y, were brought up with
difficulty, and distributed to the most urgently required places with
still greater difficulty. The ammunition carriers had to cross the
open of the old neutral ground, the battered first trench, pass along
communication trenches choked with dead and wounded, or again cross the
open to the second and third line. All the time they were under the
fire of high-explosive shells and had to pass through a zone or
'barrage' of shrapnel built across their path for just this special
purpose of destroying supports and supplies. Our own artillery were
playing exactly the same game behind the enemy lines, but in these
lines were ample stores of cartridges and grenades, bombs, and
trench-mortars. The third and fourth lines were within easy bomb- and
grenade-throwing distance, and were connected by numerous passage-ways.
On this front the contest became a bombing duel, and because the
British were woefully short of bombs and the enemy could throw five to
their one, they were once again 'bombed out' and forced to retire. But
by now the second trench had been put in some state of defence towards
its new front, and here the British line stayed fast and set its teeth
and doggedly endured the torment of the bombs and the destruction of
the pounding shells. Without rest or respite they endured till night,
and on through the night, under the glare of flares and the long-drawn
punishment of the shell fire, until the following day brought with the
dawn fresh supports for a renewal of the struggle. The battered
fragments of the first attacking battalions were withdrawn, often with
corporals for company leaders, and lieutenants or captains commanding
battalions whose full remaining strength would hardly make a company.
The battle might only have been well begun, but at least, thanks to
them and to those scattered heaps lying among the grass, spread in
clumps and circles about the yawning shell-holes, buried beneath the
broken parapets and in the smashed trenches--to them, and those, and
these others passing out with haggard, pain-lined faces, shattered
limbs, and torn bodies on the red, wet stretchers to the dressing
stations, at least, the battle was well begun. The sappers were hard
at work in the darkness consolidating the captured positions, and these
would surely now be held firm. Whatever was to follow, these first
regiments had done their share.

Two lines of trenches were taken; the line was advanced--