BF turns in for the night…

When all had turned in, and the camp was quite silent, it was almost comforting to hear the half-hourly cry of the sentries. “Number one – all is well; Number two – all is well!” By this sound I was able to locate them, and knew they were at their proper posts.  On going round sentries about midnight, I was pleased to find that they were both alert, and that, as it was a cold night, each guard had built a bonfire, silhouetted in the cheerful blaze of which stood the sentry – a clear-cut monument to all around that here was a British sentry fully on the qui-vive [a state of heightened vigilance, especially prior to battle]…

The fires they had built, besides being a comfort to themselves, were also useful to me, because twice during the night when I looked out I could, without leaving my tent, plainly see them at their posts. I finally fell asleep, and dreamt of being decorated with a crossbelet made of V.C.s and D.S.O.s, and of wearing red tabs all down my back…

Around dawn he is woken by an attack. His platoon is soundly defeated…

-See The Defence of Duffer’s Drift by Captain E.D. Swinton.