Up aloft in the clearings of the sky, clusters of shrapnel stippled the air round aeroplanes, and the detonations reached us, far and fine.

Along the sodden road we met Red Cross motor ambulances, rushing on rails of mud, but we could not see inside them.

In the first stages we were interested in everything, and asked questions, like foreigners.

A man who had been wounded and was rejoining the regiment with us answered us from time to time, and invariably added, "That's nothing; you'll see in a bit." Then the march made men retire into themselves.
My knapsack, so ingeniously compact; my cartridge-bags so ferociously full; my round pouches with their keen-edged straps, all jostled and then wounded my back at each step.

The pain quickly became acute, unbearable.