BATTALION RELIEF
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_Fall in! Now, get a move on!_" (Curse the rain.)We splash away along the straggling village,Out to the flat rich country green with June....And sunset flares across wet crops and tillage,Blazing with splendour-patches. Harvest soonUp in the Line. "_Perhaps the War'll be doneBy Christmas-time. Keep smiling then, old son!_" Here's the Canal: it's dusk; we cross the bridge."_Lead on there by platoons._" The Line's a-glareWith shell-fire through the poplars; distant rattleOf rifles and machine-guns. "_Fritz is there!Christ, ain't it lively, Sergeant? Is't a battle?_"More rain: the lightning blinks, and thunder rumbles."There's overhead artillery," some chap grumbles. "_What's all this mob, by the cross-road?_" (The guides)...."_Lead on with Number One_" (And off they go.) "_Three-minute intervals._" ... Poor blundering files,Sweating and blindly burdened; who's to knowIf death will catch them in those two dark miles?(More rain.) "_Lead on, Headquarters._"(That's the lot.)"_Who's that? O, Sergeant-major; don't get shot!And tell me, have we won this war or not?_"
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