Both the French and the British troops display marvellous coolness
under fire, but I think the biscuit for coolness ought to go to the
battalion of infantry of the French line which we found eating its
breakfast by the roadside under a heavy German fire last week. In our
own regiment it’s not unusual to see men playing cards under fire while
waiting for the order to advance. I know of a case where one of our
chaps was just going to win the trick when the Germans sent along a
shell that hit every man of the card party, killing one and wounding
three. When one was being taken off on a stretcher he called out, “It
was the Germans won that trick”: _Private R. Duffy_.