Five minutes to 10 o'clock
He was among bodies and wounded men . Their masks , when , they fell , had become torn or broken . The gas had got them . Five minutes to 10 o'clock had passed . It was three minutes to the attack or less , and the hurricane fire of the French artillery swept cyclonic over the German lines . A thousand yards away , more or less , as the ground gave advantage , the French front-line trenches were filled with men awaiting the hour of 10 -- two minutes off now -- to go over the top . The German batteries , behind , knew that the time was near ; but just when it would be , in two minutes , or in ten or in an hour-they did not know .