Cosmo Down...Again

For the second time in as many months, Captain C.M.E. Dealtry was wounded in action.
On 27th March, the British detonated a series of mines along the St. Eloi ridge, near Ypres. In the hours that followed, the 2nd Battalion was rushed from its billets behind the lines, to the front, to bolster the fledgling front line.
Despite the horrific weather culminating in a terrific hailstorm, the Battalion pressed on to consolidate the craters that had been created by the mines and, with the units that were already there, desperately hung on in the face of heavy enemy fire.
The Battalion, pushed directly into the fight, lost it's recently returned CO; Lieutenant-Colonel d'Arch Smith. He had only returned a few days before after recovering from an injured foot, and upon entering the front line trenches, he was hit by shrapnel. His second-in-command, Major Thomas, had reported sick many days before, so that for the first time since Le Cateau, the Battalion was completely leaderless. Within hours however, a new CO would arrive.

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