r mortals were not allowed to look upon. As
upright as poplars, chests well forward and heads thrown back, their
souls seemed to speak out of their inflexible determination to win. They
marched away, going to that stretch of land from which many have never
returned--giving their lives for freedom and the honour of England.

I turned and gave a parting wave of the hand to a group of officers
standing by.

"See you to-night," I said, "at the 'White City.' We will drink to the
health of 'The Day,'" and with a parting laugh I moved a way.

I found out through H.Q. that some of our 15-inch howitzers were in the
vicinity, so I decided to film them without delay, to work them into the
story of the battle. I discovered their position on my map. I reached
the battery. The state of the ground was indescribable. It was more
like a "sea of mud," and standing in the middle of this morass was the
giant gun, for all the world like a horrible frog squatting on its
haunches. Each time it breathed it belched out flame and smoke with the
most unearthly crash that could possibly be produced, and with each
breath there flew with it a mass of metal and high explosive weighing
fourteen hundred pounds, scattering death and destruction for hundreds
of yards round the point of impact in the German defences, so that our
boys might find it easier to force their way through.

I filmed the firing several times, from various points of view, and when
standing only about fifteen yards away the concussion shook the ground
like a miniature earthquake. On one occasion, indeed, it lifted my
camera and tripod in the air, driving it crashing into my chest. I had
unknowingly placed myself in the danger zone which forms a semi-circle
on either side of the muzzle when fired, the force being at times so
great as to tear trees up by the roots and send them crashing to the
ground.

The prospects for "The Day" were certainly bad. As one burly Lancashire
lad said to me: "the Devil was looking after his own; but we are going
to beat them, sir." That was the spirit of all the men I met there.

I went direct to B.H.Q. to get a full supply of film stock before going
to the front line. I wished to get there early, to have a final look
round and a discussion with the officers.

A man I knew was there, looking for all the world like a man down and
out. He had a face as long as a fiddle, and several other officers were
looking just as glum. "You're a cheerful lot," I