News reached our brigade that some of the Germans were making a stand
not far in front of us. We at once scattered ourselves in the fields,
and then advanced in extended formation until we could see them nicely.
We fired a few rounds into them, and they beat a hasty retreat, but not
before they had killed seven and wounded twelve. Our colonel was the
first man shot, and he died the next morning. After the dead had been
collected and the wounded attended to we again got on the move, and I
shall never forget how I felt as I passed my dead comrades on the road.
They had been laid by the roadside, and their faces covered with straw:
_Bandsman T. Woodward, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment_.