One form of hare-hunting became very popular: the idea—which originated with Louis Strange, then commanding a wing—was to proceed as follows: All officers and men in the wing who wished to take part assembled, to the number of two or three hundred, at “the meet,” and filed away in opposite directions, the leaders of each file turning gradually inwards until a circle nearly a mile in diameter was enclosed by men about twenty yards apart. The circle being completed, they began to walk towards the centre. Usually three or four hares, and sometimes many more, got up within the cordon and ran frantically round until they either broke through or were knocked over with sticks. The shouting and noise arising during the proceedings testified to the popularity of this form of sport. Despite these diversions, time hung rather heavily on their hands until, at last, by the end of February 1919, all the demobilisable officers and men had gone, and those who remained were sent up by train as reinforcements to the R.A.F. with the Army of the Rhine. On a bitterly cold evening this remnant entrained in covered trucks, under sad skies with snow falling heavily, to commence their eastward journey, in typically military fashion, by travelling due west to Etaples. After this nothing remained but to dispatch the cadre with the records back to England, and the two officers and ten men remaining accordingly departed on February 28, bound for Sedgeford, in Norfolk.
The squadron remained dormant for a time, but was re-formed towards the end of the year, and is now equipped with De Havilland 10s, large twin-engined machines, and is stationed in India.
BRITISH BATTLES DURING 1918
8TH AUG. TO 11TH NOV.
The following diary will help to elucidate the map, which shows the ground gained by the British Allied Armies, and the series of battles from July to November, 1918.
THE BATTLES AND THEIR EFFECTS.
8th Aug.–12th Aug.
13 Inf. and 3 Cav. Divs. defeated 20 German Divs.
THE BATTLE OF AMIENS disengaged Amiens, until then in range of the German guns, and freed the Paris-Amiens railway. Our attack was then transferred to the north in
21st Aug.–31st Aug.
23 Divs. defeated 35 German Divs.