To reach it they had to cross a sloping green patch of cleared land.

So far as I might tell no explosive or shrapnel shower fell into them or near them, but when they had gone perhaps a third of the distance across the green patch there was a quick scatteration of their inch-high figures.

Quite distinctly I counted three manikins who instantly fell down flat and two others who went ahead a little way deliberately, and then lay down.

The rest darted back to the cover which they had just quit and jumped in briskly.
The five figures remained where they had dropped and became quiet.
Anyway, I could detect no motion in them.

They were just little gray strips.