Our front line had advanced considerably, and the next area of operations was Longueval and Flers, well in front of Delville Wood. After Holy Communion on the 24th the Battalion proceeded to occupy reserve trenches known as Green Trench and King’s Walk. Officers reconnoitred the lines of approach to Flers, and Second-Lieut. Beazley was wounded. Our bombardment developed in severity, and on the 26th orders were received to move forward, three platoons to strong points at the end of Cove Alley and one company and one platoon to Smoke Trench, while Battalion Headquarters moved up to east of Flers.

On the 27th the 55th Division resumed active operations. The 8th Liverpool Irish were detailed to assault and capture Gird and Gird Support trenches, and the 4th King’s Own to furnish the fifth wave in attack. Parties carried R.E. material for making strong points to Grove Alley and Gird Support trenches. The trench was easily captured by the 8th Liverpools, and the carrying parties carried out their duties successfully and without casualties. These parties then occupied a position on Factory Corner—Gueudecourt Road, keeping in touch on the left with the 4th King’s Own. Arrangements were made later to relieve the 8th Liverpool Irish in the captured trenches. Several casualties were sustained in a bombardment subsequent to the attack. At 2 a.m. on the 28th the 4th King’s Own took over Gird and Gird Support trenches from the 8th Liverpools. The trenches were heavily bombarded during the day by the enemy. Three patrols with Lewis guns were sent out to locate the German position and harass a working party which had been seen earlier in the morning. At 2 a.m. on the 29th the Battalion was relieved in the trenches by the Royal West Surreys and re-assembled at Mametz, where a contretemps all but ended in minor disaster. The Quartermaster had been handed over a paragon of bivouacs in the form of tents, one of the best we had experienced, and was keeping watch and ward over this treasure, when he was horrified to see a battalion of New Zealanders descend upon him like the Assyrians of old, or the plague of locusts, and take possession. Protests from a mere Quartermaster of Infantry were met with airy nonchalance. Other and prompt steps had to be taken. Olivette was saddled and made short work of the journey to Brigade Headquarters, where a sympathetic Staff Captain got busy, wires were set sizzling, and the anxious Quartermaster eventually had the satisfaction of seeing these unconventional soldiers march out of one end of the camp as his precious Battalion hobbled in at the other, happily unconscious of their narrow escape from homelessness. We moved thence to very crowded billets in Dernacourt.

This was to be the close of our memorable association with the Somme, for the present, at any rate. The approach of winter placed an insuperable barrier on hopes of much further advance. Progress had been definite, if it had not met the most sanguine expectations, but the courageous tenacity and marvellous organization of the enemy revealed the magnitude of the task yet to be completed.

CHAPTER VI.
Ypres.

October, 1916

For the present we were not to be re-engaged upon the Somme, but, transported to Longpré, were moved into quarters for the night of October 1st at Bouchon. The following day we entrained at Longpré and moved to the north. In the early afternoon we passed through Abbeville. The tented dunes of Etaples swarmed with reinforcements. As darkness descended we entered the region of the flats of Flanders. The coast line receded. Boulogne and Calais were left far behind. St. Omer and Hazebrouck were before us. Soon these, too, were swallowed up in the night. At midnight we detrained at Hopoutre and marched away. As dawn was breaking officers and men threw themselves down to snatch a little sleep in billets already provided at Poperinghe, ten miles west of Ypres. From here, after bathing parade, the Battalion marched to “O” Camp, a few miles nearer Ypres and just off the main Poperinghe-Ypres road. This camp consisted of the usual pattern army huts, nearly new, and, being weather proof, provided excellent accommodation, and were much appreciated by the men after their rough experiences of the past two months.

This, then, was our first introduction to the Ypres salient. Many times in the early days we had hovered on its brink, and it seemed strange that we should be only now making its close acquaintance, eighteen months afterwards. Although we felt ourselves a little disappointed with our renewed acquaintance with the Flemish fogs and flats, we gradually adapted ourselves to the changed conditions. A year had made a vast difference in our powers of appreciation. Casting back to those grim days of Festubert there stood out in bold relief pools rotting with dead, trenches constructionally weak, and an enemy gunnery the mastery of which was denied us for many a long day to come. But the passing of twelve months had shown us, week by week, such striking improvements that there was now no limit to our confidence. All these things reacted favourably on our outlook. Our fickle minds recalled only the monotony of the rolling Picard uplands. They were now touched by the vision of a new beauty.

For ten days the Battalion enjoyed immunity from the strain of exacting work. The usual parades were held to preserve discipline and efficiency. After the routine of daily parades and inspections it was customary for a few of us to ride or cycle into Poperinghe, about six kilometres distant. Poperinghe was the point of convergence for the military in the Ypres salient, as Béthune was for the La Bassée sector, Doullens for Arras, and Amiens for the Somme.

One of the first things to meet the eye was the prominence given to “Gas Alarms.” A large notice was exhibited on a building in the main square, where the road to Ypres left the town, which read “Wind Dangerous” or “Wind Safe.” Otherwise its amenities bore comparison with towns of greater pretensions. There was an attractive Officers’ Club, established in a spacious building named Talbot House, after its founder, Colonel Talbot, of an ancient lineage and a staff officer. Here resided the Padre, the Rev. “Tubby” Clayton, who afterwards was to render Talbot House famous as the original home of its illustrious offspring, “Toc H.” This club had the air of quiet decorum associated with its kind, and it was held by the irreverent that any shell—from which, alas, Poperinghe was not immune—from the German “Long Tom,” more impetuous than its fellows and ill-advised enough to invade those awful precincts, would shrivel to impotence in its frigid atmosphere. This was, of course, uncharitable, but the painful fact must be recorded that the younger element preferred the freer delights of Skindle’s and Kiki’s, two restaurants whose air of gay animation made an irresistible appeal to war-worn youth. Here the unheard of luxuries of fresh fish and even oysters were included in a generous menu. These arrived daily, we were informed, by canal from Dunkerque. Here also was established the Divisional Concert Party, which had now attained a high standard of efficiency in the exacting art of entertainment. These played nightly as to the manner born to crowded audiences, whose plaudits testified to the quality of the entertainment and their own high spirits. One of these artists was a young imp of the 4th Loyals, who made up in startling fashion as “Poppy Poperinghe.”

The appointment of Lieut.-Colonel G. B. Balfour to the command of the Battalion, which he had held since the death of Lieut.-Colonel Swainson, and that of Major H. A. Brocklebank as second-in-command, was here confirmed. The appointment of Adjutant was vacant about this time and was not filled permanently until Sergeant-Major J. Way was commissioned and appointed on December 23rd, 1916. Lieut. Mudie held the acting appointment for one period of the interim and probably another officer, whose name does not emerge.