How
could the British have known when Fritz would fire again? It seemed
uncanny, until a strange unwritten reciprocal working arrangement
between friend and foe was explained, which means in effect that Fritz
refrains from bombing or bombarding 'A----' three or four miles behind
the British lines if Tommy leaves village 'B----' behind his lines
alone, and _vice versa_. As both villages are used as billets for the
rival armies, both have been glad at times to honour this understanding.
The run from Souastre to the railhead at Saulty was uneventful. Night
was closing in as we left for Arras and there was no moon. For twenty
kilos or more we had to travel with lights extinguished. We were less
than a mile from the enemy trenches, which ran parallel to the road we
were traversing. 'Verey' lights or star-shells sent up by the enemy
continually made everything as light as day for the few seconds they
were in the air. There were mysterious noises from the gun emplacements
that run along the roadside, and mysterious shapes loomed up ahead of us
from time to time as we overhauled and passed transport wagons and the
like. At last we reached our destination, and it was the writer's first
visit to a town of considerable size that had been wrecked by
bombardment. There were barricades in the streets, shell-holes and
ruins everywhere. We motored through the famous Grande Place and passed
through street after street in that city of the dead, until, turning a
corner, we entered a narrow street near the ruined cathedral, and
hearing a piano playing rag-time, it was obvious that we were near the
Y.M.C.A. The memory of that old chateau in the narrow street will always
remain with us as we saw it then--the entrance hall, where free hot
drinks were being dispensed; the canteen crammed with British soldiers,
including many 'Bantams,' who were then stationed at Arras; the little
concert-room, with possibly a hundred men gathered round a piano singing
choruses and snatches of songs or listening to the rag-time,
accompanying it at times by whistling the refrain or stamping on the
floor. Another crowd upstairs had been entertained to a lantern lecture,
and the day's programme was being concluded with family prayers. As we
lay awake that night we heard many familiar noises that sounded strange
there--a cat call, the cry of a baby, whilst ever and anon a shell would
go shrieking over the town. In the morning we visited the ruined
cathedral, which w