all the time I was dressing his wound. On the front field one can see
the dead lying here and there, and in places where an assault has been
they lie very thick on the front slopes of the German trenches.
Our telephone wagon team hit by a shell; two horses killed
and another wounded. I did what I could for the wounded one,
and he subsequently got well. This night, beginning after dark,
we got a terrible shelling, which kept up till 2 or 3 in the morning.
Finally I got to sleep, though it was still going on. We must have got
a couple of hundred rounds, in single or pairs. Every one burst over us,
would light up the dugout, and every hit in front would shake the ground
and bring down small bits of earth on us, or else the earth thrown
into the air by the explosion would come spattering down on our roof,
and into the front of the dugout. Col. Morrison tried the mess house,
but the shelling was too heavy, and he and the adjutant joined
Cosgrave and me, and we four spent an anxious night there in the dark.
One officer was on watch "on the bridge" (as we called the trench
at the top of the ridge) with the telephones.


Monday, April 26th, 1915.

Another day of heavy actions, but last night much French and British artillery
has come in, and the place is thick with Germans. There are many prematures
(with so much firing) but the pieces are usually spread before they get to us.
It is disquieting, however, I must say. And all the time the birds sing
in the trees over our heads. Yesterday up to noon we fired 3000 rounds
for the twenty-four hours; to-day we have fired much less,
but we have registered fresh fronts, and burned some farms
behind the German trenches. About six the fire died down,
and we had a peaceful evening and night, and Cosgrave and I in the dugout