ls or machines, with little gained except our emotions
dulled and brutalised and nightmare flashes of scenes that cannot be
written about because they are unbelievable. I wonder what difference
you will find in us when we come home----

Do you know what a night scare is? In our last H.Q. we were all dining
when suddenly there was a terrific outburst of rifle-fire from our
lines. We went out into the road that passes the farm and stood there
in the pitch darkness, wondering. The fire increased in intensity until
every soldier within five miles seemed to be revelling in a lunatic
succession of "mad minutes." Was it a heavy attack on our lines? Soon
pom-poms joined in sharp, heavy taps--and machine guns. The lines to the
battalions were at the moment working feebly, and what the operators
could get through was scarcely intelligible. Ammunition limbers were
hurried up, and I stood ready to dart anywhere. For twenty minutes the
rifle-fire seemed to grow wilder and wilder. At last stretcher-bearers
came in with a few wounded and reported that we seemed to be holding our
own. Satisfactory so far. Then there were great flashes of shrapnel over
our lines; that comforted us, for if your troops are advancing you don't
fire shrapnel over the enemy's lines. You never know how soon they may
be yours. The firing soon died down until we heard nothing but little
desultory bursts. Finally an orderly came--the Germans had
half-heartedly charged our trenches but had been driven off with loss.
We returned to the farm and found that in the few minutes we had been
outside everything had been packed and half-frightened men were standing
about for orders.

The explanation of it all came later and was simple enough. The French,
without letting us know, had attacked the Germans on our right, and the
Germans to keep us engaged had made a feint attack upon us. So we went
back to dinner.

In modern war the infantryman hasn't much of a chance. Strategy nowadays
consists in arranging for the mutual slaughter of infantry by the
opposing guns, each general trusting that his guns will do the greater
slaughter. And half gunnery is luck. The day before yesterday we had a
little afternoon shoot at where we thought the German trenches might be.
The Germans unaccountably retreated, and yesterday when we advanced we
found the trenches crammed full of dead. By a combination of intelligent
anticipation and good luck we had hit them exactly----

From these le