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Such obstacles were only effective, however, when properly manned and armed. The Hindenburg Line and the Canal du Nord were tremendous obstacles when backed by German artillery, rifles, and machine-guns, but, without the latter, they would have been mere inconveniences for the passage of an army.
The mild sunshine of those spring days was pleasant to one's spirit in the woods above La Fere, and in fields where machine-guns chattered a little, while overhead our airplanes dodged German "Archies." But the specter chilled one's blood at the reminder of vast masses of field-gray men drawing nearer to our lines in overwhelming numbers.
The Irish in the rear of Hilgard had hard work to maintain their position. To dislodge the enemy, it was absolutely necessary to turn his flank; otherwise there was no chance of advancing further. Each line of sharpshooters that leaped forward was partially mowed down by the terrible machine-guns. The enemy didn't budge an inch.
He set about to restore Rudyard, as Krool prepared a bandage for the broken head. Down in the valley the artillery was at work. Lyddite and shrapnel and machine-guns were playing upon the top of the ridge above them, and the infantry Humphrey's and Blagdon's men were hurrying up the slope which Byng's pioneers had cleared, and now held.
Seaton's hand was upon the lever which would hurl the Skylark upward into the fray. Crane and DuQuesne, each hard of eye and grim of jaw, were stationed at their machine-guns. "Something's up!" exclaimed Seaton. "Look at the Kondal!" Something had happened indeed.
An assault of the second battalion of the 64th Regiment on the Japanese infantry position was repulsed, as the enemy quite unexpectedly brought several masked machine-guns into action. The firing continues, and General Elliott reports that the battle with the hostile forces advancing along the Bear River Valley began at 3 p.m. south of Georgetown.
This colonel knew the other colonel, and he said about the other what his fellow-officers had said: it was not his fault; he was a good man. If the guns were not "on," what happened to him was bound to happen to anybody. They had been "on" for the winning battalion; perfectly "on." They had buried the machine-guns and the Germans with them.
From the moment the first waves started to advance across the open country they came under a devastating fire. They were bespattered with shrapnel from the guns, enfiladed on three sides by machine-guns whose fire swept them away in scores, rifle-pits spat death at them, and from the crowded trenches came a terrible volume of rifle-fire.
Even the guns were silent: the crack of a rifle-shot or far-off splutters from machine-guns were the only sounds to mingle with the harsh jumbled tread of the Royal Guernseys marching over cobbles and bad roads to the encampment of iron huts.
We watch, outspread on our bellies, or kneeling, or sitting lower down, with our empty rifles beside us. Margat reflects, shakes his head and says: "Wire would have stopped them just now. But we had no wire." "And machine-guns, too! but where are they, the M.G.s?" We have a distinct feeling that there has been an enormous blunder in the command.
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