Twenty-fifth of October, 1914: 

“A relatively undisturbed night.  The safety of the bridge over the Yser has been assured for a time.  The battle has gone on the whole day long.  We have not been given any definite orders.  One would not think this is Sunday.  The infantry and artillery combat is incessant, but no definite result is achieved.  Nothing but losses in wounded and killed.  We shall try to get into touch with the sixth division of the Third Reserve Army Corps on our right.”

Twenty-sixth of October, 1914: 

“What a frightful night has gone by!  There was a terrible rainstorm.  I felt frozen.  I remained standing knee-deep in water.  To-day an uninterrupted fusillade meets us in front.  We shall throw a bridge across the Yser, for the enemy’s artillery has again destroyed one we had previously constructed.

“The situation is practically unchanged.  No progress has been made in spite of incessant fighting, in spite of the barking of the guns and the cries of alarm of those human beings so uselessly killed.  The infantry is worthless until our artillery has silenced the enemy’s guns.  Everywhere we must be losing heavily; our own company has suffered greatly so far.  The colonel, the major, and, indeed, many other officers are already wounded; several are dead.

“There has not yet been any chance of taking off our boots and washing ourselves.  The Sixth Division is ready, but its help is insufficient.  The situation is no clearer than before; we can learn nothing of what is going on.  Again we are setting off for wet trenches.  Our regiment is mixed up with other regiments in an inextricable fashion.  No battalion, no company, knows anything about where the other units of the regiment are to be found.  Everything is jumbled under this terrible fire which enfilades from all sides.

“There are numbers of francs-tireurs.  Our second battalion is going to be placed under the order of the Cyckortz Regiment, made up of quite diverse units.  Our old regiment is totally broken up.  The situation is terrible.  To be under a hail of shot and shell, without any respite, and know nothing whatever of one’s own troops!

“It is to be hoped that soon the situation will be improved.  These conditions cannot be borne very much longer.  I am hopeless.  The battalion is under the command of Captain May, and I am reduced to acting as Fourier.  It is not at all an easy thing to do in our present frightful situation.  In the black night soldiers must be sent some distance in order to get and bring back the food so much needed by their comrades.  They have brought back, too, cards and letters from those we love.  What a consolation in our cheerless situation!  We cannot have a light, however, so we are forced to put into our pockets, unread, the words of comfort sent by our dear ones—­we have to wait till the following morning.

“So we spend the night again on straw, huddled up close one to another in order to keep warm.  It is horribly cold and damp.  All at once a violent rattle of rifle fire raises us for the combat; hastily we get ready, shivering, almost frozen.”