V-shaped oat field was bordered on all sides by dense clusters of
trees. In the trees on the side opposite the side on which we stood,
were German machine guns. We could hear them. We could not see them but
we knew that every leaf and piece of greenery there vibrated from their
fire and the tops of the young oats waved and swayed with the streams of
lead that swept across.

Major Berry gave orders for us to follow him at intervals of ten or
fifteen yards. Then he started across the field alone at the head of the
party. I followed. Behind me came Hartzell. Then the woods about us
began to rattle fiercely. It was unusually close range. That lead
travelled so fast that we could not hear it as it passed. We soon had
visual demonstration of the hot place we were in when we began to see
the dust puffs that the bullets kicked up in the dirt around our feet.

Major Berry had advanced well beyond the centre of the field when I saw
him turn toward me and heard him shout:

"Get down everybody."

We all fell on our faces. And then it began to come hot and fast.
Perfectly withering volleys of lead swept the tops of the oats just over
us. For some reason it did not seem to be coming from the trees hardly a
hundred yards in front of us. It was coming from a new direction--from
the left.

I was busily engaged flattening myself on the ground. Then I heard a
shout in front of me. It came from Major Berry. I lifted my head
cautiously and looked forward. The Major was making an effort to get to
his feet. With his right hand he was savagely grasping his left wrist.

"My hand's gone," he shouted. One of the streams of lead from the left
had found him. A ball had entered his left arm at the elbow, had
travelled down the side of the bone, tearing away muscles and nerves of
the forearm and lodging itself in the palm of his hand. His pain was
excruciating.

"Get down. Flatten out, Major," I shouted, and he dropped to the ground.
I did not know the extent of his injuries at that time but I did know
that he was courting death every minute he stood up.

"We've got to get out of here," said the Major. "We've got to get
forward. They'll start shelling this open field in a few minutes."

I lifted my head for another cautious look.

I judged that I was lying about thirty yards from the edge of the trees
in front of us. The Major was about ten yards in front of me.

"You are twenty yards from the trees," I shouted to the Major. "I am
crawl