It took only minutes for Ordnance Stores to load ammunition on to two more carriers, then a breathless bumping ride back to the beleaguered Grenadiers – fifteen minutes in all.

Gratefully, with a whoop of joy, Starkey and the others began prising open the coveted boxes – then an eerie chill settled upon them.

The hard-pressed ordnance officer had moved too fast. Their ammunition for the most part was made up of Very light cartridges.

But Starkey had noted one salient fact. The Germans, true to type, were conforming to a rigid pattern. To keep the Grenadiers pinned to their trenches they first called down a withering barrage, signaling their mortars with a fixed Very cartridge pattern: red-white-red. Then, while the Grenadiers hugged the earth, ears singing, the Germans would signal the “stop” by the opposite pattern – white-red-white – and charge.

As the afternoon wore on, Starkey resolved on a last fling of the dice. As the Germans again surged forward after the barrage, he raised his pistol and sent an urgent red-white-red pattern trailing to the heavens. On all sides the Germans doubled in confusion as the molten mortar fragments showered amongst them like a brazier upended from the sky. With incredulous fascination, Starkey saw man after man toppling.
From the German forward posts an imploring white-red-white went soaring: within seconds the barrage died. Recovering themselves, their rifles at the trail, the Germans moved forward once more. Again as Starkey fired, the barrage came showering .
Now, as the Germans strove to countermand the order, red and white tracer spangled the evening sky like a millionaire’s firework display. But as Starkey grimly kept firing, the Germans gave up. Abruptly the mortaring ceased.