"We had our first serious gas attack on June 3rd. It was preceded by a
heavy bombardment of Ypres, after which some 25,000 gas shells were put
over, lasting from 10 p.m. to 4 p.m. We were fortunate in having very
few casualties."

That was the position of the Battalion when I set off to join it in the
Prison cells on the morning of June 5, 1917.

I rose at 10 a.m. It was a rowdy morning. The guns were still unusually
lively. While we were having breakfast shells were bursting three or
four hundred yards away from our hut, and we could hear occasional H.E.
dropping as far back as Poperinghe behind us.

The following letter which I wrote home from my cell (which I shared
with three other second-lieutenants, Gilbert Verity, Bernard Priestley
and H. A. Barker) in the Prison, dated June 6, 1917, describes my
journey to Ypres:

"At 11 a.m. I set off up the road with another officer to the city where
my unit is stationed. We got a lift in a motor as far as a town
half-way. This town (Vlamertinghe) was almost entirely in ruins. There
has been an ancient church there, but only the front of the tower and
all the crucifixes remain. Shells were bursting all about. We sat down
on a fence and waited for another lift. It was most exciting. I have not
got the 'wind up' yet; I am more interested than anything else. I
contemplated a famous hill on my right. Then we got on another motor.
This ride was _most_ exciting, the excitement consisting in whether we
could reach the city without being blown to pieces by the shells which
were exploding to front of us, to right of us, to rear of us, and to
left of us! The road was cut up by shells which had exploded on it, and