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[Page 130]
[Text incorporates handwritten corrections by E.A.B.]
my position to watch the coming attack. There for the first time I found the South Wales Borderers in reserve waiting calmly for the hour which would again luanch them against their old and formidable foe. In my accounts which have appeared in the press of the events of this memorable August 21st the chief credit has been given to the Yeomanry. This is due to the fact that the Censor would not allow any mention of the 29th Division or of other units when it was written for the reasons I have already stated. But in reality the 2nd Mounted Division of Yeomanry were held in reserve behind Lala Baba until late in the day and only came into action after the repeated efforts of the 86th and 87th Brigades of the 29th had failed to shake the enemy's defence.
The Yeomanry deserve every credit for the magnificent manner in which they behaved in action for the first time. They advance for two miles under a perfect hail of shrapnel over ground without even so much as a blade of grass to afford cover before they reached the dead ground at the front of the enemy's works.
It was the 2nd Brigade under Lord Longford consisting of the Bucks Berks and Dorset Regiments which made the final glorious charge which obtained temporary possession of Hill 70 which had subsecquently to be abandoned in the night. The losses of this Brigade where very heavy the Bucks Regiment losing almost all its officers and men. The arrival of the famous 29th Division on the battlefield stimulated the whole army and showed how seriously our leaders regarded the task ahead for everyone felt that if the 29th failed no other troops could hope to succeed.
We felt indeed that the Old Guard Like the Old Guard at Waterloo they were brought up to make a final effort to break through the enemy's ever strengthening works. The Division was ranged along the line stretching from Hill 70 to Hill 112. The 87th Brigade was ordered to attack Hill 70 and the 86th Hill 112. The South Wales Borderers acted as a connecting link between the two. The 88th Brigade which had suffered very heavily on August 6th at Helles was held in reserve. Our line across the Sari Bahr Plain was prolonged to the south by the 11th and 10th Divisions whose task