mall nullah to the Horse Shoe. On the left our front line
(Argyle Street) was still far from safe and required further digging and
sandbagging, while on the right the chief work in progress was a tunnel
which was being driven from the Achi Baba nullah up to the Horse Shoe.

Before we moved up we had received three officers from the 2/5th H.L.I.,
Captain P. MacLellan Thomson and Sec.-Lieuts. A. Barbe and Colvil. The
former we lost at once to the 5th Argylls, who were short of Captains.

Captain A. Pirie Watson, R.A.M.C., took over the duties of medical
officer from Lieut. Downes, who returned to his own unit, and for a time
we lost the services of Major Neilson. He had been left behind ill in
rest camp. Getting worse he was invalided home, but returned to us in
record time.

On the night of 13th August, Sergt. D. Macdonald ("A" Company) who had
served in the Battalion for thirteen or fourteen years, after previous
service in the line battalions of the H.L.I., was killed in F12A while
shifting a sand-bag on the parapet.

It was hard work getting our trenches into order and collecting the
ammunition which was lying about in all sorts of odd corners; here a few
unopened boxes, there a pile of loose rounds. The French on our right
handed over to us 90,000 rounds of British ammunition, loose and in
boxes, which they had retrieved in their sector. Besides ammunition, we
made a big collection of miscellaneous equipment. Verey lights, bombs,
etc., all of which were stacked centrally ready to be sent down to
Ordnance when opportunity might offer. Good progress was also made with
the reconstruction of Argyle Street.

During the night of 15th August Lieut. Leith and Sergt. G. Downie crept
out from our line near the small nullah and got close up to F12 at a
point where a blasted tree with a shell-hole through its trunk stood out
a few yards in front of the enemy's trench. They heard men conversing
inside, and a shot or two was fired over the parapet. Grenades were also
thrown from a work of some kind near the tree. These must have been on
the off-chance of catching some of our people in the open, for Lieut.
Leith was confident that he and his companion were not spotted. Nothing
was observed to indicate the presence of machine-guns in F12, but the
ground in front of the trench was searched occasionally by enfilade fire
from F13. The conclusion at which Lieut. Leith arrived was that the
trench itself was but thinly held and that f