tired I was as fresh as anybody else, and a good deal fresher than the majority, as you will see later.  Well, after the first halt the falling out became dreadful; it was almost impossible for us to cope with the number of chits required; crowds must have been without chits at all.  The whole roadside became one mass of exhausted men lying full length.  Some were very bad indeed, some had sunstroke, some were sick, more than one were dying.  At one time the padre and I were a long way behind, attending to these men.  We hurried on to catch up the Battalion.  The Transport, under Humfrey, were just behind the Battalion, so we followed along the Transport.  When we got to the front end of it we saw nothing beyond!  ‘Where is the Battalion?’ I asked Humfrey.  He informed me that he had lost it.  The Adjutant had, at the last turning, sent the Battalion one way and the Transport another; and he (Humfrey) had not the faintest idea where he was to go to!  So he halted and got out a map.  Then the Medical Officer (Adam) arrived on the scene too.  We told him that the Battalion had disappeared.  So we (Newman, Adam, Humfrey, and myself) sat down for about five minutes and discussed the situation.  It struck us as being rather comical, though we wished that we were at the end of our journey instead of in a strange village and ignorant of which way we were to go.  Humfrey decided to take his Transport the same way as the remainder of the Brigade Transport had gone; so we went on with him!  We went across some very open country.  The sun was simply burning down upon us.  I felt very exhausted now; but I can stick almost anything in the way of a route march; no route march could, in my opinion, be as bad as that memorable Kidlington-Yarnton route march in March, 1916.  The difficulty then was fatigue caused by the march through thick, soft slushy snow when vaccination was just at its worst; the difficulty this time was fatigue and thirst caused by the heat of a French summer.  I admit that this route march yesterday was a stern test of endurance; but if I could stick the Kidlington-Yarnton stunt I could stick this, and I did stick this all the way, which very few others did!  The trail which we left behind us was a sight to be seen:  men, rifles, equipment, riderless horses all over; the Retreat from Moscow was spoken of!  ‘An utter fiasco, a debacle!’ exclaimed Padre Newman.

“Before we had gone with the Transport very far the Medical Officer was called round a corner to see a man who was reported to be dying; the padre went with him.  I went on with the Transport.  After a time I saw Lieutenant Reginald Andrews (the Adjutant) standing alone in a village; so it looked as if the remains of our Battalion must be somewhere about.  A little further on I found Captain Blamey (O.C.  D Company) and Giffin sitting by the side of the road.  I asked them what they were doing, and they replied that they had fallen out with Sergeant-Major Howarth who was very bad indeed—­reported to be dying.  So the Battalion had passed that way.