We now discovered that we were leaving Flanders again and returning to Armentières, a very unexpected piece of news. We also discovered that we were to go by road, which, in fine cold weather, appeared quite a pleasant prospect. However, a thaw, followed by a frost, rather altered our opinion, and when we moved off at 8.30 a.m. on December 29th from Canada area, close to Proven, we found it almost impossible to stand, and even more impossible to march. We moved off, therefore, with many a slip and fall; but the only serious disaster was an accident to the officers' mess-cart, resulting in a broken shaft and a very long delay to that most valuable portion, from the officers' point of view, of the transport. Our camps, which we did not find without considerable difficulty, were called Poodle and Pitchett, and were both most wretched affairs, with indifferent tents set amid a wilderness of snow. The Medical Officer, Lieutenant Gordon, a newly arrived American, reached the camp in a state of considerable exhaustion. Imagining that he was to ride, he had donned an immense fleece-lined overcoat which reached to his ankles. Riding, of course, was an impossibility, and being somewhat new to marching, he had suffered considerably, but he bore his affliction with the utmost good humour.
The next day (December 30th) we moved on again. The weather, from being bright and frosty, was now raw and damp, with a partial thaw. As our road lay over the Mont des Cats and past Meteren, the conditions were particularly trying, and everyone was thoroughly tired when we reached billets at Berthen. Here companies were widely scattered, and the billets of a very varying quality.
The next day we resumed our march, and this was the most trying of all. The road was frozen again and intensely slippery. We moved as a Brigade, and, owing to a misunderstanding, no proper halts occurred for the first two hours, which was a thoroughly bad arrangement, especially under the existing conditions. After passing through Bailleul we eventually arrived at 1.45 p.m., at Hollebeque Camp, near Steenwerck, just vacated by the Australians. It is worth recording that throughout these three trying days not a single man fell out and not a single vehicle failed to complete the journey. Hollebeque Camp, for a summer camp, would have been quite pleasant. In winter it was very far from comfortable. It was composed of one big block of Nissen huts for the men, while on the other side of the field stood a row of similar huts for the officers. A large number of the huts had been stripped of their wooden linings for firewood; they were badly put together and draughty beyond words; and there was an almost complete absence of any of the normal furniture of camps, such as lamps, tables, etc., nor were these readily procurable. However, beyond finding it extremely cold, we had little time to worry, as next evening we relieved the 36th Battalion A.I.F. in our old Houplines sector. As far as Erquinghem the route was more or less new, but from then onward it was very familiar both to officers and men. It was a queer sensation picking up the old landmarks and noting the changes. Armentières looked very strange and ghostly in the moonlight, and the silence of absolute desolation was accentuated by the deep snow. Silently we passed through the deserted streets; everything seemed uncannily quiet after the noise and excitement that had been everyday features of our last spell in this city. Not a shot was fired as we moved along that "unhealthy" stretch from Barbed Wire Square to Tissage Dump, and we felt that the enemy must be saving up for some tremendous show, as he was at the moment so inactive.
The moonlight and our knowledge of the ground together made short work of the relief, which was complete at 8.30 p.m. The company sectors were allotted as follows: "A" on the right from London Road to fifty yards beyond Timaru, "B" from there to Edmeads Avenue, inclusive. "D" Company occupied the left, and "C" was in the subsidiary line.
We found the sector in its essential features very much as we had left it, except that considerable work had been expended on the subsidiary line, which now formed a very fine trench, with really good traverses. Except for that improvement, however, the sector generally had greatly deteriorated. The principle of gaps and localities, which had always tended to the neglect of the rest of the trenches, had now reduced the latter to a lamentable state of disrepair. The number of posts in the front line was only seven, and these of a very miserable description from the defensive point of view. Such lateral connecting trenches as had existed had been allowed to fall in, and in the case of the two left posts communication even from the rear was difficult at night and precarious by day. No wire worth speaking of had been erected to defend these isolated spots, and altogether the sector presented no very satisfactory appearance. The left area between No. 7 Post and the River Lys, being frozen hard, presented a perfectly good concealed approach for the enemy, and nothing had been done to deal with this exposed flank.
The garrison of the subsidiary line consisted of three companies, two being found by the battalion in support.
Our first tour in the line proved of the quietest. A few "pineapples" from the enemy, a few 6-inch mortars from us, and an occasional shell, made up the daily round. On January 6th we received urgent demands from the authorities for an identification, and two patrols were sent out to try and effect this. Of these, Lieutenant Burton's party got right into the German wire opposite Hobbs Farm before they were spotted, when they had to beat a hasty retreat under considerable fire from machine guns and "pineapples." The other patrol was equally unlucky. In the meantime a deserter had very considerately given himself up to No. 1 Post ("A" Company). He was a Prussian, but recently transferred to the division opposite us. He was understood to have complained that he had considerable difficulty in finding anyone in the sector to whom he might surrender. As he had brought the whole of his kit with him, his solitary peregrination of our sector may well have been tiring. However, Division sent a car to take him down, which rather tactlessly ran into a ditch, nearly killing our valuable "find" and his escort as well.
On January 7th we were relieved by the 2/7th K.L.R., and the battalion, after a somewhat complicated shuffle, found themselves holding the subsidiary line—"A" and "C" in Epinette, and "B" and "D" in Houplines sectors respectively. Battalion Headquarters moved out to billets by the Armentières Level Crossing on the Erquinghem road. One interesting innovation that may be mentioned here was the Pioneer Platoon, recently started under Lieutenant J. R. Paul, and then taken over by Lieutenant Jones. This consisted of about twenty men, and included the original pioneers and a number of other skilled men. It was their business to attend to all the minor construction work that promoted the comfort of the battalion, such as improving billets, making ovens, drying rooms, etc.; and in the line to carry out any special defensive work which required something more than ordinary care and skill. They were rather a drain on our fighting strength, but they more than justified their existence in a hundred different ways.
One or two changes had recently occurred also in officers. Lieutenant Gordon had been relieved by Captain Kidston as Medical Officer; Captain Eccles had returned from England and taken over "B" Company from Acting-Captain Broad; Acting-Captain Fell had now command of "D" Company; Lieutenant Burton was Battalion Scout Officer, Lieutenant Hazell Intelligence Officer, 2nd-Lieutenant Novelle Signalling Officer; 2nd-Lieutenant Brighouse had been wounded; and Lieutenant Adam returned to the 1/6th K.L.R., in exchange for Captain Eccles.