There had been heavy artillery fire through the night, increasing
in intensity as the hour of the morning appointed for the attack
approached. The Germans, informed by their airmen of an unusual
commotion in the enemy first line, began shelling that point, and the
uproar was terrific when the signal was given for the Legion to go over
the top. Says Morlae:
“I felt my jaws clenching, and the man next to me looked white. It was
only for a second. Then every one of us rushed at the trench-wall, each
and every man struggling to be the first out of the trench. In a moment
we had clambered up and out. We slid over the parapet, wormed our way
through gaps in the wire, formed in line, and, at the command, moved
forward at march-step straight toward the German wire.”
As they moved forward at double-quick, men fell right and left under
bursting shell, and the rain of bullets from the machine guns; but
through all the appalling uproar Morlae could hear the clear, high
voice of his captain shouting “_En avant! Vive la France!_”