intermittent sniping, and this inactivity continued during Tuesday,
the 29th, except for a night attack against our extreme right.

A TYPICAL BATTLE INCIDENT

"An incident that occurred Sunday, the 27th, serves to illustrate
the type of fighting that has for the last two weeks been going on
intermittently on various parts of our lines. It also brings out the
extreme difficulty of ascertaining what is actually happening during an
action apart from what seems to be happening, and points to the value of
good intrenchments.

"At a certain point in our front our advance trenches were on the north
of the Aisne, not far from a village on a hillside and also within a
short distance of German works, being on a slope of a spur formed by a
subsidiary valley running north and a main valley of the river. It was a
calm, sunny afternoon, but hazy, and from our point of vantage south
of the river it was difficult exactly to locate on the far bank the
well-concealed trenches.

"From far and near the sullen boom of guns echoed along the valley,
and at intervals in a different direction the sky was flecked with the
almost motionless smoke of anti-aircraft shrapnel.

"Suddenly and without any warning, for the reports of the distant
howitzers from which they were fired could not be distinguished from
other distant reports, three or four heavy shells fell into the
village, sending up huge clouds of dust and smoke, which ascended in a
brownish-gray column. To this no reply was made by our side.

"Shortly afterwards there was a quick succession of reports from a point
some distance up the subsidiary valley on the side opposite our trenches
and therefore rather on their flank. It was not possible either by ear
or by eye to locate the guns from which the sounds proceeded. Almost
simultaneously, as it seemed, there was a corresponding succession of
flashes and sharp detonations in the line along the hillside along what
appeared to be our trenches.

"There was then a pause and several clouds of smoke rose slowly and
remained stationary, spaced as regularly as poplars.

"Again there was a succession of reports from German quick-firers on
the far side of the misty valley and like echoes of detonations of high
explosives; then the row of expanding smoke clouds was prolonged by
several new ones. Another pause and silence, except for the noise in the
distance.

"After a few minutes there was a roar from our side of the main valley
as our fie