Capt. Becher and his party arrived late the following day, having been kept three days on the "Caledonian," and the Battalion was once more complete. As the rest of the Brigade had crossed before us and had already gone up for trench instruction, we were temporarily attached to the Lincoln and Leicester Brigade.
We spent a few days training at Oudezeele, including one or two route marches to get accustomed to the pavé roads, and Edge, as newly appointed Sniping Officer, gave a little special instruction in that branch of warfare. We had a visit from Major-General Stuart-Wortley, who discussed the training to be carried out, and our coming duties in the trenches. The weather was very cold, and a good deal of work was in the shape of lectures in billets, and the reading of various routine and other orders issued to troops on arrival.
It was during one of our route marches in this district, which took us through the little village of Wormhoudt, that we made our first acquaintance with French troops. Many of them were back resting in billets, and the warm welcome they gave us as we passed through the narrow streets of the village crowded with French "poilus," the whole Battalion whistling the "Marseillaise," was an experience which will not be readily forgotten.
On March 9th, we marched with the Lincoln and Leicester Brigade via Cassel, Caestre (where General Smith-Dorrien saw us march past), and Strazeele to Merris, where we joined up with the rest of our Brigade, back from their course of instruction in the trenches. Fortunately the fur coats which had caused us so much trouble on the last march were now carried for us by motor 'bus. At Merris we saw our first real signs of fighting, both the Church and the Hospice having been hit several times by shells, whilst there were isolated graves of both French and English scattered about the surrounding country. Here too, we saw our first "fighting" aeroplane (armed with one short French Rifle), which had crashed just outside the village. It was also at Merris that we had our first experience of paying a Company "in the Field." Instructions on the subject had led us to believe that this was a complicated performance, but in practice it turned out to be quite easy. Company "Imprests" were at a later date done away with and a Battalion Imprest instituted, which was much more convenient, as also was the very handy "Officer's Advance Book," which was introduced later. At first there seemed but little check on the money that was drawn, and Field Cashiers appeared to issue money to all and sundry on the flimsiest authority.
Preparations were being made about this time for a British offensive at Neuve Chapelle, and our Brigade was attached temporarily to General Gough's 2nd Cavalry Division, with the object, if the attack succeeded, of breaking through in the region of the Bois du Biez. In order to be nearer the scene of operations we were moved from Merris at an hour's notice at noon on March 10th, and marched via Rouge Croix to Bac-St. Maur. This was a memorable experience, but later on we became accustomed to rapid movement, and the great concentration of troops which was necessary when fighting was imminent. Transport marched brigaded, and in passing through Sailly-sur-Lys in the darkness seemed to be so mixed up in the seething mass of men that we almost began to doubt if they would ever extricate themselves. Under the guiding hand and voice of Capt. Davenport, however, our Transport eventually got clear. During this operation "Davvy" evidently made a great impression on one soldier (a Regular), by his forcible language, as the latter was heard to remark "There's a bloke what knows 'is job." Confusion was great in Bac-St. Maur too, for when we got there, the billets which we had been allotted were still occupied by Canadians. Eventually, we all got shelter of a kind, in probably the dirtiest and poorest billets we ever had either in France or Belgium. This was our first meeting with our Canadian friends, and we can hardly say we were impressed, though we all knew well what they were made of. We have specially vivid recollections of one Canadian sentry on duty at night opposite D Company's billet, evidently "well away," loosing off his rifle at intervals, apparently to let us know that he was "present and correct." One bullet was close enough to be unpleasant, and fetched a lump off the tree just outside the window. In this area we were nearer to the line than we had yet been, some of our guns firing from quite close to the village, and we found it an interesting experience to see for the first time an aeroplane being shelled.
We stood by for two days, ready to move at a moment's notice, hearing much of the noise of the battle. The attack, however, was not successful and the Bois du Biez plan, therefore, fell through. On March 13th, we got orders to move to fresh billets. We had to travel light as we were still regarded as a "flying column." Much superfluous kit was left behind, to be sent for later on, and the weird bundles left at the Estaminet at Bac-St. Maur will not readily be forgotten. We marched that afternoon via Estaires to Neuf Berquin, where we had again to be content with rather crowded, if somewhat more comfortable billets than we had left.
One or two changes in personnel had already taken place. Capt. Hodgkinson gave up the appointment of Quar.-Master owing to some technicalities, and for the moment acted as Censor. In this capacity he was obliged, to our great annoyance, to carry out the order to relieve us of our cameras, which were sent home,—no doubt on the whole a wise and necessary precaution. Capt. Hodgkinson was succeeded as Quar.-Master by Lieut. Torrance, who was destined, with a short break in 1918, to carry out the duties up to the end of the war. He performed them with much success, and in a way that only Torrance could. On his appointment as Quar. Master, the Orderly Room came under the charge of Corpl. R. Harvey, who carried out his difficult task with the utmost devotion, without a break until the last man of the Battalion was demobilised. Second Lieut. G. W. Fosbery, who received his Commission as we were about to cross to France, took over his platoon from Handford, who as Signalling Officer had enough other work to keep him busy.
We stayed at Neuf Berquin for ten days and did a considerable amount of useful training, but unfortunately at this time many men were sick, owing to the bad water, so that parades were somewhat small. In addition to continued route marches to keep feet in condition we practised formations for advancing through woods in the Bois d'Aval, open warfare attack under the watchful eye of General Gough, and several trench-to-trench attacks on the leap-frog principle, the first line capturing and holding the front trench, and other lines passing through them to attack the support trenches. We also began to practise making and throwing the old "jam-tin bomb," the beginning of the attack of "bomb fever," which unfortunately was to play such a prominent part in the warfare of the next two or three years, undoubtedly to the detriment of all sound training and tactics.
Arrangements had meanwhile been made for our initiation into the mysteries of real trench warfare, and with that object in view we were moved on March 24th, to Vieux Berquin, and on the 26th, across the frontier to Romarin in Belgium, being once more attached to the Lincoln and Leicester Brigade. Much to our regret the rum issue was stopped the next day!
We were attached for instruction to the 10th Infantry Brigade, 4th Division, and the programme arranged allowed each Company to spend two nights in the trenches, with a break of 24 hours in billets. The Battalions to which we were attached included the Royal Irish Rifles, 2nd Royal Dublin Fusiliers, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 2nd Seaforth Highlanders, and 2nd Royal Warwicks, who held the trenches about Ploegsteert and opposite Messines.