There are times when if you stuck your head out of a trench you could
no more help being hit than you could expect to escape drops of rain
if you went out on a wet day without an umbrella. You will not be
able to see a German when darkness comes, but next morning you will
find that the trenches have come so close, owing to the exertions of
the two sides, that you could reach out of yours and shake hands with
a German--that’s if you wanted to. When things get so close as that
there’s nothing for it but to set to and shift the beggars a little
further along: _A Driver of the Royal Artillery_.