The bombardment of the cantonment by long-range heavy guns throws disorder among the troops who are at rest. Suddenly surprised in the most profound quietude, the alarm causes all the more flurry and demoralization. Obliged to follow roads sprinkled here and there with fragments, they thus arrive diminished in number on the field of battle. (_e_) _Destruction of Machine Guns._ The weapon which inflicts the heaviest losses on infantry is the machine gun, which uncovers itself suddenly and in a few seconds lays out the assailants by ranks. It is therefore absolutely necessary to destroy them before the attack or have the means of putting them out of action as soon as they disclose themselves. During the days which precede the attack, a minute study of the hostile trenches should be made by the infantry officers who have to attack them, in concert with the artillery officers who pound the same trenches; their study should bear especially upon the emplacements of the hostile machine guns. The machine-gun emplacements are recognized in the continuous trenches by the low horizontal loopholes much larger than ordinary loopholes. They are generally quite easily recognized. Occasionally the machine guns are in a little separate work which is quite characteristic. Even when they cannot be directly observed, machine-gun emplacements should be pre-supposed in locations such as the following: 1. In a re-entrant in the line. [Illustration] 2. On the second line, particularly when it presents an elevated position permitting a tier of fire over the first line. [Illustration] 3. Squarely in front to obtain a flanking fire; in this case, they are found in a small _boyau_ (branch trench) which leaves the principal trench, and it is very difficult to see them from the front. [Illustration] Thus, in front of La Targette, in studying the position in profile and having moved considerably toward the right for that purpose, I discovered a machine-gun emplacement which completely enfiladed the front of the German trenches for 600 metres. One generally believes he recognizes a very large number of machine-gun emplacements; but it is infinitely better to mark the position of too many than to overlook one of them; moreover, the Germans have in their defensive organization an unsuspected number of them.