TheCompleteMemoirsOfGeorgeSherston

into my notebook. Rose Trench, Orchard Alley,
Apple Alley, and Willow Avenue, were among the
first objectives in our sector, and my mind very pro-
perly insisted on their gentler associations. Never-
theless this topographical Arcadia was to be seized,
cleared, and occupied when the historic moment
arrived and in conjunction with the French the
Fourth Army took the offensive, establishing as a
primary objective aline Montauban-Pozieres, passing
to the south of Mametz Wood. There wasn't going to
be any mistake about it this time. We decided, with
quite a glow of excitement, that the Fourth Army was
going to fairly wipe the floor with the Boches. In the
meantime our Corps Intelligence Summary (known
as Comic Cuts] reported on June syth that three enemy
balloons had been set on fire and destroyed on the
previous afternoon; also that a large number of
enemy batteries had been silenced by our artillery.
The anonymous humorist who compiled Comic Cuts
was also able to announce that the Russians had cap-
tured a redoubt and some heavy guns at Czartovijsk,
which, he explained, was forty-four miles north-east
of Luck. At Martinpuich a large yellowish explosion
had been observed. On Tuesday afternoon I went
up to the Line with Durley on some preliminary
errand, for we were to relieve a battalion of the
Border Regiment next day, in the sector in front of
Fricourt Cemetery. Our Batteries were firing
strenuously all along the countryside, with very little
retaliation.

As we passed the gun-pits where some Heavies were
hidden in a hollow called Gibraltar, I remarked on a
sickly sw^et smell which I attributed to the yellow
weeds which were abundant there, but Durley ex-
plained that it was the lingering aroma of gas-shells.

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