Wounded men in the hospitals of Boulogne related to the London _Express_
correspondent these incidents of the fighting between the British and
Germans. One of the men, he says, told of a trick which the British
learned in the Boer war which was carried out with deadly effect against
the Germans. The story of the incident follows:
“The enemy before sending their infantry against our positions opened a
hot artillery fire. Our artillery replied at first warmly, and then gun
after gun of the British batteries went silent.
“What’s up now?” I asked a comrade. There were a few minutes more of
artillery firing from the Germans, and then their infantry came on in
solid formation. We received them with rifle fire. Still they came on
and still we mowed them down. They were getting closer and we could
plainly see the dense masses moving. Then suddenly the whole of our
artillery opened fire.
“You see, the cannon had not been silenced at all, and it was a trick to
draw the Germans on. They went down in whole fields, for our guns got
them in open ground and, of course, they soon had enough. It was
impossible for those behind to come on past the dead.”