ubert also the 2nd Inniskilling Fusiliers carried through with
complete success an enterprise notable for wild daring and stern
valour. One attack on the German trenches had failed. The ground
between the opposing lines was strewn with the British dead. A second
attack was ordered under cover of darkness. The 2nd Inniskillings were
to lead the van in the principal sector. In spite of the pitchy
blackness of the night, it was certain that the German machine-guns
and rifles would take heavy toll before their trenches were reached.
But the Inniskillings mix brains with their bravery. So soon as night
fell, about 8 p.m., they crept over the parapet, one by one, and
squirmed on their stomachs towards the German lines. Slowly and
painfully they crawled through a sea of mud, from dead man to dead
man, lying quite still whenever a star-shell lighted up that
intervening stretch of 200 yards. By this method, platoon after
platoon spread itself over the corpse-strewn field, until the leading
files were within a few yards of the German trenches.

Then came the hardest task of all--to lie shoulder to shoulder with
the dead until at midnight a flare gave the signal, "Up and into the
German trenches." But the Inniskillings held on with steady nerves
through all the alarums of the night. Occasionally bullets whistled
across the waste, and some who had imitated death needed to pretend no
longer. But the toll was not heavy. At least it was infinitesimal by
comparison with the cost of an open tumultuous charge from their own
trenches. When at last the flash blazed up the leading platoons were
in the German trenches before the enemy had time to lift their rifles.
The Inniskillings caught the Germans in many cases actually asleep.
Many of the grey-coats woke up just in time to find British bayonets
at their throats. The entire force was confused and demoralised by
this sudden appearance in their trenches of khaki and the deadly
bayonet, and were quickly overthrown. The Inniskillings paid less for
the capture of the first and second lines of trenches than they might
have done by an open attack for the first alone. They made it possible
for the whole Division to sweep on and to score a victory where
another Division had previously found defeat.

CHAPTER V

THE IMMORTAL STORY

LANDING OF THE DUBLINS AND MUNSTERS AT THE DARDANELLES

The most terrific thing in the bombardment of the southern end of
Gallipoli by the British Fleet, f