distance Armentières, as a whole, had not suffered greatly from shell fire,
though the upper floors of this old seminary had been shattered almost to
ruins long before our arrival.

The city itself was a good strategic point for the artillery. Behind
houses, stores, churches, anywhere that offered concealment, our guns were
hidden. Our artillery officers used every available inch of cover, for they
had to screen our guns from the observation of enemy aircraft which flew
with irritating irregularity over the town, and they had to avoid the none
too praiseworthy attention of spies, in which Armentières was rich.

Armentières in those days was practically a network of our gun
emplacements. The majority were howitzers. These fire high; they have a
possible angle of forty-five degrees. There was no danger of their damaging
our own immediate positions.

The ordinary infantry man knows less than nothing about artillery. If ever
a bunch of greenhorns landed in France, frankly, we of the First Contingent
were that same bunch.

As we had marched through the city there had been no sound of gun-fire. All
was quiet except for the welcoming cheers of our British brothers. Silence
reigned for the two hours we had spent in resting on the floor of the
schoolhouse, and consequently we thought we had a snap as far as position
went.

Our self-congratulations were somewhat rudely disturbed. Of a sudden, one
of our young officers rushed through the door of our shelter. Poor laddie,
he was very young and his anxiety exceeded even his nervousness.
Nervousness is very natural, I can assure you. It is natural in a private;