It is my opinion, although, of course, I have no authority for it,
that the German artillery have been supplied with contour maps of the
route to Paris, with the ranges marked from hill to hill. Directly they
reached an incline and faced us on another they let fly right on top
of us straight away. They certainly had not time to find the range by
the ordinary methods. I was wounded by a bullet from a shrapnel. It is
very poor stuff, and very ineffective. The bullet that hit me ought
ordinarily to have gone right through my hand. I lay for about an hour
and a half on some corn, with the shrapnel bursting over me all the
time. The bullets were absolutely spent, and when they dropped on my
clothes they only singed them; others I stopped with my hands as they
fell: _Quartermaster-Sergt. Hinton, 17th Batt. Royal Field Artillery_.