ak up large lumps; the other end
is used as a shovel to throw up the dirt. When used in this fashion the
wooden handle is laid aside, the pick end becomes a handle, and the
intrenching-tool is used in the same manner as a trowel.

[Sidenote: The necessity for concealment.]

Lying on our stomach, our rifles close at hand, we dug furiously. First
we loosened up enough earth in front of our heads to fill a sand-bag.
This sand-bag we placed beside our heads on the side nearest the enemy.
Out in no-man's-land, with bullets and machine-gun balls pattering about
us, we did fast work. As soon as we had filled the second and third
sand-bags we placed them on top of the first. In Gallipoli every other
military necessity was subordinated to concealment. Often we could
complete a trench and occupy it before the enemy knew of it.

[Sidenote: The Turks use star-shells.]

Sometimes while we were digging the Turks surprised us by sending up
star-shells. They burst like rockets high overhead. Everything was
outlined in a strange, uncanny way that gave the effect of stage-fire.
At first when a man saw a star-shell he dropped flat on his face; but
after a good many men had been riddled by bullets, we saw our mistake.
The sudden blinding glare makes it impossible to identify objects
before the light fades. Star-shells show only movement. The first stir
between the lines becomes the target for both sides. So after that, even
when a man was standing upright, he simply stood still.

[Sidenote: Aeroplanes attacked by artillery.]

Every afternoon from just behind our lines an aeroplane buzzed up. At
the tremendous height it looked like an immense blue-bottle fly. At
first the enemy's aeroplanes came out to meet ours, but a few encounters
with our men soon convinced them of the futility of this. After that
they relied on their artillery. In the air all around the tiny speck we
could see white puffs of smoke where their shrapnel was exploding.
Sometimes those puffs were perilously close to it; at such times our
hearts were in our mouths. Everybody in the trench craned his neck to
see. When our aeroplane man[oe]uvered clear you could hear a sigh of
relief run along the trench.

[Sidenote: An air-man's adventure.]

One of our air-men, Samson, captured a German Taube that he used for
daily reconnaissance. Every day we watched him hover over the Turkish
lines, circle clear of their bursting shrapnel, and return to our
artillery with his repo