Battalion.




CHAPTER III.

THE 55TH DIVISION.


The West Lancashire Division was formed in the Hallencourt area under the
command of Major-General H.S. Jeudwine, and given the number 55. The
Battalion entered the 165th Infantry Brigade in this Division. This
brigade which was commanded by Brigadier-General F.J. Duncan, was entirely
composed of Liverpool battalions, namely, the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 9th
King's. In the Brigade the officers and men had the pleasure of meeting
friends they had known at home in Liverpool, comrades with whom they were
destined to serve for the next two years, principally in Artois and Ypres.
Friendly rivalry soon sprang up between the various battalions in the
Brigade which made for efficiency and put all on their "mettle." Everyone
naturally believed that his was the battalion par excellence, not only in
the Brigade but in the whole Division.

The 9th was first billeted in Hocquincourt, a little French village near
Hallencourt. Viewed from a distance the village looked picturesque, with
the red tiled roofs of the houses contrasted against the sombre winter
sky, but a closer inspection revealed a different picture. The houses were
rickety, the billets poor, and the conditions insanitary. So backward were
the peasants in agriculture that they still adhered to the use of the
old-fashioned flails for thrashing corn. The Battalion moved on the 20th