I wondered if I had gone off my head.

As I plodded on the rattle of machine-guns was added, and over the ridge before me I saw the dust and fumes of bursting shells.

I concluded that I was not mad, and that therefore the Germans must have landed.

I crawled up the last slope, quite forgetting the pursuit behind me.
And then I'm blessed if I did not look down on a veritable battle.
There were two sets of trenches with barbed wire and all the fixings, one set filled with troops and the other empty.

On these latter shells were bursting, but there was no sign of life in them.