ery morning in his car to see us; also
Sir C. Fergusson, now Corps Commander, often came.

But during the whole of that winter there was very little for the
higher commands to do, except to collect and send up material for the
trenches, and to try and keep pace with the German developments--for
we could do little or nothing in the way of offensive action.

I tried to get the thing neatly organised, as to stores and times and
amounts and transport for taking the things up to the trenches; but
it was very difficult, as sometimes there were no engineer stores to
be had, or the wires got broken by shell fire and took a long time to
repair, or it was more urgent to bring up rations or water or
ammunition, and the requisite transport for all was not available. But
all the same, the trenches gradually improved.

At last, on the 18th February, we got news that there was to be a move
from our present line. The fact was that the 28th Division (also the
27th), composed of white troops from India and other tropical places,
had had an exceedingly nasty time. Many of the men were rotten with
fever, and the cold wet weather had sent scores and scores into
hospital. They had been put into the trenches round St Eloi to relieve
the French, who had held all the line round here chiefly with their
field artillery and a very few men; and the trenches were,
consequently, most sketchy, according to British ideas, and the
approaches under heavy fire. The French did not mind, for, if they
were shelled out of their trenches, as often happened, they just
skipped out of them and turned their guns on till the Germans were
cleared out; and then they went back again. But this sort of thing did
not suit us; and when the Germans did attack our trenches here they
took a good many and we lost a lot of men, especially when we tried to
counter-attack and retake them. So the 28th Division was _hors de
combat_ for the moment, and was sent down to recuperate in a quieter
area--which was that of the 5th Division.

Our orders were for the 13th and 15th Brigades to move north to St
Eloi and be replaced by the 83rd and 84th Brigades. This was done,--a
most complicated move, for the 84th Brigade, which fell to our lot,
was composed of four very weak battalions, and we had five battalions,
mostly rather strong; and by the 24th February we had six battalions,
including the 9th Londons (an excellent battalion) and 6th Cheshires
(a strong and hard-working one).