lot of men had to go down the line sick with trench feet and
exhaustion, many of them suffering from jaundice and diarrhoea as
well. The area was again very heavily shelled with shrapnel, and we
suffered a few casualties. By night time everything was covered with
snow, but what really put the lid on was a sudden blizzard about 2
A.M. with ever so many degrees of frost. Everything one had on was of
course soaking wet and covered with mud, and this was now frozen stiff
by the frost. Most of the rifles were out of action, and even the
water in the machine guns froze. However, daylight put new heart in
us, and we made good progress in improving the trenches, getting
rifles once more in working order, and generally tidying up and making
things as comfortable as possible under the circumstances. That night
about six or eight Turks crawled up the sunken road on our extreme
left flank and caused quite an excitement, but finding the trenches
still manned retired hastily. Unfortunately the message that they had
retired miscarried, and headquarters stood to impatiently for about an
hour.

Gradually the weather improved and the sun came out, and we managed to
drain off more and more of the water from the communication trenches.
But the damage had already been done--the wet followed by the cold and
intense frost brought on trench fever in an acute and terrible form.
One poor fellow had died of exhaustion and 142 left the Regiment in
two days, some few never to recover and others to be maimed for life.

In the week following the storm 7 officers, including Major Younger
and Captain Tuke, R.A.M.C., and 221 other ranks were admitted to
hospital through sickness. Owing to the washing away of the Highland
barricade, three men, bringing water up the Azmac Dere, foolishly
missed our trenches and wandered into the Turkish lines.