CHAPTER II

JUNE TO OCTOBER, 1917. TRENCH WARFARE

"The thundering line of battle stands, And in the air Death moans and sings."

JULIAN GRENFELL.

[Sidenote: June 1917.]

In the next few weeks trench warfare pursued its monotonous course--long periods, as it has been aptly said, of unutterable boredom varied by moments of inexpressible terror--but June was, on the whole, the quietest month the Division had in France. On the 15th the Divisional Headquarters at Achiet-le-Grand was shelled by a 15-inch gun firing from a range of about 20 miles. Two or three shells burst within 50 yards of our mess, but the only casualties were one of my clerks and my Reconnaissance Officer Anderson's servant, both slightly wounded. On the 19th orders came for the Division to go into the line again, relieving the 20th Division on the front opposite Riencourt and Quéant, a side slip of a mile or two to the right of our old position. The artillery were all in their new positions by the 22nd, on which date I reassumed command, moving my headquarters to the Monument Camp on the Sapignies-Bapaume road.

I received the following letter from the G.O.C.R.A. 58th Division:--

"The B.G.R.A. 58th Division wishes to express his gratitude and appreciation to all ranks of the 62nd Divisional Artillery, whom he has had the honour to have under his command during the past month.

"Despite heavy shelling of their positions and continual firing night and day, they have never failed to respond quickly and efficiently to every call which he has made upon them, and it has been largely due to their excellent and energetic shooting that the operations which have just concluded have attained the measure of success which has come their way.

"All ranks of the 58th Divisional Artillery unite in thanking the 62nd Divisional Artillery for all their help, and wish them the best of luck.

"E. J. R. PEEL, "_Brig.-General_."

The 310th Brigade were now in positions in the Noreuil Valley, which had been given not inaptly the name of the Valley of Death, and the 312th in the neighbourhood of Lagnicourt. Early in the morning of the 25th they supported a successful little raid made by our infantry on the Boche front line south of Riencourt. No prisoners were taken unfortunately, but the infantry found several dead bodies, killed by our artillery fire.

We now began to get the trench mortars into action. Up till this time they had not had much chance of proving their value, although the personnel had done much useful work in helping the D.A.C. with the ammunition supply. They were now to take up their legitimate rôle in the front trenches.

On the 26th D/312 underwent a severe shelling, but although two howitzers were badly hit, no men were hurt.

About this time I used often to go round the O.P.'s in my spare time, and to test the quickness of the different batteries in getting off a round on a trial call of S.O.S. I considered it distinctly good if a battery opened fire within 40 seconds of getting the call, but as time went on most of them became extraordinarily quick to answer, and I well remember my satisfaction when, during a walk round the O.P.'s in company with General Benson, Commanding the 5th Corps Artillery, we tried a few S.O.S. tests, and one of my batteries got off the answering round in 17 seconds. I think that the record time was nine seconds, the battery that reached it being C/310, then in position in the Noreuil Valley.

[Sidenote: July 1917.]

On the 2nd July I was returning from one of these tours, and, calling on my way back at the 310th Brigade Headquarters, which were then in a sunken road just N.W. of Noreuil, I found that a few minutes before my arrival a 4.2-inch shell had penetrated and burst inside a small shelter in the trench, killing four men and wounding three--all, of my special little R.A.R.E. company. The place was a shambles when I went into it. It was a particularly distressing affair, as there was a good and equally handy dug-out just beside the one that had suffered, fit to withstand any number of 4.2-inch shells; and these poor fellows had selected a place with no more protection than a corrugated iron roof.

I have not mentioned the R.A.R.E. company before. It was an unauthorised formation, not to be found, that is to say, in any official manual, and was made up of eight sappers from the Divisional R.E., together with about ten men from each brigade and from the D.A.C. The company was thus brought up to an establishment of about 40 men, and was commanded by a Royal Engineer officer. We called it the R.A.R.E. Company, and its duties were to supervise generally the work of building gun emplacements, stables, shelters, dug-outs, etc., and to carry out itself any works demanding skilled labour. I was most fortunate in being given the services of Lieut. E. B. Hammond, M.C., R.E., as its first commander. He took the keenest interest in his work and inspired all his men with his own zeal and energy; and his cheery personality, and unfailing tact and good humour ensured him a warm welcome from every battery he visited, and the cordial co-operation, moreover, of those who, at the inception of the scheme, might have been inclined to resent the taking away of even a few men from their depleted batteries. It did not take long to convince any such doubters of the immense utility of this small body of men. From working with the eight skilled sappers, the gunners and drivers furnished from the brigades gradually became skilled workers themselves, and the company proved such an invaluable addition to my command from this date until the final breaking up of the division in the Army of Occupation, that I do not know how the D.A. could ever have got on without it. It was a great blow when Hammond left us in January, 1918, on appointment as Adjutant R.E., but our luck still held good, and the work was carried on most efficiently by Lieut. C. L. Clarson, M.C., his successor.

