In August 1915, our Division was moved to the Loos area in preparation
for the battle which began on September 25, and I well remember the
long march which brought us to our destination--the mining village of
Noeux-les-Mines, about a mile from Mazingarbe.
We ended the hard and tiring journey at a spot where a huge slag-heap
towered above our heads to a height of seventy or eighty feet. On our
arrival here there were the usual fatigue parties to parade, and with
everyone tired and weary this was an unthankful duty.
The youngest Cockney in my section, who was always cheerful, hearing
me detailing men for fatigue, shouted out, "Come on, mites; paride
with spoons and mess-tins. The blinking fattygue party will shift this
perishin' slag-heap from 'ere to Mazingarbe."--_Herbert W. Bassett
(Cpl. attached 47th London Division), 41 Argyle Road, Sevenoaks, Kent._