78 Pages - The Black Vault

By the time I had gathered what was happening,about a dozen more men had been bowled over. 1then ordered the whole lot to take cover in thetrench, and only to pop up to take a shot to the frontor rear. But no more could be done by us towardsthe rear than to the front. The conditions were thesame—no Beers to be seen. At this moment two ofthe guard from Waschout Hill started to run in to ourtrench, and a terrific fusillade was opened on to them,the bullets kicking up the dust all round them as theyran. One poor fellow was dropped, but the other managedto reach our trench and fall into it. lie too wasbadly hit, but just had the strength to gasp out thatexcept himself and the man who started with him, allthe guard on Waschout Hill had been killed orwounded and that the Beers were gradually workingtheir way up to the top. This was indeed cheering.So hot was the fire now that no one could raise hishead above ground without being shot, and bycrouching down altogether and not attempting toaim, but merely firing our rifles over the edge of thetrench, we remained for a short time without casualties.This respite, however, was short, for the men inthe right half of the trench began to drop unaccountablywhilst they were sitting well under cover, andnot exposing themselves at all. I gradually discoveredthe cause of this. Some snipers must have reachedthe top of Waschout Hill, and were shooting straightdown our right half trench. As the bullets snickedin thicker and thicker, it was plain the number ofsnipers was being increased.1 his, 1 thought, must be being “enfiladed from aflank. ” It was so.Without any order, we had all instinctively vacated42