On the 5th July Lieut.-Colonel Lister left the Division on appointment to the Staff at G.H.Q., and was succeeded in command of the 312th Brigade by Lieut.-Colonel A. T. Lough, who joined on the 9th.

Major-General W. P. Braithwaite, our Divisional Commander, inspected the D.A.C. on the 7th. The General always took the greatest interest in his artillery, and was a constant visitor to one or other of the units, and I only mention this particular occasion because I noted at the time, and well remember, what a really splendid turn-out we saw that day. I don't believe there was a better ammunition column in France. Lieut.-Colonel Woodcock, though not an old Regular officer himself, shared to the full the conviction held by most Regulars, that the smartest and best turned out troops are almost invariably the hardest workers and the best fighters, that in fact the one virtue leads automatically to the other. He had the happy knack, too, of getting the last ounce of work out of his subordinates without any unpleasantness in the process. In writing a record of artillery work it is inevitable that the performances of the batteries which do the actual fighting should come in for more frequent mention than the less showy, but equally indispensable and arduous, services of the D.A.C. Let me take this opportunity, therefore, of recording that the 62nd D.A.C. never failed me. As the war went on the daily expenditure of ammunition grew greater and greater, and at times the demands made on the column seemed almost impossible of fulfilment. Yet I can recall no instance when the amount of ammunition required was not punctually to hand. Colonel Woodcock was fortunate in his three Section Commanders, Captains Fraser, Kewley, and (for the greater part of the war) Edmondson. They were always cheery and willing, however difficult and depressing the circumstances might be, and they infected the N.C.O.'s and men under their command with the same spirit of cheeriness and good-will.

At about this date the 5th Corps Staff left, and was replaced by that of the 6th, to which corps we consequently now belonged.

Lieut. J. A. Brown was wounded on the 7th, and Lieut. R. L. Pickard on the 11th July.

V/62 (Trench Mortar Battery), which had recently gone into action near Bullecourt, took part in some successful minor operations towards the end of July, at Hargicourt and Epehy, with the 34th and 35th Divisions respectively, and had three men wounded.

During the second half of July the activity of the hostile artillery increased considerably. On the 17th three officers were wounded, Lieuts. H. C. O. Lawrie, E. H. Vanderpump, and T. B. Wills, and three guns of B/310 were put out of action. On the next day the Noreuil Valley again came in for a severe shelling, chiefly directed on the advanced section of A/310, which had one of its guns knocked out, but no casualties in its personnel.

The Army Commander, Sir Julian Byng, visited some of the batteries in the right sector on the 19th, and also one or two of the O.P.'s. He expressed himself as much pleased with all he saw.

On the 22nd A/312 was heavily shelled in its position just west of Lagnicourt, and had two guns put out of action. C/312 was bombarded the same night for several hours in the village of Morchies; not much harm was done, but the guns were shifted next day to a garden in the village which afforded better cover from the view of the Boche observation balloons. Morchies showed signs of having once been as pretty a village as could be seen in France, and must have been a charming spot before the Boche left his obscene trail there. At this time it was a shameful ruin, wantonly and brutally destroyed by the Huns when they retired through it a few months before. The numerous fruit trees had all been barked or uprooted, and most of the destruction in the village, both indoors and out, had obviously been done purposely and malignantly, and not by our, or the enemy's, shell fire. Of course this was only one out of hundreds of such cases, but Morchies must have once been so pretty and simple, and so aloof, that one felt an especial sense of outrage in seeing the hateful treatment to which it had been subjected. I used to wish that some of our pacifists could be brought out to see it.

