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[Page 61]
joy the first man got through with water & ammunition, they had almost succeded in getting it through that put new life into us, & to our great relief, we were just about done for we had not closed our eyes for 2 days & nights & were nearly starving.
Our losses in the taking & holding of that little bit of trench (about 40 yds) were 15 men killed & about the same number wounded, it was afterwards known as the "Death Trap".
I had a stripe at this time, & so was in charge of a certain part of the trench things were pretty quiet for a time after this, though the shell fire was pretty hot at times, were we were all busy consolidating our trenches & putting up parapets, & making
loopholes, it was just about this time that General Bridges was killed in Shrapnel Gully, & everyone was sorry, the other Generals wanted him to withdraw all of us on the Sunday night when we were so hard pushed, the Navy had the boats all ready for us to re-embark but General Bridges said no "the Australians would never give in" & if they had to die he would die with them, & so he did, he was fearless, I saw him myself several times in the very thickest of the fighting walking about encouraging the men, & as cool as a cucumber, we also lost our Brigadier & Brig-Major, Colonel McLaurin & Major Irvine, & most of our Battalion Officers were either killed or wounded my word they were a fine lot, our original officers. I don't think there was