sole surviving officer was exhausted the Sergt Major was killed, the only surviving Sergt was useless through fatigue & there was no other N.C.O. so far as I knew. The men were all worn out. They had marched several miles through the dark heavily loaded, had made a charge, had been 24 hours under hot fire, had lost all their officers & were under the sole charge of a stranger - the night was pitch dark. We had only three flares & no S.O.S. signals (the carriers having been killed). The trench was narrow & shallow & cumbered with dead & wounded lying on the bottom.

That was the condition of affairs that I an inexperienced officer had to deal with. Shortly after I took hold a shell made a direct hit on the trench, killed 5 men, put a M.G. out of action & broke our communications on the left flank (which was already up in the air). A German Co. attack was expected at any moment & was delivered later but we beat it off quite easily