On the 24th A/310 was again plentifully bespattered with shell, but so well were the guns and detachments protected that the net result of several hours bombardment was only two men wounded, and one gun wheel broken. Fortunately we were able to spot one of the batteries responsible for these recent annoyances, and on the 25th July Major Foot's battery, D/310, engaged this 5.9-inch battery with aeroplane observation. The shoot was a very successful one; several direct hits on the guns were recorded, and two emplacements were blown up with their ammunition. As a rule the batteries that annoyed us were firing from such a long range that they had to be dealt with by our heavy artillery, and it was a great satisfaction to us all when we were able to have a smack at them ourselves.

[Sidenote: Aug. 1917.]

On the 3rd August the Division made a side slip to the left, our left sector now becoming our right; for the new left sector we took over the rather unpleasant piece of trench (the old Hindenburg line) which ran from due south of Riencourt to about 500 yards west of Bullecourt, and which included the latter village. On this readjustment the 35th Brigade, of the 7th Division, was added to my command, in positions in the Ecoust valley. I moved two batteries of the 312th Brigade across into the same valley, while A and C/312 remained on the Lagnicourt side temporarily.

About this time we heard from a prisoner that part of the artillery acting against our front was the 49th Field Artillery Regiment; "but we call it," he said, "the 48½th, because they never quite reach their target, and are always firing into their own trenches." This was satisfactory hearing; at the same time we were uncomfortably aware that they managed to reach their targets rather more often than their own infantry seemed to suppose.

Good news reached us on the 4th from the Ypres front of 6000 prisoners having been taken and St. Julien occupied. Operations had, however, been brought to a standstill in the north by the vile weather; really it seemed as though the elements were always on the side of the Powers of Darkness.

Lieut. A. G. Bennett was wounded on the 8th August.

On about this date one of my trench mortar batteries went into action in Bullecourt.

They are in a ruin in the middle of the village. You get to them by first entering an old cellar in another ruin, and then scrambling down a sloping tunnel to an underground chamber about 30 feet below the surface of the ground. Here the detachment live. Then you crawl up another tunnel, and emerge into the ruin which holds the mortar emplacements.

I think that the trench mortar batteries had, on the whole, while they were in action, the most uncomfortable and dangerous job of any troops in the line. The infantry, while recognising their great value, objected not unnaturally to have such favourite objects of the enemy's attentions in any position near their dug-outs or much frequented trenches; and, as it was necessary that the mortars should be sited as close as possible to the enemy's front line, and yet, for the above reason, not too near the infantry, it followed that the only available positions were usually in unpopular spots shunned by all who had any choice in the matter, and generally bearing such significant titles as Hell Fire Point, V.C. Corner, Deadman's Gulley, etc. The unfortunate detachments lived underground for practically the whole of their tour of duty, as it was often impossible to get to and from their emplacements during the daylight; and, owing to shortage of men, their tours of duty were generally two or three times as long as those of the infantry. When I went to visit them, I could nearly always promise myself an exciting walk with plenty of thrills in it. I retain lively recollections of crawling with Lindsell or Anderson, guided by Powell, the D.T.M.O., along shallow trenches, or places where trenches had been before they were demolished, and finally diving down into the ground to find ourselves, when the eyes got used to the subterranean darkness, in the midst of a party of smiling jolly looking gunners. They were a cheerful lot, and, after all, they had their compensations. There were times when there was no scope for the use of trench mortars, and then they would sometimes get a rest for several weeks at a time, in some pleasant billet well back from the firing line; and when they did get a rest, it was well deserved.

On the 11th August C/312 was accurately bombarded, and lost two men killed and two wounded. The casualties up to this date amounted to

3 officers and 80 other ranks killed. 28 officers and 292 other ranks wounded.

C/310 came in for a tremendous bombardment on the 15th. For a long time shells were bursting in the position at the rate of about two a minute, chiefly 5.9-inch, varied by an occasional 8-inch. The detachments took refuge in their deep dug-out, and were able to laugh at the Boche's efforts, the effects of which were very slight considering the severity of the bombardment. One gun was buried, but subsequently dug out undamaged; another was blown out of its pit, but though the carriage was knocked to atoms the piece itself was still quite serviceable. At least 400 shells had fallen in and around the battery, and the ground was churned up into huge craters, many dead bodies being exhumed from their graves and scattered about. We felt that the Huns had not got good value on this occasion for the four thousand pounds which, at the very least, the expenditure of ammunition must have cost them.

