I can but reiterate that the dominant impression that remains is of the
mechanical nature of this business of modern war, and yet such an
impression is a false one, for as in the past so to-day, and so in the
future, it is the human element which is, has been, and will be the
foundation of all things.

Once only in the course of the day did I see men in any numbers, and
that was when at 3 p.m. the French were detected massing for a
counter-attack on the south side of the river. It was doomed to be
still-born. As they left their trenches, distant pigmy figures in
horizon blue, apparently plodding slowly across the ground, they were
lashed by an intensive barrage and the little figures were obliterated
in a series of spouting shell bursts.

Five minutes later the barrage ceased, the smoke drifted away and not a
man was to be seen. Grabel told me that it had probably cost them 750
casualties. What an amazing and efficient destruction of living
organism!

* * * * *

Another most interesting day, though of a different nature.

To-day was spent witnessing the arrangements for dealing with the
wounded. I spent the morning at an advanced dressing station on the
south bank of the river. It was in a cellar, beneath the ruins of a
house, about 400 yards from the front line and under heavy shell-fire,
as close at hand was the remains of what had been a wood, which was
being used as a concentration point for reserves.