ant Adjutant, also read it."

While we were at Query Camp orders came round to all companies that one
officer per company was to be detailed to leave at 5 p.m. and proceed to
the Salient and reconnoitre the trenches. Captain Andrews detailed
Halstead to go from B Company. Ronald went from A, Barker from C, and
Wood from D. They all set off together. Giffin also left us, as he was
detailed to take over billets for us in the Prison.

"At 8.40 we moved off. We went at intervals of three hundred yards
between platoons, with six connecting files. As Giffin had been sent on
much earlier to 'take over,' I was in command of the combined 7th and
8th platoons. I had four sergeants with me--Sergeant Williams and
Sergeant Clews in front, and Sergeant Dawson and Sergeant Baldwin
behind. At first I marched in front, but then Captain Andrews told me to
march in rear of my platoon; so I chatted with Sergeant Baldwin for the
rest of the way. He is twenty years old and has been in the Army since
he was seventeen. He joined the Argyles in 1914, and was stationed in
Edinburgh for some time. Then he was discharged on account of weak
eyesight. But he immediately enlisted again; this time in the
Lancashire Fusiliers. His home is Higher Broughton. His father, who is
forty-nine, is a sergeant in the Manchesters at Salonica; I believe he
said that he was wounded.

"Things were moderately quiet until we reached the (Prison). It was
about 10 p.m. when we got there. Things then became much livelier;
shells were bursting all round. We found the building uninhabitable. The
casualties there during the last few days have been very heavy. One
shell buried a party in the debris; it took four hours' solid digging to
get them out! So it has been decided to abandon the place as a billet.

"We were delayed here because we thought this was our destination; but
we were informed that we were to go on to some ramparts, wherever they
might be! I had not the faintest idea where they were. Anyhow I followed
those in front along the ghastly streets of the city. Shells were
dropping all round. One shell exploded ten yards away. A moment later
Sergeant Baldwin and I noticed one of the men in rear of the platoon
fainting and pulling horrible faces. I asked him whether he was hit. It
appeared that he had got shell-shock. So we got hold of him and called
out for the stretcher-bearers. Meanwhile, we got completely out of the
platoon; they, of course, went on. So we wer