All of a sudden the sky was illuminated. Half a dozen Very lights went up in rapid succession: we were discovered!
A moment or two later from two different points, three reds and a green light went up, falling in our direction. Every man stopped work and looked up in amazement. We were in for it; we wanted no telling.
"Dig like hell!" I whispered hoarsely, hurrying along the line of wondering men.
But they wanted no urging this time, and every man set to work with feverish energy.
Then the bombardment commenced, and in a few minutes the air was filled with whistling shells, screeching through the night and making the darkness hideous.
We were only a foot below the surface of the ground. Once again I hastened along the line:
"Dig like hell!"
Lights were going up in rapid succession, and the German line whence they came appeared only a couple of hundred yards in front, and seemed to form a semicircle around my left flank.
Clack! Clack! Clack! What was that?—Rifles! My sentry groups were firing. Again the rattle of rifles, this time all along the line of sentry groups.
"Stand to!"