no good crouching low, or flattening
up against the parapet; for the bombs dropped straight down and struck
out backwards and sideways and in every direction.

Even the roofed-in dug-outs gave no security. A bomb that fell just
outside the entrance of one dug-out, riddled one man lying inside, and
blew another who was crouching in the entrance outwards bodily across
the trench, stunning him with the shock and injuring him in a score of
places. Plenty of the bombs fell short of the trench, but too many
fell fairly in it. When one did so there was only one thing to do--to
throw oneself violently down in the mud of the trench bottom, and wait,
heart in mouth, for the crash of the explosion.

The Artillery, on being appealed to, pounded the front German trench
for an hour, but made no impression on the trench-mortar. The O.C. of
the Asterisks telephoned the Brigade asking what he was to do to stop
the torment and destruction, and in reply was told he ought to bomb
back at the bomb-throwers. But the Asterisks had already tried that
without any success. The distance was too great for hand bombs to
reach, and the men appeared to make poor shooting with the rifle
grenades.

'Why not try the trench-mortar?' asked the Brigade; to which the
harassed Colonel replied conclusively because he didn't possess one,
hadn't a bomb for one, and hadn't a man or officer who knew how to use
one.

The Brigade apparently learnt this with surprise, and rep