the two mines--in order, it was said, to attract as many of the enemy as
possible into his redoubt. To judge by the volume of rifle fire which
came from his lines, this part of the programme was successful, but we
did not have long to think about it, for at 7 p.m. the 1500 lbs. went
off, and Boche redoubt, sandbags, and occupants went into the air,
together with some tons of the salient, much of which fell into our
trenches. A minute later our Artillery opened their bombardment, and for
the next half hour the enemy must have had a thoroughly bad time in
every way. His retaliation was insignificant, and consisted of a very
few little shells fired more or less at random--a disquieting feature to
those of us who knew the Germans' love of an instant and heavy reply to
our slightest offensive action. "Stand to," the usual time for the
evening "hate," passed off very quietly, and, as we sat down to our
evening meal, we began to wonder whether we were to have any reply at
all. Meanwhile, three new officers arrived--2nd. Lieut. R.C. Lawton, of
"A" Company, who had been prevented by sickness from coming abroad with
us, and 2nd Lieuts. E.E. Wynne and N.C. Marriott, both of whom were sent
to "B" Company, where they joined Capt. Griffiths at dinner. They were
half way through their meal when, without the slightest warning, the
ground heaved, pieces of the roof fell on the table, and they heard the
ominous whirr of falling clods, which betokens a mine at close quarters.

[Illustration: Hohenzollern Memorial.]

Before the débris had stopped falling, Capt. Griffiths was out of his
dug-out and scrambling along his half-filled trench, to find out what
had happened. Reaching the right end of "50," he found his front line
had been completely destroyed, and where his listening post had been,
was now a large crater, into which the Boche was firing trench mortars,
while heavy rifle fire came from his front line. Except for a few