cupied only a few
hours before and had apparently abandoned--vanished into thin air! We
were at least two kilometres in _front_ of our infantry, in fact we had,
of our own accord--keen on obtaining live scenes for the people at
home--constituted ourselves an advance patrol, armed, not with
machine-guns, swords, or lances, but with cameras. There was every
possibility of our being taken for Germans ourselves by our men from a
distance; the real advance guard coming up would undoubtedly open fire
and enquire into credentials afterwards. The ruins across the bridge
might hide enemy rifles; they might open fire any moment. I explained
the situation to my companion, who had also presumably reached a
decision very similar to my own, which was to return to the village of
Villers-Carbonel as quickly and as carefully as possible.

Keeping to the side of the road we trudged back, and half-way up the
hill we ran into one of the things I expected--an advance party. An
officer came forward and said in astonished tones:

"Where the devil have you fellows come from?"

"We've been getting photographs of the German retreat," I replied.
"We're the official photographers and have been half-way across the
Somme, but owing to the bridge being blown up we have come back. The
Germans seem to have vanished entirely, not a sign of one about
anywhere."

"Well, I'm ----," he said, "this is the funniest thing I've ever known.
Will our advance patrols constitute the official photographers for the
future? If so, it will save us any amount of trouble."

"Well?" I said, "you can go on--devil a Bosche is over there anyway."

"Well," he said, "these troops I am taking down will be the first across
the Somme."

"Right," I said, seeing immediately the scoop it would be for my film.
"I will come back and film your men going over; it will make a unique
picture."

With that we retraced our steps, and laughing and chatting about our
adventure, we once again reached the Somme river.

I fixed up my camera, and, when all was ready, a rough bridge was
hastily made of several planks lashed together to bridge gaps in the
fallen stonework, and I filmed the first troops to cross the Somme
during the great German retreat.

The light was now failing, so, packing up my apparatus, and waving
farewells to the C.O., I turned back again. B---- joined me; the day had
been a great one for us, and we mutually agreed that it was a fitting
sequel to the first Britis