And the men who came to their relief, what of them? They were some of the finest troops in our Army, the famous First Corps of Mons and Ypres fame: with double our reduced numbers, fresh from a rest in reserve, full of fight. Guards, Highlanders, Irish and English: neither Germans nor anybody else could have withstood such a gathering; and as they looked at our tired-out men, amongst them a few British battalions of their own countrymen, as fine soldiers as themselves, battle-stained and mud-grimed, I do not believe there was one amongst the brave new arrivals who did not own that the Indian Corps had indeed had a hard task and done its duty well. The fight that followed showed them that it was a determined foe they had to deal with, and 2400 casualties in their own ranks before the line was more or less restored was evidence of the hard fighting which had taken toll of over 4000 British and Indian soldiers. However, to my story. The right of the Sirhind Brigade was the first to bear the brunt, and here a half company of the H.L.I. and a double company[9] of the 4th Gurkhas suffered very heavy losses, being buried or blown up by the well-engineered explosions. The day had not then arrived when we were able to detect and counter this underground warfare; it was new to the Indian Corps at any rate, nor had we the appliances to put it into use. Amongst the survivors of these first explosions was Colour-Sergeant Brisbane, H.L.I., who had served with me in Ashanti fourteen years previously. I had met him later in India, and on this day we were once more separated, for after holding on to the last, he with his officer, Lieut. D. Barry, and some others were captured by the enemy. May we meet again! Another double company of the 4th Gurkhas made a stout resistance against heavy odds, but were driven from their trenches, and at about 1 P.M. these were occupied by the Germans, who were coming on in massed formation. During this fighting, which ended in many hand-to-hand encounters, Captain A. M. Rundall of the 4th Gurkhas, brother of the Lieutenant whose death I described in the previous day’s fighting, led a bombing party in a counter-attack, himself killed two Germans, and died fighting at the head of his few men. A glorious tale indeed to tell, ’Neath thousand blows one hero fell. The machine-gun detachment of the 125th (Napier’s) Rifles at this stage rendered gallant service, and with that of the 4th Gurkhas was practically destroyed. Captain R. C. Yates of the 4th Gurkhas with the greater part of his company was also overwhelmed. It was reported to me after this action that, whereas the Germans used hundreds of bombs which almost invariably exploded and caused great damage, our own home-made articles constantly failed to light or dropped harmless, being wet and unprotected from the slush and rain.