After a few days in the Sugar Factory the Battalion moved to the forward
positions at Lempire. This sector was very different from any sector the
Battalion had occupied. There was no trench system comprising front and
support trenches. The front was held by means of isolated posts occupied
by a platoon or a company as the case might be, and these posts were
linked up by means of communication trenches, so that they could be
visited. There being little artillery on either side, the whole sector was
very quiet, and as the lines were far apart there was little sniping.

The Battalion did one tour in Cat, Fleeceall and Grafton Posts in front of
Lempire, and then moved up to the Ossus sector. Though the Germans had
destroyed all buildings behind the British line, the buildings behind the
German lines were intact, and the men experienced the unpleasant sight of
the comfortable chateaux and houses in which the German troops were
billeted when they themselves were very badly off in this respect.

Three companies had been in the front in the Lempire position, and as
three companies were necessary to take over the Ossus sector, one company
had to do two successive tours. It was a poor relief to have to move from
one portion of the front line to another, especially as this company had
only one subaltern. The sector held by the Battalion was roughly 2,000
yards, and consequently the three front companies each had from six to
seven hundred yards. The trench strength of the companies was somewhere
between eighty and ninety, the numbers not having been made up after the
Ypres casualties, and consequently there was a great amount of work for
everyone to do.

On the 18th the Battalion moved to reserve at Vaughan's Bank by Epéhy,
from whence on the 22nd it moved into reserve at Tincourt. The American