the line
continuous, and move forward with the Japanese to the attack. Disposing
my men in the shelter of the scrub on either side of the railway, I
directed their movements from the centre of the track. There was an ugly
moment when a maxim situated in a cornfield began to fire point-blank at
a range of one hundred yards, but a Czech outpost entrenched quite near
made it so hot for the gunner that after firing about 150 rounds he
scooted, leaving a well-placed gun and 5,000 rounds, all belted, behind.
We now advanced over the Czech and French trenches, for these forces,
like our armoured trains, had been ordered to take no part in the
advance. It was while near these trenches that a grey-coated Magyar,
four hundred yards away, took deliberate standing aim at myself. It was
a most difficult shot, and I felt quite safe, but though the Magyar
missed me, he killed a Czech soldier five yards to the left, the bullet
entering the centre of his forehead just over the nose. About sixty
shots answered his, and he sank across the rails. When we reached him he
lay, with many others, quite dead. Captain Clark picked up his rifle and
bandolier, and used it with good effect upon the retreating enemy.

There is no doubt that if we had failed to get into position under the
cover of darkness we should have had the greatest difficulty in making
any headway along the railway except with very heavy casualties. As I
have stated previously, the end car of the enemy armoured train had a
6-inch gun, but it was mounted so high that the whole platform could be
swept with rifle-fire. The reason for the high mounting was to enable
two machine guns to be worked along the track from the bed of the car
under the heavy gun. If our advance had been observed the enemy would
easily have smashed it, but we got within 400 yards before they knew we
were there. By concentrating all our fire on the end of the car we swept
the platform clear, perforated the body underneath with a hail of
bullets so that nothing could live, and put every gun which could be
brought to bear along the track out of action. By this means the
apparently most dangerous point of our advancing line became the safest,
and we accomplished our purpose without a single casualty. Five enemy
armoured trains were on the line disputing every inch of the way, but
their shrapnel was either too high or exploded so far behind the front
line that, though it made havoc amongst the laggards, it had bu