all available troops were being sent up to dig a new trench line of
resistance near Zillebeke--the line afterwards known as the "Zillebeke
switch." None of us had ever been to the "Salient," but it was a well
known and much dreaded name, and most of us imagined we were likely to
have a bad night, and gloomily looked forward to heavy casualties.

Starting at 6-40 p.m., we went by motor bus with four hundred Sherwood
Foresters through Reninghelst, Ouderdom, and Vlamertinghe to
Kruisstraat, which we reached in three hours. Hence guides of the 4th
Gordons led us by Bridge 16 over the Canal and along the track of the
Lille Road. It was a dark night, and as we stumbled along in single
file, we could see the Towers of Ypres smouldering with a dull red glow
to our left, while the salient front line was lit up by bursting shells
and trench mortars. Our route lay past Shrapnel Corner and along the
railway line to Zillebeke Station, and was rendered particularly
unpleasant by the rifle fire from "Hill 60" on our right. The railway
embankment was high and we seemed to be unnecessarily exposing ourselves
by walking along the top of it, but as the guides were supposed to know
the best route we could not interfere. At Zillebeke Church we found
Colonel Jones, who came earlier by car, waiting to show us our work
which we eventually started at midnight; as we had to leave the Church
again at 1 a.m., to be clear of the Salient before daylight, we had not
much time for work. However, so numerous were the bullets that all
digging records were broken, especially by the Signallers, whose one
desire, very wisely, was to get to ground with as little delay as
possible, and when we left our work, the trench was in places several
feet deep. The coming of daylight and several salvoes of Boche shells
dissuaded us from lingering in the Salient, and, after once more
stumbling along the Railway Line, we reached our motor buses and
returned to the huts, arriving at 5-30 a.m. A May night is so short,