usual routine returns had to be rendered to people that sat in comfortable
offices, and the men had to do ration fatigues and guards. Though the
difficulties of the companies were great, the difficulties of the
Quartermaster's department and that of the Transport Officer were much
greater. The Quartermaster had not enough room to take the stores he
wished, and the Transport Officer had as much as he could do to carry all
the stores there were.

On the 12th a move was made to Sombrin, and the next day the Battalion
left Sombrin late in the afternoon for an unknown destination. Even the
Colonel did not know, and there was a vague rumour that the Brigade staff
were to look after the unit. The men marched over bad roads and in the
dark, and ultimately they were turned into a wood and told there were no
billets, and they could bivouac for the night. Officers and men lay down
on the damp earth where they were and slept. Fortunately it did not rain.
A few tents came up very late, and in the darkness they could not be
pitched, but they were spread out and thrown over the men as they lay
sleeping on the ground. Fires could not be lighted as the enemy aeroplanes
would have used them as aiming marks. In the morning the Battalion on
awaking found it was just outside Pas, in what was called Beaucamp Ravine.
Here it remained for two days, and then moved to Hénu, where the men
pitched a camp in a field, and there the Battalion remained for a little
over a fortnight. But it was no rest camp. The weather was very bad and
the ground became wet and sodden. Every alternate day large working
parties, which consumed almost all the available men, were detailed for
work on the rear lines of defence, that were being hastily constructed, in
view of the imminence of a fresh enemy offensive. On the intervening days
training took place. There was a thirty yards' range in a ravine just in
the rear of the camp, where some very interesting competitions took place.
Rifle sections were pitted against Lewis gun sections and it was found