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ON THE WAY TO THE FIFTH ARMY 69
round the village reminds one almost of a cake of Swedish rye-
bread pitted all over with holes. The blankness of desolation
is most curiously contrasted by the busy military life around.
Almost every inch of ground is occupied by the transport
columns with their endless streams of wagons, drafts of
reinforcements who had elected to halt here—the men resting
on the wet ground round their piled rifles—military police
in their green uniforms and crescent-shaped metal badges,
and countless horses to replace those which have fallen, for
Vilosnes has now been made into a horse depot.
The thunder of the guns has now become louder and we
have not far to go to reach the German batteries. As yet
there is no danger. The countless shell-pits have not been
formed in the present fighting. Since these shells fell, the
Germans have made an advance. But we are, nevertheless,
immediately behind the firing line, and that is why all these
supplies are required to feed men, horses, guns and rifles.
A little way from the village an ammunition column has halted ;
its wheels look awful, coated with thick layers of mud and
clay up to the axles. The men are like moving clay statues.
In the midst of the mire, in fields and meadows, are am-
munition parks and field hospitals, although it would be
impossible to find a single dry patch on which to rest one’s
tired body for the night. Presumably the men sleep in the
wagons as far as space allows. They are hardy and brave,
these men, always singing, never complaining.
We come a step nearer the fire when we drive up to the
village of Dannevoux, which is crowded with Ersatztrufpen.
Here we can study the reinforcement organisation more
closely still. Here fresh soldiers stand ready to move up into
the firing line to replace the killed and wounded, whilst the
work of provisioning and bringing up fresh ammunition is in
full swing, so that no fatal break need occur in the firing.
Dannevoux church has been turned into a field hospital,
where Germans and Frenchmen are tended without dis-
crimination.
In a modest little house in Dannevoux a Divisional Com-
mander has taken up his quarters, and here we pay a short
visit to General von Gossler, who is in the act of examining
some fifty French prisoners drawn up in two files, who had
just been captured. They reply calmly and politely to all
questions and say that their regiment has been almost wiped
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