er some
advice to the boys who are going over from this continent. Our officers
know better than we. The generals and aides who have been working on the
problem, on the strategy and tactics during the three years gone by, are
more qualified to conduct the war than the private who has lately joined.
If you are told to stay in a certain place, then stay there. If you are
told to dig in, you are a bad soldier if you don't dig and dig quickly. You
are only a nuisance as long as you question authority. It does not pay. The
boys of the First Division learned by experience. Do as you're told. The
heads are taking no undue risks. Your life is as valuable to them as it is
to you. They won't let you lose it unnecessarily. Get ahead and obey.

There is no need to lose your individuality. The vast difference between us
and the enemy soldier is that we can think for ourselves should occasion
arise; we can act on our own responsibility or we can lead if the need be.

Remember, that every single man is of importance. Each one is a cog in the
vast organization and one slip may disrupt the whole arrangement. Obey, but
use your intelligence in your obedience. Don't act blindly. Consider the
circumstances and as far as you can use your reason as you believe the
general or the colonel has used his. You are bounded only by your own small
sector. What you know of other salients is hearsay. The general knows the
situation in its entirety.

Obedience, a cool head, a clean rifle and a sharp bayonet will carry you
far.

[Illustration: (C)_Famous Players--Lasky Corporation. Scene from the
Photo-Play_

SHERMAN WAS NOT ALWAYS RIGHT.]

[Illustration: Behind the barrage]

CHAPTER XV

OUT OF IT

Every man who goes into the active service of the present war knows that
someday, somehow, somewhere, he is going to get plugged. We have
expressions of our own as to wounds. If a chap loses a leg or an arm or
both, he'll say, "I lost mine," but when there is a wound, no matter how
serious, yet which does not entail the loss of a visible part of the body,
we say, "I got mine."

So it was as time wore on, I "got mine" in the right shoulder and right
lung. A German explosive bullet caught me while I was in a lying position.
It was at Ypres; we all get it at Ypres.

The thing happened under peculiar circumstances. It was the second time in
my army career that I volunteered for anything. The first time was the
night I went on listening post;