e up to our belts in it."

It was so bad in parts of the line during November storms that whole
sections of trench collapsed into a chaos of slime and ooze. It was the
frost as well as the rain which caused this ruin, making the earthworks
sink under their weight of sand-bags. German and English soldiers were
exposed to one another like ants upturned from their nests by a minor
landslide. They ignored one another. They pretended that the other
fellows were not there. They had not been properly introduced. In
another place, reckless because of their discomfort, the Germans crawled
upon their slimy parapets and sat on top to dry their legs, and shouted:
"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!"

Our men did not shoot. They, too, sat on the parapets drying their
legs, and grinning at the gray ants yonder, until these incidents were
reported back to G. H. Q.--where good fires were burning under dry
roofs--and stringent orders came against "fraternization." Every German
who showed himself was to be shot. Of course any Englishman who showed
himself--owing to a parapet falling in--would be shot, too. It was six
of one and half a dozen of the other, as always, in this trench warfare,
but the dignity of G. H. Q. would not be outraged by the thought of such
indecent spectacles as British and Germans refusing to kill each other
on sight. Some of the men obeyed orders, and when a German sat up and
said, "Don't shoot!" plugged him through the head. Others were extremely
short-sighted... Now and again Germans crawled over to our trenches and
asked meekly to be taken prisoner. I met a few of these men and spoke
with them.

"There is no sense in this war," said one of them. "It is misery on both
sides. There is no use in it."

That thought of war's futility inspired an episode which was narrated
throughout the army in that winter of '15, and led to curious
conversations in dugouts and billets. Above a German front-line trench
appeared a plank on which, in big letters, was scrawled these words

"The English are fools."

"Not such bloody fools as all that!" said a sergeant, and in a few
minutes the plank was smashed to splinters by rifle-fire.

Another plank appeared, with other words:

"The French are fools."

Loyalty to our allies caused the destruction of that board.

A third plank was put up:

"We're all fools. Let's all go home."

That board was also shot to pieces, but the message caused some
laughter, and men repeating it said: "