N’Soon and Sadders were with the 13th.  On the Sunday night they had to march to a new position more towards their right.  The Signal Section went astray and remained silently on a byroad while their officer reconnoitred.  On the main road between them and their lines were some lights rapidly moving—­Germans in armoured motor-cars.  They successfully rejoined, but in the morning there was something of a collision, and Sadders’ bicycle was finished.  He got hold of a push-bike alongside the waggons for some distance, finishing up on a limber.

Spuggy was sent up to the trenches in the morning.  He was under heavy shell fire when his engine seized up.  His brigade was retreating, and he was in the rear of it, so, leaving his bicycle, he took to his heels, and with the Germans in sight ran till he caught up a waggon.  He clambered on, and so came into St Waast.

I had not been in many minutes when I was sent off to our Army H.Q. at Bavai.  It was a miserable ride.  I was very tired, the road was full of transport, and my lamp would not give more than a feeble glimmer.

I got to bed at 1 A.M.  About 3.30 (on August 24) I was called and detailed to remain with the rear-guard.  First I was sent off to find the exact position of various bodies posted on roads to stem the German advance.  At one spot I just missed a shell-trap.  A few minutes after I had left, some of the Manchesters, together with a body of the D. Cyclists who were stationed three miles or so out of St Waast, were attacked by a body of Jaegers, who appeared on a hill opposite.  Foolishly they disclosed their position by opening rifle fire.  In a few minutes the Jaegers went, and to our utter discomfiture a couple of field-guns appeared and fired point-blank at 750 yards.  Luckily the range was not very exact, and only a few were wounded—­those who retired directly backwards instead of transversely out of the shells’ direction.

The H.Q. of the rear-guard left St Waast about 5.30.  It was cold and chilly.  What happened I do not quite know.  All I remember was that at a given order a battery would gallop off the road into action against an enemy we could not see.  So to Bavai, where I was sent off with an important despatch for D.H.Q.  I had to ride past the column, and scarcely had I gone half a mile when my back tyre burst.  There was no time to repair it, so on I bumped, slipping all over the road.  At D.H.Q., which of course was on the road, I borrowed some one else’s bicycle and rode back by another road.  On the way I came across Huggie filling up from an abandoned motor-lorry.  I did likewise, and then tore into Bavai.  A shell or two was bursting over the town, and I was nearly slaughtered by some infantrymen, who thought they were firing at an aeroplane.  Dodging their bullets, I left the town, and eventually caught up the H.Q. of the rear-guard.