I was awakened, then on a starry but moonless night that was very still, and very dark. After wondering whether I could keep the wooden clompers on my feet, I decided that the mud would soon suck them off and went out barefooted, with Henry as my guide. The bund, about 30 yards from the bottom of the huts, was in all about 200 yards long. Four parties were working on it; their total illumination in the whole area was one paraffin and two hurricane lamps, so that one of the parties tried to dig and dam in the absolute dark. We tripped and groped our way down to the bund, trying to avoid the water-filled pits and trenches of earth dug out by the dammers. It was a veritable quagmire. The bund was not straight, but following the contours of the land, it zig-zagged. We walked along the top of it, the whole length without a light, and the water was just lapping the top and beginning to seep through in the weakest parts where the troops were trying to bank it up. Then you had the curious, unreal feeling that this must all be a lunatic dream! As you walked along the bund in the near pitch dark, the path along the top of it was shining black mud, and the water was black and shining from the faint reflected stars; the two seemed to merge into one another so that frequently you had to stop, blink and look down to try and pick out which was path and which was water; and every time the bund zigged or zagged you were in mortal danger of walking straight on into four feet of black water. Inside the bund, the water that had slowly percolated through was about eighteen inches deep already. With the labour and lighting available, obviously it couldn’t be kept pace with.

At about a quarter to five I was with a party at the hospital end when we all heard a rushing noise. I stumbled along the top of the bund, but it was nothing – a rain on the distant embankment. I had a word with the Dutch officer on duty and walked back. But five minutes later came another rushing noise, and this time the bund really had had it! The break through, as might have been guessed, was at a week point midway between the Dutch and British, and each said it was the responsibility of the other. The water had pushed in a gap about eight feet across, and it was steadily widening. A party of 500 men could do nothing now: the force of the water was so furious that within five minutes there was a foot of water in the huts, in ten minutes eighteen inches, and within a quarter of an hour the slats of the bottom sections of all the huts were afloat.