about the rear the rattle of a machine gun ten miles
back of the line told of the machine gun school; a series of explosions
drew attention to bombers working their way through practice trenches in
a field; a heavier explosion was from the academy for trench mortars; a
mighty cloud of smoke and earth rising two or three hundred feet was a
new experiment in mining. Sir Douglas went on the theory that no soldier
can know his work too well. He meant to allow no man in his command to
grow dull from idleness.

Trench warfare had become systematized, and inevitably the holding of
the same line for month after month was not favorable to the development
of initiative. A man used to a sedentary life is not given to physical
action. One who is always digging dugouts is loath to leave the
habitation which has cost him much labor in order to live in the open.

Battalions were in position for a given number of days, varying with the
character of the position held, when they were relieved for a rest in
billets. While in occupation they endured an amount of shell fire
varying immensely between different sectors. A few men were on the watch
with rifles and machine guns for any demonstration by the enemy, while
the rest were idle when not digging. They sent out patrols at night into
No Man's Land for information; exchanged rifle grenades, mortars and
bombs with the enemy. Each week brought its toll of casualties, light in
the tranquil places, heavy in the wickedly hot corner of the Ypres
salient, where attacks and counter-attacks never ceased and the
apprehension of having your parapet smashed in by an artillery
"preparation," which might be the forerunner of an attack, was
unremittingly on the nerves.

It was a commonplace that any time you desired you could take a front of
a thousand or two yards simply by concentrating your gunfire, cutting
the enemy's barbed wire and tearing the sandbags of his parapet into
ribbons, with resulting fearful casualties to him; and then a swift
charge under cover of the artillery hurricane would gain possession of
the debris, the enemy's wounded and those still alive in his dugouts.
Losses in operations of this kind usually were much lighter in taking
the enemy's position than in the attempt to hold it, as he, in answer to
your offensive, turned the full force of his guns upon his former trench
which your men were trying to organize into one of their own. Later,
under cover of his own guns, his charg