was the machine-gun platform, with a long, empty belt still lying on it.
There was the periscope standing on its spike, which had been stuck into
the trench wall. It looked out straight across No Man's Land, but both
mirrors were gone.

As we picked our way through the brick heaps there came towards us a
British soldier with fixed bayonet, and an elderly bareheaded man. The
elderly man's hair was cut short, and was grizzly. He had not shaved for
three days. He was stout, but his face had a curious grey tinge shot
through the natural complexion. His lips were tightly compressed. He
looked about him firmly enough, but with that open-eyed gaze of a wild
animal which seemed to lack all comprehension. It was the face of a man
almost witless. He wore the uniform of a German captain.

He was one of the men who had been through that bombardment.




CHAPTER XIV

THE RAID

_France, July 9th._


During the first week of the battle of the Somme the Anzac troops far to
the north, near Armentières, raided the German trenches about a dozen
times. Here is a sample of these raids.