roughout the action he carried on his task of
relieving suffering and saving life quite heedless of the shelling and
firing and quite cool in the face of the ever growing number of cases
demanding his attention and skill.

At the Battalion parade for Roll Call on the 4th of July, the
casualties totalled 22 officers and 447 other ranks.

A DIARY ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE.

_Extract from the personal diary of the late Lieut. B. Meadows
giving a wonderfully realistic picture of the July 1st Battle._

The narrative of the 1st of July Somme Battle as written in the diary
of the late 2nd Lieut. B. Meadows, who, before taking his commission,
served with the 17th H.L.I., gives such an impressive account of the
battle that we include it here almost in entirety. The foregoing
chapter gives a general idea of the intensity of the great battle from
the impersonal and official viewpoint, with data checked and balanced.
But the following account introduces the personal and human element
with poignant effect. Some of the very minor facts are a little
inaccurate, but that is inevitable when an individual soldier
describes a general action from his own viewpoint. Nevertheless the
editors consider that in no other Battalion source is there such a
vivid record of experiences to be got which reflect the feelings of
all those who took part in the action concerned.

"The last four days before zero," he writes, "were known as 'W,' 'X,'
'Y,' and 'Z' days. By 'W' every enemy observation balloon had been
destroyed and so dense a fleet of aircraft patrolled the battle area
as to make it impossible for the enemy aircraft to approach the lines.
Thus the enemy was made blind. On the night of 'W' we got orders to
move forward. Before leaving the billet we made a large bonfire with
boxes from the C.Q.M.'s stores. On this we burned all our letters, and
round it we had the last sing-song the old 'Seventeenth' ever had. We
then believed it 'Y' night, not 'W' night. The night before we had
gone up to the trenches through Aveluy and Authuille with petrol tins
full of water. These were stocked in dug-outs and along the trench and
formed our reserve water supply. Many of our guns were firing 'gun
fire,' yet the enemy made little artillery reply. He retaliated
chiefly on the front line defences with trench mortars. Of such a
violent nature was this bombardment that the Lonsdales had to call on
our 'D' Company for support to make up for their c