ose up from behind cover the
bullets whistle.

War is terrible. We are all hoping that a decisive battle will end
the war, as our troops already have got round Paris. If we beat the
English the French resistance will soon be broken. Russia will be
very quickly dealt with; of this there is no doubt.

We received splendid help from the Austrian [Transcriber: original
'Austrain'] heavy artillery at Maubeuge. They bombarded Fort
Cerfontaine in such a way that there was not ten meters a parapet
which did not show enormous craters made by the shells. The armored
turrets were found upside down.

Yesterday evening, about 6, in the valley in which our reserves
stood there was such a terrible cannonade that we saw nothing of
the sky but a cloud of smoke. We had few casualties.

Recently a pilot and observer of the Royal Flying Corps were forced by a
breakage in their aeroplane to descend in the enemy's lines. The pilot
managed to pancake his machine down to earth, and the two escaped into
some thick under-growth in the woods.

The enemy came up and seized and smashed the machine, but did not search
for our men with much zeal. The latter lay hid till dark and then found
their way to the Aisne, across which they swam, reaching camp in safety,
but barefooted.

Numerous floating bridges have been thrown across the Aisne and some of
the pontoon bridges have been repaired under fire. On the 20th, Lieut.
[name deleted] of the Third Signal Corps, Royal Engineers, was
unfortunately drowned while attempting to swim across the river with a
cable in order to open up fresh telegraphic communication on the north
side.

Espionage is still carried on by the enemy to a considerable extent.
Recently the suspicions of some of the French troops were aroused by
coming across a farm from which the horses had been removed. After some
search they discovered a telephone which was connected by an underground
cable with the German lines, and the owner of the farm paid the penalty
in the usual way in war for his treachery.

After some cases of village fighting which occurred earlier in the war
it was reported by some of our officers that the Germans had attempted
to approach to close quarters by forcing prisoners to march in front of
them. The Germans have recently repeated the same trick on a larger
scale against the French, as is shown by the copy of an order printed
below. It is t