the clock leaped over. In many cases they did not get any farther than
the first wave. The last wave, though they knew each had to do the
work of three, were in their places and started on their forlorn hope
at the appointed moment.

This battle was a disaster. We failed to take the German trenches, but
it was like two other failures, the defense of Belgium and the attack
of the Dardanelles--a failure so glorious as to fill a man with pride
that he was enabled to play a part in it. In this battle we so smashed
five divisions of Bavarian guards that it was months before they got
back into the trenches. Had they gone to Verdun at that time it might
have meant its fall, as they were the flower of the German army.

In places both first and second German lines were taken, but in others
we did not get across No Man's Land.

It was not that certain companies fought better than others, but here
and there were unexpected obstacles. In one place No Man's Land was
only fifty yards across, while elsewhere it was three hundred yards.
There was a creek running diagonally across in one section, too wide to
leap, too deep to ford, and the only place where it was bridged was so
_marked_ by the German machine-guns that the dead were piled in heaps
about it.

Those who actually reached the German trenches were too few to
consolidate, and the German artillery soon began to take a heavy toll
of them, knowing the range of their own trenches to a yard. So these
had to come back again, and when night fell we were back in our old
trenches--rather a few of us were; most of our division lay out in No
Man's Land.

All were not dead, but we had no men to help the wounded. We had no
stretchers, and those that were alive, unwounded, were so fatigued as
to be hardly able to stand upright. But we could not stand the thought
of the fellows out there without help, and we crawled among them,
taking the biscuits and water from the dead and giving them to the
wounded. We could only reach a few of them, and we crawled back at
daylight, cursing our impotence, and fearing what the day might bring
to these our comrades, lying helpless in full view of the brutal enemy.

The sight of our trenches that next morning is burned into my brain.
Here and there a man could stand upright, but in most places if you did
not wish to be exposed to a sniper's bullet you had to progress on your
hands and knees. In places the parapet was repaired with
bodies--