On the 5th the Lewis gun detachments with their handcarts were inspected by the Divisional Commander; he caused great mirth by wheeling a handcart violently at a ditch, to demonstrate how easily the shafts broke! At this time the Lewis gun was in a transition stage and the favourite toy of the staff; it was finding its feet as a Company weapon, and masses of orders about it were coming in every day, to the joy(?) of all concerned.
On the 6th we returned to YPRES, and on the 7th relieved the 1/6th King’s Liverpool Regiment in RAILWAY WOOD, where we were badly shelled the following day, six men being wounded. This relief was accomplished without a casualty, although Platoons had some narrow escapes. We were singularly lucky that way; we were always hearing that such and such a Battalion had had a Platoon blown to bits in the Square, but it never happened to us; if an Officer lost men by taking a known dangerous road when a safer was available, it was not counted unto him for righteousness!
On the 8th the enemy shelled us all day, especially BEEK TRENCH and BATTALION HEADQUARTERS, and six men were wounded; the 9th was quieter—one man wounded.
On the 10th, after a quiet morning, our artillery bombarded enemy lines opposite B Company, who had their Company Headquarters blown in in the retaliation which followed—no casualty.
After a quiet day on the 11th, the Battalion was relieved on the 12th, except A Company, by the 1/4th KING’S OWN, A Company being left behind to do a special job—wiring in close support and support lines—the rest going back to YPRES, whence they provided the usual nightly working parties till the 16th, when they were relieved by the 12th ROYAL SUSSEX REGIMENT and marched to P Camp north of POPERINGHE. The next day we marched to ROUSSEL FARM, about a mile east of ELVERDINGHE, the Drums, recently re-formed, playing on the march for the first time. A Company turned up, dead beat, at 5 a.m. Second Lieutenant Faber went sick from sheer overwork; as Lewis gun Officer he had tried to do everything himself and broke down. We were sorry to lose such an excellent Officer.
During the next few days, except when snowed off, a party of nine Officers and 300 Other Ranks, under Captain Houghton, was employed daily in making the formation for doubling a railway track, supervised by an R.E. Officer. As our party included a Civil Engineer, a Railway Engineer, and a Municipal Engineer, there was enough technical skill to have laid the whole railway! During this period another party, D Company under Captain Matthew, were repairing dugouts in CANAL BANK, YPRES, and after the first day were billeted there to save marching.
On the 22nd Captain Harris returned to the Battalion and took over the Bombing Company, an experimental organisation which did valuable work during its short existence. We were glad to leave this place with its thin huts (the weather was bitter) and march to D Camp on the 23rd, where, on the 24th, we were inspected by the Army Commander, General Sir Herbert Plumer.
On the 1st February our shooting team were winners in the inter-Battalion competition and were chosen to represent the Brigade. On the 3rd we were relieved in D Camp by the 1/5th NORTH LANCASHIRE REGIMENT, marched to POPERINGHE, and trained to BOLLEZEELE.
The train was a sort of miniature affair, and the railway ran, mostly by the roadside, at about three miles an hour. What a treat it was to get out of the sound of the guns for a bit, and to be in a pleasant little Flemish town, outwardly untouched by war! It consisted of a cheerful-looking market square lined with small shops, with a Church in the middle—quite a treat to see a Church untouched by shells—with a sort of openwork spire, to let out the sound of the carillons which played every hour and half-hour; how sweetly and peacefully it floated out over the open country on a still, frosty night! There was also a good inn, the “Lion d’Or,” known as the “Brass Cat!” The men were mostly billeted in enormous barns; the Officers in houses round the square. Here, it was rumoured, we were to have a month’s rest, but no one believed it; we actually got 16 days.