a Lewis gun was trained on it, so that any interference would have been
promptly dealt with.

Before we left the sector we were reinforced by a draft of eight
subaltern officers--2nd Lieuts. A. Emmerson, F.W.A. Salmon, W.H.
Reynolds, A.S. Heffill, A.W.C. Zelley, M.J.S. Dyson, W.K. Callard, and
S.G.H. Street, while at the same time we lost 2nd Lieut. Brittain, who
went to Hospital and thence to England.

After practising their attack several times, the Staffordshires found
that they had more tasks to fulfill than they could accomplish.
Accordingly they asked for help, and were allotted one Battalion from
our Brigade, for which duty we, having suffered least at Hohenzollern,
were chosen. We were to advance as a ninth wave behind the attackers,
carrying stores and ammunition; while one Company was to dig a trench
joining the Sucrerie to the German front line--a communication trench
for use after the fight. As soon as we left trenches and reached a hut
camp at Warlincourt we, too, started practising for the battle, which,
we were told, would take place at dawn on the 29th June.

Any account of our doings during this month would be incomplete without
a reference to our one relaxation. The Divisional Concert Party, started
in 1915, had more or less ceased to exist, but in Souastre in a large
barn, the 56th Divisional troupe, the "Bow Bells," performed nightly to
crowded houses. Many of us found time to go more than once, and will
always remember with pleasure the songs, dances, and sketches, the
drummer-ballet-dancer, and the catching melodies of "O Roger Rum" and
other nonsense.

Meanwhile, feverish preparations were being made for the coming battle,