FIRST DAYS ON ACTIVE SERVICE
The night was calm and bright with stars as, with an escorting
destroyer, we crossed rapidly to Boulogne. After disembarking we
marched to the Blue Base above the town, clattering over the cobbles,
and drawing the heads of the curious to their bedroom windows. Here we
lay down in tents and endured with the mitigation of one blanket a
bitter frost. That evening we continued our journey towards the
unknown from Pont des Briques station, where we found our train
already contained the transport from Havre, two of whose number had
been deposited on the line en route by the activities of a restive
horse. The men were crowded into those forbidding trucks labelled
"Hommes, 40, chevaux, 8," and suffered much discomfort as the train
crept through a frozen night, whose full moon illuminated a succession
of dykes and water meadows stiff with hoarfrost, and bearded French
Territorials with flaming braziers guarding the line. As dawn was
breaking we detrained on the long platform of Cassel, and after the
transport was unloaded moved up that steep hill which is so well known
a landmark in Flanders. When we reached the summit, leaving the town
on our left, we looked over the great Flemish plain, and heard for the
first time the faint pulsing of the guns. The sun had now fully risen,
and dissipated the thin morning mist; the level country parcelled out
into innumerable farms and clumps of trees stretched endlessly to the
east. Only to the northward the steep outline of the Mont des Cats
with the long ridge of the Mont Noir behind broke the plain. We
descended, and made our way wearily to Winnezeele, a straggling
village of outlying farms, close to the Belgian frontier. Here we
remained three days, and with the zeal of new troops obeyed every
letter of the law. Orderly sergeants descended into the village in
marching order with full packs, no officer was ever seen without his
revolver, while every billet was guarded as if at any moment it might
be taken by assault.
On April 2nd we marched to Steenvoorde, where Lieut.-General Sir H.
Smith-Dorrien, commanding 2nd Army, inspected the 145th Brigade. He
congratulated them on their smart appearance, and spoke most warmly of
the work already done by Territorials in the war. He also cheered us
greatly by his anticipation of the fall of Budapest and of the forcing
of the Dardanelles within the next few weeks.
On Easter Sunday, April 9th, we marched to Flêtre, a village on the
great paved road to Lille, 3 miles short of Bailleul. Here long lines
of lorries attested the importance of this main artery of the Army;
while the effects of war were plainly seen in the bullet-riddled
houses, the random little trenches and crosses dotted around, which
recalled the successful fighting of the 4th Division on October 14th.
The château which Headquarters occupied was said to have been
similarly used for eight days by General von Kluck. Here for three
days we enjoyed the rain of Flanders, and a foretaste of its eternal
mud, before moving a stage nearer to the battle line, the flares of
which had been an object of much interest at nights. Our next journey,
on the 7th, led through Bailleul, where the band of the Artists'
Rifles played in the great square, and the Warwicks of the 143rd
Brigade viewed us with the superior air of men who had already been in
the trenches with the 6th Division; then between the poplars along
the Armentières road, until we turned to the left at Rabot, and soon
arrived at our destination, a small village called Romarin. It lies
just within the Belgian frontier, a bare 3 miles behind the firing
line, whence the crackle of rifle fire was plainly audible, whilst
from the coppiced slopes of Neuve Église, which bounded the northward
view, intermittent flashes denoted the presence of the field
batteries. The battalion was now attached to the 10th Brigade of the
4th Division, who were still holding the same ground where their
victorious advance had come to a standstill in October in front of
Ploegsteert Wood and northward round the base of Messines Hill. The
four Companies were divided for their period of 48 hours in the line
between 1st Warwicks, 2nd Seaforths, Royal Irish, Dublin Fusiliers,
and 7th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (T.F.). The time passed
without casualties or special incident, except for the shelling of a
night working party under Lieut. Challoner, which escaped disaster
only by good fortune. All will remember with gratitude the good
comradeship and helpfulness of this Regular brigade, from whom we
learnt much during our short period of attachment. On its conclusion
we marched back to billets at Steenwerck, a station on the Lille line
midway between Bailleul and Armentières. Here we endeavoured
unsuccessfully, with the aid of a French officer, to locate a chain of
signalling lamps impudently displayed from Bailleul right away towards
the German lines.
On April 13th a Rugger match was played at Pont de Nieppe between
teams representing the 4th and 48th Divisions, and resulted in a
victory for the latter. Here Lieut. Ronald Poulton-Palmer, who
captained the side, played his last game. On April 15th we moved up
again, and took over for the first time our own line from the 2nd
Hants at Le Gheer. The trenches ran here with singular angles and
salients along the east face of Ploegsteert Wood; many disconnected
posts, which could only be relieved by night, strong points in ruined
houses with such suggestive names as First and Second German House
were reminiscent rather of outposts than orthodox trench warfare. The
weather was bright, the enemy entirely inactive, and the wood, with
its oxlips and other spring flowers, its budding branches unscarred by
shell fire, was a picture of charm rare in modern warfare. Forty-eight
hours only were spent in this idyllic spot before we returned to
Romarin to the accompaniment of the roar of mines, artillery, and
concentrated rifle fire and machine gun fire, which heralded the
sudden outbreak of the Battle of Hill 60, 4 miles to the north, just
before sunset on April 17th. Our relief of the 4th Division was now
complete, and our instructors marched to billets in Bailleul, only to
be thrown within a few days into the furnace of the second Battle of
Ypres. Before leaving they placed a great board just outside the
Regent Street entrance to the wood, stating that it had been taken by
the 4th Division on October, 1914, and handed over intact to us.
[Illustration: Berkshire Line At Ploegsteert.]