The first thing to do was to detach the truck which was half off the rails. Churchill called for volunteers. He needed twenty but only nine stepped forward and, with the engine giving it a shove at the right moment, they managed to push the truck off the line. The derailed truck was fouling the footplate of the engine and pushing it with the engine only jammed it up against the truck off the line. Churchill says that “I was very lucky in the hour that followed not to be hit. It was necessary for me to be almost continuously moving up and down the train or standing in the open, telling the engine driver what to do. We struggled for seventy minutes amid the repeated explosions of shells and the ceaseless hammering of bullets. Above all things we had to be careful not to throw the engine off the line. But at last I decided to run a great risk. The engine was backed up to its fullest extent and driven full tilt at the obstruction. The engine reeled on the rails, and as the obstructing truck reared upwards, gained the homeward side.”