Chapter III
Success exploited by the Sherwoods, Lincolns, and Leicesters
While the Infantry of the Division was thus engaged in making history east of the Canal, the administrative services behind were struggling manfully against adverse circumstances. The fog, which had so materially assisted in front, was here the cause of endless trouble and confusion. Elaborate arrangements had been made for the evacuation of the wounded and prisoners, but the fog, which from the beginning of the action had been enough to tender path-finding extremely difficult, was intensified to such an extent by the smoke drifting from the scene of action that it was impossible to see more than a few yards ahead. All landmarks were blotted out, and the boundary between tracks ordinarily well enough defined and the open country was indistinguishable. To make confusion worse confounded, the country far and wide was seamed with the occasional ruts made by transport wagons, which in clear weather had been accustomed to avoid tracks as being likely places for the enemy to shell, and to make straight for the particular camp or bivouac which was their destination. The result was that Ascension Valley and the whole region immediately behind the old front line were soon filled with columns of prisoners, returning wounded, stragglers, reinforcements and a medley of orderlies and odds and ends of transport of
