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[Page 155]

destructive, was yet, a grand one.

Although the panoply of War with all its boasted pomp, and grandeur, was set out before the eye well pictured in all its details, thoughts could not but pass through the mind, of the terrible effects of the inventions of brains ceaselessly working for the consummation of the diabolical schemes for the attainment of the grasping, gory, ambition of a being, careless, callous, & thoughtless of the tremendous terrible bloodshed, pain, & misery that glaringly marks his every step. That such a condition of things could exist, seemed a frightful satire on the much vaunted progress of modern thought, & wide spread education. That it was possible for one single being to have the power to engineer such a colossal catastrophe on modern civilization seemed scarcely comprehensible yet the most soul scaring evidence of but one little step in this blood spilling progress was made horribly apparent in all its lurid uncovered brutality.

Our Charging battalions of the 14th Brigade captured the first trench with surprisingly few casualties notwithstanding the hail of bullets from the Machine Gun & Rifle fire; dashed forward again & captured the second & being in doubt again charged forward & captured, unknowingly the third trench, all within an hour.

The first charge was started at a quarter to Six on the evening of Wednesday July 19th 1916. & before Seven oclock the three trenches had been taken. It is customary when a charge goes forward for the enemy immediately to start a most intense barrage on our front line & the communicating Saps, the idea being to cut off the support of those in the charge, by making the bringing up of reinforcements almost impossible. Having to bear the brunt

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