But what is great-great in spiritual value and heroic memory-is the way in which our men fought against overwhelming odds and under annihilating fire, and did not try to escape nor talk of surrender, but held this ground until there was no ground but only a zone of bloody wreckage, and still fought until most of them were dead or disabled.
"From Bapaume to Passchendaele, 1917"
Philip Gibbs
The enemy was quick to put down his barrage, and although it was not anything like our annihilating fire, it was bad enough, as any shell-fire is.
"From Bapaume to Passchendaele, 1917"
Philip Gibbs
The Empire knows who those men were-the old English county regiments, who never fought more gallantly; the Scots, who only let go of their forward positions under overwhelming pressure and annihilating fire; the Irish divisions, who suffered the most supreme ordeal, and earned new and undying honour by the way they endured the fire of many guns for many days.
"From Bapaume to Passchendaele, 1917"
Philip Gibbs