Carrying the gun that was no joke. However we got there just in time to catch a lovely target & got to work on it we got two or three good targets during our stay there. Then we were detailed to cover a pass which the infantry got through.
I stayed until I saw the rearguard coming and then moved. Just after we had moved the 'Cease Fire' sounded & units were ordered to march back independently. After a while I picked up Beach with Bro Cap??? and went back with him. We were all pretty tired when we started to say nothing ?? 7 thirsty, but that 9 mile march in the heat of the afternoon with the sun working round with us as we worked round too keeping always on our backs, will not be forgotten in a hump.?? The road (save the mark) was a shingly track which persisted in making itself more tiring by going up and down big mullahs?? Oer??? the first halg we emptied the little water that was left in the packets?? & hence there was none. The men stuck it gamely one of my men took the pay? just after the 2nd halt but at the 3rd (last??) he said he could walk in, so I kept his rifle & let him.
From that half?? I came? in two rifles. The last straw was as we passed the D.L.I.?? barrack 8. They probably having been through it themselves & knowing what it was like came out with water for the men, but hard hearted officers (so the world would say) wouldn't let them have it though they could see their men were so thirsty that many of them had absolutely white lips, to say nothing of knowing what they felt like themselves. But it couldn't be done & it was a good proof of discipline that not a single man broke the