[Illustration: The Water Tower and Railway Track, Vermelles.]

During the next day we were fortunately not much harassed by the enemy,
and were consequently able to continue the repair work on "50." "B"
Company had had 42 casualties from the mine itself, of whom eight were
killed and seven, including Sergt. Bunn, were missing, while in the rest
of the Battalion about 30 men were wounded, mostly by trench mortars or
rifle fire when digging out "50" trench. At the time of the explosion
the enemy had thrown several bombs at "A2," and it was thought for a
time that he intended making an attack here, but rapid fire was opened
by the garrison, and nothing followed. On the evening of the 24th we
were due for relief, but, as "50" was still only partially cleared, and
we had not yet traced all our missing, we stayed in for another 24
hours, during which time we thoroughly reorganized the sector, and were
able to hand over a properly traversed fire trench to the Lincolnshires
when they came in. Before we left we found Sergt. Bunn's body; he had
been buried at his post, and was still holding in his hand the flare
pistol which he was going to fire when the mine exploded. The men of the
listening post were not found until some time later, for they had been
thrown several hundred yards by the explosion.

On relief, we marched back to Ouderdom, taking with us the officers and
men of the 17th Division, who had been attached for instruction during
the last tour, and reached a bivouac field near the windmill at 4-30
a.m. Here we stayed 24 hours, and then moved into the "E" huts--an
excellent camp, further E. along the Vlamertinghe road than that which
we had previously occupied. We were due to remain here for six days, and
accordingly started our usual training in bomb and bayonet fighting.
Meanwhile, Lieut. Moore and the Battalion Tunnellers were once more hard