i6 
LA.NU & WATER 
The Attack 
By Patrick MacGill 
July 0, 1916 
THE pale, spiritual glow of dawn trembled in the 
East and the line of barbed wire out in front of 
our trench became visible. The men stood to 
arms, waiting an attack, and I could now hear 
the scattered crackling of guns as thcj' called to one 
another, saying " It's time to be up and doing." The 
sullen monsters of many a secret emplacement were 
registering their range, rivalry in their voices. For a 
tense minute the cock-crowing of artillery went on. then 
suddenly a thousand roosts became alive and voluble, 
each losing its own particular sound as all united in one 
grand concert of fury. The orchestra of war swelled 
in an incessant fanfare of dizzy harmony. Whistling, 
screaming, stuttering and thundering the clamorous voices 
belched into a rich gamut of passion which shook the grey 
heavens. 
The sharp, zig-zagging sound of high velocity shells cut 
through the pandemonium like forked lightning, and 
far away, as it seemed, sounding Uke a distant break- 
water, the big missiles from caterpillar howitzers lumbered 
through the higher deeps of the sky. The brazen lips 
of death cajoled, threatened, whistled Jaughed, and sang ; 
the sinister and sullen voices of destruction and the sublime 
and stupendous pjean of power intermixed in sonorous 
clamour and magnificent vibration. 
The air was full of the pungent odour of cordite and 
powder, and the smoke curled and coiled around spinney 
and spur. Above it all the dawn opened, its light widely 
diffused, and long spears of glittering gold streaked the 
heavens. On our right the road running parallel to our 
trench showed mistily in the silvery grey light, and away 
back in the hazy distance it lost itself in a violated village, 
the plaything of a thousand vicious guns. 1 
A belated limber came rumbling along the road, keep- 
ing discreetly in the shadow of the trees. What had 
delayed the driver ? On the shrapnel-swept road he 
had little purchase of his life. Cowering in the shelter of 
the parapet we listened to the rumble and crunch of the 
creaking wheels. I had a vivid mental picture of the 
driver hanging forward on the neck of his mule, digging 
in his spurs with the mad ferocity of fear. His teeth 
were set, piercing the lips perhaps, and his breath came in 
short, sudden gasps. " Christ ! am I going to get out of 
it ! " he must have said. 
" Will morn find me at Nouex-Ies-Mines ? " 
Probably he thought of his kin and those whom he 
loved. Mayhap, he leant close to the ear of his mule 
and said : "" Come, love, get me out of it. Now, it all 
rests with you." 
Something shot clumsily through the air and went 
plop ! against the parados. 
" Heavens ! it's all up with me ! " I said, cowering 
against the fire-step and waiting for the explosion. 
But there was none. I looked round and saw a leg on 
the fojr of the trench, the leg of the transport driver. 
The man's boot was almost worn through in the uppers, 
the sole was thin and uneven. I wis certain that it must 
have let in the water. The leg-icon, well polished with 
constant friction, shone like silve?. And to think that 
the man was alive a moment ago ! Now part of him was 
lying out on the roadway ; the untouched mule was still 
careering along, and the" rumble of the limber grew less 
and less. . . . 
" Out into the open, boys ! " came the order down the 
trench, and in a moment we were up and across the top. 
The enemy lengthened their range and their shells played 
havoc with "the trenches away to the rear, the road and 
the village. No doubt the mule was lying dead on the 
roadway now. Our own guns spoke faster and with a 
more furious vehemence, and the shrapnel hissed at the 
ugly grey forms which rose over the rim of the trench in 
front. 
We lay down on the slope of our parapet and fired, a bit 
wildly perhaps, but it was impossible to miss. A machine 
gun swayed its snout from side to side in an emplacement 
beside us and extracted its toll from the attackers. 
They came for^vard rushing wildly, their bayonets in air 
their legs clumsily cutting off the distance between their 
trench and their objective. Our wire was but slightly 
damaged and we took heart whenever we looked at it, 
its sturdy props and the barbed lines bstween. 
" Take good aim " an officer shouted, running along 
the top of the trench. . " Be sure of your men. . . 
Don't get flurried. . . . We'll beat them back easily. 
. . . Keep cool, and don't get flurried. Don't get 
flurried, boys, don't — " 
He held his peace then, and I looked round to see where 
he had sought cover. He was lying on his face and a 
very tiny red scar showed on his forehead. 
Although the enemy advanced at the double, the tim3 
dragged slowly for the men on the parapet. We waited in 
agonised suspense for closer combat ; our firing seamed 
to have very little effect on the attackers. Hundreds fell 
and hundreds took the place of the fallen. The rim of 
the foeman's parapet w^as like the lip of a waterfall ; 
the men came across in waves, got dashed to pieces ; 
and waves followed and mot with a similar fate. Th3 
successive lines of men were endless, eternal as a running 
brook. On the right they had reached our wires and our 
boys had gone out and met them there ; and there the 
bayonet was at work. But now they had reached our 
wires in big droves and some were fumbling through. 
We rushed to meet them. An excited machine gunner 
played for a minute on the crush of friend and foe. 
They lost heart, retreated, and we followed with bay- 
onet, "bludgeon and bomb, tripping on the wires and 
slipping on flesh and blood. The dead and wounded were 
trampled upon, the latter groaned piteously and shrieked 
for mercy. The retreat became general in our vicinity, 
the front wave of attackers receded, those which followed 
stood stiU undecided. Here and there isolated parties 
made great fight, holding out until the last man fell. . . 
Some of our boys followed them across and a large 
party of prisoners were surrounded near their own trench, 
and a few of our fellows came back with them. 
The German gunners had shortened their range and 
were now sheUing the ground between the lines. Callous, 
indifferent destruction ! The incoming prisoners were 
Germans, as men they were of no use to us. They were 
Germans of no further use to Germany ; they were her 
pawns in the game of war and now useless in the play. 
.As if in illustration of this, a shell from a German gun 
dropped in the midst of the batch and pieces of the abject 
party whiried in air. The gun which destroyed them had 
acted as their guardian for months, now like an insane 
mother, it slew its hapless brood. 
Fighting was more severe on oilr right. There a 
confused and struggling mass reeled round the wires in 
a last wild effort, and the German artiUery dealt death 
impartially to friend and foe ahke. On all sides the 
wounded covered the field, lying in huddled heaps, in 
rows, singly, and in pairs. In front of me a German 
moved on his stomach, then rose to his feet and flung a 
bomb at our party. A youngster named Lamond rushed 
forward with his rifle, fired and missed. Still advancing, 
he slid a round into the breach of his weapon, shoved the 
rifle close to the German's forehead and pulled the trigger. 
The upper part of the man's head was blown off. 
The boy came running and shouting " Let me into the 
trench ! I've killed a man, killed him ! It was wrong. 
I knew it was wrong soon as I done it. Let me get back 
into the trench ! " 
We got orders to retire at that moment. On the right 
the battle still swayed, by dusk part of our trench was 
taken. In the morning we drove the enemy out again. 
A collection of war cartoons, arranged by H. Pearl .\dain, 
has just been published {International Cartoons, Chatta 
and Windus, is.). It is a volume of historical interest, and 
Mrs. Adam's introduction is excellent. As she rightly says, 
" The value of the contemporary cartoon is very great, for 
it deals almost entirely with what people are feeUng, in 
distinction to wliat they are doing." The countries rcprc- 
>ented include Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and 
Japan, Holland and .\merica, also Poland and (icrmanv. 
"We are not as familiar with the last as we should b«i. 
