The difficulty is in draining out the water when it rains.
Some of the trenches have two stories, and at the back of many of them
are subterranean rest houses built of concrete and connected with the
trenches by passages. The rooms are about seven feet high and ten feet
square, and above the ground all evidence of the work is concealed by
green boughs and shrubbery so that they may escape the attention of the
enemy's aeroplanes.
With the noise and the fatigue, the men say it is impossible to sleep
naturally, but they become so used to the firing and so weary that they
become oblivious of everything even when shells are falling within a
dozen yards of them. They stay in the trenches five days and then get
five days' rest. In talking to the men one feels the influence on them
of a curious sort of fatalism--they have been lucky so far and will come
through all right. One sees and feels everywhere the spirit of a great
game. The strain of football a thousand times magnified. The joy of
winning and boyish pleasure in getting ahead of the other fellows side
by side with the stronger passions of hatred and anger and the sight of
agony and death.
We talked to some of the little groups of men along the road who were
going back to their five days in the trenches.
Pages:
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146