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[Page 81]
on the 7th we had some of the 12th Batt. in, & they were dished up pretty quick the battle raged furiously for 4 day's on the 9th the 7th Batt. were in a certain trench, & the Turks were attacking it furiously, with bombs shells & all manner of things a lot of our Coy were sent into reinforce them, Len & I among them, without a word of a lie the men were lying 4 deep dead in this awful trench, it was nothing more than a charnel house & I shall never forget it no less than 3 V.C.s were won in this trench, in places the Turks were only 5 yards away & they had a much superior bomb to us at the time, but in spite of their furious charge's we held it, at one time, there were only 3 of us left alive holding about 30 yards of trench.
I thought the end had come, & was quite prepared to sell my life as dearly as I could, if the Turks had only known how easily they could have taken it. The 3 of us who were left in that trench are still alive, Holme's a great mate of Len's & as game as you make them. Young Wise in the 53rd & myself, reinforcements came just in the nick of time & the trench was held. I had had no sleep for 3 nights & day's & was just about worn out, so that night I slept with my head on a dead Turks leg you might say why did I do that when I could have found some other place but let me tell you that there was hardly a square foot in those "Lone Pine" trenches that wasn't covered with dead men, however I was not troubled with any dreams, but