Page:War's dark frame (IA warsdarkframe00camp).pdf/207

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THE APPALLING MINES
175


fac-simile on a square table of the entire countryside occupied by his division. Each hill was there, each road, each house, each line of sheltering trees, every slightest branch of the German trench system. Even with modern air scouting such minute knowledge of the enemy's position drew exclamations of admiration. He showed us how it was obtained, summoning one of his staff who brought handfuls of aeroplane photographs which he fitted together end to end, side by side, diagonally, with the minute dificulty of a jig-saw puzzle, until it was possible to foresee a complete photograph of the war-scarred countryside. When the officer hesitated too long or put into his puzzle a piece that didn't fit, the general rebuked him gently with the manner of an employer in a business house or a factory. Men are killed and money is made with precisely the same discipline.

"Of course," the general said, “ the Huns know just as much about us as we do about them."

He had that hospitable willingness of all the officers I met to answer questions. He even promised to take us later in the afternoon to inspect some of his hidden artillery.