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moved off with section on either side
of road and up to battery taking shelter
wherever they could. They were heavily
mortared and suffered casualties

=

At one point as they took shelter
from mortaring he saw one of his
officers talking over a gate to a
Frenchman. Suddenly a mortar
shell hit the roof of house and
then the Frenchman was lying on
his back presumably dead with
the officer wounded. It all taken
only a moment.

=

They had practiced assaulting
a battery - a replica - for months.
They were supposed to get supporting
fire, but it wasn't necessary because
although there was some skirmishing
between commandos and Germans
in slit trenches there was no
fire from the battery because there
were no guns in the battery.
One of the S. Majors got shot in
rear end and sd "How the hell
will I tell the nurse."

That night as he tried to settle
down for the night at Le Plein
he felt he wanted to weep
"because the whole thing seemed so
useless."