As the attacks all along our front had assumed big proportions by the afternoon of the 20th December, and I was only too well aware that the Corps was, after its long tour of trench work since the end of October, quite unfit for a prolonged struggle, I had asked G.H.Q. for two Brigades from the Indian Cavalry Corps, which on foot might furnish the strength of two battalions, and also for a Brigade from the First Army Corps then in Army reserve, and these were at once given me, and two additional Brigades from this Corps also arrived and were all employed the next day, thus making an extra Division. I informed the G.O.C. Meerut Division that one of these Brigades would reach him next day. By 3 A.M. on the 21st, the Dehra Dun Brigade reported the enemy massing on its front, and at 7.45 A.M. the G.O.C. Division learnt that a counter-attack by the left Brigade of the Lahore Division had been unsuccessful. At this stage General Keary, commanding the Garhwal Brigade, suggested a counter-attack by the Dehra Dun Brigade, which he would support from his side with his reserve battalion, the Leicesters; this attack did not mature as the Dehra Dun Brigade was too exhausted to carry it out. By this time the Seaforths on the right were being very hard pressed, and half of the 107th Pioneers were sent to their assistance, whilst the remainder of this battalion and the 4th Indian Cavalry were called up and placed in a second line of trenches. This remained more or less the position until the arrival that evening of General Westmacott’s Brigade from the First Army Corps. Owing to unavoidable delays in bringing this Brigade up, its attack was not commenced until late in the evening. One battalion of the Royal Sussex regiment was to relieve the Seaforths whilst the Loyal North Lancashires and Northamptons attacked the lost “Orchard” positions. By 10.30 P.M. on the 21st a report was received that this attack had taken the supporting trenches west of the “Orchard” and was progressing favourably, but the trenches about it were untenable and the attackers eventually took position just west of it. The Dehra Dun Brigade and the other Corps assisting in this part of the line had now been fighting without a break for seventy-two hours in rain and mud, and were much reduced in numbers. They had lost the “Orchard,” but by the action of the troops in that neighbourhood, especially of the Seaforths, the pivot at the Picquet House was still retained and acted as a hinge the flexibility of which meant that the Meerut Division’s line, though deeply indented, was still intact. By 7 o’clock on the morning of the 22nd December the bulk of the Dehra Dun Brigade, as also the 58th Rifles and Black Watch, had been withdrawn for a well-earned rest, and the newly-arrived British Brigade had occupied their places in the trenches.