All companies of the R.E. and of the 11th D.L.I. were kept working hard during the time spent in this sector, reclaiming the front line system and improving communications. The field companies, working in the areas of their brigades, constructed among other things extensive breastwork trenches in No Man’s Land and a large number of framed machine-gun emplacements with concrete head cover. The amount of work that was done by the R.E. and infantry is indicated by the fact that at one time an average of four tons of material was taken up to the line each night from the workshops and dumps of the 96th Field Company alone. The artillery did a great deal of work constructing new observation posts and improving communications and battery positions. The 11th D.L.I. were employed in digging and revetting trenches, putting out wire, making dug-outs and machine-gun emplacements, sinking wells, and repairing and relaying tramways. Later, in April, one company of the battalion was sent to each of the brigades in the front line, and a letter received from the C.R.E. on the 9th of the month especially praised the work of these companies.
The system of communications taken over by the Signal Company was in keeping with the general condition of the trenches. Shallow buried cables were found in the back areas and open cables forward of brigades. As these were continually being cut, the work of the company became increasingly difficult. The forward communication trenches were so overlooked from Pilckem Ridge that lines could not be mended in daytime. As subsidiary methods which were adopted in later times were not then used, the standard of communication was necessarily less high than it had been in the Laventie area.
The Germans renewed their activities on the extreme left of the line on the 19th, when they made another attack on F 34. This was now no more than a post, quite isolated and in a very exposed position, not more than 20 yards from a strongly held German trench, with which it was connected by a sap. It was held by one officer and 30 men of the 12th K.R.R.C., who had relieved the 12th R.B. four days before. About 4.30 P.M., after sweeping the parapet of F 34 with machine-gun fire, the Germans seem to have come up the sap from their own line and rushed the post. The S.O.S. call was sent, whereupon the artillery, assisted by the French, put down a barrage from the canal bank round trenches F 34 and 33, five batteries of the Divisional Artillery alone firing over 1200 rounds. Another party of the enemy—they were estimated at 200 in all—got in on the right of F 34 and also on the right of F 33, between which post and the next, F 30, there was a gap of 300 yards in dead ground where the intervening trenches had been destroyed. The N.C.O. and 12 men in F 33 were thus cut off, and all except one man were captured. The first intimation received that these men had been taken prisoner came from the German wireless communiqué. F 30 was then isolated. As the Divisional Commander decided that owing to the exposed position of the captured trenches no counter-attack should he made, the garrison of F 30 was ordered to withdraw.
On the 20th of February began a series of most successful artillery bombardments, which were carried out daily up to the 25th, and continued after that date at frequent intervals as long as the Division remained in this sector.
These bombardments produced retaliation from the German guns and trench mortars, which did a good deal of damage to our positions. Infantry action was confined to patrols which were frequently out and did good work.
Meanwhile, on the 18th of February, the Division had received orders to extend the line to the right, taking over as far as Pratt Street, just north-west of Wieltje Farm, from the 6th Division. This added some 1500 yards to the front and included a pronounced salient, the right of which rested on the road 500 yards north of the Farm. The rearrangement was made by each brigade extending its right, the 60th putting three battalions into the front line and the 59th keeping two in front and two behind. The necessary alterations were carried out on the 21st and 22nd, and on the 23rd the 60th Brigade on the left was relieved by the 61st and went into Divisional reserve.
On the 3rd of March an addition was made to the fighting troops of the Division by the arrival from England of the three Brigade Machine Gun Companies. They went to join their respective brigades, with which they served until, under a new organisation in 1918, they became the 20th Battalion of the Machine Gun Corps.
At this time also three Medium Trench Mortar Batteries (X/20, Y/20 and Z/20) were formed, under Captain Buckley, the D.T.M.O. On the 8th Major-General Davies handed over command of the Division. His successor was Major-General W. Douglas Smith, C.B. During this month also Lieut.-Colonel A. Rolland succeeded Colonel Kenyon as C.R.E.
While the trenches were being made more secure and more habitable by hard and continual work, another unpleasantness was added to life in the Salient by a change in the weather. On the 21st of February it become cold and frosty. Two days later snow fell and a hard frost followed, covering the canal with ice. After another fall of snow on the 26th a thaw set in, leaving the ground sodden and the trenches in a very bad state. Cold weather came again at the beginning of March, and snow fell at intervals throughout the month. In these conditions the problem of keeping the troops warm and giving them hot food had to be solved. All rations were carried from dumps near the canal bank in sandbags. Fires in the front line were impossible, as any smoke at once drew hostile artillery fire. The difficulty was met by buying oil and spirit stoves, and by supplying “Thermos” cases and food containers. In this way it was found possible to provide hot tea and food daily.
At 4 P.M. on the 11th of April the enemy began a bombardment of the front trenches of the left sub-sector, held by the 61st Brigade. The fire increased in intensity about 6 P.M., trench mortars being used as much as artillery. Trench E 28, held by the 7th D.C.L.I. in four posts, was destroyed. Most of the men in this trench managed to work their way either to a bombing post on the left or into E 27 on the right, but those in the centre who could not get out were either killed or wounded. The enemy then attacked E 28. The first line, about 70 strong, was caught in enfilade by a party of 12 men of the D.C.L.I., who had taken up a position at the end of the trench, and was practically wiped out before the second line was over the parapet. On receiving the S.O.S. signal the French as well as the Divisional Artillery immediately opened a very accurate fire. The second German line, about 30 men carrying entrenching tools, was caught by the artillery fire and turned back.