Meanwhile officers and N.C.Os. proceeded daily to Sailly area, not only to explore the defences, but to seek out a suitable place for a training ground for a raiding party, to be composed of "A" and "C" Companies, under Captains Bowring and Williams.
On March 20th Regimental Sergeant-Major Smith left the battalion to join an Officers' Cadet Battalion, and in due course Regimental Quartermaster-Sergeant Heyworth took over the appointment.
The move to the Sailly area took place on the famous March 21st. We were quite unaware of the stirring events taking place farther south, though trouble was manifestly in the air. The route was viâ Neuf Berquin and Estaires, and our main interest was whether the enemy would or would not shell the road. Fortunately, he did not. We left at 8.15 a.m., and arrived in time for dinner. The 7th Royal Sussex Regiment marched out as we marched in.
Immediately on arrival companies proceeded to occupy for instruction their various defensive positions. In addition to this, the Brigade might, as an alternative, be called upon to occupy a defensive position in rear of the 2nd Portuguese Division, or the line Cockshy House—Laventie Post, etc. Officers had to be despatched to these to learn the emergency routes.
These posts, like the Sailly bridgehead defences, were mostly incomplete, and much work would have been required from the occupants in the short time that would have elapsed before an advancing enemy had come to grips with them. The Sailly defences had a fair reserve of ammunition, but no rations or water.
The next day a working party of 100 men was digging feverishly in the neighbourhood of Fleurbaix, while "A" and "C" Companies were marking out the trace of the practice trenches for their raid.
On March 23rd we received orders that we were to take over our old Fleurbaix sector, and officers proceeded thither accordingly. In the afternoon the final of the Inter-Battalion Football Competition took place between No. 5 Platoon of "B" Company and a platoon of the 2/7th K.L.R., which the former won by three goals to nil.
On March 25th "all leave and courses cancelled" was received, and rumours of doings in the south became more persistent. The local civilians were also becoming frightened, and carts full of refugees streamed along the roads leading to the rear. The Germans shelled Sailly at night occasionally, but did no real damage.
Word now came that the 12th Division, which had taken our place in reserve, had been rushed south, and we found ourselves with the possibility before us of not only reinforcing the Portuguese, but of holding Sailly bridgehead at the same time. Nothing however, happened, and on the evening of March 26th we relieved the 1/5th Loyal North Lancashire Regiment in our old Fleurbaix sector. All maps and schemes, we found, had been destroyed, and the imminence of an attack, though less acute than a day or so previously, still appeared a matter for serious consideration. Wye Farm we found transformed into a magnificent and palatial pill-box, while others were dotted about the country. The sector also extended farther north than it had done when we previously held it.