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[Page 50]
from the firing line. Despite my recent fatigue, now that I have the leisure I cannot sleep – thank God it is quieter here, though in the gully we get the full benefit of the blast from the guns of our ships- however, they are doing the Turks some damage, otherwise we should have been swept into the sea ere this.
I have just been told by Signaller Ashton of the Signallers that I have been mentioned in despatches for a military decoration – hope to God I haven't bungled things, though it's a funny kind of joke on a battlefield.
Am told by Sergeant Paull of the Signallers that I have been mentioned in despatches for a military decoration, at the same time saying that I have earned for the Signallers a good name – hardly know how I feel over the matter – I can scarcely express it in words; to have won through so successfully when my one great fear had been that I should fail lamentably fills me with a great peace and sense of satisfaction that at least I have not given up all in vain.
It is curious on the battlefield how unconscious one is of having accomplished anything exceptional; for my part I do not feel that I have done anything more than my duty – where so many men are doing fine things I do not see what utter use it is giving medals, for I have seen many things that strike me as being infinitely finer than anything I have done or, I fear, would have the nerve to do, and yet