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94 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
westerly direction the main road on which we had spent our
day. But it would be too dangerous to take this route. The
dusky outlines of the column would be visible from the new
French positions and offer an excellent target, besides drawing
the fire on to the German General Staff. The column had
just begun to move down the road, when its commander
was ordered to change its direction and drive behind the town
where the great mortar guns were still posted. Only when
dark has set in is it possible to advance right up to the troops
—for the present it sufficed to go as far as the shelter afforded
by the ground allowed. From the points thus reached the
ammunition has to be carried up to the firing lines in daylight
if a shortage becomes imminent. Such shortage of ammunition
is however very rare, as an increased number of cartridges is
always served out before a fight, in addition to which the
cartridge belts of the dead and wounded are also carefully
emptied by the men still on their legs.
A battery of light howitzers now appears north of the main
road. It follows the southward course taken by the infantry.
In the west-south-west we notice the bursting of six shells a
couple of kilometres away, evidently intended for the advancing
Wiirttembergers. But the centre of activity is now beginning
to move away from my point of vantage, and I see but an
occasional ambulance man who has been left behind.
In the afternoon I made a hasty panoramic sketch of the
battlefield, A young Captain provided with a map explained
everything within our range of vision. In the east-south-east
a battalion of reserves lay concealed in a hollow, in the south-
east the French shrapnel kept on bursting, and immediately
to the right of the puffs of smoke was the little wood called
Bois de Cheppy. In the south-south-east the smoke from the
burning village of Very rose into the sky—it had been taken
in the course of the day. Immediately to the right, but further
away, lay the prettily situated village of Vauquois, resembling
a castle on a hill and still in the possession of the French.
Immediately to the south was the burning village of Cheppy,
and in the south-south-west Boureuilles and Varennes, both
in flames. Yet a little further to the right, but at a greater
distance, the little white cloudlets formed by the German
shrapnel were sharply silhouetted against the sky. In the
south-west the church tower and roofs of Montblainville,
which had just been taken by the Wiirttembergers, showed up
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