in the afternoon General Pultney sent word to me
that one of my officers had saluted him with a stick in his hand, and
that two of the men had failed to remove their pipes when called to
attention.

We recognized General Pultney as having what we called "class" and we
were delighted that that was all the criticism we had evoked.

The march came to an end about half past three. We soon found our
billets. It was a stone block paved road all the way. The men had on
new English boots with iron nails in the soles and the hard smooth
stones made the walking very hard. It was the most trying march the
regiment had. Putting the packs and great coats on the waggons had
caused great confusion. The men on reaching town found their packs and
coats all mixed up and it took several days to straighten them out.
The men would never be allowed to part with their great coats and
packs again if I could help it, unless they are going into action.

On going into billets, with the trenches only a mile and a half away,
we learned some new wrinkles and it is a blessing we were now in
double companies.

Our platoon commanders were ordered to go to the trenches that night
to learn something. It was to be their baptism of fire. They came back
to my orderly room at ten o'clock after going the rounds and dodging a
lot of German bullets. I was to go in on the 26th with Colonel
Levison-Gower of the Sherwood Foresters who had called and said he
would take me around and show me what to do when my men were in the
trenches.

Our orderly room was in a fine house. We had good cooking facilities
and two women to look after the meals. Our orderlies had only to look
after the kits. The number of the house was thirteen and we came here
under gun fire on the 23rd. That meant bad luck to the Germans.

Armentieres was a factory town. They made linen chiefly and there are
several large weaving mills. The people were very friendly and cheered
us along the way. We met a lot of English soldiers, the Westminsters,
the Yorks, the Durhams and Sherwoods. They had been fighting here
since early in November and were rather "fed up" on the trenches as
they describe it. The Toronto Regiment was up here and were full of
ginger, they told us. Outside of being a little too eager to let off
their ammunition, the Canadians were declared to be first class
troops. We are at the point of a small salient that sweeps east in the
German line towards Lille.

That famous city wa