The Germans keep firing away by night as well as day, and that gives
them a big pull over us, because the men in our lines find it hard to
sleep with the continual shelling. Firing from your own lines doesn’t
affect you in the same way, so that it doesn’t keep the Germans awake
unless we bombard them. Men without sleep are not nearly so fit for
fighting the next day. Not all of our chaps are kept awake. There are
some who could sleep through anything: _Gunner Dyson, Royal Artillery_.
“Lucky, Considering”
My company was advancing on a wood from which the Germans were picking
off our men. We were lying down firing, when from the wood was shouted,
“Stop it, you are firing on your own men.” Someone said, “Cease fire,”
and we did. Then a very hot fire came at us from the wood. My left-hand
man was shot through the stomach, and then my right-hand man was
shot through the head. It was a German who had shouted to us. Then a
shell, a 96-pounder, burst over us, and a piece of it took away from
me a large piece of my left side. I am lucky, considering: _Pte. J.
Sullivan, South Lancashires_.