shelling, and then one has to crawl and duck until a safer depth is reached; then up other zig-zags to the very front line. Here one is in comparative safety, for the enemy is only one or two hundred yards off, and his artillery dare not shoot at you for fear of hitting their own front line; so you are safe except for snipers (if you are foolish enough to show yourself), or for that most terrible of all terrors, the minenwerfer. These trips were often unpleasant enough even to people who, like myself, could always count on returning to a comfortable and fairly safe billet for the night, and they helped us, I hope, to realise the strain and discomfort which the officers and men at the batteries were forced to endure from day to day and night to night. The bulletins "nothing fresh to report" or "all quiet on such a front" had for _them_ very little signification. During this period, in addition to the normal duties at the gun positions and in the wagon lines, every spare man was kept constantly hard at work in building stabling for the coming winter. It was a case of "sic vos non vobis," for everyone knew that our chances of remaining in this particular place were very small indeed, and that other men would enter into the fruit of our labours; however, the same considerations applied to the whole army, and one could only work one's hardest and trust that other divisions would do the same--a trust which, it is only fair to say, was rarely disappointed, even though, as must also be admitted, batteries almost always thought that the stables, shelters, and positions, which they had made, were a good deal better than those to which they succeeded. This belief may or may not have been always justified; anyway, it was human nature, and certainly the stabling constructed for this winter by the brigades and D.A.C. was of a very excellent and substantial nature. During the period covered by this chapter 14 Military Medals were gained in the Divisional Artillery. Lieut. F. C. Pritchard won the Military Cross on the 8th October for the following act: "When an ammunition pit and the camouflage over a gun were on fire, he went out and pulled the camouflage off the gun, and shovelled wet mud on to the fire. He did not leave until it was isolated from the other ammunition, thereby preventing much destruction." CHAPTER III THE BATTLE OF CAMBRAI "_And you, good Yeomen, Whose limbs were made in England, show us here The mettle of your pasture; let us swear That you are worth your breeding._" SHAKESPEARE.--KING HENRY THE FIFTH. [Sidenote: Oct. 1917.]