"March 11th. The entrenched line ahead of us was held all day. We got heavily shelled all day--the heaviest shells dropped behind, Jack Johnsons and Woolly Bears, while we had shrapnel, bombs and nasty double-acting shells which burst first with white smoke, and fifty yards further on with black smoke. We also got a good share of a shell which gave out the most beastly-smelling gases. Major B---- was wounded in the head by a bomb which burst on our parapet within a foot of my head, blowing a large hole in the parapet and covering me with earth. The explosion of it, so close, instead of deafening me seemed to clear a passage through my head from ear to ear, and I went through all the processes of death. It seemed to me I was a goner, and it was some seconds before I realized I was alive and unhurt. The brigade in our front was ordered to retire in the night, and we were told to hold their evacuated trench with pickets. I sent out a picket from my double company--they remained out until 5 A. M., when I was ordered to withdraw them. "March 12th. They had only just come in when the Germans were seen advancing, and a fearful fusillade of rifle fire from our trenches began. After a time the firing slackened and dawn came, when in front of us were lines of dead Germans. We counted about one hundred in our immediate front--there were lots more to right and left, and the trench just evacuated in our front was thick with them. We had some very useful pistols with us, which fire a big cartridge and light up the ground in front. I fired fifteen rounds with mine to enable my men to see to fire. Only a few live Germans remained in the trench to our front, and these a British regiment turned out in an attack at 1 P. M. Their first line advanced through us, but suffered rather heavily from fire from a trench to our left front. Their second line was about to advance, and the officer in command of it jumped lip close by me and shouted 'Second line advance,' when he dropped, shot through the head. The third line never advanced. On our right the ---- Gurkhas advanced to the front trench and suddenly white flags began to appear, and after some difficulty we got our men to stop firing, and a few of the Gurkhas began sending prisoners back. In a moment both sides were standing up out of the trenches, on our side we were waving to the Germans to come in, and on their side they were waving flags and calling for us to go and fetch them--but this we could not do, as they continued to fire and we could not trust them. But the ---- Gurkhas collected a lot on the right and more followed, many of them wounded, and came into our lines. About a hundred came like this, I should think. Many