Energy books

Our line at Hooge at that time was held by the
King's Royal Rifles of the 14th Division, young fellows, not far
advanced in the training-school of war. They held on under the gunning
of their positions, and each man among them wondered whether it was
the shell screeching overhead or the next which would smash him into
pulp like those bodies lying nearby in dugouts and upheaved
earthworks.
On the morning of July 30th there was a strange lull of silence after
a heavy bout of shells and mortars. Men of the K. R. R. raised their
heads above broken parapets and crawled out of shell-holes and looked
about. There were many dead bodies lying around, and wounded men were
wailing. The unwounded, startled by the silence, became aware of some
moisture falling on them; thick, oily drops of liquid.
"What in hell's name--?" said a subaltern.
One man smelled his clothes, which reeked of something like paraffin.
Coming across from the German trenches were men hunched up under some
heavy weights.


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