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[Page 39]
When we arrived at bout fifty yards distance behind the front line troops, The Battalion troops lay down flat on the ground top await the "zero", the minute when the barrage would start. Meanwhile the troops crouching in the bits of hole on the plain in front crept back quietly and filed past and out to the rear. Presently, glancing over my shoulder I caught I caught the flash of the barrage, before the sound of its opening up could be heard, I instantly struck a match and lit a cigarette, the whole line doing the same. It might be the last! At the same second the Capt. shouted "Go!" and the roar of the massed guns spoke. We leapt forward as one man. The scene that was then displayed immediately in front was exceedingly weird and thrilling. It cab only be described as an Inferno. Every conceivable shell burst in front "Do'nt get too close" was the order passed along the line from Capt. Burke. The din was appaling. A sold stream of flame along the ground in front surmounted by a dense cloud of smoke hid all movement ahead. Advancing with fixed bayonets at the ready. Presently through the drifting smoke we could see groups of grey figures moving in disorder and apparent confusion. Some could be seen throwing down equipment and attempting to run. Many of these fell from our rifle bursts. Others ran forward with hands raised, some of whom were hit before they passed to the rear to be collected by our "moppers up" or third wave. A Lewis gun crew ob the left of our rifle section was lying down firing "bursts" at a hostile gun group. On our immediate right a "nest" had caused several