I will tell you of a cute trick of our gunners. They got a lot of empty wagons and put them in a wood. The Germans, seeing them, thought they were our guns put out of action. They rushed out for them, and our artillery did not half scatter them, killing about four hundred: Pte. Brown, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment.
Turpinite
I saw some of the effects of turpinite, the wonderful French explosive, used in this war for the first time. I saw a trench full of dead Germans killed by it. They were standing right up in the trenches looking as though they were still alive: Pte. Thompson, 2nd Dragoon Guards.
Took Off the Roof!
I was standing within 50 yards of a house one day when a shell came and took the roof clean off; you could see the cups on the table quite plain; a clean sweep. I counted about thirty shells drop around us the same day in half an hour; we had only two horses and a man shot: Tpr. C. McCarthy, 4th Hussars.
Lancashire!
Fellows were being knocked out all round, and wounded were crying for help. Frequently one would say to his neighbour, “Bill, how’s ta gettin’ on?” but Bill, who had been as cheery as a cricket just before, was found to be picked off. Our ranks were so thinned that by the time we got within charging distance of the enemy’s trenches we had not sufficient men left for the charge: Pte. Harvey, North Lancashire Regiment.
Up Aloft!
All our troops blamed the German aeroplanes for the heavy loss which we sustained. It did not matter where we went to try and get an hour’s sleep, there would be an aeroplane over us. The Germans dropped a little disc—a sort of long tape—from their aeroplanes, about twenty yards in front of our trenches, and shortly after the Germans would start shelling us. I think it is mostly the aeroplanes which enable them to get our range so accurately as they do: A Private of the Manchester Regiment.