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[Page 27]
through sand ankle deep & of a stoney consistency (carrying rifle, equipment, pack, 200 rounds ammunition, flags). Passing through trenches 6 ft high for fully a mile we ascended a broken rocky barren defile becoming steeper & twisting snake like as we progressed & at last came to a halt in a Gully (known as "Red Gully" by the troops) where we lay down & rested our wearied limbs till daylight.
On awakening my eyes were crusted with dust & my parched throat cried aloud for relief. The country around us bore a remarkable appearance. Camped in a tortuous defile of narrow proportions with high broken hills of crumbling sun baked sand & soil practically devoid of vegetation, except for a few isolated patches of stunted prickly gorse. The whole scene at once conveyed to me the enormous difficulties & risks of the great tasks of our brave comrades who participated in that glorious charge