The mines explode

"At 3 o'clock the side of the hill gave a roll like a violent earthquake, the officer said 'a mine!' and we all jumped up on the fire step to see what was happening."

"Away over on the other side o the valley on the ridge held by the Germans I could see the earth bulging up into a great heap and bursting out in a great geyser of smoke and mud. Mine after mine followed along the ridge to the number of about 20. The whole ridge seemed to be heaving itself up into the air... It was an uncanny and awe-inspiring sight in the pale moonlight of early dawn."

"No sooner had the mines exploded than hundreds of machine guns opened fire as they had all been set off by a touch of a button. In a minute or two there came another burst of sound which completely drowned the rat-tat--tat-tat of the machine guns. It was the opening out of hundreds of guns of artillery from the eighteen pounders close up to the line to the big 12 and 15 inch howitzers and naval guns five or six miles behind. We watched for a few minutes and then got down into the trench as the valley was filled with smoke and we could see nothing more. A chap next to me sat down and just remarked 'And this is war.' I can hardly imagine a more expressive term to describe the awful opening of that great battle..."

"Without a doubt we took Fritz completely by surprise and the poor beggars had nothing left to do but give themselves up as prisoners…"