"

That, at least, was the presumption. Practically, man-traps were not
always a success. The intensive bombardments which precede infantry
attacks play havoc with entanglements, but there is always a chance of
the destruction being incomplete, as upon one occasion farther north,
where, Shorty told me, a man-trap caught a whole platoon of Germans "dead
to rights."

"But this is wot gives you the pip," he said. "'Ere we got three lines of
trenches, all of 'em wired up so that a rat couldn't get through without
scratchin' hisself to death. Fritzie's got better wire than wot we 'ave,
an' more of it. An' 'e's got more machine guns, more artill'ry, more
shells. They ain't any little old man-killer ever invented wot they
'aven't got more of than we 'ave. An' at 'ome they're a-s'yin', 'W'y
don't they get on with it? W'y don't they smash through?' Let some of 'em
come out 'ere an' 'ave a try! That's all I got to s'y."

I didn't tell Shorty that I had been, not exactly an armchair critic, but
at least a barrack-room critic in England. I had wondered why British and
French troops had failed to smash through. A few weeks in the trenches
gave me a new viewpoint. I could only wonder at the magnificent fighting
qualities of soldiers who had held their own so effectively against
armies equipped and armed and munitioned as the Germans were.

After he had finished drugging his trench pets, Shorty and I made a tour
of the trenches. I was much surprised at seeing how clean and comfortable
they can be kept in pleasant summer weather. Men were busily at work
sweeping up the walks, collecting the rubbish, which was put into
sandbags hung on pegs at intervals along the fire trench. At night the
refuse was taken back of the trenches and buried. Most of this work
devolved upon the pioneers whose business it was to keep the trenches
sanitary.

The fire trench was built in much the same way as those which we had made
during our training in England. In pattern it was something like a
tesselated border. For the space of five yards it ran straight, then it
turned at right angles around a traverse of solid earth six feet square,
then straight again for another five yards, then around another traverse,
and so throughout the length of the line. Each five-yard segment, which
is called a "bay," offered firing room for five men. The traverses, of
course, were for the purpose of preventing enfilade fire. They also
limited the execution which might be