II. Arrives on Western Front
Next day the Buffs embarked for Havre, for the Channel ports were safe enough by this time. On the 21st they detrained at Hazebrouck and marched to Rouge Croix (4½ miles N.E.), after one of those terrible French railway journeys, during which sanitary arrangements are non-existent. The battalion now became a fighting unit in the great struggle that was raging round Ypres.
It is good in winter time to have plenty of warm clothing and protection from the weather, but the kits at this period were terribly heavy to carry. Later on regular parties were told off to take what was required from the billets to the trenches and so on, but at first the soldier, in addition to his regular sixty-two pounds’ weight of kit, was burdened with a fur coat, gum boots and spare sandbags, all very excellent things to have with one, but a bit of a job to get over the ground with.
On the 28th January the brigade was inspected by the Commander-in-Chief, accompanied by the Prince of Wales. During the month of February the Germans made several more or less determined attempts to pierce the British line near Ypres, and sometimes with partial success. On the 4th of the month the 85th Brigade, being at Ouderdom, received news that their comrades of the 83rd were being attacked south-west of the city, so two battalions started at once to the rescue, and these were followed two hours later by the Buffs and Middlesex, who entered the place and remained in readiness in the cavalry barracks.
The 5th February brought some counter-marching. At 4.30 a.m. the battalion started to march back again to Ouderdom as being not wanted and was then told to stand by in readiness to move again, as the 84th Brigade was now in trouble to the south of Ypres. This march, however, was not performed till the following day, by the evening of which both the Buffs and East Surreys were back in the cavalry barracks, and from there they went into the trenches, the Buffs’ Headquarters being at Ferme Chapelle.
The experience of the next few days was a terrible one; the trenches, which had just been taken over from the French, were in very bad condition indeed: they were knee-deep in water, and with parapets so rotten as not to be bullet proof. Very soon this state of things had its effect and numbers of the men were suffering from swollen feet and frost-bite.