ed only
guns and explosions, things built of steel to fire missiles of steel and
things on wheels, and little about the machine of human beings now to
come abreast of the tape for the charge, the men who had been "blooded,"
the "cannon fodder." Every shell was meant for killing men; every German
battery and machine gun was a monster frothing red at the lips in
anticipation of slaughter.

A fury of trench raids broke out from the Somme to Ypres further to
confuse the enemy as to the real front of attack. Men rushed the
trenches which they were to take and hold later, and by their brief
visit learned whether or not the barbed wire had been properly cut to
give the great charge a clear pathway and whether or not the German
trenches were properly mashed. They brought in prisoners whose
identification and questioning were invaluable to the intelligence
branch, where the big map on the wall was filled in with the location
of German divisions, thus building up the order of battle, so vital to
all plans, with its revelation of the disposition and strength of the
enemy's forces. It was known that the Germans were rapidly bringing up
new batteries north of the Ancre while low visibility postponed the day
of the attack.

The men that worked on the new roads keeping them in condition for the
passage of the heavy transport, whether columns of motor trucks, or
caissons, or the great tractors drawing guns, were no less a part of the
scheme than the daring raiders. Every soldier who was going over the
parapet in the attack must have his food and drink and bombs to throw
and cartridges to fire after he had reached his objective.

Most telling of all the innumerably suggestive features to me were the
streets of empty white tents at the casualty clearing stations, and the
empty hospital cars on the railway sidings, and the new enclosures for
prisoners--for these spoke the human note. These told that man was to be
the target.

The staff might plan, gunners might direct their fire accurately against
unseen targets by the magic of their calculations, generals might
prepare their orders, the intricate web of telephone and telegraph wires
might hum with directions, but the final test lay with him who, rifle
and bomb ready in hand, was going to cross No Man's Land and take
possession of the German trenches. A thousand pictures cloud the memory
and make a whole intense in one's mind, which holds all proudly in
admiration of human stoicism,