There was no anti-aircraft fire, but the droning noise continued loudly, rising and falling.  Private Trotter, who was lying beside me, was drawing his breath in sharply between his lips.  Our fear of impending disaster was prolonged intolerably.  The droning propeller seemed to be directly above us.  I tried to analyse my feelings.  If one finger is held close to the middle of the forehead a curious sensation of strain seems to gather in that spot.  That was precisely the sensation I had at the back of my head and neck, only with far greater intensity.  It was the concentrated, agonizing consciousness of the swift descent of a huge iron mass that will strike the base of the head and blow the whole body to pieces.  In the region of the solar-plexus I had a feeling of oppression such as one often has before an examination, before jumping into an icy river, before opening a letter that may contain bad news.  I also breathed more heavily than usual.  I made no attempt to master these sensations.  It occurred to me that fear is merely a physical reaction that cannot be avoided.  If a man reacts so violently that he is overcome and rushes about as though he were demented, it is no more his fault than if he shivers with cold.  A man can stop shivering by an effort of the will, but only to a certain extent.  And no effort of the will can prevent him from feeling cold.  In the same way, no effort of the will can prevent him from feeling fear, and only to a limited extent can the will control the outward manifestations of fear.  Nevertheless, some distraction may enable a man to forget his fear for a while, just as it may enable him to forget the cold.  I was so intent upon self-analysis that I lost consciousness of everything except my mental concentration, even of those sensations I was trying to analyse, for the very act of analysis was destroying them.  As they grew weaker, the effort of my will increased.  It became so great that I grew conscious of great mental tension and at the same time I realized that my fear had vanished altogether.  For a brief space I had a sensation of vacuity as though I could neither think nor feel.  Then my mental effort suddenly collapsed, I once more became aware of the droning overhead, and with a rush my former fears were upon me again.  I pressed myself flat to earth.  I heard the descent of a bomb.  I trembled and tried to shrink to nothing.  There was a deafening thunder-clap and the ground shook.  A quantity of loose earth came down upon us.  Another bomb descended—­every muscle in my body tightened and I stopped breathing altogether.  But the explosion that followed was fainter than the last.  Then there was another, still further off.  All my muscles gradually relaxed and a delicious feeling of relief pervaded my whole being.  The buzzing noise became more and more feeble.  I got up and walked back to the marquee, trembling and weak at the knees.  The others followed.

Most of us went to bed, but a few continued to pace up and down in great agitation.  One man picked up his blankets in a bundle and went off in order to sleep in the open fields, far away from the camp.