On the 18th the 6th Corps held an admirably managed horse show at Bihucourt, which gave great enjoyment to a large concourse of officers and men. The artillery competitors came from six divisional artilleries, and we were remarkably successful, gaining the following events:--

Tent-pegging for Officers--1st prize (Major Swain). Tent-pegging for other ranks--1st prize (B.S.M. Howes of the D.A.C.). Gun Team--3rd prize. Pair of Light Draught Horses--1st prize. G.S. Wagon and Pair--2nd prize. Team of Mules--3rd prize.

I may mention that all the three prizes for officers' chargers were won by the division, going to Lieut.-Colonel Hore-Ruthven V.C., Major-General Braithwaite, and Lieut. C. Newman respectively; the second of these was a particularly popular win.

By this time the science of protective building and digging had been brought to a wonderful state of perfection in the batteries, as was evidenced by the remarkably small number of casualties caused by the enemy's constant shelling. Rarely a day passed but that the Noreuil and Ecoust valleys were under fire, and the former valley in particular presented an extraordinarily sinister appearance. It was thickly pitted with deep shell craters along its whole length, and a casual visitor would have found it hard to believe that any human beings could go on living in such a shell-swept area. Further investigation would however have shown that beneath all this desolation an active and busy underground existence was being carried on. The gun positions were camouflaged to appear like the surrounding ground, or disguised to represents heaps of debris, and were generally strongly enough protected to resist the impact of a 4.2-inch shell; and from every position at least two stairways led deep down into the ground to a network of passages and sleeping chambers from 30 to 40 feet below the surface. Where all the positions were so good, it would be difficult to discriminate between them, but perhaps the palm should be given to D/310. The Battery Commander, Major R. C. Foot, was a mining engineer by profession, and two of his subalterns, Lieuts. Currie and Casey, had been students with him at the same engineering college; their experience was of great value in a case of this sort, and their scientifically constructed position in a sunken road just north-west of Noreuil was a model of what a position should be, and was visited with great interest by many senior officers of other divisions as well as of our own.

Concealment from view was daily becoming more and more impossible. The enemy's balloons were so numerous, and were poised at so great an altitude, that very few depressions on the ground were deep enough to conceal emplacements from one or another of them. But, in addition to this, as the science of sound ranging was brought to greater and greater perfection, concealment became less and less useful, and overhead protection became the most important consideration. We now adopted a practice which was henceforth followed when possible throughout the war. Each battery had a main position, the guns of which remained silent except in combined "strafes," when every gun in the line was firing; when this happened the gun flashes were so numerous and continuous along the whole front that it was almost impossible for observers in the hostile balloons to take accurate bearings to any one battery, and sound ranging also was impracticable. For the ordinary routine shooting each battery kept an advanced section; this could be moved with comparative ease if the Boche artillery should make the position too hot, and in any case it is more difficult to spot two guns than six, and harder to hit them when found.

On the 21st August B/310 and C/312 were bombarded for several hours by 5.9 and 8-inch howitzers; although a tremendous weight of metal was poured into the positions, no material damage was done, and only two men were wounded.

On the 23rd and 24th the 35th Brigade was withdrawn from my command, and a readjustment of batteries had to be made. The 310th continued to cover the right, or Noreuil, sector, and the left, or Bullecourt, sector fell to the 312th. A/312 consequently moved from Lagnicourt to the Ecoust Valley; to our great delight the Boche threw about 400 rounds into the empty position the day after the battery had cleared out of it.

[Sidenote: Sept. 1917.]

On the 4th and 6th September the Noreuil valley was again heavily shelled; on the first of these dates A/310 had two guns knocked out, but suffered no loss to personnel; on the 6th the fire was directed on B/310 and C/310; one man was killed and one wounded, but no damage whatever was done to material. Capt. J. G. Robinson was awarded the Military Cross in connection with the above:

"On the 4th September, near Vaulx, the battery position was very heavily shelled. Capt. Robinson, having got his men into safety, endeavoured to locate the hostile battery by compass bearing. Later on, noticing that the camouflage of the two gun pits had caught fire, he, with Sergt. Rider and Gunner Charlesworth, left cover, and proceeded to extinguish the fires and to recover the gun pits with camouflage. As the shelling continued and the dial sights had not been removed from the guns, he again went out and removed four of them. All this was done under very heavy fire and at great personal risk. He showed very great gallantry and coolness, and set a fine example to the rest of the battery."

