n and collapsed, unable to stand or to walk, unable to move an
arm except limply, as if it were string; ready to weep like little
children.

It is the method which the German invented for his own use. For a year
and a half he had a monopoly--British soldiers had to hang on as best
they could under the knowledge that the enemy had more guns and more
shell than they, and bigger shell at that. But at last the weapon seems
to have been turned against him. No doubt his armaments and munitions
are growing fast, but ours have for the moment overtaken them. And hell
though it is for both sides--something which no soldiers in the world's
history ever yet had to endure--it is mostly better for us at present
than for the Germans. I have heard men coming out of the thick of it
say, "Well, I'm glad I'm not a Hun."

Now, here is what it means. There is no good done by describing the
particular horrors of war--God knows those who see them want to forget
them as soon as they can. But it is just as well to know what the work
in the munition factories means to _your_ friends--_your_ sons and
fathers and brothers at the front.

The normal shelling of the afternoon--a scattered bombardment all over
the landscape, which only brings perhaps half a dozen shells to your
immediate neighbourhood once in every ten minutes--has noticeably
quickened. The German is obviously turning on more batteries. The light
field-gun shrapnel is fairly scattered as before. But 5.9-inch howitzers
are being added to it. Except for his small field guns, the German makes
little use of guns. His work is almost entirely done with howitzers. He
possesses big howitzers--8-inch and larger--as we do. But the backbone
of his artillery is the 5.9 howitzer; and after that probably the 4.2.

The shells from both these guns are beginning to fall more thickly. Huge
black clouds shoot into the air from various parts of the foreground,
and slowly drift away across the hill-top. Suddenly there is a
descending shriek, drawn out for a second or more, coming terrifyingly
near; a crash far louder than the nearest thunder; a colossal thump to
the earth which seems to move the whole world about an inch from its
base; a scatter of flying bits and all sorts of under-noises, rustle of
a flying wood splinter, whir of fragments, scatter of falling earth.
Before it is half finished another shriek exactly similar is coming
through it. Another crash--apparently right on the crown of your hea