my Platoon Officer were both killed, all the
platoon's N.C.O.s were killed or wounded, two Sergeants outright, and
all the L.-Corpls. dead. We had 17 officers killed and were working the
Battalion with two officers. The Colonel, who had been well forward all
day, was without a scratch. It was a remarkably clear day, very hot. We
were on the ridge that formed the defence on that side of Thiepval.
From here we could see the whole battlefield. I saw the huge eruption
at La Boisselle, when the six mines went up, and I remember watching
long lines of Highlanders charging along the opposite slope of the
valley. The aeroplanes followed every movement, flying low overhead and
directing the artillery by dropping flares. The Germans
counter-attacked in a half-hearted way through the night. We had
casualties from our own artillery and mortar batteries, otherwise the
night was quieter than we had expected. We managed to carry away a
number of our wounded in waterproof sheets. The battalions on both
flanks were unsuccessful in storming the enemy's front line defences,
thus our flanks were exposed and blockades had to be formed at the
front line and all lines forward to our advanced positions, which
developed into a series of bombing posts. Local fights went on at their
posts all through the day and night, and it was while chasing each
other round corners at the head of the communication trench in the
afternoon that we lost Sergeant Turnbull, V.C., who had done wonderful
work all day. The nature of the Leipzig defences, a maze of trenches
and underground saps, made advancing into the salient extremely hard.
One was continually attacked in the rear. What seemed dug-outs were
bombed, and when passed numbers of the enemy rush from them, they being
really underground communications with their rear defences. The whole
fighting was of a cold, deliberate, merciless nature. No quarter was
given or taken. One of the battalions opposing us was similar to our
own, a students' battalion from Bavaria. The enemy used explosive and
dum-dum bullets, and sniped off any of our wounded lying exposed in the
open. They were helped in their work by an arrangement we had come to
regarding wounded. It was not permitted to stop to take back prisoners
or to stop to dress a wounded chum; but it was permitted to stick the
bayonet of the wounded man's rifle in the ground and thus to mark the
spot where he lay. The Germans observed this and watched for any
moveme