"Though the North Lancs pinched our billets, never mind!
We have slept in the fields before,
And we'll do the same as of yore,
So the North Lancs can have our billets—never mind!"
There we stayed six days, finding working parties, etc., and then we moved up to Annequin for three days in reserve. At Annequin there was a coal-pit, which was shelled each day and nearly every night, although the civilians still occupied it. The church, typical of churches in the French villages, came under the enemy's fire first. Just behind and in rear was an estaminet run by two French girls. How they could live there beats me, as there were three large shell-holes in the walls, and a corner had been knocked off the house. They had placed barrels filled with earth over these holes, and carried on business in the same old way, making quite a good living from the English troops billeted there. On Sunday afternoons they used to take walks with some French Officers around what was then the French section of the line; our line finished on the left of the La Bassée Road. We stayed here four days, and on the afternoon of May the twenty-fourth moved into the trenches, taking over from the King's Liverpools the right of La Bassée Road, originally occupied by the French. We found on this part of the line the trenches very good, with four lines of them, a front line, a support line, and a reserve, called Maison Rouge: there were three red-bricked houses in this line. Some of the dug-outs in this line were also splendid, containing beds and furniture brought by the French from the ruined village of Cambrin just behind. Whilst we were here the enemy blew up a mine, but we had few casualties. In this village we had our Transport 1st Line, and also the Brigade Office. The Germans were quite eight hundred yards from us, and in between the two lines was an aeroplane, English or French, which had been hit and brought down by the enemy. On several occasions we went out at night to try to bring it in; but we found the engine had been buried too far in the ground, and all we could do was to take away parts. One day I watched a man go out in broad daylight collecting German helmets.
We were relieved on the twenty-eighth by the Regiment which we had relieved four days before, the 9th King's Liverpools; and we returned to our old billets at Annequin. Around this sector of the line we were well backed by the famous French 75 gun.
On June the first we relieved the 9th King's Liverpools from trenches at the brickfields at Quinchy. They had been moved from the trenches on the right of La Bassée Road during our time of reserve to those at the brickfields. We had a rough time here for three days: the enemy exploded two mines, which sent up the largest part of one of our Companies (C Company) with them. We were also much nearer the enemy than before, and were continually bombed.
On the fourth we were relieved, and proceeded to Bethune, where we were billeted in a school. The very first night we were again shelled. We spent seven days here, enjoying the luxury of a large swimming-bath.
On June the eleventh we left for Cambrin to relieve the 1st Brigade, and put two Companies in reserve on the left of the road and in rear of Quinchy and one on the right of the road at Maison Rouge, one Company being in billets at Cambrin. At Maison Rouge we had a transmitting station to the King's Royal Rifles, and from the 2nd Brigade Headquarters, the King's Royal Rifles occupying the front line on the right of the road, nicknamed "Bomb Alley," on account of its being so near the enemy and continually under bombardment. We used sentries on each traverse to look out for bombs: on seeing one coming and at what position it would be likely to drop, the sentry would yell out "Bomb right," or "Bomb left," as the case might be, when the men would at once clear to the opposite direction.
On June the fourteenth we were relieved by the 2nd Division, and left for Bethune, where we went into Corps reserve for four days.
On the seventeenth we left Bethune for La Pugnoy, there to rest: whilst here we received a draft of 183 Officers and men who had been transferred from a service Battalion of the Manchesters, on account of the shortage of our own reinforcements at the feeding Battalion then at Felixstowe.
On the twenty-seventh we marched to Cambrin, a distance of about sixteen miles, having our dinner on the road in a thunderstorm; and, on entering the trenches, we received a welcome from the Herts Territorials, who had decorated the fire-step with pieces of chalk (these trenches were of a chalky nature), out of small pieces of which they had built the words: "Welcome to Kitchener's Army." Fancy what the reading of that meant to us men, some of whom had been through the war since the very commencement! We did indeed feel grateful, and we had cause to be so, as we were supposed to have gone back to La Pugnoy for a Divisional rest and were expecting at least a month, whereas we got only three days of it. Whilst at La Pugnoy several Brigades of Kitchener's Army had passed through us and the 1st Division, those of which occupied the trenches at the time expected to get relieved by them. However, we had to go, and we were shelled pretty heavily here; we had three Companies in the front line, and D Company in reserve. On July the fourth we were relieved from the trenches, after having been in them for six days, and we returned to Salle-la-Bourse. We had then taken over trenches in front of Vermelles, and, after spending a few days at Salle-la-Bourse, we journeyed two kilometres to Noyelles; from there, four days afterwards, we again occupied the trenches for eight days. During this time operations were very calm, and all around the district one could see for some considerable distance—from Vermelles one could see the "Tower Bridge" at Loos; and I often used to gaze at it and wonder when it would become our property, little thinking that my hope would be realized within a couple of months. We did another few days in the trenches, and then went back to Verquin, near Bethune. The observation balloon used to go up here at the back of the village, and on several occasions the enemy shelled it, but never succeeded in hitting it.
On July the twentieth we were again at Noyelles, and on the twenty-third of that month I obtained leave for the purpose of proceeding to England for eight days, after having been on active service for a period of nearly twelve months. I had nearly ten miles to walk, fully equipped, to the railway station to get my train. I need not describe my brief visit home; needless to say I enjoyed myself never better in my life.