In the result the trenches captured by the Leicesters on the right were lost, as the enemy employed machine-guns to cut away the barricades and followed up with unlimited bombing. New barricades were constructed but shared the same fate, and, as Dundas on the left found it impossible to advance farther, and all ranks were under heavy minenwerfer fire, a withdrawal of the right attack was carried out deliberately and in good order. The left company held on all day to the captured trenches but was withdrawn by 8.30 P.M., having done its duty well. Meantime General Anderson, commanding the Meerut Division, had with his usual energy been doing all that was possible to enable the Leicesters to hold on; an attack by portions of the Dehra Dun Brigade had been arranged, but the Germans, now thoroughly roused and angry, and having made their preparations for the attack they had planned for the next day, the 20th, began a very heavy bombardment of our trenches, specially selecting the “Orchard” portion of them, on which shell-fire was concentrated, damaging everything in the vicinity, blowing men to bits, and rendering any hold on them quite impossible. At the same time it was reported by aviators that numbers of the enemy were concentrating on this and other fronts, and everything pointed to a counter-attack. During the fighting I had placed troops as necessitated from the Corps Reserve at the disposal of the G.O.C. Meerut Division. It has always been a wonder to me how in these winter days of 1914 the Indian troops did their work so well. If any man trusted them to fight, I did: but I knew their limits. What surprises me as I look back on it all is that they stood the strain as they did. It was in truth a prolonged feat of arms. The result of this destructive fire was to render the “Orchard” untenable, and a new line fifty yards farther to the west was taken up and put into the best state of defence possible, but this was only done late in the evening and after the Brigadier had reported the impossibility of holding on any longer; a few Scouts still remained in the destroyed trenches. Orders were got ready for a combined counter-attack the next morning, but before this could be carried out the prepared and due Hun attack was launched and a new phase in the operations begun.