The attack was opened with high explosive shell, and a trench mortar which was some 400 yards distant threw one shell after another in rapid succession, fired with a precision which showed they had the exact range and correct target; the trenches were soon practically obliterated and the occupants blown up, killed, or wounded, the position being rendered still more difficult by the fact that we were being enfiladed. Simultaneously with this the enemy commenced throwing hand-grenades from the saps they had run up close to our line, and No. 3 Company’s trench was made the target for these, rendering its right half untenable. Aided by all these devices the Hun Infantry dashed into No. 1 and 2 Company’s trenches, specially selecting any remaining British officers as their victims. It is well to once remind those who may read this that all the story of those days must be read in the light of facts as they existed. With the accounts of fighting at a later date before them, they are apt to forget the dark days of 1914 when our men had to face mortars, hand-grenades, high explosive shell, and a hundred other engines or contrivances of war, with which they themselves were not provided. Here were these gallant fellows just arrived and exposed to every form of terror, and they could reply only with their valour and the rifles and two machine-guns per battalion with which they were armed, and yet they did it. The left half of No. 3 Company’s trench and that of No. 4 Company still remained; these were echeloned back to the left, towards the Connaught Rangers, and they were held till nightfall. The Irishmen, seeing the state of affairs and the tempest sweeping over the Gurkhas, first sent one platoon to their assistance, and followed it with two others. At this juncture Lieut. J. Reid, the only surviving officer, ordered the occupants of No. 3 trench to fall back towards the left trenches; but the communication trench was full of dying and wounded, and as they crossed the open they suffered heavily. The survivors in the trenches who had managed to hold on were brought out late in the evening by Subadars Dalbahadur Rana and Fateh Singh Newar; this latter officer received the Order of British India for his conduct, and the commanding officer specially mentioned as fighting well and holding on to the last Jemadars Kharak Bahadur Gurung and Tirthe Gurung, who was wounded, as well as Bahadur Ghale and Suba Singh Gurung. The 1st Battalion 9th Gurkhas were on the right of the 2nd, and well thrown back. Lieut.-Colonel C. E. Norie, commander of the 2nd Gurkhas, carries only one arm, having left the other in the mountains of Tirah; but with one arm he also has but one heart, and it is a brave one.