At first
you may see them ten miles away making luminous the earth. Then as you
drive nearer and nearer, that far-off heat-lightning effect disappears
and you can actually see the curve of the star-shells as they mount
toward the skies over No Man's Land and fall again as gracefully as a
fountain of water. Sometimes you will see them for miles along the
front, making night day and lighting up the fields and surrounding
hills as though for a great celebration.
BURSTING BOMBS
The light of bursting shells as they fall, or of bursting bombs from an
aeroplane, is a short, sharp, quick light like an electric flash when a
wire falls or a flash of sharp lightning, but the light of the great
guns along the line as they thunder their missiles of death can be seen
for miles when a bombardment is on. One forgets the thunder of these
belching monsters, and one forgets the death they carry, in the glory
of the flame of noonday light that they make in the night.
Then there are the range-finders. These suddenly shoot up in the
night, steady and clear, and remain for several minutes burning
brightly before they go out. I used to see these frequently driving
home from the front. They were sent up from the hangars to guide the
French and American planes to a safe landing by night.
Then there is the moonlight.
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