apet
with the wire in front of it, and began, as they ran, to pick out in
their minds a path through that wire. Then, too often, to many of
them, the grass that they were crossing flew up in shards and sods and
gleams of fire from the enemy shells, and those runners never reached
the wire, but saw, perhaps, a flash, and the earth rushing nearer, and
grasses against the sky, and then saw nothing more at all, for ever
and for ever and for ever.

* * * * *

It may be some years before those whose fathers, husbands and brothers
were killed in this great battle, may be able to visit the battlefield
where their dead are buried. Perhaps many of them, from brooding on
the map, and from dreams and visions in the night, have in their minds
an image or picture of that place. The following pages may help some
few others, who have not already formed that image, to see the scene
as it appears to-day. What it was like on the day of battle cannot be
imagined by those who were not there.

It was a day of an intense blue summer beauty, full of roaring,
violence, and confusion of death, agony, and triumph, from dawn till
dark. All through that day, little rushes of the men of our race went
towards that No Man's Land from the bloody shelter of our trenches.
Some hardly left our trenches, many never crossed the green space,
many died in the enemy wire, many had to fall back. Others won across
and went further, and drove the enemy from his fort, and then back
from line to line and from one hasty trenching to another, till the
Battle of the Somme ended in the falling back of the enemy army.

* * * * *

Those of our men who were in the line at Hebuterne, at the extreme
northern end of the battlefield of the Somme, were opposite the enemy
salient of Gommecourt. This was one of those projecting fortresses or
flankers, like the Leipzig, Ovillers, and Fricourt, with which the
enemy studded and strengthened his front line. It is doubtful if any
point in the line in France was stronger than this point of
Gommecourt. Those who visit it in future times may be surprised that
such a place was so strong.

All the country there is gentler and less decided than in the southern
parts of the battlefield. Hebuterne stands on a plateau-top; to the
east of it there is a gentle dip down to a shallow hollow or valley;
to the east of this again there is a gentle rise to higher ground, on
which t