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[Page 11]
Christmas day. Isle of Lemnos. The last 12 days have been very full for me. The mysterious happenings were the preparation for our evacuation, it was an anxious time for us as we got weaker every day, each position having the number of men holding it decreasing every day. We were bombarded by howitzers every day and they got on our nerves a lot, its pretty off to have to stand in a trench and have them bursting most uncomfortably close, not knowing when one's turn was coming. I had the honour to be amongst the very last to leave Russells Top. 25 men from each Company being picked to stay till the finish, we stood to arms all night from 3 in the afternoon until 3 in the morning and I had charge of a detached post known as Bully Beef, one of my section commanders and a man from B Company were killed on the same spot by a howitzer shell the previous day. We got very tired of the continuous watching and it became a strain after midnight when we still had 3 hours to go. Had the enemy charged us as they did the following night we could never have held them off and every man of us would have died. All our arrangements were carried out in perfect order, my party left 5 minutes before the very last and filed quietly out and so down to the back where we were hustled on board so quickly that I hadnt time to throw my bombs away as we had been ordered