We overhaul the bayonets— that is to say, the ones that have a saw on the blunt edge.
If the fellows over there catch a man with one of those he's killed at sight.
In the next sector some of our men were found whose noses were cut off and their eyes poked out with their own saw-bayonets.
Their mouths and noses were stuffed with sawdust so that they suffocated.
Some of the recruits have bayonets of this sort; we take them away and give them the ordinary kind.
But the bayonet has practically lost its importance.
It is usually the fashion now to charge with bombs and spades only.
The sharpened spade is a more handy and many-sided weapon; not only can it be used for jabbing a man under the chin, but it is much better for striking with because of its greater weight; and if one hits between the neck and shoulder it easily cleaves as far down as the chest.
The bayonet frequently jams on the thrust and then a man has to kick hard on the other fellow's belly to pull it out again; and in the interval he may easily get one himself.
And what's more the blade often gets broken off.
At night they send over gas.
We expect the attack to follow and lie with our masks on, ready to tear them off as soon as the first shadow appears.
Dawn approaches without anything happening —only the everlasting, nerve-wracking roll behind the enemy lines, trains, trains, lorries, lorries; but what are they concentrating?
Our artillery fires on it continually, but still it does not cease.
We have tired faces and avoid each other's eyes.
"It will be like the Somme," says Kat gloomily. "There we were shelled steadily for seven days and nights."
Kat has lost all his fun since we have been here, which is bad, for Kat is an old front-hog, and can smell what is coming.
Only Tjaden seems pleased with the good rations and the rum; he thinks we might even go back to rest without anything happening at all.
It almost looks like it.
Day after day passes.
At night I squat in the listening-post.
Above me the rockets and parachute-lights shoot up and float down again.
I am cautious and tense, my heart thumps.
My eyes turn again and again to the luminous dial of my watch; the hands will not budge.
Sleep hangs on my eyelids, I work my toes in my boots in order to keep awake.
Nothing happens till I am relieved;—only the everlasting rolling over there.
Gradually we grow calmer and play skat and poker continually.
Perhaps we will be lucky.
All day the sky is hung with observation balloons.
There is a rumour that the enemy are going to put tanks over and use low-flying planes for the attack.
But that interests us less than what we hear of the new flame-throwers.
We wake up in the middle of the night.
The earth booms.
Heavy fire is falling on us.
We crouch into corners.
We distinguish shells of every calibre.
Each man lays hold of his things and looks again every minute to reassure himself that they are still there.
The dug-out heaves, the night roars and flashes.
We look at each other in the momentary flashes of light, and with pale faces and pressed lips shake our heads.
Every man is aware of the heavy shells tearing down the parapet, rooting up the embankment and demolishing the upper layers of concrete.
When a shell lands in the trench we note how the hollow, furious blast is like a blow from the paw of a raging beast of prey.
Already by morning a few of the recruits are green and vomiting.
They are too inexperienced.
Slowly the grey light trickles into the post and pales the flashes of the shells.
Morning is come.
The explosion of mines mingles with the gunfire.
That is the most dementing convulsion of all.
The whole region where they go up becomes one grave.
The reliefs go out, the observers stagger in, covered with dirt, and trembling.
One lies down in silence in the corner and eats, the other, an older man of the new draft, sobs; twice he has been flung over the parapet by the blast of the explosions without getting any more than shell-shock.