s the
machine gun which was near us might be turned on them. They had barely
done so, and I had hardly gone forward with an officer to get some
other men under cover, when the next moment the bullets were whistling
all over me. I soon flew from that spot at the first crash, and got
under cover myself; a quick decision does help one at times! After
being pinned there for ten minutes or so, I managed to creep away and
get on with my rounds. There has been a cannonade on my right all
morning of the heaviest Gunner shells, I think, but we luckily go into
reserve this evening, and, failing any great alarms, are allowed to
have our boots off, and do not get up at 5 a.m. as usual. Another
curious incident occurred. Suddenly we heard the most appalling noise,
and the shell of one of our own heavy guns was seen turning head over
heels and falling solemnly within 50 yds. of a ruin where some 100
soldiers were quartered. It burst and sent any amount of rubbish over
the house. What happened was that part of the shell was defective. It
really was the driving band, which is a ring made out of copper and
riveted on. When the shell is fired, the soft copper ring slides into
the steel rifling of the gun, and thus the shell goes straight with a
spinning motion. The ring having become unriveted, the shell did not
spin, and simply turned head over heels. Was it not fortunate that it
missed the house? It is because they have no copper for these rings
that the Germans are making such strenuous efforts to find some.
Nothing else except silver or gold would be tough enough as well as
pliable enough for the purpose. They can make their fuses of
aluminium as we do, but copper for cartridge cases and driving bands
they must have, and they cannot get it....

LETTERS OF FEBRUARY, 1915.

IN BILLETS.
_February 1st, 1915._

MY DEAREST F----

Here we are in our reserve billets, and not sorry either. The enemy
threw a shell in beside us this morning as I was getting up, to show
that he had not forgotten us! It must have come 5 miles at least. He
is a humorist, too, of a grim sort, for 3 days ago he bombarded the
little town (French) of Estaires with French shells. I suppose some
gun he had captured from them. Anyhow, his ammunition is certainly, as
a rule, not as good as the stuff he was using. Have a headache this
morning. I often get one after 3 d