where it arrived at 9-30 p.m., and marched to billets at Wormhoudt. Two
days were spent here, and this afforded the men the rest they so badly
needed. The state of the Battalion can be gauged from the fact that at
Wormhoudt only one company commander had a subaltern.


YPRES.

On the 4th October the Battalion entrained on a light railway, and soon
reached Poperinghe, where it remained until darkness and then entrained on
a broad gauge train at Poperinghe Station for Ypres. It was a new
experience for the men to be in a train and yet within range of the
enemy's artillery. The personnel detrained just by the railway station at
Ypres and went into billets close by. Little could be seen of the city in
the dark. Stillness pervaded the area that night, and after the Somme
Battle the quietness was uncanny.

The next day the men had an opportunity of seeing the city that had
suffered so much in the war. It must have been subjected to many a tornado
of shells, for there was not a single house untouched and very few had
roofs. A few shells fell in the Square during the morning, but that was
all. To the men it was a great relief to be in a quiet area after such a
place as the Somme. Ypres was not as bad as had been expected.

The trenches were to be taken over at once. The officers reconnoitred the
line during the afternoon, and towards evening the Battalion paraded and
marched along the Rue de Stuers, the Rue au Beurre, past the Cloth Hall,
through the Square, and the Menin Gate towards Potijze. Afterwards it took
over the sector from the Roulers Railway to Duke Street with Headquarters
in Potijze Wood. Four days only had elapsed since it had left the Somme