Their machine gun sweeping until we neared their trenches. Then a good many of our men began to drop, but were in their front trench before we could cut us up anywhere near it. Going over, I was struck by shell fragments on the hand and leg, but the wounds were not severe enough to stop me. In fact, I did not show that I had been wounded until I felt blood running into my shoe. Then I discovered the cut in my leg, but saw that it was quite shallow and that no artery of importance had been damaged. So I went on.

I had the familiar feeling of nervousness and physical shrinking and nausea at the beginning of this fight, but by the time we were halfway across No Man's Land I had my nerve back. After I had been hit I remember feeling relieved that I hadn't been hurt enough to keep me from going on with the men. I'm not trying to make myself out a hero. I'm just trying to tell you how an ordinary man's mind works under the stress of fighting and the danger of sudden death. There are some queer things in the psychology of battle. For instance, when we had got into the German trench and were holding it against the most vigorous counterattacks the thought which was persistently uppermost in my mind was that I had lost the address of a girl in London along with some papers which I had thrown away just before we started over and which I should certainly never be able to find again.

Hold Regina Trench at Last.
The Regina trench had been taken and lost three times by the British. 