The thickness of the parapet, I should say, was roughly four feet; and through the parapet was a conical, square-shaped, wooden cylinder. In front, under cover of darkness, the night previous, I had had two sandbags placed, so that when everything was ready, and my camera fixed, a slight push from the back with a stick would shift them clear of the opening. Fixing up the camera, I very carefully pinned an empty sandbag over the back of the aperture, with the object of keeping any daylight from streaming through. I placed a long stick ready to push the sandbags down. I intended doing that after the first shell had fallen. This particular loophole had been severely sniped all the morning, the Germans evidently thinking it was a new Maxim-gun emplacement. Time was drawing near. I thought I would try with the stick whether the sandbags would fall easily. Evidently I gave them too vigorous a push, for the next moment they came toppling down. Knowing such a movement as that was certain to attract the German snipers' attention, I quickly ducked my head down and hoped our 9.2's would soon open fire. I did not relish the idea of having a bullet through my camera. Sure enough the Germans had seen the movement, for bullets began battering into sandbags around the loophole. At that moment the C.O. withdrew the whole of the men from that section of the trench, and I was left alone. But the prospect of getting a fine film drove all other thoughts from my mind. A few minutes later the first shell came hurtling over and exploded within ten yards of the block-house. I started filming. Shell after shell I recorded as it exploded, first on one side then on the other, until at last the eighth shell fell directly on top of the block-house, and with a tremendous explosion the whole fabric disappeared in a cloud of smoke and flame. Débris of every description rattled in the trench all round me, and continued to fall for some moments, but luckily I was not hit. Being unable to resist the temptation of looking over the parapet, I jumped up and gazed at the remains of the building which now consisted of nothing more than a twisted, churned-up mass of concrete and iron rails. Our artillery had done its work, and done it well. CHAPTER VI MY FIRST VISIT TO YPRES AND ARRAS Greeted on Arrival in the Ruined City of Ypres by a Furious Fusillade--I Film the Cloth Hall and Cathedral, and Have a Narrow Escape--A Once Beautiful Town Now Little More Than a Heap of Ruins--Arras a City of the Dead--Its Cathedral Destroyed--But Cross and Crucifixes Unharmed. To Ypres! This was the order for the day. The news gave me a thrill of excitement. The thunder of the big guns grew louder as we approached the front line, until they seemed to merge into one continuous roar. Stopping on the road, I asked if the Germans were "strafing" to-day.