me for a time, and then the
K.O.S.B.'s, all interchanging and intershuffling with my battalions,
the main reason being that I had not got the Cheshires, so had to
shift as best I could without them, picking up a battalion of the 13th
or 14th Brigade when one was available.

The line was not exactly nice. We had, it is true, got rid of the
worst bit, Hill 73, on to the 3rd Division, which was next door on the
left; but it extended all the same for an unpleasant length on our
right, which was south of the Wulverghem-Messines road, the right of
the Brigade on our right being on the Douve. At the longest--the
length that the Brigade had to defend varied according to
circumstances--the line was just over 2500 yards; at its shortest it
was about 2200. Considering that the normal frontage (defensive) of
the Brigade at full strength was 900 to 1300 yards, this was a bit
"thin" in more senses than one.

As we were here for three months, off and on--from the beginning of
December to the end of February,--it may be worth while trying to
describe it, if I can.

[Illustration: The Messines Front.]

Imagine a bit of rolling country--rather like parts of
Leicestershire,--fair-sized fields, separated mostly by straggling
fences interspersed with wire (largely barbed), and punctuated by tall
trees. Patches of wood in places, spinney size for the most part. Low
hills here and there--Kemmel, Scherpenberg, Ploegsteert Wood,--but all
outside our area. For villages, Dranoutre, Neuve Eglise, Wulverghem,
and Lindenhoek, of which the two last were already more than half shot
to pieces and almost deserted. Opposite our right was Messines--a mile
and a half in front of our line,--its big, square, old church tower
still standing; it may have had a spire on the top, but if so it had
disappeared before we came. Nearly opposite our extreme left, but out
of our jurisdiction and in the sphere of the Division on our left, was
Wytschaete (pronounce Wich Khate), one and a half miles off. The
cavalry had held both Messines[25] and Wytschaete at the end of
October, but had been overwhelmingly attacked here and driven out of
them, so that the two villages formed a hostile bulge into our line.
We had been in hopes of driving attacks into the base of the bulge and
thus forcing a retirement. But the Germans reinforced the bulge and
entrenched it heavily, and instead of our cutting off the bulge, it
became flatter and flatter, without giving way at the poin