EDITORIAL ADDRESS "CHEERIO" 7 MINE SHAFT Ave FIFTEEN INCH LANE DUG OUT CITY
A SOUVENIR FOR FRITZ
Our idea of a long "rest" had become suddenly dispelled by the news that in a day or two at the latest we were to go into the line somewhere north of Bethune. To be frank, no one was particularly elated by this intelligence. If we were to be in the line, we preferred the clear, open country of the Cambrai area. It was impossible to be very enthusiastic at the prospect of floundering once again through mud and water in the dismal country of Northern France, with which we were already only too familiar and had no wish to renew our acquaintance. A conference for Commanding Officers at Barlin the next day revealed our new destination as Fromelles, and on the morning of October 15th the Quartermaster and other details proceeded thither at an early hour.
The battalion followed in busses at 6.45 a.m., and the transport set off at 10 a.m. Our route lay through the outskirts of Bethune and Locon—the former badly damaged, the latter, once a part of Corps Headquarters, the most completely demolished place it is possible to imagine. The mass of shell-holes in every direction testified to the severity of the shelling to which the country had been subjected during the recent push and counter-push.
At 11.30 a.m. the column halted at Pont du Hem; the men debussed and the vehicles drove off. Hardly had they gone when the Corps Commander, General Haking, drove up in a car and informed us that we were now to make for Laventie. This was some way off, and meanwhile our Quartermaster and billeting party were at Fromelles with the "cookers," while the transport were somewhere on the road between there and Ruitz. Needless to say, our bicycles were with the transport—an error never committed again—and two luckless runners had to be dispatched on foot with maps and hosts of directions to collect our details. We in the meantime set off for Laventie, where we arrived at 12.15. Few houses, if any, we found had any roofs worth speaking of; billeting, therefore, was not easy. The Irish and 2/7th K.L.R. were each given streets, and ourselves another; and into the forlorn and draughty houses we settled as best we could, waiting hungrily for our dinners, while the rain steadily descended. At 4.15 p.m., when hope had nearly been abandoned, the "cookers" were sighted, and the prospect of a hot meal soon restored us to our normal spirits.
After a very damp night—the orderly-room staff, who were installed in an old caravan, were the only people who kept really dry—we set off soon after 9 a.m. to march to Le Maisnil. The road wound along through the usual scenery of these parts, the beauty of which was by no means enhanced by the fact that our route lay through the old British and German trenches and across No Man's Land. As we climbed the hill which led to our destination, the thoroughness of the enemy was made very apparent by the remains of great pill-boxes, which he had blown to pieces in a most efficient fashion before his departure.
Our Headquarters were some old wooden huts, standing adjacent to what must have been a magnificent pill-box, to judge by the huge masses of concrete that lay about, some of these hurled to a considerable distance from the original site. The companies were a few hundred yards away in some old trenches, which possessed one pill-box still intact. As we moved in, the Munsters moved out.
At 2 p.m. the Commanding Officer, Adjutant, and Company Commanders rode up to the Headquarters of the Brigade in the line at Le Chateau de la Flandre, near Radinghem. After a short discussion the party proceeded on foot, accompanied by the Major-General commanding 47th Division, the Brigadier, and an Intelligence Officer. The route lay across open fields to the railway line by Erquinghem le Sec Railway Station, till recently the front line, and thence up a road to a small group of houses at a place prophetically called (from the war of 1870) Le Fin de la Guerre. Here a conference took place in a somewhat crowded cellar, the Headquarters of the 22nd Londons, while the enemy shelled the place with gas. It was arranged that we should arrive the next day, so as to begin the advance from the present front line at 9.30 a.m., those on the spot to supply us with the local position by means of fighting patrols to be sent out just before dawn.
We then retraced our steps to the Chateau, but did not delay there, as the enemy was using 5·9's freely, one of which shortly afterwards came within an ace of annihilating the Commanding Officer and Adjutant, and their groom.
On our return the arrangements for the morrow were completed. "C" and "D" Companies were to lead the advance, with "A" in support and "B" in reserve. Captain Eccles rejoined this day and took over "B" Company from Captain Kissan, who now assumed the duties of Intelligence Officer. This post had been vacant since Lieutenant Hazell had been sent to hospital with dysentery during the last days of the Battle of Cambrai, though his place had been temporarily filled by Lieutenant Lever.