10 ATH:00 Air Wre
YNG A Juede Bigo
Mal
en ditu add
**
dre sjan 90 .0 98
1. On the 17th ultimo at 4 p.m., very heavy hostile Artillery fire was heard from the direction of Chung Uk Tsun. Captain Berger, with 250 men of the Hong Kong Regiment, had already gone to Shelter Trench Hill (the Chinese had constructed here a very creditable two-hour shelter trench made on orthodox principles, evidently under Military supervision) to dislodge the enemy who had taken up a position with guns on the crest of Wa Mi Hill and who had been firing at our camp, at 2500 yards range for some time. He swung to the left, entered the village of Fong Ma Po, closely followed by Lieut Barrett with a reserve comprising soldiers of the Hong Kong Regiment.
Berger soon became hotly engaged, his force with the Reserve was amply sufficient to meet all eventualities, and I left him full control of the infantry. He carried out the work in a most praiseworthy soldierly manner.
I now ascertained that the enemy was retiring slowly in a S.W. direction through the Lam Tsuen Valley, keeping up a hot Artillery and Rifle fire. I sent word to Captain Simonds to co-operate with Berger with his guns. Simonds unfortunately took a wrong turn, moving East towards Fanling instead of to the S.W. He afterwards explained that he had got his guns to Pong Ma Po, that his coolies were weary, that night was coming on, and