"The French artillery fired without intermission from the morning of the 21st to the evening of the 23rd, and we all took refuge in our dug-outs. On the evening of the 22nd we were to have gone to get some food, and the French continued to fire on our trenches. In the evening we had heavy losses, and we had nothing to eat."
"I have received no news, and probably I shall not receive any for some days. The whole postal service has been stopped; all places have been bombarded to such an extent that no human being could stand against it.
"The railway line is so seriously damaged that the train service for some time has been completely stopped.
"We have been for three days in the first line; during those three days the French have fired so heavily that our trenches are no longer visible."
"For the last two days the French have been firing like mad. To-day, for instance, a dug-out has been destroyed. There were sixteen men in it. Not one of them managed to save his skin. They are all dead. Besides that, a number of individual men have been killed and there are a great mass of wounded.
"The artillery fires almost as rapidly as the infantry. A mist of smoke hangs over the whole battle-front, so that it is impossible to see anything. Men are dropping like flies.
"The trenches are no longer anything but a mound of ruins."
"A rain of shells is pouring down upon us. The kitchen and everything that is sent to us is bombarded at night. The field-kitchens no longer come to us. Oh, if only the end were near! That is the cry every one is repeating. Peace! Peace!"
Extract from the notebook of a man of the 103rd Regiment:
"From the trench nothing much can now be seen; it will soon be on a level with the ground."
Letter of an artilleryman of the 100th Regiment of Field Artillery:
"We have passed through some terrible hours. It was as though the whole world was in a state of collapse. We have had heavy losses. One company of two hundred and fifty men had sixty killed last night. A neighboring battery had sixteen killed yesterday.
[Sidenote: Destructiveness of the French shells.]
"The following instance will show you the frightful destructiveness of the French shells. A dug-out five metres deep, surmounted by 2 metres 50 centimetres of earth and two thicknesses of heavy timber, was broken like a match."