quite near made it so hot for the gunner that after firing about 150 rounds he scooted, leaving a well-placed gun and 5,000 rounds, all belted, behind.  We now advanced over the Czech and French trenches, for these forces, like our armoured trains, had been ordered to take no part in the advance.  It was while near these trenches that a grey-coated Magyar, four hundred yards away, took deliberate standing aim at myself.  It was a most difficult shot, and I felt quite safe, but though the Magyar missed me, he killed a Czech soldier five yards to the left, the bullet entering the centre of his forehead just over the nose.  About sixty shots answered his, and he sank across the rails.  When we reached him he lay, with many others, quite dead.  Captain Clark picked up his rifle and bandolier, and used it with good effect upon the retreating enemy.

There is no doubt that if we had failed to get into position under the cover of darkness we should have had the greatest difficulty in making any headway along the railway except with very heavy casualties.  As I have stated previously, the end car of the enemy armoured train had a 6-inch gun, but it was mounted so high that the whole platform could be swept with rifle-fire.  The reason for the high mounting was to enable two machine guns to be worked along the track from the bed of the car under the heavy gun.  If our advance had been observed the enemy would easily have smashed it, but we got within 400 yards before they knew we were there.  By concentrating all our fire on the end of the car we swept the platform clear, perforated the body underneath with a hail of bullets so that nothing could live, and put every gun which could be brought to bear along the track out of action.  By this means the apparently most dangerous point of our advancing line became the safest, and we accomplished our purpose without a single casualty.  Five enemy armoured trains were on the line disputing every inch of the way, but their shrapnel was either too high or exploded so far behind the front line that, though it made havoc amongst the laggards, it had but little effect upon those who kept well to the front.  The battle was now joined at all points and reaching the decisive moment.

In the centre by skilful manoeuvring, a Japanese 5-inch battery had taken up a position actually in front of the general infantry advance.  Such daring deserved to succeed, and in this case it did so beyond all expectations.  The point selected was a thin group of trees, which gave a view of the railway from the left, across the plain to Kraevesk, and enabled the leading enemy trains to be shelled almost from the flank.  The infantry, while still going methodically forward, were receiving far too much attention to feel comfortable, and Japanese soldiers were putting tufts of grass and leaves in front of their caps to hide the red band, which made an excellent target for riflemen and machine-gunners.  Occasionally one would rub a handful of mud around the tell-tale