Brewster 'A Glimpse of War through a Private's Eyes', a retrospective account of experiences in World War I, 1915-1917 / John James Brewster - Page 501
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[Page 501]
Later in the day the men received another piece of depressing news which was badly felt, after the first.
Shortly after the work of the charge was over, one of D Coys' officers hearing that A Coy had suffered pretty badly & wanted support in their sector, holding the front of the wood, moved a party of 32 men on to the left of the wood, & on account of the cold & snow told his men to seek temporary cover in the lower hut (near the front line) while he had a look round to find a position that would afford some protection.
No sooner had the men entered the hut than a shell struck it 16 men were reported killed & the officer wounded in the thigh. As this officer was looked upon as a "very fine fighter" the loss of his men (& his own injuries) were acutely felt.
As the day wore on, reports kept continually coming in of such & such a one being "skittled", this one being "knocked" & that one "missing" that it looked as if it only wanted a few more hours of such work to "blot out the lot". Another piece of bad news was received later – A Coy men feeling the loss particularly.
A man, who happened to be a very great "pal" of theirs, was seen by a party of eight stretcher bearers belonging to A Coy to be very badly wounded, but to approach him was very difficult owing to the regular rain of shells that was falling, however it was decided to creep up along the hedge & see if they could not manage to get him in. After working up so as to come just opposite to where the man was lying the leader of the party decided that he should go out, to the man bandage the wounds, & arrange the stretcher, when the other men could come out, place the wounded man on the stretcher & carry him to cover. The leader went out prepared the man & spread the stretcher, but just as the other men were starting