Are ye there, are ye there, are ye there? Four points on a ninety-mile square. With a helio winking like fun in the sun, Are ye there, are ye there, are ye there? He had been with the Special Reserve a year or two before he emigrated. He cared for nobody, was most courageous, inclined to be sentimental, and probably saw longer service with the Second Battalion in the war than any officer except Yates. A day or two later, because he was still sick and I was the senior officer of the battalion, I attended the Commanding Officers’ Conference at brigade headquarters. Opposite our trenches was a German salient and the brigadier wanted to ‘bite it off’ as a proof of the offensive spirit of his command. Trench soldiers could never understand the Staff’s desire to bite off an enemy salient. It was not a desirable thing to be exposed to fire from both flanks; if the Germans were in a salient, our obvious duty was to keep them there as long as they could be persuaded to stay. We concluded that it was the passion for straight lines for which headquarters were well known, and that it had no strategic or tactical significance. The attack had been twice proposed and twice cancelled because of the weather. This was towards the end of February, in the thaw. I have a field-message referring to it, dated the 21st: Please cancel Form 4 of my AA 202 units will draw from 19th brigade B. Echelon the following issue of rum which will be issued to troops taking part in the forth coming operations at the discretion of O.C. units 2nd R.W.F. 7½ gallons. Even this promise of special rum could not encourage the battalion. Every one agreed that the attack was unnecessary, foolish, and impossible. The company commanders assured me that to cross the three hundred yards of No Man’s Land, which because of constant shelling and the thaw was a morass of mud more than knee-deep, would take even lightly-armed troops four or five minutes. It would be impossible for anyone to reach the German lines while there was a single section of Germans with rifles to defend them. The general, when I arrived, inquired in a fatherly way how old I was, and whether I was not proud to be attending a Commanding Officers’ Conference at the age of twenty-one. I said that I had not examined my feelings, but that I was an old enough soldier to realize the ♦impossibility of the attack. The colonel of the Cameronians, who were also to be engaged, took the same line. So the attack was finally called off. That night I went up with rations as usual; the battalion was much relieved to hear the decision. ♦ “impossiblity” replaced with “impossibility”