Along one side of the mess tent a great traverse runs, some eight or ten feet thick, and about as high.

When the sentry blows the warning whistle at the flash of a big gun, officers are supposed to come under the shelter of this traverse, till the shell has passed or declared its direction.

At the first shot this morning I heard no whistle blow, but it was sounded at the second and third.

It was the third that did the damage.

Striking the top of the traverse, it plunged forward in huge fragments into the messroom, tearing an enormous hole in the tarpaulin screen.