ng behind the crest
And a trench that crumbled in fire and rain.
Sleepless, shelterless, night and day,
Drenched and weary and sniped and shelled,
The word was given that come what may
The line must hold, and the line was held.

But all who pass to the crumbling trench
Must go in the spirit that games with fate,
With feet that stumble and teeth that clench
Over the valley of hell and hate.
Over the knees in water and mud,
Up to the waist if you miss the track,
You shall know your path by the trail of blood,
And silent figures shall guide you back.

Down in the valley the waters flow,
You may jump the brook with an easy stride,
They cross it in silence, they who know
What happened that day upon either side.
In the voice of the brook are their comrades' tones,
In the summer's breeze they shall feel their breath,
For under the grass we have laid their bones,
Here in the Vale of the Shadow of Death.[A]

[Footnote A: Copied by permission from "Dawn and Other Poems" by
Lieut.-Colonel E. Godfrey Hoare, D.S.O. Publishers: Erskine Macdonald,
Limited.]

The Battalion was relieved on the night of the second-third, and the men
drifted down in small parties through the mud to Potijze. Some hours were
spent here, during which several casualties took place, as the enemy
subjected the area to the fire of 8-inch shells. Towards evening the men
were told to rendezvous at Vlamertinghe. There was no need to pay much
attention to the means of getting there. That could be left to the men
themselves. Everyone was ready to give them a lift, for their muddy
appearance showed that they had just been in the fight, and consequently
practically all arrived in motor lorries. At Vlamertinghe, rum was issued
and later all embussed for the Watou area, which they reached shortly
after midnight. After debussing there was a short march to billets. For
some even this was too much, and about thirty were unable to walk, and had
to be sent to hospital. The remaining men were put into billets, and at
4-30 a.m. the officers sat down to dinner, the first proper meal they had
had for several days. Afterwards they lay down to sleep for six or seven
hours.

What had been done by the Battalion during the last few days, at the
commencement of the struggle for Passchendaele, was then perhaps the
greatest achievement the Battalion had accomplished. Undou