mortifying Huns. But I have long since ceased to have any pity for them.
Although they are the victims of a system over which they have no
apparent control, yet they are supposed to be human beings with human,
red blood in their veins, and the numberless deeds of which they have
been guilty have branded them as nothing better than brute beasts in the
eyes of all humanity.

With the help of the Pozieres Ridge we could observe Fritz quite clearly
now, and every time he attempted any digging-in work our guns would
speak to him in terms so convincing that he fain would desist. My
battery then moved up to within a thousand yards of the foe, one and a
half miles northwest of Labazell, where we had to dig right in the
open. At this point the dead were also strewn so thickly that it was
practically impossible to walk without stepping on a corpse, or part of
one, every other step, among them being many of our own fellows who here
paid the supreme price, and each time we came across a laddie in khaki
it was a signal for an outburst of swearing. Had we not sworn we would
have wept, and, naturally, as men we preferred to do the other thing.

While here our rations ran short; our prisoners numbered over 20,000 and
the policy of the British Government being to treat a prisoner as well,
if not better, than her own soldiers (their wants are always attended to
first), we were practically without food, and were compelled to resort
to the heroic method of taking the rations from the bodies of our poor
comrades who were lying cold on the ground and who would need them no
more.

Three-quarters of a mile north of Labazell we were in our gun pit one
night and "Ammunition up!" was the order. This meant that everybody,
including officers and down to cook, the telephonist on duty alone being
excepted, had to get out and help unload the life-saving material. I
remember thinking of the anomaly at the time,--how strange it was that
we should regard the ammunition as life saving, when it was in reality
so destructive of life. While working like Turks unloading the shells,
some of the drivers were talking about a strange sight they had seen
down the road near Albert (pronounced Albare), when loading up at the
ammunition dump. They told us that huge contraptions covered with
tarpaulin were lying on the side of the road, with six-pounder guns
protruding from their sides; in conversation the drivers referred to
them as land boats, and some, as land dr