- Annals of War: Battle of the Somme

Seeing the enemy on their way towards them, Gus quickly made his way over to one of the nearby machine guns that was mounted on a platform peeking out of the trench. It was mounted over a pile of sandbags that rose a couple of inches higher than the trench itself, providing cover to the user and also a platform for the gun to have a wider field to fire upon.

Hearing a new whistling sound, one that wasn't the same as the one that signalled the beginning of the assault, Gus began frantically looking around for whatever the source of the noise was.

His answer lay in the sky above him. Like a rain of pure death, the sky was blotted out with dozens of artillery shells that had been launched at their position. Seeing them spiralling down towards him, Gus thought that it was like looking at the sky of hell itself.