On the 10th the trench mortars in Bullecourt carried out one of their periodical bombardments of the Boche trenches and knocked them about handsomely. The enemy turned a number of batteries of varying calibres on to the mortar emplacements and put one mortar out of action. Corporal W. Settle, who was in charge of one of the mortars, behaved with great gallantry. He was almost buried by an explosion, and his coat was literally riddled, with at least 30 rents and holes, though in some miraculous way he escaped unwounded. In spite of this he stuck to his work until the shoot was finished. He got the Military Medal, but, to my great sorrow, was killed five days later at Cherisy.

At the beginning of September the G.S.O.I. of the Division, Lieut.-Colonel the Hon. A. Hore-Ruthven V.C., left us on transfer to the Guards Division, much to the regret of us all. He was succeeded by a Gunner, Lieut.-Colonel C. R. Newman, D.S.O.

On the night of the 11th our infantry carried out a successful little raid on the Star Cross Roads, about quarter of a mile S.W. of Riencourt. The guns bombarded the trench from 11.10 to 11.15 p.m., and then formed a box barrage round the cross roads for quarter of an hour, while the infantry walked in; they bombed the dug-outs, did as much destruction as they could, and returned with four prisoners; their own casualties were only three wounded. Early in the morning of the 13th the enemy attempted a raid on our trenches at the Apex. The S.O.S. signal was sent up, and our guns were firing hard for about two hours. The attack was completely repulsed.

The G.O.C. received the following message from Sir Douglas Haig:

"The Commander-in-Chief congratulates you and your troops on the repeated successes shown in your local operations, which show excellent spirit and skill. These successes help appreciably in the general plan."

A few days before this attack I had been ordered to lend two 18-pounder batteries and two trench mortar batteries to the 50th Division to help them in a raid in the neighbourhood of Cherisy, and as they had marched out on the 12th for an absence of four days, our artillery strength was in a dangerously low state when the attack took place, their being only sixteen 18-pounder guns and eleven howitzers to cover a front of 5000 yards.

The two field batteries that were temporarily detached for this duty were A/310 and B/312. The raid was a very successful one, but, unhappily, our losses in the trench mortars were very heavy, and we lost two valuable officers killed, Lieuts. G. A. Craven and W. E. Harris, and one wounded, Lieut. W. Wooliscroft. Seven N.C.O.'s and gunners were also killed, and a large number wounded. Lieut. E. Parkinson was given the Military Cross "for gallantry and devotion to duty during minor operations west of Cherisy. After his battery had suffered many casualties during the first phase, he reorganised his positions, and, after his Commanding Officer had been killed, went round under heavy fire encouraging his men to keep their mortars going. Later, under heavy fire, he searched his gun position and assisted to get wounded clear and his men away."

Lieut. Parkinson has kindly furnished me with the following account of what took place:

"Y/62 and Z/62 trench mortar batteries were lent to the 50th Division for a raid they carried out on September 15th, 1917. The field guns and trench mortars provided a box barrage, the latter putting their contributions at each side, while the field guns shelled the enemy's support trenches.

"Our positions were in a little-used trench about 150 yards behind our own front line, opposite Cherisy. This trench had previously suffered very little from the German barrage, and it was expected that casualties there would be slight. The wire was not cut from any of these positions, and guns not even registered from them.

"The first portion of the raid was carried out from 4 p.m. to 4.40 p.m., and was completely successful. The Battalion which went over the top was commanded by the late Brig.-General Bradford, V.C., then Colonel, who afterwards came to the 62nd Division as a Brigade Commander.

"As ill luck would have it (I cannot think it anything else), the trench the mortars were in received about 75 per cent. of the total German barrage, and casualties were so heavy among Z battery that they were unable to man their guns for the full length of time. Lieut. G. A. Craven was so severely wounded that he died the same evening, while Lieut. W. Wooliscroft was wounded, and most of the men either killed or wounded.

"At 7.40 p.m. half a battalion went over the top again, and in this case also the results were all that could have been desired. Previously Y Battery had only had two men killed, and so were able to man their four guns. The German barrage was again very heavy, and we suffered severely. Round one gun were grouped about a hundred bombs ready for firing, and exactly what happened we shall never know, but the lot were detonated. The detachment was of course blown to atoms, and at the next gun two men were killed by the explosion as well as Lieut. Harris. One man alone was left unharmed, and after carrying some wounded under cover, he returned and manned his gun single-handed until the raid was over.

