Semyonov was in some other part of the town.

We were to wait here until Molozov arrived from B----.
There can be few things so bad as the sense of insecurity that we had that afternoon.

The very ground seemed to have been cut away from under our feet.

We had gathered enough from the officers of our Division to know that something very disastrous "somewhere" had occurred.

It was the very vagueness of the thing that terrified us.
What could have happened?
Only something very monstrous could have compelled so general a retirement.