Becomes an Artillery Duel.

[Made Public Oct. 10.]

Comparative calm on our front has continued through the fine and considerably warmer weather.  The last six days have been slightly misty with clouds hanging low, so that conditions have not been very favorable for aerial reconnoissance.

In regard to the latter, it is astonishing how quickly the habit is acquired, even by those who are not aviators, of thinking of the weather in terms of its suitability for flying.  There has been a bright moon also, which has militated against night attacks.

On Saturday, Oct. 3, practically nothing happened, except that each side shelled the other.

Toward evening on Sunday, Oct. 4, there was a similar absence of activity.  Opposite one portion of our line the enemy’s bands played patriotic airs, and the audiences which gathered gave a chance to our waiting howitzers.

Not only do their regimental bands perform occasionally, but with their proverbial fondness for music the Germans have in some places gramophones [Transcriber:  original ‘gramaphones’] in their trenches.

On Monday, the 5th, there were three separate duels in the air between French and German aviators, one of which was visible from our trenches.  Two of the struggles were, so far as could be seen, indecisive, but in the third the French airmen were victorious, and brought down their opponents, both of whom were killed by machine gun fire.  The observer was so burned as to be unrecognizable.

During the day some men of the Landwehr were taken prisoners by us.  They were in very poor condition and wept copiously when captured.  One, on being asked what he was crying for, explained that though they had been advised to surrender to the English, they believed that they would be shot.

On that evening our airmen had an unusual amount of attention paid to them, both by the German aviators and their artillery of every description.

One of our infantry patrols discovered 150 dead Germans in a wood, one and a half miles from our front.  We sent a party out to bury them, but it was fired upon and had to withdraw.

On Tuesday, the 6th, the enemy’s guns were active in the afternoon.  It is believed that the bombardment was due to anger because two of our howitzer shells had detonated right in one of the enemy’s trenches, which was full of men.  Three horses were killed by the German fire.

Wednesday, the 7th, was uneventful.

On Thursday, the 8th, the shelling by the enemy of a locality on our front, which has so far been the scene of their greatest efforts, was again continuous.  Opposite one or two points the Germans have attempted to gain ground by sapping in some places with the view of secretly pushing forward machine guns in advance of their trenches, so that they can suddenly sweep with crossfire the space between our line and theirs, and so take any advance of ours on the flank.