Lieutenant-Colonel
B. Best-Dunkley gathered together all men available, and, placing
himself at the head, beat off the counter-attack at this point. At this
time our own artillery brought down an extremely heavy barrage on the
enemy which appeared to catch him, and it was probably due to this that
they were unable to gain a footing in the Black Line on our immediate
front. During this withdrawal the Adjutant--Lieutenant R. Andrews--was
killed. The Commanding Officer was wounded shortly afterwards--about 8
p.m. There was then no officer of this Battalion known to be alive, and
the Orderly Room Sergeant--Sergeant F. Howarth--took command, organizing
the defence of that part of the line until the Battalion was withdrawn
to Bilge Trench, about 9 a.m. the following morning--August 1. Captain
Bodington, who was the one surviving officer, came in subsequently from
the left of the line."
Let us now follow the movements of Captain Bodington. He afterwards
wrote the following report:
"Up to the time of reaching a point a hundred yards in rear of the Black
Line, the advance was easy.
"On crossing the small rise behind Wine House we came under very heavy
machine-gun and rifle fire from both Wine House and Spree Farm. Two
platoons had to be used in driving the enemy from the above-named farms,
and the casualties were heavy in this minor operation.
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