"Well it comes off on the fifteenth, rather early in the morning. The General will give you zero hour."
"Do you know the exact time?" I said. "Do you think it will be too early for me—so far as the light is concerned?" I added hurriedly, with a laugh.
"Well no. I think you will just manage it," he said.
Thanking him I hurried off to Brigade Headquarters. They were in an old German dug-out of huge dimensions. There were three distinct floors or rather corridors, one above the other. The galleries wound in and around the hill-side, and the bottom one must have been at the depth of eighty feet. Scottish troops were in the trenches, which were being held as support lines. I entered the dug-out, and around a long table was seated the General and his staff.
"General ——, sir?" I enquired.
"Yes," he said; "come in, will you? You are 'Movies,' aren't you? They have just rung me up. Have some lunch and tell me what you want."
During lunch I explained my mission.
"Well," he said, "I am glad you are giving us a show. There is no need to tell you what the Scottish battalion have accomplished."
Lunch finished, the General with the Brigadier-Major went into details as to the best position from which I could see the show.
"I want, if possible, to get an unobstructed view of the Brigade front."