We are next told how our wet and muddied heroes
in the trenches, though very tired, are always ready and eager for a " scrap." Indeed, " the sight of the Pichelhauben coming up has been a positive relief after the long trying hours of inaction under shell fire." The Germans apparently relied upon shattering our nerves with their very heavy guns and high explosives. In this they have failed, but the experiment has been costly. A German prisoner, indeed, described the authorities as being greatly disappointed by the moral effect produced by their heavy guns. " It has not been at all com- mensurate with the colossal expenditure of ammunition, which has really been wasted." The official war correspondent does not even neglect the artifice of comic relief. Re tells us that the German howitzer shells are eight to nine inches in calibre and on impact send up columns of greasy black smoke. On account of this they are irreverently nicknamed " coal-boxes," " Black Merles," or " Jack Johnson " by our soldiers. " Men who take things in this spirit are, it seems, likely to throw out the calculations based on loss of moral so carefully fr:tmed by the German military philosophers."
