Lieut.-Colonel Widdicombe, who commanded the 9th Gurkhas, did excellent work; he arrived at a most opportune moment, reinforcing both the 2nd Gurkhas and 6th Jats during the early fighting on 20th December. Captain Laing of the Seaforths, leading a bombing party with great gallantry, rushed and recaptured several traverses in a trench evacuated by the 2nd Gurkhas, and in which the Huns left over twenty dead. Lieut. I. M. Macandrew of the same regiment rallied some of the men of the British Brigade as they retired from the “Orchard” on 22nd, led them in a bombing attack, and after killing several of the enemy this gallant young officer and ten of his men were themselves killed. Colonel Ritchie, ever staunch and brave, Captain Wicks, a very fine soldier, and Captain Laing, all of the Seaforths, received distinctions. In this fighting the Seaforths suffered 175 casualties out of 700 engaged. Major A. Young of the 1st Gurkhas, Brigade Major of the Garhwal Brigade, had died of wounds on the 14th—a great loss to the Service. Major Wauchope, Black Watch, was again wounded, and the regiment had to record severe casualties. In the 58th Rifles, Captain M. A. R. Bell, 54th Sikhs (attached), whom I had known for many years, was killed, a very earnest soldier. Jemadar Mardan Ali and twenty-five others were also killed and thirty-two were wounded. The losses in killed, wounded, and missing throughout the Divisions bore witness to the nature of the struggle in which they had been engaged. CHAPTER XII The narrative of the Lahore Division brought us to after mid-day of the 20th December, at which hour the 129th Baluchis, on the left of the Ferozepore Brigade covering Givenchy, were retiring and their trenches were in occupation of the enemy, and the village was being attacked. In consequence General Carnegy’s orders were cancelled, and he was directed to secure this place; and two batteries from the Fifty-eighth Division were placed at Watkis’s disposal by the French. By 3.30 P.M. on the 20th the Manchesters under Colonel Strickland, with a company of the 4th Suffolks in support, started their attack for the recovery of the lost Givenchy trenches. By 5 P.M. this gallant battalion, fighting often with the bayonet, had cleared the Huns out of the village and recaptured the trenches to the north-east; but they still retained possession of those to the north of the village; whilst to the east and southwards the company of the 9th Bhopals, the 57th Rifles, a portion of the 4th Suffolks, and the Connaught Rangers held their lines intact.