ell in the Square during the morning, but that was
all. To the men it was a great relief to be in a quiet area after such a
place as the Somme. Ypres was not as bad as had been expected.

The trenches were to be taken over at once. The officers reconnoitred the
line during the afternoon, and towards evening the Battalion paraded and
marched along the Rue de Stuers, the Rue au Beurre, past the Cloth Hall,
through the Square, and the Menin Gate towards Potijze. Afterwards it took
over the sector from the Roulers Railway to Duke Street with Headquarters
in Potijze Wood. Four days only had elapsed since it had left the Somme
railhead. This area was to be the Battalion's battle station for several
months to come, and many times were the companies to repeat the journey
they had just completed. It was to take part in two big battles in the
vicinity and add greatly to its honours and leave many of its members
entombed in soldiers' graves in what was to be perhaps the biggest
graveyard of its kind in the world.

The Ypres sector was very quiet, but there was every danger of a gas
attack, and the Battalion received the strictest warnings from the
relieved unit, which had lost many men two months before through
inattention to precautionary measures. The first night that the Battalion
went into the line there was an alarm, but as the wind at the moment was
in a safe quarter its falsity was immediately recognised. The men at this
time had only the then out-of-date P.H. helmet. These helmets were changed
in the course of a week or two for the more efficacious box respirators,
which remained with slight modifications until the end of the war as the
soldiers' protection against enemy gas. The enemy artillery was very
quiet, and obviously the British had the artillery ascendancy, and it was
surmised that this was attributable to the fact that he had removed his
artillery to the Somme. The minenwerfers were active and so were the enemy
snipers. After a tour in the line the Battalion repaired to Ypres. A few
days afterwards it went to take over the "L" defences at Brielen, with
Headquarters in Elverdinghe Chateau. Only one tour was done here and the
Battalion then returned to Ypres. Until January it did three tours of duty
in the line, either in Ypres itself or the front line to one in reserve at
Brandhoek.

While in the front line the routine was practically the same as at Wailly,
but the conditions were different. In the Salient it was