On the night of the 12th the French Territorials arrived, and took over the trenches of the 2nd Battalion Grenadiers. Though a sturdy lot of men, they had not exactly the inches of a Guardsman, and so found great difficulty in reaching the loopholes, with the result that alterations had to be made all along the line.
Oct. 13.
Next morning at about 1 A.M. the Battalion marched by way of St. Mard and Vauxcéré to Perles, where it went into billets at a big farm, and had its first real rest out of the range of shell-fire for a very long while. It was generally thought that when the Germans discovered the change which was being made they would send a few high-explosive shells well to the rear of the trenches to catch the retiring troops. But as it happened, the enemy were far too busy with their own movements to pay any attention to what was going on in front, and the Battalion marched away unmolested.
Oct. 14.
It started off again at 4 o'clock on the 14th and marched to Fismes, where it was to entrain for the north. After the usual long wait for the transport it got off at 7.30. The men were very closely packed, thirty-five or forty having to be put into each small covered truck, so that there was hardly room even to sit down. Through Paris, Beauvais, Amiens, Étaples, and Calais the train slowly wandered on, and finally the Battalion reached Hazebrouck at 7 o'clock next morning.
CHAPTER VI
THE FIRST BATTLE OF YPRES (1ST BATTALION)
1st Batt. Sept. 1914.
Meanwhile the 1st Battalion Grenadiers remained at Warley until September 1914. In the middle of the month the Seventh Division was formed, and the 1st Battalion Grenadiers was sent to Lyndhurst, near Southampton, where the Division was assembling, and placed in the 20th Brigade.
Major-General T. Capper, C.B., D.S.O., commanded the Division, which was composed as follows:
20th Infantry Brigade. Brigadier-General H. G. Ruggles-Brise,