y baffle our Staff.

The men of the 89th F.A. behaved with admirable pluck, and worked
hard, and up to evening we had eight men more or less badly
wounded--one at least fatally, poor Adams. The 21st and 22nd were
spent practically without food, and hardly a drop of water was to be
had, and all suffered badly from thirst--more bungling.

In the afternoon of the second day it was rumoured that the whole of
our Division was to be withdrawn to the reserve lines, and that our
86th Brigade, to which we had been again attached, were to march off
as soon as it was dark, and we were to follow and take up our position
behind the Infantry. Good news indeed! The G.O.C. in C. had done a
wise thing in bringing two Brigades of the 29th Division round from
Helles to stiffen Kitchener's Army. Our Royal Fusiliers were in
reserve all the time, and although they never fired a shot were in
such a position that they were badly exposed to shell fire, and were
within view of snipers, and lost no fewer than 150 men.

In the dark we set off over the N.W. corner of the lake making for a
certain point at the foot of a ridge. It was difficult to strike the
exact spot, the night being dark, but we got wonderfully near it, and
after spending a bitterly cold and cheerless night at the back of a
low stone wall, across which bullets whistled all night we rectified
our position before the sun rose. As we came across the lake three
more of our men were hit, bullets flying about for the first mile or
so. To-day, after reaching our destination, and while in a shelter, a
bullet hit another in the thigh, bringing our casualty list for this
fight up to sixteen. All are agreed that it has been a very bloody
affair, and the difficulty of seeing a way out of our present position
has made all despondent, and a number of those in high positions are
being torn to shreds. Our men are not grumbling, and look as if they
could go through it again, but it was a very trying two days and
nights.

Fires broke out in the thick scrub almost at the very start of the
battle, and after a few hours many acres were ablaze, and as it was
largely from such places the men of both sides were firing many
wounded were burned to death.

_August 24th._--Last night we got orders to move as we were certain to
be shelled, lying as we were behind the Infantry of our Brigade. We
accordingly moved after dark to a gully, which is really a dry
watercourse entering the middle of the north