t on the
mixture of splinters and earth.

On the other side of the valley was a cut in the earth, a ditch, the
British first-line trench, which was unoccupied, so far as I could see.
Beyond lay the old No Man's Land where grass and weeds had grown wild
for two seasons, hiding the numerous shell-craters and the remains of
the dead from the British charge of July 1st which had been repulsed. On
the other side of this was two hundred yards of desolate stretch up to
the wavy, chalky excavation from the deep cutting of the German
first-line trench, as distinct as a white line on dark-brown paper.
There was no sign of life here, either, or to the rear where ran the
network of other excavations as the result of the almost two years of
German digging, the whole thrown in relief on the slope up to the bare
trunks of two or three trees thrust upward from the smudge of the ruins
of Thiepval.

Just a knoll in rolling farm country, that was all; but it concealed
burrows upon burrows of burrowers more cunning than any rodents--men.
Since July 1st the Germans had not been idle. They had had time to
profit from the lesson of the attack with additions and improvements.
They had deepened dugouts and joined them by galleries; they had Box and
Cox hiding-places; nests defensible from all sides which became known as
Mystery Works and Wonder Works. The message of that gashed and spaded
hillside was one of mortal defiance.

Occasionally a British high explosive broke in the German trench and all
up and down the line as far as we could see this desultory shell fire
was proceeding, giving no sign of where the next attack was coming,
which was part of the plan.

"It's ten to four!" said Howell. "We were here in ample time. I hope we
get them at relief," which was when a battalion that had been on duty
was relieved by a battalion that had been in rest.

He laid his map on the parapet and the location and plan of the attack
became clear as a part of the extensive operations in the
Thiepval-Mouquet Farm sector. The British were turning the flank of
these Thiepval positions as they swung in from the joint of the break of
July 1st up to the Pozieres Ridge. A squeeze here and a squeeze there;
an attack on that side and then on this; one bite after another.

"I hope you will like our patent barrage," said the artillery general,
as he stopped for a moment on the way to a near-by observation post. "We
are thinking rather well of it ourselves of la