Before Pershing met Shire, he took his chief of staff on a trip to the Nancy front line.
He wanted to see the real battlefield, having only seen it in documents or heard descriptions before.
After a round, Pershing didn't feel much because the battlefield was about what he imagined; he was mentally prepared.
But the chief of staff, Hubbard, was frightened pale, his hands shaking when drinking water.
Just then, the British Army organized another attack, hoping to push the line toward the German Army to compress their attack surface.
Thus, batches of soldiers were driven into the no man's land like livestock, then cold bullets and shells knocked them down row by row.
Everywhere were congealed masses of blood and dirt mixed, bodies piled like a small mountain on the battlefield, left to be gnawed by rats or swollen beyond recognition from rain, emitting a nauseating stench.
Hubbard couldn't hold back and squatted in the trench, vomiting messily.
