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CANCAN 75
to realize. I do not know, of course, what the
feeling was amongst his commanding officers, and
what decision they might have come to ;
but,
during the sitting, news was telephoned that part
of East Panlung Fort had been taken, that his
troops were in the fort, engaged in a hand-to-
hand fight with the defenders and gaining ground
steadily. This was not a moment for stopping
operations. The meeting was instantly closed,
and the divisional commanders sent back to their
headquarters with orders to push the attack
vigorously. A battalion of the ist Division was
detached to support the 9th Division, where the
heaviest part of the fighting was taking place.
What had happened was this. When the 7th
regiment made the first assault in the morning
of the 2 1 St, during which it reached further up
towards the fort than any of the subsequent
attacks, a force of some fifty men had found
shelter in the abandoned trenches at the foot of
the glacis ;
about twenty sappers and a few men of
the 35th regiment had also sought refuge here.
Besides these the trench was full of corpses and
badly wounded men after the fight. It was rather
deep, with a banquette for the riflemen. After the
previous heavy rain it was half full of water, and
as the banquette was taken up with the wounded,
the others had to remain standing knee-deep in
water and mud ;
they had brought some food
with them, but not much, so that the pangs of
hunger added to their other sufferings. They
searched the pockets of the dead, and drank the
blood-mixed ditch water. To retreat was out of
the question under the never-ceasing fire of the
enemy, so they had to spend the whole day and
the whole night in this ghastly place. They saw
one battalion after the other advance and break
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