ole through the straw thatch gave a good view of what was going on.

I had a very powerful pair of field binoculars with which I could
count the chickens in a barnyard five miles off. The battle was about
to begin. A few of our guns were giving the morning "straffing" as
usual. The sun was up and it was a bright clear day. I could see the
British lines marked by brown sandbags, now hidden by hedges, again
showing across the Rue D'Enfer, but hidden by the houses and church at
the corner called Fauquissart. Beyond that again to my right rear the
line crossed the Rue Du Tilleloy and swept on to Neuve Chapelle. A
clump of tall elms here interfered with the view. I could also see the
German trenches. They were crowned with rows of white sandbags,
interspersed with blue bundles that looked like army blankets or blue
bed sticks filled with earth. There was not much stirring for the
moment.

Suddenly the guns woke up behind our line. The Canadian eighteens and
five inchers took up the chorus. Back came half a dozen German forty
pounder shells bursting in the field on my right. They were miles away
from our guns. One by one the British batteries joined in the chorus
until in less than five minutes over three hundred cannon of every
description were pouring death and destruction on the German trenches.
At first I could see our shells bursting with volumes of green and
yellow smoke and blowing up the German parapets. I could see sandbags
flying fifty feet in the air and what looked like men as well. Debris
flew in every direction, and in a few minutes I could see neither
sandbags nor parapets. Nothing but the yellow smoke of lyddite and
behind this in the air a ring of fire where the shrapnel were bursting
and showering their leaden curtain to keep the enemy's supports from
coming up. I could see that there was much excitement along the
British parapets. Men clustered together like bees, and in some places
I could see soldiers climbing up on top of the parapet, waving their
rifles and caps in the air. They were telling the Huns what they were
going to do to them. They were too far away for me to hear what their
language was, but they were evidently enjoying the punishing the
Germans were getting. At 8.30 o'clock the roar of the guns died away
suddenly, only to be followed by the most intense musketry fire. It
was something like the distant sound of Niagara Falls. I never heard
anything really like it. This continued for about ten