As stated before, the trenches to the south and east of Givenchy had during the battle been held by the Connaught Rangers, the 57th Rifles, and a company of the 9th Bhopal Infantry. During the 20th December the 57th and 9th were subjected to attacks which succeeded in laying the flank of the 57th open to enfilade fire and obliging the left to retire. Here my old friend Subadar Arsla Khan of the 57th was again to the fore, and by a plucky reconnaissance obtained useful information regarding the German barricades, and surprised and shot several Huns. Later, on the 22nd December, this fine Indian officer, a Malikdin Khel Afridi, led a charge on a party of the enemy, killing two officers and a number of men. He has many orders and distinctions for various campaigns. After the Manchesters were forced back from Givenchy, on the afternoon of the 21st December, the pressure on this portion of our trenches increased very considerably and was only relieved by the arrival of a Brigade of the First Army Corps, and by nightfall the position was secured. On the 22nd December the whole of the trenches east and south of Givenchy were taken over by the First Corps, and our troops, at last relieved from their long vigil, were able to gain some urgently-needed rest. My story left the Meerut Division at 2 P.M. on the same date, and just after it had been relieved by the First Army Corps, and although the Meerut troops remained at the disposal of that Corps for a few days longer until a new alignment had been taken up, they were not called on to make further efforts, and eventually, like the Lahore Division, were able to get back to billets and enjoy a sorely needed rest and to re-equip themselves. By 1 P.M. on the 22nd December one Division of the First Army Corps had arrived and taken over a great part of our trenches, and the Second Division was in process of relieving the remainder of my Corps, and the responsibility was gradually becoming involved, hence I asked the G.O.C. First Army Corps to assume the command whilst I withdrew all the relieved battalions and Artillery. This he agreed to, and the Indian Corps was withdrawn. During this long-drawn-out battle the losses of some battalions had been very severe. In the Sirhind Brigade alone, on which fell the main German onslaught, the H.L.I. had lost ten officers and fifty-four men killed, 276 men missing (mostly killed), and sixty wounded, and the total casualties numbered 400, about fifty per cent of those in action. Such monuments shall last when Egypt’s fall. The 1st Gurkhas suffered well over 200 casualties, including six British and Indian officers, and the 4th Gurkhas had seventeen British and Indian officers and a total of 300 of all ranks. In the 4th, Jemadar Lachman Sing Thapa, the Gurkha Adjutant, was amongst the killed, and Captain M. Wylie was missing.