Never go back from the enemy shell fire, always go forward. The enemy usually fire six shells and each shot goes further behind you. So by meeting the first shell you can laugh at the other five. Always try, if possible, to avoid woods, trees and farmhouses. The Germans search them with shell fire. You can tell to fifty yards where the German shells will drop. If you have the misfortune to be hit, make for the nearest cover, and get your comrades to bind your wound. Don't stop to go back to get it dressed, or you will possibly get another wound. Just lie on your cover and wait until the fire slackens. When you go into a trench for the first time, examine thoroughly the height of the cover in front and don't walk upright if the trench does not protect your head. Lower yourself along the passageway, and rise where you will stand at your loophole. Take with you a linen bag, about half the size of a pillow-slip, with a loop at the end. It will keep your food clean and is much better than putting it in a dirty haversack. _Shoot to kill._ When you go to France, please remember you are not going there to be killed. You are going there to kill your enemy, so try and get some lead home. I am sure that will please you. Don't shoot at nothing. Shoot to hit. One shot well aimed is worth more than a million sent to the sky. The Germans are simply "fed up," and are sick of the fighting. Their officers drive them to the attack with revolvers. We are led by our officers and many of us go with our own free will to fight the murderers of peaceful people and to secure the future safety of the world for democracy. So forward, boys! One wonders, when one sees a German face to face, is this really one of those devils who wrought such devastation? For devastation they surely have wrought. You can hardly believe it, for he seems much the same as other soldiers. I can assure you that there is none of that insensate hatred that one hears about out here. We are out to kill. And kill we do, at any and every opportunity. But, when all is done and the battle is over the splendid, universal "soldier spirit" comes all over the men, and we cannot help thinking that Kipling must have been in the firing line when he wrote that "East is East and West is West." Just to give you some idea of what I mean, the other night four German snipers were shot on our wire. The next night our men went out and brought one in who was near and get-at-able and buried him. They did it with just the same reverence and sadness as they do to our own dear fellows. I went to look at the grave the next morning and one of the most uncouth men in my company had placed a cross at the head of the grave and had written on it: "Here lies a German We don't know his name, He died bravely fighting, For his Fatherland." And under that "_Got-mitt-uns_" (sic)--that being the highest effort of all the men at German. Not bad for a blood-thirsty Briton? Really that shows the spirit.