battlefields of Verdun the gods will decide the destinies of nations.

When I got to the forward observing position, which was situated among
the ruins of a house, a most amazing noise made conversation difficult.

The orchestra was in full blast and something approaching 12,000 pieces
of all sizes were in action on our side alone, this being the greatest
artillery concentration yet effected during the war.

We were situated on one side of a valley which ran up at right angles
to the river, whose actual course was hidden by mist, which also
obscured the bottom of our valley. The front line was down in this
little valley, and as I arrived we lifted our barrage on to the far
hill-side to cover an attack which we were delivering at dawn.

Nothing could be seen of the conflict down below, but after half an
hour we received orders to bring back our barrage again, and Grabel
informed me that the attack had evidently failed. This afternoon I
heard that it was indeed so, and that one division (the 58th), which
had tried to work along the river bank and outflank the hill, had been
caught by a concentration of six batteries of French 75's, which were
situated across the river. The unfortunate 58th, forced back from the
river-side, had heroically fought their way up the side of the hill,
only to encounter our barrage, which, owing to the mist, we thought was
well above and ahead of where they would be.

Under this fresh blow the 58th had retired to their trenches at the
bottom of the small valley. As the day warmed up the mist disappeared,
and, like a theatre curtain, the lifting of this veil revealed the
whole scene in its terrible and yet mechanical splendour.