Volume 2: Letters written on active service, M-W, 1914-1919 - Page 12
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[Page 12]
day the thin red line kept getting thinner & thinner. For the last night we took picked men from each squadron & the others left early in the night. There were three officers on our sub section & I had to do all the work on my side of a dry creek to the top of a hill. This is always the work of an N.C.O, but every man left was wanted in the firing line so we did our own reporting every half hour.
I figure I tramped several miles that night & going up it was nearly all steps. Just think, round at the Lonesome Pine where the strength in the firing line has been 700, thirty three men held this till it was time for them to fall back.
They all had their boots off & blankets at the bottom of the trenches. With plenty of loaded rifles handy they ran up & down for four hours firing a shot or two every few yards. We had the honour of being the last to leave the peninsular & as the night wore on & reports came in that those on our left were leaving party by party we wondered