On the 18th, at 8 45 a.m., 18 heavy “Minnies” fell on B Company, wounding two men; our guns retaliated—they always did for “Minnies”—to discourage them. I think we all hated and feared the “Minnie” more than anything, chiefly on account of the deafening, nerve-shattering effect of the explosion; if you watched you could see them coming over like an oil-drum describing slowly a parabola in the air—and could dodge them and watch the fall from a safe distance, then a pause, then CRRRAAASH! and up went sandbags, earth, wood, iron, and sometimes men, leaving a crater of raw crumbly earth to be dealt with as soon as might be.
In the evening we were relieved by the 1/5th King’s Liverpool Regiment, and straggled systematically back to YPRES—billeted this time in the Prison and Magazine.
The Officers now with the Battalion were as follows:—
| Lieutenant-Colonel R. Hindle, Commanding. | ||
| Major Crump, Second in Command. | ||
| Second Lieutenant R. N. Buckmaster, Adjutant. | ||
| Second Lieutenant Burnside, Transport. | ||
| Lieutenant Bardsley, Quartermaster. | ||
| Second Lieutenant Lowe, Lewis Guns. | ||
| Second Lieutenant Mather, Bombs. | ||
| Second Lieutenant Williams, Sniping and Intelligence. | ||
| Captain A. T. Houghton |  | A Company. |
| Captain A. Walsh | ||
| Second Lieutenant Tyldesley | ||
| Second Lieutenant Bissett | ||
| Second Lieutenant Cooper | ||
| Captain F. S. Baker[G] | | B Company. |
| Second Lieutenant Agostini | ||
| Second Lieutenant Robinson | ||
| Second Lieutenant H. Holden | ||
| Captain Hore | | C Company. |
| Lieutenant Tautz | ||
| Second Lieutenant R. Hall | ||
| Second Lieutenant Ashcroft | ||
| Captain Matthew | | D Company. |
| Lieutenant Howarth | ||
| Second Lieutenant Holmes | ||
| Second Lieutenant Brown | ||
The next five days were spent in cleaning up and bathing—a ceremony in which a whole Company filed into an old building labelled “Divisional Baths,” handed in their underclothing, stood in tubs under a trickle of warm water and washed as best they might, receiving “clean” clothes in return, and came away cleaner and fresher men. The inverted commas in the last sentence are a tribute to the longevity and indestructibility of the louse, or “chat,” and her eggs; no process was ever discovered by which they could be extirpated, except “handpicking.” (Some people may think this reference a little indelicate, but this is a truthful record.)
The usual nightly working parties went up the line, until, on the 24th, we relieved the 1/4th King’s Own in the WIELTJE Sector. A and D Companies were in the front line, C Company in support in “New X Line,” and B in reserve, Battalion Headquarters being at POTIJZE CHATEAU.
The relief started badly, a “Minnie” strafe during the morning having blown in the front line in several places, incidentally blowing a Company Commander out of his dugout; the strafing went on all afternoon, but luckily ceased at dusk, and the relief passed off without incident.
This sector was a distinct improvement on RAILWAY WOOD. The Hun was about 400 yards away, and there was consequently hardly any trench mortar activity and no mining, but the wire was thin, the drainage bad, and the Company Headquarters mere shanties, while most of the sentry posts had to make shift with a groundsheet for sleeping accommodation, the old traverses and dugouts having been knocked in and never repaired. The reserve Company in CONGREVE WALK was more comfortable, being well hidden in dead ground, and their trench was clean and dry—a nice change after their tour in the worst bit of RAILWAY WOOD.