trees served to intensify the sound of the explosions. Several 18-pounder
guns and a battery of 8-inch howitzers were about a hundred yards or so in
rear of the Battalion's position; and when an attack by one of the other
units in the Division was in progress the noise was intense.

On the 5th October the Battalion took over the outpost zone at Proville,
with headquarters at La Marlière. At this time there were few troops on
the bridgehead east of the Canal de l'Escaut. The area was periodically
searched by the enemy heavy artillery, and the posts at Proville suffered
considerably from minenwerfer fire. On relief the Battalion returned to La
Folie Wood.

When Cambrai fell on the 9th October the Battalion left for the Cantaing
area and on the 11th moved to a bivouac area by Inchy. The next day it
marched to Hermies, and there entrained for Bethune, where it arrived next
day and marched to Douvrin.

It was now almost three years since the Battalion had been in the vicinity
of Bethune, but there were still some present who could remember how the
Battalion in the spring of 1915 had marched for the first time to the
trenches in front of this town. The next day the Battalion went by motor
lorries through Locon and other places the men had known so well in 1915
and, debussing near Laventie, the Battalion marched via Fromelles to Le
Maisnil en Weppes. Passing through what was formerly no man's land at
Laventie, the men were able to recognise the places they had held in the
trenches in the early part of the year.


LILLE.