rn; what had
become of them no one seemed to know. It was several days before we
heard what had actually happened. The 4th K.O.S.B. had been ordered to
take three lines of trenches which were shown on the maps issued for the
attack. Two lines were rushed without much difficulty; but there was no
third line to take!--at least not where the third line appeared on the
maps. The map had been prepared from photographs taken from aeroplanes,
and in these photographs there appeared as a trench what proved to be,
in reality, only a shallow ditch or sunken pathway. Photography, we are
told, cannot lie; evidently it may at times mislead.

When the attacking battalion reached this ditch they did not recognise
it as their furthest objective and went right on, seeking the
non-existent third trench, until they came into the area which the
French artillery were shelling to prevent the forward movement of the
Turkish reserves. It was long hours before they were able to fall back
on the captured trenches, and then only after terrible losses.

Towards 2.30 p.m. a message reached us that the attack by our Brigade
might be delivered earlier than the appointed time and that we were to
be prepared to move. Orders had previously been received that companies
were not to go into action with more than four officers and that each
was to leave twenty-five men with Battalion Headquarters.

The artillery preparation for the afternoon attack was a repetition of
the morning bombardment, but as fire was now almost entirely
concentrated on the trenches in front of our Brigade, we were able to
form a better conception of its effects. The destruction was enormous.
Parapets and trenches were scattered in clouds of dust which soon became
so dense as to blot out the entire landscape from our sight. The
impression was that of a huge black cloud resting on the ground, a cloud
incessantly rent and illumined by the red flashes of the bursting
shells. Nothing, it seemed, could live under such smashing fire. In
actual fact, as we saw for ourselves after the position had been taken,
the enemy's casualties from it were appalling. The morale of the
survivors must have been terribly shaken. The marvel is that, after such
an experience, they were able to put up so stout a resistance as they
did at many points.

The attack of the 157th Brigade was launched about 5 p.m. Over the
parapet of Oxford Street we watched the 6th H.L.I. advancing in
successive lines on our l