38

An Artillery Team 40

View in Hamel 42

The Ancre River 44

The Ancre Opposite Hamel 48

The Leipzig Salient 58

Dugouts in La Boisselle 66

La Boisselle 70

Fricourt 74

Fricourt 76

Sandbags at Fricourt 78

Mametz 82

Sleighs for the Wounded 88

The Attack on La Boisselle 94

THE OLD FRONT LINE

This description of the old front line, as it was when the Battle of
the Somme began, may some day be of use. All wars end; even this war
will some day end, and the ruins will be rebuilt and the field full of
death will grow food, and all this frontier of trouble will be
forgotten. When the trenches are filled in, and the plough has gone
over them, the ground will not long keep the look of war. One summer
with its flowers will cover most of the ruin that man can make, and
then these places, from which the driving back of the enemy began,
will be hard indeed to trace, even with maps. It is said that even now
in some places the wire has been removed, the explosive salved, the
trenches filled, and the ground ploughed with tractors. In a few
years' time, when this war is a romance in memory, the soldier looking
for his battlefield will find his marks gone. Centre Way, Peel Trench,
Munster Alley, and these other paths to glory will be deep under the
corn, and gleaners will sing at Dead Mule Corner.

It is hoped that this description of the line will be followed by an
account of our people's share in the battle. The old front line was
the base from which the battle proceeded. It was the starting-place.
The thing began there. It was the biggest battle in which our people
were ever engaged, and so far it has led to bigger results than any
battle of this war since the Battle of the Marne. It caused a great
falling back of the enemy armies. It freed a great tract of France,
seventy miles long, by from ten to twenty-five miles broad. It first
gave the enemy the know