were sent to the trenches at Festubert or
Richebourg for instruction by the Regular battalions which were holding
the line.

At Oblinghem the men learnt for the first time what French billets were
like and experienced the insanitary conditions prevailing on the small
farms and the draughty and dirty barns. Looking around the countryside all
seemed quiet and peaceful. The ploughman ploughed the fields, others sowed
and the miners went to their daily tasks as usual. At times it was
difficult to realise that the firing line was within a few miles, but the
boom of the distant guns and the laden Red Cross motors indicated the
proximity of the fighting. A lot of old ideas as to the rigours of a
campaign were lost, and warfare in some respects was found not to be so
bad as had been expected. Wine and beer at any rate were plentiful, though
the potency of the beer was not quite sufficient for the taste of the
older men. Other regiments, lent officers to give a helping hand in
organisation and training. Company messes for officers were formed, as
anything in the nature of a battalion mess was impracticable.

The men soon learnt that the estaminets were the equivalent in France of
the public houses at home, and thither they repaired in the evening to
spend their time. Many good young men who had never taken a drop of the
more invigorating liquors learnt that soldiers drank them, and the cause
of teetotalism began to wane.

On the 24th a move was made to Les Facons, a straggling village outside
Bethune. Here on quiet nights one could easily hear the fusillade in the
trenches while the distant gun flashes lit up the night sky. The terrors
of the trenches were coming nearer.

Early in April the various companies were attached each in turn to another
battalion in the Brigade, and went into the line for instruction in trench
duty at Port Arthur by Neuve Chapelle, and it was here that the first
casualties were sustained. It is claimed that the first shot fired by the
Battalion killed an enemy sniper. The men soon learnt the duties that fell
upon them as a consequence of trench warfare: the early morning stand-to,
the constant vigil of the neutral ground between the lines, and the
imperative necessity of keeping one's head low. Hitherto the men knew
little of the nature or use of guns, but now glimmerings of the mystery
surrounding artillery fire soon dawned. The men learnt the natures of
German shell, and the difference between shra