"Under a bridge I found a group of soldiers ready for battle." (23) "During the night the Martians had been surrounded by Military troops and that heavy artillery was expected." (22) The weaponry that the humans had was not effective against the Martians. Many soldiers had plans to kill the Martians but the only option that may work was to "sneak up on them and begin firing" (23) in an ambush. When it was time to carry out the plan the soldiers had abandoned their posts because of the overpowering fear within them and they knew what the Martians were capable of. They too wanted to survive. The army had decided that when a cylinder falls it must be destroyed. "New plans were formed to destroy the object before it opened" (24) but the right munitions were needed to accomplish the task. The warship "The Thunder Child" was sent in to help in the fight because it had large guns and that were capable of destroying large objects. "The Thunder Child" waited in the harbour for the Martian fighting machine to come close enough and instead of firing would ram it. The reason for knocking the Martian fighting machine over is because the Navy had already known that guns and heavy weaponry could not destroy the Martians fighting machine. The water had destroyed the first Martian fighting machine and they would try to accomplish the same task.
The many soldiers that managed to escape had to find a place to hide and one "pushed on, wet and shivering to the nearest house." (29) Other soldiers that did not want to take the risk of flight "hid under dead horses for a long time, peeping out furtively across the common" (33) in hopes that the Martians would leave. People returning to their homes found soldiers retreating, hiding or dead. The soldiers cared about other people because those returning home were told to leave because "you may be hurt if you cross the canal." (22) Soldiers retreated beyond the range of heat rays and continued to fire wildly at the fighting Martians.