That morning we marched to Braine, and there we entrained for what we all thought was going to be a rest, but really proved to be a harder task than anything we had had before.
CHAPTER VI
THE FIRST BATTLE OF YPRES
CHAPTER VI
THE FIRST BATTLE OF YPRES
From the Aisne we travelled in the usual fashion, thirty-six to forty in a horse-box, viâ St. Denis to Boulogne, where we stopped until 3 p.m. on the Sunday afternoon of October the eighteenth. As usual, many rumours were afloat, the strongest being that we were going on garrison duty to some quiet little place, to pick up strength once more. That quiet little place turned out to be Ypres! The reason of our stoppage in Boulogne was that a train in front of us, also a troop train, had met with an accident; seventeen men had been killed: so we had to wait whilst the line was being cleared. We were supposed to stay with the train, but a good many men went into the town. Consequently the train moved off suddenly, leaving one hundred men and three Officers behind in Boulogne. They eventually joined us, each man receiving fourteen days Number One Field punishment.