If they were
dug into the ground they would instantly become full of water. No doubt
they might have been built up with sandbag parapets, but this apparently
was not thought necessary, owing, no doubt, to the fact that the
inundation pushes back the German lines for nearly two miles. We
(_i.e._ the two Belgian officers who accompanied us, R. and myself)
all packed into one motor for this part of the drive, lest two motors
should draw the attention of the enemy's artillery. Also the car was
made to drive very slowly lest it should raise a cloud of dust and so
give us away. We ran up a road parallel to the course of the Yser, and
passed three brick chimneys belonging to a factory which had been much
knocked about by the German artillery fire. One of the chimneys was
pierced by the very neatest shell-hole you ever saw. It went straight
through the shaft of the chimney, in at one side and out at the other,
for all the world like two windows opposite each other. The fabric of
the chimney remained secure. Needless to say, this eye was put into the
needle of the chimney because it had been used as a Belgian observation-
post. We soon got out of our car and walked across the fields to the old
railway embankment, which was now being used as the bank of the
inundation.
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