HOUPLINES ROAD, LOOKING TOWARDS ARMENTIÈRES.
BOCHE FRONT LINE OPPOSITE LEFT SECTOR, HOUPLINES. FRELINGHIEN IN BACKGROUND AND RIVER LYS IN FLOOD.
On September 2nd the battalion—and it was a complete battalion now—relieved the 2/7th K.L.R. in La Boutillerie: "A" Company on the right, "B" in the centre, "D" on the left, and "C" in the subsidiary line. Headquarters were situated at Foray House. This latter spot had been heavily shelled on August 21st when the Portuguese held the line, the intention of the Germans, according to the Portuguese official report, being "to disorganize the Battalion Staff for future operations"; which laudable object, the report naively added, "was attained by 10 a.m., at which time the orderly-room, kitchen mess, and orderlies' dug-outs were damaged." However, as far as we were concerned, the enemy took very little interest in us, and the time was exceptionally quiet. Moreover, the weather had turned fine and warm again, which made life pleasant as well as peaceful. The left sector occasionally received attention in the form of trench mortar shooting, which, we remembered, was characteristic of that corner of France, but it was not sufficient to cause any serious results.
On September 5th, to the great delight of the overworked remnant of officers, a draft of thirteen fresh ones arrived—Carr, Eupen, Harper, T. W. Jones, Lever, Novelle, Profit, Broad, Roberts, Robinson, Rycroft, Upward, and T. L. Williams. This was a great accession of power, as in the matter of men the battalion was already up to a good fighting strength. But there was still much to be done. Specialists had to be trained, N.C.Os. to be selected, and the general process of amalgamating and consolidating the new material so recently come together to be perfected. A new Quartermaster, Lieutenant Jackson, also reported for duty at this time.
The tour in the line ended on September 10th, when the 2/7th K.L.R. once more took over from us, and one platoon per company took charge of the four strong points in the subsidiary line. The only incident in the latter part of the tour was the attempt of a strong patrol of the enemy to round up a patrol of four men from our battalion. The effort was made with determination, and eventually our patrol had to scatter. All reached our line safely, but three of them were wounded in the fight.
On September 11th Colonel Fletcher returned from hospital, and the work of organizing and training the battalion was renewed with the greatest energy. Specialist classes both for officers and N.C.Os. were soon hard at work; while for the companies, now so very much changed in their personnel, general training, inspections, close order drill, and all other approved methods for increasing knowledge and morale were in full swing.
Meanwhile rumours of a move to a rest area had long been rife. The Division had now been doing trench duty continuously for seven months, and it was quite time that it was taken away for a general overhaul. During all those months we had been kept more or less continuously in the trenches, with no opportunity to improve on the lessons learnt, and nothing to inspire our men to increase their efficiency, beyond the regular round of eight days in reserve and eight days in the line. Already the ordinary wastage of trench warfare, not to mention the disaster of Armentières, had deprived us of many of our best N.C.Os. and men. We had, in fact, lost as many men as if we had been in a battle, but there was not that feeling of satisfaction, such as results from a successful push, to animate the remainder. However that may be, the theory that we were going out to rest grew steadily, and for once proved correct. The idea of a "rest" was not in itself particularly attractive, except that it meant freedom from shell fire, permission to give up wearing the box-respirator, and other little relaxations of that description. As a "rest" in the ordinarily accepted sense of the word, it had long since been discovered to be a fraud, being, in fact, a period of intense activity. Still, it was a change, and possibly meant that the Division would thereafter be required for work a little more stimulating than trench warfare.
On September 16th we were relieved by the 15th Welch, and proceeded to Neuf Berquin viâ Estaires, a distance of seven or eight miles, under a very hot sun. After a day's quiet training here, we handed over our billets to the 4/5th Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, and set off to L'Ecleme on September 18th. The Brigade marched as such, the battalion starting at 8.20 a.m., and passing the Brigade starting-point at 10 a.m. The route led round the southern outskirts of Merville, and thence viâ Calonne and Robecq. Our billets were in L'Ecleme, a little hamlet about a mile south-east of Busnes. The morning proved cloudy, which made marching pleasant; and, thanks to our early start, we were in by midday.
Next day we were on the move again for our final destination, St. Hilaire. On the way we passed through the comparatively large town of Lillers, and then the village of Bourecq. The country, from being as flat as could be conceived, now became pleasantly undulating and very pretty, especially to eyes tired of the lifeless monotony of Northern France. St. Hilaire itself is a delightful little village, consisting of one long winding street with several little side streets running off it. Billets were, on the whole, good, and you felt at once the relief of being able to move without a box-respirator and steel helmet. Thoughts of war vanished for the moment; the mind was occupied with the pleasant rural scenes and the air of quiet industry that pervaded the spot, so different from the wear and tear of war, and so infinitely refreshing.