ave
appeared like insects in the crater of Vesuvius in eruption. Yet the
mind of man, so much greater than his body, had organized and planned
this monstrous scene, and from his method it deviated not a hair's
breadth.

[Illustration: Ammunition Going Through a Somme City.]

We were encouraged and supported by the knowledge that the German was
having a far worse time than we were, that the hell of flame and fire
and smoke was for our protection and his annihilation. His shells came
over blindly in most cases, and though we were so thick that they could
not but get some of us, yet we knew that our shells were being directed
by thousands of aeroplanes on top of the earth beneath which he
huddled, with the sweat of fear pouring from him. There were many
indications of the terror our shell-fire wrought and days when the
prisoners could be counted in thousands, on one occasion sixteen men
bringing back as many as four hundred. These men were imbeciles,
crazed by the sound of the shells, and obsessed by one idea, the
necessity of getting away. When we took their trenches we found that
in most cases they were completely obliterated, and in some cases the
entrances to the deep dugouts were blown in, smothering the men
sheltering in them.

The wastage of man-power on the Somme was not a little due to the
nervous strain. I think everybody's nerves were more or less on edge,
and now and again a hurricane of fire would sweep the trenches because
some man's nerve got past breaking-point. He would see an imaginary
enemy bearing down upon his sentry-post and fire wildly, giving alarm
to the whole line. A German sentry would reply to him, more of our men
would fire back, more Germans join in, star-shells make the night as
bright as day; then Fritz would "get the wind up" thoroughly and call
for artillery support--our guns would blaze into reply and there would
be many casualties just because one man lost his nerve and "saw things."

Nerves are queer things, for frequently the man of a nervous, highly
strung temperament is the coolest in action. Some men, too, get
shell-shock a hundred yards from a bursting shell, while others are
knocked down and buried and never even tremble. Men have the power of
speech taken from them for months and as suddenly have it restored. I
know of one case in which a boy did not speak a word for twelve months,
and when viewing the play "Under Fire" in Sydney suddenly found his
speech return a