engagement, we'll be pushed
off this Hill (53) into the valley, and it is hard to say where it
will end. In that case we want every stretcher-bearer we can lay our
hands on to work with might and main to get the wounded back from the
trenches, or they will fall into the hands of the Turks." This sounded
terrible, but we had to face it, so we sent back for all our men who
could be spared, and many regimental men had to help to carry the
wounded back, which was a most difficult piece of work.

In making communication trenches along which the wounded have to be
carried from the firing trench, the carrying of stretchers is never
considered. Traverses must be made certainly, and the narrower the
trenches the better while fighting, but they should be made wide
enough to let stretchers along, and the corners of the traverses
should be rounded. As it was the stretchers could only be carried
along the straight parts with the stretcher traverses "kicked in," and
even then the backs of all the men's hands were peeled to the bone.
Being impossible to get round the corners the stretchers had to be
raised above the top of the trench, and as a rule the bearers soon
tired of doing this at every few yards, and got right over the
parapets and carried in the open.

We had a terrible night, and next morning as soon as the day began to
break, although we were on the opposite side of the Hill from the
enemy, they knew the range so thoroughly that they dropped their
shells at the exact angle of the Hill, which was but a gentle slope,
and raked it from top to bottom time after time.

Those of us who escaped were lucky, but it was a bit trying to one's
nerves. The Turks had made great preparations for this battle, which
of course had to come off, and they fired as much ammunition as we
did, and everything was to their advantage. Their snipers, often armed
with machine-guns, played the very devil with our men. By good luck
the Turks had had enough and did not attack at night, and we were glad
when daylight came, although with it came again the terrible, raking
fire.

Through the day our troops deliberately and slowly evacuated part of
Hill 72, but most of it we unexpectedly managed to hold, and are
likely now to stick to. Had we thoroughly defeated the Turks, as we
should have done had there been no bungling, the end of this part of
the campaign might have been in sight, but now we are held up, and how
we are to get out of the fix will sadl