One thing which impressed us during our stay in Bac St. Maur was the very pronounced salient in which we were living. At night this was very marked, as in whichever direction you turned Véry lights could be seen in your rear. So striking, in fact, was this that a soldier of another battalion, somewhat the worse for drink, came up to Lieutenant Sutherland one evening, and, pointing to those Véry lights rising well behind our backs, inquired in a confidential manner: "Can you tell me, sir, if that is the same war as we are taking part in?"
On March 17th our first draft of officers, three in number, arrived—2nd-Lieutenants McWilliam, Fell, and Hodgkinson. Of these McWilliam had been badly wounded in 1915 while serving as a sergeant in the 1/6th K.L.R. As against this access of strength we had to set the loss of a sergeant and a number of men who had to be sent as bridge guard to Estaires, and whose return, when we had ceased to be in Divisional Reserve for some months, was only effected after a very lengthy correspondence. Sergeant Webster was also dispatched on traffic control duty, at which work he remained till the end.
We had thought in England that we knew something about men being employed on extra-regimental duty, but the few we had so employed there was a trifle to the host supplied by us in France. Corps, Divisional and Brigade clerks, area sanitary men, Divisional Baths employees, cooks and servants at Formation Headquarters, traffic control, A.S.C. loaders, men loaned to trench-mortar and machine-gun companies, gum-boot store-keepers, tramway men, men employed at Corps Rest Camps, N.C.O. instructors at schools, and Heaven knows what else, continued to be a steady drain on the battalion. Vacancies for courses, too, came pouring in; and when you consider the number of cooks, transport drivers, clerks, police, storemen, etc., who are required for every battalion's own use, it will be clear enough that the number left in platoons and sections for ordinary duty was very small.
Our time in reserve was now drawing to a close, and it appeared that on March 29th we were due to relieve the 2/5th South Lancashire Regiment in the Rue du Bois sector north of (and next but one to) La Boutillerie, the Fleurbaix trenches. The usual procedure followed. We (i.e., the Commanding Officer and Adjutant) set off one morning and rode along the road to Erquinghem, where we turned off to the right and called at La Rolanderie, a pleasant farmhouse with some extra Nissen huts, the Headquarters of the 172nd Brigade, the present tenants of the sector. From there, after the usual discussion about the enemy and the disadvantages and peculiarities of our new sector, we proceeded viâ Gris Pot and La Vesée to a junction of roads a few hundred yards south of the latter place. Here the horses were left, and inadvertently our tin helmets, which were hanging from our saddles, and we proceeded on foot. The country was flat and depressing. Tattered screens stood here and there masking the roads. An occasional section of guns hidden in old houses; a runner or two riding along the pavé on that invention of the devil an army cycle; an artillery officer and his signallers making for a forward observation post—those were the only signs of life. All the houses were untenanted, which was to be regretted, as piquant advertisements testified to the excellence of Pierre Les Cornez beer!
In the background behind the German front line the slopes of the famous Aubers Ridge, the barrier that blocked the road to Lille, rose steadily to a height of more than fifty metres, almost a mountain-range in this flat country, giving the enemy a very fine view of all our activities. Passing Billet and Ration Farms, which bristled with R.E. material and salvage, we crossed a duck-board bridge and struck the subsidiary line of the Bois Grenier sector on the immediate right of the Rue du Bois. We plodded steadily along the duck-board track till Desolanque Farm (or Deplanque Farm, as its real name is: the official map is wrong), the usual ruin surrounded by a rectangular moat, appeared in view. The subsidiary line ran about fifty yards in front of this, and close up against it, in a long concrete dug-out, were the Battalion Headquarters that we were seeking. Down the steps into this dug-out we descended with more haste than dignity, as the enemy selected this particular moment to send a shower of "whizz-bangs" into the farm, just skimming the top of the dug-out. In the narrow stairway we met the Commanding Officer, full of wrath. "Whizz-bangs" generally meant that too many people were wandering about in the vicinity of the farm, and strict orders had been issued to prevent this. It is extraordinary how insensible to danger the average man soon becomes, and the most reasonable orders for the protection of life are ignored or disregarded unless very strictly enforced.
The Headquarters consisted of a very long concrete passage with five small rooms opening on to it—the mess, two sleeping rooms, a signal office, and the Adjutant's office and sleeping room combined. All the rooms were small and required artificial light, and a general feeling of chilly damp prevailed everywhere. We arranged ourselves as best we could in the mess; but we were all crowded together in a space far too small for the number of occupants, and the table was covered with maps, defence schemes, aeroplane photographs, and the usual litter of a trench headquarters, not to mention box respirators, tin helmets, and other impedimenta which are hastily doffed on entering a dug-out.
RUE DE BOIS SECTOR.
It appeared that the artillery observers had decided that the Germans were registering, and a sketch map that was produced showed the area which it was presumed they intended to raid. Colonel Bates, of the 2/5th South Lancashire Regiment, was rather contemptuous of the whole thing, and ascribed the apparent registration to mere casual shooting on various targets. But, at any rate, the matter had to be attended to, although the expected raid never took place. The line was held with three companies in the front and support lines, and two in the subsidiary line, the additional company being supplied by another battalion. The total frontage was about 2,800 yards, and to cover this a system of "gaps" and "localities" had been arranged—i.e., a series of posts covering vital points of the line. The "gaps" were ordinary but unoccupied trenches, often derelict; but they were usually wired and made difficult to penetrate.