4 main bridge underneath the wire entanglement, the leading men cutting away enough of the wire to make this possible. About this time an orderly of the Royal Engineers who had gone to fetch the electric firing appliances to destroy the bridge returned with the news that he could not find his headquarters which had moved from its previous position in the town. It appeared that the bridge could not be destroyed without using electricity and Captain Tullis then sent me off to find the Commanding Officer and ask for further orders. The forward entrenchment having been abandoned, it seemed probable that the enemy would shortly attack and try to rush the bridge, in which case we should need reinforcements if we were to hold on any longer. When I reached the Commanding Officer I found that he had just blown up his own bridge and was in the act of retiring. When I had explained our situation he ordered 'D' company to retire and to leave the bridge intact if it were found impossible to blow it up immediately. He also gave me some reinforcements to cover the retirement if necessary. When I got back to my company I found that Captain Tullis had received a message in my absence from a company of the 5th Fusiliers holding the next bridge on our left to say that they were retiring. Simultaneously with the receipt of this message the enemy were seen to occupy the above mentioned bridge and they opened fire on us from there with a machine gun which enfiladed our position from about 1000 yards. This made our position quite untenable and we then retired through the town of JEMAPPES and rejoined the headquarters of the battalion. TB Traill Captain Royal Scots Fusiliers 16/1/15