ing-song,
all the men being in the best of spirits for at last we knew we were
going to have a real scrap with the Hun, and although we had been in
France twelve months, we had always been on the defensive and that is
always the hardest kind of fighting. As we had quite a lot of old
scores to pay off, we were just eager to get at the foe. After a long
march we finally arrived at the brickfield in Albert, and there we saw
for our first time the brass statute on the Church of Albert which
was hanging head down. You would think that it would fall at any
moment, but it was well secured so that the person who made the
prophecy that when the statute on the church at Albert fell, the war
would end, must have known that the war would last a long time.

Well here we were. Thousands of troops ready for a big attack. One day
we saw some queer looking objects coming along the road. We were all
wondering what sort of war machines they were. There were all sorts of
rumors as to what they were and what they could do. We did not find
out what they were until the 15th of September and then we knew that
they were the much-talked of "tanks." Fritz also found that out--much
to his loss. We did several working parties here, going up through
Contalmaison, Pozieres and other villages. We should not have known
that they had been villages only that there were signs there to inform
us to that effect.

Anybody who has seen the German trenches here, and the deep dugouts
and steep ridges which the British troops had to swarm over could
scarcely believe it possible to take any of their positions; but we
had a leader in General Haig and he knew what he was doing. The
Artillery pounded the Hun with such vigor that if any were left they
were properly demoralized, and then the infantry went over and caught
the Germans down in their dugouts. By the night of Sept. 14th we were
ready to launch our attack. The great Somme fight was on!

Chapter Seven

On the way up to the trenches and on seeing the guns, practically
speaking, wheel to wheel, we thought it would be impossible to use
more artillery at one time. But I know we have four or five times the
number of heavy guns in use on the western front now than we had on
the Somme, and that is one of the reasons that the morale of the men
in the western area is so good.

On the night of September 14th we moved up to a position of reserve,
and we were all issued our fighting material which co