After all, if you prevent your enemy from
drawing his rations, his remedy is simple: he will prevent you from
drawing yours. Then both parties will have to fight on empty stomachs,
and neither of them, tactically, will be a penny the better. So,
unless some elaborate scheme of attack is brewing, the early hours
of the night are comparatively peaceful. But what is that sudden
disturbance in the front-line trench? A British rifle rings out, then
another, and another, until there is an agitated fusilade from end
to end of the section. Instantly the sleepless host across the way
replies, and for three minutes or so a hurricane rages. The working
parties out in front lie flat on their faces, cursing patiently.
Suddenly the storm dies away, and perfect silence reigns once more.
It was a false alarm. Some watchman, deceived by the whispers of the
night breeze, or merely a prey to nerves, has discerned a phantom army
approaching through the gloom, and has opened fire thereon. This often
occurs when troops are new to trench-work.
It is during these hours, too, that regiments relieve one another in
the trenches. The outgoing regiment cannot leave its post until the
incoming regiment has "taken over." Consequently you have, for a brief
space, two thousand troops packed into a trench calculated to hold one
thousand. Then it is that strong men swear themselves faint, and the
Rugby football player has reason to be thankful for his previous
training in the art of "getting through the scrum.
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