AIR-RAIDS
It was a warm, sunny afternoon. About a dozen of us were pitching a marquee in leisurely fashion, when suddenly there was a shout of "Fritz up!"
We gazed at the sky, and, after searching for a while, saw a tiny white speck moving slowly across the blue at an immense height. Then, at some distance from it, a small white puff, like a little ball of cotton-wool, appeared. A few seconds passed and we heard a faint pop. More puffs appeared around the moving speck, each one followed by a pop. All at once, behind us, a bright tongue of flame flashed out above a group of bushes. There was a sharp report and a whizzing, rustling noise that died down gradually. Then another puff and another pop. The bright flames flashed out again in rapid succession. The little speck moved on and on. Grouped closely round it were compact little balls of cotton-wool, but trailing behind were thin wisps and semi-transparent whitish blurs. Above a belt of trees in the distance we observed a series of rapid flashes followed by an equal number of detonations. The upper air was filled with a blending of high notes—a whizzing, droning, and sibilant buzzing, and pipings that died down in faint wails. The little white speck moved on. It entered a film of straggling cloud, but soon re-emerged. It grew smaller and smaller. Our eyes lost it for a moment and found it again. Then they lost it altogether and nothing remained save the whitish blurs in the blue sky and a hardly audible booming in the far distance.
"I bet 'e's took some photographs—'e'll be over to-night. I reckon we're bloody lucky to be at a C.C.S."
"D'yer think 'e wouldn't bomb a C.C.S.?"
"Course 'e wouldn't—'e knows as well as what we do that there's some of 'is own wounded at C.C.S.'s."
"Yer've got some bleed'n' 'opes—do anythink, 'e would. Didn't yer see it in the papers? 'E bombed a French C.C.S. at Verd'n an' knocked out umpteen wounded."
"I bet that's all bloody lies—yer can't believe nothin' what's in the papers."
"Can't yer! If yer don't it's because yer don't want ter. I believe yer a bleed'n' Fritz yerself, always stickin' up fer the bastard. Everythink what's in the papers is true—the Government wouldn't allow it if it wasn't! That's got yer, ain't it?"
"Yer want ter look at it a bit more broad-minded. Course 'e makes mistakes sometimes like anybody else—'ow do 'e know it's a C.C.S.—'e can't see no Red Crorss at night?"