khouse. Just before I reached my destination a shell had landed
squarely in this gun pit, where a number of the men were lined up
waiting for supper. The effect of this shell was not only deadly in the
extreme, but very peculiar in its action. At the right hand side corner
of the gun pit was the dugout for the left section, and the right
section occupied the dugout on the left hand side corner. The shell
struck the edge of the right section dugout in which four men at the
bottom were having a card game; the fuse tore its way down the steps,
knocking large chunks of the steps off in its course, and down into the
center of the card game, scattering the money in every direction and not
injuring a single member of the party. The back lash of the deadly
visitor, however, ripped the life out of the men waiting for supper at
the cookhouse and the side lash of its stroke caught the men in the
right hand side dugout in which were two soldiers sitting on a box,
munching biscuits. One of them had the upper half of his head blown off,
scattering the blood and brains over his chum, who escaped without a
scratch.

I reached the gun pit about one minute after the explosion. God in
Heaven! What a sight met my eyes! The floor of the pit was strewn with
the men in all directions, six of them dead and the balance fearfully
wounded. I dashed out for stretcher bearers and Fritz just then started
increasing his fire; he had kept an eye on the men running through the
trench to the gun pit. He therefore knew that there must be a nest of us
there.

In spite of the gain in the enemy's gunfire, we started our wounded pals
to the officers' dugouts; most of the lads had been so severely
shell-shocked that we had a most trying time to keep them in their
stretchers. Men who have been shell-shocked most usually exhibit it by
wanting to run off in all directions; I have seen them with wounds that
ordinarily would cause them to collapse, but under the influence of the
shock exert themselves with such strength and violence that it would
take a couple of sturdy men to hold them. There is a trite saying that
every disadvantage has a corresponding advantage and I wondered that
night when I got back to the gun pit if nature intended that the
advantage from this disaster was the increase in our supper ration due
to the death and wounding of my soldier pals!

A few days after, we were notified we were going to drive forward
another stage, and I went to the