Dillon (of the Divisional Staff) dismounted
and staggering along supporting two wounded privates and hoisting them
over the obstacles on to the rail track, one man hanging heavily from
his neck on either side. He was streaming with sweat, and said
afterwards it was the hardest job he'd ever had. Others of course
helped him and his men, and we wandered along over the grass, and
skirting the little woods and coppices till we got to the main road
again.

As we proceeded along the road we did our best to get the troops
collected into their units, getting single men together into bunches
and the bunches into groups and platoons, and so on. But many of them
were wounded and dog-tired, and it was hard work. Ballard and his
Norfolks joined us in bits, and we heard that they had had a hard time
falling back through Reumont and done very well as rear-guard. There
were stories at first of their having suffered terribly and lost a lot
of men; but it was not in the least true,--they had had comparatively
few casualties.

The country gradually grew more and more open till by dusk--somewhere
about 7 o'clock--we were traversing a huge rolling plain with open
fields and only occasional farmhouses visible. The troops on the road
were terribly mixed, infantry and artillery and waggons and transport
all jumbled up together, and belonging not only to different brigades
but even to different divisions, the main ones being of course the 5th
and 3rd Divisions.

Darkness came on, and the night grew cooler and cooler, yet still we
pushed on. As it got blacker, terrible blocks occurred and perpetual
unintentional halts. In one place, somewhere near the Serains-Premont
road I think, we were halted for about three-quarters of an hour by a
jam of waggons just ahead. I gave the Norfolks leave to worm their way
through the press, but it was no use, for before they had got through
the waggons moved on again and only divided the men more and more, so
that they lost their formation again and were worse off than before.

Companies or bits of companies of my battalions were pretty close
together, and at one time the Brigade was pretty well cohesive, but as
the night wore on they got separated again and mixed up with the
transport till it was quite impossible to sort them out. It was a
regular nightmare, and all one could look forward to was the halt at
Estrees.

The German guns had long ceased to fire, even before the sun went
down, and there didn't