"We went to the raid 4 officers and about 40 other ranks, and returned to our Division 1 officer and 6 other ranks."

I received the following letter from the G.O.C.R.A., 50th Division:

"Will you please thank your fellows very much for the good work they did for us yesterday. I am most awfully sorry your trench mortars had such a bad time. It was just bad luck; the Boche put down a barrage where he had never put one down before, and caught them. It was most unfortunate. I can't tell you how sorry I am about it."

On the 26th September we carried out a bombardment of the enemy's trenches south of Riencourt, together with a barrage, with the object of making him think we were assaulting, and inducing him to unmask his artillery positions. This object was successfully attained, the enemy "got the wind up" thoroughly, and answered with every available gun. Our planes and balloons were able to fix the positions of nearly 40 batteries.

Major A. F. Bayley arrived on the 27th, and was posted to the 310th Brigade.

For the next few weeks things were comparatively quiet, though life in the batteries was diversified by occasional bombardments. I take from a note written at the time a short account of one of my routine trips. It is a fairly typical one, and will serve to give some idea of the sort of condition under which we were now holding the line:

First we drive in the car for about two miles; then we alight, fix gas helmets in the ready position, put on tin hats, and go on on foot, leaving the car in a sunken road fairly safe and snug. Now the excitement begins. We go across country, generally in full view of the Boche lines, though they are still far off, and often dodging the places where their long-range shells are falling, or lying down till they burst if we hear them coming near us. A walk of one and a half miles brings us into a much-battered village in which my most advanced guns are scattered about, and now begins the second and more dangerous stage. The village (Ecoust) is a deserted ruin, but for occasional individuals moving hastily from cover to cover, and we waste no time in passing through it, and enter the communication trench which leads up to the front infantry line. As the Boche has exact photographs of the course of this trench, he frequently bombards it; and though the chances are greatly against a shell falling on any one bit of the trench just at the moment when one is passing, still at the time the possibility seems far from remote, and the situation is thrilling enough. About a mile of trench as the crow flies (but treble that distance to walk, owing to the zig-zag formation of the trench, so designed to prevent a shell from sweeping right down it) brings one to the support line. Stage three, and the most dangerous one, now begins; one follows the support trench for a good long way; it is generally pretty deep, but in places it has almost been destroyed by recent shelling, and then one has to crawl and duck until a safer depth is reached; then up other zig-zags to the very front line. Here one is in comparative safety, for the enemy is only one or two hundred yards off, and his artillery dare not shoot at you for fear of hitting their own front line; so you are safe except for snipers (if you are foolish enough to show yourself), or for that most terrible of all terrors, the minenwerfer.

These trips were often unpleasant enough even to people who, like myself, could always count on returning to a comfortable and fairly safe billet for the night, and they helped us, I hope, to realise the strain and discomfort which the officers and men at the batteries were forced to endure from day to day and night to night. The bulletins "nothing fresh to report" or "all quiet on such a front" had for _them_ very little signification.

During this period, in addition to the normal duties at the gun positions and in the wagon lines, every spare man was kept constantly hard at work in building stabling for the coming winter. It was a case of "sic vos non vobis," for everyone knew that our chances of remaining in this particular place were very small indeed, and that other men would enter into the fruit of our labours; however, the same considerations applied to the whole army, and one could only work one's hardest and trust that other divisions would do the same--a trust which, it is only fair to say, was rarely disappointed, even though, as must also be admitted, batteries almost always thought that the stables, shelters, and positions, which they had made, were a good deal better than those to which they succeeded. This belief may or may not have been always justified; anyway, it was human nature, and certainly the stabling constructed for this winter by the brigades and D.A.C. was of a very excellent and substantial nature.

During the period covered by this chapter 14 Military Medals were gained in the Divisional Artillery. Lieut. F. C. Pritchard won the Military Cross on the 8th October for the following act:

"When an ammunition pit and the camouflage over a gun were on fire, he went out and pulled the camouflage off the gun, and shovelled wet mud on to the fire. He did not leave until it was isolated from the other ammunition, thereby preventing much destruction."