alties in the operations from 24th to 28th August were:
Officers killed, 2, died of wounds, 2, missing, 3, wounded, 8; other
ranks killed, 18, died of wounds, 1, wounded and missing, 9, wounded,
247. Total officers, 15; other ranks, 275.

There is a great reaction after a battle. Soon after we left our
position we found our field-kitchens and had a good breakfast, preceded
by a tot of rum, and as we continued our march to Mercatel songs and
jokes filled the air. Arriving at Mercatel dog tired we slept for long.
When we awakened it was to reorganise into four companies of two
platoons each, indent for damaged and lost equipment and generally get
ready to carry on.

On the 1st of September we again were on the move forward, arriving at
Bullecourt on the following day. From there on the 3rd we moved by
Riencourt to a jumping-off point in the Hindenburg Support Line. Here a
bloodless battle was engaged in. The Brigade received orders to attack
Queant and Pronville, taking up a line beyond these places and linking
up with the Guards Division on the right. We along with the 7th H.L.I.
were the leading battalions. As Queant and Pronville were found to be
unoccupied the barrage was cancelled and these places were occupied
without a fight and a section of the Hindenburg Line near Tadpole Copse
was held. This line was held until the 7th when we were relieved and
went into a bivouac area near St. Leger. The day we came out we got
heavily shelled with gas and had a number of casualties. We had a good
rest at St. Leger, where the ingenuity of the man was tested in
erecting shelters, the conditions of Palestine being reproduced as we
lay in an open valley devoid of cover, but here the bivouac was required
not as a shelter from the sun, but from the rain and cold, a more severe
test to the architect. As always happened, the Battalion was very soon
housed, the degree of comfort varying with the skill of the craftsman.
The villages round about were not nearly so badly smashed up as the ones
further back; there were certainly very few roofs to be seen, but most
of the walls stood.

[Illustration: AREA OF OPERATIONS.

24/27th AUGUST, 1918.]

The Bosche airmen were by no means reduced to impotency. On the 15th
September we saw them shoot down in flames six of our sausage balloons,
all on the sector in front of us and apparently without loss to himself.
On other days we saw more of our balloons coming down in flames, but it
never seem