S.E. Badcock,
commanding B Company; Capt. W.H.D. Devey, commanding C Company; and Capt.
J. Townend, commanding D Company. Arriving at Folkestone the same day,
the Battalion embarked for Boulogne, where it arrived about midnight and
marched up to Ostrohove Camp.

The following day it entrained at Pont de Briques Station, on the train
which brought the transport and machine-gun sections from Havre. The
complete battalion detrained at Cassel, and after marching all night
arrived in billets at Hardifort at 5 a.m. on the 21st April.

On the 23rd April orders were received to march at very short notice to
Steenvoorde, where the whole of the 151st Infantry Brigade, commanded at
this time by Brig.-General Martin, was assembled in a field at the
eastern end of the town. During the remainder of the day the men were
allowed to rest. At dusk two battalions of the Brigade, the 7th and 9th
Battalions, marched off in fighting order. The other two Battalions (the
6th and 8th) proceeded by 'buses through Poperinghe to Vlamertinghe,
where they took over a hut camp recently vacated by the 9th Royal Scots.

It was now evident that the lessons which the Battalion had learnt during
its long period of training were very soon to be put into practice. The
24th April was spent in testing rifles and making final preparations for
action, and in the evening an order arrived from the Brigade to get ready
to move quickly. This order was given out and within half an hour the
Battalion was on the pave road, marching towards Ypres. It entered the
town as night settled on it. At this date the town was not ruined and the
results of the shelling were hardly noticeable. As the Battalion was
passing the Cloth Hall a shell came screaming faintly towards it, and,
passing over, burst with a dull roar in the city a quarter of a mile
away. There had been no talking in the ranks nor any sound except the
beat of ammunition boots on the pave, but when this shell screamed
overhead and burst, ejaculation in the good old Durham tongue could be
heard passing cheerily up the length of the column. Two or three more
shells passed over, but none burst near the Battalion.

Reaching the top of the hill to the east of the city and leaving the
white walls of Potijze Chateau on the left, the Battalion turned off the
road and filed into the G.H.Q. line, a Battalion of the Shropshire Light
Infantry climbing out to make room. This trench was of the breastwork
type, and a novelty