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[Page 68]
I do? "Explain to him exactly our condition.
" Back I go across this lead-swept plateau with my message – altogether I had to go six times across this place. When I reached Margy, he said "tell Harwood to bring the lads back, they are not wanted there and there isn't room for them; I don't want to lose my boys for nothing" – so back I had to go again.
This time could not find Haywood, so then I had to find where our boys were on my own and pass the word for the 16th Battalion only to retire.
One rather amusing incident – while trying to get into the trench it didn't seem possible to do so without jumping on somebody's head; one of the chaps exclaimed to me " Come off the sky line, you --- fool " – "I will," I replied, "as soon as I can find space" "Jump in anywhere," he answered back, "never mind if you do hit anybody, your'e not in a drawing-room."
It certainly did seem ridiculous, standing on ceremony in a time like this, though I don't suppose anything will alter this peculiar side of my nature.
They are now digging a connecting trench between our new front and our old trenches – we have had to retire, the Turks are too strong for us.
May 11
Dawn. The roll is called – how heart-breaking it is – name after name is called; the reply a deep silence which can be felt, despite the noise of the incessant crackling of rifles