"At one time word came from our comrades on the right that the Hun had broken through. So we sent over a party to their assistance, and finally repelled the attackers. We spent the whole of the afternoon and evening in this way, but when our relief came up that night we handed over the wood intact.
"The scene at night was awful, the wood being ablaze in many places. I read messages and wrote out the relief orders by the light of a blazing tree, which had fallen across the shell-hole then being occupied by Battalion headquarters.
"During the night our Brigadier came up and held a conference in our shell-hole. One of our men, Corporal Walker, who was attached to the Brigade Machine-Gun Company, came to this conference, and when asked by the Brigadier what he wanted, replied: 'I have reason to believe, sir, I now command the Machine-Gun Company.' This was actually the case, and he brought the remnants out, being badly wounded in doing so.
"We were relieved by the 6th Brigade, and at dawn returned to our quarters at Bernefay—that is to say, those of us who were left. Our casualties were nearly 400, over 60 per cent, of those who went in. Out of eighteen officers who went into the wood, thirteen became casualties, every company commander being included in this number, while the 1/60th suffered equally heavily.
"As I was making out our casualty return in our headquarters' shell-hole by the light of the blazing trees, our Quartermaster appeared with the rations. He threw a newspaper down to me, with the remark: 'You'll find something interesting in that.' I opened the paper, and found a full column describing how the South Africans took Delville Wood!
"When we were moving back into support, I noticed a horrible smell, and found it was due to the fact that almost every man was smoking a Hun cigar, large quantities of which had been found in the trenches, together with large quantities of soda-water.
"One of the Hun officer prisoners remarked that our advance through the wood was the finest thing they ever saw, but that he objected to being captured by civilians."
Some Lighter Stories.—Another story of Delville Wood, introducing the M.O.
"During the Delville Wood show a captured Hun Red Cross man was lending a hand in the Battalion aid post. Suddenly a scuffle was heard on the steps of the dug-out, and the prisoner went to see what was the matter. 'What's happened?' asked Doc. Isaac, busily engaged in bandaging a wounded man.