It seemed incredible that such a thing could have happened,
but on making inquiries concerning his division, the number of which I
have forgotten, it proved to be perfectly true. Surely this case
presents physiological and psychical problems worthy of consideration.
We were relieved again by the 5th and went back to our old support
position. After two days the L.F's. came up again to relieve the
brigade, but the bulk of our battalion continued to go up in the evening
to dig in a corps cable which was being laid as far forward as possible.
By the time we completed the last of our journeys to the east of Ypres,
we were a battalion chastened in body and spirit. Many big gaps had been
made in the ranks, and it was when we settled down to the more
comfortable and peaceful existence that these gaps were keenly felt. A
most noticeable absentee was R.S.M. Hartnett. He had been badly hit by a
piece of shell at Bill Cottage, and later died in hospital at Rouen.
Hartnett's work with the 7th Manchesters has nothing but good to show.
He had been a sergeant instructor with the battalion in pre-war days,
being sent to us by the 1st Manchesters, and had gone out in 1914 to the
Soudan. He stayed on through Gallipoli, and became R.S.M. when Franklin
was made adjutant. A keen, regular, disciplinarian and the scourge of
feeble N.C.O's., he was an untiring worker in entertainments. His song
in Gallipoli--"Oh, Achi, Achi Baba," to the tune of the "Absent Minded
Beggar" will never be forgotten, while some of the sketches that he
wrote and had performed were masterpieces of good humour.
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