We found the Germans continually sounding our bugle-calls for the
purpose of deceiving our men, and one of our worst fights took place at
a place I can’t tell you the name of, because the Germans sounded the
retreat for one of our advanced battalions, and then it was attacked in
murderous fashion as it deployed across the open in the belief that it
was being ordered to fall back. For a time that threw the whole line
into confusion, but we soon got right again, and drove the Germans off
in fine style with the bayonet. After that bugle-calls were dispensed
with, but the Germans soon “tumbled” to that and took to picking off
the dispatch-riders who were sent with orders. In that way it happened
that bodies of men never got their orders to retreat or advance, and
that’s why some of our regiments got cut up here and there: _A Private
of the 18th Royal Irish Regiment_.