(c) Halloy.
Halloy was one of the worst places for billeting in the whole of France. The barns were mostly in a bad state of repair. The hutment camps were exceptionally muddy. The inhabitants of the village were far from sweet-tempered, as a general rule. To make matters worse, it seemed to be the invariable custom of the British authorities to crowd far more troops into the place than it could reasonably be expected to hold. The weather was not particularly bad for the time of the year, but December is never an ideal month. Hence the conditions, under which the Christmas of 1916 was spent, were none of the best.
There was not a great deal of training. Occasional battalion route marches were held, but the companies attempted little except specialist training. No. 5 Platoon of B Company won the 147th Infantry Brigade Platoon Competition; but it was not successful when it represented the Brigade in the 49th Divisional Competition. Towards the end of the time at Halloy, large working parties had to be provided for unloading stores at Mondicourt Railhead. Several large drafts of men arrived to replace the wastage of the previous autumn, and, by the beginning of January, the Battalion’s “paper” strength was over 1,000 other ranks.
The chief event was Christmas Day. Great preparations were made as usual. A motor lorry was obtained to fetch additional supplies from Amiens. Cpl. F. Smith was, of course, very much to the fore; Sergt. Lockwood rose to the occasion, as he always did at that season of the year. Dinner accommodation was a difficulty. Only one suitable room, at an estaminet, could be obtained, and that would only hold one company at a time. So the dinners started at noon and ran on right through the afternoon, the men sitting down in four company shifts. But everything went off well, the usual smoking concerts helped to pass the time, and the anniversary was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
(d) Berles.
On January 7th, the Battalion left Halloy, and, moving by march route, relieved the 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regt. in Brigade Reserve to the B1 Sub-sector. Battalion H.Q. and two companies were accommodated in the village of Berles; the other two companies were at Humbercamps. These were to be the dispositions of the Battalion for the rest of the month, whenever it was out of the line, except on one occasion when the whole went to Humbercamps. Though very much nearer the enemy—the village was only about a mile from the British front line—the troops at Berles were far more comfortable than those at Humbercamps. Parts of the village had been very little shelled. Quite a number of French civilians were still living there and a few small shops were open. There were many very comfortable billets in private houses, some of which still contained a good deal of furniture; and the men were not at all crowded. Here and there extensive tunnels had been dug in the hard chalk, and to these the men had orders to retire if the enemy started shelling. Working parties had to be provided as usual, but these could be borne with ease in such comfortable surroundings.
The Battalion first took over the B1 Sub-sector on January 10th. Its dispositions were somewhat peculiar. The front line was divided into three company sectors, but one platoon was drawn from each to form a composite company, in reserve at Battalion H.Q. The fourth company lived in extremely comfortable billets in the village, where it was in reserve if needed; but it was mainly employed on working parties. Seldom has part of a battalion in the line been more comfortably off.
The sector was in an awful state. Laterally, each company was completely isolated from its neighbours by absolutely derelict trench. Long stretches of the communication trenches were deep in water, while portions of the front line fairly beggar description. It had been very badly constructed; in some places the revetments had bulged so much that there was scarcely room to force one’s way along the trench; elsewhere, the sides had collapsed altogether, and the trench was nothing but a cavity, filled with mud and debris. The pumps were kept constantly at work, but were quite inadequate to deal with the water. So bad was the front line on the left company front that, during the moonless nights of the first tour, it took the subaltern on duty two hours to walk once each way along the line—and yet the company sector was only about two hundred yards in length. But the men stood it well. Kitchens, similar to those at Hannescamps, provided plenty of hot food; and thigh-boots were available for all.
Artillery was fairly active on both sides. The vicinity of Battalion H.Q. received most attention and several casualties were suffered near there, the chief being R.S.M. T. Glover, who was wounded in the arm by a shell splinter. There was also a certain amount of trench mortar fire, particularly on the right, where the lines were not more than eighty yards apart; indeed, at one point, only about forty yards separated the saps of the opposing troops. The British had a heavy trench mortar which occasionally fired on the enemy defences, opposite to the left company. Owing to doubts as to the accuracy of this infernal machine, it was customary to clear a portion of the front line while it was firing. Certainly it produced most terrific explosions, and it provoked a good deal of retaliation until, one day, a “premature” destroyed not only the gun but the whole of the team which was working it.
Towards the end of the month an exceptionally hard frost began. Quickly, all the mud and water froze hard, and sheets of ice covered the bottoms of many trenches. Snow fell and the ground became white. It froze on the trench grids, making them so slippery that it was almost impossible to walk without sandbags tied over the boots. The change in the weather had its advantages as well as its disadvantages, and probably the former outweighed the latter. Iron-hard ground was a great improvement on the awful mud; ice was better than water; and the weather was dry. But the lot of the sentry was most unenviable. To stand on the fire-step, in the face of a biting north-easterly wind, with the thermometer registering as much as 28 degrees of frost, was a terrible task. Everything possible was done. Hot drink and rum were provided. Section commanders actually put their men through some of the exercises in bayonet fighting and physical drill in the front line. But the weather of early 1917 will not be forgotten by those who were in the trenches at that time.