The German trenches are marvellous. They are dug right into the
ground, and you might walk over them for hours without guessing that
there were men hidden away in them. The wonder is how they manage to
fire at all from them, but I dare say they are quite effective against
shell fire, and, what’s more important still, they make it very hard
for our aeroplanes to spot the Germans and form any estimate of their
strength. We are not one whit behind them in making trenches, and you
might say that the whole fight out here is simply a matter of digging
trenches right up so close that the other fellow has to run. It’s dull
work, but it’s enlivened now and then by little fights by day and
night, when the Germans rush out to surprise us or our generals think
it well to push the enemy a little further back: _A Corporal, at the
Aisne_.