On Sunday the tenth there was a terrible bombardment, and seven men of each Company volunteered to capture an enemy's machine-gun advanced post, which was taken very successfully, with only slight casualties and some prisoners.
Monday the eleventh and Tuesday the twelfth were very quiet, with the exception of a bombardment each day.
On Wednesday the thirteenth I left the Regiment early in the morning, and proceeded to Annequin, a small village just behind Cambrin, there to find billets. We found a draft awaiting us there of four hundred and eighty N.C.O.'s and men and three Officers, and the Regiment was then relieved by the 2nd Royal Sussex, going to Annequin for rest, and staying there the next two days.
On Saturday the sixteenth we fell in, in the afternoon, to return to the trenches; but before we went the Brigadier gave us a few words, saying: "To-morrow, Sunday, January the seventeenth, is the Kaiser's birthday, so be on your guard, as we are expecting an attack in honour of it." This attack did not mature: the day was one of the quietest I had experienced in the trenches. A mistake had been made: the Kaiser's birthday is the twenty-seventh of January.
On Monday the eighteenth we were again relieved by the 2nd Royal Sussex, and returned to Annequin.
Tuesday the nineteenth we spent in resting, going into the trenches again on Wednesday the twentieth, again relieving the 2nd Royal Sussex, who took our billets at Annequin.
On Thursday the twenty-first the whole Brigade was relieved by the 1st Brigade; we went to Bethune, where the 1st Brigade had just completed eight days' rest. I was then on the staff of billeting orderlies, and helped to find billets at that town. It was a very unenviable berth, as the majority of French people objected to have soldiers billeted on them, and our Officers were often very dissatisfied with the billets we found for them. We settled down to what we thought was to be an eight-days' rest; but early on Monday morning, January the twenty-fifth, the enemy began to shell Bethune—the first occasion on which it was shelled. The Brigade got the order to stand to, and moved out of Bethune once more for the trenches, after having had only three days' rest out of our eight. The report was circulated that the enemy had broken through on the right of La Bassée canal, at the brickfields at Quinchy. It was true; they had got as far as Quinchy church, and had penetrated the village itself, only to be blown back by the fierceness of our artillery fire, after which we delivered a counter-attack, going up in support to the Highland Light Infantry 5th Brigade 2nd Division, who were then operating around that district in conjunction with the 1st Division, and also in reserve to the 3rd Brigade. We did not on this occasion succeed in retaking all our old trenches; we lost one of the three the enemy had succeeded in taking, and we lost one brick-stack. Our armoured train was in action, and did great work in keeping the enemy back whilst reinforcements were brought up; but we were unfortunate in losing the engine-driver, a Belgian, who stopped a fragment of shell with his head: the naval men in charge of the train buried him with honours, firing the last volley over his grave. That night we returned to Beuvry, and stood to in case of another assault.
On Tuesday, January the twenty-sixth, we had an unfortunate experience. It took place at the time when the Regiment was holding orderly room. Nearly all the Company Officers and N.C.O.'s were attending, besides the C.O., Adjutant, Machine-Gun Officer, Regimental Sergeant-Major, Pioneer Sergeant, Signalling Sergeant, Police Sergeant—in fact, every one of note in the Regiment. There were also a number of men waiting to be told off for various crimes; and they were holding this office in a farmyard, on hard cobbled stones, when a shell of large calibre dropped amongst them, killing and wounding close on forty Officers and men. The C.O. and Adjutant had a marvellous escape, as the shell dropped at the foot of the table without injuring either of them, whilst most of the prominent Officers and N.C.O.'s were killed, as well as three who held Distinguished Conduct Medals. That afternoon we returned to Quinchy, D Company going in support to the 2nd Royal Sussex.
On Wednesday the twenty-seventh we went into the trenches, taking up bombs in readiness for an attack. It was then 8.30 p.m. We found that the keep, the first two brick-stacks, had now become our firing line.
We did not commence the attack until 4 a.m. on Thursday the twenty-eighth, and succeeded in driving the enemy out with bombs, but returned to our old line of trenches, where we received some casualties. During that day we returned to Cambrin to billets in reserve to the Sussex and Northamptons.