"There was mighty little fuss and feathers about this business of dealing death from guns. The crews at each piece laughed among themselves, but there were none of the picturesque shouts of command, the indiscriminate blowing of bugles, and the flashy waving of battle flags that the word battle usually conjures up. It was merely a deadly business of killing. "Over to the right, a scant 300 yards away, the Russians had apparently succeeded in getting the range. As I watched through the glasses I saw shrapnel burst over the battery there and watched a noncommissioned soldier fall with three of his comrades. I was told that one had been killed and three wounded. The Red Cross crew came up and bore away the four--the dead and the live--and before they were gone the gun was speaking away with four fresh men working it. "But the shrapnel kept bursting away over it and soon an orderly came riding furiously back on his horse, saluted the officers with me, and shouted as he hurried back to the artillery reserve: 'Six inch shells to the front; more ammunition.' "I went back to see the wounded, but the surgeon wouldn't let me. I expressed to him my wonder at the few wounded. I had seen only a few in the trenches, and no German dead until I saw the artilleryman killed. He explained that the losses on the German side were light because the trenches were well constructed and because there had been no hand-to-hand, bayonet to bayonet fighting. ATTACKS BY RUSSIAN INFANTRY "Yesterday, my first day at Wirballen, I saw the third attempt of the Russians to carry the German center by storm. Twice on Wednesday their infantry had advanced under cover of their artillery, only to be repulsed. Their third effort proved no more successful. "The preliminaries were well under way, without my appreciating their significance, until one of my officer escorts explained. "At a number of points along their line, observable to us, but screened from the observation of the German trenches in the center, the Russian infantry came tumbling out, and, rushing forward, took up advanced positions, awaiting the formation of the new and irregular battle line. Dozens of light rapid-firers were dragged along by hand. Other troops--the reserves--took up semi-advanced positions. All the while the Russian shrapnel was raining over the German trenches. "Finally came the Russian order to advance. At the word hundreds of yards of the Russian fighting line leaped, forward, deployed in open order, and came on. Some of them came into range of the German trench fire almost at once. These lines began to wilt and thin out. MEN PAUSE ONLY TO FIRE "But on they came, all along the line, protected and unprotected alike, rushing forward with a yell, pausing, firing, and advancing again.