g under cover to notice the fine target my head offered, for not a
single shot was fired at me.

Once more our guns rang out, and in as many seconds--at least so it
seemed to me--another thirty shells dropped into the buildings and tore
them wall from wall. Word was then passed to me that this was the
finishing salvo.

With the same suddenness as it had begun, the firing ceased. Dropping
quickly, and dragging the camera after me, I stood safely once more in
the bottom of the trench and, to tell the truth, I was glad it was over.
To put one's head above the parapet of a trench, with the Germans only
seventy-five yards away, and to take a kinematograph picture of a
bombardment, is not one of the wisest--or safest--things to do!

CHAPTER II

CHRISTMAS DAY AT THE FRONT

Leave-taking at Charing Cross--A Fruitless Search for Food
on Christmas Eve--How Tommy Welcomed the Coming of the
Festive Season--"Peace On Earth, Good Will To Men" to the
Boom of the Big Guns--Filming the Guards' Division--And the
Prince of Wales--Coming from a Christmas Service--This Year
and Next.

On December 23rd I met an officer, a captain, at Charing Cross Station.
We were leaving by the 8.50 train, and we were not the only ones to
leave Christmas behind, for hundreds of men were returning to the Front.
Heartbreaking scenes were taking place, and many of the brave women-folk
were stifling their sobs, in order to give their men a pleasant
send-off, possibly for the last time.

Amidst hurried good-byes and fond kisses from mothers, sisters,
sweethearts and wives, and with shouts of good luck from hundreds of
throats, the train started off. Handkerchiefs were waved from many
windows, cheerful heads were thrust out, and not until the train had
cleared the platform, and the "hurrahs" had faded away in the distance,
did we take our seats. Then with set faces, grim with determination, we
resigned ourselves to the fate that awaited us on the battlefields of
France. Reaching Boulogne, after a rather choppy voyage, our car
conveyed us to G.H.Q., which we reached late in the evening.

The following morning I was told to leave for La Gorgue, to film scenes
connected with the Guards' Division. Late that afternoon, the Captain
and I set out for our destination, reaching there about 8 o'clock. I
was billeted in a private house, and immediately enquired for some food,
but it was impossible to obtain any there. Going out