On arrival here we spread out down the line in two's and three's and awaited any sign of an attack on the part of the enemy, but this never came off, for he was too busily engaged on the right where our attack had been entirely successful, capturing the village of Beaumont Hamel which made the village of Serre be flanked on both sides. We had not been long in this trench before the German's began to pay us their attentions at first with light shells. In front of us could be seen the enemy trench and some figures firing but owing to the mist which was still hanging about, we could not be certain that they were the enemy, for we knew that our men had been in front and these chaps appeared to be firing at an angle and not towards us. It was chiefly owing to the rifle fire which we let fly at these figures that gave the information to the enemy that our trench was occupied in force and he therefore lost little time in paying his compliments! As the hours passed his bombardment became more intense until it seemed that nothing could live in it. Shells of all sizes burst in front and behind the scanty cover we had and time and again messages were sent back telling that we were completely out of touch on both flanks with no machine guns and very few bombs, but no orders came through in return and things looked very black. It appeared certain that if we stopped there long enough we should all get wiped out. In the beginning there had been about a hundred men occupying the trench but this little garrison was now sadly thinned out, as by two's and three's they had been killed and wounded. In the next bay to us or rather the next hole, were three officers, some privates and a man too badly wounded to get back on his own, and the finishing touches came when a shell burst clean in the centre killing the three officers and the wounded man and wounding some others. A sergeant from further along then came to a sergeant nearly where I was and after a brief consultation they agreed that as all the officers were now knocked out and that as there were so few men left with no orders from headquarters, it would be best to get back in three's to the main trench, some two hundred and fifty yards down the hill and await orders. It was then passed along to retire by three's and in this manner those of us who were left made our way back to the main body. After this exceedingly unpleasant experience we had a few hours rest in a dugout and about 8 p.m. made our way to Rob Roy trench, our real front line where we had something to eat and awaited relief by the Gordon's which was to take place about midnight. At length they arrived and we made our way back through the trenches to Courcelles passing on every hand evidences of the heavy reply that Fritz had made to our bombardment. Here we rested the night in huts and next day had a roll call to see how many remained. The casualties were somewhere about 350 officers and men. A costly day's work with no result as far as we had been concerned. It was with great sorrow that I found my chum Early among the killed

Alan Culpitt