"Papa Vaugirard makes few mistakes.

To my mind the intensity of the silence is sinister.

Often we hear the Germans singing in their trenches, but now we hear nothing." Another half-hour of the long and trying waiting followed.

Then the white light flared again for a moment, and powerful lights behind the French lines flared back, but did not go out.

The great beams, shooting through the white gloom, disclosed masses of men in gray uniforms and spiked helmets rushing forward..