The road all the way to Longeau is simply exquisite. Eparges mill, demolished almost completely, and overgrown with grass already recalls the ruins of some ancient abbey.
I have traversed the length of the sector with a friend—it is very active to-day. The boches, at break of day, exploded four mines simultaneously. A section of the trench is completely demolished and a hundred men have been killed——
We are on the verge of contact with the enemy and it is necessary to crouch over dead bodies and sandbags to observe what is transpiring in front of us——
GUNTHER DUGOUT, THE CORRUGATED IRON, THE RATS,
THE MAP, THE LETTERS, EPARGES.
November, 1915.
At the beginning our shelter was nothing more or less than a mole hole.
Little by little it is becoming habitable. The walls have been boarded and the ceiling made of corrugated iron.
A long, large, white table, with benches——. How many of us will no longer sit there! Everyone found in this little space is loved like a brother.
On the board wall which separates the room from our sleeping quarters, which is arranged like a sleeping-car, there is a map of Alsace-Lorraine. Gunther, with his big fist, has traced an arrow in ink, which points from Eparges to Strasbourg. He has written:
"The hearts and aspirations of the 14th Company of the 15th Corps point this way!"